By Said Farah

On one of his speeches before the House of Representatives on the purpose of wooing the confidence vote from the MPs for his newly picked premier in December 2014, President Hassan widely uncovered that he consulted the International Community among other stakeholders during the nomination process for the new PM of Somalia! Perhaps, at that moment, not many in the session have raised their eyebrows about how this statement was an insult to our sovereignty, while far less number of them might have realized the gravity of the situation and the need to change course in our political direction. Strange it may appear, but this was exactly what has been occurring in the last decade and half in our internal politics whenever a new federal government was to install. Sometime ago, it has been quoted in revealed secret communications exchanged between Villa Somalia and Ethiopia that Mr. Tedros, their FM, was requested to give the green light for finalizing the nomination of a previous Somali PM! If that level of intervention exists in the high echelons of the federal state particularly for the filling of sensitive positions such as those of premiers, the interference to meddle our national policies in foreign, security, defense, trade and economic sectors by outsiders would be undeterred without doubt.

On the other hand the situation in the regional states is no way better than the case described above! It just became usual habit for every regional leader to pay a homage visit to each of regional capitals mostly -Addis and Nairobi -immediately after getting selected in corrupted tribal representatives in order to win the blessing of neighboring states, let alone the never ending visits that continue aftermath to those countries which are void of producing any tangible results except of squandering our national resources in five star hotels for weeks, if not months instead of saving it for local consumption.

Sovereignty and Political Authority

According to ( Derin K. Ologbenla, 2006) Sovereignty is the supreme legal authority of a state power over its own affairs, be they internal or external. The term ‘sovereignty’ is from French and means ‘above’ or ‘one who is superior to other’. The term was originally used to identify the king and in this context, the king represents the supreme and final authority of a state. The king by exercising this enormous power of state sovereignty is known as the “sovereign”.

On the international level, sovereignty means independence, i.e., none `interference by external powers in the internal affairs of another state. International norms are based on the principle of the sovereign equality of independent states; international law excludes interference and establishes universally-accepted rules.

Owing to that, sovereignty according to international law is conditional for the formation of a nation state together with the characteristics of territory, government and people. However, in our current situation, we own only the last three elements for the foundation of a state while the first, currently is not at the reach of our hands. Thus frankly speaking we are not treated as a sovereign state in international forums but only a half state. Like it or not, it’s our earned merit since, for instance, foreign security guards protect for even the personnel safety of most of our national figures at the federal level and state institutions as well as for visiting dignitaries, not to mention the 20,000 or so AMISOM troops that are stationed in Mogadishu and the surrounding regions in the south in the absence of competent national army which unfortunately led our national pride fall to its lowest ebb. Following that, IGAD member states deal with Somali governments at federal and regional levels solely on matters relating to security issues in order to exploit them as a watchdog for their “war on terror” while on the other hand no sanctity exists on the meddling of our local affairs which absolutely belong to sovereign decisions of our state.

The bilateral relationship that exists between Ethiopian government and” Somaliland” administration on some economic issues such as the one named “ Berbera corridor” on the purpose of connecting this port to Ethiopian Somali Region, ignoring the federal government’s concern on the matter is a clear example to the humiliation that is targeted on Somalia in disregard to the sovereignty of its internal affairs.

On the other side of the coin, the western donor states and their alliances avoid to fully establish bilateral agreements with the current federal government , after ending its transitional status due to lack of legitimacy on its representation to the Somali people. On the contrary, they do business with UN and INGOs to manage Aid funds transferred through them on behalf of Somali people in the presence of our so called “government”. Indeed this is so soar to swallow it but in reality we did not come up yet with a better alternative to symbolize our people in honorable way. 

Is there a way out of this political dishonor?

Carrying on the Embaghatti style parliament after 2016 i.e. persist in selecting MPs in clan based framework the outcome will be equally catastrophic for Somali politics or could be even worse than before, because it may cause the resurrection of mafia states this turn. Political leaders that result, will act the same way as in the last decade and half and surely will not behave differently because they lack the popular support and the backing of their citizens. Instead they will flock every time and then to neighboring countries, to win their patronage on the account of our state sovereignty. The winners in this option would be only those parties that favor the continuation of a Somali authority as one that can barely be dealt on with security matters, while at the same time enjoy zero sovereignty on its political agenda.

