The transition Scam in Somalia

[money]

The current and hasty process to end the transition and form a permanent legitimate government in Somalia is bound to fail for self-fulfilling prophecy. Somalia is once again headed down to the same and familiar failures. The current road map started on a wrong footing.

It all began with a simulated drafting of a borrowed constitution. The draft was highly guarded, secret and ever shifting document before it was endorsed and ratified just few days ago. Then Somalia's so-called benefactors selected some unscrupulous non-entities as signatories and sole stakeholders of the road map. To add insult to injury, the staged signatories agreed on the same shameful 4.5 clan system for power-sharing. The staged ones agreed on the same failed scenarios to select yet another inflated and disproportionate parliament based on the same clannish system. They did this with the behest of their backers and with the realization of how skilled they are to manipulate the road map. Blessed with no foresight, the so-called stakeholders and signatories reinforced the perennial bankruptcy of Somali politics. The whole road map scam, its sponsors and signatories, perpetuate the perception that Somalia is a society that is fixated on clans and self-imposed primitive system. And that system only benefits few self-absorbed clowns and their foreign backers. The selection of the parliamentarians by impaired elders, in the dark ages, abases the process as a sham. The actions and conduct of elders and the political aspirants knows no integrity. The process is being polluted by a betting stunt where those who are vying to have a seat in the new parliament outbid each other and bribe the rotten aged veterans of oblivion and illegitimacy. The seat that is supposed to represent communities and citizens is now for sale for mere twenty thousand US dollars paid to selfish clan elder. Let us not be fooled by this sham. it will not transit and transform Somalia into a functioning nation. Somalia will remain a failed state if this fraud goes on its shameful projected course.

 

The anticipated failure is the aftermath of two decades of chaos and carnage. All Somali institutions, secular and religious, are stained by dysfunction and incompetence. The current sham is just another band-aid that is not going to heal the deep scars of Somalia. It's just a foreign sponsored soap opera to scam Somalia and sustain the status-quo of mismanagement and misery. It's not blasphemous to suggest that those who started the fire and continuously hijacked all potential attempts cannot bring any solution except blunder and burden. The same politicians whose only sinister self-enrichment agenda is to steal and embezzle every dime from public coffers and foreign handouts selected complacent elders and are at the front seat to dominate and steer the outcome to their favor. Basically, the process is replete with the cancerous clan system and the cult fixation. If these two culprits of incompetency are not taken out of the equation, the whole process would amount to an absolute futility.

 

Among the participants and candidates, there are few Somalis with good conscience and clean hands who understand Somalia's struggles and pains. Sadly, these candidates don't have a fair play at all unless someone emphasizes the selection of the members of the parliament and the future leaders of Somalia is not for sale to the highest bidder and the process is not a bazaar to bargain and outbid each other. Somalia must be allowed to establish a meaningful system where its good sons and daughters can fully participate in the political process.

Somalia is at a critical cross-road and there is a pressing need to demand reform and start a revolution before it's too late. We should not be silent and become witness to unsubtle swindle. What is being dubbed as a road map to end Somalia's transition now seems to be a clear and present danger led by corrupt and crooked politicians with full pockets of bribes, kickbacks and fraudulent promises.

 

Lastly, Somalia's self-inflicted downfall and decay requires a holistic and alternate solution. What Somalia needs is serious institutional reform and societal change. Somalis like any other conflict-ridden and war-torn societies need a genuine reconciliation and healing process that is indigenous and inclusive, not as corrupt, divisive lengthy and time-consuming as the ones dominated by by bloody warlords, bogus elders, greedy opportunists and short-sighted pseudo intellectuals.

 

Abdulkadir Mohamed (Ato)

aka Ato Shaair Mataan

[Somalia]

We've heard this line so many times, it's tiring. Everything has been predicted a failure yet it succeeds. Whether it be the constitution, road map, fight against Al-Shabaab without negotiating and on and on, give us a break naysayers!