Why was the
Royal Committee to Modernize the Political System (RCMPS) established, and is
it going to be different from the 13 previous attempts since the early 1990s in
terms of outcome?
اضافة اعلان
These are the
two main questions that have been surfacing since June 2021 and that this piece
attempts to provide preliminary answers to.
Since 1989 when
parliamentary elections were resumed after over three decades of regional political
turbulence, we have witnessed the creation of over 13 committees to address
emerging issues. These include the National Charter, 1991, Jordan First, 2002, The
National Agenda, 2005, All Jordan, 2006, Royal Commission for Regions, 2008, National
Dialogue Committee, 2011, Privatization Review Committee, 2013, Committee for
Integrity and Anti-Corruption, 2013–2014, Jordan Vision 2025, launched in 2014,
National Human Resources Development Commission, 2015, Royal Commission for the
Development Judiciary and Strengthening the Rule of Law, 2017, RCMPS, 2021 and
the Public Sector reform committees, 2021–2022.
The number of
initiatives indicates a realization that there are “issues” and they ought to
be addressed. The above attempts varied from political to economic to
governance issues, but the Jordanian public got fatigued, and as time passed, more
Jordanians gradually lost interest in public affairs.
The most recent
proof is that only 7 percent knew about the most recent public sector reform
committee established and led by the prime minister. Recently published polls
by CSS and NAMA show that nearly two-thirds of adult Jordanians are not
following political issues and those who follow barely know about the content
of currently debated issues, including constitutional amendments.
Detachment from
public life is caused by a series of trend-full fluctuations since the early
1990s. It is precisely the same set of reasons that led to the establishment of
the committee.
First, the
identity of the economy is no longer the familiar “semi-rentier”, with its
implications for state-society relations. It has been moving to a capitalist
economy, albeit an immature one. This created disorientation. Foreign aid makes
up 9 percent of government expenditure and 11 percent of domestic revenue. Thus,
the economy is largely self-dependent.
Second, declining
confidence in civilian public institutions, especially representative
institutions like parliament, in which confidence declined from over 50 percent
before 2011 to a third now.
Third, trust in
successive governments declined from as high as 83 percent in the late 1990s to
the lowest point ever since then, 34 percent now; the current prime minister is
seen as the lowest-performing since polling government performance started in
1996.
Fourth, there
has been a significant increase in the percentage of Jordanians saying “justice
does not exist in Jordan”: from 8 percent in 1999 to 37 percent in 2021.
Fifth,
unemployment increased by 10 points compared to 2011, and reached 50 percent
among youths in 2021. Sixth, social capital has declined significantly from
nearly a third in 2007 to nearly 15 percent in 2018. Seventh, a significant
increase in the percentage of adult Jordanians who expressed their intention to
emigrate, from 18 percent in 2011 to nearly a third in 2021.
Jordan has also
suffered in international indicators such as the Freedom House index of civil
liberties and political rights, where Jordan was described as “not free” in
2021. A similar result is also to be found in the respectable Transformation
Index BTI, where Jordan was described as “moderate autocracy”.
For all these
significant changes in state-society relations, the RCMPS was created to
present some solutions. The political solutions presented by the RCMPS are not
enough to address all issues mentioned above. There is need for economic and
administrative committees to chart the way forward. This is critical because
when people become indifferent to public affairs, they give way to “a few” to
control public life while the majority’s discontent, detachment, and
disenchantment are growing exponentially. Such a track is not only unsustainable,
it is also dangerous.
The writer is chairman
NAMA Strategic Intelligence Solutions
[email protected]
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