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Lessons of troubled Maan’s good people,
messy history
By Rami G. Khouri, The Daily Star
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It is in the villages and towns of the Arab world, such as here in Maan,
that one best appreciates the spectrum of human and political sentiments
that define our region. If you wish to know why ordinary Arab men and
women are angry, increasingly defiant and occasionally violent, you must
leave the capitals and listen to people in places like this town of 40,000
in south Jordan, which has been the scene of repeated violence between
citizens and security forces since the 1980s.
At least four separate episodes have left several dozen dead, scores
wounded and hundreds arrested (and later released, for the most part)
the latest in October-November and which resulted in the deaths of four
civilians and two policemen.
The recurring violence prompted the International Crisis Group, a
Brussels-based international nongovernmental organization, to work with
Jordanians to identity the causes of the chronic violence.
I was fortunate to be part of the team that conducted the study. I am
convinced that the issues it raises transcend Maan and south Jordan, and
resonate throughout the Arab world. The 16-page report is available in
English and Arabic at the website www.crisisweb.org.
Arabs and others around the world who are perplexed about why this area
can be so violent should read the report. Better yet, they should visit
Maan or any other of the hundreds of provincial small towns and
medium-sized cities or the thousands of villages that are the crucibles of
modern Arab political anger and violence: This is where concern, anger,
humiliation and, ultimately, explosive bitterness are brewed on a daily
basis in the hearts, minds and bellies of millions of decent young men and
women.
The ICG report succinctly outlines the many reasons why tensions in south
Jordan prompted recurring violence there. The key issue, in my view, is
how the underlying political psyche of people in this city developed over
time, along a trajectory in which a series of otherwise routine grievances
about social, economic, political or security issues remained unresolved.
They consequently grew, festered, transformed into rising anger and
ultimately expressed themselves in violent defiance of the state.
Maan has some unique attributes, but the process by which routine
grievances become chronic political violence is common across the Middle
East. This includes many individual components, such as erratic economic
development, ineffective institutions for political expression and
problem-solving, progressively worse social alienation, inconsistent
application of the rule of law and security/police policies on the ground,
a weak judiciary, visible disconnects between local and national political
forces, and insufficient means to acknowledge mounting tensions at an
early stage and resolve them before they erupt into political violence.
In Maan since 1984, routine, legitimate grievances over issues like
permissible truck loads, fuel and bread prices, regional planning systems,
police treatment of detainees and public political demonstrations all
accumulated to the point where the army/police and local citizens have
engaged in several street battles. This cycle of rising tensions was
predictable and avoidable.
Such failure by the state, the private sector, local communities and civil
society in the face of serious grievances fuels internal tensions in most
Arab countries. This dynamic is almost totally defined and driven by
internal issues, with minimal direct connections with Israel, the US,
colonialism, imperialism or other forces that have plagued and fractured
this region for two centuries.
Conversations with people here in Maan and other parts of rural south
Jordan clarify the real links between purely local grievances, contentious
national issues, regional conflicts (with Israel) and global tensions
(with the US, including manifestations such as bin Laden-vintage terror).
Ideologically driven pundits and critics in the West often blame the
“Arab mind” or “Islamic culture” or “failed modernity” or some
other such imaginary ghost for the tensions, violence and terror that
often define much in our region. A visit to any Arab small town, such as
Maan, is critical to correcting this misperception and to fostering an
appreciation for the root causes of domestic violence. Many of these
causes are projected externally due to the prevalent lack of opportunities
for meaningful domestic political debate and contestation of power in Arab
states. Popular attitudes in Maan and other towns help us understand the
reasons for the widespread opposition to American, Israel, British and
other external forces in the Middle East reasons rooted in the
inequities of some of those foreign policies and also in domestic Arab
behavior.
Maan’s troubled recent history is an important case study of much that
has gone wrong in the modern Arab world. It is also a valuable pointer to
the issues we must address to fix our problems and get back on track to
building societies as decent, peaceful, productive, and dignified as the
good people of this city, country, and region.
Rami G. Khouri is executive editor of The
Daily Star. He wrote this commentary from Maan, south Jordan