What sort of democracy should Somalia adopt? I personally am no fan of it and prefer a nomadic system(locally crafted system reflecting our culture, similar to what the UAE did) but it seems the will of the people is gravitating towards this system, so I am putting my mind to work trying to see how we can fit it into our country while making sure it addresses tribalism and unites people on ideology rather then clan by ensuring there is counter measures in the system to confront clannism.
I think we need to take key lessons from the past. In the 1960's our democracy had some major side effects, other then passing along power, we forget the huge amount of corruption that existed, 100s of clan parties, attempted coups, then a real coup, assassination of president, if we kept going on that system it was bound to collapse as there was already big holes already there. I think the main reason for the holes in the system was purely colonial. The colonials united us and when they left, well guess what there was no real factor uniting us any longer. The uniting factor holding us together the 'colonizers' weren't in the picture anymore and therefore we broke back down into age old institutions(tribalism) and turned on each other.
If we were didn't inherit a 'foreign system, parties, majority rules against consensus' and an 'alien structure of governance such as centralism', there wouldn't be that rat race of tribalism happening. The clans felt they lost their autonomy since the structure of government was centralized in mogadishu. They felt power, resources, decision making, etc wasn't be distributed according to consensual style politics which is how our nomads operate through a consensus(no clan basically dictates but reach common ground thru dialogue and consensus). But our system wasn't built on consensus, it was majority takes all, no dialogue, no consensus needed. Coupled with the fact the uniting factor uniting us was no longer around and a government structure that was highly centralized and against autonomy which is critical for a nomadic society their own self rule. I can see clearly why this system failed, it was inherently foreign and was working in counter to our own cultural back-drop.
Now I won't go into why im so anti democratic in this thread, I think everyone who reads my articles can clearly see that. I want to address how we can fit democracy into our culture and actually make it work, rather then re-hash the past systems and end up with similar results. I think a Somali democracy could work in theory. For example parties are limited to a certain number, all parties must be 4.5 composition or have equal number representation for each region of somalia, nomination of president will only occur after the election to counter anyone voting along tribal lines. Basically all Somalis will see is 2-3 parties all the same in terms of tribal/district composition only key difference between them will be idealogy. I think it is great no-one knowing who will lead the party until after the election. This can also allow for 4.5 to secretly work in the background and elect each tribe to the presidency on a rotation basis as to satisfy the nations tribes.
How will election results be decided? will it be majority rule or consensual? Do we want a system where mps run for seats in the districts and we just tally who won the most districts out of the 92 districts? This form of democracy is closer to our culture as it will represent the whole nation equally. For example each district gets 3 seats each. The party that wins that district gets those three votes towards their party in Mogadishu. Then at the end we can calculate which party won the most districts out of the 92 districts. This allows for national parties to have a 'weji qaran' and representative of the whole somalia people and not just 'large tribes' which is what happens in kenya unfortunately and why other tribes constantly riot.
We are of course are going to need counter measures in place, strict laws on corruption. For example stiff sentencing, name and shaming thru the media, party fines, criminal database system where culprit or party involved are black listed for life and all sectors in the country will need to run checks on any future employees. Somalia has the highest rate of corruption yet 0 are jailed for it. No punishment whatsoever!!! How can a country be serious about defeating corruption if there isn't a strict system in place to identify it through(auditing checks) and applying strict punishments where relevant when someone is found guilty of it. Singapore for example don't play around, it's automatic death penalty!!!
I mean don't get me wrong, I am no fan of this system, but since alot of people are we are going to have to look at ways that are not 'western' and more somali orientated to get it to fit into our culture and work with our culture rather then against it and identify weak points in the system that can be manipulated and cause the system to lose confidence in the people.
I honestly do not think the system is all that important, it's like a bed, I think the system is the bed sheet, the bed however is the constitution. If the constitution is weak or not reflecting our culture, the system(bed sheet) which sits on the constitution is going to crumble from within as their is no 'effective' check n balances. pointless!!!
The real issue in Somalia is a lack of constitution and check n balances that are REAL and ENFORCED not fake institutions like parliament, courts, govt, which are bribed like is happening in all our institutions. A constitution that restores trust by setting up audit mechanism on the government to ensure it's following the law and strict punishments if it's not. We need a psuedo american approach to our constitution where we address what happens in worst case scenario if the law is overlooked and our leaders abuse the system. This is where trust will be restored when people see tough steps taken for violators of the constitution like removal of their political mandate of govt, jailing the violator individually, financial fines, capital relocated, military options exercised by the states to over-throw the federal govt and restore their constitution, and if all fails just out right secession. You can reverse those same steps and apply it to the federal regions also to give the federal govt confidence the states abide by the constitution!!!
We need a very similar constitution to the USA...American southern states, after a bitter civil war knew there was no way to restore trust amongst the north and south if there wasn't a solution applied to allow for states to fight the govt if it breaks the constitution or if that fails to secede and leave before it ends up in another civil war or proxy nations take advantage of it and start causing friction in the land!!!
