Addicted To Big Government And Bankrupt Of Imagination
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By Abdulkadir J. Dualeh
Nations are great not because of the sword. They are great because the inhabitants think. So let us think and think through the issues facing us today. Let us demystify the slogans and let us focus people’s minds on the substance of the issues.
Let us explore the oft uttered issues of tribalism, role of government, role of religion, and let us offer our views on these subjects.
Tribalism:
Tribalism has received a bad publicity due to bitter, frustrated and perplexed social scientists of our society. Thanks to their scornful efforts, tribalism has become the smoke screen posture child for everything rotten about the affairs of Somalis. I beg to differ and here are the reasons why:
Voting along tribal lines is no different than voting along what is called “constituencies” in the western world. Tribes, like constituencies, have an agenda and an interest. They seek roads; they seek their fair share of the resources and government expenditure; they seek justice; they seek genuine representation; they know what they want and are not fooled as easily as you might think.
Unlike other constituencies in the western world, Somali tribes happen to share common geographical locations.
Some have suggested that tribalism is anathema to merit. This assertion is presumptuous and false. It assumes that some tribes have more proportion of the talent and intellect than others. There is no evidence to support such an assertion. Where I came from, I know innumerable people of other tribes with equal or better abilities than I have. Why should I insist on representing these tribes when there are more qualified candidates who have the trust of the locals? Is my ambition more important than expressed desire of the tribes? My representative happens to be one of our best. I do not indulge in self pity nor do I curse the darkness. I seek my bread else where, perhaps as baker of bread.
Economic progress:
Some have claimed, without evidence, that we need a powerful government to make economic progress. Again, I beg to differ.
The world economy has changed dramatically in the last 50 years. Manufacturing is only a small portion of the gross domestic products of nations. In the United States, only 20% of the GDP comes from manufacturing. A whopping 80% of the economy and employment comes from service industries, such as real-estate, banks, utilities, transportation (airline, trucking), insurance, entertainment, health care, education services, whole sale and retail. These services do not require a single machine nor do they cry out for a big government, only trained people are necessary to unleash prosperity. We have people trained in accounting, finance, in construction, in local wiring of telephone line and electric grid, good shopkeepers, good middle men and brokers, good playwrights and composers, good doctors, and good teachers. We have 80% of the human resources needed to build a thriving economy and we are thriving without a big government.
The old days of heavy handed government with a bloated beaurracy and ruinous defense spending on borrowed money are over. The world has learned from Japan and Germany, the defeated nations of the Second World War, that defense spending only takes way from investment in services. The people in our homeland are aware of these developments and have noticed the paradigm shift. The Diaspora is stuck on old methods and discredited ideas of big government.
Somalis vs. their neighbors
One of the most unique talents of Somalis has always been their innate ability to think independently and to see through the fog and clouds of meaningless slogans. Unlike other African nation states, this gift has always enabled them to maintain full control of their local economy.
Some of our neighbors such as D-Djibouti and Kenya may have a good GDP in the books, but their citizens are starving. The GDP is owned by Arabs and Indians. These bloated GDPs do not benefit the natives of the land. I care nothing for a large GDP in the books when I am unemployed.
The role and desirability of big government:
All the traditional roles of government such as justice, education, health care, fiscal and tax policy can be done locally. The days of sprawling governments with a hand in everything are over. Only political dinosaurs are clinging to those old fashioned ideas. The days of organizing 100,000 uniformed military individuals who wake up at dawn to exercise and build large muscles are over. The days of borrowing Massive and ruinous debt to buy multimillion dollar tanks and Migs aircraft for glamorous purposes are over. Today, we are building 100,000 teachers dedicated to forming neural networks in the raw brains of our gifted youth.
What is our foreign policy?
Very soon the world will be dominated by a billion people behemoth nation states such as US, EU, India and China. The only foreign policy we can conceivably have is to build a United Africa. The squabbling petty princes of Africa wearing tiger skins and bloomed hats will either have to shape up and see the light or perish ignominiously like the Neanthertols.
Our foreign policy is simple, common sense based, and methodical. It starts with preserving the liberty and sovereignty of our people. After that, Somaliland opposes the Ethiopians against the ICU. Next, we oppose the Egyptians against the Ethiopians. And then we oppose the rest of the world against sub-Saharan Africa.
We start with reassuring all of our communities and building a great nation. We then join our Somali brothers and sisters on our own terms. We follow that by joining the Oromos, the Eriterians, the Amharas and the Tigres on mutually beneficial terms. We unite our greater Cushitic Hametic nation... With that enlightened plan, we shall liberate our kin in Kilil 5.
This, my dear friends, is manifest destiny. All else is confusion and grasping in the wind.
The Arab hand outs, foreign aid and foreign investment
Some of us are addicted to Arab handouts. They look to foreign aid, foreign investment, and foreign loans.
Foreign aid is a glorified begging. It deprives you of your dignity. It blinds you to your abilities and potential. It teaches you bad habits. It is like a drug and it is corrosive to your spirit.
Foreign loan is useful only if you have a specific venture whose output can generate a good return on investment. It is no different than taking a personal loan to go to school so you can earn more money. If you borrow money and use it to buy toys and bread, you will sink.
Foreign investment can only make sense if you can not raise the finances from Somalis in the Diaspora. The fuel of foreign investment that propelled the miracle of the Chinese economic growth is actually not foreign. The predominant portion of the so called foreign investment in China actually comes from Chinese in the Diaspora or Hong Kong or Taiwan.
The rebuilding of Lebanon after the civil war was financed by Lebanese restaurant and gas station owners in the United States and the Middle East.
In both cases and in many other similar cases, nations received investment without giving up any thing of value to foreigners with dubious agendas and too many strings.
Religion:
We are the children of Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Mohamed (ASW). Our blessed prophet Mohamed (ASW) has bequeathed to us his comprehensive and complete divine revelations and we cherish it. Our Prophet (ASW) has also informed us, categorically, that he was the last of the prophets. This means that divine revelation has ceased when our prophet departed the earth. We accept no new prophets lest we are prepared to burn in hell.
The controversy about religion in Somalia today is synthetic and baseless.
In summary:
We are in a new era. The old statuesque is dead and is replaced by a new initiative founded on reason rather than sentiment and slogans. Governments are no longer the engines of wealth creation. They are in fact a necessary evil to be minimized as much as possible.
Open your eyes to the progress made in the last 15 years.
All politics is local. You need to escape from the machinations of ambitious men who misdirect you and mislead you with hollow and high flauten slogans. Build your own house and then worry about somebody else’s house.
With malice towards no tribe; with charity to all, I offer you these views in good spirit.
May Allah bless you all.
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