     baxar | Wednesday, January 17, 2001 - 07:07 am
Since the formation of parliament and a president in Arta, Djabouti for Somalia, which was without a central government for a period of about ten years, no tangible progress was made on the ground. Truly, one finds perplexed by the realities and the grim situation facing the Somali people. For the ordinary citizens, it is out of the frying pan into the fire, as things deteriorated economically and the security did not improve. Many are yearning for the anarchic past in which they were familiar how to deal with it and were better off and were able to feed their families. But, now things had changed to the worse and economic sufferings will impact every one regardless of class or any other stratum, hence the public at large is worrisome about the prospect of a gloomy future, and had lost all reasons for a hope. In delineating, the facts and the unfortunate events as of now, to demonstrate the true face of the new government, which is supposed to resolve the current morass and develop a system of government that will set the precedence for the future.
It is unfortunate, that once again, the fallacy of achieving clan complacency, was the basis of forming the new government. This despicable concept of clan appeasement caused a total disregard of competence and merit. It also inflated the cabinet to more than 85 ministries and vice ministries. The largest cabinet ever made in the country. It is totally impractical and will be a recipe for disaster rather than good. It brings at front for the most corrupts among the clan and the reprobates who will only serve for their selfish interests and will never work for he people and the country.
In the formation of the government, the Prime Minister had not been allowed to perform his duties, and select his ministries meticulously in his own discretion. Instead, the President had chosen the Hawiye members, Ali Khalif (P.M.) had selected the Darood members, Abdalla Deerow (Parliament Speaker) had selected the Digil & Mirifle members, while Osman Jama (Deputy P.M) had chosen the Dir members including Isaq. This makes the process a mockery, as the rules and the norms of government are transgressed and a new clan based style will rule the nation. So, if you are Hawiye, you will always go through Abdulkasim., the president and if you are a Darood you will go through Ali Khalif, the Prime minister and etc. Therefore, we have four clan chiefs representing the four major clan-families and the big chief is the president and the second chief is the Prime Minister and so on and so forth. Here, we are back to the clan fiefdoms, where each chief reigns his clan with iron fist and manipulates to his benefit. Many people question, if this kind of governance will ever accomplish any if at all.
On the reconciliation front, they failed to reconcile with the major regional administrations such as puntland, Somaliland and Bay/Bakool region and the chances of making an agreement with them is very limited. They are only busy for themselves as bees and are totally engrossed in nominations of vague positions in a government living in hotels. Their presence is only in Mogadishu, where they are locked in as hostages. Even they can not engage a rapprochement for their opponents, who are the faction leaders in Mogadishu. Most of the proponents of the new government are closely monitoring their performance and if they are dissatisfied, they will probably switch their support back to their respective factions. So far, it seems many supporters are gradually losing faith to the government and leaning in support of their factions.
The Mudulood are particularly, skeptical about the motives of the government, their priorities and their moral authority. They believe a government which could not go and function in any other region of the country, should give them the first priority in the government, because they allowed the government to come and function in their regions. But the president is hesitant in accommodating the demands of the Mudulood and even he is abandoning the gentleman agreements he made with them in Djabout. This has made majority of the Mudulood suspicious and non-supportive, but still short of out right opposition. If this haggling did not stop soon, and the government should not conclude some sort of agreement with them, then a more difficult proposition may lie ahead. The unscrupulous behavior of the government had demoralized a lot among them who could have supported the government. This had compounded the unfulfilled expectations and thus might become an impediment to the process in future. The rampant corruption of the government in its infancy is major concern for the public. The government is contracted in using fraudulent money printed illegally by so called businessmen. The usage of this money had not been debated by neither the cabinet nor by the parliament or approved by the government and still it is being used. Who knows how it has came into being, but one thing is certain that the president has authorized its usage with out the consent of the cabinet or the parliament.
