Goodbye Plow Horse: A Type of Manifesto

Goodbye Plow Horse: A Type of Manifesto 

In Washington, they have a motto: “We have our workhorses and our show horses.” You have some elected officials who are focused on the media and PR and how they look, (show horses). Then you have the workhorses - they spend that time understanding agricultural policy and water systems and spend time in committee and interviewing experts. But what happens if your MP is neither a workhorse or a show horse? What's your Parliament then? Well, I think you're a plow horse and you're just out there getting the field ready for someone else to come and plant (I know, a plow horse is a type of workhorse, but give this to me).

Having watched several of the political party debates, met with political party members and some of the party leaders, what do we have? There was a charismatic moment with Rula Al Hroub, (a show horse, if you will). Bakkar from Taqaddum Party seems to really intimately know decentralization (a workhorse, if you would). But we don’t have many of these. In our current Parliament (one of our worst) there are dozens and dozens of plow horses. It looks like many of the political parties have stables of plow horses ready to go as well.  Is that really what we're going to get out of our parliament, or are these just a few moments of what we have?  This isn't a criticism specifically of those leaders, but of the system that created those leaders. That is, this is the type of politician you're allowed to be under the political culture we’ve had so far.

So what happens if we get a parliament of plow horses? First, if we would get a Parliament of show horses, then most of our MPs are like Khalil Atiyeh and Saleh Armouti - lots of video shorts of inflammatory statements tailored to go viral online. If we get a Parliament of work horses, people who pay attention may be ecstatic. MPs who take their jobs seriously! A Parliament which actually exercises its authority! But we would miss that key element of charismatic communication that would draw public attention, include citizen voices in decision making, and make the case for greater citizen engagement. (Charismatic communication can also be a great vehicle for transparency).

The plow horses are what we have had so far - plowing the same messy fields of wasta for years - keep the local voters happy with some goodies, build a network in Amman to tap for favors, don’t stake your reputation to anything that is not 100% bankable, squeeze everything you can from your time in power because you will likely only get one term. MPs rarely become Ministers and so rarely become senators. 

In Parliament we didn’t have political parties and there was little incentive for MPs to band together behind a key reform or piece of advocacy. The system kept them separated and focused on their own districts and their own re-election prospects. So, why would a single MP with the protection or resources of a party want to follow up on an Audit Bureau report or Anti-Corruption Commission report in a different district? (an easy way to make an enemy) Why would an MP point out wasteful projects in another district? (another way to make an enemy). 

So, goodbye plow horses. I hope you don’t make it into the single mandate seats. I hope voters are tired of your wasteful wasta (wasta-ful?) ways and don’t accept your money for their votes. I hope you all get investigated by the Anti-Corruption Commission (dreams, dreams). I hope political parties refuse to add you to their party leadership just because you had government service and bring them funds. 

Aren’t we bigger than that? We're talking about our fate. We're talking about the optimism of the future and of our youth generation. Isn’t the most optimistic point of the modernizations that citizens can get into the system? More women, more youth, more minorities, more average people who don’t have connections and have to use their term at the service of whatever family or tribal or special interest power that supported them. 

Well, it’s still politics. It still involves  power and money and humans love to give in to temptation.  Am I asking for the equivalent of a political romance novel? In a way. I'm looking to be swept off of my feet by a movement, by a party, by an idea or an ideology. I don't want to become recruited by a party that then hands me a list of old guys who have already been uninspiring in government before. At the same time, I don't need an empty quota candidate (by the way, parties introduce them as “our quota candidate” on Facebook and social media!) 

So let’s be realistic about what our next leaders - elected or appointed - should know. After all, we are putting a heavy burden of expectations on their shoulders. These are people who will somehow have to be both a show horse and a workhorse, who are going to have to help fix infrastructure, finally accomplish decentralization, work on employment and water scarcity issues, and at the same time, be real communicators that can bring in this lost generation of youth who are so skeptical about our judiciary and our Parliament and our elections. (84% of people don't believe in our elections! And I have to ask myself, am I in that 84%, even though this is what I write about?) Ok, three things they should know:

There is always a “They” In Jordan.  We have a very strong anti-elite sentiment in Jordan. This is often aimed at “the government” but who are we really talking about ? There are no specifics but the people are very angry at “them”. This is not a certain minister as the people do not know much about what the ministers do. They also do not know much about the parliament and they don't believe it does much. Rather, it's a kind of wealthy liberal elite living in West Amman and is both connected to the government  and the private sector who have strong wasta and generally can take  what they want at the expense of the people. 

