What Drives Somaliland? Words Without Actions Never To Heaven Go !

[Deeq A.]

Peace was the concept Somaliland people grew to accustom for 27 years, mostly meaning that maintaining peace and stability were the only credible conditions that could convince the world to recognize Somaliland as a separate state.

Of course besides peace and stability, there are other strategies more critical for Somaliland recognition than peace and stability. Good governance and growing democracy are the testimonies of how critically a country’s ruling elites are skilled to centre their focus, dedication and devotion on the cause of their own country.

Somaliland governments, specially Kulmiye administrations, showed no sign of good governance and growing political democracy, leave alone trials to improve ruling behavior since the year 2010, which is what really disappointed and discouraged the international communities.

The credibility of the quality of governance does not necessarily come from peace and stability. Peace is the glue of tranquility. And tranquility disappears in times of conflicts and clashes over privilege and power. A struggle for power and privilege leads man towards arrogance.

Arrogance corrupts man’s mind. It makes man immoral. Even the sense to know the difference between fair and unfair sounds invalid when arrogance affects human mind. Resultantly the beauty of life, which is the tranquility, starts to fade away. And that is when most mistakes that lead communities into distrust and discomfort begin.

Guess what follows formation of mistakes in human minds. Actions and reactions: Isn’t it?

All actions come from the mind. And actions are either right or wrong. A wrong action ends in a wrong result and a right action ends in a right result. An action is not reaped in the field of action unless a thought is sowed in the mind. We all act on what our driving desire is.

A desire is what satisfies our want, what we like to make, have or achieve. And as is our desire, so is our will. As is our will, so is our act. As is our act, so is our destiny.

Desires mostly determine the choices that human beings make when they make plans in their life. Thus the destiny of human beings is mostly the result of their choices. If Somaliland people learnt more of the truth of their own past choices, they would perhaps have fewer problems today.

Recalling what it is like to know where we are now and where we want to be is vital to our growth, socially, intellectually, economically and politically. One way to get a sense of why an abyss of politicall despair always exists in Somaliland is that most of us never seem to recognize what is worth knowing and understanding.

Of course knowing and understanding help us make changes in our life and build on our areas of strength as well as identify areas where we would like to make improvements. In other words, being fully aware of what we are good at while acknowledging what we still have to learn and more importantly where our choices politically lead us to is extremely important.

To elaborate the point, we owe our history to how we ought to ensure that the way we handle our affairs remains resilient and realitistic with what is right and wrong, or more accurately, what we ought to know is if what was right two decades ago continues to remain equally right today. If we cannot identify what has gone wrong and what mistakes we made, we will never discover how to set wrong things right.

It is natural for nations to grow and develop and if they are not growing, there comes a time to know why. What is constant is the core essence of who we are. Who we have become is a question that invites us to look deeper into what we are and where we stand now as a nation.

Are we happy with where we are as a nation? If not, what aspects would we change and will this result in the nation we want to be? Are we proud of the democracy we seem to embrace and obsess with? Can our current political democracy deliver even a small portion of our desired goals? Do we, as Somaliland citizens, honestly observe the pillars that democracy requires? How can we feel anything but ashamed when we look at what we have become? These are questions to answer because they require thoughtful examination.

What makes a system of government more desirable is what it promotes and preserves. A government system is a home where the dignity of all people is being protected and celebrated as an elinghtened system. Our democratic system can have a cause for celebration when we observe its guiding principles that promote and protect moral responsibility, work ethics, merits of service, quality of education, justice, transparency, and accountability.

These observations leave us embracing a truth for which we have nothing else other than to learn, know and own constant awareness as a way of life and join in building social and political evironment that will carve a new future for our hopes to become a reality.

No system can eliminate crime. Nor saints be able to eradicate human errors and ignorance. The remarkable thing is, humans have a choice (a decision) to select one thing over another. What really occured is that Somaliland people have let their ruling policies and plans kidnapped by people with an improvished sense of what the collective good might be.

A core problem with Somaliland democracy is the love of power and privileges. Perhaps the motive is simple: “You argue instead of talking sense only when you have nothing to say to convince the public.”

To confuse the people and keep them in kraals is one way of how blind leadership begins. It is how bad governance was and is seeded in the minds of the gullible people and how it worked and still continues to work for few who gained power and privileges.

A governing system begins to slip long before it falls. If the slip becomes consistent, the system of government will end in a wicked state, as history is our guide.

The governing system of Kulmiye party leaked in one direction in the first phase of decline. Kulmiye party ran in the direction that always leaning on tribalism since 2010 and this shows that Kulmiye’s loyalty to this country is questionable. The situation demands that Kulmiye foibles should not evaporate without raising some questions about credibility.

National vision is a vital concern; but no one has exclusive claims on honesty. Vision without action is just fantasy. To fulfil vision, people must be able to effectively work together, and their experiences must be captured to create a source of shared learning that improves future sense.

The world knows that Kulmiye politicians always ignore what really works for their country, sow dissension among society to pull communities apart and keep them divided, steal public property to make the nation poor, lead the nation with lies to lead the country to hell, and govern the nation without vision to keep the people in suspense and darkness, because they work for themselves and not for the country.

Deniability of the impactive problems that always hinder Somaliland progress include tribal politics, limitless greed, unrestrained corruption, nepotism, bribery, abuse of power for personal gains, lack of knowledge, and lack of implementing and enforcing the rule of law that can punish the wrongdoers. Why these hurting problems remain unaddressed and still excessively continue to work, let alone trying to mitigate their impacts?

Things could be different if we were wiser. Because reality is far more complex than the simplistic single approach we grew to accustom, which is “let things-shape-themselves attitude.” It is not worth living in an unexamined governing system. It is sad why Somaliland people have not yet come to understand that they live in a system that does not have a function of check and challenge.

There is no functional strategy more crucial and critical for good governing system than consistent reform and resilience. Another way nations might be able to improve the ability to manage problems is by replacing what does not work well with what works well for the nation. When people deny and hide their weakness, and fail to admit their mistakes, they do not know that their development is virtually arrested. Which is typically what has been lagging Somaliland behind since the year 2010.

If we don’t make time to examine in how we are ruled and led socially and politically, it may catch up to us, as we see today. Why? The answer is Kulmiye political leaders are dictated by their unconscious desires instead of being led by their conscious choices. They have a habit of reacting to their own personal interests instead of responding to the demands, needs and requirements of the people they represent.

The reasons of why Somaliland is internationally isolated is the world has witnessed that Kulmiye party never seem to learn, know and form a kind of an inclusive administration whose national ambition is to create a self-correcting system in which elements of check and challenge and balance are the operating keys.

The international community learned that Kulmiye political strategy has just been a mere business that only puts money into a politician’s pocket, and that the manners in which Kulmiye administrations work is always meant to build policies and plans to amass opulent wealth, no more, no less.

Independence is not only when you liberate yourself from oppression, but it is when you free your mind from the influence of those who insult your intelligence. Somaliland people need to liberate themselves from the system that is being built by few individuals who, by abusing public mandate, gained power and privileges.

A bad governing system is like a flat tire; we cannot go anywhere until we change it. It is sad when your choice becomes the chain that keeps you chained to ground. Two wrongs don’t make a right, the collaboration of bad choice and bad leadership.

By: Jama Falaag
Hargeisa, Somaliland

jamafalaag@gmail.com

As per usual the opinions expressed in this articale are those of the author and do not reflect the opinions of qarannews.com

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