by Abdul-Aziz Mohammed
Thursday, November 18, 2010
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,”
Lao-tzu.
Angels will not come down from the heavens to do for Somalis that which is within the power of Somalis and they must do for themselves! With their minds and hands, in simple fact after all, Somalis wrought (and still do) their sorry lot of almost 20 years! Many efforts, since then and now, to return Somalia back to normal notwithstanding; Somalis have yet to take that single step, if a solitary stride towards this mammoth journey back to national decency is to be the decisive one that is.
All too pressing and long overdue, this Somalia and its humiliated populous must heal sooner or later. This I have no doubt: Restore to its rightful dignity, Somalia will. But only if our Somali leaders get on with it! So, I weigh down on our Transitional Federal Government (TFG) only the load it can bear. Nothing more or less!
What can you do, TFG?
1. Pay your few brave soldiers (military or police) handsomely. Feed them well and regularly. After receiving training in foreign lands (at a considerable financial cost by donors), there is simply no excuse for these soldiers to go back to Mogadishu to bleed and die on empty stomachs or no pay. If anything, a TFG soldier should be paid more than average soldier of Al-Shabaab. Wouldn’t that tempt many in file and rank of Al-Shabaab to desert their posts for the TFG? Instead, it has been the TFG soldiers who vacated their positions, if not join the opposition in anger. Then there has been many reports of TFG soldiers selling their weapons and ammunition, even to the enemy they faced. Why should these soldiers be loyal to a government which neglects them!
2. Again, pay your parliamentarians well also. It is simply not a coincidence or on principle the TFG parliament is only active when there is an executive conflict or issue, usually to vote on either vote-of-confidence (bringing down) or confirmation (installing) of a prime minster and his government. It so happens many MPs live in Kenya hotels, where they acquire considerable bills. Their only chance to settle their debts or continue their lifestyle is perhaps to sell their votes to the highest bidder among powerful corners! This has been in the news, for I am not making it up! A simple solution to this, besides paying the MPs well and regularly, is for the government to buy a big compound in Nairobi to house these MPs on a reasonable fee as a temporary measure. The difficult circumstance of living in Mogadishu may necessitate such. The government would in return be able to sell such properties at a profit later on, when they are no longer needed.
In conclusion:
Given the obscene money which has been pouring from the world over on the TFG, for Somalia to stand on its feet, there is no reason why the TFG should not put such resource in good uses. First of which must be for the TFG to take good care of all its employees. This is that one single step (in-house confidence-building) vital to the long and difficult journey ahead to remake Somalia. The hope of Somalia, country and people, is literally riding on how cohesive—each group doing its part—few thousand TFG employees could be made. All TFG members must become like links of a single chain to foster high morale to do the job selflessly.
High spirit damping, if not utterly killing it, is what has been going on: A minster (prime or poorer) in a key finance or power position lining up his deep pockets for personal enrichment, giving due cuts to such and such, is what has this sickly “patient” [SOMALIA] in a comma to be announced dead any minute.
Just imagine a big town with a single fire brigade. This brigade is provided with all firefighting equipments, from protective overalls, hard hats, ladders, hoses and latest fire engines. The leaders of the brigade then decide to sell the equipments for personal gain or no salary or pension. Trucks are cannibalized for their spare-parts, even jacked up on blocks or boards, their tires sold too. Some of the firefighters at the bottom of the feeding poll also go home! What chance will there be to contain a big fire in that town? Next to zero!
You see, the safety of that town from devastating fires would clearly depend on how well taken care of and maintained both men and equipment of the brigade are! A government, small or big, is no different in relation to its nation.
If our leaders will not do what must be done, if our TFG leaders cannot even effectively manage the smallest government in the world on a few square kilometers, then what hope it bringing peace and law and order to all Somalia?
Abdul-Aziz Mohammed
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