In Search of Solutions for Somalia

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In Search of Solutions for Somalia: Prescription of A Unitary System, A Federal System And A Draft Constitution.

By Ismail Ali Ismail

 

Introduction

In the year 1995 the European Union undertook a study whose purpose was to illuminate the field of options for Somali ‘politicians’ and ‘leaders’ (popularly known as ‘war-lords’) in so far as structural solutions to the country’s problems were concerned. They came up with four systems: the confederal; the federal; the unitary; and the consociational(1). They explained each of them and provided extant examples of countries using it. But, there were three things I did not like about the study: first, it wrongly assumed that Somalis were unaware of such systems, its approach, therefore, being didactic; secondly, while it explained the virtues of each system it was unbalanced in that it gave no warnings as to its pitfalls; and, finally, there was an underlying but fundamentally wrong assumption that Somalia’s internecine conflict within itself was such that it was amenable to structural solutions.

 

Nothing could, of course, be farther from the truth. However, given the nature of the hostilities and the depth of rancor there was a clear and growing trend towards federalism, and in the wake of the failure of the Cairo Conference at the end of 1997 Puntland was created in the following year as an autonomous ‘first state’ of a would-be federal Somalia. ‘Somaliland’ had already declared its secession in 1991, barely five months after the collapse of the State.

 

By the time the Djibouti Conference of the year 2000 was held federalism was widely accepted and indeed adopted in that conference. At that point, I wrote a paper on it pointing out its multifarious complexities and the challenges they posed.(2) My purpose in writing that paper was two-fold: to kick off a debate that would inform both the faction leaders and the public, especially those participating in reconciliation conferences; and to underscore the fact that even the simplest system would fail, as exemplified by the failure of the unitary system in Somalia, which brought about the demise of democracy to usher in a dictatorial military rule, and ended up with an implosion and the collapse of the State itself. My position then was, as now, that any system would fail if it is not properly managed. I do not deny that it is more difficult to manage a more complex system such as federalism, but the point about management as the determinant of success and failure is nevertheless valid. That point (which most astonishingly continues to escape the attention of many of us writing on systems of government with a view to recommending one or the other as a solution for Somalia’s problems) was seen more than two hundred years ago; and I always quote, in this connection, a relevant and illuminating couplet from Alexander Pope (1688 – 1744):

 

“For forms of government let fools contest;

Whatever is best administered, is best”

 

With the foregoing partly in view, I shall now proceed to discuss a few assertions and recommendations made by some Somali professors and other intellectuals in an effort to guide their compatriots to choose a form of government that would, presumably, ensure political instability. I shall also point out a general but misguided criticism of the federal system.

 

Read the complete analysis http://wardheernews.com/Articles_11/Feb/Geeldoon/05_In_Search_of_Solutions_for_Somalia.html