Commentary on A Somaliland Cabinet*
|
CABINET MEMBERS |
|
|
Name |
Ministry |
|
Ahmed Mohamed (Silaanyo) |
Finance |
|
Eng. Mohamed Aynab |
Defence |
|
Eng. Ahmed Mohamed Bihi |
Mines |
|
Abdillaahi Mohamed Du'aale |
Transportation |
|
Omer Maygaag Samatar |
Information |
|
Ahmed Hashi Oday |
Livestock & Forestry |
|
Mohamed Qaasim Haashi |
Commerce & Trade |
|
Yahye Haji Ibrahim |
Agriculture |
|
Mahamed Hasan Cawaale |
Dev. of Rural Areas. |
|
Jama Salah (Salaah Gaab) |
Presidency |
|
Mohamed Abdi Yusuf (Gaboose) |
Interior Affairs |
|
Ali Mohamed Haji Waran-Cade |
Public Works |
|
Dr. Abdi Aw Daahir |
Health |
|
Sh. Hasan Haji Fara-Taag |
Religious Affairs |
|
Rashiid Haji Abdillaahi |
Posts and Telecom. |
|
Abdillaahi Hussein Iiman (Darawal) |
Rehabilitation |
|
Daahir Amiye |
Education |
|
Ahmed Hussein Oomane |
Fisheries |
|
Muse Bashir Sh. Barkhad |
State For Foreign Affairs. |
|
Mahmood Mohamed Saleh (Fagadhe) |
Foreign Affairs |
|
Rashiid Mohamed Gees |
Planning |
|
Ibrahim Araye |
Tourism |
|
Abdillahi Omer Qowdhan |
XXX. |
|
Parliament Leadership |
|
|
Name |
Post |
|
Mohamed Ahmed Qaybe |
The Chairperson |
|
Abdiqadir Ismail Jirde |
The 1st Vice- Chairperson |
|
Omer Hersi Elmi |
The 2nd Vice-Chairperson |
|
Council of Guurti |
|
|
Name |
Post |
|
Sh. Ibrahim Sh. Yusuf |
The chairperson |
|
Sh. Ahmed Sh. Nuh |
The 1st vice chairperson |
|
Empty seat |
The 2nd vice chairperson |
Introduction
This brief account gives a somewhat exaggerated impression of social
criticism, while it represents a departure from the current political
discourse. Accordingly, less interest is given to the parochial aspects of clan
distributions, but more emphasis is accorded to the institutional aspects, such
as reform of the formal sector, women's advancement and the processes of power
entrenchment. In order to lessen its potential effect of distracting readers
from the substance of the discussion, the available information on clan
affiliations was being omitted. Such information may be reconstructed from
region-specific last names and the nicknames, or may be obtained from the
traditional news channels.
Universal Issues
Political Campaign without Issues
These appointments do not appear to represent any
concrete issues, because hardly any significant issues came up during the
election season. On the contrary, the above list of appointees seems to be product
of an Herculean proportion based on the pressing issues, which continue to be
finding the right mix to meet the perennial challenge of the clan balance
question and cultivating loyalty for the retrenchment of the rule.
Predictably, the continuing public preoccupation on the clan factor
continues to serve its traditional purpose in the elite politics: Somalis
cooperating on their own exploitation, which is the unseen mirror image of
their collective behavior in competing for their places in the Hall of Power.
Thus, political behavior there tends to be unorganized, unstructured, and
uncoordinated. It is also susceptible to deepening retrenchment, especially on
the hands of a charismatic leader, whose work is much simplified - at least
initially - by the selective use of the clan symbolism of communication. If the
current political process wasn't designed for discussing conventional political issues, not surprisingly,
the issue of gender hardly excites much interest even among women, yet there's
no other issue as important in changing the social rigmarole than dealing with
it.
Gender Bar
The gender bar continues to frustrate highly-educated and qualified women
to gain access to policy-making positions. Their ascriptive absence symbolizes
the wretched conditions of the country's most important resource: its children.
Women are completely confined in "women's work"- typists, nurses,
clerks, etc. - and hardly any have entered law, politics, and other
professions.
