by Osman D. Osman
Saturday, December 24, 2011
A document referred to as the Garowe principles came out of the Somali national consultative constitutional conference held in Garowe city of the semi-autonomous region of puntland on December 21-23, 2011. While many are skeptical of the potential implementation of this document and view the outcome of the Garowe conference as rehashed and recycled principles of Embagathi conference, others question its legality from a constitutional stand point. So, is the unintended consequence the reinvention of yet another crisis, so as to go all over again the devolutionary cycle that has been intrinsic in the Somali conflict, a sort of dé·jà vu Embagathi.
The Missed opportunities:
In early December 2011, 280 members of the Transitional Federal Parliament voted to oust the speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden in a non- confidence vote, and within a week nominated an interim speaker and in the same week the office of UNPOS released a communiqué in which it acknowledged the TFP crisis, and within two days UNPOS hastily called for the Garowe conference to be held in the week of December 21-23, 2011 without addressing the TFP crisis.
Members of the Parliament advised the office of SRSG that it will be illegal to open discussions on components of the road map without first deliberating it in parliament and its ratification after it is voted by the MPs and they were told by the office of the PM that it will be voted in parliament on December 19, 2011, the same day the office of SRSG announced the Garowe conference to take place on December 21-23, 2011.
From the perspective of the legislature, they argue that first it is illegal to begin the implementation of the Road map without first ratifying by the TFP and that would amount violation of the Transitional Charter. Secondly, they argue the SRSG Dr. Mahiga opted for the easy way out and sided with the former speaker, so the former speaker’s wishes converge with the exit strategy of UNPOS, so goes, what is good for the goose is good for the gander, they say. In retrospect, instead of addressing the TFP crisis, the office of the SRSG committed an error in judgment with its facilitation of the Garowe conference, which in the views of many deepens the Somali crisis.
Moreover, the MPs contend that the SRSG was looking for an exit strategy as the donors are questioning the 60 million dollars spent on the draft constitution and what is better than asking the speaker to go along with the implementation of the road map illegally without its ratification by the TFP.
The outcome
Despite, its questionable legitimacy another problem associated with this conference referred to as the Garowe principle is its questionable outcome. Compare the Garowe outcome of 2011 with Embagathi agreement of 2004, in principle, the number of MPs are almost identical on both agreement, the election process remains the same and uses the 4.5 formula. There is no clear interpretation of how the 20 percent quota assigned for female MPs will be allocated among clans, this further complicates the process.
With respect to the ratification of the draft constitution, it has not been widely shared with Somali population and the committee of expert (CoE) only met once and only 4 out of the 9 member committee showed up, yet they are directed to handover the draft constitution to the IFCC no later than May 15, 2011. Additionally, the draft will be heavily influenced by the National Democratic Institute, which is contracted out for the draft of the constitution as well as the salary of the (CoE) and already the MPs are questioning the impartiality of its country Director Abdirizak who served as an advisor and chief of staff to the former president of Somalia Abdullahi Yusuf who hails from Puntland.
Osman D. Osman
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