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Nermeen Murad While flicking channels on television the other day, I inadvertently found myself watching a heated argument between a Jordanian parliamentarian and a lawyer over the role of “market makers” in misleading small Jordanian investors. This is not something I want to elaborate on since I don’t necessarily understand it and, furthermore, I am not sure that right and wrong are very clear in this particular issue anyway.
As the parliamentarian argued that the huge financial losses of Jordanian citizens as a result of failed investments with “market makers” contributed to the wave of tribal violence witnessed in Ajloun and surrounding areas, the lawyer lashed back that it was the “government failure to deliver basic services to the citizen.”
" Sadly, the visual image of the label of “tribal violence” at its best conjures up images of Bedouin men in thoubs riding on horses and brandishing swords to protect their flock of sheep or grazing land and at its worst connotes archaic and petty squabbling between competing tribes who have no regard for the law of the land and operate above it " I believe that both are right.
Deteriorating economic conditions combined with the absence of a credible government providing a social net will necessarily lead to citizens taking any route to bring attention to their suffering and force a consideration of their situation in the hope that it will also bring alleviation to their suffering, including rioting and violent action.
In other parts of the word, it is usually called civil disobedience - implying that these actions are a natural and organized response from the civil society - while in our part of the world, they have come to be labeled as tribal violence. This is clearly because some of the best organized institutions in rural Jordan are the tribes, which do provide a social and semi-legal umbrella that brings people together in pressure groups.
Sadly, the visual image of the label of “tribal violence” at its best conjures up images of Bedouin men in thoubs riding on horses and brandishing swords to protect their flock of sheep or grazing land and at its worst connotes archaic and petty squabbling between competing tribes who have no regard for the law of the land and operate above it. Neither image really gives credit to the gravity of the issue of economic burden on the citizen, nor does it indicate a mature and well-organized civil response from the Jordanian people.
The fact of the matter is that in the absence of a mature democracy and well-intentioned political parties that fight for the rights of the citizen, tribal institutions have been allowed to continue to operate in their place and therefore continue to have an exaggerated weight and value with policy makers and the helm of decision making in the country. The same exaggerated status has been given to religious institutions, which have also utilized the absence of a true democracy to build a larger power base among citizens who look for guidance and support.
Civil resistance, civil disobedience and civil defiance in general finds its voice among these two organizing umbrellas which grow in status when problems - such as the one with the so-called market makers - occur and therefore hold the key to negotiations with governments and policy/decision makers, leading to their own benefit and the benefit of their structures, rather than that of the country’s political maturity and development of its civil society institutions. |
" The more important change to strategize and begin to implement immediately, therefore, should come from outside the political circle " There are many political answers to dealing with this imbalance in the power formula and many of the answers are already available to policy makers and are clear to them. But these corrective measures are probably difficult to implement in one sweeping movement and will probably find resistance even from the Jordanian people who in the long run would benefit most from any such change. Politicians continue to feel that movement at this level needs to be studied and well measured to guard against threats to national security.
The more important change to strategize and begin to implement immediately, therefore, should come from outside the political circle. Whole generations of Jordanians hand over their minds to educators for at least 15 continuous years to mould and form as we wish. The fact that the end result of this enlightening process has been below our expectations is not their fault, it is ours!
Education as a system for building the principles, main beliefs, values, morals and work ethics of the society have to be overhauled so it no longer caters just to and parrots doctrines of belief that are not applicable to the country’s needs for growth and progress. Academic achievement is important, but not as important as instilling the values of democracy, social equity, efficiency, productivity, good organization, altruism, philanthropy, honesty, integrity, reliability and critical thinking.
We need to breed our generations for change with courage, persistence and strategic vision - and it will take a huge measure of these three ingredients - if we are to have a politically mature nation that can share responsibility for the progress of the country with the institutions of the state.
*Published in Jordan's THE JORDAN TIMES on October 26, 2009. |
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