Series of papers that I have written 2

[Zaylici]

Samtalis Hussein Haille

 

Dear Friends I would like to share with you some of my thoughts with regard to the following questions: what can we do to contribute to the process aimed at ending the conflicts in the Somali inhabited territories of Horn of Africa, this includes Somali west and former Republic of Somalia. Your response to this thought is highly appreciated, however, for thought to be fruitful it is necessary that you put thought in to your response so that we may develop collectively.

Emotion based arguments are not progressive that is they hinder our tendencies to grow and achieve perfection, so, it is therefore a matter of necessity, that you suppress your feelings, and think about the subject of interest in profound way, in so doing, all of us will benefit, by consuming the product of our thoughts.

To better answer this question I must classify people to different classes and groups, I would start with educated masses, education here is not limited to the academy but it includes acquired knowledge through experience or accumulated of wisdom. This class would called bourgeoisie, bourgeoisie here is not meant in the Marxist sense, but simply to symbolize the metropolitan character of this class compared to other groups in the country such as Camel herders, ( Geel jirayaal) or peasants ( Beeralay). Striking feature that captures the eye of the casual observer is the opportunities that are available to them( such as education, chance to make money, or the information that they can potentially access for personal consumption) as well as the environment they find themselves.

 

In the history of mankind bourgeoisie has always been the agent of change and progress, however, the role taken by this class in different countries and the realties that they have produced shows some remarkable variation. What makes certain bourgeoisie class more successful than others and what are the primary preconditions that are necessary for this class to lead the society in to better life in light of complex socioeconomic and political structure of the world would be subject of our meditation .To answer this question we need to study the specific features of the country under the scrutiny, given the relative success or the failure of this class (bourgeoisie) generally determines the socioeconomic and political destiny of the entire state, it will be noble cause for us to delve in to annual of history to better comprehend the basic structures of the socioeconomic and political discourse of Somali society. To achieve this end we will study the history of the region.

 

History

 

There is historical evidence from reliable source to suggest that the Somali inhibited territory of horn of Africa was land of civilization, which was populated since pre historic time. Starting from Puntite kingdom which flourished before the Common Era to Muslim sultanates that dominated the Somali peninsula and adjacent Muslim states for the last millennia. These city-states had produced tremendous wealth due to their commercial ties with the outside world particularly Arabian peninsula, India and other Eastern societies., we were informed by both writings left by the ancient Egyptians particularly those in the temple of Dayr-el-Bahari on the west bank of the Nile, and the Perpilus of the Erythrean sea that Puntites during ancient times and Berbers during the Time of Christ have used their own bouts to transport commercial goods to Arabia and Egypt and possibly to the far East,to suggest that no coastal cities flourished Pre-Islamic Horn of Africa is essentially ethnocentric and biased reconstruction of history to the least.

Eastern coast of Africa was center of commerce that has connection with eastern societies since time immemorial. The oldest known material with regard to the commerce was Palermo stone (the oldest written book in the Egyptian history) which informs us that there was commercial relationship between ancient Egypt and Eastern coast of Africa known at that time as Punt or land of the gods. Some time around the Christ (May Lord grant him peace) we are informed the existence of large Somali Cities by the Peripilus of the Erthraean sea, this book is considered a major reference book with regard to the ancient commerce in the eastern nations, the name of the author is not known probably he was Egyptian of Greek origin. The Somali cities mentioned in this book are the following Zaila( Avalites), Berbera(Malao), Mosullon (Bandar Kasim, known also by the Somali as Bosaso, it is 260 miles east of Berbra)Bandar Hais (Mundus) Ras Hafun(Opene, it is worth while to notice that this is a corruption of Punt, as many historians believe, and this place is about 90 miles below the famous Cape Guardafui( known to the Somalis as Ras Asayr) Mogadishu(Serapion) Brava(Nicon). It is interesting to note that the author calls this area stretching from Zaila to the entire Gulf of Berbera(Aden, it was only recently people started calling this Bay Gulf of Aden, in the last two Miliinia people have been calling this bay, as gulf of Berbera, or gulf of Zayla and therefore I chose to do so) as other Barber country, it is not coincidence that we learn from the famous Muslim expoler Ibnu Batuta who visiting both Mogadishu and Zayla at 1313, mentions in his famous book travel ( or Rehlaha), that the residents of the Mogadisho were Beber origin and spoke Beber language. He farther informs us that the city housed large student population and the Sultan had writer who recorded all secret information, there are important implications to this simple assertion and they are the following.

