Somaliland Needs A Leadership That Can Clean The System

[Deeq A.]

In principle, the culture of governance, to those unaccustomed to what it is meant to display and deliver, can be a tricky endeavor.

If one is accustomed to conspiracy and collusion and not to decency and dialogue, it becomes harder for him to recall what has happened or missed when there was no good governance. It could be even argued that he could not be able to show the reflections of what good governance means to people.

The culture of good governance displays the glint of truth. But if the governance becomes dense and masks the truth it is meant to display and demonstrate, then we are in trouble.

The beauty of governance depends basically on transparency. When there is truth in the governance, there is beauty in the system. But when there is no truth in the governance, there is no beauty in the system.

As the old adage says “When righteous men do rejoice, there is great glory, but when the wicked rise, a man is hidden.”

This saying reminds us the fact that we are in an era in which great men are missed, and even the beautiful ones are not yet born. Only the barons and predators are the ones who steal the show and share the evil intent that engenders our national diseases.

This is why having a more mature kind of politics is not seen in our system. A political of moral engagement is even missing from governing senarios in this era of wickedness.

The culture of governance has never been in trouble. It is the way we use it that has been a trouble. The rule of law remains resilient and realistic when those who govern societies, in all honesty and fairness, are well recruited into the rule of law.

But when the motivation behind those running for the presidency is based almost exclusively on a burning desire to defeat and destroy the other side, the chances are things that will end badly increase exponentially. Imagine if this question “Why do you want to be president” had been put to Muse Biixi in the election campaign. What answer he would have given?

Regardless of what sort of answer Muse Biixi would have given, his reasons could not be grounded in ideology, in deeply held ideas about what kind of nation Somaliland would be.

All societies give a hard time to every candidate intending to run for presidency. They question him, examine him, observe him and have lengthy repetitive interviews with him to know exactly what he is as a person and what motivates him to run for presidency. The reason for this is that the people want to hold every candidate accountable for what he says and promises. This is a precondition intending to prevent any loophole around which each candidate can act, do and decide as he would like to.

For reasons of emulation, what motivation do we, as Somaliland citizens, want to see in those who want to be Somaliland President? To gain the power and prestige of the office and satisfy their ego? Or to serve their country and help people?

The mantra for seeking Somaliland political posts stems from the attractions to material possession. Neither power nor fame are the motivational factors that are behind the ambitions of those who seek Somaliland political positions. Fortune and somehow or the other “retaliation” are the factors that mostly motivate all Somaliland politicians to seek power after power.

If a leader is cash-oriented and not cause-oriented, what would one expect from such leader? When the head of the state is selfish, corrupt and crook, and the society is ready to be corrupted, how the culture of governance that could evolve from this would look like?

Somaliland has been in the middle of unrestrained political corruption and deleterious governance in the last decades and still be unable to create a more promising democracy to the future. Of course well cultivated governance is what defines the system, the true image of all nations, the life, the norms, the notions of national pride, the ethics, and the moral values of the whole societies.

As Somaliland society, are we focusing on what we are trying to reach or focusing on what to keep? What about how citizens, young and old alike, really behave: to say how we experience shame, how we love and how we rage, how we fail, how we retreat, how we deal with the challenges we face and how we overcome?

The need of the hour shows that our governing system must be improved, our culture re-engineered, our education system re-innovated, our politics reformed, our people re-organized, re-orientated and re-mobilized, our institutions re-structured, our constitution re-modified, and our ethics and attitudes re-examined and re-refined.

Of course this is a responsibility for all and not one exclusively incumbent upon a single person, but the push, pressure and plans to imlement all that noble deeds must come from the present leadership. This depends on capability, credibility and content.

The credibility and capability of a new president is always revealed in his first moves – his problem-solving skills, his attitudes of how well he gets things done, his courage to take tough decisions, his integrity of how he takes actions to clean the messy things that he inherited from his predecessor, his readiness of how he listens to those who are knowledgeable about the reality on the ground, the quality of the people he selected as his teamwork, how he fulfills his promises he made in his inauguration presidential day?

Muse Biix’s problem-solving skill as a president is still under observational test. He has just cleaned feminine gender domination from the presidential palace. He has also appointed his cabinet, with whose credentials and qualifications are questionable. His talent, if there is any, and skill for problem-solving will be known to all of us when we see his tactics and technics to create job opportunities for the unemployed youth.

Muse Biixi’s integrity to clean the messy things he inherited from his predecessor is in fact questionable. He has not taken any legal action against the people who withstood the ugliest things that governance can throw at Somaliland people. All of them went out unpunished. Which raises the question: Why every new Somaliland government declines to bring those who stole the public wealth to the book? Does this mean that there is a standing agreement that no administration has the authority to account the one before?

Politicians always make many promises during election campaigns. Every candidate promises the sky but none could fulfill their promises. Of all his promises, the most urgent one is justice, should Muse can make it prevail. If the mutual adjustment of power sharing equation will not be fulfilled, there is a likelihood that division over how to defend and define Somaliland soverignity will arise.

How could Somaliland believe that their leaders are aware of what the country needs when most of them are not even brooding the past, leave alone they are to ensure that the future is safe? Attempts to push today back to yesterday are too dangerous at this day and age, and especially as they concern government affairs and reworking of human resources, where the price of a single error is irreversible catastrophe.

Whether Somaliland will ever have presidents or parliamentarian members with transformational qualities, who can lift the country up and organize its people in a way that no othere leaders have or could in recent memories, remains to be seen.

Jamal Ismail