Is Somalia's Flight to 2016 on the Same Flight Path As
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Is Somalia’s flight to 2016 on the same flight path as Germanwings Airbus A329' Flight 9525 By Cabdulle Muse December 23, 2015 __________________________________________________________ In his January 29, 2014 National Intelligence Report to the Senate Select Committee, the Director of the United States national Intelligence Mr. James R. Clapper had the following to say about Somalia: “In Somalia, Al Shabab is conducting asymmetric attacks against government facilities and western targets in and around Mogadishu. The credibility and effectiveness of the young Somali government will be further threatened by persistent political infighting, weak leadership from President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, ill-equipped government institutions, and pervasive technical, political and administrative shortfalls”. In case you somehow missed the news during the early spring of this year, an Airbus 320 airliner operated by Germanwings crashed in the French Alps while on flight from Barcelona to Duesseldorf killing more than 140 passengers and crew members. Background checks revealed later that the disaster was caused by a deliberate maneuver by the co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, who had a history of mental illness. For his own sinister design, the co-pilot manipulated a security system introduced by the global regulator of commercial flights (the International Civil Aviation Organization) following the events of September 11, 2011 in the United States. In order to execute his plan, he locked the aircraft‟s armoured door thus denying Captain Patrick Sondenheimer access to the cockpit after the latter‟s return from the washroom. The tragic result, as we all know, was that the aircraft crashed into a mountain and killed everyone on board. 1 Is Somalia’s flight to 2016 on the same flight bath as Germanwings Airbus A329' Flight 9525 By Cabdulle Muse Copyright © 2015 WardheerNews, All rights reserved Debris of the Germanwings Airbus A-320. Now let us assume that Somalia‟s recent political process is like a maiden flight that was cleared for take-off on August 20, 2012. On that date, the then Transitional Federal Parliament (TFP) and the Transitional National Government (TNG) made way for the current Federal Parliament (FP) and Federal Government (FG), respectively. These institutions were created in accordance with the provisions of an Interim Constitution agreed upon by all stakeholders. The flight reached its cruising altitude when Mr. Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was elected as President of the Federal Somali Republic and the flight‟s destination was determined to be August 20, 2016. When Hassan Mohamud was elected President, no one expected him to make miracles. What was expected of him was to do the minimum necessary to heal the wounds of the civil war through a genuine process of national reconciliation, finalize the revision of the existing provisional constitution through consultation and inclusiveness before putting it into a referendum, rebuilding the core national institutions and organizing elections on the basis of one person one vote. The truth is that instead of healing the nation‟s wounds, Mr. Mohamud adopted a thuggish attitude by spending his political capital on violating the provisional Federal Constitution and arbitrarily changing its provisions to suite his personal ambitions. He could not bring himself to accept the reality that despite his personal opposition to the Provisional Constitution, it was an irrevocable choice by the stakeholders that a federal system of government was the only model that fits the current political realities in Somalia. 2 Is Somalia’s flight to 2016 on the same flight bath as Germanwings Airbus A329' Flight 9525 By Cabdulle Muse Copyright © 2015 WardheerNews, All rights reserved The flight is on rapid descent. Will Hassan Sheikh Mohamud allow anyone else into the cockpit in order to save the flight from impending disaster? source: WardheerNews website The new Government‟s mandate included: revising the Provisional Federal Constitution with a view to reconciling any conflicting articles within it; establishing guidelines for federal institutions, clearly defining the legal, institutional and economic powers of the Federal government and its constituent states, respectively; holding a national referendum on the revised constitution; setting up of an electoral process by putting in place all the necessary electoral laws including the establishment of an election commission; allowing the formation of political parties; transitioning the country into a multi-party democratic republic and holding parliamentary elections not later than August, 2016. 2016 is fast approaching! Three long years and three months have passed since Mr. Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was elected president of Somalia on Sep. 10, 2012. That day Mr. Mohamud got 190 votes out of 269 votes cast by the newly inaugurated members of the Federal Parliament in an election hailed by many as “A great step forward on the path to peace and prosperity.” Many international leaders including the British Prime Minister David Cameron congratulated him on his victory. According to the AFP news agency, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton called up the new leader to congratulate him. “I promise that Somalia reclaims its place in the world community as of today - and to do that, we must ensure that we move forward,” he said in his victory speech. 3 Is Somalia’s flight to 2016 on the same flight bath as Germanwings Airbus A329' Flight 9525 By Cabdulle Muse Copyright © 2015 WardheerNews, All rights reserved At the time, the question was: Who is Hassan Sheikh Mohamud? And can he move the country forward? However, Mr. Mohamud has not made even a meager attempt at peace and reconciliation; the truth and reconciliation commission was not formed at all. Mr. Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and his government got an F in fulfilling their clearly defined mandate. There was no constitutional review and no national referendum on the constitution. The security situation of Mogadishu, the seat of the government, is getting worse by the day; Al-Shabab agents infiltrated all sensitive government security agencies including the National Security Intelligence Agency and the Banadir local police and are as active in Mogadishu as they‟ve ever been. In fact they took credit for the November 1st attack of Sahafi Hotel killing the owner of the hotel, a former military general and other officials. The security and the political situation of the rest of the country are as bad as they have ever been. On May 9th, 2015, sixteen months ahead of the end of his four year term, president Mohamud threw in the towel. He has said “the country is not ready for general elections” during an interview with Reuters in Mogadishu, May 9, 2014. Reuters/Feisal Omar. Mr. Mohamud‟s pronouncement to put the country through another manufactured vicious cycle of constitutional crises of his own making has shocked and disappointed the United Nations envoy to Somalia Mr. Nicholas Key who is reported to have said that “Any term extension beyond the designated mandate will be unacceptable,”. Mr. Mohamud disappointed everyone who worked so hard in stabilizing Somalia including the AU, IGAD, the EU and the United States. There is no better expression of that disappointment than a paragraph in the Report of the United States Director of National Intelligence‟s briefing to the senate Select Committee on Intelligence on January 29, 2014. “ In Somalia, Al-Shabab is conducting asymmetric attacks against government facilities and western targets in and around Mogadishu. The credibility and effectiveness of the young Somali government will be further threatened by persistent political infighting, weak leadership from President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, ill-equipped government institutions, and pervasive technical, political, and administrative shortfalls”. Mr. James R. Clapper said. Now, metaphorically speaking, Mr. Mohamud‟s admission that he utterly failed in his premier responsibility of transitioning the country to constitutional democracy amounts to his distress call from the cockpit that he cannot land the plane safely and the nation‟s long and treacherous flight to recovery will be lost. If the flight is to be refueled in mid air to avert the impending crush, we need new and fresh stewardship in that cockpit. Extension of the term of the current legislature by two years with the exception of the speaker will remedy the situation. The parliament will elect a new speaker and a new president (Mr. Mohamud will sit out) to implement the original mandate. The current parliament contains many well qualified members who are well vetted and was screened by much respected independent committee tasked with approving parliamentarians. Many will agree with me that the committee have done a wonderful job. If you dislike this 4 Is Somalia’s flight to 2016 on the same flight bath as Germanwings Airbus A329' Flight 9525 By Cabdulle Muse Copyright © 2015 WardheerNews, All rights reserved parliament wait until you see one handpicked and vetted by Mr. Mohamud‟s cronies. The Somali people had high expectations from these parliamentarians. Unfortunately, under the tutelage of the speaker Prof. Mohamed Sheikh Osman Jawari, a perennially corrupt and weak, often inebriated octogenarian, they couldn‟t live up to those expectations and they have very often been misused and abused. His long servitude to the military dictator whom he served in many capacities including a position in the cabinet seems to have prepared him for his obsequiousness. He turned the institution into a tool for the president. The real danger is that Mr Mohamud who fits the definition of a tyrant as” Someone who acts on his nightmares while he is awake” will meet no one standing in his way at this particular juncture. Early on in his mandate, Mr. Mohamud ran against enormous headwinds in the name of Dr. Abdirahman Mohamoud Farole the president of Puntland, one of the two Self- governing political entities in existence before the federal government was formed, the other being Somaliland. Don‟t forget the epoch battle for the formation of Jubbaland administation and Farole‟s unreserved support in that cause.