Drawing similarity between Nepal and Somalia

[Gabbal]

Drawing similarity between Nepal and Somalia

 

 

 

By Amod Chandra Gurung

 

 

 

Dusty little town Jowhar, which is currently the seating capital of Somalia has very little to signify a capital of such a magnificent culturally rich country at present. Although the city has housed the President, the Prime Minister and the members of the transitional government, it is a temporary capital until the warlords controlling the former capital Mogadishu comes to terms for cessation of hostility amongst each other.

 

Recently, I was having a meeting with a senior political adviser of the incumbent Prime Minister, a very articulate gentleman educated in United States. He was telling me about life before the war. He at times became very emotional detailing how the war had divided his close friends and neighbors as archrivals thirsty for each other's blood. It is ironical that people with the same religion, language and cultural background have fought each other dragging the country into the current sate of chaos and devastation. He also indicated the serious interest of neighboring states in de-stabilizing the country. However, he added the people themselves had provided every opportunity to these de-stabilizing elements to take full advantage. He went on to explain that his country was a proud nation with many countries in the continent sending their civil servants, military and police officers to be trained in Somalia before the outbreak of civil war. Today, it awaits a miracle to stand on its feet again.

 

I asked him one question, what went wrong in Somalia? He enumerated several interesting details of what went wrong but one issue that lingers in my mind till today bears a poignant similarity to the possibility that the same is destined to happen in Nepal.

 

He said the most important reason why Somalia became a total failed state was the inability to find consensus to govern the country after getting rid of Saed Baree who introduced scientific socialism and ruled the country with an iron fist. No one thought what next and how to mitigate the expectations of citizens and provide good governance in the ensuing days after liberation from the dictator. Squabbling amongst groups that collectively fought to get rid of the dictator reached its peak; and position and power grabbing became the only priority of political parties. Fed up with absence of order and Governance, people started to form groups on the basis of clan patronage, which eventually became the order of the day at the cost of rule of law and statehood.

 

As a simple citizen, with the present agitation forging ahead for loktantra or ganatantra in Nepal, the ultimate result for Nepal is definitely destined to the same fate as Somalia. With unparallelled expectations loaded on the simple ordinary citizens, it will require divine intervention to be fulfilled, the divisive trends of autonomous state aspirations and the day dreaming of becoming the President of Republic of Nepal as evident from the interviews of some of the leaders, there is no reason why one cannot see the parallel between Somalia and Nepal. Far from realizing that the track record of political leaderships during the last 12 years was a total debacle, the same faces and the same machinery aspires to mislead the people once again.

 

The other interesting thing that came up during our conversation was failure to capitalize the growing economic potentials of the next-door neighbor. The Middle East just across the red sea was booming with its oil economy, enterprising Somalis established their commercial avenues in those countries and not in Somalia, technocrats and literate people migrated and took refuge en masse to other countries due to the sickening political climate of the country. We are far from realizing the potentialities of the growing economic super powers in the north and south of our borders. The current exodus of technocrats, educated mass and the potential workforce from Nepal shows clear similarities with Somalia of the early eighties.

 

I hope these similarities could be lessons for those who dearly love Nepal and teach them to be serious about the future. Peace and stability is not easy to come by. Reconciliation and rebuilding are not simple issues as everyone envisions. There is a great social divide created by spilling of blood, which will take generations to erode. The destruction of physical infrastructures, no amount of janashramdan can restore it immediately. It is entirely upon us to stop this downward fall, no international super power is going to stop this because we do not have either an oil rich terai or uranium filled mountains or a moral obligation of colonial linkages. I am sure we do not want to give this huge debt of our miscalculations as inheritance to our grand and great grand children to be carried up and down the hills in their dokos.

 

 

 

 

Source:Nepaleyes.

[SOO MAAL]

Great article kashanre thanks

 

The somalia exprience should lesson for others!