I had previously shared here some of my opinions on the Student Council Elections at the University and all the wrong reasons for which people run or vote! That was at the time of the preparatory behind the scene agreements and pacts! Now the time for them to go public has come, the candidates are officially announced, the campaigns have started, and the elections will take place next Thursday May 19th.
The spectacle of banners and flyers and declarations still hasn't reached its peak, but I thought I'd give you some idea of what's going on! The two main organized streams at the University are the Islamic Current, and the Student Unity group (Al-Wi7dah) (who mostly represent the Jordanians of Palestinian origin), there used to be a thing called 'Watan'; the East Jordanians, but as far as my information goes, they've never managed to get organized well enough to be considered a serious opposing current, but their concept is still strongly alive and represented in the so-called 'independent' candidates, each one backed by a certain tribe or 'geographic' entity.
Last year I wrote a little article on the University Elections, because they came at a time when the government's Political Development agenda was so hyped… and officials were organizing meetings and discussions with university students all over Jordan. One of the main issues spotlighted was 'Al-ta3yeen' at the University of Jordan (half the University's council is assigned by the President (i.e. the deanship of student affairs)) and there were many demands to cancel this decision and go back to a full democratic process. It was well known at that point that 'ta3yeen' would soon be terminated.
Since the first student council elections in the early 1990's, the Islamic stream representatives always got the majority of seats. At first, elections were done based on lists, where every student got to vote for seven candidates (similar to the current elections of professional unions). But in 1998, the regulations were changed to one-man-one-vote, and the Islamists got 45 out of the 80 council seats. That year, the university introduced additional computer fees, which were met by strong student protest, and the council resigned. It was afterwards that election regulations were changed so that only half the council is elected, and the other half assigned by the University president. Since then, the Islamists organized campaigns to boycott the elections – until last year that is.
"Political development is now an official government policy, which the prime minister has stressed in many meetings with students. In a meeting of deans of student affairs of all universities, they came out with a recommendation to cancel this decision of assigning half the members of the council at the university of Jordan," one of the Islamic candidates said, "we felt that there's a positive official initiative and that's why we decided to respond positively."
In those elections (2004), the Islamists got 3 out of the 4 seats for the Faculty of Engineering and Technology (Engineering has 8 seats, 4 of which were assigned). Now that a year has passed and no sign of change occurred, they're calling for a boycott. (click the pic to enlarge)
The spectacle of banners and flyers and declarations still hasn't reached its peak, but I thought I'd give you some idea of what's going on! The two main organized streams at the University are the Islamic Current, and the Student Unity group (Al-Wi7dah) (who mostly represent the Jordanians of Palestinian origin), there used to be a thing called 'Watan'; the East Jordanians, but as far as my information goes, they've never managed to get organized well enough to be considered a serious opposing current, but their concept is still strongly alive and represented in the so-called 'independent' candidates, each one backed by a certain tribe or 'geographic' entity.
Last year I wrote a little article on the University Elections, because they came at a time when the government's Political Development agenda was so hyped… and officials were organizing meetings and discussions with university students all over Jordan. One of the main issues spotlighted was 'Al-ta3yeen' at the University of Jordan (half the University's council is assigned by the President (i.e. the deanship of student affairs)) and there were many demands to cancel this decision and go back to a full democratic process. It was well known at that point that 'ta3yeen' would soon be terminated.
Since the first student council elections in the early 1990's, the Islamic stream representatives always got the majority of seats. At first, elections were done based on lists, where every student got to vote for seven candidates (similar to the current elections of professional unions). But in 1998, the regulations were changed to one-man-one-vote, and the Islamists got 45 out of the 80 council seats. That year, the university introduced additional computer fees, which were met by strong student protest, and the council resigned. It was afterwards that election regulations were changed so that only half the council is elected, and the other half assigned by the University president. Since then, the Islamists organized campaigns to boycott the elections – until last year that is.
"Political development is now an official government policy, which the prime minister has stressed in many meetings with students. In a meeting of deans of student affairs of all universities, they came out with a recommendation to cancel this decision of assigning half the members of the council at the university of Jordan," one of the Islamic candidates said, "we felt that there's a positive official initiative and that's why we decided to respond positively."
In those elections (2004), the Islamists got 3 out of the 4 seats for the Faculty of Engineering and Technology (Engineering has 8 seats, 4 of which were assigned). Now that a year has passed and no sign of change occurred, they're calling for a boycott. (click the pic to enlarge)
Al-Wi7dah, on the other hand, are explaining why they're not boycotting, they have one candidate running this year because last year they had two and thus divided their votes and ended up with both guys losing!
It's not a hidden fact that the University doesn't want to cancel 'ta3yeen' because they don't want a council dominated by Islamists. But the thing is, unless they cancel it, there will always be this lack of trust in the official policy and all their claims about political development. We will continue to have crippled democracy, and 'the healthy political and democratic environment' will remain ink on paper, good for nothing but official consumption.
But then again, the students' culture doesn't help at all. Oh my god you should see the statements on the banners! We're still stuck in the age of big poetic flashy words totally empty of content.
"يوماً ما ستعبرون الطريق التي لكم نعبدها"
One day you will cross the path that we pave for you!!
"سننقب في الجدار ثقباً، وسينفذ النور"
We will dig a hole in the wall, and light will come through!!
They are tons of student issues and causes that need to be brought up and defended, yet some people still think that their role in the student council would be to conquer Israel!! This is just a sample… worse yet are those banners that say nothing except "Vote for your candidate (…)" along with a smiling picture of the dude! What does this tell you about his plans and vision??
Sometimes I feel it's just hopeless!! If I find some time over the coming week I'll try to talk to the candidates and share with you their perspectives… and will bring you more of the flashing mottos!
This from the University with the largest population and widest variety of representation… doesn't that say something about the country's situation as a whole??
0 comments:
Post a Comment