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Ismail Ali Ismail
20560 Tanglewood Way
Sterling, VA 20165
703.430.0572
geeldoonia@gmail.com
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
POST RETIREMENT OBJECTIVES
Although I have retired from continuous service with the United Nations I still have a strong professional interest in the areas of Governance and Development Administration. I have spent my professional life in Government and in the United Nations trying to promote good governance as well as sound systems of public administration and management. My post-retirement objectives are therefore:
to work when needed with professional colleagues who are actively engaged in these areas with a view to helping the most challenged countries;
to visit and evaluate on-going and/or terminal development projects;
to assist in the preparatory studies for creating project ideas and to formulate projects;
to assist in the training of project staff as a well as members of the public services;
to provide advisory services;
To prepare reports, review documents and/or provide other professional assistance and support whenever needed.
POST-RETIREMENT SHORT-TERM CONSULTANCY ASSIGNMENT:
Served as an International Consultant in Nigeria for the Evaluation of UNDP Country Programme on Governance from 16 November to 16 December, 2006. The assignment comprised discussions with relevant federal and state institutions as well as bilateral and multilateral donors, beneficiaries and of course senior UNDP officials. It included field visits to four States. An Evaluation Report was prepared, discussed, finalized and submitted at the end of the mission.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
Senior Public Administration Officer, P5 Lusaka, Zambia
Sub-Regional Development Center for Southern Africa (SRDC) 1998--2002
My function was to create a work program in Governance, Public Administration and Management which the centre would carry out in Southern Africa.
I provided assistance, as part of SRDC, to a catchment area covering eleven countries in Southern Africa.
I emphasized my work on subregional cooperation and integration via a new hallmark program I designed for the region to be used in various aspects.
My program sought to promote the cross-sharing of experience and best practices particularly since South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana had more insights to share with other member countries.
I established a close working relationship with the local UNDP offices improving the work content and refocusing it solely on the sub-region of Southern Africa.
Senior Public Administration Officer, P5 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
ECA--Development Management Division 1997--1998
I worked as a Team Leader though the composition of my teams changed from time. The nature of the work did not change to any substantial degree but simple outputs were shared with others and carried out by the team as a whole. My job as a 'Team Leader' was to motivate the team, call them to meetings in which role specifications were
agreed upon by consensus. I also acted as officer in charge of the Division in the
Absence of the Chief of Division.
Public Administration, Human Resources & Social Development Division Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
ECA--(SPA D1) 05/1996--12/1996
During this period I provided leadership to the entire division which consisted of three sections, and a number of senior and middle-level professionals
Apart from supervising the work of my colleagues, I prepared operational briefs for the Executive Secretary since he primarily focused on restructuring the entire organization.
I attended, on a regular basis, the meeting of the senior management of ECA, forged cooperation with the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) in New York; the International Peace Academy (IPA); Transparency International; and the
International Association of Parliamentarians.
I held a conference in the ECA with the IPA on Peace in Africa and the prerequisites thereof. I also took part in the preparation of an International Symposium on Local Governance in league with DEA, UNDP and the Swedish Authorities in Gutenberg.
I presented a paper and served as a resource person and chairman for a working group. During that period, my division and DESA agreed to hold a joint conference on Governance in Africa and we made extensive preparations for it to be held in the ECA.
Chief, Public Administration and Management Section, P5 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
ECA 1994--1997
I returned on promotion to my previous division, which had been renamed "Public
Administration, Human Resources and Social Development Division”.
I worked as the Chief of Public Administration and Management Section which now included Public Finance .My level of responsibility was evidently higher and broader since I was Chief of Section and such took responsibility for the work of my professional and General Service colleagues in the Section. That included, inter alia, the provision of guidance, motivating, performance evaluation, and ensuring synergy.
I contributed papers based on studies, prepared reports and prepared the Section's programme of work.
Program Management Officer, P4 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
ECA--Technical Assistance Coordination and Operations Office ( TACOO) 1986--1994
I served as Head of the Project Monitoring and Evaluation Unit, and later as Chief of UNDP and European Bilateral Projects Section.
I was responsible for the work of six professionals dealing with projects essentially from project preparation to the terminal report.
I supported substantive divisions of the ECA project formulation, preparation of project budgets and their revisions and submitted them to the UNDP as well as bilateral donors.
I played a substantial role in resource mobilization which included the preparation of reports and other documents as well as servicing the biennial Pledging Conference intended to replenish the United Nations Trust Fund for African Development (UNTEAD).
I also frequently participated in both internal and external evaluation of projects, particularly for the UNDP - exercises which also provided for the participation of beneficiary countries.
I also provided substantial support and participation to the periodic review meetings between ECA and UNDP ( African Bureau ) at the senior levels.
Public Administration Officer, P3 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
ECA 1976--1986
During this period the Public Administration and Management Section of ECA consisted of a francophone Chief of Section, whose English was very limited, an English-speaking regional advisor whose work fell under Section 20, and myself. The bulk of the Section's work, being in English, was primarily carried out by me almost single-handedly. This consisted of: carrying out field studies; preparation of papers for the meetings of the African Association of Public Administration and Management ( AAPAM ) as well as for ECA meetings and conferences; for internal discussions; and for training workshop.
