Somaliland: is a preeminent democracy shining in the Horn of Africa

[Deeq A.]

Recognition or no recognition from the broken and dysfunctional system which led by dysfunctional organizations such as the unelected UN bureaucracy and two den or club of dictators such as the so-called African Union and the Arab league, the Republic Somaliland will keep on progressing and thriving without any help from any one. Both of these toothless and dysfunctional organizations are places dictators come together, and connive their survival strategies and brain storm of ways to stay in power and prolong their lives as one man unelected for life leaders. The time Somaliland has changing been changing five presidents peacefully, most of the members of the dictators clubs in the AU and the Arab league are still there.

The word democracy is derived from the Greek work “demos” which means people, or a system of government. Democracy could be exercised in many ways either directly by citizens or through elected agents. The Greek democracy has been in the wilderness for hundreds of years, until it was picked up by countries emerging from kingdoms in Europe in the 17^th century. In the United States democracy and its attributes have been adopted in 1776. The basic six characteristic of democracy are majority rule, free and fair elections, established popular sovereignty, compromise, and citizen participation in government.

According to Ibrahim Lincoln the 16^th president of the United States democracy is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. A democratic government allows adult citizens the right to elect their representatives. Democracy is a government of majority rule and minority rights. The attribute and the characteristic of democracy  principle of majority rule is important parts of the democratic system are free and fair elections, citizen participation, cooperation and compromise. The Republic of Somaliland has already entered in the world encyclopedia of uniqueness, resilience, maverick behavior, and rapid evolution for the better.

Somaliland has adopted all the characteristics of democracy which have been blended or combined with traditional attributes of collective consensus, conflict resolution, compromise and collaboration which is manifested in Somaliland upper chamber of congress. This Somaliland chamber is populated with elderly wise men, community elders, and traditional leaders who have extensive experience in peaceful resolution of conflict, the art of compromise, collaboration and consensus seeking. The wise men in this chamber are the pacifying and moderating influences in the Republic of Somaliland.

The Republic of Somaliland has all the attributes of a state, but the broken world which is filled with multiple dysfunctional states. There more than fifty countries that could not fit the so-called conditions for being a state, but are still bestowed with recognition. There are a good number among these dysfunctional states are dictatorship and one man rule states that barely rule their countries. In many of these states there are foreign interventions that sustain these rogue states. Many of these so-called countries are dysfunction states that are marred by massive corruption. Among these dysfunctional states are failed states, and there are some that are collapsed states to be propped up by foreign troops. Despite being ignored by the broken international system headed by the toothless UN bureaucracy, Somaliland has more than fulfilled the so-called conditions of becoming a state. The broken international system has called places such as Chad, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guinea, Central African Republic and countless place in Africa, Latin America, the middle east and other places as real states bestowed with sovereignty.

Despite all that the Republic of Somaliland has established itself as a defacto independent and sovereign state. According to professor Stefan Talmon of internal law at oxford University in Great Britain who is the author of (Recognition in International law), no country is allowed to freely attack a defacto state. These rules have been established during the cold war. According to that rule the use of force s prohibited under the United States charter. The recent Somaliland election was the fifth presidential election and the 8^th free and fair election peacefully conducted in the country in its 25 years of independence.

Again according to Professor Stefan Talmon a professor of International law in Oxford University, recognition of states is a complicated which is amalgamation of international law and international politics. Though according to some people including myself recognition is nothing but international politics. There is no right to recognition; it just depends on the discretion of existing states.  There was at a time during the peak of the cold war when the recognition of the states of North and South Vietnam, North and South Korea, East and West German depend on cold war on NATO and Warsaw countries. In these modern times; there are some states such as Taiwan, Palestine, Kosovo, and Northern Cyprus which are recognized by some countries, while not recognized by others. This shows that recognition is a political thing which depends on the existing states.

Suleiman Egeh is a free lance writer and a senior science instructor