Somalia: The unfinished journey
By Abdiwahid Abdullahi
The current state of our Somalia nation has been severely hampered by the quality of its office holders. We are displeased with it and have even relinquished the possibility of good government.
On the contrary, we would sincerely like to have decent and fulfilling lives. Government is an institution that should work for the betterment of its citizen; serving in the government is a means not an end. Therefore, the nature of the government comes from the character of its people. It is not something that you can borrow, copy, and paste.
Since independence in1960, we have been following unseen pathways which led us down the road to destruction and destitution. Despite our high expectation about the romantic view of the independence and the promise of great future, we have become incapable administering an institution that behaves like a corporation.
INDIVIDUAL ROLE
However, we cannot simply blame the government without reflecting upon our role as individuals. We’ve devoted all of our attention to repairing the external while neglecting the internal and the spiritual components. Therefore, we cannot produce a mature and successful system that has native characteristics. Instead we entertained foreign and cosmetic entity that has failed to fulfill our social expectation.
I can’t argue with our primitive taste of egalitarian society. This taste might have some negative ingredient about the vertical and horizontal hierarchy in which modern societies have it to thrive and prosper. Moreover, it has become a plausible notion for our deep rooted, uncontested self-rightness has surfaced as individuals promote their own individual interest, which is good for oneself; however, detrimental to overall wellbeing of cohesive society. This would ultimately destroy the individual as a naturally and totally unharmonious with structured system. It warrants fully-fledged scientific research. Otherwise we should remain and develop our principal truth of Nomadism. Nations rise and fall not based upon whether or not they face, but based upon how their leaders navigate the dangers that all societies inevitably face. In the absence of such leaders, the society will crumble as ours has and the result is never pleasant.
CONSTANT STRUGGLE
It remains a constant struggle for many of us to maintain a romantic view of life whilst surrounded by violence and uncertainty. Furthermore, the poverty which has afflicted our beloved people back home in Somalia has made us even more vulnerable. It saddens me to hear the desperation of family members and respected friends calling to ask for a few dollars to feed their loved ones.
That said, it is not their fault since the conditions in our country have made them unfortunate and dependent upon handouts. This is a disgraceful situation. Of course, they would like to have economic independence, personal freedom, and social prestige. Although our past has been unpleasant since the dawn of time, the situation has grown exponentially worse in recent years. However, we rejoice as we recount the lost paradise in the beaches of Batalaale in Berbera, the poetic and sensational concert in Hargeisa Theater, the nice view and fresh breeze of Lido beach in Mogadishu and the loving scene of Janaale the war machinery have destroyed.
Unfortunately the enjoyment was a blink of an eye. Poverty creates uncertainty which in turn causes stress, degrades dignity, and leads people to engage in acts of violence. And yet rather than addressing the epidemic of poverty, we have been content to simply ignore it. Our post-civil war leaders have never spoken out against this culture of laziness and selfishness. Instead, they have encouraged a culture of political agnosticism, seeking only empty loyalty. Under such circumstances, what chance do our children have at anything more than a miserable, dull and defrauded existence? I felt guilt the appalling atrocities that have befallen upon us which led to the demise of our society. As a result, many of us seldom reflect upon the exuberant joy of the lives that we lead.
NEW SOCIETY
In general, my intellectual curiosity has been the source of my political awakening that led me to focus upon the role of human fallacy in the business of governance. Provocative and compelling readings and discussions have pushed me to become analytical about the relationship between governance and the capacity of individual. Certainly this has taught me the importance of reflection and revision which ought never to cease in order to find a balance between the two. It is certainly a daunting task and our journey remains unfinished.
Unfortunately, the unrefined character of some of our leaders has always shaped and defined the true nature of our government. It has become difficult to separate the role of the individual and its effects upon the performance of public duties. Therefore, the character, intellectual abilities, and moral qualities of public office holders are of the utmost importance. As we have seen, the absence of legal-minded politicians in our government has manifested itself and fairness has become a rare commodity in the midst of building a new society. In fact, fairness is a quality that has been enshrined in all Scriptural Books including Ours.