Providing advisory services to government institutions;
Provision of assistance in converting the East African Management Institute in Arusha (Tanzania) to Eastern and Southern African Management Institute (ESAMI) upon the dissolution of the East African Community;
Evaluating UNDP assistance project for ESAMI in conjunction with colleagues from different departments in New York and subsequently preparing the ESAMI project in which ECA, UNDP, ILO and ITC cooperated and for which ECA became the Executing Agency and I, the Project Officer;
Being a project officer for an Indian-Financed project on Consultancy and Training on Procurement and Supply Management;
A miscellany of other duties such as contributions to the Executive Secretary's Annual report; Preparations of the Section's Programme-Budget; and review of and comments on other studies and reports and headquarters documents;
GOVERNMENT EXPERIENCE
District Commissioner Hargeisa, Zeila, & Kismayo, Somalia
1965--1969
As District Commissioner of Zeila I handled all strategic government affairs in what was then a politically tense region.
Being contiguous to Djibouti, then French-Somaliland, Zeila had strategic significance for the policies of the Somali government which actively sought the independence of Djibouti.
Hargeisa, is the 2nd largest city in Somalia and it was during this period that Somalia was going through heightened security measures in response to political tensions with neighboring Ethiopia.
Kismayo was considered economically important because it was the capital
of the Lower Juba Region which was the richest of the regions. But the district also bordered on Kenya. My main functions as DC can be summarized as follows:
political functions such as explaining government policies to the people;
advising the government on the daily “heartbeat” of the people;
executing government policies;
conducting parliamentary and local council elections;
carrying out the responsibility of a Public Order Authority;
being responsible for the internal security of the district;
administration, discipline and operationalizing the Rural Police;
the administration of customary law;
coordination of government departments in the district; and
local government tutelage.
Deputy Regional Governor Lower Juba and Togadheer, Somalia
1970--1973
A coup d'eta in late 1969 brought to power a military regime. The military quickly appointed military district commissioners and military regional governors because they knew that those were strategic positions in terms of securing the country for themselves.
In early in 1970 I was promoted to Deputy Governor for the region of Togdheer whose capital was Burao, the second largest city in Northern Somalia.
As Deputy Regional Governor my functions primarily were:
To lead and coordinate the development work of the regional departments;
To lead the team preparing the regional development plan;
To assist the Military Governor and advise him on his political functions;
To advise Military District Commissioners in matters related to their work such as customary law, project development and management; administration of staff; and financial and budgetary matters;
To advise the Military Governor on conflict resolution specially between districts;
To promote the sharing of experience between local councils and arrange for the training of their staff;
To make recommendations to the Military on the transfer of district staff in order to ensure their rotation.
To prepare the Military Governor's reports (especially periodic progress reports); and
To chair the Lands Administration Committee of Burao City - the regional capital.
Somali Institute for Development Administration and Management (SIDAM) Somalia
Senior Training Officer 1973-1976
The Institute had the normal trilogy of functions, namely: Training, Consultancy, and Research. These three functions were interdependent. For example, research was undertaken to support both consultancy and training.
This period was supervened by a year of postgraduate study (1973/1974) in the U.K., but for the relatively brief period I worked in SIDAM, I carried out the following functions
Training of Military Governors in Field Administration;
Training of Military District Commissioners in field administration and local government;
Training of local government officers;
Consultancy work for the Ministry of Interior;
Drafted single-handedly the Local Council Administration Law for the entire Country, including "Conduct of Business"
Drafted also single-handedly the same for the City Council of Mogadishu.
ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS
University Of Birmingham Birmingham, UK
Master of Social Science (M.Soc.Sc.) in Local Government and Administration 1974
American University Washington D.C., U.S.A.
Bachelor of Arts ( B.A.) in Government and Public Administration 1965.
Universite de Grenoble Grenoble, France
Certificate in French
LANGUAGES AND OTHER TECHNICAL SKILLS
Somali ( Mother Tongue )
Other Languages:
Language Written Verbal
Arabic Fluent Fluent (U.N. Language Proficiency Certificate)
English Fluent Fluent
French* working knowledge Not Fluent
I have received French language training in the ECA, and won in 1990 a French Government Fellowship of two months' duration to Grenoble University for further language proficiency training;
I also attended in 1998 a one-month course at the same University. Both courses were of the accelerated type.
Computer Skills: Microsoft Word,
Report Writing Skills: Excellent drafting skills, Short course on managing the writing of others. Long administrative experience with report writing and analysis being the main tools of the trade.
SUMMARY OF RELEVANT WORK EXPERIENCE
Major Accomplishments
Have actually practiced the art of governance in districts and regions since the positions of District Commissioner and Deputy Regional Governor were as much political as they were administrative.
Have spearheaded and successfully managed self-help schemes while in government.
Successfully negotiated in 1978 as a team member an ECA/WHO ( Afro ) cooperation agreement on behalf of ECA.
Have contributed papers and ideas to the annual meetings of the African Association for Public Administration and Management (AAPAM). (Please see the press clipping on the last page of this resume.)
Have contributed significantly to an "International Symposium on the Making of the Eritrean Constitution", Asmara, Eritrea 1995.
Have drawn-up a programme of administrative training for Zimbabwe immediately after independence in 1980 on the request of the UNDP.
Have provided advisory services to various African governments
Have accumulated great experience in project preparation, management, monitoring and evaluation.
I was Chairman of the Joint Advisory Committee ( JAC ) of ECA for 3 consecutive years.
