***
This writing, now, I pen after the end of the session which went very well, despite the scarcity of time available for each speaker to express their opinion and vision on this important title in its two parts; narrative and media. However, that hour and a quarter which was distributed among the speakers and the moderator was an opportunity to present general titles and ideas, and to raise questions that need more dialogue and discussion, which each of us presented according to their position, stance, point of view, thought, and awareness.
Here, I return in my writing to a set of points and details that I presented in the session, according to the space I was allowed to express them, but they constitute my point of view that I will write within the framework of my vision for the relationship of the narrative to the media, as a gateway to talk about much controversy in which multiple frameworks have clashed; the state, politics, society, institutions, media, curricula, religion, history, land, human, memory, identity, self, the other, and other names that made us, the "Initiative to Document the Jordanian National Narrative", as individuals and groups, face it, to examine it with all boldness, transparency, and a sense of responsibility, a necessary confrontation to answer many questions that we were postponing raising, or evading answers to, or embellishing the formulations when discussing them.
***
Nidal Mansour was not among the attendees when I began my speech in the "Narrative and Media" session, perhaps he was busy with other sessions at that moment, but I said, directing my words to him while looking for him: The media is the title of the session, and it is the one following it, and conveying its details, and on the platform sit four to talk about the Jordanian narrative and the media; His Excellency Mustafa Rawashdeh, son of the village of Ai in Karak Governorate, Her Excellency Basma Al-Nsour from Salt, Mufleh Al-Adwan from Balqa, and Hossam Al-Gharaibeh from Ajloun, and I am proud of all of them and the place they belong to, and the families whose names they carry, and they are the best to talk about the narrative and represent it, but the talk is not complete without representing all the details of the circle/homeland, especially in the stage of establishing the Emirate and what accompanied it from the coincidence of the establishment with the arrival of the men of the Arab Independence Party to East Jordan after the Battle of Maysalun, and the collapse of the Faisalite Kingdom's rule in Syria. The narrative of the Jordanian state indicates that it had the first Prime Minister in Jordan, Rashid Tali'a/ a Lebanese Druze, and he was the first Minister of Interior in King Faisal's government in Syria, and he was the head of the Arab Independence Party. This establishment and what accompanied it from the relationship with the media, others could have talked about it too. Also, the history of Amman indicates Ismail Babouq the Circassian Jordanian as the first mayor of its municipality which was established in 1909 AD, and Said Al-Mufti was Prime Minister several times and President of the Senate, while Dr. Hazem Nuseibeh, son of Jerusalem, was Jordan's Foreign Minister, and Jordan's representative to the United Nations and the Security Council for several years, and the list goes on and reflects the cohesion and unity of this homeland, and the partners in the national narrative, in all stages of the state since the establishment and throughout the stages of Jordan's development. So why was the group of speakers about the narrative and the media not completed with the names of other personalities who add meanings and connotations from the mosaic of the spirit of formation and diversity upon which our Jordanian national narrative was founded?
***
Perhaps the term "narrative", as I understand it, is a loose title that does not express what is intended in documenting the Jordanian national story, this story under which many details, stories, tales, and events fall. But since the term "narrative" has been officially and popularly adopted within the framework of the "Jordanian National Narrative" documentation blog, the first thing that comes to mind is the question "Why talk about the narrative now?". Perhaps the observer of the contexts that preceded the launch of the initiative/project notices that it came after the centenary of the establishment of the Jordanian state, and after the formation of the "Royal Committee to Modernize the Political System", and after the controversy and discussions that were raised within the committee, on media platforms, in political salons, and on digital platforms, about defining identity, and the multiplicity of opinions and proposals about it.
After this controversy and timing, perhaps the talk about documenting the Jordanian national narrative, or its story, came as an embodiment of answering the question "Who are we?", to set the intellectual and symbolic framework that tells the story of Jordan, the emergence of the state, its identity, its values, and its historical and political role, so that this narrative is the "unifying story", which defines society to itself, and documents the joints of the state's establishment, its goals, and its position in the world, so that the narrative according to these frameworks is a mixture of official history, popular collective memory, political discourse, educational curricula, and societal values, and other concepts as a tool to unify the components of Jordanian society, within a unifying framework, that celebrates diversity, and creates a common collective awareness. It is a mixture of geography, history, politics, and memory, and it is a conscious act to restore and document the story of Jordan.
***
And in parallel with this official initiative to document the Jordanian national narrative, with what accompanied it from the formation of a steering committee and scientific sub-committees, a question arises about the space available for documenting oral history, and its importance in supporting the national narrative, and dealing with it as a text, not a margin, in the total blog of the narrative, in the context of an objective scientific interaction with it, far from what we inherited about "the talk of the villages and the talk of the palaces", for both complement each other, even if the story, its formulation, and how to express it differ.
Also, there is much inherited about the history of the country that is still present in our libraries, and in need of scrutiny and review, because of the distortions that were written through orientalists and travelers during the past three centuries, and it is being dealt with as facts, even though it was written in the context of programs and plans that serve those stages in which it was written, and the time has come to correct some of them, and refute many of the stories that appeared in them.
***
Returning to the question of "Narrative and Media", the title of the session at the forum, I point out that the media in Jordan preceded the establishment of the state, by returning to the year 1920 AD, and with the arrival of Prince Abdullah bin Al-Hussein to Ma'an, where his first political action in the city was the establishment of the newspaper "Al-Haq Ya'lu" (The Truth Rises), so that its pages would carry the political discourse of the state before the Prince moved to Amman, and the establishment of the Emirate of Transjordan in 1921 AD.
And the media in Jordan, dealt for many long years, with following the stations of the Jordanian national narrative, before announcing its official documentation. And I may be an eyewitness, and engaged with the details of two important projects launched by Al-Rai newspaper in 2005, when its editor-in-chief was Mr. Abdul Wahab Zghailat; the first is the "Bouh Al-Qura" (Whispers of the Villages) project, which I had the honor of writing and supervising until 2016, in which I documented the history and memory of more than 350 villages across the area of Jordan, and the second is the "Saheel Al-Sahra" (Neigh of the Desert) project, which was written and implemented by the late friend Jihad Jabara – may God have mercy on him, and he roamed the Jordanian Badia, following the stories of places, and the tales of the people in those remote areas, with all loyalty, perseverance, and sincerity.
Added to these efforts is what the Radio and Television Corporation presented, in its golden era in the eighties and nineties, through its handling of many national events and details, in its production of television drama and radio programs, which we still remember until now, from the series "Haboub Al-Reeh", the series "Umm Al-Kuroom", the series "Al-Tareeq ila Bab Al-Wad", and the film "Nuzha ala Al-Rimal", and others, based on the awareness that drama, and with it song, theater, and visual and performing arts, are soft powers, capable of presenting the Jordanian national story, in a deeper way and with a living spirit that influences more than direct discourse and immediate enthusiastic speeches.
***
In conclusion, the Jordanian national narrative, and in its timing now, is a necessity and not a luxury, if it is well formulated, produced, and presented in an objective, unifying style that expresses all the mosaic of Jordanian society, as a unifying story, in which everyone participates in its formulation, to be a title for the Jordan of pride and love under a Hashemite Jordanian Arab banner that we are proud of, so that we say together "I am Jordan", and repeat what the poet Suleiman Al-Mashini wrote:
"I am Jordan..
I, glory, history, loftiness, and the peak
Companions.. since the beginning, the human, and the era
From my sky, the light of truth shone to guide humanity
From my lands, the caravan of goodness, the caravan of civilization, marched."
