Somaliland: Tremendous Challenges lie ahead of President-Elect

[Deeq A.]

Somaliland citizens did their job, the NEC did their job, the ruling party did their job, and the police and army forces did their job. But there was something wrong with the manner in which the election was conducted.

In fact, how each one of these entities involved in tthe election did its job is what makes a mark of timeless difference.

It has been a vivid demonstration of how power really works. What patently works well in Somaliland presidential elections is not the political programs that contesting parties use to sell. It is the power that is behind each party.
So what is the power that can promote a political party to the position of victory?

We the Somaliland people are tribes. We even go further and are clans and subclans. The battle between our tribes was and still continues to be the battle for power.

The history of how Somaliland people always struggle for power is not something that we are able to appreciate. This does not mean that the concept of power struggle is not healthy and wholly. It means that the basics of Somali politics is a one way street. There is a sense in which the wall we built for power interpretation looks like a kraal with no exist and escape.

Power is not only the driving force in Somaliland presidential election. Tribalism is more powerful than power and money. The combination of power and bane of tribalism is always the firm factor that is crucial to Somaliland presidential election.

While there is always a traditional buffer zone between Somaliland tribes, trials to intimate and intellectualize politics is out of everyone’s scope and understanding. Indications brazen with such comprehensive poverty of understanding are plain for all to see through existing Somaliland political landscape.

Humans need to be educated and trained to the tasks, but when they remain traumatized, they will tend to revert to what they know best – which will often be the tribe, the totem, the taboo, or the traumatizatiion.

Somaliland’s winner-takes-all politics lie at the heart of everything that goes wrong with the country. It is the reason why Somaliland has fallen behind the rest of the world economically, the reason for its bad governance and poverty.

Somaliland people have basically no common understanding or experience of nationhood. Nationalism, in the good sense of positive loyalty to one’s country and fellow citizens, is in short supply. If one wants power, he plays the tribal card or smears his political rivals. When one achieves power, he brings his own people into government – and even more important, into the army forces.

The state treasury becomes his private bank account. When he runs for election the entire state structure and all its officials are at his disposal. If anyone inside the country says anything, he accuses them of high treason and puts them in jail. If anyone outside the country criticises him, he accuses them of sponage.

This failure of politics has not become a cataylist to create national awareness to disencourage or discredit Somaliland politicians. Even the role of intellectuals and elites seemed so disturbed and demoralised.

The oxygen of tribal intrigues is what actually controls the minds of almost all Somaliland voters, when it comes to elections in any level, specifically those voters hailing from the tribes which formed “The Rainbow Alliance.” The rainbow coalition worked well and all their votes probably went into Kulmiye pocket.

During the voting day, the entire government apparatus and its officials were at Kulmiye’s disposal. Logistics including food supplies, transportation, and energy was free for Kulmiye election campaign. And this shows how what belongs to all Somaliland people is ill-used, missed, and manipulated for a party gains.

The scandals that occured in the voting day were many. There were cases where there were no voters but ballot boxes full of votes in favor of kulmiye party have been returned. There were other cases where voters were intimidated and attacked and Wadani vote observing agents expelled from polling stations.

Bribery played its roll, buying cards brought thousands of votes to Kulmiye, removing so many Wadani votes out of the ballot boxes was a preplanned tactic. Imagine what happens when the ballot boxes were intentionally kept at Districts for a considerable number of days?

Evidences showing illegible voters voting in many strongholds of Kulmiye party have been reported officially, but the commissiin failed to take action against such occurences.

It was remarkably easy for someone to vote more than once on polling day on same polling station. There were cases where many people have even impersonated others at the ballot box, because there were no mechanisms preventing multiple voting.

Some people were forced on threat of arresting to vote the opposite of what they wanted. Apart from intimidation, making sure that everyone who has the right and the desire to vote is able to do so—has always been the more troubling Election Day problem.

The Electoral Commission is the body supposed to ensure that the system is planned and made to prevent multiple voting. But if you look at their remit, you will see that they only focused more on receiving the ballot boxes and putting the data into the system than on engagement and on making votes trustworthy.

The national electoral commission had their share in Somaliland presidential election vote irregulatities. The role the national electoral commission played in this presidential election was non-partisan in every way we see it.

The worst, weakest and most wicked candidate is Faisal Ali Waraabe, because his intention for running in the race was just to reduce Wadani votes, a kind of deep grudge against Abdirahman Cirro. A strategy to get Jamal Ali Hussein out of the race so that the votes of Habar Awal not to be divided, was fulfilled long before the election campaign. Faisal was the facilitator of this contract.

The whole problem with Somaliland elections is the choice the people make. When it comes to leadership change, Somaliland people make bad choices, and they get what they ask for. If they even want good outcomes, they vote for (and thus reward) candidates who produce bad outcomes. They get bad government because they are bad at governing themselves. One good exampe is the year 2010 when Somaliland elected Siilaanyo as a president.

The homework ahead of Muse Biixi is not easy. It needs a lot of run-in, an objectivity in vision, a lot of time to think and tolerence to do the right things, and redress what went wrong.

How the country’s huge unemployment crisis to be curbed, corruption be eradicated, equal opportunities be created, rules and regulations be enforced, public property loot be stopped, nepotism be eliminated, abuse of power be wisely controlled, those who amassed opulent wealth through illegal procedures be brought to the book and punished – these are the issues that need to be addressed without fail. Muse Biixi will have a hard time if he will talk more and act less.

What small problems do we have that could grow into bigger ones? What slows our work or makes it more difficult? What do we often fail to achieve? Where do we have bottlenecks? What is frustrating and irritating people?

For sure, opposing party, wadani, will be tough and terribly active and truely arrange their ideas and efforts for what might happen next.

What are we going to do if nothing will change in fields of governance, justice, accountability, and transparency? What are we going to do if “I-take-and-you-take policies” of Kulmiye continue? What if the crackdown on Wadani cadres continues? What if the culture of divide and rule remains the same? What if the abuse of authority and excercise of exessive force are to be the only working element and puplic regrets and rights will not be heard and honored?

All leaders meet problems. But the way they solve the problems and meet the pressing challenges is what makes them different.

Only time will tell whether Muse Biixi will be a different president, a president who has integrity, a president who believes that honesty is the best policy, a president with adult supersion, a president whose national vision stays ahead of the public, a president with the ability to set political agenda, or a president with hidden agendas for retaliation.

Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress. The need for the hour is to find out where the rule of law is in Somaliland.

Eventually, everyone of us must remember the old age saying: “When mother cow is chewing the grass, the baby cow, probably the calf, looks very keenly.” Whether Muse Biixi will follow the policies of his politics teacher, Siilaanyo, remains to be seen.

By:Jams Falaag
Hargeisa, Somaliland.