Was President of the ECA Staff Union for two years (1991 and 1992).
Member of APC for 3 years.
I was Vice-Chairman of APP for 2 years.
Professional Training
Study Tour to local government institutions in Egypt and Sudan, 2 months in 1975
Managing the Writing of Others (ECA workshop: conducted by a resource person from New York), 1996.
Project Analysis and Management (ECA workshop: conducted by the World Bank), 1985.
Managing for Quality in the 1990s (ECA/UN Training Service) 1992.
Managing People (ECA/Resource Persons from Geneva) 1997.
Teambuilding Workshop (ECA, conducted by the Eastern and Southern African Management Institute - ESAMI), 1998.
PUBLICATIONS
Have written a number of papers and reports all of which were published in the name of the ECA.
I had previously contributed a chapter to an AAPAM book. The Chapter was titled "Tradition Versus Modernity in Somali Local Administration". But, the book is yet to be published.
"Federal Structure for Somalia: A Upas Tree or A Panacea", in Horn of Africa Journal, Vol. XIII 2000, pp. 70-80.
Monday, July 16, 2007
Sunday, July 15, 2007
A Time to Rebuild Somalia
Nation-Building
The guns have finally fallen silent in Mogadishu, our national capital, leaving behind a trail of death and destruction; and a humanitarian crisis of massive proportions. There is no victory to rejoice; only blood and tears, and lamentations, and rancor which I hope will not linger far too long. This tragic situation cries out for sanity; for rationality; for deliberation. It is a situation which benumbs our minds and paralyses our action but conceals, like all catastrophes, a great opportunity to heal, and to build (if I may turn Jawaharlal Nehru around) the great “mansion” of Somalia “where all her children shall dwell”. We should bury the dead and pray for them, but care for the living with our eyes and minds on the rising generations.
Mogadishu used to be our national capital although its natives always felt it was slipping out from their hands and into the hands of others hailing from far off regions. That feeling was so hardened that the last civilian government had to bribe some indigenous clansmen who threatened on 20 October, 1969 to excavate the grave of the slain President Abdurashid Ali Sharmarke and throw out his body on the grounds that he should be buried in Qardho, his hometown. What a shame! Incidentally, that incident (i.e. the bribing of the clansmen) was one of the pretexts cited by the Military as reasons for overthrowing the elected civilian government.
We had all forgotten that incident, but only a few weeks ago some clan elders jogged our memory by claiming unashamedly on the BBC (Somali Service) that Mogadishu belonged exclusively to their clan – lock, stock and barrel. Granted that this is a symptom of our general malaise, but such unfortunate pronouncements make others feel unwelcome to their own national capital, and are obviously detrimental to the clan interests the elders are trying to protect; and, except for those who are too young to have been there at the time or too old to remember, they invoke the sickening memories of that 1969 threat not to let ex-President Shermarke’s body rest in peace.
It cannot be gainsaid that Somalis of all clans had invested heavily in the development of their capital city to the neglect of their own home towns and regions before the civil war sent them fleeing to all the corners of the world. Successive national governments had likewise concentrated their development efforts on that capital city of ours as if people did not live in the other regions. In the course of the long years of the civil war (or should I say “nasty” war, for there is nothing “civil” about a war) we lost our various investments – we have lost so much and so many of our kith and kin.
But there is consolation in that we have remedied regional imbalance. While we lost Mogadishu to a senseless inter-clan warfare we built much of its hinterland and beyond: the civil war was without doubt a sobering experience for many of us; and were it not for it no one would have even thought of federalism which by its nature will drastically diminish the significance of Mogadishu, though still the federal capital, as power shifts from the centre to the periphery.
I used to argue in halcyon days that whilst nation-building meant in other African countries the moulding of a nation out of a medley of very heterogeneous tribes it meant in Somalia the reunification of all Somali territories under one flag and one government. In fact, that used to be our singular national objective. But we have bungled everything. I recall in this connection the comment of my Political Science professor on my assertion in a 1964 paper that Somalia should play the role which Prussia had played in the German unification in order to reunify all Somali territories in the Horn of Africa. His comment (which, by the way, offended me as an overzealous young man) was: “An interesting analogy but of questionable practical application”. Little did we know then that our brothers and sisters across the borders would be so disappointed by our own monumental failures that they would rather stay away from us. While in 1963, 87% of the people of the six Northern Frontier Districts (NFD) of Kenya, namely, Garissa,Wajir, Mandera, Moyale, Isiolo, and Marsabit, opted for seceding from Kenya in favor of joining Somalia it would be a big surprise today if we find even 1% who feel the same. Djibouti decided wisely to stay away upon accession to independence in 1977 (even though we had liberated a large expanse of Somali of territory from the yoke of Ethiopian rule) because we were in the grips of a military dictatorship. And the “Ogaden National Liberation Front” (ONLF) is fighting for independence, not unity with Somalia. Far from showing incentives for these territories to join us we have indeed managed to show the door to our own ‘Somaliland’ with the result that we ourselves are now in danger of splitting.
We already told the Ethiopians and the Kenyans years ago when our edifice began to show serious cracks, that we would be happy to keep what we have. Today, we are even asking them to help us stay together as a nation. What a reversal of “nation-building” and of fortune! Our fourteen “reconciliation conferences” held for us by our neighbors, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Kenya have heaped upon us shame, upon shame, upon shame. And yet, as if that is not enough, many of us in the Diaspora – educated, clannish, and deeply divisive – have the audacity to advocate the continuation of the anarchy and the spilling of more blood.
