EDITORIAL (Halbeeg News) – The definition of government is not clear for many Somalis. Even for many of those learned Somalis used the word government for individuals at the office at that certain time and sometimes many criticizes different departments of the government, simply because a certain group is ruling the country.
The same perspective lies with those at power who know themselves as the government. This is a term of government has not been made clear for the generation that came after the birth of the Democratic Republic of Somalia.
The inability to differentiate between the cabinet, administration and different departments of the government has become a factor influencing the weakening and disintegration of governmental departments which always fall victim for the attacks by oppositions of the ruling parties or the cabinet. The misunderstanding of the concept could lead lack of patriotism, protection of the governance and the public interest.
Therefore, who is to be blamed? Is it that the Somali language has no clear definition for these words or is it that there is a fault that governance and nationalism were not defined and explained well in books?
Both these two points can be the factors that led the misunderstanding but to make all clear and understand what they are, assistance could be sought from foreign languages which defined these words in a simple way. So, this means the problem is not the Somali language but the implementation and general understanding of the governance could be the problem.
The naivety in understanding the governance and inability to differentiate officeholders and government departments are challenges affecting whole Somalis and might have been caused by the following points.
-Existing of massive corruption since when the country gained its independence. Those at the office at different times misused the public coffers and used the public properties for personal interests, therefore, this gives the public a perspective signaling that the government belongs to certain officeholder as the government departments serve specific people
-The government oppositions who were including armed and unarmed groups who came to be at different times had not differentiated the difference between the office holders and the government departments. Furthermore, using the naivety of their supporters, these groups incited their supporters to cease the cooperation with different departments of the government. The opposition includes two sections, a section who do not have the knowledge to separate opposing office holder and working for the betterment of the nation and a section who wants to used public as a shield to achieve their ill-motivated missions.
– The public lacks general knowledge and a good understanding of the executive and other government arms, so this led the public to get confused about the tag of war between the office-holders and the opposition.
Vandalizing or protecting Public properties
For instance, just after the fall of the government led by late Mohamed Siyad Barre in 1991, the public properties have been vandalized or looted, many thinking that the properties belonged by certain clan or group. During that time, millions of important documents were destroyed and the government offices were looted. Those who destroyed the properties never realized that they toppled the administration which they opposed and there was a need to reunite to protect
Following the vandalizing and the destruction of the public properties, many analysts and intellectuals have cast the blame upon two groups.
1. Seeming number of government officials allegedly misusing and involving in embezzlement, large number of the public to fail to separate between the public and private properties.
2. To secure their agenda, those opposing the government had misinterpreted the understanding of the governance and termed the government as bad thing needed to be toppled. So, therefore until today it is difficult to public to understand the goodness of the government.
Three decades down the line, there is still lack of understanding about the governance and awareness campaign to define the term has not yet been launched.
In 1990, when Somalia’s central government was toppled, Ethiopians also overthrew the leader of their government but the Ethiopians never looted or vandalized the public properties. They only removed the leader and installed new administration. But for the case of Somalia, after removing Siyad Barre, the country became messed up, the civil servants targeted just because they worked for the administration led by Barre and documents smashed.
Past is history but it is good lesson for those who are present, so all that happened in 1990 until 2004 has not yet taught lesson Somalis who are present now. For instance, just look how the current opposition leaders behave, they purportedly incite the public to overthrow the government.
Apart from the top leaders and the legislative, the government comprises of civil servants
The government comprises of different arms which all are formed to serve the public but in rare cases they can be used for personal interests. So, it is illogical to destroyed institutions meant to serve the public but there is space to negotiate means to improve their transparency and quality of the service they deliver.
Civil servants
The civil servants are the workers who do not involve in politics but instead, they encounter abuses and social stigma just they worked with certain administration at certain period. But these servants deserve respect as they are serving the public.
If not differentiate between the civil servants and politicians, it would plunge the country into instability.
These workers always fall victim to every new office holder at every transitional point. They are laid off by whoever comes to power due to different point of view. There are also civil servants who involve in political campaigns thus they will be targeted if their favourite political candidates.
Another example, when a new group takes over office, they would recruit their supporters to serve the public.
But the case should be different, the civil servants must be neutral and not to support the ruling group or the oppositions. There are some cases where directors or the army officials side with individuals in office but it wrong.
The country’s armed force is most affected sector during years of Somalia’s civil war. Somali national army which once was a formidable force in the continent was disintegrated but after tireless efforts by Somali government, the force now seems to be recovering from the integration.
The country’s armed force which is a symbol for dignity and sovereignty of Somalia should be clean and safe from the wrestling engaged in by the opposition and officeholders. In some case, you may see opposition politicians mistreating soldiers, think that this would be an attack on the officeholders but that is not good, we need to differentiate the government and the cabinet. On their side, the armed forces are also required to abstain from taking part in the political wrestling. It is not deniable to see some military officials backing the leaders in the office and this dents the dignity of the army as it may lead to damage to the transparency and the trust.
For instance, in the 2016/2017 elections, the former Chief of the Somali Police Force. Mohamed Sheikh Hassan Hamud publicly announced his support for the then-president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, such incident has to let not go without punishment and it could be said was fair Mohamud to lose his post.
In conclusion, to get full recovery from what had happened in the 1990s, there should civic education and the syllabus of the schools should be included good governance and nationalism subjects. The fourth estate is also needed to create programmes teaching the public the governance and the difference between government nation and officeholders.
It is also important to read the history of the civil war and anarchy, to refrain from anything that could lead the country to plunge into civil war once again.
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