Column
[SW Column] ( Haji Mohamed “Sangooye”) Somalia: Alternative Concept of Leadership :Posted on 8 May 2002

Opinions expressed in this column are those of the contributors and not necessarily those of SW.

Somalia: Alternative Concept of Leadership

by Haji Mohamed “Sangooye” sangooye@hotmail.com

Somalia is for most political commentators synonymous with a series of unstable fiefdoms, each with its own warlord. The assumption is that warlords are the closest thing to organization and control because of an absence of government. This assumption led to an exaggeration of their power as evidenced by occasional visits by UN, EU and regional diplomats to their fiefdoms and worst of all reinforced and cemented the belief amongst every section of Somali society that warlords can serve to protect their legitimate and some times illegitimate clan interest. The fact of the matter is that warlords are the embodiment of a society that is immature, with inbuilt anarchical tendencies and with no elite political culture. Viewed in this context searching for an alternative concept of leadership for Somalia makes perfect sense.

It is no exaggeration to say that the average Somali possesses the highest dose of false pride in the world. He is his own master. He is the most noble of all men. He is superior to all races. He is a refugee but despises the hand that feeds him. The relationship between him and his own leader is based on the principle of primus inter pares - first among equals. Subjugation and blind obedience to a leader is not part of the Somali character. Access to a leader is unfettered. In fact it may be unique to Somalis that when Somalia leader of sort, traditional or bastardized such as warlords (in the sense of being neither traditional nor truly modern) addresses his own kinsmen his place of stay teams with people of all walks of life with unhindered and equal access to the leader. This is inbuilt culture of equality has been part and parcel of the Somali character for centuries. Hence, Somalis are victims of their own culture .

The advent of colonialism to Somalia had little effect on changing Somalia’s leadership style. On the contrary, European colonial authorities had used Somalia’s kinship leadership as a route to establishing colonies in Somalia by doing deals with different clan chieftains. The Italian colonial authorities introduced the status of Capo Cabil or clan leader and accorded them high status and similarly the British signed treaties with different clan chieftains in the protectorate of Somaliland. Unlike many other African colonies, recruiting elite future leaders among Somalis was not accomplished as very conservative Somalis shied away from sending their children to what they saw as an education with Christianizing influence.

When the British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland merged in 1960, the new leadership in the country was not a reformed and enlightened elite group of civil servants but rather a group of civilians containing only few who did train briefly under Italian trusteeship. What followed was a bruising experience with democracy gone mad Somali style. In a true testimony to Somali character, the country failed to produce an effective political party apparatus with hierarchical leadership. Instead, in a chaotic and unparalleled abuse of democratic norms, almost every clan in the country created its own party, each with fancy names such the party of Fire.

Inevitably, the military stepped in 1969 with disastrous consequences. The new breed of military leadership was superficially a hierarchical leadership under the Supreme Revolutionary Council but the leader of the so called 21 October revolution failed in his bid to tame Somalis and was only able to rule through the combination barrel of the gun, political horse trading and clan appeasement. In fact, Somalia’s presidential palace hosted large almost daily feasts for different clan chieftains. One would hear daily, the president is tonight entertaining certain Ugas, Garad, Sutan and Malaq. Thus, he was led by the tide of conflicting clan interest and has never ruled personally. Ultimately, Barre’s lack of effective leadership marked the collapse of the first experiment of collective leadership in the history of Somalis.

As to be expected since early 90s Somalis returned to their old style leadership that borders anarchy but with one notable difference-warlord have replaced traditional leaders and modern weaponry replaced spears and the old spear bearers became gun totters. In a true Somali style leadership, the warlord and the militiaman have equal relationship. The militiaman is free to roam around and thuggishly extort money from the unarmed and the less armed without impunity. He is free to retire any time he wishes. The warlord has only persuasive power emanating from clan affiliation and nothing more and the militiaman is a freelancer in this sense. The living proof for this is the fact that Somali warlords have attended more than 13 Somali peace conferences and put their signatures to agreements, none of the peace conferences bore fruit, and the simple explanation for this is that warlords do not lead. Hence, their power is an illusive one. Consequently, Somalia is today the only modern society where deeply flawed anarchy is practiced. The intriguing question is what kind of alternative leadership is suitable for Somalia?

It would be absurd to suggest that a modern day society with large population should maintain anarchy and remain without any form of leadership. Thus, anarchical form of maintaining organization and order is not an option. Equally, any option that ignores Somalia’s current circumstances would be fruitless and the option suggested in this article will be viewed in the context of Somalia’s current situation.

To establish effective state apparatus and ultimately collective national leadership Somalia needs to make its own diagnosis of its own disease, prescribe its own medicine, and eventually cure its seemingly incurable disease by adopting a temporary model of state befitting its current situation. This objective can be achieved in the following ways:

A national Somali trust should be established for the benefit of restoring Somalia by Somalia's large Diaspora, which involves allowing every Somali to pay as long as necessary $1 or another fixed or unlimited amount to the trust. (Imagine every Somali in the Diaspora paying $1 to the trust. The amount raised can easily buy all the guns in Mogadishu). The trust shall have legal entity and constitution and have its headquarter in a western country with highly developed legal system so as to make sure that any mismanagement of funds or abuse of power are answered by its prospective board of trustees t thus making them accountable.
The national trust should immediately facilitate and fund recruiting a credible, educated and able Somalis for the leadership of the country on meritocracy bases and categorical not on clan basis. Somalis will never reach political maturity on the bases of clan balancing act.
Those selected after vigorous preparation will form a political party with effective hierarchical organization and leadership.
The new party should present a national program or manifesto suitable for the current situation in the country.
A new government formed by the party and led by the party should be formed in exile.
There should be separation of powers between members of exiled government and party members i.e. no member of the government should be a member of the party so as to maintain checks and balances between the two. For example, the party will scrutinize the government to make sure the principles behind its formation are respected.
The new government in exile shall take all the necessary steps to including persuasive power and if necessary by force to implement its own national program on the ground in Somalia. This might involve establishing bases inside Somalia and recruiting its own fighting force or buying arms from the streets. At a time of national tragedy, the end justifies thee means.
As forces of good triumph over evil and the government in exile returns home. Its first priority should be maintaining stability and establishing strong and independent legal system that is not only fair but also seen to be fair and eventually to a working stable democracy that is feasible and different from the form of democracy adopted in the 60s. This will ultimately lead the way for a prosperous, respected Somalia, taking its place in the club of nations.

Somalia’s leadership crisis is deeply rooted in Somalia’s imperfect culture of leadership. The current so-called leadership in Somali exercises illusive power, thus failed to bring stability to the country. They are immature, shortsighted clan based factions without any ideological identification. The time is ripe for educated Somalis to pull themselves together and save what is salvageable of this once respected nation of the Horn of Africa that is deeply wounded nation that has failed to fulfill its aspiration to become a respected, independent and equal nation in the club of nations . Today Somalia is at its weakest moment and badly needs its enlightened citizens to rise from the ashes and realize that their country needs them than ever before. It is ironic that 42 years ago during their nation’s independence Somalis of all ages sung “Waxa timi ayaantii anagoo itaal daran na xureeyay eeboo ummadaha la simannne’ which in English translates; Finally, the day has arrived when God made us free in our weakest moment and became equal to other nations’ only to find themselves in a situation worse than colonial days.

[Column]