The
World Bank’s latest report on the
Jordanian economy
highlights the unsettling fact that unemployment among youth in Jordan has
reached the red zone of 50 percent. In comparison, reliable news reports on the
recent attacks on the Gaza Strip emphasized that unemployment in the Strip
hovers around 52 percent. Since Gaza’s population is 69 percent youth and
Jordan’s about 66 percent, then both economies suffer from high overall
unemployment rate.
اضافة اعلان
It goes without saying, that when the coronavirus disruption
is over, Jordan’s youth will have more ample opportunities than their
counterparts in Gaza. Once tourism, services, shops, hospitals, and other
related sectors are restored to their habitual normalcy, many jobs will be
created. Yet, most of these opportunities will arise in the private, and not in
the public sector. Thus, the sources of discontent among youth of tribal and
clannish descent will not enjoy such job openings in the public sector. Such a
situation could infuriate societal feuds in the country.
The recent events have demonstrated that the schism between
the tribes and clans on one side and the rest of the country will deepen and
widen. The recent freezing of the membership of an outlandish MP has been
utilized to incite rioting, blind prejudice, and anti-social aberrations.
Social media went crazy on this development.The government behaves like a
saber-swallowing magician who just discovered that the saber went to places
which would pose a threat to his life. He can neither push it in nor can he
take it out.
If we have ever learnt anything from history, we know that
social differences overtime have their way of evolving into more amiable ones.
In a situation like this one, the question arises as to what alternative the
government should choose: to be feared or to be loved. Inaction renders both
options untenable. If a choice must be made, Machiavelli reminds us, “it is
better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.”
I think we need to break this Alexander’s knot through
ingenious ideas. We need to build, say, 10 large-scale projects in the
different towns of the poorer governorates of Jordan where unemployment,
poverty, and dissent are rampant. Such projects should look like castles, or
large temples, where entry into them is a privilege. Let them be half publicly
owned to entice those who would prefer government jobs.
This idea is a part and parcel of the new economic reform
drive which Jordan must undertake sooner than later. Yet when we talk about
reform, we should always remember Machiavelli’s famous quote.
“There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more
perilous to conduct, more uncertain in its success, than to take the load in
the introduction of a new order of things.”
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