Since Friday, May 22, Jordanians, along with Arabs and
Muslims, have been celebrating what they perceive as a Palestinian victory over
Israel. We have heard analysts talking about a changed balance of power, and
optimists talking about the beginning of the end for occupation.
اضافة اعلان
For Jordan, a substantial and positive change was this unity
observed among all Jordanians at all levels in support of the Palestinians and
in defense of Jerusalem, its people, and holy sites.
On the night of Independence Day, and despite the fact that
there were no nationwide celebrations planned, cars loaded with teenagers
paraded through the streets of Amman, honking, waving flags, and singing with
exuberant patriotic feeling — and breaking every traffic law in effect.
The celebrations were there, but not the spirit of winners,
in my opinion. I do not know about
social media users and their definition of
victory, or the partying youth in Abdoun and their definition of what
independence means, but to me, I did not even try to analyze the new reality
after the Gaza ceasefire, because I know that if there had been a victory, the
nation would have entered a new age with a new spirit and a fresh look on life.
We here in
Jordan are still — or should be — fighting a
vicious war against stubborn challenges and patterns of behavior, especially at
the grassroots level; problems that are atypical of a nation whose founders
toiled to establish a modern country where institutions rule, the law is
respected, and the state-citizen relation is based on the rights and
obligations inherent in citizenship. Ruining a national occasion with speeding
and reckless driving without any consideration for the safety of others is not
patriotic at all, regardless of what song is played on your car’s sound system.
Corruption, bribery, wasta, littering, double parking, excessive water
consumption, leaving garbage behind at the public park after a picnic, and any
uncivilized act kill the spirit of independence and are not the behavior of the
victorious.
At a higher level, we need to achieve victory in the arena
of political reform, not a gradual or evolutionary process, but a here-and-now
shift to a new mode and a new path that takes us to a public administration
steered by meritocracy.
We need to win the economic war, with the endgame being
self-reliance, out-of-the-box solutions to water scarcity, genuine partnership
with the private sector to generate jobs, and a revision of higher education
policies so the outcome of the educational process meets the needs of the labor
market.
The victorious make history. If we fail to bring about the
envisioned change, we need to rethink our definition of independence and
triumph.
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