Mogadishu (UM) – Those stuck in the Somali government bubble want the Somali people to celebrate the successful conclusion of another unnecessary major political crisis which nearly ruined Somalia’s entire progress over the last year. Last night Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire and the now resigned but not yet replaced Speaker of Parliament Mohamed Sheikh Osman Jawaari met, laughed, hugged and forgave each other. This is not like the rumors that dominated the whole Motion debate at the beginning of this week, it is actually posted on twitter so it must be true.
Whether or not the leaders of the two fighting camps during the Motion of No Confidence against the Speaker met or not is irrelevant because one is on his way out and the other is now desperately searching for a Speaker to do his work in Parliament. What really matters is that there is no remorse from either of them regarding the crisis they caused which has hurt the Somali people, the economy and made Somalia more unstable. Both the Prime Minister and former Speaker can laugh and make up, but the damage they caused to the country and people will take time to recover from.
For too long Somali politics has been focused on personalities. There is always talk of people but never process. This is illustrated by the new political obsession with who will be the next Speaker. Whoever they are, they should not be more important than the law that governs them otherwise they will think they are above it.
To protect the Somali people from the vanity and destruction of Somali politicians, including the Parliament and Executive, processes of governance must be strengthened. Somali politics must be rules based and not built on who is one’s cousin, clansmen or will promote a spoiler. The Constitutional review and Court which ought to have played the role of balancing and checking government powers are both absent and irrelevant. The weakness of both was best illustrated in the Motion saga which eventually saw the Speaker leave after receiving some kind of deal from the Office of the President as senior Villa Somalia sources have confirmed to UM.
The main lesson from the Motion saga is that Somali politics is volatile and led by disorganized interest groups fighting for influence and positions. There is very little, if any at all, consideration for the national interest. Accordingly, the national, and ultimately the public interest, must be championed by an established, transparent and clear process which cannot be hijacked by petty squabbling between political spoilers who ought to know better. The current provisional constitution has proven itself worthless during the Motion and until it is completed satisfactorily, supplementary rules must be adopted to safeguard the national interest within the political process.
The Somali people’s future and that of this fragile recovering country cannot be held hostage by a few friends living in a political bubble in a small corner of a single road in Mogadishu. Somalia and the Somali people deserve more than this.
