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19 January 99 Shopkeepers gave sweets spiced black coffee to passers-by and a folk troupe twirled swords and played bagpipes. People danced in the streets, and 1.5 million- the third of Jordan's population, came out to greet the king, despite pouring rain upon his return after six months of cancer treatment in the United States. Local television shifted to all-king coverage. Newspapers were graced with full-page colour pictures of Hussein in crisp military garb. Tribal groups, businesses and families erected colourful tents along a planned procession route, and toted in coffee urns, pillows and chairs so they could celebrate in comfort. There were dancers and fireworks and hand-painted banners. Amman has turned into a massive carnival welcoming King Hussein. Accompanied by eight fighter jets, the king, piloting his own plane, touched down in the capital of his kingdom just before 3 P.M local time. He paused for cameras while still sitting at the cockpit, and Jordanian TV camera was inside the plane. It was a clear message to his nation, his neighbours and the rest of the world that he is still in control of his kingdom, as the most stable leader in the Arab world today. Most important in his ' business as Usual behaviour,' the King ended an extended absence that has caused deep anxiety among Jordanians as well as Western governments that have long relied on the king for his role as a peacemaker and moderating influence on the politics of the region. Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Palestinian autonomous region surround Jordan. While almost two thirds of his subjects are Palestinians In a business suit and red Bedouin kaffiyeh closed his eyes and bowed to the ground in prayer tanking Allah for his safe return; it was another symbolic powerful message reminding Islamists and Arabs that he is a direct descendant of the founder of Islam prophet Muhammad. King Hussein's great grandfather is Ali Sharif of Mecca who was ousted by Ibn-Saud in 1916. And whose great uncle is Prince Faisal who joined forces with the British under Major Lawrence to defeat the Turks in the First World War. "There is a lot to be done," King Hussein, said in brief comments to reporters, in reference to the stalemated Middle East peace process and a host of pressing domestic issues. He added, "It is a continuous struggle with me. It has been forty-plus years, so every now and then we review and see what needs to be done to make people feel more confident in their future." After a modest ceremony at the small airport, The 63-year-old monarch boarded a white limousine. Despite the rain, the King insisted on standing in the open back of a vintage Mercedes from where he waved to the flag-waving crowds. All over the city grown men wept, youths whooped for joy and Bedouin tribesmen slaughtered sheep as he passed. Many saw the Kings return with the rain '' heaven's tears of joy'', as a good sign from heaven after a drought that lasted 13 months. The euphoria could be felt along the city's main boulevard, bedecked with lights, signs, and large portraits of the man who built Jordan from the largely Bedouin, desert country he inherited in the early 1950s to a regional model of political stability and evolving economic and political modernisation. The King was only a young boy when his grandfather Prince Abdullah was assassinated by a Palestinian nationalist in Jerusalem in the mosque for making peace with the Jewish State. Hussein, whose ear was lightly grazed by another bullet. As a result Hussein became the youngest king in the Middle East, over the years he proved to be the wisest. He road many storms and became target for Arab nationalists. Former Egyptian dictator colonel Nasser who led the anti western camp targeted King Hussein. He survived two wars with Israel and a civil war started by the Palestinian militiamen in 1970 trying to take over his kingdom. He came under threats from Iraq in the early 1970s and Syria moved armed tanks against him. His army, formally the British created Arab legion is among the best trained and most disciplined in the region. Not all of his policies have been popular. A peace treaty with Israel still rankles many Jordanians, especially Islamists and Palestinian and Arab nationalists, but it is popular with ordinary non-politicised Jordanians. There has been no accurate ways of measuring the feelings among the majority of Jordanians who are of Palestinian origins, but the general consensus is peace becomes less popular when Israel drags its feet over the peace accords, while the idea of peace itself has become more respectable. But no one dares, or even thinks of challenging his authority. King Hussein remains a father figure and perhaps the most popular monarch in the region today. His disclosure last summer of the return of non-Hodgkins lymphoma, a disease that had been treated five years earlier, has won him admiration in Jordan, the Arab world and the west. It is something unheard of in the Arab world where monarchs and rulers, who could hardly walk, try to mislead their people by pretending to be in full health. His openness was taken as a sign of the stability of his throne and of his control of the Kingdom, as well as his gradual move to democracy. But his absence was an eye-opener for Jordanians to come to grips with his mortality, adapting to the idea that the rule of their dashing leader might soon give way to that of his younger brother, Crown Prince Hassan, the country's designated regent and successor to the throne. After six months of chemotherapy and other treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.during which Jordanians monitored his health in minute detail, adjusted to the hair loss that he never tried to conceal and prayed for his recovery today was finally the time to set all doubts aside and savour the words many worried they never would hear again: The king is back. Slogans shouted, and banners raise in the streets of the four-hilled capital Amman gave an insight to how Jordanians feel about their King: Like "Al-Hussein is a friend.'''' Al-Hussein is a brother.'''' Al-Hussein is Jordan." The slogan was also emulated by the announcer for Jordan television said as the king's plane, a Boeing 737, approached. The Jordanian Television is headed by the Son in law of Prince Hassan. The Quesstion of succesion remains open Queen Noor backs women's moves against '' honour killing'' of women. |
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