AMMAN — Four members of the
Jordan Engineers Association’s (JEA) board resigned Monday after clashing with JEA President
Ahmad Sammarah Al-Zoubi, over amendments to the JEA’s internal laws, including association
elections.
اضافة اعلان
A series of disagreements with
Zoubi reached a head at a board meeting held to discuss amendments to the JEA
internal law.
The four central board members
object to the amendments the association says are in the interest of the JEA
and its affiliates.
The deputy head of the Civil
Engineering Division at the JEA and one of the resigning members, Sary Zuaiter,
told
Jordan News that “our problem is not just with the amendments to the law,
it is also with the domineering approach followed by (the JEA President)”.
“(He) does not listen to us or
pay attention to our demands, despite the fact that we only wanted a more
accurate and comprehensive law. In the end, it is our right to participate in
the (drafting) of the law’s amendments, as it will affect us for years,”
Zuaiter said. He contended that Zoubi even refused to acknowledge other board
members’ interventions at the meeting.
Zuaiter said that Zoubi took a
vote of those members with and those against the amendment and “counted them on
his fingers”, Zuaiter said, adding that that is illegal, and impermissible.
“There were more than 170 (board)
members at the meeting, and the law stipulates that he should have taken into
consideration the majority opinion. But he just counted 13 votes for the
amendments and six votes against it,” Zuaiter said.
He said that only 19 members
had the chance to vote while the others simply observed.
“Moreover, the amendments were
not presented to all on board — a real indication of the lack of respect for the
JEA’s board and its laws,” he added.
Zuaiter stressed that the
problems with the association’s president had been building over time, but that
the dam burst on Monday. “We have tried many times to express our
dissatisfaction before, ... but no one heard us,” Zuaiter said.
The heads of the JEA’s
mechanical engineering and electrical engineering divisions, Raed Al-Shorbaji
and Malek Al-Amayreh, echoed Zuaiter’s claims that Zoubi dominated discussions
and disregarded the board. Both resigned Monday and said the JPA president
would regularly disregard the board’s input on the amendments.
“He has not offered to
reconcile with us,” Amayreh said, despite both he and Shorbaji stressing that
the board continuously offered to contribute.
For his part, JEA Vice
President Fawzi Masad told
Jordan News that “the new amendments are in the
interest of the JEA, its members, and even contribute to the employment of
engineers.”
“These amendments will help us
a lot in the coming years, especially given that the JEA is in need to develop,”
Masad said, adding that these amendments were developed following intensive
consultations with legal experts and the board.
“The majority of the board members
who attended the meeting were against the amendments, despite the fact that
they do not know how beneficial they’ll be,” he said.
Masad said that the JEA has to
work as one family, but added that some people take things personally. “We have
asked them more than once if they want to discuss the amendments, and they
refused,” Masad said, adding that “they had the right to refuse or accept the
amendments. If they chose to refuse them, we would have at least discussed the
matter together, and taken their objections to consideration.”
All four resigning board
members belong to the “Enjaz” political list, an alliance between Islamists and
independents.
Despite numerous attempts by
Jordan News, JEA President Ahmad Sammarah Al-Zoubi was not available for
comment.
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