It was clear for anyone involved in Somaliland’s struggle for recognition that it will not come as a result of Somalilanders’ lobbying prowess. As political campaigns for recognition go this is by far one of the most disorganised, unplanned and under-funded in modern history. There is not one main umbrella organisation directing campaigns and advising its members. It is done by a plethora of temporary outfits set up by small groups of friends and acquaintances who more often than not have no idea of how to conduct campaigns of this magnitude. Unsurprisingly they blunder from one naïve idea to another typified by the ill-advised petition of Tony Blair during his last few months in office.
It does not help that Somaliland cause lacks the ‘cool’ factor. It is not cuddly and quaint like the Tibetan cause which makes influential Western elites drool. It has no determined and well-funded backers like the Southern Sudan cause which galvanised American Christian evangelicals.
But despite lacking funding for such things as newspaper adverts and plagued by incompetence and lack of direction, it still attracted a small band of principled men and women from Europe, America and Africa who saw its fundamental justice and vowed to support it to the best of their ability. They include academics, politicians and media people. They often advise bumbling but determined Landers as to the best ways of conducting themselves. They are usually ignored - Somalilanders still retain their unshakeable belief they are right most of the time and foreigners wrong all of the time.
But the latest piece of advice comes with such force and weight that even Somalilanders have to accept that our foreign friends may have a point at long last. Its’ been hinted, suggested and implied for a long time but Somalilanders are not good at picking such delicate political vibes. It is now being said loud and clear: change leadership democratically and peacefully or forget about recognition for at least another generation.
The reasons for this apparently blatant interference in Somaliland’s democratic processes are simple: the world is fed up with corrupt African monstrosities ruled by venal one party systems masquerading as multi-party democracies. And our friends in the EU in particular feel this is exactly the way Somaliland politics is heading. The corruption is already here oozing through every pore of Somaliland governance like a cancerous pus. Khat-addled Police officers hit motorists for bribes at every stop. Under-employed government Ministers stick greedy snouts into every potential source of money from NGO funds to Money transfer operations. Mid-ranking civil servants won’t lift a pen unless their long dirty fingers are well and truly greased.
But the most disturbing corruption has been the attempts by the ruling UDUB party at manipulating subclan politics to establish itself as one-party state. The other two opposition parties are no less willing to use clan politics but the ruling party’s is the most damaging for obvious reasons not least of concerns about using public funds for party purposes and abusing State power to get their way.
An ostensibly minor incident triggered by the recent infighting within UDUB’s party conference is a case in point. When a breakaway faction of the party tried to hold a parallel conference they were turned away by every Hotel in Hargeisa. When they eventually met in a remote little motel in a peasant class district of Hargeisa they were surrounded by armed police who menacingly pranced about in the courtyard.
The World had seen it all before across Africa and beyond. There is spirit-sinking familiarity about it all. A party comes to power and stays. It becomes complacent, corrupt and then veritably toxic. It rots away in its own filth and lets the country rot along with it. Kenya, Cameroon, Gabon, Zimbabwe, Djibouti. South Africa is next unless the citizens of that nation wake up to the approaching menace and give the ANC some competition.
But how do we know KULMIYE or UCID rule will be any less corrupt or anymore competent or any less willing to stay put once they are in power? The answer is we don’t. But what we do know is that change is generally healthy in democratic politics. It lets in some fresh air for a little while. God knows the long suffering people of Somaliland could do with some.
Abdi Yusuf
http://samotalis.blogspot.com/
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