Election and Leadership in Somaliland

HARGEISA, 14 January 2010 (Somalilandpress) – Somalilanders are a people that seen a great cruelty and hardship during their country union with Somalia. In 1991 it was when Somaliland has asserted itself as a nation heading for new start, that in a sense they build their own country without any international help, and they held a series of elections that have been declared ‘relatively free and fair’ by the international community observers, and unlike every other breakaway state in the world Somaliland is more functional than the territory it wants to decouple from. The fact that Somalia is the country it wants shot of makes its case even more compelling because today it is impossible to find a better example of a failed state.

Somaliland has most of the trappings of the modern nation-state: army, government bureaucracy, parliament and multi-party political system, legal system and functioning economy. So why no one is yet recognizing it? Even though that they have established a communication and political contacts with the following countries:-

United Kingdom,
Ethiopia
Belgium
Ghana
South Africa,
Sweden
Djibouti

On January 17, 2007, the European Union sent a delegation for foreign affairs to discuss future cooperation.
The African Union has also sent a foreign minister to discuss the future of international acknowledgment, and on January 29 and January 30, 2007, the ministers said that they would discuss acknowledgement with other member states.

In June 2007, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi held a conference with President Kahin during which he was referred to in an official communique by the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry as the President of Somaliland, the first time that Somaliland has been officially acknowledged as a sovereign state by another government.

While this is not claimed as a move to official recognition by Ethiopia, it is seen as a possible step towards a unilateral declaration by Ethiopia in the event of the African Union failing to move its recognition of Somaliland forward.

A delegation led by the President of Somaliland was present at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2007 in Kampala, Uganda. Although Somaliland has applied to join the Commonwealth under observer status, its application is still pending.

On November 27, 2007, Annemie Neyts-Uyttebroeck of the ELDR, one of three main parties in EU, mailed a letter to Javier Solana (the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and the Secretary-General of both the Council of the European Union (EU)) and to Dahir Rayale Kahin the president of Somaliland, in which there is required an acknowledgment of Somaliland by EU.

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In December 2007 the Bush administration discussed whether to back the shaky transitional government in Somalia or to acknowledge and support the less volatile Somaliland secessionists.

Politics plays a big part in the independent of Somaliland, everything is revolving on this upcoming election the risk is too high this time, you just have to read between the lines to know what is going on, and what kind of conspiracy is taking a place right now inside and outside the country, You don’t need to be rocket science to figure that out, those countries who hate Somaliland and want to destroy it, and was against Somaliland recognition see the current situation in the country as an-opportunity to destabilize and destroy it, they are well-known countries, and they know that in this time in this moment they can achieve what they couldn’t achieve for the past 21 years. The lift off boycott is a sign, the Egyptian ambassador to Somalia visit to Somaliland, and the comments he made is a sign and a lot of other sings, in this risky hostile situation, Somaliland needs a leader like Gandi, a one who gets his people from where they are to where they have not been.

A leader who can invoke ideas that contributes to the unified sense of mission and thereby to the harmony of the whole. History judges leaders on their managing of the national interests, not on their passions for rule and privileges.
Presidency, the highest post of any nation, will always have unlimited responsibility. It is a profession that is as hard as a rock as anybody might think. It is too intellectual and far rigid in its roles and requirements for the average person. By its essence therefore it requires an extraordinary person with extraordinary skills. It also takes quite a bit of learning.

In this election you can sense that everything is different, but there is only one thing shared by all, and that is safety and security of their country it might not matter who wins this election, whether he was Ahmed M. Mahamoud Silanyo, Dahir Riyale Kahin or Faysal Cali Warabe when it tickles the security issue. However I don’t believe that the Somaliland people need a leader who neither has the ability or the intellect that could add anything chronically gracious to his administration.

There really is no point to have a leader who has no enough courage to question a system, not just to understand the existing trends but to change the whole structure into honest forms of transparency and accountability
The people are looking for a leader who can find the common stake that the Somaliland people have in one another and let his mind reflect that spirit as well, a leader who knows that loving a chair is one thing and leading a nation is another.

Each century, while giving birth to new ideas, gains new perceptions. Each and every leader of other nations look differently at the world than those before them did. Somaliland people need a leader who can guide them through the circumstances that are variable and changing day after day.

It is all bad and it is all pain and above all it is desperately sad when you feel great about what you have achieved to forget yesterday’s catastrophes and mass murders, and to accept the illusions that your struggle has ended.

Somaliland people need leaders who must think in a new way. The people cannot afford the ills of our tribal politics; they need a new approach that understands and guarantees success and sense of tomorrow. It needs leaders with transformational qualities, who have the capacity to understand that the imperative to act wisely upon urgent issues; politicians who can sense any problem before the public can feel it; men whose understanding is thousand times ahead of that of the public, a leadership that is intellectual if we are wise, analytical if we are ambitious, humane if we care enough, considerate if we are kind, honest if we want to live in an honorable life, prudent and pragmatic if we want to beat the problems and the property we share.

Right thinking leaders look at their time with a measure of suspicion and circumspection. In conditions of widespread poverty and communal strife, they increasingly work on how best they can get these problems licked. They do not try to do everything for their countries at once. They pace their policies and patch the holes and put things together in a way that gives a good start. They think not of how to clean the country’s roads; instead, they pick up a bit of garbage on the road and drop it in a litter bin. They think not of how to feed the country’s millions of hungry children; instead, they help the kid on the corner to get a cup of milk.

Mohamed Mahatir of Malaysia did just this; he thought very small when he rose to the power of his country. From his thinking small came rural micro-credit and Malaysian projects, a powerful instrument of social change, opportunities for Malaysians in Malaysia.

Obviously, nations will not develop unless the leadership at all levels reaches some minimum standard of maturity. The matured leader always picks up a talented team. If there is no talent on the team; the leadership chooses, the system does not work well.

It is only by a collective effort, by bringing together the best minds in the country, by following the reasonable norms of contacts and cooperation that people can preserve their home, can make it better and safer.

By: Ibrahim Ahmed

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Views expressed in the opinion articles are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the editorial