The Horn Of Africa States: Somalia And Regaining Public Trust – OpEd
Civil wars often erode public trust in governance, and this is generally exploited by those who oppose reconciliation and/or settlement of peace in a country. The “spoilers”, as they are often called, disrupt government efforts to rebuild trust, out of fear that they would lose the powers, resources, and benefits they acquire during the years of chaos. They include local actors, terror groups, arms dealers and, indeed, some foreign countries.
Somalia is one of those countries, where all these parties are active – a weak but recovering governance and an army of spoilers. Somalia’s prolonged civil war and chaos have led to a widespread loss of faith in all levels of the state, with clan instincts taking precedence in society over national interests and national identity.
The entrenched spoilers in Somalia include, among others, armed groups like religious terror groups, corrupt elites and warlords, and indeed, external actors with vested interests in the country (countries, NGOs, mercenaries, and others). They have cut out swathes of territories for their own governance either for religious purposes and/or as clan fiefdoms. The clan fiefdoms form part of the foreign imposed federal infrastructure.
Somalia, therefore, suffers from a cocktail of spoilers, each of which has its own influences and adverse effects on the country and people. Neutralizing them is not easy and will require a blend of measures that must include political strategies, security maneuvers, institutional engineering, and international diplomacy, if the governance has to win the trust and hearts of its people. It is the story of this article on how to address the challenges posed by those who feel their interests are being threatened by the recovery and reconstitution of the state.
Perhaps the first thing any new governance infrastructure should be addressing is knowing and mapping those who have interest in keeping the status quo or the continuing conflict. This is a complex issue by itself as differing spoilers have differing motives. One cannot put them all in the same box.
Some are motivated by pure greed. They are those who are taking advantage of some resources in the country, while others may be principled and, therefore, oppose the peace process in its entirety for ideological purposes, while others may just be fearful of the fact that they would lose some protections they perceive they are getting from the continuing conflict.
The current governance infrastructure has failed to address this important aspect of the healing process of the Somali nation partially due to its inability to come up with policies and strategies on how to deal with them. A healing process always starts with knowing causes of an ailment and in this social, political and economic issues of the country, one first needs to know who one is dealing with. The need to be identified along with their networks, sources of income, motivations and, indeed, power bases is immensely important. Although the ultimate way to remove and /or neutralize them is to defeat them, one may have to use different strategies for differing groups of spoilers. The state cannot succeed in its endeavors with their continuing presence. This would involve gaining public trust, which the current governing infrastructure has failed to secure.
A first step, perhaps, could be replacing the current federal infrastructure which has completely failed in addressing the ills of the nation with a new governance infrastructure. The country’s institutions all need to be rebuilt from scratch, with new laws, new paradigms and intentions. It is where a technocratic team becomes necessary before deploying politicians who have proven themselves incapable of handling the country’s problems. They only aggravated them more through their bickering and clan instincts.
The current federal infrastructure is built on a clan base, which is not only divisive but also at times irreconcilable with the building of a nation. Currently each member state belongs to a major clan grouping, which denies normal citizens of the country from playing their normal citizen rights and duties throughout the country. It is what allows spoilers to succeed in their illegal activities in the country and there is only way to handle the struggle against spoilers. It is winning over the public trust.
Only a technocratic team, but certainly not the current clan-based federal infrastructure, can rebuild the state institutions of the country. They would be better placed than any other party in reconciling the opposing clans, politicians, elders, religious, and academic leaders.
The public is generally innocent, and they are often exploited by politicians, who could be good or bad. Including the public in the process of renewal and revival of the state would always help winning them over. The public can be won through participatory mechanisms such as town halls, citizen feedback and other forms of public meetings to demonstrate congruence of the talks and the actions being taken.
Winning over the public also includes public accountability, with regular reports on reforms, financial budgets, development plans in an effort to maintain transparency and hence cultivate the trust of the public. It is where only a technocrat team can succeed instead of politicians. Such a team can present a compelling and hopeful vision for the country and its renewal through the media, entertainment, religious centers and, indeed, through educational facilities.
One of the persistent problems of Somalia is the total breakdown of the country’s security system through political divisions, weak governance institutions and indeed foreign deliberate efforts to weaken the country. The presence of African forces using different names, to earn money than to help Somalia make peace, has been one of the major setbacks of security in the country.
Billions of United States Dollars have been spent to maintain these fake forces in the country to enjoy themselves, instead of helping recreate Somalia’s national army and other security services. This has allowed many unwanted interlopers including religious terror groups and international mining companies to come into the country and install themselves to disrupt lives in Somala or steal the country’s natural resources.
Reconstituting a professional Somali National Army and other security services should be the way of the future and they should be shielded from political interferences as seems to be not the case at present. There are still alive, many veteran Somali soldiers and officers, who can help recreate a strong Somali National Army, if given the mandate. The same goes for the intelligence services and police forces.
The African forces in the country currently called AUSSOM are not needed and no donor country should be paying for them. They should all go back and serve their countries, perhaps in other spheres. They should not be welcome in the country anymore. Two decades is more than enough for them to have used Somalia as a source of income.
External actors were and still are active in the country for so long. They indeed, have competing agendas and interests, which are different from the needs of Somalia. Although their presence may have helped somewhat over the years, the damage they have done to the country has been greater. Countries like Ethiopia, Kenya, the UAE, Qatar, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Türkiye, and of course European countries, China, and the United States, and others have been involved in Somalia. Despite their presence and limited help, the country remains lost in the wilderness, fragile and weak, broken down into clan fiefdoms. It is a sad story.
What should a governing Somali infrastructure do in the face of that sad story of the past visa vis the foreign countries? Perhaps following a non-aligned interest-based foreign policy would be a good thing to follow. Offering investment opportunities in the rich natural resources of the country linked to peaceful cooperation would probably constitute a beneficial economic incentivized process.
The country should carefully evaluate the actions of all NGOs in the past and avoid those that have had a negative impact. Any new governance infrastructure of the country including a technocrat council should follow a managed diplomacy and leverage it for the best interest of the country.
One fact stands out clearly. No one benefits from the continuing chaos. The Somali people remain impoverished and the foreign parties involved in the chaos do not benefit either from the rich natural resources of the country. This only represents a delayed developmental process.
Weaponizing public services like the provision of healthcare services, education and water in the country would undermine any spoiler legitimacy and win the support of the population. This has to be reinforced through job creation programs for young people to cut them off recruitment by spoiler militias like the terror or clan groups.
All these issues with respect to regaining the public trust, dealing with foreign parties, developing the economy and the establishment of a better security apparatus requires a dedicated team of technocrats that finish the job in a shorter time than could be possible with bickering and corrupt politicians. Regaining the public trust in governance is important and necessary.
