Lop-sided constitutional reform processes pushed by one party and opposed by the rest, political out-maneuverings by some parties as opposed to others, blame games of parties against each other and all based on ethnicity and clans, governing infrastructures based on clan-based regions, inability to rely on local resources and continuous begging, and aid from others, will not solve Somalia’s internal problems.
The country and people, indeed, need, a new direction, embark on a platform that may lead to its stability, which would in turn lead to its ability to exploit its natural resources, and save its population from further woes and sadnesses, breast-beating and dilemmas. It is perhaps time the nation embarked on a new path different from the toils and travails of the past decade, which despite attempting to re-establish the Somali state is not even close to maintaining together those who were closer together before.
Something must have gone wrong and certainly the role of bad leadership cannot be out ruled. Obviously the governance of the country has failed the nation over the past decade when the country was given a chance to salvage itself from the chaos and anarchy it suffered from, in the two decades before the constitution of the present failing federal infrastructure.
The country certainly needs a comprehensive reform process which would eventually improve key areas that will enhance the nation’s survival in terms of economy, legal systems, education, healthcare system, culture, foreign policy and others. No nation advances without first assuring itself of peace within, which bolsters public confidence. It is what is missing from the Somalia political landscape.
How can Somalia achieve that kind of platform of assurance of peace? It is what we will try to address in this article. We believe it is a national reconciliation, which has eluded Somalia’s leadership todate. It is not reconciliation among political parties but among the people of the country, who have been kept apart and segregated from each other by pseudo-politicians supposedly working in their interest, but truly only working for themselves, enriching themselves on the poor broken backs of the people.
Reconciliation among the people is described by some as “the toughest and arguably the most important part of the peace-building cycle,” according to the United Nations Organization (UN Peace and Security Report, November 19th, 2019). The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres noted in a gathering that reconciliation processes “played a crucial role in resolving ethnic, religious and political differences in places such as Cambodia, Rwanda, and Northern Ireland, enabling periods of sustained peace.”
It is that reconciliation, which has not happened in Somalia todate. Preliminary processes were carried out beyond the borders of the country in places like Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya, which brought the current infrastructures and federal government, but the governments that were borne out of those initial processes did not continue to install and deepen the roots of a perfect or near perfect reconciled population. No wonder the regions of the country and the infrastructures that came out of those reconciliation processes outside the country were not successful and, indeed, only worsened to some extent the mistrust among the generally innocent population.
The country’ s federal leaders and more particularly, its highest authorities in terms of the president, the prime minister and key government ministers such those responsible for the domestic policies, the foreign policy, the justice, the constitution, the economy and finance, education and health, should have mostly worked on reconciling the population organizing internal meetings in the various regions along with the local regional leaderships, both governmental and traditional.
One cannot ignore the country’s belief systems and its national cohesion factors such as the language, culture, and history. The Federal Government should have been appealing to the populations, instead of assuming ownership of powers it was not given to by the people. It is perhaps important to recall here President Abraham Lincoln, who made a profound statement after similar circumstances, when his nation, the United States of America, came out of the American Civil War in the famousGettysburg Address, in which he said:
“….. that these dead shall not havedied in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedomand that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” - Fox, Christopher Graham (September 12, 2008) - "An analysis of Abraham Lincoln's poetic Gettysburg Address".
A government should be from the people who must want it, without which no government, whatever might, it may have, cannot exist or continue to exist. It is, perhaps, what most leaders in the Horn of Africa States miss but more so, the Somali leadership group, who have not moved the nation an inch away from the chaos that started in the late eighties of the last century.
Currently the onus is on the current federal government, which should learn, if it cannot implement its own belief system of making peace and living in peace, at least the wisdom of others like those of President Abraham Lincoln, who was closer to the belief system of the nation than many of its current clan-minded politicians.
It is imperative that the federal government must realize that state building efforts and processes such as the so-called decentralization, the federal infrastructures, and the incomplete lop-sided constitution cannot and will not work unless peace is settled among the people and the clans are at ease with each other as they were before the civil war. There would be no place for terrorists to hide in such an environment as everyone would reap the benefits of peace and security. There would also be no place for foreigners to sow mistrust among the people and there would no country which would dare to threaten the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the nation.
It is, perhaps, high time that Somalis realized that clans are not at war with each other. It is the political elite which is at war with each other and which uses the clans and the innocent religion of Islam to sow discord among the people, so as to outmaneuver each other. Peace can be established in the country, if only the federal government was genuine about its true intentions instead of playing the victim at times and aggressor at other times. It is reconciling the population and working on establishing peace that would be best for it. Good things are generally noticed and its actions would speak louder than its many formal empty speeches.
The current formulae deployed by the government will never work. Fighting off shadowy organizations like the religious terrorists and other clan terrorists will always fail and the politicians who use the clan warfare to ensure of their relevance will always prevail unless the federal government launches a major reconciliation process among the populace. It is what would defeat all the forces arraigned against it and it how it would acquire the power for which it is craving. Power comes from the people who will defeat all kinds of forces arraigned against the nation, irrespective of the sources, which is mostly foreign.
Directing the population to live in peace with each other in the present circumstances is the best possible bet for the nation. There must be people in the federal government system who must still have hope and have not given up. This is the way forward for the nation!
