May 2006 will mark the 50th anniversary of the first Somali public administration in the South headed by Abdullahi Eisse, who became its First Minister in 1956. And June - July 2005 saw the 45th anniversary of the independence and unification of Somalia. Unfortunately there is not much left of the Somali symbols of statehood and unification to celebrate.  After 15 years of civil war, costly in both human and material terms, Somalia remains in a political and moral vacuum with neither a government nor a leadership capable of pulling the country out of statelessness. There are countless issues and problems awaiting the emergence of a leader of vision and ability.  

In this dilemma there remain certain constants. Surely, the country must retain its original name The Somali Republic. Moreover, two other items must never change: the flag and the capital. No government of sound judgement will ever change either the beautiful azure (clear-sky blue) coloured flag of the Somali people or the nation’s capital. Under no circumstances should these original symbols of Somalia’s independence and statehood be discarded. Mogadishu, our nation’s capital, should be rebuilt to its fullest glory, and once again become a melting pot where nationals as well as foreigners can work and live freely.

Our people in the capital are the bedrock of our nation. They are integral to our nation’s existence and success. The Somali people as such were never responsible for the collapse of the state. Nations are destroyed or made to prosper by their leaders. Conflicts too (tribal or national) are incubated and instigated by leaders. Nor is it true, as sometimes hinted, that our people in the capital are against the establishment of sound government. After 15 years of statelessness some Somalis may feel that no one needs government, especially a government that threatens lives, businesses and hope as in the past. The job of a government is to build not to destroy lives.

Every community within our nation has qualities that make it a vital component in our continued existence and progress. And no one community is more important than any other. We need to move on from the artificial animosities engendered within our society by petty individuals and form a cohesive, vibrant and progressive society. We need to recognise the many similarities that bind us as a nation rather than focusing on the lesser differences that are consuming our national integrity. Our first priority must therefore be to strengthen social cohesion and establish harmony amongst our people.

The Northerners are important for the success of the Somali State, not only because they are Somalis but also because they have proved themselves as catalysts for progress. They are patriotic and entrepreneurial. Like bees which pollinate flowers to produce fruit, the Northerners have proved to be pollinators of progress, good governance and prosperity. They are an essential component of our nation’s wellbeing and success. To wrong them would be to be lacking in vision and not to recognise their value.  

However, no amount of empty persuasion will bring the Northerners back to unity. In November 2003 everyone I met in Hargeisa was understandably against unity. It would have been pointless to talk about unity when the vibrant and historic area of banking, businesses and hotels at the centre of our nation’s capital resembles Hiroshima at the end of 1945. First, we need  appropriate leadership with the right vision to fast-track reconstruction and re-development that can bring back Somalia in all her glory. A buyer in a market place does not need to be preached to about goods on display. Nor is unity today a readily available commodity.

If it is to be restored, the squandered unity of Somalia will demand hard preparatory work and a new way of doing government business. The issue of Somaliland will one day require a political solution. Somalia needs an open-minded leader of ability and foresight who can initiate, develop and oversee such a political process. The Northerners can only come back to unity when we have the right leadership to put in place a fair system of governance that gives all our people compelling reason for unity. This will not be an easy task, but it is quite feasible. Until such a day, our people in Somaliland should not jeopardise their achievement. Nor should they allow themselves to be undermined by opportunistic and disruptive individuals.

Ethiopia is our neighbour. But proximity does not imply the right to meddle in the affairs of Somalia. Ethiopia should not obstruct the emergence of a new Somalia. Ethiopia’s continuing interference and arming of different militias in Somalia can only be interpreted by the Somali people as evidence that   animosities have once again got the upper hand in the formation of policy. Somali nationalism is on the up once again and this time, we should channel it to good use to develop and prosper our nation. Ethiopia’s continued interference can only encourage matters back to the era of conflict. From all our neighbours we seek cordial relations based on cooperation and mutual respect. Conflict and wars can and do impoverish and under-develop entire regions as well as nations.

Nor is it ever responsible thinking on the part of a leader to ask his neighbour to invade and occupy his country. What a new Somali leadership needs most to rebuild the country does not include troops from neighbouring states, who may never be dislodged, but the trust of the Somali people. Trust grows from conviction that the government is there for everyone.  It is the task of a state-builder to resolve his nation’s problems, including the disarmament and rehabilitation of militias, without abandoning or compromising the country’s sovereignty. What the armed men in different militias really need are not the guns they carry but employment and a better life. They need to be rehabilitated to lead decent and rewarding lives. Many have families with children and are concerned for their future. A responsible government will appoint a commissioner to demobilise and reintegrate militia members.
 
