Meeting the Leaders of the Jordanian Reform Movement

Over dinner, we meet with a panel of young leaders who have been agitating for reform in Jordan, utilizing social media tools like Facebook and Twitter.

Khaled, Zamen and Omar have been leading the push for reform in Jordan. Khaled has been in Jordan 2 years after having lived 22 years in Alabama. The reformers tweet under Twitter handles @shusmo, and @reformjo.

( “Shusmo” means ‘What’s his name?” or “Whatchamacallit?” in Arabic. Interestingly, @reformjo used to be @angryjo but they changed the handle to @reformjo because they wanted to avoid being negative and wanted to focus on the positive)

Khaled says that frustrations have been there in Arab streets for decades, they only now boiling over. All the movements started out peacefully, and unwise rulers have fought them, instead of engaging the youth in dialogue. The Jordanian youth reformers are organizing monthly forums, and inviting youth and government officials to come and engage in dialogue with them. They have also organized forums called Amman Tech Tuesdays for youth to network in the high tech field. Queen Rania paid them a surprise visit at one of their forums, and they felt gratified, that the powers that be are paying attention to the youth’s demands.

They state that Jordan’s case is unique and is unlike Egypt or Tunisia. In Jordan it is not about regime change, it is about reform, and the distribution of resources. The make sure to clarify that the king is a uniting figure in Jordan, and nobody is saying anything negative about the king.

Hisham Majali, our Jordanian liaison is also on the panel. Hisham hails from the prominent Jordanan Majali family from the governorate of Kerak. Hishm’s father General Majali led the Jordanian troops in the 1967 Six Day War between Israel, Egypt, Jordan and Syria. This war resulted in the occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Sinai, Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights by Israel. The Sinai was later returned to Egypt in 1979 under the peace treaty signed between Israel and Egypt. Hisham’s uncle Field Marshal Habis al-Majali served as Chief of Staff, Jordanian Armed Forces 1958-1975, Minister of Defense 1967-1968, and was a 20-year member of the Jordanian Senate 1981-2001. He was the commander of the Jordanian military during Black September, the violent Palestinian uprising and attempt to overthrow King Hussein in 1970.

Hisham believes that at present, the resource allocation in Jordan is too skewed toward the city of Amman, while the rest of the country lacks even basic infrastructure. He is an advocate of equitable resource distribution among all the governorates in Jordan.

Hisham and the other panelists engage in a heated discussion about what is the best vehicle to push reform in Jordan. Hisham feels that social media is not the best vehicle since people in 11 of the 12 governorates may not even have Facebook access. 140 characters is not enough to express the complexities of the political system and 70 percent of the population may not even know what Twitter is. Hisham feels that reform needs to come within the framework of the existing tribal structures and needs to focus on the equitable allocation of resources in the entire country.

I ask the reformers if they have a game-plan or strategy about how things need to change in Jordan, and in which key areas. This results in an awkward silence among the panel, leading me to believe that the strategy is still evolving. After some deliberation the reformers say that they want change in the following areas:

- Election reform: presently, ministers are appointed, not elected.
- Freedom to create political parties
- Equitable distribution of wealth and an end to the abuse of power.

Later that night, Hisham and I revisit the topic over dinner.

I say to Hisham:

“It is my humble observation that in the Arab and broader Muslim world, people’s allegiances to clans or tribal affliliations seem to supersede their allegiance to institutions. In other words, people pledge loyalty based on clan or tribe, to an individual occupying an institution, and not to the office or institution itself (e.g. that of President). In contrast, in the Western industrialized world people pledge loyalty to the institution, regardless of the individual occupying it, for the individual changes when the term is over.
It seems to me that the allegiance to ancient tribal structures has hampered progress in the Arab world, and for real reform to happen, fundamental social shifts need to occur in which people have allegiance first and foremost to institutions, and not based on tribe or clan to the individuals occupying the institutions. How else will everyone feel equal and empowered, feel like they really have a shot at a fair slice of the pie?”

Hisham’s answer is a bit surprising but brutally honest:

” Do you think that has any chance of happening? That will never happen!” He says.
“Us Arabs, we still even trace the bloodlines of our horses! How do you think we will ever get to the point where we can ignore the bloodlines of our tribes?!”