A Future Jordan - نحن الأردن

Stop calling for reform BY FAHED AL FANEK..... Mr. Fanek, Wake Up and Smell the Coffee

Stop calling for reform
Fahed Fanek
Monday, December 19, 2005
THE JORDAN TIMES

My Comments are in Blue

It is meaningless and counterproductive to continue working overtime to advocate reform in this country. As a matter of fact, I am not aware of anybody who is against reform as such - Yes, there are so many people who are against reform, any kind of reform. These are people with vested interests that will be undermined by any change or reform whether political or economical. The problem in this respect is that we don't agree on the sort of reform we are after. A good example is the call for a modern law on elections, which can mean different things to different people.

Many observers are suspicious, for good reason, that possible hidden agendas are advanced under the guise of reform while the real purpose is to undermine the very bases of our state as we know it - For God's sake, come one and be realistic

So far, most, if not all, the reactions drawn by the output of the National Agenda were on the negative side. Only one person, its chairman, was trying hard to promote its findings and recommendations.

It is obvious that there is no consensus developing over the agenda. No majority is taking its side. Even the members of the Royal Committee, which drafted the agenda, are keeping their distance and maintaining silence, not to mention the major differences among the members who could not reconcile and only agreed on the bare minimum requirement that does not satisfy many real reformers - I am sure that he is not one of those people...

The Royal Committee came up with a set of controversial recommendations which overshadowed the good and agreed reforms - This must be a first, Mr. pessimism especially when it comes to the National Agenda, states for the first time ever that the the National Agenda came up with good reforms. Part of the recommendations were outright harmful, such as the dismantling of the Press Association, slashing the cost of government staff as a rate of the gross domestic product in half, claiming that Jordan can, in a few years, do without foreign grants and undertaking to reverse the deficit in the budget after grants into a surplus before grants. Such false and unattainable objectives may urge donor countries not to continue supporting Jordan financially if, as the committee claims, it can stand on its own without foreign aid or any kind of budget support - Mr. Economy is of the view that we should continue to beg for money from everyone instead of getting our act together....

So far, there is a lot of talk about the need to reform, but no actual reform is taking place - This is the only stance where I agree with what Mr. Economy !!!, as if the call for reform were meant only for international consumption. This gives a bad impression. The result is the belief that many things in the country are wrong and must be corrected, but no correction is happening.

Talking about reform becomes a substitute for reform.
Observers abroad were given the impression that things in Jordan are so bad that they need immediate reform, but reform is not going to happen due to lack of political will - this is also right....

Such impression made a prominent professor of politics at an American university criticise Jordan for failure to reform. He described the reform programme in the country as fake, mere talk, and said that the Jordanian press drew its knives to kill the National Agenda which, he thought, is the long-awaited instrument for reform.

He is talking here about Marc Lynch, who is an Associate Professor at the Political Science Department at Williams College. Lynch wrote a piece for the Carnegie Endowment for Peace in Washington on the National Agenda, which can be viewed through the link below

http://www.carnegieendowment.org/publications/index.cfm?fa=view&id=17679&prog=zgp&proj=zdrl,zme#knives

http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark/jordan/index.html

We should not allow the image of the country to be unnecessarily tarnished. We owe it to ourselves to shed light on the reforms that took place and the outstanding results achieved over the past several years. There must be a good reason why Jordan is ahead of other countries in the same class of economic development, as shown by international indices - Mr. Economy is dillusional. We have been regressing on so many fronts, primerally political and other countries are regions are ahead of us in so many ways. he should have read the latest Economist Intelligence Unit report on the dynamics of democracy in the region...

I shall dwell a little bit on the economic side.

As far as economic reform is concerned, we have a clean bill of health issued by the International Monetary Fund. IMF experts certified that Jordan completed successfully the reform programme, has graduated from the adjustment and stabilisation programme, and is no more in need of IMF guidance. As far as privatisation is concerned, almost 80 per cent of the programme has already been implemented successfully. Due to security, stability and economic reform, the economy was able to attract direct foreign investments and register a record growth rate of 7.5 per cent this year. Foreign trade is up 25 per cent, another indication of a free market economy.

Jordan scored better than Egypt and Morocco in the human development index produced by the United Nations Development Programme, in the government effectiveness, as measured by the World Bank index, in transparency, as measured by the index of Transparency International, and in competitiveness, as measured by the index of World Economic Forum.

We are reforming effectively, achieving, in the process, tangible and measurable results. Reform in Jordan is not a matter of talking. Those who talk about reform do not mean it. They are actually tarnishing the image of the country and giving the wrong impression that we need radical reforms but fail to do them - Those who talk about the need for reform are true Jordanian patriots, who have the wellbeing of teh country and it's citizens in their hearts. The country has never faced such challanges, locally, regionally and internationally and reforming our country is the only way to strengthen and solidify our identity to face the numerous challanges ahead.

People who talk about reform are reformers at heart and aren't, in any way possible, aiming to tarnish the image of the country. The Image of the country is tarnished by people like Mr. Economy, whose sole purpose is to send a message that we are living in UTOPIA and nothing needs to be changed....

Mr. Fanek, Wake up and smell the coffee ....

posted by Ashraf Zeitoon @ 3:58 AM