By Dr. Ali Bahar
Editor’s note: This is the fifth of a series of articles WardheerNews will be running to highlight how the Regional Administrations managed the selection of the Upper House members as part of Somalia’s 2016 elections.
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“ If it doesn’t feel right, it is probably Isn’t ” Johnnie Cochran in O.J. criminal case.
The verdict is out! It is growing increasingly evident, day by day, that our gut-level understanding is right; that this Mogadishu family affair project, the so-called federal government, is coming to an end. And it should, for all practical purposes. In fact, southern intellectuals precisely disproved the dreams once held by some; that Somalis will soon shrink from tribal conflicts and from the never ending wars. To the contrary, today’s leaders in the South destroyed that dream by employing corruption, cheating, and being driven by unimaginable lust for uncontrollable power prose that excited deep hatred of anti-states sentiment among the public. Furthermore, there is an unabashed tendency on the part of these leaders for creating overlapping multiple interest groups all working for the regional Masters, the presidents.
It begs the question, then: how do you build federalism with equitable distribution of wealth and power, where everyone has a say in how they want to govern their own states? It cannot happen; we all see how things intentionally started the wrong way. The purveyors of such corrupt system are behaving beyond the conventional wisdom, and their actions defied logic to make sense of what it is they are doing.
Legend had it that Hamlet’s actions were motivated by the ghost of Hamlet—his call for the Prince to avenge his murder. I think the southern elites are obsessed by the ghost of the criminal elements who died before them in the region, and they are carrying out revenge against innocent people to appease the ghosts. To the extent that this may be true, we may be dealing more with underlying dynamic. And given the myriad of antagonism these people have created already in the region, it is conceivable they lost the control for their instinct to war, the only thing their ghosts tell them.
Historical evidence suggested that primitive man, when he could, managed his warlike instincts primarily through rituals. Intelligent policy makers are also said to have two traits: first is the mental ability to cope with complicated issues. Second is the information and experience he has, to understand the issue in hand. Not only do these folks lack these traits, but it is conceivable that these men in the south wouldn’t hesitate to precipitate a nuclear disaster on each other if they had the ability. These are very dangerous, power hungry individuals who are devoid of Somali nationalism and national interests. These are the wrong people to bring Somali unity.
So why should the Somalilanders in Mogadishu parliament endure such humiliation and listen to this lip service agenda, where Jawaari is lecturing them about parliamentary procedures he himself doesn’t follow when it doesn’t serve his interest? ( Read Hannaanka Doorashooyinka Xildhibaannada Gobollada).
The Somalilanders were not even invited to participate in the early deliberation by the so-called “Madasha”, a conference with the resemblances of the 1884 European race for colonizing the African continent. The Somalilanders were shut out from the meetings held in Xalane, in Baydhabo and other places. In this geopolitical extent, 43 out of 54 for the Upper House has been negotiated and taken by the southerners, where the purveyors of the plan were Culusow, Omar Abdirshid, Abdiweli and Jawaari. It was only after the Somalilanders expressed their disapproval of the outcome when Mohamed Omar Arte was symbolically invited to come to the last phase of the process— in this Berlin Conference. By then, only 11 seats were left on the table for Somalilanders to fight over. And the fighting continues because these 11 seats have to be divided among five states: Awdal and Selel (Samaroon and Isse-two different tribes), Maroodi jeex, Togdheer, Sool and Sanaag.
The critical question is this, why should the Somalilanders in Mogadishu accept this injustice? After all, they are outnumbered and they don’t have a common goal. They have no identity to claim on what is theirs; or even to be able to explain why they are there. And as a result, they don’t do much for Somalilanders anyway. For several weeks now, they have been holding meetings to take a stance unanimously against this blatant inequality. They failed to agree on anything. I believe they should quit!
There are several thorny issues the Somalilanders in Mogadishu are faced with now:
- Their complaint to the International Community about the injustice has befallen into deaf ear and was not even considered worth listing to;
- There is no much of cohesiveness among these parliamentarians, in order to take a strong stand on this blatant inequality the southern elites are getting out with. Some members suggested walking out of the process, while others refused to do so. Some are even bought or sold;
- The Southern elites don’t care if Somalilanders walk out of the process–a take it or leave it attitude;
- Somaliland involvement in the decision-making process of “who gets what” of these limited seats is all well established, and made things even more difficult (tribal influences);
- There is an intense competition within each sub-tribe on who should get the one seat allocated to a sub tribe. Thus, families in Somaliland are very much faced with a difficult choice to choose among their own sons and daughters as there are no enough seats to share in Mogadishu.
- There is young blood of Somalilanders in Mogadishu (graduates from Somaliland universities) who are making the old guard (the old unionists in the parliament) to run for their money.
These young new comers are making big noise in the political arena this time around. Some seem to argue that these young folks, unlike the old guard, don’t carry water for Somali nationalism agenda, nor for secession. However, they might, at some point, bring the question of Somaliland to the table, in favor of Somaliland getting its fair share.
Unless the attitude of southern elites and the blind support of the international donors change, the discontent of the Somaliland representative may overspill and get the attention of the International Community, threatening to walk out in an effort to help Somalilanders get their legal separation from this non-existent imaginary union. It maybe farfetched, but only the future will tell. Nothing stays the same way forever, especially in Somali politics.
Dr. Ali Bahar
Email: [email protected]
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