The year 1947 was the official start of the unity of the Somali Republic before its independence from Britain and Italy, when the representatives of the reserves met with the Somali Youth League (SYL) which was the largest political force in the Somali colonies subject to Italy, and the university distinguished itself from other political forces in its geographic circle, with the unitary program at the level of Somali nationalism.
At that time, the general scene of Somalis was dominated by two very contradictory matters, similar to the reality that followed the collapse of the Somali state in 1991. The first was characterized by fragmentation and political conflict in the internal framework of both reserves and colonies. The second issue centered on meeting on the option of unity, of course the Somali Unity Front Somali protectorates were an exception, but they were not a significant demographic.
Representatives of the British Somali Protected Territories arrived in Mogadishu on June 29, 1960 and they are in great political disagreement, while they met to meet the option of Somali unity, and in turn, the representatives of the Italian Somali colonies also under severe political disagreement among them, then the official unity option was passed on 1 July 1060 and later declared forms of political difference which were more elitist than political, as there were no regional or regional problems behind these elitist conflicts.
The political geography of a country was formed from 8 provinces, six of which were previously representing the colonies of Italian Somalia and two of them came from the geography of the British Somali reserves, and they made up almost three residents of the Somali Republic, and when Somalia collapsed the political geography consisted of 18 provinces, 13 of which are in regional The south in addition to 5 provinces in the north. The Somali Republic inherited 8 provinces from the colonial era, then the Democratic Republic of Somalia collapsed with an administrative system that included 18 provinces.
In the context of the efforts to restore unity between the Somali parties, there is a reality that includes a number of scenes, including the scene of the general Somali conflict, and interspersed with how many forms of conflict, so what will the scene of negotiations be? Will it include all the parties? Or will it be confined to a specific circle and between specific forces?
In principle, the body in which the negotiations were restricted since 2012 was characterized by the form of contradictions from which the talks started, and came as a negotiating body between Somalia and the Republic of Somaliland. The paradox is that the first party has political legitimacy to represent the second party, and yet it is intended to negotiate with the first as two states on an equal basis, And that violates the alphabet of politics.
At the most that the talks suffer from is the problem of reference, and the political size that it represents, which requires its solution before entering any upcoming talks, both parties suffer from how many internal contradictions, while the Republic of Somaliland constitutes another contradiction in the entity of Somalia, the state, as it is still On a political connection with him, and that what took place on May 18, 1991 represented an incomplete separation attempt.
Somalia has a political reference that is not available to the separatist side, and the latter stems from the de facto reference as an example of the rupture of all of Somalia, including the Canton represented by the Republic of Somaliland, which is contested by the reference in it, those forces rejecting secession, which usually do not participate in the talks.
In the face of these different references and perceptions that cannot be conceived logically, the necessity of the round table conference includes geographic, tribal and political forces and representatives of civil society, and the non-positive distinction between the parties is to be overcome, provided that representation is done according to population, geographic data, multiplicity of programs and representatives Across Somalia, and the return to the moment before the Somali state collapsed, not from the reality of the accumulation of excess power for some.
Every Somali governorate must be prepared to deserve national reconciliation, which has not been devoted yet, so it is not logical for political settlements to precede the reality of reconciliation, especially since the experiences of the past three decades have confirmed the failure of the settlements, which were not backed by the reality of a deliberate reconciliation, and the concept of reconciliation proceeds from the dimensions that All parties are aware of what they have and what they have to do, and everyone must fulfill their obligations towards the other, which must be preceded by talk of two unequal states negotiating on the level of political legitimacy.
It is not logical for a component to obtain greater political and administrative representation than what is legitimate with other Somali components, and preparing programs must precede political settlements, which must come in the last stage. Talking about the nature of political systems was federal, confederation, central, must It comes at a late stage in the programs, for everyone to first talk about what unites them, then penetrate into their disadvantages towards each other and how to overcome them, formulate a comprehensive joint constitutional contract for the nature of the state.
The desired unity must be broken with the failures of the past. It is not possible to turn back and establish unity between two regions according to an unhealthy formula that is based on the worst political systems, which is the confederation contract. There is nothing that can achieve a high Somali interest by returning to this scene. Dividing and separation only achieves the immediate interest of those who advocate it, as well as tribal federalism and mono-centralism must be excluded from the general scene, the alternative is vacillating between a federal state based on the provinces of the Democratic Republic of Somalia, or from a flexible central state that grants broad powers to rule Local administration.
This aspired state must go beyond the legacy of the decades that followed in 1960, and not allow the presence of regional, tribal, religious extremism, discrimination between citizens according to gender and class.
The failure of the Somalis in the matter of unity occurred due to the presence of these practices. Upon the restoration of the unity of the Somali society and its state, it must take into account this inevitable context in its necessity, and without that, the path is subject to failure and further rupture, when its challenges cannot be solved by the calculations of the reality of 1960 ,Or partial stages.
Khalid Hassan Yusuf
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