Is Jordan's Survival Temporary?

During our travels, the most common question we face from Arab brothers and foreign friends’ concerns the reasons behind Jordan’s survival despite all the crises in the region.

Sometimes one senses a political malice from some of our brothers, as if the person in front of you is saying: you are no better than us, and your turn will come sooner or later, and some tell you that states bigger and stronger than Jordan have fallen, so why would you survive alone, amid this region that is burning?

One can perhaps understand the feelings of resentment behind this, but they need to understand that there are objective factors that have reinforced Jordan’s endurance, not mere sentiments and emotions, despite all the pressing crises facing the region and its countries, and there is a general popular awareness that Jordan’s survival matters to everyone.

Among the reasons for Jordan’s survival is the consensus among Jordanians that the country should remain intact, and that it should not be lost despite all the difficult economic conditions and the grievances some of us hold toward public administrations. Still, one of the most important factors is the existence of a stable institution with its own traditions and social reach, particularly the institution of governance, which has been distinguished by the absence of bloodshed between it and the people, by not being authoritarian, by its closeness to the most prominent issues, by its engagement with everything taking place, and by the absence of popular division against it.

Yesterday, after the King departed on a trip, the Crown Prince attended part of the Cabinet session, after years of following the details of the domestic scene. He directed attention toward reinforcing people’s priorities, implementing programs that support their lives, and improving living standards, and building on the King’s efforts in opening political and economic horizons with countries around the world and translating these efforts into clear, specific executive plans with time frames whose results reflect positively. He also stressed the importance of activating specific sectors such as tourism, and strengthening supply chains amid the current dangerous circumstances, one of the important themes, since supply chains are tied to food, fuel, medicine, and other essential needs.

The message of reassurance was not merely formal when the Crown Prince affirmed that Jordan’s domestic situation is stable, and that the military establishment and security agencies are performing their role, while stressing our collective unity in facing difficult circumstances, circumstances that are easy to deal with as long as we, internally, are aware of their cost.

Everything he said reflects a complete alignment with the people and their interests in terms of the general themes, and the function of this government, and all governments, is to implement the directives, especially given the Prince’s implicit indication that regional circumstances must not be allowed to affect domestic sectors. This is a defiant message of his against the entire regional situation as it stands, a defiance he wants to be strategic in order to avoid surrendering to the region’s conditions.

The story is not merely headlines from an official news report about what the Crown Prince said in the Cabinet session, meant to be reproduced and dressed up one way or another. The story is tied to how governance manages domestic affairs, to holding institutions accountable for their responsibilities, and to the people’s partnership in sustaining Jordan, because sustaining Jordan is not only an official role but also a popular one. It is enough to see the ruin we witness everywhere to provoke in us the desire for Jordan to remain safe, without that desire being an expression of isolation.

What I like in the Prince’s activities is his focus on sectors that look toward the future, from his reference to the success achieved by initiatives of the National Council for Future Technology, chief among them the digital health center and the Sanad application, and his emphasis on the importance of building on successful experiences and expanding them to harness technology in improving services provided to citizens, because technology is the future.

Without technological transformation across all sectors, we cannot compete economically, professionally, or scientifically, and the other point that falls within the same framework is his call to improve government data management and to make use of artificial intelligence tools to help make accurate decisions in a timely manner.

The reasons for Jordan’s survival are not mere coincidence, and they are not temporary, nor are they built on manufactured illusion, but rather on institutions, individuals, and a people. Even amid the state of complaint and grumbling we hear every day, and which we all sometimes take part in, the difference between us and others is that we still have a state, an institution of governance, and an institution of public administration in all its branches, and alongside this a daily conduct that reinforces stability, with messages from the leadership saying that everything is open to improvement, so that we do not remain prisoners of hardship.

Jordan’s survival is not temporary and not a coincidence, and we have all contributed to it, leadership and people alike.