Era Of Bipolar Power Structure Dawns In Somaliland
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Adan H Iman, Los Angeles
The political vacuum left behind by the implosion of the Somali State, which entailed disarming armed militia, by force where necessary, and establishing law and order gave the late President Mohamed I. Egal an opportunity to assume extra ordinary powers. The current President Dahir R. Kahin inherited and perpetuated this imperial presidency. The office of the presidency dominated all aspects of political life of the people during this formative period of the Republic. The people tolerated the monarchical powers because establishing law and order and creating the institutions of the state was worth the problems of the imperial presidency.
We have had Presidents during this period that behaved like kings. But when the new elected members of Somaliland’s First Parliament assume their responsibilities, the era of imperial presidency must have sailed into the sun-set of history. In political terms, it is as if at a fault line on the grounds of the presidential quarters in Hargeisa, the equivalent of tectonic shift of the land have occurred. Half of the powers enjoyed by that office have migrated to Parliament as a result of the elections.
The constitution diffuses power into the branches of the government. Its beauty is the elaborate checks and balances: The President is responsible for the operations of the government but parliament has oversight and investigatory responsibility; the President presides over the development of the budget but Parliament has the authority to hold hearings and amend, if they have the votes, before final adoption; the President, as the head of the State, has jurisdiction over foreign policy and dealing with foreign leaders but Parliament has the responsibility of ratifying any agreements reached with a foreign power. The Judiciary, which currently lacks capacity and independence, is supposed to be the arbiter based on the constitution and the laws.
The late US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis wrote that the objective of the checks and balance in the constitution is not to promote efficiency of the government but to preclude the usurpation of power. If Parliament performs its constitutional duties as voters expect, freedom and liberty will ring throughout the country, as it has never been. Hopefully, there will be more transparency and accountability in managing the resources of the country; more protections of civil liberties and administration of justice as citizens will not be thrown to rot in jails without having their days in courts; journalists to have less to fear and more courage to search for the truth; more alternative sources of information like privately owned Radios Stations; more meaningful decentralization that gives decision making authority to municipal councils and an increase of their budgetary allocations and less power to interior ministry officials over local matters.
Some parliamentary candidates used political parties merely as vehicles to appear on ballots not because they identify ideologically with their party. The bet is that between the one woman and eighty-one men who were elected to the Lower House, a majority of them (42 or more) will emerge to play the role of opposition and put a break to the runaway powers of the Executive branch.
Much as one can describe their governance styles in terms that are critical, the incumbent president and his predecessor, on the other side of the ledger, have made important contributions in planting the seeds of democracy to take roots in Somaliland. The late President Egal created peace and harmony and established the institutions of government in Somaliland while neighboring Somalia sank further and further into lawlessness and violence. Equally important, he painstakingly presided over the writing of the constitution, its lynchpin of which is multiparty representative democracy. Unfortunately, he did not live to see the realization of the dream in his constitution. It befell on his successor, President Rayale, who successfully presided over the holding of three elections, all of which met the standard to be free and fair.
The people of Somaliland elected municipal councils, a president and most recently members of parliament. The excitement and competitive spirits during the last election indicated the degree to which they are enjoying their new democratic values. But these political beliefs will be fragile unless people experience their liberty and freedom will also help gradually improve their economic lives.
The international community did not waste any time to hail the parliamentary election as an important step. But the rich western democracies, which made the spread of freedom and liberty in the Muslim world as a lynchpin of their foreign policy, should back up their effusive praise with concrete financial and economic assistance and end Somaliland’s isolation. Somaliland will be a worthy ally in world peace, in the fight against terrorism ( as it proved last month by apprehending heavily armed terrorists) and a model country where one can be good democrat and a good Muslim at the same time.
Email: ahiman2@aol.com
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