Last Friday(26 October 20012) the day of the Iid when all Muslims and all Somalis where celebrating the festivities was also a day of controversy, political warfare on the airwaves between the president of the Federal Republic of Somalia and the Regional president of the state of Puntland of Somalia. What it was about the controversy?
This controversy which is getting hotter these days is about in general about two different Visions/Agendas about the future, legal/constitutional architecture of Somalia. In particular it’s about who got the authority to nominate the administrators and government officers of the City of Kismayo and the lower Jubba region. What are saying the two conflicting views and what the laws says about it?
Lets me start with the two sides take on the issue. One fronted by the Clan- militias called Ras- Kamboni with other militias recruited by Kenya and calling themselves so-called Somali army who together with the Kenyan Army/Amisom took over Kismayo is saying” we have got the right and authority to nominate and administer this town of Kismayo as this have been done in other cities like Baidowa,Beledweine who have been liberated by Ethiopian armies and installed Clan militias as they Rulers”..Period. The other opinion is that of the federal government of Somalia which says” there is a new federal constitution which specifies that the federal government has got the authority and the powers in Law to nominate the administrators for Kismayo( Lower Jubba),Beledweyne( Hiiraan) and Baidowa( Bay and bakol Region).Period.
Before I go back what this different political opinions represent for the future of Somalia let me explain what the Law says in the new provisional constitution of Somalia enacted in August 2012.First let me also explain that our new constitution is almost “dysfunctional and idiosyncratic “like any other thing in Somalia which is linked to governance and Rule of the law”. My opinion is this law has been made badly and contradictory on almost different subjects and parts but we have to abide to it till the parliament and the Somali people emend those parts which are contradictory and are against the letter and the spirit of the document itself.
The new Constitution on article 48.C.2 says” No single region can stand alone. Until such time as a region merges with another(s) to form a new federal member states, “a region shall be directly administered by the federal government for a maxim period of two years”. There is not any single article saying otherwise. I mean the concept and right of the local clan communities and their militia to organize and form/nominate an authority for Kismayo and the Lower Jubba or including the two other regions. There is one article 142 which says” Existing member States in Somalia. Until such time that all the federal member states of Somalia are established and the adopted federal member States constitution are harmonized with the Somali federal Constitution, the federal member states states existing prior to the provisional adoption of this provisional Constitution by a national Constituent assembly shall retain and exercise powers endowed by their own State constitution” Personally I do not agree what this article says and others in this new Constitution which are preparing and are made for the subdivision of Somalia in a new Confederate state.
The idea that people-citizens of the newly nominated liberated areas or regions can nominate or choose by themselves new administrations is not in the Constitution and that act is illegal and against the sovergniety, Unity and territorial integrity of the Somali Federal Republic. It looks the right of “self determination of people” sanctioned in the U.N charter has got a new interpretation by IGAD/Ethiopia when we write and explain the Somali situation.
The so called supra-national outfit IGAD/Ethiopia has re-interpreted that article and made it like” all Somali sub-clans have the right to self-determination” as we were different national communities and not one Somali national communities which is from the same ancestry, culture and religion. This pseudo- legal interpretation of the right of self-determination with the added incentive of puppet leaders/warlords political mobilization that all Somali sub-clans have the right of their own administrations and Self Rule is what makes the new Constitution “dysfunctional and idiosyncratic” and the every clan militia make/ believe concept that they are a national community within the only Somali community-Nation State.
This two different Visions for Somalia: one which says that Somali Republic is one and have a federal system of governance with the Rule of Law and the other one which is advocating a Confederate System for the governance of Somalia where the Regions States are more powerful of the national State. The is the crux of the matter or the real controversy. (The two visions are in the new constitution)
If the Clan militias running the show in Kismayo now succeed in self-declaring themselves rulers of the Lower Juba/Kismayo it will mean every Clan have the right of self-determination and Somalia will be made a Confederate State under the hegemony of Ethiopia/IGAD.
But unfortunaly for Kismayo and Somalia things are getting worse by the days and weeks by applying this vicious Clan politics/self-determination which the Ethiopian are supporting to have an independent State in The South of Somalia to have direct access to the Indian Ocean and exploit in the future the vast mineral resources of Oil and Gas with their friends China and France. Russia which are in the security Council of the U.N.
It’s not a coincidence that in these days there is a
discussion on the exemption of the ban for
the export of Charcoal from Kismayo .Why?
It looks
African union which plays second fiddle to the policies of IGAD/Ethiopia has
requested the U.N Security Council to lift the Ban.
But the
lifting helps the Al-Ittixad business Cartels which one time where allied with
Al-Shabaab and now with the Ras kamboni clan Militia to get more financing for
their control of the economy of Kismayo.This group of Business people have
worked in tandem with the warlords who were allied with Ethiopia and after that
for the last five years with the Al-Shabaab.For
the Clan Militia to consolidate their powers they need the percentage of
commission from the sale of the Charcoal by this Wahabi-Salafist group called
Al-Ittixad business cartels. This is the typical system Kismayo used to be administered
for the last 20 years. Wait and see.
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