Somali coastal cities were not founded By Arabs or the Persians

 

Mogadisho and other coastal cities in the Somali peninsula were there since time immemorial as we were informed by the Peripilus, even if we were to grant that that the foreigners once dominated the city, and then this was not the case certainty at 1300 AD. The claim by some locals that the city of Mogadisho was a walled city and that the local natives were not allowed to sleep at night is fabricated fantasy that has no historical evidences. But one might say that why some authors say that Somali coastal cities were founded by middle Easterners, some authors who propagated this story have also claimed that the Somalis were not African indigenous but immigrants from southern Arabia, to this day of my writing Some encyclopedia (among them Colombia encyclopedia, search the word Hamites, they have version on the web) claim that that the Somalis are Caucasians decent that is they are the same racial stock that dominates continental Europe. So it is fair to say that there is underlining tendency in many authors to credit others than the native people when it comes to the history and civilization, although, they may have their own reasons which is different than ours, however, we must grant to them the benefit of doubt, thus affording to them, to present historical evidences not biased historical speculations. .

 

Somalis are not oral society

 

The first scholar to study the Somali language was Sheikh Yusuf al kownayn, Known as Aw Barkhadle in northern Somalia (or modern republic of Somaliland), and his tomp is visited by many Somalis to this day of my writing, and he was relative to the ruling family of Adal kingdom.

 

Starting from the time Islam has arrived the horn of Africa, Somalis and other Muslims in the region have contributed to the production and preservation of Muslim and local literature, it is not surprising then that we learn that the major reference book (which has numerous volumes) of the Hanafi school of law (Muslim school of law, dominant in the Asian subcontinent), is written by Imam Zaili’e, his proper name was Jamal Muhammad Yusuf Mohammed Ayub born and grew up in Northern Somalia, particularly in the legendary city as well as the imperial seat of the celebrated Adal kingdom, the magnitude of the works produced by the Somalis is another subject, which I will cover in subsequent paper, however, it might be enough to note that there are entire sections in the modern Egyptian house of books and medieval Mosque of Umayyad Dynasty in Damascus dedicated to the works published by the local Muslim scholars as well as students from this region (horn of Africa). The subjects covered in this works extend from jurisprudence( fiqi), mystics, poetry, law and history to the prevailing social and political conditions. Some of these works could also be found in private libraries in Somalia as well as public libraries around the world, particularly in Europe and Middle East. Large portion of these works were published in Arabic although some of these works were also written in Somali with Arabic alphabet. It is interesting to note that Europe which is land of civilization with considerable intellectual history was employing Latin as medium of expression for science and philosophical discourses as late as two hundred years ago, in fact the great German philosopher Emanuel kant wrote his dissertation paper in Latin about two hundred years ago, therefore, the use of vernacular languages, or put it differently, the linguistic nationalism or the pride one takes in his own language and its use as medium of literary works is recent phenomena, although there are exceptions to this assertion.

Therefore, it is not surprising to contend that that the Somalis were producing their works in Arabic prior 19th century, however, this has changed due to the growth of the population and the compelling desire of the scholars to communicate with masses so as to diffuse knowledge and create greater sense of community. Sheik Aways Muhammad Barawi( 1847-1909) born in Brava, he went to Iraq and studied in Baghdad from (1870-188), and visited numerous places in the Islamic world, upon his return to Somalia he visited Mogadishu and met with numerous scholars, and then he left to the south particularly areas between the two the two rivers, where he was recognized as leader of the Qadiriya order.

