Jordanian journalists and media analysts have been speculating that the
government of Bisher Al-Khasawneh may be on its way out on the heels of a new
poll that shows a steep decline in public trust in the current administration:
from 52 percent in October 2020 to 33 percent this month.
اضافة اعلان
The recent survey published Tuesday by the Center
for Strategic Studies (CSS) at the University of Jordan shows that the approval
rating of the current government has dwindled sharply among the vast majority
of Jordanians over the past two years.
The rate of respondents who believe that the
incumbent premier is able to carry out his responsibilities declined from 56
percent in 2020 to only 33 percent this year, a 23 percent drop. The poll also
demonstrates that public trust in the premier has slid from 68 percent to only
32 percent in the span of two years, a whopping drop of 36 percent.
Speculations over the future of the current
administration started going around earlier on, in September. Two scenarios
were on the table at the time: a reshuffled Cabinet under the incumbent prime
minister, and the appointment of a new premier with a completely refurbished
Cabinet.
Nowadays, some observers are of the opinion that it
is more likely that a new prime minister is poised to take the helm of government
in the coming few weeks.
Incidentally, a day ahead of the poll, one of
Jordan’s veteran opinion writers wrote a scathing column criticizing the
premier for “sweet-talking” the Jordanian people, while turning a blind eye to
the serious socio-economic problems facing them.
On Monday, Al-Ghad News columnist Maher Abu Tair
published an article titled “Stop drugging us, your excellency the premier”, in
which he criticized some statements the PM had made during a recent visit to
Tafileh Governorate.
There, Khasawneh
acknowledge the prevalence of “poverty and unemployment”, but said that the
country’s wealth of “manhood, dignity, belonging, magnanimity, and the ability
to work and to achieve” would see its people through these hard times.
Abu Tair argued that “honey-coated” words do not put
bread on the table and that the government should work to make people feel
tangible results in their everyday lives.
Two years ago, the premier received the Royal Letter
of Designation that specified the areas of improvement his government needed to
focus on. Jordanians taking part in the CSS survey believe that the current
government has been unsuccessful in implementing 19 out of a total of 22 action
items stated in the letter.
Ahead of the premier’s assumption of duties, His
Majesty King Abdullah directed him and his government to develop the “state’s
administrative apparatus”, adding that “a scientific study must be implemented
over the next three months, and recommendations must be presented on the
possibility of merging some ministries and entities, to enhance the efficiency
of the public sector, improve the level of services, and control expenditures”.
Instead of going for the obvious — like merging the
ministries of water and agriculture (and possibly energy) to create a new
“climate ministry” — the government decided to abolish the Ministry of Labor, a
proposition met with major backlash from former senior government officials who
described the move as lacking in insight and experience.
Jordanians taking part in the CSS survey believe that the current government has been unsuccessful in implementing 19 out of a total of 22 action items stated in the letter.
The announcement also coincided with the recent
establishment of the new Ministry of Investment, which points to a disturbing
predisposition of the current administration to compromise on the labor rights
of Jordanian workers to “incentivize” future local and foreign investors. Without
a government entity overseeing labor rights, new and old investors alike could
go undeterred in treating their workforce badly.
Although the government retracted, saying that such
plans were not set in stone, it seems to be unaware of the need to strike a
balance between sustainability and development, and in this case, between the
rights of laborers and economic gain.
Abolishing the Labor Ministry could affect low- to
middle-income Jordanians, hampering Jordan’s efforts to expand its worn-out
middle class and to improve the standard of living of marginalized Jordanians.
The government faced further criticism for the
recently endorsed law regulating the investment environment for the year 2022.
Economist and former minister Yusuf Mansur said the law was “encumbered with
flaws and shortcomings”, and that it was “also draconian in certain areas, and
simply naïve… in its incentives”.
In a previous opinion piece by this writer, the
legislation was criticized for granting an upcoming Cabinet-formed incentives committee
the power to give foreign and local investors discounts on their water bills,
although it is known that Jordan is the world’s second most water scarce
country.
On agriculture, King Abdullah gave directives to the
government to engage local communities residing near state-owned arable land in
a major national drive to ramp up the country’s sustainable agriculture and
food security efforts. Two years on, Jordan’s shrinking rural communities are
still as marginalized as ever and there is no news about the status of this
particular plan.
With respect to water, the government has come up
short against holding top officials in the current Ministry of Water
accountable for their decision to empty a number of dams, against the
objections of former water and agriculture experts who described the move as an
“error in management”. The letter of designation clearly underscores the
importance of “reinforcement of the rule of law, based on transparency and
accountability”.
In terms of information-sharing, the government’s
“digital transformation” program falls flat against the basic task of improving
the public sector websites, most of which are still considerably lacking in
terms of design and content. Zoomed in on services and poorly written news
sections, government sites have no substantial information on policy or other
kinds of data that could be useful to the country’s next generation of
political parties.
Furthermore, this government has done nothing to
combat a barrage of misinformation and disinformation campaigns targeting the
child rights draft law, even though earlier this year, in January, a number of
public sector spokespersons took part in a pilot training program that was
supposed to take their communication skills to a “new level”.
The government’s silence in the face of falsehoods
aimed at the child rights bill has resulted in Parliament endorsing a seriously
maimed piece of legislation that works against the best interests of Jordanian
children and their mothers in a country that, ironically, wants women to have a
bigger say in public life.
All in all, observers believe the current government
has shown a weak grasp of global trends like social justice for women and
children, labor rights, and climate action. Some are also of the opinion it has
been unsuccessful in making use of two whole years in office, which amount to
half a term in US politics.
Ruba Saqr has reported on
the environment, worked in the public sector as a communications officer, and
served as managing editor of a business magazine, spokesperson for a
humanitarian INGO, and as head of a PR agency.
Read more Opinion and Analysis
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