Our bitter experience teaches us, I submit, that we need more – much more - than cultural, linguistic, religious and ethnic homogeneity to build a nation out of clans that are averse to central authority and the disciplined pursuit of common aspirations. The British had called us long ago “The Irish Men of Africa”. That was not meant to be complimentary; it was just meant to underscore the fact that we were unruly- a trait we have sadly kept. But it was also acknowledged years later that we were masters of compromise – an art we have sadly lost.
Building a nation is a long-term goal which requires peace, stable government, consistency and of course good governance a key element of which is the institutionalization of conflict which can be done by establishing the necessary resolution mechanisms such as judicial and quasi-judicial bodies and a respect for the rule of law.
Federalism
I sometimes wonder how we Somalis who could not manage a simple unitary system will fare better under a federal system with its complex ramifications, proclivity for litigation, inherent parochialism and enormous financing. How on earth can a population composed largely of peasants and pastoralists and impoverished further by a long-lasting civil war finance the multiple tiers of federalism? It is really beyond comprehension. But there is no point in debating the merits and demerits of federalism since both the TNG and TFG were given clear mandates to put it in place by the end of their respective terms. The TNG had dismally failed and a good number of its prominent members are fighting tooth and nail to fail the TFG. Everyone but the blind can see that there is no love lost between the extinct TNG and the extant TFG. As they say in East Africa, “When two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers” and in our case the “grass” is the national interest.
The TFG, however, has reached a take-off stage and is poised to launch a program for peace and stability. But time is not on its side; for it is required to have federalism firmly in place by the end of its mandate in 2009 when it is supposed to hold elections and transfer power to those elected. Before then also it is supposed to establish the institutions of the State – build the army and police and the custodial corps together with ministries, judicial organs, and an electoral system - all within a space of less than two years. These are daunting tasks, and given the acute paucity of human and financial resources and the fact that there is nothing to build on, failure seems near and certain.
In anticipation of this, however, there are already hushed talks of extending the mandate of the TFG. To be fair, the TFG has had to fight for its life and was unduly paralyzed for a long time by hostile internal environment and indifferent extraneous circumstances. It may sound ridiculous, but I think those who have been fiercely opposed to it will be well advised to come to its aid if only for the purpose of getting it ready to hold general elections in 2009: else, they will be saddled with the TFG for another term of God knows how many more years. Irrespective of the leaders we like or loathe I think it is in the interest of our unity to help the TFG vigorously to move towards holding general elections by the end of its mandate and to make it less dependent on its Ethiopian patrons in the meantime. Furthermore, we should clamor in earnest for the deployment of African troops in order to hasten the departure of the Ethiopian contingent well before the elections. I do not think anybody would want them around at the time of the elections. Then – and only then – can we hold internationally supervised, fair and free elections which will hopefully give us a truly representative – not necessarily good but truly representative – government.
Elections are by nature costly and divisive and in Africa they are generally fraudulent and lead to violence. We should remember, it was the widespread and open rigging of the 1969 elections that hastened the coup d’etat in our country. It has not been easy for us Africans to conduct fair and free elections in an atmosphere free from violence and intimidation. Last month’s elections in Nigeria – a federation unworthy of emulation – illustrate this point further. But, of course, we have to live with our imperfections and try to improve our performance as we go along: violence can only push us back to square one. The important thing now, however, is to help devise a good electoral system for our new federation with all its tiers.
I surmise that the TFG Ministry of Federal and Constitutional Affairs is thinly staffed and, like other ministries, also starved of financial resources. As is always the case in most countries resources fall invariably far too short of the mandate to be carried out; and Somalia does not have the technology to do more with less. But, in my view, the priority of priorities for that ministry should be first and foremost the drafting of the legal instruments (Constitution or a law elaborating the existing Charter) to delineate the functional boundaries between the states and the federal government, it being understood that the constituent states are coordinate with, not subordinate to the federal government. Then comes, of course, the drafting of an electoral law which should go into effect sometime in early 2009.
Institution Building
What we need is a government of laws and institutions. Modern government can only work through institutions using laws and regulations. These are sine qua non to any government in this age of globalization. That there are no institutions now means that we have the opportunity to start from the scratch and build them on sound foundations. It is much easier to build institutions from the scratch than to reform established ones where the staff are incompetent, underpaid and undisciplined, the procedures are long, cumbersome and involute, and corruption is endemic.
But, apart from staffing the central ministries we will need to establish administrations at the state, regional and local levels: staffing a federation is a very complex and expensive undertaking. Surely, not all this can be accomplished in the life of one government however competent and diligent it may be. After all, institutions take decades to build. When it comes to staffing there is the danger of treating the states as mere subdivisions or appendages of the central government. In fact, the staff of the state governments should be no less qualified, no less competent and no less paid than those of the federal government now that the burden of development lies squarely on the shoulders of the constituent states. This will also have the added advantage of the states being able to stand up to the incursions of the federal government.