He founded the farming communities called Jama’at literally means communities that have celebrated Muslim cultural heritage through the production of poetry (mainly in the form of Sufi poetry that are designed to celebrate the personalities of Prophet Mohammed may Lord grant him peace and other prominent Muslim saints both locally and internationally) thus creating the sprit of brotherhood among Somali communities. It is worth while to mention that he was among the first people to produce major literary works in Somali based Arabic alphabet, a major portion of his work are currently in my possession and can also be found in both private Somali libraries and in some libraries around the world.

Significant figure related to the Somali writing history was Osman Keenidid, being religious man with high degree of political consciousness, he produced the first Somali alphabet known initially as Osmania and later it was named far Soomaali, (or called in Somali , taken form recently published article in the Somalinet ) or Somali writing. This script had been used to record literature and numerous books were written in this script, it was also used in school as late as 1972, as matter of fact the Syl the Somali nationalist political movement of 1940s had used it as official language until it was dominated by Pro Arab groups led by Haji Mohammed Hussein who was the president of the S.y.l from 1948-1952 and also 1957-58, he also advocated Somalia not to participate the European Economic community, he also combined the use of the Arabic alphabet in order to narrow the gab between the Somalis and Muslim world. Cotemporary to Osman kenided was Abdirahman Shiekh Nur, Judge Qadi of Boreme, who also devised Boreme script 1933, which was later used by the merchants as well as local people. He used the script the script to record his own works. Prior the invention Boreme script he used Arabic alphabet to record Somali works, however, this script never achieved national recognition in the same way as the “Somali writing.” The Somali alphabet was used until the military took over the country and introduced the Latin alphabet, there are also numerous people who devised scripts late 1940s, and 50s including Hussein sheik Ahmed Kadere, the great Philosopher and many others. Therefore, it is baseless and biased judgment of history to say that Somali was oral language before 1972, it is also disrespect and lack of appreciation to the great works of the Somali scholars who dedicated their life to the advancement of Somali language. As matter of fact we can find to day( 2002) many books written in the indigenous scripts both in private libraries and public libraries around the world, by the way some of them are currently in my possessions.

It is interesting to note that the pro Somali scripts are not entirely dead, infact, one of the great champions of the Somali alphabet Dr Hirsi Magan, the former student of anthropology is currently visiting Europe, to accelerate the production of software that can be used to write the Somali alphabet, he views the use of the Latin script in Somali language as form of prostitution!. Nevertheless the pro Arab movements are also very powerful to day, in fact there are two groups, the first group who was represented by the Dr. Ibrahim Hashi who actively participated the glorious struggle to liberate the western Somalia, he has produced books in Somali based on Arabic alphabet, he used to say let us use the language of the Quran glorifying the use of the Arabic alphabet, however, with high degree of confidence we can say that this movements is dead. The second movements in the pro Arab comp believed the use of Arabic language as the official language as well as the school language, this movement is currently powerful and in fact they have benefited from the lawlessness by creating schools that not only use Arabic as the medium of instruction but also borrow entire curriculum of Arab states. This is particularly true in southern and northeastern Somalia. Pro Somali groups believed the use of the Somali language regardless the alphabet used, this group was dominant until 1972-1991, however, it seems their influence is decreasing due to their focus and preoccupation of socioeconomic and political problems of the country, so they are not bothered by the kind of education that they children are getting, believing that these schools are better than none. There is psychological dimension to this reality, from 1980s the institutions of the state was deteriorating and education was not an exception particularly the public schools, and note that the schools both in primary and secondary schools used Somali as medium of instruction, there were also some schools which used Arabic as the medium of instruction, for both pragmatic and exaggerated reasons the Somali public had perceived that the quality of the Arabic schools were much better than the Somali schools, as matter of fact the choke of the day was ( ma Alaahida ayaad dhigataa, waad fiicantihiin idinku) you study in Arabic you are good than others. This psychological climate have given the pro Arab groups an advantage than the Somali groups, there is also an economic advantage, most of the Arab/Muslim organization have greater tendency to support the schools that use the Arabic as medium of instruction than the once that use Somali as medium of instruction. These factors combined allow the rapid growth of schools that use Arabic language as well as the rapid decline of the schools that use the Somali as medium of instruction. Profound analysis to this social phenomena and elaboration of my understanding to this social development should be expressed in another treatise. Let us now move to the question that we asked at the beginning which was what can we do to end the conflict.