The nurturing of immoral individuals to seize power will benefit neither Somalia nor her neighbours. A nation needs to be led by individuals who are morally clean: first and foremost clean from the stain of Somali blood. Unprincipled opportunists might try to sell Somalia for one dollar and the result would be further chaos. An anarchic and stateless Somalia is not in anyone’s interest. Anarchy knows no borders. What our region needs is development and progress. The way to jump-start that is not through Ethiopia’s occupation of Somalia. What we as Somalis need is a leadership that represents the interests of our nation, not the interests of our neighbours.

Our nation needs a new breed of leaders and politicians who, needless to say, do not spend their time begging for hotel hospitality and perdiem in neighbouring countries. State affairs need to be in the hands of high-minded individuals of integrity. Our nation needs politicians whose passion is to help our people in obscure places such as camps and shanty towns to better their lives and lead the country out of underdevelopment.  It is well said that people are as good as the framework that their government creates.

Once we have the right team measuring up to the Herculean tasks awaiting our nation, Somaliland will cease to be in limbo, and the Somali people will no longer be without guardians to look after their interests. Once we have the right team and leadership to take this nation out of the wilderness, there will have to be a political process for Somaliland with a timetable at the end of which the North will either formally break away with recognition or participate in a unity that is rewarding and advantageous for everyone. There is nothing in between.

The whole purpose of politics and governance is care and concern for the citizen. For instance the aims should include: (1) Free education: no child should have to miss school because of inability to pay school fees. The state should aim to provide free education at least up to the end of high school.  (2) Alleviation of hunger and poverty: no child should go to school hungry because of poverty. (3) Proper funding for schools: no public school should suffer because affluent parents have taken their children out and enticed good teachers to private schools. The state must make sure quality teachers are paid good salaries enabling them to remain in public schools. (4) Assistance for families in difficulty: no mothers or daughters should need to sell goods on the street to support their families. The state should seek ways to provide financial assistance and basic food rations for struggling families. (5) Free housing and financial assistance for fatherless families: no family without a father should be homeless. The state must provide homes for such families. (6) Orphanages for street children: no child should be obliged to make the street his or her home. Society must never leave children to fend for themselves and become street children. The state must provide orphanages to house and educate street children. (7) Protection of citizens overseas: no Somali citizen must ever languish in a foreign country’s prison without the knowledge and the care of the Somali State. (8) Home ownership schemes: lives are built on houses and the government should encourage and implement house ownership so that every family is the owner of its own home.

This list of state responsibilities can go on and on. Of course, the cynic will say: how do you achieve all that? The fact is that these are the tasks of responsible government and the aims of progressive politics. This is the purpose of politics. It is the task of a competent government to defend and care for its citizens. When a government is not delivering, it is either because of ineptitude and incompetence or because priorities are misplaced. The old politics of influence peddling and personal partiality are what have condemned much of Africa to under-development for the past 50 years.

Today our people live in the four corners of the globe. Vibrant Somali communities are to be found in almost every country of the world. Our Diaspora is bound one day to play a vital role in the existence and success of the new state, investing in the country and boosting its economy. It will also provide human resources bringing much-needed expertise and the dynamism of younger generations. Many youngsters born and bred in foreign lands may one day return home and hold significant positions. Among other things they might need to overcome discrimination. Misguided individuals who were born in the country could attempt to make a point of the fact that those coming to Somalia are ‘foreigners’ born elsewhere. Because of the exodus and wide travel our people are now well suited to recognise that discrimination is ever the instrument of the weak and feeble-minded.

The most important element in the success of any nation is its people. Human resources and spirit are the greatest assets of a nation. With a large population of over 300 million the United States is annually attracting and accommodating tens of thousands of citizens from other nations who wish to settle there. It would be ridiculous to deny impoverished Somalia its own God-given citizens by labelling them as foreigners, simply because they were not born within the borders of Somalia. Who chooses where they are born? Who chose to be born Somali?  Narrow-minded individuals should not be allowed to influence a nation’s destiny. Narrow-mindedness has no place in state-building. People with vision are needed for the important task of nation-building. The emerging new state should make discrimination of any kind a punishable crime. That is in the best interest of our nation’s existence and success.  A parallel evil is xenophobia (the fear or hate of foreigners). To develop and prosper, Somalia will require the expertise and investment of foreigners. Foreign nationals should be welcome to visit, invest, work or live in the country the same way our people have been welcomed in every part of the world.

