The King's Codes of Honor in the Designation Letter

Jordan was taken by surprise yesterday as King Abdullah II nominated Samir Rifai to form the new government. The fate of the change/reshuffle was eminent but the name of the new PM was a matter of speculations. On Sunday, Randa Habib relied on her legendary reputation of having exclusive exposure to the Royal court and without hesitation published a story (as AFP correspondent) identifying the current head of the Royal Court Nasser Louzi as new Prime Minister. She later asked for the retrieval of the story and said it was only a scenario. It will be interesting if someday someone will reveal whether Randa has actually robbed mr Louzi of a genuine opportunity by her hasty announcement.

The new PM is Samir Refai whose name was also circulated along with Oun Al Khasawneh and Abd Al-Elah Al Khateeb as potential PMs recently. In the time being I will avoid discussing the selection until the whole governemnt is formed. I do not expect a revolution in names and another economic-liberal-technocrat hybrid is almost certain.

What I have been interested in is the content of the letter of designation sent by the King. It had a rather detailed "roadmap" for the new governemnt in a scope that is wider than the conventional letters of designation. What struck me was the King's emphasis on developing and implementing a package of codes of honor in governance. Here are the King's exact words:

"We also instruct you to issue a code of honour based on the Constitution and the law that clarifies the moral and legal criteria that the ministers must be committed to throughout their public service. This document will be a public document and an additional reference for Jordanians in judging the performance of the ministerial team. The government should also issue a similar document to which all public servants at every level must commit. For our people are ready to bear any hardship and confront every challenge if they are convinced that those serving them in state institutions are doing their jobs within institutional frameworks and under legal monitoring and are fortified against all forms of corruption, abuse of public office and manipulation of the law. "

Now, regarding the unhealthy relation between deputees and the governemnt, the King says:

"The government should reassess its method of dealing with Parliament so as to restore this relationship as a cooperative and complementary one that serves the national interest, and whereby the authorities each practise their constitutional authority without one trespassing the other or reaching interest-based understandings that would make achieving personal gains a condition for the stability of the relationship between the two authorities. In order to ensure that the mistakes of the past do not recur, we ask you to draft a protocol, to which your team should be committed, that outlines the rules of engagement with Parliament in accordance with the Constitution and the law.

We hope that the new Parliament would also issue a similar document so as to reassure Jordanians that the relationship between the executive and legislative authorities is governed by criteria that serve the public interest and reflects the legal and political complementarity that is necessary to serve the country and that are not hostage to narrow considerations. "

So what we have now at the table is a really impressive set of principles that revolve around the virtue of honesty in governance. If an effective level of honesty can be introduced in the approach to governance in Jordan we will witness a great enhancement of performance and proper use of resources, whether financial, institutional or human.

Those codes of honor must not only be documents but they should be functional and should be monitored for implementation. We have many legal and institutional tools for combating corruption but still no progress has been achieved. One of the main pillars of fighting corruption is "accountability" as corrupted and dis-honest officials should not be given another chance to assume public positions. This will be tested with the new government starting at the list of ministers' names.