E-mail: Sakawdin_00@hotmail.com
It seems that a lot of our fellow Somalis misunderstand or have different expectation of the whole issue of federalism. In its totality, the concept of federalism is nothing but a tool or mechanism that can be selected or “chosen to bring together previously separate units” such our brothers in Somaliland and Puntland into a new country in which we all thrive and flourish as a united country. As it is current situation in Somalia heading into defragmented units of state; this concept of federalism seems to be the only viable option to unite or hold Somalia together, and only option for bringing back Somaliland, and prevent Puntland to split. To the contrary some fellow Somalis get twisted and want to turn the issue of federalism into land grabbing fiesta that benefits their own tribe or clan affiliations.
This is said, we must know that every federation or federal system is unique- to those that are really interested in regional or clan-based federalism would have to address many issues and correctly follow conflict prevention methods; and must propose something that will be or might be sensible to many Somalis and the international community without transgression or doing no harm to justice or to the natural law of the land.
For a quick recap on the issue of federalism and its popularity; currently, there are 193 UN recognized states, only 24 of these 193 countries have federal political systems of one sort or another. This is roughly 12.4% of the nations have embraced federalism. Most of these 24 nations didn’t started or existed as federations prior – large number of them became federations after internal conflict such as Bosnia that came out of Yugoslavia.
With that in mind, we now need to address or explore the concept of clan/ or tribal-based federalism which is mostly called ethnic federalism. Ethnicity-based federalism has been on the agenda of many ethno-political groups in Somalia as far back as pre-independence of 1960. Federalism has been a central issue in the constitutional deliberations during the transition in Somalia, and remains to be a contemporary debate even mentioned as an institutional solution in deeply divided societies such as Somalia. So by no means one should argue this is a new phenomenon in any sort. At this point in time all Somalis need to do is look back history and learn from it so that no similar mistakes are repeated again.
It is very important that, the fair and justice minded Somalis to propose an anti-conflict method and the development of a policy for ethnic autonomy, probably as a strategy for political and military support from different ethnic groups for the weak government in Mogadishu and take the pardon from the small African Union troops and the international community at large. For the incoming national reconciliation conference due in 2011 or prior, the current sitting government and parliament must initiate and announce Somalia’s federal system before the wicked-minded start dominating the debate or introduce any clannish agenda that is unfair. We must have a platform, where one of the major issues will be a right to autonomy on regional, district and local level should be given ... where [an] ethnic community has majority. For example: Kismayu as a gobol on its own, the majority or the rightful owners are Bajunis and Digil tribes - so it becomes a Digil & Mirifle region state with federal autonomy on its own. Similarly, Merca with Duruqbo or gibil-cad majority, and Barawe with Tuni and Reer-Barawo majority to be independent autonomous districts. Currently the most successful federal autonomous regions of Puntland and Somaliland are already ethnic-based autonomous regions with self-governance with a majority ethnic group being Majarteen on Puntland and Isaq on Somaliland. Hiiraan region rightfully belonging and clear majority being Hawiye land. Rightfully the regional divides should follow accordingly, where we are all united as a family under the federal banner of Somalia with a capital and stronger voluntary multi-ethnic peaceful military support from the ethnic autonomies.
In Somali, most ethnic communities are separated and currently live in under unofficial ethnic autonomy, where the borders between the regional units already match the boundaries of relevant ethnic and linguistic communities. We all have some common dialects and all its speakers congregate together in one place, and their tribal bounders are already set. This sorts of differentiations already exist and apparent in many parts of the country. Even, most Somali cities have indigenous dialects based names such as Barawe named after its residents and the indigenous tribes call Bravans and similarly most towns in Somalia.
Candidly speaking, I myself do not like tribe-based systems – I happen to like this method of ethnic-autonomy and the reason why I like this method is many renowned political scientists support the concept of federalism and it is a tool of ethnic conflict mitigation. But, if this fails or if the ethnicity-based autonomy is not achieved for one reason or another – then the only sensible alternative will be to have centralized government state that acts as a federation where its authority and sovereignty is divided between a central level of government and regional units at lower tiers of government. This division of power must be accompanied by shared power, i.e. the regional units should be represented at federal level. The major requirement for this method of governance is to have honest and free minded individuals to run the centralized federation and there must be a strong mechanism and constitution that guarantees the sovereignty and representation of the regional units.
As a cautionary, the movement of nomads and their area of settlements should not be confused with real and indigenous territorial ethnic land ownership. When setting territorial ethnic autonomous borders, one should first examine and ask who are the natural and inborn inhabitants originating in and naturally living in the specific regions in question??? One must not ignore the hard truth in order to prevent or mitigate further conflicts. Unless this is done or satisfied, we will be entering a new different stage in conflict and civil anarchy. If Somalis cannot satisfactorily answer to this important question or resolve its related issues, we must not as a nation attempt or introduce the issue of federalism at all.
By Sakawdin Mohamed, MS, MPA-candidate
E-mail: Sakawdin_00@hotmail.com
The opinions contained in this article are solely those of the writer, and it does not represent the editorial opinions of SomaliCare Blog
No comments:
Post a Comment