Neutrality

In order for you to deal with Somali problems or problems with Somali character, you need to establish a character of neutrality so as to start the process of ending the conflict. The first step in my opinion, it to be neutral.

I am not telling you to be absolutely neutral, because you could not expect perfect character from imperfect entity; perfection is the hallmark of God not a characteristic of members of human species. There are monumental implications to this simple logical statement, and they are the following.

1- Never expect someone to behave non-clanstic way in all the time, however, expect him/her to behave in non-Clanistic way most of the time. Mistakes should be forgiven, although sometimes they should be punished if proper institutions or conditions are in place.

2- Eliminate if possible or otherwise make the accumulated prejudices inactive, by considering the following steps.

a- Subconsciously tell your self that others are not necessarily wrong all the time, you must convince yourself also that some times you could be wrong, given this conviction you might proceed to the next step.

b- Appreciate the power of the situations, that is imagine what is like to be 15 year old gunmen who was not properly nourished nor have sufficient means to feed himself, imagine also Uncle Bidaar who is preoccupied with local politics and he is supported by internal and external forces, in this realm he losses his rationality because he behaves in manner not consistent to the behavior of ordinary human being.

c- Consider the supporters of all contending groups in Somali peninsula as your brothers and sisters, when in contact with them, defy their expectations, that is show them friendly attitude, and sincere desire to recreate the sprit of the brotherhood, even if the person’s behavior is motivated by prejudice or clanisitc stereotypes, see them as a prey of prevailing political conditions, refrain by using your utmost power to confirm their expectations. If you were to behave as they expected, both of you will be an instrument to historical end that will not favor your welfare.

d- Try to understand more objectively the various arguments employed by all groups as well as the emotions that are supplemented to make their case. Understand the limited scope as well as the simplistic nature of their argument, given the complexity of the time and the world that they are living in.

e- By assuming the role of neutrality the challenges are great, so always moderate your emotions, and show great tolerance.

f- Whenever you make an unnecessary mistake correct it, it is very painful to correct mistake when in fact you are not the one who initiated the mistake, however, this is the burden of the conscious man/women during difficult times.

g- Never pursue power, fame, at the expanse of the other, and in simple arguments never try always to win, be the listener in most cases, unless the circumstance necessitates otherwise.

h- Be fair to all even if you do not like their position.

i- Humans are dignified species and they treasure to be dignified, so dignify them too

j- Be creative, there are infinite ways to get to the same end, if one way does not work try other ways, do not be fixated in one way, humans have tendency to view things from one perspective, defy this tendency other wise unnecessary confrontation is eminent.

3- Your fundamental need to live as free man/women both in your region as well as in your clan is pragmatic and therefore granted, and under no circumstances could it be compromised. However, it is necessary to find sophisticated means to meet this end, in other words we need to explore ways that we can produce neutral experts Who can propose more realistic plan and create the necessary condition for the plan to be implemented. For example, we need some experts who solve the Kismayo/Mogadisho question, by figuring out ways that Darod, hawiye Dir, Digil/Mirifle, jareer the Great, Banadiri,Barawe, Midhiban, Bajuun and entire Somali speaking nations could coexist together, and I am convinced that there are ways that we can pursue collectively that can make this objective a reality. However, I am afraid we no longer have the pleasure to remain indifferent to the political evolution horn of Africa. History is very harsh to the spectators, who do not take part the painful process of making history. Our current course of history in Somali peninsula is very familiar when you look to the bloody history of mankind, the history is full of groups who fought against each other to the point of exhaustion, when this point is reached the painful chapter of the history starts to unfold, that is the time when contending groups become defenseless in the face of uncompromising predator who have infinite reasons to determine their destiny. When this time arrives history cannot be reversed. It is therefore necessary more then ever to take the Somali crisis seriously, particularly those of us who are in the Diaspora, because we are less burdened by the desire to survive compared to the people who live in the Somali mainland.