Because of the size and the global nature of our Diaspora, Somalia would foster prospering private and public banks and airlines. Visitors would flock to the country and investment would flow in. But that is only when we have an enlightened leadership that can create the favourable environment for such grand ideals to flourish. The state should inspire its people to get ahead and should become innovation driven and business friendly.

Like the recovery of a wreck lying at the bottom of the ocean, we need to raise our nation from current oblivion. For this mammoth task we need the cooperation and goodwill of all our people. In the bid to optimise our efforts everyone must be represented. We have to close down the clannish and chaotic Somalia and open up a national and progressive Somalia. Our citizens should ask themselves: What effort is too great in the cause of saving our nation? The time to save Somalia is now! We must not miss the historic opportunity to rebuild a Somali State with integrity rather than a clan plunderland.

Throughout the country members of the business community are against any return of a bureaucratic government which might tax heavily and limit freedom of trade. Trade is the engine of progress and prosperity and it is essential that it is free. The citizen should be free to import and export any commodity other than substances lethal to life, culture and the security of the nation. A government should never hold its citizens back. It should be a helping hand there to serve and facilitate the progress of its citizens. The success of one individual Somali is the success of our nation. The prosperity of each Somali is the prosperity of our nation.
   The issue of taxation has been a thorny one in the governance of Somalia. For the first two years of state and capacity building, wisdom has it that there should be no taxes collected. If tax is not collected for the first two years then where would the money come from to run things? Let that headache belong to the one who will lead the nation. The presidency of a nation is not, ­­­as many of our people see it, a place of pleasure where one merely enjoys power and privileges. The presidency is the matrix of ideas and a hub for hard work.

After such a two-year period of grace, taxes should be reasonable and revenues collected should be invested in the country to produce better roads, schools, health care and other services. A Somali government should never tax food, medicines or children’s clothes. It is important to keep such commodities within the reach of ordinary people. Educational as well as intellectual trade such as books, stationery and computers should also be free of tax.  This is to ensure wide diffusion of knowledge and information and wide ownership of such necessary tools. Generally when taxes are reasonable and the revenue collected is invested in the country, people pay taxes.  
   
There are now flourishing Somali-owned airline businesses that were established during the 1990s. The progress of privately owned airlines must continue. In addition, the country’s national carrier, Somali Airlines, should be restored as soon as an effective government is established. But it must compete with private airlines. Such competition must be fair and constructive. Positive competition is beneficial to goods, services and the customer. Competition in trade ensures lower prices, better efficiency and the uninterrupted availability of goods and services.
  
To rebuild and re-establish, a stateless nation such as ours requires two stages: state-building and governing. During the most crucial phase of state-building the following are some of the tasks awaiting to be accomplished: (1) To rebuild the rudimentary infrastructure upon which life is built: services such as water, electricity, schools and the health service. (2) To lay and rebuild state foundations and the machinery of government. (3) To build the tools of political engagement: the infrastructure, paraphernalia and culture of a multiparty system where the citizens choose their leaders and administrators. For phase one of state-building our nation will require a state-builder with a mandate of five years to lay state foundations. At the end of this initial five-year period the nation should be ready to choose its own leaders through the ballot box. Only a multiparty system will ensure that we have the right leaders and the politicians of the time to serve the nation. But clannism must be rooted out of politics for politics must be based on ability and not on clan. How can this be achieved? This is one of the tasks which await the emergence of a state-builder. 
    
Like good farmers who can produce bumper yields from agriculture, we must let individuals who, through political engagement, can yield maximum fruition for the country lead the nation. They will make politics work for our people. No matter how difficult a task, there is always someone to whom that difficult task is easy. On a documentary film screened in June 2005, about the making of the world’s biggest passenger aircraft, Airbus A380, a reporter asked Jacques Rosay, the chief test pilot, what it was like to fly the aircraft. Rosay, a small man, responded by saying: “It was so easy, it was like riding a bicycle.”  Like a pilot who will not turn to his passengers to tell him how to fly his aircraft, a state-builder of talent will just get on with the task ahead. As a doctor knows the type, amount and combination of medication to heal a patient, such a state-builder would also know how to remedy his nation’s ills.
  
