Jordan Watch
An update and analysis of the progress, or lack of it in political, economic, social and cultural reform in Jordan.

The Political Lanscape of Reform in Jordan
Tuesday, February 20, 2007

No word has ever been more "exploited" in Jordan and the Arab World more than "reform" in the last few years. As if it has been magistically discovered in a deep cave in the Arabian political desert, reform has been the most welcomed guest in all political projects developed by the USA and EU for the Arab World after September 11th and has been the silver bullet for the political and socio-economic debates and conferences around the Arab World, with Jordan taking center stage.
We in Jordan are masters in manipulating slogans. Look back on how slogans like "Jordan First" and "We are all Jordan" have skyrocketed in billboards and official statements and how little has been implemented at the level of legislation, policies and political practice.
Reform has been a catchy word among the Jordanian liberal political elite and has been considered as a grave danger by traditional conservatives. It has been viewed as "trojan horse" for Islamists wanting to take power through reform and then sending any remaining hopes of reform to the trash, while it has been associated with Americanism by ultra Arab nationalists who are still shedding tears over Saddam Hussein and desperately protecting Bashar Asad.
So, who carries the flag for reform in Jordan?
To begin with, we have to define reform, and what a taunting task it can be. A plethora of definitions exists for reform. In most cases it has been "ideologically polarized" to suit the shallow horizon of ideology that is blinding political actors in Jordan. There can be an Islamic reform headed by the Islamic Action Front, or you can look for Arab nationalism reform based on freedom from external oppression and imperialism. You can also find traditional conservative "elites" in Jordan telling you that reform can be traced back to the early days of the establishment of Jordan, and more dangerously you can find politicised businessmen who are exclusive agents for global corporations defining reform as economic liberalization and selling the country and its resources for international firms through privatization. Were are the Jordanian reformists then?
The tiny minority of Jordanian reformists who are facing the danger of extinction still believe in the very simple framework of "reform" that was created in 1948. Of course I am not referring here to the state of Israel, God forbid but about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, owned and endorsed by humanity at large and not that oily Cowboy in the White House.
Every principle of reform can be found in this declaration and every little operatioanl detail can be found in the global human rights framework developed by the UN. Reform is not a rocket science and it has been developed by humanity 60 years ago and practised in many countries all over the world.
By looking into Jordan's pages in the website of global human rights organizations we are not impressed. Records of human rights violations in the political, economic, social, cultural and media aspects are documented. Although relatively better than most Arab countries, Jordan still has a long way to go before decalring itself as a model of Arab reform as claimed by the official apparatus.
This brings us to the very important question of the social basis for reform in Jordan. The Jordanian regime has done an impressive job in reinforcing the vocabulary of reform in public domains. Whether this approach is genuine or not is still controversial. I personally believe that the regime is sincere in its reform approach but still the lack of solid achievements worries all its supporters.
The traditional political network composed of "elite families" of East Jordanians and the regime loyal mixture of Jordanians from Palestinian, caucassian and Syrian origins is still very reluctant to advocate for reform in the context provided previously. This position is the result of either fear of losing previliages by some elites or the fear that the social and political fabric of the country will not tolerate 'sudden openness" due to major external pressures and internal political and demographic divisions. The majority of opposition political parties have a lot of problems in respecting and assimilating values of democracy, tolerance, social freedom, equity and multiculturalism that are the heart of the reform agenda. Islamic and Arab national parties have always supported dictatorships in the region under the slogan of "facing up imperialism" and showed little, if any tolerance and respect for opposite ideas. leftists parties are deteriorating and they still have a historic anti-regime syndrom that is causing them to be more critical and skeptic than participating in the reform process.
Democratic, liberal and civil political streams in Jordan are weak, scattered and almost non-effective. This social basis that is needed to leverage the reform agenda in Jordan is not rooted in the traditional political landscape. Reform is almost a lost battle until a strong popular political movement arises and takes the lead.

posted by Batir Wardam in Democracy in Jordan, Media Freedoms @ 12:07 AM

Bookmark this post: KhabberDel.ici.ousDiggRedditY! MyWebGoogle Bookmarks
(7) comments


Add a Comment

On February, 20, 2007 11:15 AM , Ali said:

"due to major external pressures and internal political and demographic divisions."

