A study of DECENTRALIZED political structure for Somalia

[Ras]

Somalia needs to give up on developing all it's regions and instead build 1 or 2 large mega cities.

This will help in reducing overall costs in providing a better living environment as well as centralise logistics, employment & training. Sure decentralisation has it's benefits but not when you live in Somalia where the infrastructure is non existent and other regions will protest unless you develop each region equally... which would be impossible at this stage.

Let's first build a centralised industrial area near the rivers, house 4-5 million per city and provide cheaper services there instead of 1,000 km pipes and transmission cables as well as roads... Once we've dug ourselves out the pit latrine we're in and have some extra slush funds we could look into investing in our ancestral regions (which no one else but us will visit).

Doubt that would ever happen as all the clans, neighbouring nations and any one else that doesn't want Somalia developed would be against it.

 

[Mumin]

Autonomous states must develop theyr region and write own law of the land.

Only federal constitution is above state law.

Collecting tax/aid and developing all come from the local level.

 

[Ras]

Autonomous states must develop theyr region and write own law of the land.

Only federal constitution is above state law.

Collecting tax/aid and developing all come from the local level.

What is your pathetic local state going to do with that few millions they milked out of the few businesses in the region? Which local citizens based group is powerful enough to prevent that being gobbled up by local corrupt leaders?

If everything is centralised initially then you could have national groups able to watch out for these opportunists. Also you won't have states that would harbour terrorist and foreign agents for their own personal or political motivations able to carve up the nation in case the federal government annoys a foreign nation or corporate entity.

A single city of 5 million would have a GDP per capita of 5-10 billion dollars. Also foreigners and the diaspora would be more likely to invest their money there as they would be able to bring back a profit. Unlike peripheral regions with lower growth rates and with uncertainty in policy continuity.

 

[Mumin]

Autonomous states must develop theyr region and write own law of the land.

Only federal constitution is above state law.

Collecting tax/aid and developing all come from the local level.

25

 

[Hassan Garguute Buldanana]

Federal is bad when the governors of states act like presidents and abuse their authority. In that case he the president must remove them

 

[Thegoodshepherd]

Somalia needs to give up on developing all it's regions and instead build 1 or 2 large mega cities.

This will help in reducing overall costs in providing a better living environment as well as centralise logistics, employment & training. Sure decentralisation has it's benefits but not when you live in Somalia where the infrastructure is non existent and other regions will protest unless you develop each region equally... which would be impossible at this stage.

Let's first build a centralised industrial area near the rivers, house 4-5 million per city and provide cheaper services there instead of 1,000 km pipes and transmission cables as well as roads... Once we've dug ourselves out the pit latrine we're in and have some extra slush funds we could look into investing in our ancestral regions (which no one else but us will visit).

Doubt that would ever happen as all the clans, neighbouring nations and any one else that doesn't want Somalia developed would be against it.

This is the fastest way a late-late developing country can grow. This is what Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria etc... are all doing. The problem is that Somali clans do not want to share their regions with other clans. If the civil war had not included an element of clan cleansing, Mogadishu would have become that mega city. Centralization today is only possible in regions of clan homogeneity, the problem is that no clan has a large enough population to exclusively populate a mega city of that size.

People keep talking about how federalism divides Somalis, but that is not the real problem. The real problem is that all of these federal states have economies that are far too small to sustain 15 ministries, a parliament and an executive each. Federalism is totally inefficient for a country as small and as poor Somalia.

If I was not a hardcore qabilist, I would not invest a dime outside of Banadir and Kismayo. The returns on capital do not justify investing in probably 10 of the 18 gobols, but we have to anyway because we don't have freedom of movement in Somalia and because clans want to see their regions developed no matter what.

 

[Ras]

If I was not a hardcore qabilist, I would not invest a dime outside of Banadir and Kismayo. The returns on capital do not justify investing in probably 10 of the 18 gobols, but we have to anyway because we don't have freedom of movement in Somalia and because clans want to see their regions developed no matter what.

Unfortunately a country won't develop without ignoring the opinions of the hundreds of disparate factions and stream roll through policies by force like only investing in a central industrial area.

Countries like Japan and S.Korea got away with doing this by having a dictatorial administration (Park Chung Hee & Japan's Emperor and later the Economic Planning Agency with full control over the economy).

The drawback is that any forceful actions by the Federal government would give Somalia's competitors an excuse to encourage political dissent or even worse. However without it those equal voices in those states would just slow down economic growth by insisting on equal infrastructure investments.

What no one seems to realise is that those qabil inspired groups only have as much power as you lend to them. If you ignore them; they could only act as a nuisance with their local militias which will end them or shoot down policies in the upper head of parliament which would only work as long as the qabil led factions bribe them more than the centralist.



A centralised Somali population near the rivers would have a better standard of living and increased opportunities for employment or investments that could cater to millions. It would also make it easier to collect tax, create political stability and ward of terrorists hiding in the bushes.

A single region with 10 million citizens would bring in 2-4 billion USD in tax revenues if the government plays it right. That doesn't include the foreign direct investments that would flood in to invest in a new mega city with a stable political environment.

We all can dream...

 

[Prince of Lasanod]

If I was not a hardcore qabilist, I would not invest a dime outside of Banadir and Kismayo. The returns on capital do not justify investing in probably 10 of the 18 gobols, but we have to anyway because we don't have freedom of movement in Somalia and because clans want to see their regions developed no matter what.

Then why don't you work on the qabiil problem which is backwards instead of acting like a savage Somali when you're educated?

I am against federalism because some regions are too poor and have already reached their limit in terms of growth, whilst other regions can support the population of all Somalis worldwide.

Do you really think towns like Garowe can support a population of 1m+? The answer is no, but Kismaayo could probably support tens of millions. So why don't you look at the bigger picture?

 

[Mumin]

Isolation is harsh word ive should said protectionism is political correct word.