Upon
an invitation from the Royal Jordanian National Defense College (NDC), I gave a
lecture on Wednesday, August 15, to 125 officers. Two other lecturers were
present. The first was Bakr Khazer Al-Majali and the other was retired air
force commander Gen. Mahmoud Rdaisat.
اضافة اعلان
Majali,
a well-known documentarist and a military historian took to task the
philosophical tenets of the Arab Revolt and its renaissance project. He
explained the philosophy of Sata Al-Husary, who was among the pioneers in
calling for pan-Arab nationalist project, which rested on the two pillars of
history and language.
Majali
also elaborated on the fact that the philosophical power of the pan-Arab
nationalism was formulated and developed by Christians, particularly Lebanese
and Syrians. Yet he believed that King Abdullah I had the zeal to establish an
enlarged Arab project made up of Greater Syria, Iraq, and the Hejaz which had
been a part of the Hashemite reign.
Gen.
Rdaisat focused in his lecture on the administrative dimension, criticizing the
civil public sector’s inertia and even lethargy. He called for the military
style and spirit to be implanted in the various civil public sectors departments
and institutions.
Underlining
the importance of strategic planning, he called for a far-sighted plan which
would be implemented by democratically-elected government and watched by a robust
and proactive Parliament made up of strong political parties. To him, that was
the main message embodied in the “Reform Documentary Papers” authored by His
Majesty King Abdullah II.
I
was the first speaker and my task was to analyze Jordan’s need for a new
paradigm of planning. To me, the accusation that Jordan has run its affairs
without a theory or a well-enunciated methodology is a far-fetched value
judgment. Jordan’s economic philosophy traveled through time from a
physiocratic approach to mercantilism, to a neoclassical private-sector
approach, to neo-Keynesian big-push planning, to globalization, and now we are
inching towards a private-public participatory approach.
Jordan
is braced for better days. My perspective sees that Jordan is poised to benefit
from its expanding resource base (minerals, down-stream fertilizer chemicals,
efficient renewable sources, and one of the best potentially trainable labor
force). If an absence of wars gives our region a long enough breather, Jordan
will serve as a terra media for all neighboring countries, and will be a
regional international hub.
My
fear is not only to face our apprehensions and drawbacks, but to miss the
moment and fail to leverage the great opportunities to be made available in the
coming years.
In
the Q&A period, I got more than my fair share of the queries and comments from
the students. They were from Jordan and other eight countries.
The
faculties revealed by the students, and the spirit and zeal of the NDC’s commander,
the teachers, and the staff qualify them to make this college the best regionally
and one of the best internationally.
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