Why We Should Not Rebuild the Somali State
Coarsely stated, the average Somali person is now wondering whether a strong Somali State, if resuscitated or more correctly, if created, can get a grantee not to be assaulted or worse killed, first and foremost by such a future state – or whether it is better to continue with current dishonorable affairs of life resulting from the absence of a modern and strong Somali State.
To be, or not to be: that is the Somali question and there are no easy answers to the puzzle. As much as Shakespeare’s1602 ideas, language and culture are foreign and alien to Somalis, so is the concept of a state to the average Somali person. But uncertainty and fear of what is unknown is all too human. And so when Hamlet says:
…But that the dread of something after death, the undiscover’d country from whose bourn No traveler returns, puzzles the will…
The average Somali’s decidedly dissatisfied life in the absence of a functioning Somali state and resulting disastrous torments, are as long and painful as hamlet’s tormented life in Shakespeare’s play, as are the uncertainties Somalis have about the future that Hamlet could not bear as well. The current Somali situation is dreadful; the future is unknown and the undiscovered state is all too puzzling.
Is democracy feasible in Somalia?
The 2016 Presidential elections in Somalia will take place before the Somali people can agree on, let alone secure, a political order based on rule of law, unless drastic measures are taken. First, the current federal interim constitution is by all account a flawed document and it is far from what a constitution should be; a document enshrining the inspiration of the people, their fears and hopes, and reflecting approximately a people’s peculiar histories. So long as the Somali people cannot feel and see themselves in their current interim constitution, they cannot and should not be expected to trust it fully or defend such a document. As a result, not all, but a significant number of the Somali people, the legitimacy of the current constitution is suspect at best, and at worst absent.
Such a document cannot be the founding base of a nation. Still, a majority of the Somali people do not want to rebuild the predatory Somali state that was. Similarly, majority of Somali people do not want a weakly federated or more charily, a “balkanized” Somalia, in which both the soul and the strength of the Somali nation continues to suffer under the mighty weight of unwelcomed foreign intercourse. In short, the Somali debate about federalism or centralism is and has been as bad as the current Somali politics; it was and continues to be an elite and foreign driven project with little connection to the average Somali man and women on the street. Getting what ought to be debated right is and should be as important as the product one intents to inherit.
So, What State?
Whatever else they may have had formerly; Somalis today have little to nothing of a shared identity from which a thriving state may appear. Like many Africans, Somalis are still dealing with a colonial legacy of arbitrary drawn maps and a large number of them are now lesser citizens of Ethiopia and Kenya resulting unhealthy neighborly relations. The Ethiopian and the Kenyan army race in Somalia as part of African Union Mission or on their own as they have so often done, is also part of this colonial legacy. Secondly, the state itself continues to be conceptually a foreign object, both to the governed and the governors in Somalia. Most Somalis, if they were a little more honest with themselves, would attest to their more enduring affinity with own tribes than a Somali state. The support for or against the current President, like his predecessors, are almost entirely based on tribal identity – and for very good reasons. Like many Africans, the Presidency to the average Somali is a central location where the tribe goes to collect goodies. Anything from who gets foreign scholarship aide to who workers for the state is a function of who occupies the Presidency. Worse, the past dictatorial regime, which unfortunately is the only real Somali state that most Somalis remember, was a one-man show and used its entire state political and administrative institutions of coercive powers of the army, police, and the courts – to reward those who obeyed and punish enemies, real or perceived, purely and collectively on tribal basis. This form of “stateness” is another unfortunate legacy of the Somali history. Another two-plus decade of civil war barbarism followed the collapse of the despotic regime in 1991, cementing the Somali collective consciousness that the state is either a tribal goose or it is known to be predatory and evil; hence the much more enduring affinity with own tribal identities than that unknown foreign concept of a State. Hence, as external enemies devour what remains of Somalia, the Somalis are busy with each other. It is no longer a question of whether the Somali state can be rebuild, but whether what remains of the Somali nation can be saved.
But to hear Somali politicians, pundits and elites talk about future Somali state is to witness an alternative universe altogether. They talk about rebuilding the “state” either in a federated or centralized forms naturally and uncontroversial as if there is a known and all agreed but lost Somali state to which all Somalis want to returned to collectively. Nothing could be further from reality. From today and moving forward, I suggest that Somalis should stop talking about rebuilding what never was. Instead, we should talk about building a new state that is consistent with our new fragmented identities.
Creating a democratic Somali State?
Because defining democratic state is a futile exercise, I will not waste anyone’s time on it here, but I will share some of the very lovable characteristics of a democratic state. A responsive, inclusive, representative, and open government that respects the rights of all minorities with market economy and free press, and one where the rule of law is supreme is a democratic state. Compared to their counter parts, there is little debate both about how well-off democratic societies are economically and the desirability of a democratic ways of life around the world. Evidently, people around the world are voting with their feet every day and their votes are in – fewer people are moving to where governments are undemocratic and poor!
It turns out democratic system is a problem-solving system. Almost every post-civil war society has taken up democratic governance as their preferred system. The thinking is very simple. No other system has done as well in helping a society to be fairer, more effective and more efficient. The good news is that every democratic state reflects and should reflect the peculiar history of its own people. Somalia will never be and should never be Norway, just as Norway is not United States of America even though both countries are strong liberal democracies. The point is, Somalis should think about creating a democratic state that works for them. The debate should be about how to create a responsive, inclusive and open government that respects the rights of all minorities with market economy and free press, and where the rule of law, and not the rule of men, is supreme. Much, much less important is whether such a system should be in a federated or a centralized form. Unfortunately, Somali elites, pundits and politicians are spending the least amount of time and energy or strategies on how to create a democratic state and lots on rebuilding the only predatory state they have known and which neither the average Somali person nor the world needs. This is why we should Not Rebuild such a Somali State for them.
By:Mohamed Keynan, Somali policy analyst.
mo.keynan@gmail.com