NEXT GENERATION FOR A VIBRANT AND PROFESSIONAL POLITICAL LIFE
King’s Academy alumni and faculty members reflect on the origins, growth, values and future of the Jordan Model Parliament (JMP), one of the school’s — and the kingdom’s — most unique forums.
BY MOHAMMAD ABU HAWWASH ’15At face value, the Jordan Model Parliament (JMP) might seem like just another rendition of the Model United Nations (MUN) style of conferences. But a deeper look yields some surprising and inspiring revelations as this conference is setting an ideal version of what political life in Jordan should look like.
A noble royal vision, an empowered group of teachers, and an enthusiastic collective of students came together in 2013 in the first rendition of JMP. At the time, JMP was an experimental forum on the sidelines of a King’s Academy Model United Nations conference. Head of the Department of World Languages Shaden Al-Salman, who was involved in the creation of JMP,
noted that this initiative came about following a meeting between His Majesty King Abdullah II and former King’s Academy Head of School John Austin.
During the meeting, King Abdullah outlined his vision of a democratic Jordanian society where informed public discourse is the norm. To realize that vision, more opportunities had to
be made available to young Jordanians who want to learn how to analyze policy, organize politically, and practice the art of oration. Ultimately, the goal is to “provide an opportunity for students to exercise problem solving, critical thinking, and to formulate and present solutions,” says Dr. Al-Salman.
The participants of the first forum “saw an opportunity and they took it,” says Abdulrahman Jamjoom ’15, who was one of the organizers. Indeed, in 2015, that forum transformed into an annual nationwide conference. Within a decade, thousands of young people had participated in JMP.
THE NUMBERS
The success of the 2013 experimental forum motivated the King’s Academy administration to provide the resources needed for a JMP conference that would be independent from the school’s MUN program. Around 100 participants from 15 schools met in 2015 — the first official stand-alone conference. The second conference, which took place in 2016, tripled in size, bringing together 300 students from 20 schools around the country. That year also marked the first JMP Middle School conference.
With more public and private schools joining the program, the 2017 conference ballooned in size, attracting 500 students from 80 schools, under the leadership of Amr Almghawish ’17.
The largest JMP conference, however, was in 2018. Under the helm of Ramsey Abdelrahim ’18, the conference was divided into two sessions, in the fall and spring, with over 800 students participating.
Working with such a large number of people from multiple schools required organizers to train their “soft skills,” says Abdelrahim. “You need to be diplomatic, you need to be friendly, you need to be honest. You learn a lot about your work ethic when working on JMP.”
“The biggest challenge was how to scale the number of students but maintain the quality of the conference,” says Abdelrahim.
Key to this success is the extensive training provided to all participants, who are required to attend three training sessions where they learn
parliamentary procedure, practice public speaking, analyze policy problems, and discuss ways of respectfully disagreeing with others.
Within a decade, over 2,500 students from across Jordan and beyond have participated in the annual event, significantly elevating their critical thinking, oratory, and analytical skills.
WHAT MAKES JMP SPECIAL?
JMP is notable for breaking socioeconomic barriers, bringing together students from public and private schools, as well as schools operated by UNRWA and the Jordanian Armed Forces. It also incorporates international students as delegates, organizers and photographers. In fact, students from the United States, South Korea, China, Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere have played a role in JMP’s success. Among those international students is Jamjoom, who took part in the conference from the onset in 2013. Jamjoom, who also organized MUN conferences while he was at King’s, emphasized the importance of debate in the Arabic language. There was no MUN-style conference in Jordan that was held in Arabic back then, and JMP filled that gap. “It was a proud moment to see that,” he says.
JMP demonstrates what political life in Jordan can be: vibrant, professional and inclusive. Any person who attends the conference will be pleasantly surprised by the quality of debate and
the wise conclusions that these young debaters and (hopefully) future parliamentarians come to.
When reflecting on what JMP means for her, Dr. Al-Salman explains that it is “a vision of the future of the youth’s role in parliaments, especially Jordan’s. I wish that our Jordanian parliament were as active as JMP.” Former King’s faculty member Fatina Al-Ahmad, who was also involved in organizing the first experimental forum, attributed the success to the organic development of the conference. “I think this gave it much more strength because it felt like something that was not dictated,” says Al-Ahmad.
THE FUTURE OF JMP
As JMP grows from strength to strength, its impact will be more powerfully felt in Jordanian society. If it continues to expand at its current rate, the conference will grow beyond the confines of King’s Academy where it has been successfully incubated for a decade. The challenge will be how to maintain the standards and values that make it special, even as it enters new spaces.
Currently, the Jordanian Ministry of Education supports the conference by liaising with schools that wish to participate in JMP. Other ministries, such as the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, can also play a key role in developing JMP further by establishing a direct link between it and the real Jordanian parliament. For example,
the ministry could present the policy solutions from each conference to Jordanian lawmakers. Another way to develop the program further is by creating an internship or training program at the parliament and senate for JMP participants.
It is an unfortunate fact that the Jordanian parliament has a very low approval rating among the Jordanian public, with recent data from the Arab Barometer suggesting that less than a fifth of Jordanians trust their parliament as an institution. Reflecting on this fact, Al-Ahmad notes that “if you turn on the television and watch the real Jordanian parliament, it is still the same shouting — what I am hoping is that this young generation that has now learned how to talk to each other, to listen, to look at a different point of view, can actually slowly become part of the (parliamentary) leadership.”
To realize His Majesty’s vision and the shared national dream of a democratic Jordanian society where civil discourse is the norm, JMP must continue to fulfill its mission and train the next generation in leadership,
management, creativity and sensitivity when tackling complex problems. For that to happen, administrators must allow students to continue to take the lead, create a collaborative environment for student organizers and teachers and provide the needed resources to empower them to maintain the conference’s standards and values.
Mohammad Abu Hawash ’15 participated in the first Jordan Model Parliament. He studied international politics at Georgetown UniversityQatar, and has a Master's degree in public administration from Central European University. He is a research and communications officer at the Jordanian Embassy in Washington, DC.
