Grading the Da'ud administration, and the federal government policies toward the region- A Rejoinder

It is a good read out on the political situation of the Somali region but there are some corrections I would like to make, based on my reading of the situation. I also want to raise a few questions that may incite a further discussion.

Your diagnosis of the basic problem is praiseworthy. You clearly and rightly said “It appears the federal governments recycling of corrupt and incapable leaders in the Somali regional state is just not working and will not work in the future”. You also added “I’m sure the region has decent, capable, well educated leaders that can solve the region’s problems but the federal government must first stop its bad habit of appointing and recycling incompetent leaders who often are perceived as loyalist to the ruling party”. However, in your final conclusion you said “I believe the interest of the region will be best served if the federal government takes over for a period of time” My question is how can the government which, as can be deduced from your analysis, is already in full control of the politics of the region bring any change if they ‘formally’ take over? Isn’t the federal government, as can be inferred from your piece, a huge part of the problem? What would make sense, in my view, is to respect the rule of law and division of powers between the federal and regional government. If there is a political space the region can and will produce leaders that can bring stability and development.

Your assessment of Daud’s administration is by and large accurate but to be frank there isn’t administration in Somali region. There are Duad and Abdi Iley whose primary goal is to please TPLF cadres. They revoke immunity of parliamentarians when they need, they dismiss judges when they feel, they abuse and insult their own cabinet members as they please and they tell judges who to convict plus the sentence. The civilians have no say either. Even the elders are disrespected and humiliated in public by these two young men. For example when the president met some of the elders of Raaso, instead of listening and respectfully addressing their questions, he just insulted them and Abdi Iley arrested them as if the rudeness was not enough. Basically, there are no institutions in Somali region. These two gentlemen are the institutions.

The other point I would like to comment on is more of a wording and perception issue. It seems that you rightly tried to devise strategies that can bring the people and the government closer: investing in the economy with help of NGO, improving governance and integrating the people into the main stream society by learning from Kenya. These are valid strategies, albeit not representing the fundamental issue that needs to be addressed-peace, but instead of framing this as a “fighting” strategy with the ONLF it could have been more attractive if you had said it could contribute to the resolution of the conflict between ONLF and the government. I am making this suggestion under the assumption that you are an intellectual who is not on any side but if you see ONLF as an insurgency that needs to be defeated I misread your article.

Again when addressing the policies of the federal government toward this region and its people, the writer fell short of talking about the injustice, the displacement, the illegal killing, and more importantly the lack of representation in the federal establishment. I would like our intellectuals to look into the fundamental cause of mistrust between the successive Ethiopian regimes and our people. In other words, are we not supposed to be part of the decision making at federal level, not just recipients of policies?

I also felt that a “bloated civil service” is a bit of exaggeration given the number of educated but unemployed youth idly sitting in Jijiga. I don’t know if you wanted to talk about the performance of the civil service, which is a whole different issue.

Lastly, Somali ayaan ahay oo talo aan la ii dirsanin ayaan galayaa. My limited knowledge of the UN protocols is that UN personnel are not allowed to give views that may seem too political or a breach of UN neutrality/position. Besides, revealing your affiliation isn’t really very important in this context. After all, people can misuse this information.

The writer can be reached at mahadganey@yahoo.com