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By Amer Al Sabaileh


It is perhaps not surprising, amid the general leveling of discontent in Jordan, to arrive to the spark of mass protests. The failure in finding a real solution for many pending issues (reform, corruption etc) was due to the immature vision that denied and refused to face the problem. Actually, it considered the popular protests a temporary, superficial conflict that can be solved with routine measures. However, this transformed the conflict to be a latent one .

Since the begging of protests in Jordan, anybody who has observed the Jordanian domestic politics could so easily notice that political reform requests were much linked to fighting corruption and its personnel.

Actually, the content of the slogans started with “We and the head of our country want to fight corruption”. Today –unfortunately- we have slogans criticizing the whole system on a range of issues linked to bad governance. Anyone in the decision makers’ shoes, would be worried about how perceptions of the state have changed. It is an indication that throughout the year and a half the procedures or proposed solutions instigated, have not been at all successful.

The Jordanians who fought for their rights -in a very pacific and civilized way- deserve to undertake their legitimate role in the upcoming new era of the Jordanian history. Many of the Jordanian smart minds were ignored or even oppressed by the system and its unqualified staff whom dominant thought were linked to increasing their wealth and the succession of their sons.

Recognizing the mistakes of yesterday, urges the system to confess them, and confession should be followed by an apology to the great Jordanian people, who deserve such an apology repenting the mistakes in which they had no hand, of which, the still pay the price.

The transparency in fighting corruption is the last card to play in the highly needed process of “credibility building”; it is a valuable chance not to be neglected nor forgotten, as chances to achieve this goal in these historical moments are really scarce. Additionally, when credibility in the State is lacking, very little good can be achieved. Specially that Jordan was preparing the phase of a new political transition, mainly, the parliamentary elections considered -in a way- a political way out for a new phase. Today, As the protests negatively affected the current political atmosphere, the whole Political process is at risk. The challenges of today’s crisis should urge the decision makers to comprehend that old tools cannot be effective for every time. Therefore, it is important to call the words of the Syrian Philosopher Michel Aflaq when he described the Arab world as a man who is fighting to wear his old childhood jacket in winter, wasting his efforts to do something impossible instead of getting rid of the old and coping with his new size. Thus, like the rest of the world, in Jordan things also change.



* Ammon News Photo/ By Mohammad Abu Hmaid
Dr. Amer Al Sabaileh
http://amersabaileh.blogspot.com