Jordanians were saddened and infuriated by last week’s
accident at the port of Aqaba. On June 27, 13 port workers and members of
Jordan’s civil defense and gendarmerie directorates died and many others were
injured when a chlorine container bound for export fell and ruptured as it was
being loaded onto a ship. It was yet another accident in a series of
unfortunate and avoidable ones in recent years.
اضافة اعلان
When it comes to
such accidents, Jordanian authorities and the general public exhibit a regular
pattern of behavior that has become all too familiar. While authorities can be
defensive or even appear uncertain in their response, the general public tends
to exhibit disbelief and self-deprecation. Where they both overlap is the anger
and burning desire for revenge to bring those responsible to justice.
Regrettably, none of this serves to address the accident in question or prevent
future ones from occurring. A different approach is needed.
One way to address
this issue would be to change the way investigations are carried out, to
de-politicize them and keep them objective. This, however, poses a challenge
when emotions run high and people have been harmed.
“Root cause
analysis”, a well-known investigation technique that is universally used for
accidents that occur in critical sectors or facilities, including the nuclear,
aviation and financial, could be used in this case. But it can only be
conducted when an independent team of experts is tasked with investigating
incidents away from public pressure and without rushing to lay blame on a specific
individual but to identify the systemic errors that led to the incident.
Interestingly, a
common approach that experts adopt in such investigations is to ask “why” five
times before understanding a particular cause. In the case of the Aqaba
accident, for example, a simple assessment that the cables broke as the
container was being loaded onto the vessel will not suffice.
All accidents are
avoidable, yet they occur in even the most developed countries and facilities.
When they occur, and they do occur in critical facilities everywhere,
investigations are held in order to learn why they occurred and to take
measures to prevent them from happening again. The general public is not meant
to be involved in this investigation phase. It is meant to become involved at a
later phase, when the investigation is over and findings need to hold up to
public scrutiny.
Why are roles
reversed in Jordan? Why is the general public judge and jury when accidents
occur, but has no role or interest once investigations are complete?
This may be fueled
by footage that is almost always leaked once an accident occurs, which serves
no practical purpose except for encouraging the public’s role in the
investigation.
...Investigations are held in order to learn why they occurred and to take measures to prevent them from happening again. The general public is not meant to be involved in this investigation phase.
Showing photos from
the scene of a criminal who took his own life a week after his gruesome murder
of a university student last month is another recent example. Commentators had
plenty of conspiracy theories, disputing the claim that he had taken his own
life and even disputing his identity as the perpetrator of the heinous crime.
Authorities should
start by tightening their information security protocols. They should have the
prerogative to release footage when it serves a practical purpose, at the
conclusion of an investigation.
There is pressing
need to redirect the sense of anger exhibited by everyone toward something
constructive; in this case, the governance of accidents such as these. While
individuals need to be held accountable, the desire to take punitive measures
against specific individuals rarely succeeds in addressing system-related
flaws. We should no longer take the same actions and expect different outcomes.
Nasser bin Nasser is the founder and CEO of Ambit Advisory.
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