Since the scope for litigation is greater under federalism having the judicial organs in place is crucial. A constitutional court (or a supreme court with powers to hear constitutional cases) is vital. It goes without saying that the Judiciary should be professionally competent and insulated from politics so as to be independent and highly respected. Judges of the first caliber in terms of professional competence and personal integrity are rare in our part of the world and should be treated as a rare specimen worthy of high remuneration: we should not humiliate our judges by forcing them to accept low salaries and thereby make them open to corruption. There is nothing more nauseating to the general public than to appear before a corrupt judge.
In today’s world policy studies, policy planning and rational policymaking are of paramount importance. Without them even momentous decisions will be in danger of being taken – not made – on the spur of the moment. In the past, such was actually the case in our country but we cannot afford to go on like that. The issues to be decided upon are too complex and complicated – world trade, ecosystems, marine resources, health, education, water development, etc. I read last year a statement published by the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in which it was argued, inter alia, that Somalia depended on two rivers (Juba and Shabeele) both of which originated from Ethiopia and that the latter would be at liberty to reduce for the benefit of its own population the water flowing from Ethiopian highlands to Somalia. There are of course international conventions governing the sharing of water by riparian states. But, what policy studies have we ever done respecting this vital issue? None, I presume! The Ethiopian statement is of course ill-conceived and shortsighted and does not apparently foresee any possible retaliatory response from our side. But what are we to do ourselves with our ports, our long shore, our beautiful beaches and our rich seabed? What can we do to be self-sufficient in food? Do we have a food security plan? The list is endless.
The Civil Service
The presidency, the prime minister’s office, the ministries and even parliament amount to nothing without a competent and active civil service. Members of the higher civil service (directors, directors-general, and permanent secretaries) are of course the partners of ministers in policy design and implementation; indeed they are the backbone of government. Their work is dynamic, analytical, thought provoking and they manage to rise above routine in order to find time for reading and reflection and discussion, and the submission of briefs and position papers to their ministers. Higher civil servants are supposed to guide their ministers through the opaque fog of technicalities and thereby illuminate the field of options for them.
But those who are not up to the mark – as usually happens - submerge themselves in the mundane tasks of routine and rule application: those are typical bureaucrats who sit immobile behind large desks and hide their faces behind piles of inactive files. Many of them owe their positions to patronage and come usually from the lower ranks – a perfect, if unintended, application of the Peter Principle.
But, if ministers themselves cannot benefit by the higher intellect and imagination of well-educated, well-trained and seasoned civil servants there is bound to be frustration and a fallback on routine. On the other hand, a pliant minister may be dominated by his senior staff and thereby unwittingly abandon the principle of democratic control without which elections are merely an exercise in futility. The British intellectual comedies of “Yes Minister” and “Yes Prime Minister” depict that kind of situation in a humorous and entertaining way. Nevertheless, one should not miss the serious message being conveyed.
The TFG has already appointed a Civil Service Commission. Its members should be trained as to their duties and should go on visits inside and outside the continent of Africa and learn from countries with advanced civil service policies, practices and traditions. I also believe there should be a Head of the Civil Service in line with the tradition of former British possessions. I have known some Heads of Civil Services in Africa who became personal friends and I am strongly convinced that there is a lot to be gained by the Service from the leadership of a highly respectable permanent secretary sitting in the President’s Office.
To have a civil service of excellent caliber means that there should be generous conditions of service and attractive remuneration packages. We have to invest in our civil service – indeed all public services – if we want good performance from them. If the conditions are bad and salaries are outstripped by rapidly rising inflation our civil servants will compromise their integrity, resort to corruption and squander the resources entrusted to them. Therefore, saving on civil or public service salaries is a false economy. And, above all, it is the way to lose talents. Given the fact that we have a pool of educated and trained men and women in the Diaspora the TFG policy or the policy of any successor government should be to attract talents and reverse the brain drain.
I have heard arguments before when I was in the Service myself that the country could not afford the high salaries which the educated class were asking for. But this was untrue for two reasons: first, persons who did not have even elementary school certificates were in high places and drawing fat salaries because they were well connected; secondly, they and those in the lower echelons were already living above their means obviously by diverting resources for their own personal use. This undoubtedly has had a nefarious effect on the transformation of our values. It is therefore much more economical to give high salaries and improve other conditions of service as well. After all, it is the human resource that creates and transmutes other resources.
Conclusion
The TFG is all we have now. We cannot deny it the support and the resources it immediately needs and then expect it to do well. In the eyes of some of us the TFG may be bad or fall short of our expectations. But, seventeen years of anarchy and bloodshed must have taught us that a bad government is better than no government at all. Our task should be to build on and improve what we have, knowing full well that a bird in the hand is better than ten in the bush.
The federal system is too complex and too expensive. But it has already been adopted by the Djibouti and Kenya conferences. Federalism is clearly a fait accompli which must work for us. Unlike before, we have many educated people equipped with the highest academic degrees and they are to be found everywhere in the Diaspora. I think they should consider working for and helping in the reconstruction of their country. It is time to put the past behind us and begin in earnest to rebuild our country.
The guns have finally fallen silent in Mogadishu, our national capital, leaving behind a trail of death and destruction; and a humanitarian crisis of massive proportions. There is no victory to rejoice; only blood and tears, and lamentations, and rancor which I hope will not linger far too long. This tragic situation cries out for sanity; for rationality; for deliberation. It is a situation which benumbs our minds and paralyses our action but conceals, like all catastrophes, a great opportunity to heal, and to build (if I may turn Jawaharlal Nehru around) the great “mansion” of Somalia “where all her children shall dwell”. We should bury the dead and pray for them, but care for the living with our eyes and minds on the rising generations.