Part 2 would be published shortly

Please feel free to divide it in two parts, if that works for you best

The material would also be published in Somali shortly.

My email is hail0029@umn.edu

I am student at the university of Minisota

[Zaylici]

That is good

[Zaylici]

Series of papers 4

 

 

Haille Samatalis Hussein

 

Political development

The Somali people are among the nations who live in the eastern horn of Africa, they constitute the most homogenous people in the continent, history records that this land was occupied before the Common Era. However, this paper would to examine the impact of the political institutions on the social structure of the Somali society, and how the interactions of these entities shaped the socio political destiny of the state.

Social structure consisted of traditional institutions that administrated the various social groups that flourished during pre-colonial era. One must understand the relations between these traditional institutions and the ordinary people; in order the grasp the basic interactions between modern political institutions and the masses in the Somali republic.

What were the traditional institutions and the social groups that constitute the Somali social structure? Centralized Muslim principalities and local kingdom existed, however they never exerted authority on the bulk of the population (i.e. on the nomads of the north and peasants of the south) The highest institutions of the clan (is any group of people who share common ancestor, although, all Somali people share same language, religion, culture, but they subdivide themselves along some common ancestors, such form of association is very common through out the middle east) is the council ( in Somali shir.) This council attempts to find solution to all the matters that are important to the community; the council deliberates all matters of concerns in more democratic way. The absence of coercive power in the hand of the few permitted the continuation of these institutions for centuries. This council is farther supplemented by body of laws (this is mixture of ancient Somali law and Islamic shareia) that reinforce the social contracts between the individuals and groups. Therefore, most of the men could in principle participate in these political meetings if they so desire or could delegate someone to represent them. The community was not completely egalitarian wealth, prestige, age, religious knowledge, could give some individuals an extra Wight, but they were not in position to determine the course of the decision making process.

The informal council shir summoned as need arises, at every order of segmentation, and is attended by all adult men, or

their representatives chosen at smaller lineage-group shir, is the fundamental institution of government.. all men are councilors and politicians. Agreement are reached by majority decisions following the directions taken by the consensuses of feeling at a meeting1.

 

I must stress prior proceeding that these political institutions and an assembly of men were necessary reservoir for any genuine revolutionary thinking that aimed at liberating people and and forming and everlasting modern political institutions. Hannah Arendtnt in her book on Revolution envisions that the strength of American Revolution compared to the French revolution, was the existence of communities bonded by numerous compacts, mutual promises and compacts. Although, the Somali social and political organizations that existed in the pre-colonial times are not necessarily similar to those existed in the Americas, but they share an essential elements, such as mutual agreement, and the freedom of the individuals while creating the communities and the religious elements in constituting their body politic.

In the light of what we have depicted about the sociopolitical realities in Somali peninsula, one would expect that any attempt to radically transform Somali Political organization mast take in to account the countries’ old institutions to engineer modern political institutions that would guarantee the essentials of life and individual liberties, which is enshrined in Somali political life.

Prior discussing the Somali political institutions, we might ask ourselves the evolution of this political body, so as to enlighten ourselves the underlining dynamics of this organization.

Italy after losing the WWII renounced her territorial claim in Africa, this gave unprecedented opportunity to Somali nationalists to demand a complete independent and formation of Somali state. In early 1950 UN general assembly recommended that Italian Somalia be placed under international trusteeship for ten years with Italy as administrating power2. It was agreed at the end of this period independent would be granted to the Somali people. The chief aim of the trusteeship was to “ to foster the development of free political institutions and to promote the development of the inhabitant of the territory towards independence”3. To insure the above stated objective to be materialized, United Nations advisory council was established to monitor the progress of the administration. This reached its climax 1955 when the following political institutions were firmly established, executive, territorial and local administration, legislative, and judiciary.

