One of the first things that
caught my eye as a teenager reading Jordanian Arabic-language newspapers, was
the main headline sitting boldly on the front page. Time and again it spoke
about the “Hashemite leadership” and His Majesty the late King Hussein’s “wise
stewardship”. I used to stare at the page for hours on end, feeling extremely
frustrated for not having a clue about the meaning of “wise leadership”. until I
became obsessed.
اضافة اعلان
I started to look for
“leadership” everywhere I went. It was the mirage that burnt my heart, and the evasive
image of an oasis that intensified my soul’s endless yearning for answers, to
quench that thirst. I looked into the horizon and cried for some answers. “Please,
Allah, what does leadership mean?”
In my desperation, I asked a
couple of people about the implications of leadership, and never got a
satisfactory answer. In hindsight, those who couldn’t answer were themselves top
dogs in their own domains, celebrated for achievements of the ego and feats of
their predatory selves.
Now that I have a better
understanding of what leadership entails, I am not at all surprised their
answers fell short. Some of them were relatives known for their popularity and
expansive following. Little did I know, in those days, that I was knocking on
the wrong door.
Like many parading
themselves as “leaders” across many fields, from politics to public life, they
had nothing to do with the values behind this mysterious word. As I retrace my
steps back to the first day I had wondered about the meaning of this elusive
word, I now realize those people belonged to the “status” crowd. More
accurately, the gloating narcissists often mistaken for the authentic leaders
that are, without a doubt, a rare breed.
In my mind’s eye, I can
still see the first headline that made me wonder about leadership. That day, His
Majesty King Hussein became my metaphorical mentor. I followed his news
intently, read every word, and tried not to miss out on any of his televised
speeches. Back then, there was no social media, no blogs, and no internet.
I remember wondering about His
Majesty’s ability to juggle so many pressing issues, domestically and on the regional
and international stages. I still feel the same empathy for His Majesty King
Abdullah II, carrying a crushing burden that many seem to undervalue and
misunderstand.
Before I write the next
paragraph, here is an invitation to the usual fleet of critics to try their
hand at steering a nation to the shores of safety, in a stormy region of
psychedelic actors, for almost 20 years of exhausting back-to-back trials.
In my young years, it was
quite dizzying trying to understand the burden of responsibility and the amount
of pressure the Hashemites had to endure to keep Jordan safe. So many things they
did, I could not understand. It was all beyond my years of experience and my
lateral and conceptual thinking, both still in their infancy.
What added to the confusion
was the many conspiracy theories that were circulated through word-of-mouth by individuals
I now have zero respect for. As I grew older, I started realizing those who
pushed such theories resembled the exact opposite of what leadership was truly
about. They had no code of ethics and no integrity, and half-carried their
responsibilities, if they carried them at all.
In their personal lives,
they were tyrants, yet accused others of tyranny. They lied, cheated, and
oppressed everyone around them and stripped them of their dignity, but had the
audacity to make big declarations about “pluralism”, “democracy”, and “human
rights”.
Those people held top
positions in political parties that were equally corrupt, peddling myths and
conspiracy theories to build a following among those who shared their
ideologies, feeding the media with messages of deep hatred towards their
homeland and its trusted patrons. A political party whose eternal mandate was
to drive a wedge between citizens and their leadership, so as to fracture us, and
to weaken us as a nation.
Among those I made the huge
mistake of asking about leadership were columnists writing carefully-decorated
articles with agendas picked from any conversation at any intellectual salon,
with no consistency or depth of conviction. Seeing them fool generations of
readers into thinking they stood for a cause, I came to realize all they exemplified
was self-aggrandizement and a relentless search for social flattery and popularity.
This hypocrisy, experienced
at a very immediate level, was the kind of duality one needed to hone a better
understanding of leadership. This was the difficult lesson; having to accept
life’s mesmerizing dichotomy. This constant battle between good and evil, day
and night, and light and darkness. A major milestone on the road to deciphering
leadership.
A few years following that
distant memory, when my adolescent search for leadership started, I saw King
Hussein in person at the Jerash Festival for Culture and Arts. That was when I
understood the true meaning of legendary charisma. Needless to say, true
charisma stands in sharp contrast with today’s celebrity magnetism, which often
reeks of shallowness and a silly habit of pouting lips in preparation for a
selfie. To say that social media has reduced us to undiscerning shadows,
instead of full human beings with full hearts and features, is an
understatement.
In his presence, the world
disappeared. I was still a teenager, and I stood there tongue-tied and frozen.
All I could see was him, shaking hands with his nation, among whom was my
little brother — who said, “Marhaba, Ammo” (hello, uncle). He called the King
“uncle”, and that became a favorite family parable for many subsequent years.
My life was turned upside
down when King Hussein left this world. I collapsed into tears in a minivan on
some highway in some Arab country, hearing the news for the first time over the
radio.
A short while later, I had
my first job as a reporter, and through the newsroom I witnessed the coronation
of His Majesty King Abdullah II, the country’s new guardian and Hashemite
leader.
What do I say next, but the
inevitable? Thank you for being there for us when we most needed you!
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