Somalia: Engaging in politics is to our nation’s credit

by Abdullahi Dool
Wednesday, May 19, 2010

A very important topic of our discussion today is whether our people’s love to engage in politics is a curse or a blessing. Politics is a tool which enables people to organize and develop society. It is no secret that Somalis love to engage in politics. The question is whether a nation’s love of engagement in politics is a curse or blessing? I believe a nation’s love of engagement in politics is a blessing. However, there are two ways of engagement in politics. One is positive and constructive and the other is negative and destructive.

In any society, there is always a price to pay when fewer people engage in politics. Edmund Burke, the Irish statesman and political philosopher is once believed to have said: “The only way bad men can succeed is for good men to do nothing.” In many developed nations political apathy is a worrisome trend. The younger generations simply are not to be bothered to engage in politics. Apathy can give birth to unrepresentative political system whereby any party which secures 20% or less of the vote can end up ruling the country.

Acquisition of information plays a pivotal part in the lives of our nomads. In the open savannah, information is passed from one nomad to another voluntarily. It enables them to survive and thrive in their environment. Our trekking nomads do not pass without briefing one another about the journey which lay ahead in their travel. This allows them to beware about the condition of their travel so that they have the necessary information about danger, water, pasture etc. In modern metropolitan life FM radio stations supply commuters and drivers the necessary information about traffic, travel, news and a host of other information.

Our nation’s nomadic heritage is probably behind the reason why modern Somalis love to engage in politics of our nation. At the heart of it all is to know what is happening. For that reason, engaging in politics is without doubt to our nation’s credit. However, there is a difference between positive and helpful political engagement and unhelpful and corrosive engagement. The question is not how to discourage Somalis from engaging in politics but how to channel political engagement to a better use.

Those who have nothing to hide have nothing to fear. A government which knows what it is doing would see freedoms such as free press, political participation to the nation’s advantage. For instance, it is positive Somali to care about how the nation is ruled. Our people should always remain vigilant in the affairs of the nation and our public administration. They should support good things and shame bad things and evils which can emerge from ill (bad) politics and practices which made Somalia what it has become.

Somalia shall need a new and clean politics. There is a need to root out greed. There is a need to put the nation first. There is also the need to make public service accountable. All these come under the banner of constructive engagement. If the Somali people did not watch out for their nation who else will?

Our people’s love to engage in politics should be seen for what it is: a gift from the way of life of our forbearers. The Somali people should continue to engage in politics so that there is no tolerance to ineptitude and malpractices. One day when Somalia has a government which has the interests of the nation at heart political participation would unnerve no-one. The question is not how to discourage Somalis from engage in politics but how to make engagement in politics positive and useful for the nation?

Without doubt, the old politics in which politics is entered into for selfish reasons is prolonging misery and lawlessness in Somalia. Only a new breed of leaders who can introduce a new politics and establish a functioning system of government can dig the Somali nation out of its hole. Moreover, it will take a new generation of educated Somalis who can introduce new ways of doing things who can establish a system of government which is capable to serves and benefit from all our people.

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