Letter to the Somali Diaspora by the Prime Minister of Somalia

[Shinbir Majabe]

I take this opportunity to engage in a dialogue with you as my government is in the middle of the implementation stage of major policy issues related to reconciliation and political outreach, constitutional dialogue and security matters. Also, a most important task awaits us and that is how to manage both the end-of-transition and post-transition political streams through a process that is as socially less disruptive and as fair and transparent as possible.

 

As a government, we were presented with challenges and opportunities, with each challenge and opportunity marking an important milestone, and I must stress that we have successfully withered the challenges, especially the famine which caused loss of lives and properties and also caused thousands of IDPs to pour into major cities. My government is ever grateful to the right worldly support extended to my people and in particular we will never forget the brotherly hood support delivered to us in his own hands together with his family members and government officials by H.E. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Prime Minister of Turkey.

 

We also took on the challenges of Alshabab’s insurgency in the middle of Mogadishu and successfully drove them out of Mogadishu starting in August 2011 and onwards. And we are in the middle of recovering large swaths of territory hitherto controlled by extremists.

 

On the other hand, we turned some challenges into opportunities. Since 2000, successive transitional governments have been presented with shopping lists of deliverables numbering close to 20, from security, peace, good governance, DDR, health care provision, the building of civil administrations on and on. The list was too long, too unfocused and too unrealistic for it to be built into workable benchmarks. Our strategy in consultation with other stakeholders was to streamline the deliverables into manageable and realistic goals and encapsulate them with complimentary policy directions matched by clear timelines through a concisely mapped out Road Map. The Four strategic goal elements of the Road Map as you are familiar with, are (a) Reconciliation and Political outreach (b) Completion of the constitution making process © delivery of good governance structures and © security.

 

It is on these policy issues that I want to start a dialogue with the Diaspora as we go forward towards the completion of the process to end the state of permanent transitions that our successive governments and our society have been subjected to over the past twenty years. I want to start this dialogue with you because I believe that you are one of best assets of our society: you are free, you are educated, you have resources and you are also opinion makers through your personal connections on the ground, through the internet and social media, media that are changing the way we communicate even within Somalia. Above all, judging from the various media sources, you are very much engaged and attuned to the unfolding events in the country, a testament to your commitment the old country.

 

Going back to the four component benchmarks in the Road Map, I offer you this progress report and I do sincerely hope that you bring your input into the mix so that we can improve these strategies together.

 

Security:

 

The security situation in Somalia has improved considerably since we took office. We started with the defeat of Al-Shabaab in Mogadishu in August 2011, and the subsequent mopping out operations of AMISOM and our forces in the rest of the city. Today almost 100% of Mogadishu is TFG-controlled, and Al-Shabaab has been reduced to fighting the population with cowardly hit-and-run tactics such as suicide bombs.

 

Securing all of Somalia is one of our key priorities, so with the assistance of AMISOM,and allied forces, we have taken the fight to Al-Shabaab-held territories around the country and are succeeding in liberating different parts of the country, including Gedo, Juba, central Somalia and Hiiraan.

 

We have developed a 3-year National Stabilization and Security Plan (NSSP) that envisions the rebuilding of our army, our police force and our justice institutions, as well as the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of our youth so that we can turn these youth actual citizens of a peaceful country.

 

It is most gratifying to see for the first time in many years, the streets and throughways of our capital city opening up and bustling with commerce and filled with cars, pedestrians and hawkers, and citizens sprucing up their properties and painting them in bright colors. It is also equally gratifying to see in the streets and alleyways of Mogadishu and also in the beeches many young children happily playing soccer in open make shift fields, with the certainty and self confidence that the days of destruction, of mortars and shelling of civilians and children are over.

 

Reconciliation:

 

Social reconciliation is a necessity if we are going to find a way to get past the abuses and atrocities of the last 20 years. The Somali people need to rebuild the trust that has been lost in violent conflict, resource conflicts, clan rivalry, religious ideology battles, etc. My government has signed an agreement with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to dig 600 boreholes in order to address rural conflicts, mainly water-sharing conflicts. On the national level, we have been active in bringing together the TFG, regional administrations such as Puntland and Galmudug, and Ahlu Sunna Wal Jamaa to sit down and agree to support the Roadmap priorities and process. We are also encouraging local communities in various regions and districts to kick start local governance and local economic development.