Ahhhh! the favorite bogyman of all repressive regimes. as if all democracies exist in isolated, monolithic societies with one party, one ethnicity, one religion. ironically, "democracies" like this did/do exist and are called one party "democracies" like the Baath or Communists. so damn if you do, damn if you don't.

On February, 20, 2007 4:06 PM , batir
from Jordan said:

Ali you are completely right. I hope you did not misunderstand my article as I am not supporting this view and I consider myself to be among the endangered species calling for reform from inside the state and based on increased public participation and modernization of legislation.

On February, 20, 2007 4:31 PM , Alessandra
from Italy said:

Batir, related to reforming Jordan, I have a question: how is going the campaign against the honor killings against women and to abolish the articles of the law that support these crimes? Did this campaign have some positive results or not yet?

On February, 20, 2007 8:59 PM , hatem abunimeh
from United States said:

If the National Agenda was given a chance to be implemented, reform would have been in a much better shape than what it is right now. The national agenda was supposed to have been a blue print for reform, regrettably, it was aborted immediately upon conception.I'm not sure what is needed right now for Jordan to get back on the reform path. Needless to say, electoral reforms should get back on top of the agenda as number one priority, followed by health care reform.

On February, 22, 2007 11:18 AM , Markus said:

Hello Batir, Even though I probably disagree with you on most every single Political view, I do hold alot of respect for these views, and on occasions you have at least made me think and consider the other end of the equation. With regards to your views on reform in Jordan, I do agree with you on the defeinition of Reform, not withstanding the fact that this is an opnion after all and not really a definition of the actual connotations of reform. The problem lies in the definition that we can potentially agree upon, and the actual implementation of reform, or the lack there-off, in Jordan. After all, you said it right at the start of your post, the reform projects were set forth by the American regeim after Sep-11th, and it had little to do with the genuin greivances of the disinfranchised people of the 3rd world. Its not like America applied reform as you define it in Iraq for example ( Ala Abu Ghreib etc etc.....) and I can sit here and list hundreds fo examples of reform as it was implemented by the US. I do not want to divert the discussion to American foreign Policy, but unfortunatly, or fourtunatly for some, it is a burdening reality, today there is no such thing is real reform in Jordan or the Arab world at large, as much as people would like to believe that there are epic upheavals and cosmic shifts in the middle eastern geo-political scene, the reality is it is a mere skin-sheddign process to accomodate the next phase of the continued dis-infranchisement of the people of the world. reform is an afterthought.

On February, 27, 2007 1:01 AM , batir
from Jordan said:

hatem; the national agenda was manipulated from isnide the committee itself since three members refused the multiple voting system and insisted on the one man one vote. It was sad to see a concerted effort done to undermine the Agenda and it was awful to see some so-called reformist politicians joining the Karaoke.
Markus thanks for the visit and the very well stated note. This is why Arabs need a genuine reform agenda embracing human rights and freedoms and not get hijacked by the American policy.

On February, 27, 2007 6:01 PM , nasifmasad
from Chile said:

Any reform not based on the adoption of the scientific method of research is totaly absurd intent to build a modern pragmatic society, the age of the utopian societies has gone, and all those thinkers and explorers of spiritual ideals have failed to use their tools in the age of the communication fluidity and information technology which has robbed the main concept of the utopian school and applied it in pragmatic and well-organized experiences. Reform in Jordan needs full Modernization, the Jordanian Society is not prepared for that process, only new Educational Reform that reinforce the principles of Individual Rights and Freedom can prepare the new generation to accept the wind of changing.



Add a Comment

<<Home


Comments are not pre-approved. However, any comments including personal insults to the royal family members and insults based on Jordanian-Palestinian divisions will be deleted immediately. This is a platform for civilised dialogue, if you are not up to it go away.