With all due respect,
we would like to ask the prime minister what he and his government, after
months of taking office, are doing about the piling issues, some of which were
inherited from previous governments and some of which are entirely new.
اضافة اعلان
When you read the
World Bank’s report on the unemployment rate among youth in Jordan, you realize
that a social earthquake will strike at any moment now. It is not just a
number, it is a very alarming rate indeed, as each unemployed Jordanian is a
potential protester and complicit in a scenario that we would not like to see
in Jordan and its streets, should anger outgrows sensibility.
This government did
nothing regarding unemployment, nor did any other former government, with the
exception of a few short-lived attempts with limited impact on mitigating
unemployment and its domestic impacts.
The unemployment
crisis is severely deepening and it does not require employment in the
government itself, as former officials have overindulged their relatives for
over 20 years and drowned the country in debt and unproductive jobs, but the
government is required to at least cease its sway over the private sector,
which has been exhausted by taxes and production costs. It is as if we have a parasitic
public sector like an ascaris worm, feeding on the private sector to fulfil its
many obligations and depleting it in the process. This has led to sever damage
to the private sector, evident today in its inability to cover its liabilities,
and create new jobs.
The government might
show off the rise in Treasury revenues this year, but that is a narrow view of
the scene, because a rise in revenues might not indicate economic prosperity or
the beginning of economic recovery, as much as it indicates that many are
paying their dues, by all means necessary, which might include borrowing to pay
taxes, licensing fees, or other expenses.
The unemployment issue
was not created by the current government, but it is still required to find
solutions for it, and it is not doing so. In fact, the trend today is to point
fingers at the pandemic as the cause for decline, so we must thank the
COVID-19 virus, which spares government accountability and reproach, and is responsible
not only for health issues, but every declining aspect of our country.
The other issue worth
mentioning today and pleading to all officials, including the prime minister
and his Cabinet, as well as everyone else, is to stop talking about attracting
foreign investment, because which reckless and gambling investor would come to
Jordan, when every couple of days they see social crises, blocked roads,
confrontations between the public and Gendarmerie, protests, disturbances, and
other scenes that have, unfortunately, become mundane to our eyes, as we wake
up every morning to a new crisis.
The poor management on
the domestic front has distorted the reputation of Jordan abroad, as everyone
abroad thinks that the country is perched on top a volcanic vent, endangered,
and unstable, so why would anyone sacrifice their fortune and come to Jordan to
invest millions in an unsafe environment, open to all scenarios?
The domestic
mismanagement has harmed Jordan’s reputation a lot, and wherever we look today,
we are asked by Arabs and foreigners about what’s happening in
Jordan. A
negative image formulated of an unstable country on the edge, and we are now
losing the privileges of a good reputation, and we can see no one trying to get
them back, so maybe officials would be so generous as to stop talking
unproductively about attracting foreign investment, and pay attention to Jordan’s reputation first, so that talk about attracting foreign investment
would seem sensible and productive.
We are not trying to
overload the prime minister, but these are chronic questions, the cost of which
is accumulating. And hiding behind the coronavirus must end, and we must ask;
respectfully, what is the government doing regarding all these issues?
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