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Self-reliance as a strategic objective

Feb 03,2018 - Last updated at Feb 03,2018

I have enjoyed over this past weekend attending session after session of analysis of Jordan’s economic, political and social situation organised and hosted by the Centre for Strategic Studies at the University of Jordan. The sessions allowed for a rare process of reflection and brainstorming over key takeaways, and more importantly, engaged key stakeholders and decision makers in frank discussion.

And although the weekend “retreat” was designed to develop an agenda for national action towards self-reliance in the year 2018, I believe the agenda that will grow out of these focused discussions will have an impact beyond the year ahead of us.

 

What were the main takeaways?

 

First: Transparency is key to ending the cycles of denial. Our national wounds were, therefore, laid out open on the table: The lack of equitable political representation, Jordan’s role and its over-reliance on rentierism and “donor funding” as a mechanism for survival, the “disconnect” and confidence crises between the people on the one hand and the state’s institutions, government, parliament and elected regional bodies on the other, tribalism as an archaic attitude and construct for relationships between the state and the Jordanian people, the sporadic and ill-synchronised relationship between monetary policies and an economic self-reliance action plan, the rise of consumerism, import of goods and services spurred on by a disabling and dis-incentivising business environment hindering innovation, the need to put the public sector through a well-designed fitness programme to increase its efficiency and mainstream meritocracy and flipping the “inverted human resource pyramid” of the public sector, the need for transformative learning as a package to replace instruction, rule of law remaining hostage to nepotism and a debilitating fear of deconstructing our “social fabric”, “injustice” in the distribution of the tax burden, and many other challenges that were identified, discussed and added to a quite large list of challenges-cum-opportunities for positive action.

Second: There is a serious requirement for synchronised purpose-driven solutions that engage youth (recognised by the participants), women (hardly received a mention) and civil society on equal footing and in partnership at all levels. These solutions must be articulated and implemented without state, “adult” or patriarchal guardianship. Feeling marginalised and un-consulted, the youth in particular articulated grievances over the denial of their contribution and the lack of “opportunity” to be economically active or represent themselves politically. Women’s issues were conspicuously absent from the conversations. Despite the fact that strong and articulate women speakers provided credible models for women’s leadership, the focus of the solutions — presented at all sessions — failed to address women’s role and contributions to achieving “self-reliance”. The concern is that youth, women and civil society remain boxed within conceptual outlines and hostage to spin words that describe trendy wish lists but not a real commitment to constructive engagement with these groups in order to unlock their potential and hone in their contributions.

Third: Responsibility comes with the rights and access. Understanding the package of rights and duties of citizenship. An undercurrent to the conversation was over whose responsibility it was to “pay the price” for the reform plan required for self-reliance. In all states in the world, citizens bear responsibility for paying taxes and, in fact, in advanced states citizens pay their taxes gratefully. To achieve credible political representation, citizens must hone in their citizen skills and knowledge of their duties as well as their rights.

Fourth: Reforming the public sector is a national security priority and is essential to bridging the “disconnect” between political will and government implementation to achieve the “white revolution” that King Abdullah decreed must take place within this sector to create impactful change and which will reinstate the government’s role as the executive authority ensuring the provision of tangible services to the citizen.

Fifth: Striking over the past two days, in my opinion, is the depth of knowledge, commitment and “heart” shown by the Cabinet ministers who attended and participated in the conversations. I stress this observation because common wisdom in these types of “round ups” of key informers almost always assumes that senior policy makers are engaged as a courtesy or to raise the profile of the event itself but rarely brings in honest engagement and knowledge sharing. They were all exclusively technocrats, sector experts, result-driven and politically aware. In my opinion they showcased meritocracy and were evidence of its virtues.

Finally and most importantly there was consensus that we need to move collectively and at all levels to institutionalise and safeguard the rule of law and to take steps in that direction with less regard for interim popularity and more focused on long-term results. To that end, the action plan to move towards self-reliance in 2018 would see incremental steps annually towards a defined strategic objective so that the citizen may begin to feel the results of reform.

 

 

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