This is an indicative how authoritarian the president is, and how he threatens the institutions of the government. The worst part is the obvious corruption, where some of the representatives and the ministries as well as many others do claim in keeping certain number of militias and are being paid without verification. There is no accountability and every one is misusing in his part, as there is no regulating guidelines and reporting procedures. It is a total anarchy in reign; all the money disappears within no time. This cycle of using this illegal money and spending it corruptly has caused an inflation of about 40% within a month. The public had given the president the appellation of Abdi Qaali. Meaning, Abdi the expensive, since he made the lives of the ordinary people more costly than it was prior his leadership. The impressive economy, which survived and sustained during the ten years of the civil war is in jeopardy and is on verge of collapse. Lot of people is worried by the impending disaster of economic warlordism and its repercussions such as bankrupting thousands of businesses and the loss of assets because of this counterfeit notes. The menace of mass property transfer into the hands of the few whom are enjoying the windfall and the control they exert on the foreign currency is scaring the business community.
The government is building a castle on sand in using the counterfeit money and it will cause more problems to themselves than alleviating any difficulties. In facing the bull by the horn, they could have done better job with lesser harm to the public. The security of Mogadishu did not improve a bit, since the inception of the government program of recruiting clan militias. The level of hostilities did not diminish within the inter clan and more precisely the rival clans still antagonize each other and no specific reconciliation plans is envisioned. The militias are grouped as clan militias and remain in the barracks, where each sub-clan militias remain together and keep their weapons and still take orders from their former clan bosses. It is joke that an army of this quality will ever fight for a government they are suspicious of. They are there to get the money and when the need arises no one will fire a shot for sure, because this suspicion is deeply rooted among the militias and each group, is wary of the other group. The discipline is very poor and the immediate commanders are another militia members with no military training. Therefore, the likelihood of bringing a full security to Mogadishu and its vicinity is unforeseeable in this stage of the government existence. If this trend continues, the best the government could ever accomplish is to exist in the Hawiye dominion in name only.
The character of the president is the biggest obstacle in developing standard government protocols, where rules and regulations are applied and maintained. He is extremely impetuous and with no regards to any procedure, hastens to decisions in displaying his authority. He abruptly, changes his mind with no apparent reasons and no respect to the law and the rules or even agreements he made with the others. This is a constant source of conflict between him and the cabinet as well as the parliament over the jurisdictions of the government powers. He thinks that he is the head of the government and impulsively decides in every level with out consultation of the relevant parties. In the process he jostled out the Prime Minister and he practically does his job and ignores the parliament and keeps them in the dark as though they don't even exist. Some ministries deliberately by pass the Prime Minister and go to the president for their machinations of isolating P.M. This had led to the splitting of the cabinet into two main camps. A group that backs the president and another group that supports the Prime Minister. Ismail Buba, the Foreign Minister, leads the rival group against the Prime Minister. The P.M. had been embarrassed in many occasions, because of contretemps from the president who presided over his job. He ( P.M) could not react as circumstances did not warrant and he has to consume the blows with pretending smile while burning inside.
The president is authoritarian and wishes to dictate every one to his desire right or wrong. He is a prototype of his former boss, Jaalle Siyad, and he is vigorously attempting to acquire a full power, that no one can question and challenge. He is now in conflict with the mayor of Mogadishu, because the president wants to nominate his deputies and he also wants that the mayor directly reports to him instead of the governor and the Minister of the Interior. How on earth, the president can be involved every where in the government apparatus and force his groundless lust. He covets to rule the roost in his own rules with out respecting the Charter, the executive and the legislative parts of the government. He tried to suspend the parliament session and ordered them to go back to their respective regions. But fortunately, the parliament rejected his order slapping him on the face for his ambitious effort. This is a blatant attempt of clearing the way for his sinister ambitions. He intimidated the journalist telling them explicitly that, the time for free writing is over and reminded them that the Mogadishu central jail has been reopened. This kind of attitude of attempting to stymie the free press and disregard his constitutional obligations is reminiscent of the old regime he served so long. He might be a monster in the making and he should be stopped before he consolidates all the powers in his own hands and so any tempting opportunities should be thwarted.
The president is very obstinate and has no flexibility in his decisions even if the decisions are entirely spurious. His obdurate character has restrained his relations with many important people, who would have given useful advice and much needed expertise. His close associates are his proteges who do not question his intentions and his mistakes, despite being manifest to everyone. The crucial decisions have never been given the necessary deliberations and inputs that could make possible the best course of action.
