The losers (part I)

Nahid Hattar has written a book titled "The losers: can the rules of the game be changed?", which seems to be a bold attempt at articulating a new leftist nationalistic view. This in contrast to the globalized capitalist paradigm which is currently the model being adopted in Jordan. It is a very interesting read that has been drawing a lot of attention. Ibrahim Gharaibeh has a short synopsis of the book here (in Arabic). The book was a subject for a seminar, in which deputy Mamdouh Abbadi and journalist Fahed Khitan, who discussed many of its contents. It is clear that this work has invigorated the leftist movement in Jordan. What does Hattar have to say?

The first part of the book is the subject of this post. The basic premise of the book is that the economic and social agenda of the country has been taken since 1996 over by business intermediaries (compradors), who have formulated policy in order to achieve multiple purposes. These revolve around the creating economic incentives for large scale foreign companies. In doing this, the compradors, who Hattar estimates to include 2% of the country, have worked at dismantling the political, social and economic bases of the state for their own benefit. This was done to the detriment of the remaining 98% of people (the losers).

In order to achieve their agenda, the compradors worked systematically at the privatization of the country's assets, the weakening of the traditional base of the Jordanian government, the withdrawing from government's traditional role in creating infrastructure and delivering health and educational services. Hattar calls this "the non-state strategy", in which he sees the strategy being the surrendering the role of the state to the private sector, which has neither inclination nor incentive to fill the void created by this withdrawal. The result is the marginalization of the traditional components of the Jordanian society to the benefit of the new business class. He further claims that this agenda is enabled by the Muslim Brotherhood, who passively supported Adnan Badran's government as it was being attacked for including Bassem Awadallah and his economic team. The implication is that the MB can more easily impose its social agenda on an impoverished society than on an economically healthy one. The entire process was done through a series of undemocratic means, as there was no way that such an agenda would have met with the approval of the Jordanian people.

Hattar offers a vigorous defense of the public sector of Jordan, calling for empowering and revitalizing it, as a precursor to reversing the agenda of the compradors. He claims that "it is not bloated- as is claimed-, and if is it weighted by more employees than are needed, then this is for social and political reasons" (page 62). He papers over the fact that the 1989 collapse of the Jordanian economy, which opened the door for this change in economic approach, occurred under the stewardship of the traditional bureaucracy which he is calling to re-empower.

Yet, despite these weaknesses, there is a lot of important information and insight in this book. Anybody interested in the recent history of Jordan and its political and economic future should read it.

I will have more later.