“Iyana waxaan kaga gudbaa gobey liicoo ha jabin” by Hassan Ganey
by Avv. Abdiwahid Abdullahi Warsame
Sunday, August 16, 2015
Part 11
In general, my intellectual curiosity has been the source of my political awakening that led me to focus upon the role of human fallacy in the business of governance. Provocative and compelling readings and discussions have pushed me to become analytical about the relationship between governance and the capacity of individual. Certainly this has taught me the importance of reflection and revision which ought never to cease in order to find a balance between the two. It is certainly a daunting task and our journey remains unfinished. Unfortunately, the unrefined character of some of our leaders has always shaped and defined the true nature of our government. It became difficult to separate the role of the individual and its effects upon the performance of public duties. Therefore, the character, intellectual abilities, and moral qualities of public office holders are of the utmost importance. As we have seen, the absence of legal-minded politicians in our government has manifested itself and fairness has become a rare commodity in the midst of building a new society. In fact, fairness is a quality that has been enshrined all Scriptural Books including Ours. Furthermore, it became too sophisticated for our people to understand the mechanics and spiritual insight that hardens the pillars of good government. In other words, it made things more complicated. As a result, we are only dealing with the shell of a government. And yet, no attempts have been made to understand the unknown elements that remain unclear to us within the scientific DNA of governance. It has made us act aloof which in turn has paralyzed our intellectual analysis about the true fabric of modern governance. Thus, the whole episode became a frightened voice which has been shrieking in the darkness of the unknown.
Despite our relentless desire for the rebirth of some form of government that stands fair and equal to its common citizens, there are still many reasons to have anxiety about the danger of the emergence of a new tyrannical system. This new mindset led our institutions to lose the ability to filter and flush the human follies out of governance; in fact, our personal desires shaped it. This gave leeway to the criminals and made the system imperfect as it shields the offenders of law. This great calamity has infected our social cohesiveness and allowed injustice to run through the veins of the system. Therefore, our people do not expect the system to reliably administer justice. In fact, the system conveys that nothing matters so long as the person’s actions are politically expedient. Indeed, this attitude has brought new moral developments that inspired many of our youth recently and is based upon personal aggrandizement, refusal to live by the core values of the society such as integrity, honesty, decency, and civic manner. On the contrary, theft, bribery, prostitution, gossip and seeking loyal to foreign entity have prevailed and left a mark that made our national identity fickle and rotten. Not only have we created a new standard of 4.5 formulas which is the worst evil of all, but also it has made us into a surprisingly hypocritical society that wants to establish a Republic, but instead we have stripped it of all its elements. This is one of the many examples there has been clear evidence which made all of our historical process obnoxiously disdainful and this warrants a thorough re-examination of the root causes in order to re-route the lost route, if there has been any or to create new one.
Indeed, we have invalidated and minimized the reasons to carry out a genuine change to adapt and go on with conviction about the reality on the ground. We still entertain the old rubbish and outdated policies. The desire to make a new concept and create an environment of inclusiveness regardless of political, ideological and religious affiliation has been missing. Clearly none of the leaders except Jaalle Mohamed Siyad Barre since the birth of the nation were inclined to radical ideas; we may say it was a Godless ideology or Siyadism. Worst of all is that the discrepancies between our democratic rhetoric and the practices of governance have delegitimized the very essence of a government based upon co-ownership. It seems that no one cares about the holistic revival and the strength of national identity rather than drafting tasks of a tribal and factional scope. The use of force, bribery, and the suppression of free media and extra-judicial executions have quashed the fundamental principal of free society without fear of government oppression. Unfortunately many of us argue that the current situation is inevitable and that the process of rescuing our society has deteriorated long ago since our actions disapproved both the method and its autocratic objectives. I despise the rotten and irrational system that has thrived in our country and the timeless abject poverty that the nation’s citizens have been witnessing over and over again.
Avv. Abdiwahid Abdullahi Warsame
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