(MENAFN- Alghad Newspaper)
It is absolutely natural for people to be angry, all things considered. For years, people have endured the suffocating pressures of a slowing economy, and they have the right to express their dissatisfaction with the government's recent decisions.
When the treasury runs dry, the government seeks to refill it by either looking to the people's pockets or through loans. More often than not, it does so through a combination of both, instead of finding solutions to the inherent imbalance in their economic policies.
People are in the right when they blame the government for its consecutive failures, as well as its approach to resolving the financial crises that hinder our economy.
Additionally, everybody knows that the government has not even bothered to come up with a solution. Every time they hit a wall, they raise taxes and hike prices. Nothing else.
All of the above clarifies why the people are within their rights to be angry with the government.
However, none of it justifies the denunciation of reason, when it comes to the public's response to the government's decisions. Especially under the current circumstances, and the enormous pressures on Jordan to abandon the Palestinian Cause. This is particularly true with a US administration in the White House that cares only for the interests of the Israeli occupation.
Conspiracy theories aside, Jordan is under a lot of pressure to forfeit the Jerusalem battle.
This is not isolated from the suffocating crisis the country has been enduring for years. In fact, our crises and the situation West of the Jordan are fundamentally related, as His Majesty said to a number of international relations students at the University of Jordan, on Tuesday.
The regional chaos requires of us to be vigilant and attentive when it comes to addressing domestic affairs. Our house should be impregnable to all challenges and threats.
Honestly, uncalculated responses and escalation will only add to the tension in a way that would not serve our country, nor the Jordanians who sacrificed so much to maintain its security and stability.
The truth is that this phase is as dangerous as it is precise and decisive.
It is clear that change is upon us, at a socio-molecular level even, due to the immense pressures Jordanians are facing every day.
Youths threatening to kill their brothers. Fathers about to commit suicide with their sons at their sides and robberies are becoming a thing in Jordan; banks, poultry shops, pharmacies and jewellers too. All of this just signals change at the most fundamental levels, in the mass and individual psyche, no less the public reaction to these crimes.
The government's usual handling of public dissatisfaction is not sufficient.
What is needed is for the government to engage the people, absorb their anger and communicate with the masses and individuals alike.
Jordanians are running in circles, chasing hope while strained by unnecessary and inexplicable price and tax hikes. Meanwhile, the government makes no effort whatsoever, to convincingly come up with alternative solutions or even try to explain these decisions to the public..
In the end, Jordanians are left with only their frustration and disappointment, and a bundle of irrational explanations.
Jordanians have yet to accept the government's recent decisions. Resistance to these decisions is only natural, after everything Jordanians have endured.
And it only adds to the Jordanians' frustration to see the government is not really trying to come up with any innovative solutions.
The government has to initiate an open dialogue and be honest with the public. We are all partners in this, and the future of this country unites us all. The relationship between society and the government is not a one-way street.
Partnership is the basis of the government-citizen relationship.
That said, the dialogue must launch now, and officials need to engage the people today, not tomorrow, before the public's sense of abandonment turns to something greater.
Everybody is expected to chip in and participating in the construction of our path for the future. Threat is on every corner, and we're only as strong as our weakest link.
Launching a national dialogue has become a national necessity to arrive all a national consensus to avoid the woes of the days to come.
A lesson must be learned from the failures of past, and it is time to come together; all of us, state and citizen alike.
This article is an edited translation of the Arabic version, published by AlGhad.
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