By Ismail Ali Ismail
Introduction
President Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud, unlike any of his predecessors, was an unknown quantity when he was elected by the Somali Parliament on Sepember16, 2012; he had been unknown even to the great majority of those members who voted for him. There were many candidates, but, being the highest bidder, he defeated the incumbent Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed in the final round of an election characterized by vote buying. Many highly qualified and deserving candidates fared so poorly that they could not make it beyond the first round because they were either averse to buying the necessary votes, as a matter of principle, or were merely impecunious by comparison to the two finalists – the incumbent and the man who defeated him.
Politics has been defined, inter alia, as a ‘Marketplace where resources are exchanged for support’. But does that really mean that parliamentary votes have to be bought with cash and that such political corruption is a necessary and defining ingredient of politics? The late President Reagan had said that politics was the second oldest profession and that it bore strong resemblance to the oldest. The electoral process is generally expensive and money is spent on campaigns and campaign literature, advertisements, invitations, rallies and so on. But we have to draw a line between what is legitimate expenditure and what is not.
In a way, President Hassan was merely following the footsteps of his immediate as well as distant predecessors in buying parliamentary votes in order to be ‘elected’ to the highest office in the land. But, what does this mean for democracy, clean administration, stable government and, above all, peace and security?
Lessons from The Past
Somali democracy breathed its last when all the MPs representing the opposition parties (about sixty of them) joined the ruling SYL immediately after that fraudulent general election of 1969, and Somalia became, in effect, a one-party state, with Abdirazak Haji Hussein as the solitary MP in opposition. Money – and illicit money at that – played a decisive, destructive part. Following the assassination and internment of President Shermarke in October 1969 the Government of Prime Minister Egal was, on the eve of the military takeover, openly distributing large amounts of money – unashamedly, and in full view of an indifferent public – to the members of Parliament so that these latter would ‘elect’ the Government candidate in the morning by acclamation. But, ‘Man proposes and God disposes’; for little did they know that in the wee hours of the morning they would be rounded up by the Military and whisked off to heavily-guarded detention centers in which they would languish for many years. The vote rigging in the general election in March, the assassination of the President of the Republic in October, and the military coup of that same month, all happened in that fateful year of 1969 which ushered in a long and dictatorial rule of the gun – a gun leading to many guns, and deaths, and devastations, and the disappearance of the State itself for two decades and more.
Prior to all this, a bitter conflict between President Aden Abdulle Osman and Prime Minister Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke divided the ruling party (SYL) into two implacably hostile camps with, as we shall see, far-reaching and destructive consequences. That conflict, however, had nothing to do with corruption or clan politics, but everything to do with the military agreement with the USSR. The Agreement was signed by the then Speaker of Parliament (Jama Abullahi Ghalib), in his capacity as Acting President, in lieu of the substantive President (Aden Abdulle) who was out of the country in Rome at the time. Aden was deeply hurt and consequently lost trust in Abdirashid. But, unlike Hassan, he did not dismiss him; he just waited, and when the occasion arose after the general election of 1964 to appoint a prime minister (which was required of him by the Constitution) he simply appointed Abdirazak Haji Hussein against all expectations and advice to return Abdirashid to his post as Prime Minister. Abdirashid, being highly popular after the war with Ethiopia at that time and enjoying the confidence of SYL and the Parliament, did not expect to be dropped. Space does not allow me to go into the details of the unfortunate ramifications of that development and how Abdirashid was treated. Suffice it to say, however, Abdirashid defeated Aden in the 1967 presidential election. But, his group proved to be vindictive by rigging the general election of 1969 and using foul means to deny parliamentary seats to the other group (now Abdirazak’s group). Aden was, however, treated with respect.
Read more: THE POISONED, PUTRID POLITY OF SOMALIA
Ismail Ali Ismail ( Geeldoon)
Email: [email protected]
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Ismail Ali Ismail (Geeldoon) is a former Somali civil servant, UN staff and the author of, Governance, The Scourge and Hope of Somalia. Ismail is also a regular contributor of WardheerNews.
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