Hence most of these organizations were still under the Italian administrations, we may closely analyze the role given to the majority of the populations and how in return this affected the development of the political institutions. Two types of local governments were established 1955 “district council in the rural area and municipal council in the towns and villages” 4). The district councils were mainly chiefs of the clans, notables and representatives of the local political parties. This gave an opportunity to the rural dweller to continue to have say on the political affairs of the state. The trust administration hoped to utilize the councils as the main instrument for the civic education of the nomads and it expected to grant the council financial, executive and legislative powers5. However, this council never flourished in the same way or even closer to that of the municipal council in the towns and villages. Territorial councils, which consisted above-mentioned organizations, were transformed 1956 to legislative assembly with large legislative powers. The urban populations elected the seats of the assembly and the people of rural area were asked to send representatives to the assembly. The reasons of the transformation from territorial council to the new assembly were mainly relevant to the prevailing conditions of the time, people wanted a catalyst to fasten the process of decolonization and creation of powerful political organizations that will free the nation from the existing conditions. However, they (majority of the population) did not paid a proper attention to the possible consequences of the unification of the of the territorial council and legislative assembly. The conventional thinking of the time was that the rural populations; particularly the nomads could not constitute a sedentary political community, because of their constant migrations. This created proper justifications for the rural population to be indirectly excluded from the political process. I admit that there is an element of truth to this argument and it is necessary but not sufficient grounds to abandon such an important means that channeled the political views of the majority of the people. I say it was not sufficient because the political discussions of the elites determined the fate of the of the nomad, therefore, it was inescapable fact to design ways and means to allow them to participate in shaping the counter’s fate.

Another reason why I Think alternate method would have been devised to substitute for the district council is that nomadic people in Somalia did not migrated randomly but rather on the bases of seasonal changes and environmental pressure which followed predictable pattern. Thus allowing a plan to be engineered to accommodate this way of life.

 

The urban population, which represented roughly 30% of the population mainly, elected the candidates for the legislature assembly, the assembly elected a president which formed a council headed by prime minister and ministers thus forming a government.

There are multitude of reason why the district council did not developed in to major political body, I have two reason why this did not happened, first the establishment of this body would have challenged the municipal council which was dominated the urban dwellers who can afford time to mind the political business unlike their collogues in the rural area who were pardoned by the need to survive through raising livestock and peasantry. Secondly, the rural populations did not possessed the necessary skills nor obtained the favorable conditions to materialize the historic opportunity, thus once again the rural population were subjected to people and laws that there were not aware of.

Let us examine this phenomenon for while; here I agree with Jefferson the significance of the ward system or the elementary republics that constitute the greater republic. Although, this idea is fictitious, nevertheless it is good measuring standard to see how a given conditions deviates from this ideal. I found this idea to be more relevant to my case of study.

First, since Aristotle Philosophers have observed the political nature of the human beings, that is to say we are political beings who find enjoyment in participating the circles that determine our political destinies. Therefore, any political institutions that are intended to last for long must be designed to nourish this political tendency thus achieving mutually reinforcing institutions and political community. Methods to achieve this end may vary depending on the characteristics of a given county. However, it remains within the human capacity and potentialities to develop means to achieve this favorable end.

The northwestern part of the Somali peninsula did not witnessed a political development that has similar scale compared to that taking place the larger part of the Somali inhibited areas. The major reason for this was the British philosophy, which stressed the necessity of steady process of decolonization so as not to disturb the existing political stability.

