Comments:

I think my friend Shiekh Nur is out to lunch. What "Federalism". Only resource rich countries like Canada, the USA, Germany etc can afford any form of federalism, and even them are not really Federal in nature. My friends, just to maintain, a federal system, you need thousands of bureaucrats to manage both the political and fiscal separation of powers of the disparate regions/provinces etc, and these would be lawyers, economists, accountants, statisticians, engineers, environmental experts etc.. That would cost you more than the annual budget of one of the regions. So poof! goes Mr. Qassim's proposal! Hosh abdihosh1@yahoo.ca _____________________________________________________________________________________ Brother Hosh. From the outset, Somalia is a country ravaged by almost twenty years of civil war - coupled with preceding twenty one years of totalitarian central government rule which brought about spotty preferential treatment given to the localities that were close to concentration of power. This pleasing display of injustice has spawned a host of problems including massive country wide poverty, mismanagement of public funds, human rights violations, abuse of power, and most of all, runaway insurgencies and rebellions that fed on societal inequalities which at the end became cause for our current meltdown. If we are honest, Somalia’s problems did not start in 1991 but only escalated it is current level. One thing that has not changed is the fact that those who are against federalism in Somalia are the ones who want to go back to the status quo of the past. Federalism in Somalia will certainly take an enormous effort to implement as same way as any other system, but one thing is for sure, we don’t want to go back to a system that has already failed us. Federalism will empower regional entities to step to the plate and ensure transparency in the local level. Dividing power between regions and the central government will automatically server as means to grantee check and balances providing double security to make sure government are accountable to the people. I can honestly attest your patriotism for wanting a strong central government for Somalia, which has been our dream since the inception of our country. However, if one takes into account the practicality of Putland State of Somalia and our brothers of Somaliland’s success in their regional efforts to establish peace and tranquility in their territories, then one can certainty say with proof that Federalism has already worked in Somalia. Sadiq Abdirahman sadiq_abdirahman@yahoo.com