Millions back home depend on the establishment of responsible government for everything from securing a peaceful environment in which to live and raise families, to decent schools, healthcare and the spearheading of prosperity. Overseas Somalis too greatly desire a government as much as our displaced people back home. Our citizens in the Diaspora require direction, inspiration, a framework for progress, documentation, protection, care and a sense of purpose and meaning to their lives. A functioning and respected government back home ensuring stability and security can provide the knowledge that the nation and its loved ones are looked after. It is not just any government that can tackle the myriad problems and issues facing our nation and deliver stability and prosperity.
  
Only someone with little comprehension of the changing situation of Somalia would conclude that the leadership of the country could only come from within its borders. In a normal situation where everyone is in the country this would be the case. But most of our urban population including most of our educated generation are today living abroad. Ideas and money are sent by the Diaspora to support and prop up clan leaders and warlords. Since the bulk of our educated citizens are overseas, the type of leadership the country desperately needs to recover and rebuild within a short space of time (to catch up with the nations and countries in the region) could only come through the involvement of Somalis in the Diaspora. Therefore, a dynamic and modern leadership that understands how government business is conducted in the 21st century and that can do business with the rest of the world can only draw from the Diaspora. The question is, can the Diaspora acknowledge this fact and shift attention to finding and supporting the leader we all need?
  
Freedom of speech is an inviolable right without which there can be no progress. But let us not mistake anarchy for freedom of speech. Today lack of freedom is not the problem of our people. After 15 years of statelessness anarchy is the greatest enemy denying the Somali nation its statehood. The fruits of anarchy are sweet for some in the short term but deadly in the long haul. Anarchy is the enemy of governance, progress and development. When our nation is moribund, when street children plague our cities and towns, when mothers and children still languish in camps back home and in neighbouring countries and when our people are clamouring in every country in the world, we must put our priorities in order. For the past 15 years ordinary Somalis and our refugees have been crying out what they want. Yet, our ‘peace’ gatherings have been dubbed ‘egotistical squabbling’. In the history of mankind which nation has ever become stateless by its own doing, let alone for 15 years? Have we lost the ambition to once again become a nation-state? Without doubt, egotism is one of the main things hampering Somali people in the quest to reinstitute statehood. For once we must put our nation first and ourselves second.
  
No-one today is responsible for the mistakes or even atrocities of past leaders – not even their children. To have been imprisoned by a former leader is neither a qualification nor a merit. Our beautiful religion Islam teaches us that everything that happens to an individual on this earth is by the will of Allah. A whole generation has been wasted because of poor leadership. It is not a wise thing to gloat. It is also not proper to insult our refugees in Europe and North America as recipients of meanly given assistance. We should be grateful to all those nations who took in our desperate refugees. The United Kingdom alone has taken in over 150,000 Somalis and the number is growing. What we need is a forward-looking and positive leader who is free from revenge and bitterness but who loves his people regardless of clan. What we are looking for in a leader are exceptional gifts of ability, vision, talent and integrity, which can be put at the service of the nation, not grudges in the form of ‘look what has been done to me.’     
  
We must stop blaming anyone for what happened. To raise Somalia from the ashes needs complete reconciliation drawing a clear line under the past. We should forgive our past and present leaders and politicians and ease them aside. We should forgive the late President Mohamed Siad Barre, so that his soul may rest in peace. We should even be prepared to forgive our warlords and clannish politicians. But we must never forget what has happened. We cannot move forward if we are looking backward. Revenge and vengeance are the work of petty people. State-building and retribution do not go together.
  
We should never allow any country – including Sweden – to apprehend, imprison or humiliate a Somali citizen even for alleged crimes against our own people. The Somali nation will not be stateless for long. After 50 years of clan plunder, the Somali people have come of age to establish a nation-state not a clan-state. The state should go to any lengths to protect and look after its nationals wherever they are in the world. That way the message we are passing to the world is that our people have a state which takes care of its citizens and which takes their well-being seriously. That is the only way other nations will respect our people and accord them the dignity they deserve.
    
There are solutions to all our problems. The flow of ideas and the ability to translate them into action are the route to a nation’s development and success. Like the tree which produces the fruit there is a philosophy behind every idea. It is possible to steal an idea but it is not possible to steal the philosophy behind it. If the idea is a cup of water, the philosophy behind it is the well or river from which it was drawn. For state-building a coherent political philosophy is a must. Vision and a viable political philosophy are the tools of state-building. They ensure the flow of ideas for policy development and enable solutions in rebuilding the nation.
  