Furthermore, it became too sophisticated for our people to understand the mechanics and spiritual insight that hardens the pillars of good government. In other words, it made things more complicated. As a result, we are only dealing with the shell of a government. And yet, no attempts have been made to understand the unknown elements that remain unclear to us within the scientific DNA of governance. It has made us act aloof which in turn has paralyzed our intellectual analysis about the true fabric of modern governance. Thus, the whole episode became a frightened voice which has been shrieking in the darkness of the unknown.
HYPOCRISY
Despite our relentless desire for the rebirth of some form of government that stands fair and equal to its common citizens, there are still many reasons to be anxious about the danger of the emergence of a new tyrannical system. This new mindset led our institutions to lose the ability to filter and flush the human follies out of governance; in fact, our personal desires shaped it. This gave leeway to the criminals and made the system imperfect as it shields the offenders of law. This great calamity has infected our social cohesiveness and allowed injustice to run through the veins of the system. Therefore, our people do not expect the system to reliably administer justice.
In fact, the system conveys that nothing matters so long as the person’s actions are politically expedient. Indeed, this attitude has brought new moral developments that inspired many of our youth recently and is based upon personal aggrandizement, refusal to live by the core values of the society such as integrity, honesty, decency, and civic manner. On the contrary, theft, bribery, prostitution, gossip and seeking loyalty to foreign entity have prevailed and left a mark that made our national identity fickle and rotten.
Not only have we created a new standard of 4.5 formulae which is the worst evil of all, but also it has made us into a surprisingly hypocritical society that wants to establish a Republic, but instead we have stripped it of all its elements. This is one of the many examples there has been clear evidence which made all of our historical process obnoxiously disdainful and this warrants a thorough re-examination of the root causes in order to re-route the lost route, if there has been any or to create new one.
Indeed, we have invalidated and minimized the reasons to carry out a genuine change to adapt and go on with conviction about the reality on the ground. We still entertain the old rubbish and outdated policies. The desire to make a new concept and create an environment of inclusiveness regardless of political, ideological and religious affiliation has been missing. Clearly none of the leaders except Jaalle Mohamed Siyad Barre since the birth of the nation were inclined to radical ideas; we may say it was a Godless ideology or Siyadism. Worst of all is that the discrepancies between our democratic rhetoric and the practices of governance have delegitimized the very essence of a government based upon co-ownership. It seems that no one cares about the holistic revival and the strength of national identity rather than drafting tasks of a tribal and factional scope.
FREE SOCIETY
The use of force, bribery, and the suppression of free media and extra-judicial executions have quashed the fundamental principal of free society without fear of government oppression. Unfortunately many of us argue that the current situation is inevitable and that the process of rescuing our society has deteriorated long ago since our actions disapproved both the method and its autocratic objectives. I despise the rotten and irrational system that has thrived in our country and the timeless abject poverty that the nation’s citizens have been witnessing over and over again.
Undoubtedly, the government’s actions lately have not been in line with the spirit and intent of the provisional constitutions. It pressured the House Speaker Mohamed Sheikh Osman Jawari to resign instead of seeking a vote of confidence in the parliament. Months before the departure of the Speaker of the House, Government forces stormed the houses of citizens and brazenly killed innocent people in broad daylight without due process to intimidate and harass rival politicians.
Fact-finding investigators found that high-level government officials had instructed some of the loose individuals among the security forces to carry out the assault. The perpetrators have not yet been brought to justice. Clearly, there is a precise degree of guilt upon the leaders of this massacre in the compound of Avv. Abdirahman Abdishakur. Some of the top individuals within the political establishment loudly argue that a newly emerging democratic society is often prone to insecurity and violence, but they miss that the failure to create a stable and secure society is no inherent defect in real democratic society.