Mogadishu used to be our national capital although its natives always felt it was slipping out from their hands and into the hands of others hailing from far off regions. That feeling was so hardened that the last civilian government had to bribe some indigenous clansmen who threatened on 20 October, 1969 to excavate the grave of the slain President Abdurashid Ali Sharmarke and throw out his body on the grounds that he should be buried in Qardho, his hometown. What a shame! Incidentally, that incident (i.e. the bribing of the clansmen) was one of the pretexts cited by the Military as reasons for overthrowing the elected civilian government.
We had all forgotten that incident, but only a few weeks ago some clan elders jogged our memory by claiming unashamedly on the BBC (Somali Service) that Mogadishu belonged exclusively to their clan – lock, stock and barrel. Granted that this is a symptom of our general malaise, but such unfortunate pronouncements make others feel unwelcome to their own national capital, and are obviously detrimental to the clan interests the elders are trying to protect; and, except for those who are too young to have been there at the time or too old to remember, they invoke the sickening memories of that 1969 threat not to let ex-President Shermarke’s body rest in peace.
It cannot be gainsaid that Somalis of all clans had invested heavily in the development of their capital city to the neglect of their own home towns and regions before the civil war sent them fleeing to all the corners of the world. Successive national governments had likewise concentrated their development efforts on that capital city of ours as if people did not live in the other regions. In the course of the long years of the civil war (or should I say “nasty” war, for there is nothing “civil” about a war) we lost our various investments – we have lost so much and so many of our kith and kin.
But there is consolation in that we have remedied regional imbalance. While we lost Mogadishu to a senseless inter-clan warfare we built much of its hinterland and beyond: the civil war was without doubt a sobering experience for many of us; and were it not for it no one would have even thought of federalism which by its nature will drastically diminish the significance of Mogadishu, though still the federal capital, as power shifts from the centre to the periphery.
I used to argue in halcyon days that whilst nation-building meant in other African countries the moulding of a nation out of a medley of very heterogeneous tribes it meant in Somalia the reunification of all Somali territories under one flag and one government. In fact, that used to be our singular national objective. But we have bungled everything. I recall in this connection the comment of my Political Science professor on my assertion in a 1964 paper that Somalia should play the role which Prussia had played in the German unification in order to reunify all Somali territories in the Horn of Africa. His comment (which, by the way, offended me as an overzealous young man) was: “An interesting analogy but of questionable practical application”. Little did we know then that our brothers and sisters across the borders would be so disappointed by our own monumental failures that they would rather stay away from us. While in 1963, 87% of the people of the six Northern Frontier Districts (NFD) of Kenya, namely, Garissa,Wajir, Mandera, Moyale, Isiolo, and Marsabit, opted for seceding from Kenya in favor of joining Somalia it would be a big surprise today if we find even 1% who feel the same. Djibouti decided wisely to stay away upon accession to independence in 1977 (even though we had liberated a large expanse of Somali of territory from the yoke of Ethiopian rule) because we were in the grips of a military dictatorship. And the “Ogaden National Liberation Front” (ONLF) is fighting for independence, not unity with Somalia. Far from showing incentives for these territories to join us we have indeed managed to show the door to our own ‘Somaliland’ with the result that we ourselves are now in danger of splitting.
We already told the Ethiopians and the Kenyans years ago when our edifice began to show serious cracks, that we would be happy to keep what we have. Today, we are even asking them to help us stay together as a nation. What a reversal of “nation-building” and of fortune! Our fourteen “reconciliation conferences” held for us by our neighbors, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Kenya have heaped upon us shame, upon shame, upon shame. And yet, as if that is not enough, many of us in the Diaspora – educated, clannish, and deeply divisive – have the audacity to advocate the continuation of the anarchy and the spilling of more blood.
Our bitter experience teaches us, I submit, that we need more – much more - than cultural, linguistic, religious and ethnic homogeneity to build a nation out of clans that are averse to central authority and the disciplined pursuit of common aspirations. The British had called us long ago “The Irish Men of Africa”. That was not meant to be complimentary; it was just meant to underscore the fact that we were unruly- a trait we have sadly kept. But it was also acknowledged years later that we were masters of compromise – an art we have sadly lost.
Building a nation is a long-term goal which requires peace, stable government, consistency and of course good governance a key element of which is the institutionalization of conflict which can be done by establishing the necessary resolution mechanisms such as judicial and quasi-judicial bodies and a respect for the rule of law.
Federalism
I sometimes wonder how we Somalis who could not manage a simple unitary system will fare better under a federal system with its complex ramifications, proclivity for litigation, inherent parochialism and enormous financing. How on earth can a population composed largely of peasants and pastoralists and impoverished further by a long-lasting civil war finance the multiple tiers of federalism? It is really beyond comprehension. But there is no point in debating the merits and demerits of federalism since both the TNG and TFG were given clear mandates to put it in place by the end of their respective terms. The TNG had dismally failed and a good number of its prominent members are fighting tooth and nail to fail the TFG. Everyone but the blind can see that there is no love lost between the extinct TNG and the extant TFG. As they say in East Africa, “When two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers” and in our case the “grass” is the national interest.
