Amman – 962 News
The question facing Jordan’s House of Representatives in the coming phase is no longer simply what MPs will do under the dome. The deeper question is whether Parliament understands the nature of the phase Jordan has entered, and what the state expects from its legislative authority within the modernization project led by His Majesty King Abdullah II.
The country can no longer afford a Parliament that limits itself to discussing legislation through traditional approaches, or reduces its role to parliamentary questions and local service demands. What is needed is a Parliament capable of reading the national landscape through its economic, social, and political dimensions, and of translating royal priorities into legislation and oversight that measures results rather than slogans.
His Majesty the King has placed the economy at the heart of the next phase: growth, investment, major projects, job creation, improving living standards, and developing the public sector. These priorities cannot remain solely within the executive sphere of government. Many of the tools required to achieve them depend on legislation and parliamentary oversight. This is precisely where the responsibility of Parliament begins.
Jordan’s economy does not merely need new legislation; it needs legislation that understands investment, production, and the labour market. An MP debating economic legislation can no longer rely solely on understanding the legal text. He must also understand the cost of a decision, its impact on investors, its implications for employment, its effect on public finances, and whether it will move the economy toward greater productivity or add further burdens.
This makes academic and professional expertise within Parliament more than an addition to an MP’s résumé. It becomes central to the quality of political decision-making.
An MP with an economic background is better positioned to analyse budgets and fiscal policies. A legal specialist can better assess the consequences of legislation. Those with experience in labour, management, education, or public administration can bring perspectives that enrich the legislative process.
This does not mean transforming Parliament into an academic institution. It means recognizing that a modern legislature cannot address increasingly complex issues through a single, generalized approach.
Political representation matters, but knowledge has become an essential part of representation itself.
The Social Security file may be one of the clearest tests of this equation. Social Security is not simply another law debated under the dome. It is a system that directly affects workers, employers, families, future generations, and economic stability at the same time.
Its reform therefore cannot be reduced to political slogans or short-term calculations. Protecting the rights of one generation cannot come at the expense of the sustainability of those rights for future generations. At the same time, financial sustainability cannot be achieved in a way that raises the cost of employment and weakens the economy’s ability to create jobs.
What is required is a careful balance between justice and sustainability—a balance that cannot be produced by rhetoric alone, but by research, expertise, data, and genuine dialogue.
This is where parliamentary committees become particularly important.
The real strength of Parliament is not measured only by what happens in plenary sessions, but also by the quality of the work carried out within its committees. The Finance Committee must examine the budget as a reflection of the broader economy. The Economy and Investment Committee must assess legislation according to its ability to attract capital and create employment. The Labour Committee must examine Social Security, the labour market, and investment as interconnected components of one national economic system.
It is not possible, for example, to demand that investors expand while increasing the cost of employment without careful assessment. Nor can workers be protected through legislation that unintentionally reduces employment opportunities. Likewise, expanding public expenditure without examining productivity and sources of financing is not a sustainable solution.
This is the point at which Parliament must move from reacting to policies to helping shape them.
Jordan now has frameworks and programmes for political, economic, and administrative modernization, as well as social protection. But the challenge is no longer simply producing strategies and documents. The real challenge is implementation.
Parliament therefore has a fundamental role—not by competing with the government in executive responsibilities, but by passing legislation that removes obstacles, conducting oversight that exposes shortcomings, and holding institutions accountable for measurable results.
Ultimately, citizens are less concerned with the number of parliamentary statements than with their impact on daily life. They want an economy capable of creating jobs, investment capable of opening new opportunities, legislation capable of protecting their rights, education capable of preparing their children for the labour market, and a Social Security system capable of giving them confidence in the future.
For this reason, the question accompanying the next phase should not only be: Whom does an MP represent?
It should also be:
What can that MP contribute to the state?
The nature of Jordan’s challenges has changed, and consequently the role of the MP must change as well. The country does not simply need representatives who can describe problems. It needs representatives who can understand their roots, analyse their data, propose alternatives, and hold the government accountable for outcomes.
This is the deeper political meaning of what the next phase requires: moving from a service-oriented Parliament to a Parliament of the state; from treating individual issues in isolation to understanding the interconnectedness of the economy, employment, Social Security, education, investment, and public administration.
The modernization project led by His Majesty King Abdullah II is not the government’s project alone. Parliament is not an external observer of that process. It is a constitutional institution with a central role in turning the project into reality.
The House of Representatives will therefore face a genuine test—not of its ability to raise its voice, but of its ability to raise the level of debate; not of the number of laws it passes, but of the quality of those laws and their impact on the economy and society.
Jordan today needs a Parliament with greater knowledge, greater specialization, and a stronger capacity to anticipate the future.
A Parliament that understands that behind every legal provision lies a job, an investment, a family, a right, and a future—and that parliamentary decisions are no longer merely temporary political positions, but part of the broader process of building the state.
At this precise point, the most important question facing Parliament will be:
Can it elevate its performance to the level of the phase envisioned by His Majesty the King for Jordan?
The coming phase will not judge Parliament by the volume of its political rhetoric under the dome, but by its ability to become a genuine partner in building a stronger economy, a more sustainable system of social protection, more efficient institutions, and a state capable of turning vision into achievement.
Dr. Thamer Al-Abadi
962 News
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