The Sustainable Development Of Somaliland Democracy

EDITORIAL

For the third time since declaring their withdrawal from the 1960-union with Somalia, some 14 years ago, Somalilanders were able last Thursday to choose their representatives to government in a democratically conducted national election. The overwhelming majority of Somalilanders have already expressed full satisfaction with the way the 29 September parliamentary elections were conducted. After all, this has been their own process; devised, nurtured and implemented by them.

To this basically egalitarian society, the right to choose one’s leaders freely and hold them accountable hasn’t been something new. When the British tried to deprive Somalilanders of this right, they responded with a 20 year long armed rebellion.

In the post-colonial period when dictator Siyad Barre tried to subjugate Somaliland , people resorted to armed resistance and in the ensuing war Somalia ’s repressive and alien state was destroyed. In its place Somalilanders tried to build new state structures that people in this country can understand and identify with.

Thus the birth of the Beel political system that took major decisions by consensus and selected government leaders through an electoral college consisting of traditional leaders representing clans. The system succeeded in reinstating peace through grass-root level initiatives for reconciliation and nation-building.

But since 1997, the challenge has been how to develop the clan-based system to such a degree that it would be compatible with the demands of modernity. The successful multi-party elections held in 2002 and 2003 and the one that just happened, had disproved those who were imbued with the idea that tradition, Islam and modernity were irreconcilable in the Somaliland context. However it will be crucial in the next stage to improve the polity in place and ensure the sustainable development of Somaliland ’s democracy.

It is at this juncture that international cooperation will be most needed. Both the EU and South Africa have already shown a positive interest in Somaliland ’s democratization process. Perhaps it is time for the United Nations to pay a serious attention to this country’s experimentation in the creation of an appropriate, effective and a sustainable system of governance.

Somaliland has already taken significant moves toward real democracy and its latest successful multi-party elections have already drawn admiration from people in the Horn of Africa region particularly the citizens of neighboring Somalia .

Somaliland can become a model for this region and beyond in terms of peace-making reconciliation, disarmament and constitutional democratic rule. The United Nations and the rest of the international community should realize that by lending their support to the Somaliland process they would be serving the cause of democracy in the wider-region as well.

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