On the other hand, if we choose our national leaders in nationwide free and fair elections, it turns out to be the best opportunity that we can stand tall and restore our national pride. Fortunately, the decisive moment will come soon as vision 2016 is in the near horizon but that will occur only if we are well prepared to shape it in accordance to our desire for a bright future. Furthermore, despite that those elections are planned ahead. There are a lot of challenges that require all of us to unite firm for that purpose, in order to reach our target and discard doubt and hesitation. Ironically, time and again we hear discussions among different individuals or comments through the media or see some articles that discourage the democratization process in our country and mock the possibility of holding elections next year.

To our dismay, some Diaspora members educated in the west or in other parts of the world believe that tribal or district caucuses from the 18 regions can play role in 21^st century for the selection process of the coming parliament members and other highest dignitaries of the state, in absolute replica to the clan formula experienced! Unfortunately this same idea has foiled the democratic elections destined to take place in Puntland in July 2013 to choose our political leaders in order to pose a role model for the rest of Somalia. To judge the rationality of such opinions, below is Abdiwahab Diriye’s excerpt from his post published on Raxanreeb website on March 27, 2015 that calls for the delay of elections to year 2020:it says,“…Contrary to the comments of Somalia’s international partners, we Somalis need time and space to mend our affairs; time to reconcile and forgive, time to restore trust and unity, time to complete the federalisation process and help form the federal member states, time to review our provisional constitution, time to liberate the remaining areas from Alshabab and time to organise and hold fair and free elections. Our country needs fortification of normalcy, commitment to continuity and time to organise itself as a nation more than anything else…”

I agree with the writer for the need to get sufficient time in order to address all those problems counted. But prior to it, isn’t there a necessity to find trusted leaders first with immense capabilities to guide and direct those processes? How else could we discover those popular leaders other than searching them through elections since we failed to locate them using clan formula in the last twenty years plus. For sure, we will never uncover such kind of leaders in next four or five years to come, or beyond using the same clan mechanism tested before as pointed out in your suggestion.

Furthermore elections which acceptable international standards have already taken place in similar war torn countries such Afghanistan, Mali, Iraq, and most recently Nigeria which started voting yesterday amid Boko Haram instigated violence. Consequently there is no point of delaying ours to another date while we are desperately in need of it currently.

Prerequisites for 2016 elections 

The environment should be conducive for every election to take place in a smooth and peaceful way. However, its core conditions for a place like Somalia include:

1) Valid constitution that won a majority vote after referendum
2) Electoral commission laws
3) Nomination of independent (bi-partisan) commission
4)) Electoral laws
5) Political associations (parties)
6) Security of the polling stations
7) The establishment of constitutional court and
8) Increasing awareness of the public.

In addition, despite other extra arrangements such as voter registration, identity cards, population census are very useful tools that can guarantee better results of any election; however, they are not fundamental to its overall success particularly in the underdeveloped world. In fact some argue the latter parts are a key to election success as well, after having being experienced it in their host countries in the west, failing to remember that at times in the past, there were neither voter registration, nor identity cards and population census for elections in those countries despite producing great leaders such as Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson etc. To our knowledge voter registration with the exclusion of blacks, women and the poor had started in America in the last half of 19^th century, well after 7 decades of its creation. 

FGS should be highly committed towards realizing vision 2016

In a Somali tale, it was narrated that an old woman exclaimed after getting upset that her married daughter remained childless for years, “It is not true that this broad shouldered man-pointing to the husband-could not have begot from my daughter but that because he was not serious enough!” Similarly the federal government must act seriously and ensure that all necessary conditions prior to the election are well in place earlier to underscore its commitment.

FGS must also make certain the security of southern regions in sufficient time ahead of the elections taking advantage of the presence of more than 20,000 strong AMISOM forces on the ground. It is terribly sad that no major progress has been made in the regaining of the missing territory, since the fall of Abdiweli’s government 4 months ago. Finally failing to realize the vision 2016 will be shouldered first by President Hassan who deliberately removed the most able federal PM in the last decade together with PM Omer, the Speaker of the Parliament Mr. Jawari and other regional state presidents.

Said Farah,

Email:inasanweine@gmail.com
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The author of this article is the chairman of UDAD political association which is officially registered in the state of Puntland.