The Somali peoples who resided in the territories occupied By Italy and Britain and other have collectively expressed a desire to unite and establish an independent political community. This desire was partially( larger Somali territories was merged with neighboring countries which created hostilities that continues to this day of my writing) materialized in early 1960. The two legislative bodies were united and Somali national assembly was established thus the modern Somali republic was born. It was agreed that the new republic should be democratic and parliamentary. The principle organs of the state consists of national assembly, president of the republic, the government and the judiciary6.The legislative power is vested in the assembly consisting of deputies elected for five years. The assembly elects the president of the republic for six years. The president has the powers to dissolve the legislative body( parliament) “ whenever it cannot discharge it’s functions or discharge them in manner prejudicial to the normal exercise of the legislative activity7.

The president has powers not only to appoint prime Minster but also he can dismiss the prime minister, therefore the prime minister has to have the support of both the president and the parliament. The executive powers is vested in the hands of the government consisting of prime minister in and his ministers8. judiciary system was independent from both the legislative and the executive powers. The supreme court has the highest judicial organ of the republic and has the jurisdiction on the whole territory of the state8.

Having described shortly the characteristics of the state we will now attempt to briefly describe the electoral system of the country to complete a rough picture about the Somali political institutions. The members of the assembly were elected “ by universal suffrage, including women, on the proportional representations system9. Political parties were allowed to register and submit a list of candidates in every electoral district. However, they were required to present list of signatures of five hundred supporting voters and approximately $700 dollars (5,000 sh).

One might ask whether the established institutions could in principle be compatible with the Somali social and political culture. If it does, will the institutions be able to serve the nation to achieve their aspirations . what was the aspirations of the people. The people mainly wanted a political institutions that will improve the human conditions and the same time serve them as machine to materialize their collective will. However, there is difference between the wishing something and getting the something, the latter requires certain conditions to exist in order the acquisitions of the wished object to fall within the possible range. Therefore, one would be able to strive with some degree of certainty, hoping that his work will produce the desired outcome. Therefore, the political institutions must be deigned in such a way that they have minimum constraints to meet the needs of the masses. If they are not in such position( meaning if they have too much constraints to accomplish satisfactory work) they will create widespread disaffection among the public and mistrust towards the government, thus making the government vulnerable organization to all kinds of opponents. This kind of political atmosphere encourages certain elements of the society to take the laws in to their hands under the pretext of saving the country and improving the political institutions to better serve the needs of the public.

There is strong argument among scholars of government with regard to the virtues of the parliamentary and presidentialism. I have no sufficient reason to side to one of the scholars, however, I would like to examine the impact of the parliamentary democracy based on proportional representation had on Somali political institutions and it’s wider contribution to the socioeconomic and political progress of the state.

Arendt lebset informs us that the proportional representation was adopted in Europe for sociopolitical reasons and also to allow the minority communities to be represented at the national institutions. We also learn from this scholar that the PR system was originally adopted by the heterogeneous societies or ethnically divided nations. whatever the reason the Unified Somalia chose the PR system, it can be said with some degree of confidence that the system did not produced an stable political conditions in the following sense.

First of all, proportional representations with lower threshold requirement encouraged multiparty system as agreed by the scholars of this field. Many parties( excluding SYL the organization that fought for the independence ) were not based region( except HDM) or wider public cause. but rather securing parliamentary seat. It happened in some cases that candidate would fail to obtain the desired place on his party’s list.. he would form a new political party and place himself at the top of the list10. Although, they were ideological parties such as the GSL( Greater Somalia League)however the system encouraged the formations of parties purely clan based such as Marehan Union, Abgal Youth Association. This conditioned the farther fragmentation of the Somali society in to unnecessary division, I say unnecessary condition because the Somalis did indeed possessed a sense of national belonging prior to the colonial dominations. The concept of the Somalinimo( Somalism) as communal identity has obviously existed since the time when the Somali entity were forged through culture, language and geographical location12. In this sense we could claim the Somalis were homogeneous society, thus PR was not favorable system to this situations. Minority communities did indeed existed, however some arrangement could have been devised such as allocating certain percentage of the parliamentary seats like the case in India.