The TFG, however, has reached a take-off stage and is poised to launch a program for peace and stability. But time is not on its side; for it is required to have federalism firmly in place by the end of its mandate in 2009 when it is supposed to hold elections and transfer power to those elected. Before then also it is supposed to establish the institutions of the State – build the army and police and the custodial corps together with ministries, judicial organs, and an electoral system - all within a space of less than two years. These are daunting tasks, and given the acute paucity of human and financial resources and the fact that there is nothing to build on, failure seems near and certain.
In anticipation of this, however, there are already hushed talks of extending the mandate of the TFG. To be fair, the TFG has had to fight for its life and was unduly paralyzed for a long time by hostile internal environment and indifferent extraneous circumstances. It may sound ridiculous, but I think those who have been fiercely opposed to it will be well advised to come to its aid if only for the purpose of getting it ready to hold general elections in 2009: else, they will be saddled with the TFG for another term of God knows how many more years. Irrespective of the leaders we like or loathe I think it is in the interest of our unity to help the TFG vigorously to move towards holding general elections by the end of its mandate and to make it less dependent on its Ethiopian patrons in the meantime. Furthermore, we should clamor in earnest for the deployment of African troops in order to hasten the departure of the Ethiopian contingent well before the elections. I do not think anybody would want them around at the time of the elections. Then – and only then – can we hold internationally supervised, fair and free elections which will hopefully give us a truly representative – not necessarily good but truly representative – government.
Elections are by nature costly and divisive and in Africa they are generally fraudulent and lead to violence. We should remember, it was the widespread and open rigging of the 1969 elections that hastened the coup d’etat in our country. It has not been easy for us Africans to conduct fair and free elections in an atmosphere free from violence and intimidation. Last month’s elections in Nigeria – a federation unworthy of emulation – illustrate this point further. But, of course, we have to live with our imperfections and try to improve our performance as we go along: violence can only push us back to square one. The important thing now, however, is to help devise a good electoral system for our new federation with all its tiers.
I surmise that the TFG Ministry of Federal and Constitutional Affairs is thinly staffed and, like other ministries, also starved of financial resources. As is always the case in most countries resources fall invariably far too short of the mandate to be carried out; and Somalia does not have the technology to do more with less. But, in my view, the priority of priorities for that ministry should be first and foremost the drafting of the legal instruments (Constitution or a law elaborating the existing Charter) to delineate the functional boundaries between the states and the federal government, it being understood that the constituent states are coordinate with, not subordinate to the federal government. Then comes, of course, the drafting of an electoral law which should go into effect sometime in early 2009.
Institution Building
What we need is a government of laws and institutions. Modern government can only work through institutions using laws and regulations. These are sine qua non to any government in this age of globalization. That there are no institutions now means that we have the opportunity to start from the scratch and build them on sound foundations. It is much easier to build institutions from the scratch than to reform established ones where the staff are incompetent, underpaid and undisciplined, the procedures are long, cumbersome and involute, and corruption is endemic.
But, apart from staffing the central ministries we will need to establish administrations at the state, regional and local levels: staffing a federation is a very complex and expensive undertaking. Surely, not all this can be accomplished in the life of one government however competent and diligent it may be. After all, institutions take decades to build. When it comes to staffing there is the danger of treating the states as mere subdivisions or appendages of the central government. In fact, the staff of the state governments should be no less qualified, no less competent and no less paid than those of the federal government now that the burden of development lies squarely on the shoulders of the constituent states. This will also have the added advantage of the states being able to stand up to the incursions of the federal government.
Since the scope for litigation is greater under federalism having the judicial organs in place is crucial. A constitutional court (or a supreme court with powers to hear constitutional cases) is vital. It goes without saying that the Judiciary should be professionally competent and insulated from politics so as to be independent and highly respected. Judges of the first caliber in terms of professional competence and personal integrity are rare in our part of the world and should be treated as a rare specimen worthy of high remuneration: we should not humiliate our judges by forcing them to accept low salaries and thereby make them open to corruption. There is nothing more nauseating to the general public than to appear before a corrupt judge.
In today’s world policy studies, policy planning and rational policymaking are of paramount importance. Without them even momentous decisions will be in danger of being taken – not made – on the spur of the moment. In the past, such was actually the case in our country but we cannot afford to go on like that. The issues to be decided upon are too complex and complicated – world trade, ecosystems, marine resources, health, education, water development, etc. I read last year a statement published by the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in which it was argued, inter alia, that Somalia depended on two rivers (Juba and Shabeele) both of which originated from Ethiopia and that the latter would be at liberty to reduce for the benefit of its own population the water flowing from Ethiopian highlands to Somalia. There are of course international conventions governing the sharing of water by riparian states. But, what policy studies have we ever done respecting this vital issue? None, I presume! The Ethiopian statement is of course ill-conceived and shortsighted and does not apparently foresee any possible retaliatory response from our side. But what are we to do ourselves with our ports, our long shore, our beautiful beaches and our rich seabed? What can we do to be self-sufficient in food? Do we have a food security plan? The list is endless.
The Civil Service
The presidency, the prime minister’s office, the ministries and even parliament amount to nothing without a competent and active civil service. Members of the higher civil service (directors, directors-general, and permanent secretaries) are of course the partners of ministers in policy design and implementation; indeed they are the backbone of government. Their work is dynamic, analytical, thought provoking and they manage to rise above routine in order to find time for reading and reflection and discussion, and the submission of briefs and position papers to their ministers. Higher civil servants are supposed to guide their ministers through the opaque fog of technicalities and thereby illuminate the field of options for them.
