By Rami G. Khouri

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