Tribalism vs lawfulness

It is difficult to walk through any street in Amman without passing by the diwan of one tribe or another.

The word diwan, which originates from Farsi, historically came to indicate a high seat of government, but in this context it indicates a place where members of a tribe get together to shoot the breeze.

The presence of so many diwans can be seen positively, as an institution through which someone who suffers a misfortune can seek and receive help from his extended family. But this phenomenon of rising tribalism is not without its negative aspects.

The tribe is the most primordial form of community. It is a closed community held together by bonds of kinship or, in its broader context, bonds of geographic origin or sect.

Tribal law was officially annulled in Jordan 50 years ago, but to this day it continues to prevail and to supersede the law of the land. Consequently, citizens seek redress for any grievance not through the law, but through the tribe, which is antithetical to Jordan’s declared ambition of being a state of law.

The predicament of rising tribalism is evident in the dilemma of a friend of mine who is very progressive in his thinking, but makes a point of attending all tribal functions and observing all traditions.

Aware of the dichotomy, he explains: “Any day, I or a family member may have a traffic accident or a burglar may invade our house. Without the tribe to protect us we would be lost.”

At a more dangerous level, a tribe protested a couple of weeks ago against one of its members being convicted of murder by a court of law. The tribe did not dispute the convict’s culpability. Instead, in a bulletin that went viral on WhatsApp, it recalled its glorious deeds in the service of Jordan and the Arab nation, and claimed that this was a poor reward for its loyalty and honourable services.

So all able-bodied tribesmen armed themselves with machine guns and marched on Amman bent on mayhem. Thankfully, they were stopped and sent home by the gendarmes.

In another incident, a narcotics trafficker was killed in an exchange of fire with the police. His tribe did not claim that he was innocent or wrongfully killed. It claimed injury to its honour by the police who killed its felonious son just because he was trying to kill them.

The tribe asked to be given the name of the police officer who fired the fatal shot, so they could kill him, thereby saving the tribe’s honour.

They would not be convinced that the tribe’s honour was harmed by the delinquent drug dealer not by the police.

 Jordan is not the first nation to face this problem, which is not easy to overcome. Every nation had to deal with the challenge of establishing the rule of law, with varying degrees of success. But success in this endeavour decides the nation’s ability to live and make progress.