Geostrategic Media Political Commentary, Analysis, Security, Defense
By Eng. Saleem Al-Batayneh
Hearing is not merely sound reaching the ears — it is the ability to distinguish words and understand their meanings. The world around us has changed, and our current level of anxiety and fear no longer allows us to take a single step forward while clinging to a mentality that ignores public opinion and the pulse of the street.
What sustains state institutions is not the constitution, nor the laws. It is public opinion — which is stronger than texts and precedes legislation. Perhaps the most dangerous thing that can afflict any state is a deficit in the balance of trust. Laws and legislation, however important and precise, remain ink on paper unless society grants them a certificate of recognition.
Many governments and states have paid a heavy price for individual decisions and laws that were enacted without consulting public opinion — decisions that could have been avoided. Any transparent government does not ask people to love it every morning; it is enough to make them trust it. There is a difference between politics and stubbornness: politics is wisdom, intelligence, and rationality to minimize losses and repair social and national fractures. But riding one’s head and insisting on stubbornness is bickering and arrogance, and a hardening of the mind and vision.
Our economic and social reality is moving from bad to worse. The danger in some crises — whether economic or legislative — is not the flaw itself, but the vacuum left by the absence of explanation. And that is the government’s responsibility.
The majority of those who have passed through leadership positions in Jordan never once thought about public opinion, never placed it in their considerations, decisions, or actions. They dismissed it and paid it no attention — because they know full well that their stay in power does not depend on the satisfaction of public opinion.
When ambiguity is allowed to become a practice, it is natural that we are not optimistic.
Is it reasonable that the Hakim project to computerize the medical sector should cost the state all those millions — the latest being an Italian loan of 40 million euros? Is it reasonable that a company with a capital of 10,000 dinars, with no experience in this field and no idea what it is doing, should be granted a concession for gold and copper exploration?
I have reviewed the experiences of countries and international companies specialized in computerizing the health sector worldwide — companies like Amazon Web Services, Path, Oracle Health, and Flatiron Health — and I have not seen such costs.
In Jordan, we possess extraordinary energy for wasting time and effort on marginal issues that have stripped public opinion and the pulse of the street of their ability to influence. This has placed us before several crises, not just one — each feeding on the other. Long years have passed, many events have followed one another. Saddles have changed, initiatives have been born, and others have disappeared in an absurdity that has drowned the public scene in suffocating congestion and noise. The Jordanian people have gained nothing from it but more poverty, more unemployment, uncertainty about tomorrow, and greater ambiguity about the future.
Protecting the homeland and its stability amid the crises of the region and its neighborhood must be based on the integration of the roles of state and society. A cohesive society remains the first line of defense against every attempt to tamper with Jordan’s security and internal stability.
