An Hour with the Director

In search of finalizing a local institutional partner for the Global Youth Leaders Conference, Mohammad and I met with the director of one of the country's leading political research institutions. I won't give the director's personal details, as he is quite well known in the region - a frequent commentator on Al Jazeera, CNN, national newspapers, and the like.

Before the meeting, I was slightly apprehensive, as I had no idea what to expect from a high level meeting such as this here in Jordan. What would the manner of this director be, and how would he receive a student and a young professional? What formalities would be expected of us?

Mohammad and I took a taxi to a nondescript building in a neighborhood near downtown and climbed up three paint-peeling flights of stairs to reach the think-tank's office. Although I was surprised by its exterior appearance, the inside of the office was nicely decorated - simply appointed with modern furniture. We were warmly welcomed and ushered into the director's private office which had a large desk and separate sitting area.

The director was standing behind his desk, exclaiming loudly into one of his cell phones. The top three buttons of his crisp, blue dress shirt were undone, exposing his white undershirt. His gold-flecked tie hung around his shoulders, still strung through the shirt collar. All of this gave me the impression that he was sitting down to meet with us after he had finished his "real" work day.

He continued his mobile phone conversation as he sat down in the sitting area, gesturing for us to join him. At this point I was glad of my many past hours spent sitting in the divans of various important personages at UJ during my registration ordeal. Because of this, I knew that the director continuing a cell phone conversation like this is pretty common. While it certainly serves as a reminder that we are not as important as whoever is on the other end of the phone, it is not really rude, as I might have normally perceived it.

We began with business right away. I was surprised by this - I expected a few minutes of chatting to familiarize ourselves with each other over tea, but this actually came afterwards.

While we discussed the details of the conference and his organization's potential role as a partner, every so often the director barked out an unintelligible name into the hallway. Each time this brought one of various secretaries scurrying into the room. They would listen to his requests and then return with information, a tray of tea, booklets, etc.

The director gave his initial approval for partnering with us, conditional upon his closer examination of our other sponsors and the origin of our funding. With whom you are associated means everything here.

Business effectively finished, the conversation turned to national politics and the upcoming parliamentary elections - Mohammad had asked the director's thoughts about his own voting district.

A little background: After the Islamic Action Front (the party of the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood and the only legitimate political party in the country) won a significant number of parliamentary seats a few years ago, the government changed the voting rules to one man-one vote, which essentially means that people must choose between their tribe and the IAF, and so the IAF loses votes. Mohammad had told me in a past conversation that he probably was not going to vote, and this surprised me, since he is so politically concerned. He explained to me that there were simply no candidates worth his vote.

The director quickly barked a request for the candidates' names in Mohammad's district and then agreed that he didn't see any candidate worth a vote either - they were all either government-backed or from the IAF.

The director then continued on, expressing his dissatisfaction with the legitimacy of the current democratic process, pointing to high-ranking officials recently imprisoned for violating laws that forbid criticism of the monarchy or the government. He noted that Jordan's press freedom index had gone down in recent years. He lamented the way that U.S. and European government officials have stopped pressuring governments in the region to move towards democratic reform, as this had been an important force in the past. "Several years ago when Condoleeza Rice came here," he said, "she met with actors from the whole range of civil society. Now the US is concerned with stability, and on her last visit she met with the chief of intelligence."

I thought his remark on the recent setback of democratic progress related to the US and European government emphases on security and stability was most interesting - yet another side effect of the Iraq war.