I Feel Sorry for Somalia

By Dr. Ali Said Faqi

Every hope for the future of Somalia seems to have a short life and is always mired by warlords who let the world to believe that there will be no Somalia without their blessing. After almost 2 years of negotiations and wrestling in Nairobi, Kenya, the Somali delegates have led the foundation of a Somali parliament, which has later elected a President. As expected the President has picked a Prime minister, who most of us agree as being an excellent choice. We all however, anticipated the formation of the cabinet to be the most difficult challenge facing the Prime Minister considering the fact that he had no choice but to select the cabinet from the parliament. This has further weakened the selection process knowing that all the parliamentarians were selected by the warlords with few exceptions I should say, after forcing IGAD representatives to accept only individuals who appear into their list. There were 2 ways to deal with the cabinet formation issue; the difficulty way and the easy way. The difficult way would have involved the elimination of the warlords and their minions from the executive branch of the government, but this would have been a difficult sell. Therefore, the IGAD, EU and probably the US have pressured the Prime minister and the President to accommodate the corrupt and the warlords into the cabinet. As a result the new cabinet became an exclusive club of warlords and their minions. I am surprised whether a single thought was spent to their qualifications during the selection process knowing that this is a country that urgently needs to create functional institutions and rebuild its infrastructures.

It is common practice though in Somalia that everyone is a doctor, engineer or a professor by default and we should not be astonished to see soon all the cabinet members with doctor, professor or engineer in front of their names.

Restudying the list of the names that made in the new cabinet, I came to realize that:

1) Most cabinet positions allocated for Hawiye and D/M clans went to their eminent warlords. This has resulted the exclusion of many clans of these two coalitions from the political process; a move that will have an impact to peace and stability in the country.  

2) The new government ostensibly decided to completely close its door from the ISAAQ clan in the North, welcoming though members of Darood clan from Somaliland to the cabinet. I have difficulties contemplating this thought process; nevertheless, it seems the isolation was not well-thought and will have major consequences to unite Somaliland with the rest of the country in the future.  

3) With the exception of few folks the majority of the cabinet members are unskilled and incompetent to hold cabinet positions. It appears that no benchmark has been set for the choice of the members of the cabinet. The biggest caveat facing the Prime Minister will be to deal with this futile executive branch of the government and by no means will this be an easy task. The public have expected a cabinet of individuals with different qualifications and expertise who could help direct the country to move to the right track. The nation badly needs nimble technocrats who could foresee the great challenges, adept of endorsing progress and lay down future directions towards peace and prosperity. It is regrettable that Somali professionals are deliberately excluded from the process after the self-elected members of the parliament unanimously endorsed the call to base the selection of the cabinet from within themselves.   It should not be surprising though to witness that some international agreements involving Somalia signed with a thumb because of the complete absence of the right qualification as the criteria for the choice of the right man for the job.

It is wise to forecast that the process is prone for a failure if major adjustment are not been made; these include but not limited to reshuffle the cabinet and amend the constitution in the near future to avoid the process being hijacked by the self-elected members of the parliament. The government has to endorse the policy that there will be no taxation without representation and as we all agree most warlords and self-made politicians do only promote their personal interest and never represented the interest of their constituency, therefore, holding free and fair election should be a major priority for this government.  

4) Another point of extreme concern that is utterly ignored is the issue of human rights; individuals involved in human rights violation were greatly awarded. This will send a phony signal in a society where for over 14 years the only luxurious business for the unemployed was robbery, violence, kidnapping and intimidation.  

5) To wrap up, I think it is fair to suggest the winners at this stage of the process are the warlords and their henchmen and the public is the big loser. The most effected are the future generation of Somalia who are practically left with minimum hope.   I feel sorry for Somalia.

Having said that I still believe though that Rome was not build in one day and we should give the Prime minister and the President the benefit of doubt, but they should signal the willing to surround themselves with competent individuals who have integrity and who also possess excellent analytical abilities to help guide the administration in this turbulent time. We need to make a distinction between the process and individuals. It is imperative to create a united professional front with the main goal of saving the process and at the same time continuing to exert pressure to the government in order to achieve major positive developments. The road to peace is long and rough. Careful planning, compromises and sacrifices are the only ways to achieve peace and stability.

Dr. Ali Said Faqi
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