By Daoud Kuttab*
A quick reflection on government responsibilities and how to deal with a crisis shows that the present government of Marouf Al-Bakhit has failed in both areas insofar as the Shahingate and Casino issues are concerned.
The late US president Harry Truman was known for having a sign on his desk that read “the buck stops here.” Such a statement reflects the need for the most senior person in any governmental structure to take responsibility for actions that take place during his/her term in office. The term ministerial responsibility falls on ministers and the prime minister regardless of whether they are directly responsible for an action or not.
History shows that government obfuscation and attempts at cover up usually produce much worse results on those responsible than the original action itself.
Until this moment, we have not heard any senior government official take responsibility for the case of Khaled Shahin. The Jordanian businessman imprisoned under corruption charges was allowed to skip his prison term to travel to the US in February, allegedly for medical treatment only to be seen in London hotels soon after.
Leaving prison is the responsibility of sovereign ministries and the prime minister yet the government has yet to take responsibility for its mistakes and instead has blamed everyone else for it except itself.
Prime Minister Bakhit is now blaming 11 doctors for signing a medical report that calls for Shahin to be treated outside the Kingdom. These medical reports were released on the prime minister’s website, yet the actual orders allowing Shahin to leave have been totally under wraps.
Taking responsibility obviously is not without a price. Those taking responsibility for their action must be ready to make the needed sacrifice that such an admission will require. Last month when the ministers of health and justice resigned, prime minister Bakhit went out of his way in a press conference to “praise” the ministers and their integrity. When a reporter asked Bakhit about the responsibility of the minister of Interior, the prime minister said that the investigation into the Shahin case has not been completed. Is it logical that after months of a sovereign decision by his government the prime minister doesn’t know who is responsible for an order to allow a prisoner to leave the country? The prime minister also appears to belittle people’s intelligence when he said in the press conference that the Jordanian embassy in London cancelled Shahin’s visa to the US.
The same applies to Bakhit’s role in the Casino case – whose details are still unknown to the public at large; he needs to take responsibility for actions committed during his term in power. The case was being investigated by the anti-corruption commission, which is a government entity, but has now been transferred to the parliament to be investigated by Jordan’s legislators.
It is very possible that the Prime Minister is totally innocent in both Shahingate and the Casino case. But that is irrelevant. He must take responsibility for both cases that have taken place under his watch.
What is required now and as fast as possible is for the prime minister to stop passing the buck by blaming others. There is no need for an investigation into a decision clearly made by him and his administration. A number of investigations have been declared in the past months and no results have come out of them. What is needed is an admission.
Four months after the prisoner Khaled Shahin was allowed to skip his prison term without any mechanism to bring him back and years after the casino scandal, it is high time for the prime minister to take responsibility and provide the Jordanian public with everything he knows about these two issues that have monopolized discussions in political circles, with opposition and in the protest movements.
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* Daoud Kuttab is general manager of Radio al Balad and ammannet.
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