by Ahmed Adan (Sooldaad)
Monday September 16, 2019
660.jpg)
Allow me to deconstruct this myth and Ill-conceived article: Federal Government of Somalia Destabilizes the Federal Member States of Somalia, published at Hiraan online. To start with, I neither subscribe to any camp, whether the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) or opposition groups. However, I analyse this as a concerned citizen of Somalia, an advocate of the unitary system and as someone who hails from Puntland (PL). The central dichotomy between Members of Federal States (MFS) and FGS revolves around misinformation and misrepresentation of the provisional constitution, and this article will shed light on these contradictions.
Acting as a rejoinder to the so-called ‘OPEN LETTER [by] Puntland Diaspora Forum’, a non-existent forum that acts as a cover for a number of interest groups, this piece attempts to dissect and respond to the allegations portrayed in the article. After that, this piece will expose how PL failed to play her part in preserving the cohesion of Somalia as a viable nation-state.
First, unfounded claim that the FGS wants to“the federal system into a centralised one with all the power concentrated in his hands” has been reiterated ad nauseam.This narrative has been propagated by the members of the elite ruling class of Puntland who utilise fearmongering tactics to maintain the status quo of the current system. In contrast, since its inception, Puntland has failed to move from a tribal enclave into a functioning democratic system, and to scale down the bogus federalism they said are advocating for; hence, they resort blaming others. This concern is directed towards incompetent PL parliamentarians (both national and state-level) and the ruling elite. For instance, last year, inbroad daylight and with everyone’s knowledge, PL authority has distributed money to state MPs in return to sell national treasure, i.e. port of the state to a foreign private company.
Second, federalism doesn’t mean its members can act as a sovereign state, absent of oversight to the institutions at the federal level. Nowhere in the world will you observe a sitting PM seeking permission to visit a member state that is under his government’s jurisdiction. The city Galkayo is in Somalia and the Somali PM doesn’t need to liaise with anyone to visit Somali cities apart from communicating to the local administration for protocol reasons. PL failed to honour PM’s wish to visit the city for political gain, and thence he acted as it was necessary to liaise private citizen. Again, by saying “Puntland closed its borders to visitors”, who are the visitors PL purporting to stop? Are they coming from Kenya or Ethiopia? No doubt, such misinformation is aimed at misleading the masses and portraying Somali FG as the rival and equal to PL.
Third, the article claims that “[t]here is a genuine concern in Puntland that changing the status quo in Galmudug could have a serious repercussion in Puntland”. This concept is an apparent misrepresentation, and it’s far from the truth that PL has the interest of Galmudug (GM) state at heart and at the same time wants to adhere to the provisional constitution. GM doesn’t fulfil the requirement stipulated to stand as a member of the federal state. Article 49, No 6 of the provisional constitution states that “two or more regions may merge to form a Federal Member State”. It’s a flagrant violation of the constitution. However, how has it happened in the first place? It was as a result of Farole, the then PL president, who rushed to recognise GM state when it was part of Galkayo alone and disregarded the provisional constitution at whim, in a bid to frustrate the FGS at the time.
Fourth, the article asserts that the “PM spent considerable time shuttling between the various cities and towns of Galmudug and other clan centres in the State to be mandated to have a hand in the selection of the next leader of the State.”