But that's just my opinion on the matter, I think due to a lack of check n balances that are 'real' in the constitution that can give somalis confidence if any clans play games, it won't be them winning but the clan who obeyed the system as they can exercise many options which I listed above!!!
I think we need to take key lessons from the past. In the 1960's our democracy had some major side effects, other then passing along power, we forget the huge amount of corruption that existed, 100s of clan parties, attempted coups, then a real coup, assassination of president, if we kept going on that system it was bound to collapse as there was already big holes already there. I think the main reason for the holes in the system was purely colonial. The colonials united us and when they left, well guess what there was no real factor uniting us any longer. The uniting factor holding us together the 'colonizers' weren't in the picture anymore and therefore we broke back down into age old institutions(tribalism) and turned on each other.
If we were didn't inherit a 'foreign system, parties, majority rules against consensus' and an 'alien structure of governance such as centralism', there wouldn't be that rat race of tribalism happening. The clans felt they lost their autonomy since the structure of government was centralized in mogadishu. They felt power, resources, decision making, etc wasn't be distributed according to consensual style politics which is how our nomads operate through a consensus(no clan basically dictates but reach common ground thru dialogue and consensus). But our system wasn't built on consensus, it was majority takes all, no dialogue, no consensus needed. Coupled with the fact the uniting factor uniting us was no longer around and a government structure that was highly centralized and against autonomy which is critical for a nomadic society their own self rule. I can see clearly why this system failed, it was inherently foreign and was working in counter to our own cultural back-drop.
Now I won't go into why im so anti democratic in this thread, I think everyone who reads my articles can clearly see that. I want to address how we can fit democracy into our culture and actually make it work, rather then re-hash the past systems and end up with similar results. I think a Somali democracy could work in theory. For example parties are limited to a certain number, all parties must be 4.5 composition or have equal number representation for each region of somalia, nomination of president will only occur after the election to counter anyone voting along tribal lines. Basically all Somalis will see is 2-3 parties all the same in terms of tribal/district composition only key difference between them will be idealogy. I think it is great no-one knowing who will lead the party until after the election. This can also allow for 4.5 to secretly work in the background and elect each tribe to the presidency on a rotation basis as to satisfy the nations tribes.
How will election results be decided? will it be majority rule or consensual? Do we want a system where mps run for seats in the districts and we just tally who won the most districts out of the 92 districts? This form of democracy is closer to our culture as it will represent the whole nation equally. For example each district gets 3 seats each. The party that wins that district gets those three votes towards their party in Mogadishu. Then at the end we can calculate which party won the most districts out of the 92 districts. This allows for national parties to have a 'weji qaran' and representative of the whole somalia people and not just 'large tribes' which is what happens in kenya unfortunately and why other tribes constantly riot.
We are of course are going to need counter measures in place, strict laws on corruption. For example stiff sentencing, name and shaming thru the media, party fines, criminal database system where culprit or party involved are black listed for life and all sectors in the country will need to run checks on any future employees. Somalia has the highest rate of corruption yet 0 are jailed for it. No punishment whatsoever!!! How can a country be serious about defeating corruption if there isn't a strict system in place to identify it through(auditing checks) and applying strict punishments where relevant when someone is found guilty of it. Singapore for example don't play around, it's automatic death penalty!!!
I mean don't get me wrong, I am no fan of this system, but since alot of people are we are going to have to look at ways that are not 'western' and more somali orientated to get it to fit into our culture and work with our culture rather then against it and identify weak points in the system that can be manipulated and cause the system to lose confidence in the people.
I honestly do not think the system is all that important, it's like a bed, I think the system is the bed sheet, the bed however is the constitution. If the constitution is weak or not reflecting our culture, the system(bed sheet) which sits on the constitution is going to crumble from within as their is no 'effective' check n balances. pointless!!!
The real issue in Somalia is a lack of constitution and check n balances that are REAL and ENFORCED not fake institutions like parliament, courts, govt, which are bribed like is happening in all our institutions. A constitution that restores trust by setting up audit mechanism on the government to ensure it's following the law and strict punishments if it's not. We need a psuedo american approach to our constitution where we address what happens in worst case scenario if the law is overlooked and our leaders abuse the system. This is where trust will be restored when people see tough steps taken for violators of the constitution like removal of their political mandate of govt, jailing the violator individually, financial fines, capital relocated, military options exercised by the states to over-throw the federal govt and restore their constitution, and if all fails just out right secession. You can reverse those same steps and apply it to the federal regions also to give the federal govt confidence the states abide by the constitution!!!
We need a very similar constitution to the USA...American southern states, after a bitter civil war knew there was no way to restore trust amongst the north and south if there wasn't a solution applied to allow for states to fight the govt if it breaks the constitution or if that fails to secede and leave before it ends up in another civil war or proxy nations take advantage of it and start causing friction in the land!!!
But that's just my opinion on the matter, I think due to a lack of check n balances that are 'real' in the constitution that can give somalis confidence if any clans play games, it won't be them winning but the clan who obeyed the system as they can exercise many options which I listed above!!!