A consequence of this inequality is being that poverty among women is
spreading rapidly because of unemployment, low pay, lack of skills, and most
importantly, because women are left with children to support, particularly in
Somaliland, Aÿwhere divorce has become
endemic and the chance for male emigration amounts to a prayer answered. Hence,
the conditions where most children find themselves in have been characterized
by inadequate education, rampant malnutrition, substandard housing, and
inferior health care.
In spite of the presidential candidacy of Rakiya Ali in the last election
season, women in the upper and middle echelons of government are as common
there as snowflakes in January. Some (both men and women) choose to believe
this void is explained by the popular belief that women are inferior; that
their "natural" role in life is to give birth and nurture children,
and little more.
More and more, however, it has become apparent that this void have
existed not because of a natural inferiority of women, but because social
factors have not allowed women to fulfill any but the most limited of roles.
The higher-paying positions require increasingly greater amounts of education
and greater skills, more easily acquired by ambitious males, who, in a
pre-industrial society, represent the earning potentials for most families.
Much traditional talk centers on an Islamc culture that is said to be responsible
for women's social roles.
However, there is little to be gained by discussing "Islam's effects
on women", since the Islam practiced in Horn of Africa is a dialect of the
Meccan Islam, and a faith does not function in a vacuum. Instead, women became
heirs to an ancient anachronistic pathology, with strong economic roots. The
female genital mutilation, for instance, can be viewed as a debilitating
institution that reinforced the belief that a wife's worth was to judged by her
fertility. While to men, who receive a rather cosmetic-type circumcision as
boys, numerous offspring are living symbols of virility. Thus, wives and
offspring represent wealth in the form of manpower. Despite the wretched
conditions, children continue to represent a social security system in a land
that suffers from a high infant mortality and a poverty in resources.
Clearly, women are caught in a social/economic vicious circle. The
elimination of these debilitating social barriers depends on the political
process; in order to embark on a social liberation programme, however,
significant level of economic progress will be needed. But economic improvement
is less likely to take place in socially constricting environment, which tends
to accentuate the apparent neglect. In conclusion, this neglect should be
apparent: that the society denied women the possibility of reaching their
potential as human beings by constricting them in the roles of housewives and
mothers.
Arrested Bureaucracy?
Since 1991, a formal bureaucratic structure has not emerged in the
country. Many authors have commented on the necessity of the bureaucratic
system in which goals can be attained efficiently and with a minimum of
conflict. There is not enough space here for an extensive treatment on the
modern bureaucracy, but I will delineate several areas as contrasting
talking-points.
These are structures that are deliberately put into existence to enable
people who do not know each to carry on complicated relationships for the
purpose of attaining specific goals. The individual personalities do not matter
because each position consists of activities which remain the same no matter
who fills the position. More often, this formality gives the structure
stability, predictability, and, more importantly, continuity.
In Africa, instead, driven by the sheer force of the "politics of
the belly", in both government and non-governmental entities, there
existed an informal system made up of networks of personal and kin
relationships that developed among employees, and between the employees and the
members of the public they served. These networks are typically responsible for
getting things done quicker through the influence of individuals instead of
going through regular channels of authority.
Thus, this enduring informal network, in getting around the rules of the
formal structure, actually defies the purpose of the establishment of formal
governmental structures, and is the source of most corruption and nepotistic
practices. If history is any guide, reforming the formal structure first is
more important than the introduction of any list of appointees.
Shifting the economy into the formal sector, instituting formal taxation
on individuals and businesses and standardizing the civil service system will
all depend on the establishment of a formal structure. It will help in reducing
the pernicious influence of position-holders, in elevating the public domain to
a level that deserves public trust, in enabling it to respond to changing
conditions in society and in promoting innovation in society.
Ideally, a formal organization has a formal structure, a degree of
permanence, a hierarchical order of authority, and a fixed relationships among
members and between the members and the public they serve.
In sum, dealing with these three issues, the reform of the formal sector,
women's advancement and the curbing the personal power entrenchment are among
the most important ones that hold the key to attaining sustained political and
economic recovery, especially, in war-torn countries like in Somaliland.
If you have any reponses, please use the form below to have your opinions
posted on the discussion page
* The new Cabinet appointments' information was relayed
by Abdiqadir Ibrahim and thanks are due to him.
Mohamed Bali
Somaliland CyberSpace
June 5, 1997.
