What are the real priorities for Jordanians?

One of the most useful elements of the public poll conducted by the Center of Strategic Studies (CSS) in the University of Jordan and released yesterday is the section where the national sample (Jordanian citizens) and public opinion leaders' sample respond to the question of listing their priorities taht the government should tackle.

It comes as a strong message that the priorities of Jordanians are economic. Look at the table of priorities of the national sample

Issue	Percentage as a priority
Unemployment	34.2
Poverty	25.4
High costs of living	23.5
Terrorism	3.9
Corruption	3.4
Economic status	2.3
Water	0.9
Immigrants	0.9
Others	5.6

As for the table of priorities listed by the public opinion leaders (former officials, journalists and writers, university teachers, political parties and professional association leaders, businesspeople and other professionals) it goes like this

Issue	Percentage as a priority
Unemployment	23.7
Poverty	23.1
High costs of living	14.4
Corruption	11.1
Economic Status	7.2
Democracy	6.1
Regional problems	3.0
Terrorism	1.7
Immigrants	0.8
Water	0.6
Others	8.4

It is interesting to try to analyse the variations between the two samples. The national sample has put major emphasis on economic issues that related directly to daily lives (unemployment, poverty and cost of living) which together make up 84% of respondents' priorities. This is based on a simple truth.

According to the survey, 42 per cent of the national sample and 41 per cent of opinion leaders said their economic situation has worsened over the past three years. Only 17 per cent of the national sample reported an improvement in their economic situation compared with 25 per cent of public opinion leaders.

Moreover, it was surprising that the national sample (general public) did not even mention democracy and regional problems in the list. This is truely ironic since democracy and regional problems are the ignition factor of most of our public discussions.

Despite the continuous threat of terrorism it was only slightly mentioned by the respondents in the national sample and the public opinion leaders.

In the final analysis I think decades of economic regession have made the mahority of our people fighting a survival battle and caring less about issues of democracy and reform. What a pity, but such a true picture of reality!