U.S. Needs to Know Somalia Requires a Bottom up Approach

Mohamed Hussein
Sunday, May 03, 2009

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Many political observers in Somalia think that US Representative for African Affairs, Phillip Carter, is making a big mistake in thinking that helping Somalia’s fragile government would solve security and piracy issues. These observers noted that Somalia’s government is not elected by the Somali people; it was rather formed and selected by the international community. They pointed out that both administrations of Puntland and Somaliland were built from bottom up - where, local citizens or their elders, elected representatives who finally elected the Presidents and Vice Presidents of Puntland and Somaliland.

There was a report where the US Representative for African Affairs suggested that US should help the Somali government financially in order to solve piracy and security issues in the country. Implying that US does not want to intervene militarily, he mentioned that it was concluded that the best option for the Obama administration to tackle piracy in Somalia is to help the Somali government build security forces who in turn may fight the piracy from inland.

It becomes obvious that even though eighteen attempts were made, in overseas, to create a central government for Somalia, none of them succeeded. Political analyst believe that the reason all of those attempts failed is that these transitional institutions were created by the international community whereas the reason Puntland and Somaliland administrations succeeded and secured their areas is simply that those locally created administrations were elected by the local people.

People who are familiar with Somali politics insist that until the local people of Mogadishu have an opportunity to elect their representatives and form their own regional administration, there could never be a peace in that part of Somalia. They also suggest that if the people of Mogadishu, or Banadir region, are able to form regional administration, then after couple of years, it may be possible to form in Somalia a unity government consisting of all administrations.

Right now, the problem is that the people of Banadir region feel that the international community is forcing them a government that consists of all clans, but only manages in their land -the Banadir region. The other regions, such as Puntland and Somaliland, oppose any central government based in Mogadishu because – they also know that international community is financing a government, in the name of Somalia, that do not represent them.

Most political observers believe that the only way that the United States could help Somalia is by working with local administrations and finally helping the formation of a government of national unity elected from all regions of Somalia. This government should be elected by the Somali people and not by the international community as they did last time around - with this so-called a Government of national Unity.

It is a fact that this unity government which Ould-Abdallah, the UN Representative for Somalia, campaigned so much in reality controls only one half of Mogadishu. Mr. Ould-Abdallah is planning raise about 160 million dollars for the support of its troop and AU troops in Mogadishu. There is no doubt that the money will be used for other reasons. One can tell the plans of this unity government from get go that it intends not to solve Somali’s issues. There is no government in the world that could solve, within two years, problems as big as Somalia’s.

Somali people need a government elected by the people from bottom up for at least 5 years term. International community should focus on helping all the administrations that currently exist in Somalia and the world should help the Mogadishu groups build their region first before they are given recognition as the Government of Somalia.

No one can understand why Ahmedou Ould Abdullah thinks that this unity government has a chance to succeed when it only controls half of Mogadishu. His reasoning is that all will be well because the government is functioning in Mogadishu - he seems to forget the TFG was “functioning” both in Baydhabo and in Mogadishu.

Mohamed Hussein
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