The prophecy of some people is that, the government will flunk within no time. Some did express their feeling and prognostications in poetry. One of them, named Soohaad said in SHIR " DAB DEEX KU YAAL IYO DAWLO CAYR MIDKOODNA DAHI MAA". Normally, the Somali people attribute the government to the clan of the leader, because, they expect the leader by any means to favor his clan. The clan of the leader will always enjoy a special access to both the power of the government and the resources of people much easier any other clan. There is some truth in this conduct, in which others might describe as cynical, because they base their judgement on past experiences. Therefore, this poet is identifying the government to the clan of the leader and assesses their fate as he perceives it and hence suggests that, neither a coastal fire nor a Ayr government will last long. This is a metaphor in which, he equates the acts of the government as fire in seacoast, as it is always windy and the fires die quickly. Implying that, this government will disappear as fast as coastal fire extinguishes due to high winds in the coastal areas given the lost of direction and confusions that is prevalent in their activities. The international community and the donor countries should exert sufficient pressure to the government to become accountable in its deed and transparent in its financial transactions. They should ensure that a government system is in place and the executing institutions to be functional prior committing huge funds into the hands of the government. They should also ensure that funds be used their intended target and never end up in personal use.
The cacoeconomy, the maladminstration, the unmitigated corruption, the lackluster performance and the lack of respect for the rule of law will doom the government to total failure. However, the Somali people can not afford in losing this time around and thus hope the success of this government by any means. Nonetheless, the government is shooting it self on the foot by making blunder after blunder and failing to fulfill the expectations of the people. The government should revamp itself, clean its house and acts forthwith and work towards earning respect among the people and the world. The president should allow the independence of the government organs and the due process of the law within the government and public as well. The corruption should be curtailed and phony money should suspend and outlawed immediately. The negotiations with oppositions should be explored and sought with honest and diligence in an open dialogue, otherwise the future of country will remain dubious, as it was bleak in the past.
It should be remembered the only thing that makes this government a success is simple honest, transparency, accountability, and respect for the rule of law, justice and democratic governance. The time for one-man rule is a story of the past and will never be accepted again by the people and no one should dream of it. one hopes that we won't squander this opportunity and the leaders come to their conscience and fulfil their responsibilities as they were sworn. AMIN |
| Fellini | Monday, March 12, 2001 - 02:54 pm
Bahar's Contribution to this forums is exceptionally good and perhaps too good for this forums (" No Offense" at all). It was quite analytic, unbiased critique, and indeed very objective.......Had he intended to tell all of you there not to expect a lot!!!
Some 10tears of civil war and chaos, disruption of socio-political set ups, lack of credible leadership in all somali groups, could be one main reason to what we face today in Somalia
What does constitute a government? Did actually Somali people elect a government?
If we did and if AbdulQasim was elected ....(using if analysis...in If history)Then it may be very naive for many so called leaders to have been fighting Barre's regime just to end up electing A/Qasim as president.
We could have had him as president 1991...in an easy and smoothb transfer of power from barre to Qasim..........Well many anarchists (SNM,SSDF,USC) will always reject such a historical fact......................
The Somali Government was planning gradual transfer of power in 1990 (it was also the governments responsibility not to further destablise the fragile Co-existent of All somalis at the time)..........In a report prepared by the Institute of stratigic Studies in Somalia. The political task force for reform recommended Restoration of Multiparty Democracy and free elections this was accepted by the then government
Resulting that the Somali Socialist Party's leadership to had changed from Barre to one of his leutenents DAFLE. The government also announce upcoming elections and representation of political groups. However many rejected 9for what ever reason!)
Here we are 10years later electing WHO? Somalia does not have government and No president, No Parliment we have people though and the land!!!
With No Sarcasm whatsoever it is only very distant reality that we will ever have a functioning government institutuions
My last ten years of discussions with the likes of Mahdi, Yusuf, Egal, Abshir, Aideed, Morgan, Bood, many elders and many politicians, civil servants and former diplomaic corp memebers as well as ordinary people = I could only see no hope for Somali People
Recently owever I ve seen possible activism in UK and US somali Groups that if well guided with non theological, Secular, and democratic intents could result in possible reconcilliation and eventually establishment of Somali Government
The Current attempt is Vague "will only cause further jeopardy in already ruined political morale of Somlis in general" |