Personally, I believe everyone has a different “they”, however they define it. The vast majority of people believe the government serves the interests of these elites and not that of the people. Every incoming MP or minister needs to position themselves as a servant of the people and not the elite - not “them”. They cannot be seen as a puppet to “them” but how will they do this? Unusually I've heard a lot of possibilities from political parties during the debates. 1) pay attention to governorates outside of Amman, 2) distribute services more equally 3) don't surround yourself with the same class of people that surrounded previous prime ministers. 

Remember, that the average salary is around 400 JODs. Maybe new MPs and Ministers should try a monthly budget of 400 JODs and see what they come up with. Sound populist? Maybe it is. But there needs to be some real understanding that the majority of Jordanians have very different circumstances and futures than the political elite.

We also suffer from our Cult of Conspiracy.  While challenges posed by fake news, disinformation, and misinformation have become prominent topics in the media, (particularly following the 2016 and 2020 US elections and Brexit in the UK) our own struggle with it has not been featured widely. No real effort has been put into either studying this phenomena nor combating it. State officials usually conflate disinformation and misinformation - meaning anytime there are conspiracies floating around online it must always be a malign agent behind it.

 I understand that. Historically, foreign disinformation and ‘active measures’ aimed at destabilizing countries have been prevalent for over a century, reaching a peak during the Cold War. The advent of social media has only amplified these threats, providing disinformation agents with inexpensive and immediate tools for destabilization. The Internet is essentially a free testing laboratory with instant feedback.

However, misinformation stems from local populations that share misinformed opinions with no malign intent. This is what is more prevalent in our society and this phenomena must be studied. We must understand the drivers for sharing misinformation, we need to understand what trends in news sharing and platforms before we jump on attempts to fight the “ignorance”. (Some hints - a combination of transparency and a proactive communications strategy).

Get serious, get involved and stop preaching.  In Jordan, unlike our neighbors, the danger lies not in dividing the population along social lines—thanks to existing legislation against hate speech and divisive cyber-speech—but in fragmenting society by alienating citizens from the state. That is our issue will not be pitting citizen against citizen, but citizen against the state. Disconnect citizens. Highlight the social loneliness of no representation, the hopelessness of no control over your own future. This disconnection can leave citizens feeling disgruntled, unheard, and convinced that corruption and wasta block their equality in civic and economic life.

In Jordan, this is a national crisis, given the toxic mix of ingredients. Historically, there is low trust in institutions; The population consumes a wide variety of foreign media; The social and psychological effects of the COVID-19 crisis linger; There is widespread use of social media as a news source through various channels; Economic discontent is rampant; High youth unemployment; The public, particularly young people, view protests as a more effective way to influence government decisions than voting or working with civil society; There is a track record of ‘successful’ street actions, such as the 2018 Ramadan protests, the Teachers Union strike, and the ‘Southern Marchers’ demanding public sector jobs; Unique demographic and cultural indicators further complicate the situation… These are ingredients for danger. Without increased transparency, oversight, more equitable distribution of resources, and an aggressive communications strategy misinformation is likely to be the source of news for the majority.

This brings me to the final challenge: our youth are looking for a Sense of Belonging. Look at how successful the boycott has been. Why? What attracts people? Certainly the emotion of seeing the slaughter in Gaza is a major driver. Beyond that, people see results, people see their peers engaged, and they have a sense of belonging to something big. Nothing else provides this for them (except sports, to an extent). Any movement that wants to attract youth needs to provide similar feelings of results, social proof, and belonging. Look at the resulting book from the Modernization Committee - in several places it calls for a sense of national identity. A major goal of the modernizations is belonging! Identity! Read that again.

Without recognizing these three items, our nation is in danger. The people will return to apathy and the appetite for reform will disappear. Defend the people, don't be hypnotized by the elites; and have a strategy (please!) to work on the above. Enough plow horses.