By Ibrahim Adam Ghalib, Borama, Awdal

Democracy is the rule by the ruled. The central idea is that democracies place key political powers in the hands of the people. At minimum citizens in a democracy choose their leaders freely from among competing groups and individuals. In highly developed democracies of the world the rights of the people extend well beyond this simple act of choosing leaders. Voters in advanced democracies are free to propose a wide array of public policy options and join groups that promote those options. Voters may even directly determine through referendum proposed policy measures submitted for direct popular vote that will become the law of the country.

This pattern contrasts sharply with that of an authoritarian regime in which government stands apart from the people, oppressing citizens by depriving them of their basic freedom to speech, associate, write and participate in political life without fear. Although political power in a democracy is in the hands of the people, not all democracies are alike.

In Somaliland the vote of the people is not really meaningful. They do not have real choices of leadership at polls. Only three persons dominate the political scene and are always at the party ticket. An element of choice is not exercised in the political parties. The party heads are totally authoritarian over all citizens. They suppress open communication so as to maintain an iron grip on the will of the populace. They do not allow reforms within the party to let the most suitable person or likely o win the election to run on the party ticket

Political parties are important but are not the only outlet for citizen participation. Citizens must be free to join the civic society groups that promote their particular interests. These societies allow citizens to meet, organize, plan strategies, lobby and even protest government action. These organizations have the leverage to compel the political parties to make the necessary reforms in the parties so that the right person is nominated as the head of the party. Unfortunately the government manipulates all the civic societies in this country. This is because they do not have financial resources of their own and entirely depend on government assistance and that is why they always work on low profile. Civic society option is the only way that democracy in this country can thrive and flourish.

Women organizations in this country are generally kept apolitical and focused on narrow domestic issues. They are excluded from societal responsibility and as a result the public definitely lost nearly half of its labor force. Generally women handpicked by the government are installed as heads of these organizations and the financial resources are always under their jurisdiction.

The constitution ensures the establishment of an independent judiciary. The concept of judicial independence means that judges are free to make decisions based on the law and do not feel compelled to comply with the wishes of the political leaders. There is a strong correlation between judicial independence and democratic government. Judges are normally chosen on merit rather than politics and cannot be removed because of the nature of their decisions. In contrast Somaliland judges follow the dictates of the political leaders. Judges who make decisions not favoring the government risk to be removed from office. The government uses the courts as a legal and until we get an independent judiciary, which is independent from the government, our country will remain in perpetual crisis.

On 18 May 2007, the people of Somaliland were expecting a comprehensive government policy speech touching and addressing both foreign and domestic issues in this difficult time but nothing of that sort had materialized. Not even significant presence of the opposition parties was felt. The relations of the executive and the parliament reached its worst ever. Speeches are the most effective public relations tools because they are written and focused for the ears not the eyes. The people should get the facts quickly and accurately. In this information age nothing is hidden and the public knows what is happening in their vicinities. The new developments in southern Somalia of course affect us and it should not be minimized and smoothed because this might cause problems that cannot be solved easily. Recently a law was enacted banning and criminalizing people who participate in the Somali reconciliation process. This shows that the government lost the confidence of the people and relations are shaky. These things often create headaches and need to be tackled in a different way.

Last week the minister of finance made a controversial statements in a press conference in which he spoke without limits. He thinks that the people will buy this cheap gossip of the coffee shops. He sensationalized minor incidents out of proportion. In this press conference he never said a word about the budget in which the executive and the parliament are in serious dead lock. Below I will quote his statements: “Any body whose umbilical cord is not buried in this country will not be a president at all. I met Mohamed Mohamoud Sillanyo in a dinner banquet and told him it is better for you and me to be out of politics. Somebody told me in Nairobi that Musa Arro and Adam Madoobe have Jewish blood. Unquote- The rest of the press conference was all irrelevant and tribal slogans. Many politicians and the public protested in the strongest possible words,” he said.

All in all when you look at this administration one assumes that they are fulfilling a hidden agenda. The people of Somaliland are frustrated and fear for their future.

kaalib33@hotmail.com