 

The TFG has also supported local level reconciliation and peace building initiatives across the country, including but not limited to, sending reconciliation delegations to Galmudug, Ximan and Xeeb, Puntland and Gedo to reconcile conflicting groups. We have developed a policy and strategy to reconcile communities in the newly liberated areas, a process that will lead to the re-establishment of local civil as well as law enforcement administrations.

 

We are also in the middle of setting up peace committees in many regions and districts of the country and the mandate of these committees would be to reduce resource based conflicts before they snowball into civil and clan wars, to mediate conflicts and also to foster a culture of peace through dialogue among communities.

 

Constitution:

 

The Transitional Federal Charter calls on our government to complete a constitutional process to bring the transition to an end. We are now in the final six months of this process. The Independent Federal Constitution Commission has diligently worked over the past few years to produce a draft constitution; a Committee of Experts is now working on it to finalize and then harmonize some of the large outstanding questions, such as our future system of government and the nature of the federalism we will adopt. They will be conducting intensive public consultations over the next few months. In line with the Garowe Principles adopted at the First National Consultative Constitutional Conference held in December 2011, a national constituent assembly shall be convened in May 2012 to provisionally adopt the new constitution and usher in a new era of Somalia’s political future, based on processes, fair play and not on personalities or group identities.

 

Let me remind you that it is necessary for societies that have undergone protracted conflict to examine their social and political arrangements and begin dialogue on a renewed and revised social contract. Thus the constitutional making process under way would be a parallel process and tool for conflict resolution and reconciliation as the various stakeholders in our society publicly debate about fundamental and foundational issues-fundamental rights and the state, systems of governance, the relationship between the center and the periphery and the desirability of devolution and decentralization so that governments become responsive to citizens including those who reside in rural communities.

 

Reforming our parliament is another key priority and as we approach the end of this transitional period, we will start the process of selecting our future lawmakers, focusing on the creation of a leaner, more efficient parliament.

[Shinbir Majabe]

Good Governance:

 

My government is committed to the strengthening of Somalia’s public institutions as well as the transparent management of our public assets and finances. We are committed to putting in place system wide sturdy integrity institutions that can glue back the compact between the citizens and public institutions. Towards that goal, we have overseen the streamlining of the revenue collection system and have prepared our 2012 budget that was approved by the Council of Ministers in December 2011. We have revived Somalia’s Bureau for Investigation of Corruption and we plan to turn it into a robust anti-corruption institution. My government has also initiated a proposed Joint Financial Management Board that will ensure the channeling of both public financial management and international aid efficiently and effectively towards social and economic dividends to Somali citizens. We cannot allow a handful of selfish individuals to sabotage the future of all of Somalia anymore.

 

I write to you at a time of momentum and high hopes. We are heading to London in less than two weeks to attend the most high profile international dialogue on Somalia since our troubles began. We welcome and appreciate the global spotlight currently shining on Somalia, and we expect much from this Conference, but we must caution ourselves that it is the responsibility of the Somali human agency that can make the painful changes that are necessary to be undertaken. Those necessary changes require a change of heart, mind and attitude that focuses on the future and places all trust on reconciliation, forgiveness, dialogue and compromises, and also makes a clean break with the irrational zero-sum game which is a common feature in Somali politics. The Somali communities are in the proverbial prisoner’s dilemma and unless we cooperate for the common good, we will perish together. The Diaspora community is best positioned to play the role of paramount catalyst for this transformative process to materialize and as such, it must rise o the occasion.

 

My government is working very hard to ensuring that we end the transition by 21 August 2012 and we are aiming to have The Somali people find themselves perched at a crossroads. My government strongly believes Transparency, Openness and engaging with communities. There are regular and on-going Town Hall Meetings with TFG Leaders taking questions from the public. The aim of these meetings is transparency and accountability to the public at large. I have instructed all ministers to address the public through radios and TVs to discuss the progress of their ministries.

 

Ahead of us are two paths – one will lead us out of our state of perpetual transition towards a brighter future. The other will lead us back to where we came from, in a circle, and we will continue in circles, heading nowhere. My government is working hard on ensuring we take the first path, and we need all the support of every single Somali, in the country and in the Diaspora. We must work together and invest our energy, our resources and most of all, our imaginations in our collective future. Together we must re-imagine, re-invent and reconstitute the failed state that was ours and knit back together the various parts of this whole that we collectively and so cavalierly destroyed a long time ago. It can be done with the right frame of mind, and with your help.

 

 

 

Thank you.

[OdaySomali]

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