Proportional representation could have been modified so as to increase the threshold requirement to encourage organizations that enjoy some degree of public support. Why should we say all this, because electoral system coupled by parliamentary democracy privatized the political life of the nation . People only elected the deputies( members of t parliament) the rest of the government organs were elected by centralized authority. This alienated people from the central authority, people lost attachment to the public figures because they did not elected them directly, thus the leaders did not felt responsible to the public but rather to the assembly. This turned the state in to state dominated by elites who are busy in themselves.

Good number of the parliamentarians managed to acquire the seats through appealing to their relatives thus creating new political climate that gratifies clan politics in the Political discourse. I contend that clanists existed since the time immemorial and served both the nomads and the peasants in their struggle to survivve in the harsh environment of horn of Africa.

Therefore clan oriented views aren’t necessarily harmful to the state, quite the contrary, the clans were mobilized as resistance force against the colonial oppression.

However, the state organs and their laws must not be in any way create opportunities fro certain reactionary elements who could mobilize the society on purely clanistic appeal to farther their narrow sectarian interest. Hence we have justified that Somalia was not necessarily divided society, and at the same time solved the minority question, we were left to claim that PR was not the best electoral choice.

We earlier discussed whether the Somali social and political culture could coexist harmoniously with the established political institutions. Or put it differently whether the institutions could constructively interact with existing culture to condition better political behavior such as understanding, tolerance and accountability. This is continuation of or previous discussion regarding the interplay and the consequence between the political institutions and the body of the laws that govern them on one hand and the existing sociopolitical culture of the society on the other. Prior proceeding we must define what we means by a political culture, culture is very complicated word which has not yet obtained a conventional definition. In this paper we define it as a way of life and it’s attributes such as religion and the means of the productions or the means employed to sustain life. Now we may ask our selves where does this political culture fit in to our discussion.

Responding to the demands of the state such as paying Texas, obeying the laws of the state, in return enjoying the personal liberties and protection of life and possessions stimulates the existing culture to respond so as to satisfy the requirement of the modern political life. I assert that the political culture is the product of the interactions between state and society. To envision political culture requires certain elements of religious values is questionable assertions. Such argument was made by the famous scholar Seymour libset, his main tools of argument are bounded by time changing nature of history. we say by time because some poor countries in 1960 did indeed developed quite substantially, in the same way there are some catholic countries that have produced stable democratic society. Therefore political culture in the libset sense does not have to precede stable democracy if it were he may need more convincing evidence to prove the existence of the perquisites of stable institutions.

We only examined the electoral system, the reason for this was the choice of the electoral system is considered important because it helps shape the country ‘s party system and by extension the contours of the executive -legislative relations13. One might ask and what were the direct and indirect consequences of the electoral system. One direct consequence was the violence and considerable human lose( about 40 people died in one election) although, this could have happened in any electoral choice, however this could have been reduced if the contesting parties were limited in number, however, the election in 1964 was participated by 24 parties and about 4 times this number in the following election.

1 I. M Lewis. The pastoral democracy. ( Oxford university press, 1961) 198.

2 Haji N. A. Noor Muhammad. The legal system of the Somali democratic Republic. ( The Michie company law publishers Charlottesville, Virginia, 1972)11.

3. Ibid.,P 62.

4. Ibid.,P 64.

5. Ibid.,P 65.

6. Paolo Contini. The Somali Republic: an experiment in legal integration.(Frank Cass & Co. LTD, 1969).16.

7. Ibid.,P 17.

8. Ibid.,P 18.

9. Ibid.,P 18.

10. Ibid.,P 19.

11. Ibid.,P 21.

12. Mohamed D. Afrah. Mirror of culture. Ahmed I. Samatar, ed.,.(Lynne Reinner Publishers Inc. 1994).241.

13. Jan Ziolonka. The global Resurgence of the democracy. Larry Diamond, ed.,( Johns Hopkins University press, 1996.) 215.

[Haashim]

This is very very interesting topic, I really appreciate it. I would like to contribute because i like our history but the time shortage could hinder my contribution.

 

However, I hope we hear from you more articles about our precious history.

 

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