The process of reform in Jordan goes through state
institutions and is carried out at the state’s will. Thinking otherwise would
be delusional.
Prior to the events of April 1989, King Hussein had been
planning to hold parliamentary elections; preparing for them through an
amendment to the Elections Law, shortly before the protests that month.
اضافة اعلان
The outcomes of democratic transformation have not deviated
from the established principles that control the Jordanian state, even at the
economic level. In sync with the return of parliamentary life, the entry of
opposition parties into the parliament and the endorsement of the National
Charter, Jordan adopted the first economic correction program with the
International Monetary Fund, then later endorsed a privatization strategy for
some of its sectors and concluded a peace agreement with Israel in the presence
of a Parliament where Islamists had considerable presence.
Amidst international and regional conditions that were more
perilous than the “April ‘Uprising”, the
state, under His Majesty King Abdullah’s leadership, set the tempo for Arab
Spring-triggered transformations and the challenges and risks that came with
them.
At the most decisive moment, His Majesty King Abdullah
responded by taking well-thought out steps, which included forming a Royal
committee to amend the Constitution. The National Dialogue Committee then laid
the foundations for amendments to laws that regulated the partisan and
political life.
Slogans and the rhetoric of protesters that crossed all the
lines have faded away and shattered, whereas the majority of the public engaged
in the political process without hesitation. The outcomes of that stage could
have been built upon but forces within and outside the state, including
opposition, spoilt the party and sent the several opportunities down the drain.
It may be the case that a wide segment of Jordanians feel
frustration due to the impact of COVID-19, which has cast broad shadows on the
lives of citizens, but Jordan’s woes are not exceptional and have been shared
by several communities struck by the pandemic, which is threatening
livelihoods, economies, and leaving behind tens of millions of unemployed
people.
Some inside Jordan and outside it were under the impression
that the state of economic stagnation could have been taken advantage of to
achieve political ends. This was not the case, even before calls to revive the
memory of March 24 protests.
The broadest social segment of Jordanians is in no way
concerned with the political rhetoric spoken by many. There is a sense of
awareness that the day-to-day worries that have piled up require practical not
political remedies; at least in this critical stage of the battle against the
pandemic.
There is without a doubt a need to carry out political and
administrative reform, develop the tools used to carry out work within the
Parliament and political parties, recycle power, rescue Jordan’s crumbling
political elite, and revive values like patriotism, equality and rule of law,
and other key issues. But King Abdullah was ahead of everyone when he took
these issues into account after the most recent parliamentary elections,
holding his hand out to everyone in an effort to bring them to fruition.
We did not need to take to the street to demand reforms
already planned for, and scheduled, by the King, and which he had instructed
his government to move forward with. What is truly suspicious, however, is that
those who advocated such rhetoric, as though they were revolutionary demands,
targeted the Kingdom and the monarchy in their campaigns — as if it were the
monarchy that stands in the way of reforms. The truth is that some prominent
opposition figures cling on to archaic ideological principles to impose
conditions for change outside the context of the age and modernity in defense
of their private interests and personal gains.
Some of the rhetoric we have heard over the past days sought
to plunge Jordan into chaos and spread internal strife. In short, some wish to
abolish the state’s institutions and recreate them the way they see fit. The
experiences of countries around us have offered living and bloodied proof of
the fate that awaits communities that have chosen this path.
The only option is state-led reform in Jordan.
Otherwise, it is endless chaos. It is time that we learn this lesson.
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