AMMAN —
Political activists expressed their discontent with a draft regulation which organizes
the practice of partisan activities in higher education institutions.
اضافة اعلان
The regulation,
which is expected to be announced in the next few weeks after it is endorsed by
a higher education council and the Cabinet, is part of the Political Parties
Law enacted last March.
The regulation and
the Law are in line with His Majesty King Abdullah’s quest for a strong
multiparty system in Jordan.
Currently, there
are 34 weak and scattered political parties in Jordan. Aside from the largest
and most organized
Islamic Action Front Party, the political arm of the
opposition Muslim Brotherhood Movement, none of the rest has political clout.
In fact, many of those groups lack organization and clear-cut political
platforms.
King Abdullah said
he advocated, like in civilized societies, the emergence of three main
political groupings, espousing different ideologies from the far-right to the
left.
Under the King’s
longstanding plan for political reforms, Jordan’s prime minister will be
elected from a parliamentary majority, instead of the current practice of being
appointed by a Royal Decree.
But some political
activists said they regarded the regulation as restrictive to a free and
unsupervised political activism at Jordanian universities.
Fakher Al-Daas, a
coordinator for the National Campaign for Student Rights “Dabahtoona”, said the
“regulation failed to achieve the desired goal, which is the involvement of
young people in partisan work.”
“It simply
transformed a university’s dean of student affairs into an administrative
governor with absolute powers to allow, or ban any partisan activity,” Daas
told Jordan News.
“The Dean’s office
can even interfere in the details of the activity and amend it in terms of
place, time and names of the youth participating in the activity,” he added.
The draft
stipulates that university students will not be prosecuted for their partisan
affiliations, or on-campus political activism.
But the regulation
requires student activists to submit a request to establish partisan activity
to the deanship of student affairs at universities across Jordan, at least one
week in advance.
The
Higher Education Institution is obligated to respond to the request to establish
partisan activity within a maximum period of three business days from the date
of submitting the request.
The Dean’s office,
by the same token, will supervise the students’ practice of partisan activities
inside the university campus, in accordance with the legislation in force.
On the other hand,
the draft insists that university students who join political parties can
engage in partisan activities within the campuses of their higher education
institutions “without any infringement of their rights”, as a bylaw will be
issued to regulate such activities.
Fouad Dabbour, a
secretary-general of the Arab Baath Progressive Party, said that the “draft
gave students their legitimate right to join parties without any
accountability, and also gave special attention to the role of women to
encourage their participation in politics”.
But he asserted
that his party rejected the Political Parties Law. “We, as a party, are not
satisfied with it, and we have many comments on the system in general,” he
said. “We believe it will be a real impediment to the progress of party work in
Jordan.”
He specifically
referred to parts of the law, which stipulate that, the founding members of
political parties should not be less than 1,000. Of the total, at least 10
percent of the membership must be allotted to women and young people, aged
between 18 and 35 years old.
The law also
requires that political parties increase the percentage of women and young people’s
membership to at least 20 percent within three years after their inception.
“This is illogical
and difficult to be implemented on the ground,” he told Jordan News.
Alaa Hijjih, a
student and political activist, said that “university regulations in general
limit students’ participation in political work.”
“There is no text
there, which requires the formation of student unions, and the universities
that do form such unions are very few,” he said. “Besides, there is only a limited
number of students who are involved in party work.”
He said that the
draft “does not meet the needs, and will not achieve the desired goal of
integrating students into party life.”
“It grants a great
of power to the deanship of student affairs by approving any student activity,”
he said. “It restricts party work to holding activities only, and this is also
restrained under designated conditions.”
“We need real steps
and comprehensive amendments that contribute to erasing the dark image which
harms partisan work, which has been attacked by many and for so long,” he said.
He also pointed to “fear” being spread “among students and their families to
discourage them from engaging in partisan work.”
He said that many
of his colleagues “had been summoned for investigation by university committees
as a result of their involvement in student movements and on-campus
activities.”
Mohammad Wassef, a
spokesperson for the University of Jordan, said his institution “is fully
convinced that it is not only education that makes a mature generation capable
of advancing in the society, but rather the involvement of young people in
extracurricular activities, including political thought.”
“We realize the
importance of this matter, and we have to apply it on the ground and open the
horizon for young people to understand the meaning of party life to increase
their degree of confidence in engaging in it and be integrated into the
political scene,” Wassef told Jordan News.
“We fully support
political activism, but what matters the most for us is that everyone should
remember that the homeland was and will remain above all,” he asserted.
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