By Nermeen Murad

About two months ago I drove past the Jordan Television Studios and noticed that outside the compound, on the left side, stood a small detached building that had a sign saying “News Department”.

You have to understand the impact of that vision. For someone like me who has worked in journalism in Jordan since the early 80s, there was a strong wave of exhilaration at seeing the sign and it unconsciously ticked an important democracy box. It also removed a significant indicator of the mentality that gave Jordan its security state reputation in the early 80s: television studios under armed guard for fear that political renegades would storm the compound to announce their takeover of the reins of power.

To me it signified that the Kingdom has understood that as a viable sovereign state it cannot be threatened by the taking over of a television station and the reading out of communiqué number one à la movies typical of the 60s and 70s depicting autocratic states.

But my euphoria was short-lived. I had to un-tick the box last week because it became apparent that somewhere in Jordan we still think our country’s stability is so frail that it can be rocked or destabilised by a single act of insubordination or a trickle of “suspicious” funding from outside. Even more disconcerting is that somewhere in Jordan some people still think that the whole system has to pay the penalty for a single act of treachery against the country.

What other motive could be behind the passing of a Societies Law that has evolved to become one of the most debilitating legislations, hindering the progress of civil society, social responsibility, volunteer work, corporate social responsibility and all the other terminologies we bandy about to indicate that Jordan is living in an era of citizen-for-citizen action and government-people partnership? We thought that the society was finally waking up to its role in building the country and that government supported and encouraged that role, but this law is now telling it to revert to its previous apathetic state where it was not an active participant in the plans for the country.

Let me retrace and explain. The Societies Law, which enforces government scrutiny of the fundraising activities of NGOs in Jordan, had been amended by the government after lengthy discussions with NGOs in Jordan to reach a workable formula - for the time being - that would allow the government to have its control, but would also allow the NGOs to function.

The new and amended draft of the law was presented to the Parliament - and MPs, in their wisdom, decided that the mechanism whereby a representative of the concerned ministry would police this procedure is not enough and that the whole Cabinet should review foreign funding requests before approving them.

Our esteemed Lower House of Parliament has ordained that if the European Commission, for example, funds a non-governmental and not-for-profit organisation from let’s say Ajloun to conduct training courses on women empowerment through self-employment, not only would this process undergo heavy scrutiny by the EC itself and the Ministry of Social Development in Jordan, but it now also requires a full meeting of our apparently otherwise free and idle Cabinet.

This is really one of those situations where that favourite saying “the world has reached Mars but look at where we are” is really very apt. How can we have a nationwide campaign celebrating Ahel Al Himmeh, who are basically social workers and volunteers that rallied funds for their non-profit activities to support other citizens in society, and then turn around and create a law that will complicate their lives more by making it even more difficult and slow for them to get anywhere near the foreign funds that can help their cause.

Do the Cabinets of ministers in France, England and Germany review funding proposals for fear that some terrorist network has infiltrated the process? Do countries that live in constant security fear ever progress from that mentality to one which sees the world with all its colours and treats its members with respect until they are proven to be unworthy of it?

I have worked with NGOs and completely understand the crippling effect this move will have on their operations in Jordan. I also understand that by involving the Cabinet in the approval of requests for foreign funding we have just added another layer of wasta and individual favours to the existing ills that we have been trying for some time to rid the country of.

I am all for transparency in funding, whether local or international. NGOs should be made to declare from where they receive their funds, publicly, in their books, on their websites and through recognised accounting and auditing firms. Credible funding organisations, especially international ones, require proper auditing for their own transparency of financial operations. The government should require this transparency and should have a mechanism to spot-check the books of NGOs it suspects of foul play. That is a civilised mode of operation. The current Societies Law is not!

NermeenMurad@gmail.com