ONE ON ONE WITH SOMALILAND POLITICAL ELITE

By Jerry Okungu
Hargeisa, Somaliland
April 9, 2009

Eng. Feisal Ali Waraabe, President of the UCID opposition party, the third largest political party in Somaliland believes that Somaliland is on an irreversible path to democracy with a sound and credible multiparty political culture.

He swears that the citizen is the backbone of political power; therefore his or her participation is fundamental. The citizen therefore deserves the right to be protected from state excessive power.

He, like many Somaliland politicians, is appalled at the apparent indifference of the world community to the plight of his country despite 19 years of relative peace and democratic governance.

His theory as to why African states have never recognized Somaliland is an interesting one and suggestive of a theory of international conspiracy to safe-guard special interests that may not be so obvious to the rest of Somalilanders and other African states.

As much as his country needs the support of African states; the same states have over the years been unable to formulate credible foreign policies of their own. Their dependence on foreign aid from more powerful nations in the West has deprived them of ability to make independent decisions on questions like the Somaliland sovereignty.

The Somaliland question is directly linked to the struggle for supremacy between Somalia and Ethiopia in the Horn of Africa. And Somali being an Islamic State makes it a case of interest for the rest of the Arab world and more particularly the Arab League kingpin- Egypt.

The fact that Ethiopia has closer ties with Somaliland to the extent that it is the only country with an Embassy in Hargeisa; has unsettled the nerves of the Cairo government bearing in mind that Ethiopian desire to control the source of the Nile waters; the lifeline of Egyptian survival has been a cause for concern to the Egyptians since colonial times. After fighting a bitter war with Eritrea, the Addis regime had to switch from the port of Asmara to Berbera seaport in Somaliland for it external trade.

Egypt believes that a stronger and united Somalia state would be a deterrent to Ethiopia should the latter take drastic actions to go to war with Egypt over Nile waters. If such a situation arose, Egypt would count a fellow Muslim country to offer logistical as well as military support. That country has to be a strong and united Somalia.

The reason other Islamic states in the Arab world including Sudan cannot recognize Somaliland is because for the wealthier Arab states; their foreign policies are guided by the more powerful Egyptian state which also is America’s strongest ally after Israel in the entire Middle East.

The Somaliland question gets more complicated when one ropes in the Italian connection, a former colonial master of the now failed state of Somalia. It is in Italian interest to sustain the Somali nation in order to retain its influence in the region. Its voice in the AU therefore carries weight when it comes to the Somaliland debate.

This could be the reason the European Union is pouring millions of dollars into the country, rehabilitating and rebuilding universities and other institutions as well as sponsoring their electoral processes but at the same time withholding tacit recognition of the Hargeisa regime!

The Egyptian role in denying Somaliland UN recognition became more evident when Boutros Boutros Ghali, an Egyptian was the Secretary General of the United Nations. When Somaliland presented its credentials for the UN General Assembly consideration, the documents were never even tabled at the Assembly because it would not be in the interest of the Egyptian people!

Somalilanders see their failure to get international recognition as double standards the international community is famous for.

This hypocrisy forgets that Somaliland was a sovereign state in 1960 with a seat at the UN General Assembly before it voluntarily formed a Union government with Italian Somalia.

Now, the proponents of One Somalia forget that in the same region and other parts of the world, the same UN, AU and EU have sanctioned the separation of several states including Eritrea from Ethiopia, Polisario from Morocco, the independence of East Timor, the fragmentation of former Yugoslavia into ethnic enclaves and allowed several East European states to split from former Soviet Union.

UCID as a political party draws its inspiration and democratic practice from well established European political parties. They look up to the Social Democratic Party of Germany and the Labour Party of UK among other like-minded parties.

As a party, they are committed to the development of the Somaliland nation and will strive to ensure that Somaliland gets accepted and recognized by the international community. It is a party with a strong Diaspora influence , having been founded in Europe by exiles while Siad Barre made it difficult for them to operate in the then Somalia.

The UCID party leaders are strong believers in Pan Africanism and will work if elected to power to promote regional integration and African unity throughout the continent.

Five fundamental principles guide the UCID operations:
1. To maintain and safeguard Somaliland’s independence and sovereignty
2. Turn Somaliland into a welfare state where every citizen enjoys basic rights and access to services such as security, shelter, education, healthcare and food security
3. Their vision of Somaliland is that of a decentralized state where each region is autonomous in order to bring government and services closer to the people of Somaliland
4. To produce young and visionary leadership that will be able to eradicate tribalism and clanism
5. To build strong and viable institutions that can safeguard the rights of the people irrespective of regime change

When asked why elections in Somaliland have been postponed twice since May 2008, the party president cited several plausible reasons even though they may not be the opinion of the majority of their members.

One of the reasons they share with UDUB the ruling party is that there is need for a new voter registration to comply with the new EU sponsored electronic voting system.
To understand the new technology, the sponsors wanted the Electoral Commission to understand the technology and the process if elections were to be credible.

For this reason voter registration commenced in August 2008 after the new system had been installed and field personnel trained on their application. The process was supposed to end in January 2009 after six months of national registration. However, on October 29, 2008, there was a major terrorist attack in Hargeisa that targeted the Presidential Palace, the UNDP Country office and the Ethiopian Embassy.

Following this attack that left at least 30 people dead, all foreign workers in Somaliland were evacuated as several of their operations closed down. This incident drastically disrupted the voter registration that only resumed after January 2009.

However, terrorist attack aside, the UCID believes that Somaliland has an inefficient and incompetent electoral Commission. The party also feels the government was not keen on holding elections on time in the first place.

They are arguing that there are forces within Somaliland that worked against voter registration. For example, they cannot understand reasons for the latest postponement considering that experts from the European Union who will manage the process have been in the country for a long time now. Due to this delay, many donors have either stopped or suspended their support for political parties.

Despite this anger with the government over the latest election postponement, UCID as a party feels that public demonstrations are not the way to solve the problem because Somaliland, like the rest of Somalia is a fluid and unstable society. More importantly, the police are not trained to handle civilians with care. The police don’t even have teargas canisters or water cannons to deal with demonstrations. If such a situation were to arise, they would most likely use live ammunition and there would be unnecessary loss of life.

Whereas the party will not take part in street demonstrations, members feel that it is within the rights of every citizen to demonstrate peacefully and the government has a duty to protect every citizen including those that may demonstrate against it from time to time.

Jerryokungu@gmail.com