Road Map or Bust!

[baalcade]

Somalia’s arduous twenty-year odyssey is fast approaching a defining moment. The long running national nightmare will soon reach a clearly marked fork in the road. Contrary to the witty Yogi Berra’s line, however, you can’t just “take it”; one has to make a conscious choice as to which way to proceed.

 

The choices before Somalis, in this regards, are two and their differences are easy to recognize: one way is the continuation of the perilous passage to nowhere that the nation has been on since the fall of the central government in 1991. It is a particularly circuitous road that is full of hazardous twists and turns; a virtual dead-end leading to no destination that the long-suffering Somali people would want to go. Its journey has been and remains to be strewn with the ill-effects of all manner of destructive and anti-social behavior that rendered the Somali Republic the failed state by which all others are judged.

 

The resultant dysfunctional system gave us brutality of warlordism, blinkered religious fanaticism, pirate activities, and political corruption; the kind of pathologies that, if not checked, could in due course spell certain doom for any nation. As a result, Somalia has, during the last two decades, been to the edge of an abyss a couple of times precisely because of that kind of systemic failure.

 

The guides of this hellish road were bad political leaders lacking in knowledge and devoid of the kind of wisdom without which human society is lost. Typically, these are unethical folks given to power trips and are unabashedly narcissistic. They are the kind of individuals that are incapable of learning lessons from their mistakes.

 

So this dangerous side road is not new to the Somali people. They have been forced to traverse it by those same corrupt politicians, longer than they would care to remember.

 

The corrupt politicians, who are still very much with us, are folks who seem to know next to nothing about how to help restore hope and dignity to Somalis and who in all probability care even less. Consider their callous behavior during past 20 years—years of utter disorder and Confucian, much of it their own making. To this day, many of these politicians are unfazed by all the massing killings of innocent lives, the destruction of much of the nation’s property, including things that were fastened to the ground. Equally, odious is their continuous rejection of all efforts that could possibly lead to veritable reconciliation and national redemption.

 

As the politicians’ world view is marked by endless despair, the other branch of the road heads the diametrical opposite direction—of hope. With minor tweaking, the Road Map can, Allah willing, be an arterial road charted to put Somalia on the path to restoration of full national sovereignty, reconciliation and redevelopment. It can also serve as an access road for the long subdued Somali national aspirations. And it can potentially become a thoroughfare to self-rule for communities and regions as well as to full citizenship rights for individuals.

 

The Road Map has other pieces of good fortune associated with it. It has the full backing of the regional states, the AU, the UN and the International community. This has not happened before. And so it behooves Somalis not waste this unique opportunity but rather capitalize on the universal support and the commitments of all the various, important players.

 

The Road Map will end the unworkable, eight-year transition period that functioned as black hole of available meager resources without corresponding achievements in security or social development to show for. The only growth industry during the anguished transition period has been escalating corruption and runaway sectarianism. Somalia can ill-afford the continuation of this unhappy process. It needs to end abruptly come August, 2012.

 

Finally, the claim that the process that led to the Road Map was not perfect is not entirely without merit. But it is overplayed for sinister purposes. And that is unacceptable.

 

In the initial stages the process, this writer, like many other Somalis had certain misgivings and the process and raised questions accordingly. As the process went on it became clear to most the stakes two high, the nation was too exhausted and the opposition was unnecessarily dismissive of the entire course of action that it became imperative that the Road Map had to reach its destination.

 

The nation cannot continue to engage in the usual, incessant didactic arguments and endless debates that always end with certain politicians opposing change. Such a practice is a luxury that the country cannot afford at this critical juncture.

 

Somalis should not have the perfect be the enemy of the good. Rather people of goodwill from throughout the country should support the Road Map and the Draft Constitution. There will, insha Allah, be plenty of time to tweak the draft constitution towards a more perfect system of governance that would make all Somalis proud.

 

The alternative to the Road Map is bust! And that is, quite frankly, unacceptable.

 

Source

[Somalia]

Very good and interesting article.

 

The Road Map will end the unworkable, eight-year transition period that functioned as black hole of available meager resources without corresponding achievements in security or social development to show for. The only growth industry during the anguished transition period has been escalating corruption and runaway sectarianism. Somalia can ill-afford the continuation of this unhappy process. It needs to end abruptly come August, 2012.

I agree with this part in particular. This system was chosen by the same people who today want to reject it, we can't have that. We must move forward.