Ours is a nation whose people and interests are scattered across the four corners of the globe unattended and uncared for. With its million interests and issues waiting to be tackled, ours is a nation in search of a caretaker who will move things and get on with the task of rebuilding. It is incumbent on us to do whatever it takes to revive our nation and bring Somalia back to life. Unless we ourselves fix it, angels will not descend from heaven to fix it for us.
   
Novelty and freshness are needed in our nation’s politics to ensure a better future and draw a line under the blunders, plunders and failure of the past 50 years. The greatest care and foresight is needed to carry out the all too important task of bringing Somalia back into shape. What about the government formed in Nairobi in October 2004? To govern is a privilege that is not earned lightly. The trust and respect of the Somali people must be earned. The Nairobi appointed government was the product of two years of squabbling. One year after its formation the Somali people have witnessed more petty infighting and the bickering of individuals outflanking one another for the limelight when our nation remains on its knees. No-one should support a leader merely because he is from one’s clan. Support of a leader is based on performance and results. If support had been warranted the Somali people would have given it. In national politics support neither deserved nor earned is not given simply because of clan. Superficiality will not bring Somalia back to life. Nor will it rebuild it. A clan government is feeble and superficial. After 15 years in the wilderness the Somali people can ill afford to waste more precious time on superficiality. A government cocooned from reality whose sole aim is to feather the nest of a few individuals is not what we are looking for at a time when we are facing the greatest threat to our survival as a nation.
      
Politics is based on the conviction that you can contribute to the wellbeing and progress of your nation. It is not business, which is based on what you can get out of something. History may not be kind to those who advocate or encourage clannism or clan governments, because this is the curse of the past and should not be the future of our nation. If we are to succeed as a nation we must stop putting personal interest above the interests of the nation. The Somali public must say no to clannism in politics, to the shame of clan governments and to lacklustre clan gatherings. The sooner we close this ugly chapter of our national history the better, because the longer the delusion goes on, the longer our nation will remain in the wilderness. This nation needs dynamic and principled leadership more now than at any time in its entire history.
  
The choice is between the right way and the wrong way. It doesn’t matter who shows the way. All that matters is whether the path chosen is the right one. The leadership of a stateless nation is a massive responsibility. It is the task of new broad-minded state-builders to solve our nation’s present and future problems with foresight and vision. We need someone who can shoulder this burden and re-establish the state of our nation. If you have what it takes, come forward and lead our nation out of obscurity. It is not enough to want to become the leader. Anyone can want to become something. There is a job to do and the massive responsibilities of a stateless nation to shoulder. Governing is not a walk in the park. It is a daunting task. If an individual who cannot do the job blocks the one who can do it, it will be a disaster for our nation and the suffering will continue.
   
We can rebuild Somalia and even make ours a great nation. Our greatness will not be in terms of bullets, guns and tanks. Our greatness will be based on the quality and level of care for our citizens; ours will be a nation which looks after its own and aspires to the pinnacle of progress and success; a nation which contributes to the well-being of its region and the wider world. Village (camel boy) mentality and attitudes have contributed to the ills of Somalia in the past and have brought it down to where it now lies bleeding.  For once let us enable our nation to look after its people.  The cause to rally to is the rescue of Somalia. What we need is the leader to rally behind, for the cause is very clear.
   
Somalia is waiting for you who are reading this text to act. Today, the very existence and survival of our nation depends on you! The future generation will ask, and rightly so, what the Somalis, including the educated generation, were doing whilst their nation was rotting for 15 years. Clan gatherings have been neither for reconciliation nor for salvation of the nation but for acquiring positions. They resembled funeral houses not for the benefit of the deceased, but to squabble over who will get what from the dead.  We need to locate and empower the right leader for the massive task of nation and state building and the reconstruction of the country. Don’t wait for any clan gathering, clan politician or warlord to fix Somalia for you and for the nation. Because they won’t and they can’t. If they could they would already have done so in the past 15 years.
    
We must create and build momentum. At the heart of this momentum is the will of the Somali people to want governance and the re-establishment of their state. We must create the electricity of human goodwill to re-establish the Somali State on firm principles and humanitarian guidelines. The spark is there. It is up to us to ignite and sustain it! This is the time for all good men and women to come to the rescue of our nation. This is an opportunity as well as a colossal challenge we as a nation must take. We have had a long and ample experience of the results of statelessness. Surely, now is the moment for change.

Abdullahi Dool
E-Mail: Hornheritage@aol.com

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