But those who are not up to the mark – as usually happens - submerge themselves in the mundane tasks of routine and rule application: those are typical bureaucrats who sit immobile behind large desks and hide their faces behind piles of inactive files. Many of them owe their positions to patronage and come usually from the lower ranks – a perfect, if unintended, application of the Peter Principle.
But, if ministers themselves cannot benefit by the higher intellect and imagination of well-educated, well-trained and seasoned civil servants there is bound to be frustration and a fallback on routine. On the other hand, a pliant minister may be dominated by his senior staff and thereby unwittingly abandon the principle of democratic control without which elections are merely an exercise in futility. The British intellectual comedies of “Yes Minister” and “Yes Prime Minister” depict that kind of situation in a humorous and entertaining way. Nevertheless, one should not miss the serious message being conveyed.
The TFG has already appointed a Civil Service Commission. Its members should be trained as to their duties and should go on visits inside and outside the continent of Africa and learn from countries with advanced civil service policies, practices and traditions. I also believe there should be a Head of the Civil Service in line with the tradition of former British possessions. I have known some Heads of Civil Services in Africa who became personal friends and I am strongly convinced that there is a lot to be gained by the Service from the leadership of a highly respectable permanent secretary sitting in the President’s Office.
To have a civil service of excellent caliber means that there should be generous conditions of service and attractive remuneration packages. We have to invest in our civil service – indeed all public services – if we want good performance from them. If the conditions are bad and salaries are outstripped by rapidly rising inflation our civil servants will compromise their integrity, resort to corruption and squander the resources entrusted to them. Therefore, saving on civil or public service salaries is a false economy. And, above all, it is the way to lose talents. Given the fact that we have a pool of educated and trained men and women in the Diaspora the TFG policy or the policy of any successor government should be to attract talents and reverse the brain drain.
I have heard arguments before when I was in the Service myself that the country could not afford the high salaries which the educated class were asking for. But this was untrue for two reasons: first, persons who did not have even elementary school certificates were in high places and drawing fat salaries because they were well connected; secondly, they and those in the lower echelons were already living above their means obviously by diverting resources for their own personal use. This undoubtedly has had a nefarious effect on the transformation of our values. It is therefore much more economical to give high salaries and improve other conditions of service as well. After all, it is the human resource that creates and transmutes other resources.
Conclusion
The TFG is all we have now. We cannot deny it the support and the resources it immediately needs and then expect it to do well. In the eyes of some of us the TFG may be bad or fall short of our expectations. But, seventeen years of anarchy and bloodshed must have taught us that a bad government is better than no government at all. Our task should be to build on and improve what we have, knowing full well that a bird in the hand is better than ten in the bush.
The federal system is too complex and too expensive. But it has already been adopted by the Djibouti and Kenya conferences. Federalism is clearly a fait accompli which must work for us. Unlike before, we have many educated people equipped with the highest academic degrees and they are to be found everywhere in the Diaspora. I think they should consider working for and helping in the reconstruction of their country. It is time to put the past behind us and begin in earnest to rebuild our country.
Friday, July 13, 2007
IN MEMORIAM - Yusuf Ahmed Saleh
Mr.Yusuf Ahmed Saleh was summoned by the Almighty earlier this year after suffering a long, painful and debilitating illness to which he finally succumbed in the small hours of 29 of April this year. His body was laid to rest in Minneapolis, MN on that same day in accordance with Moslem tradition. Yusuf had been for the previous four years an outstanding member of the Somali Community in Minneapolis, MN. He is survived by his companion in life for forty two years and the mother of his children, a son and two daughters, as well as sisters and brothers all of whom dearly miss him.
Yusuf was born in 1932 in Erigabo and taken across the Gulf to Aden (then a British colony) by his parents at a very early age. There and then he received his pre-school Qur’anic teachings which gave him a firm grounding in religious studies before he had to go to a school run by Roman Catholics. The school was better known by its abbreviation, “RCM”, (which stood for “Roman Catholic Mission”) and was then the premiere institution for education in the whole of South Arabia providing, as it did, elementary – which in Aden was called ‘primary’ – intermediate, and secondary education. Aden, though a vibrant cosmopolitan city and the most advanced in the entire Arabian Peninsula, had no institutions of tertiary education.
But the school’s curriculum was very strong and its graduates formed the backbone of the colonial bureaucracy as well as the flourishing and ever-expanding commercial enterprises. The urge to opt for employment in lieu of further education elsewhere was too great to resist given the abundant opportunities, the lucrative salaries, and the social standing that came with them.
The employment history of Yusuf began in 1952 as an accountant with the Aden Port Trust where he held various other positions, rising to senior levels. From there he moved on to the service of the British Army (Aden was then hosting the headquarters of the British forces in the Arabian Peninsula) as the most senior civilian officer, heading the department of procurement and supplies. At the time the base was being relocated to the Gulf area Yusuf was included in the relocation, but declined in favour of moving to Mogadishu in order to join the civil service of his motherland. Whilst in that service he worked as a senior auditor in the Auditor-General’s Office and was later transferred on promotion to a post in the Somali Ports Authority becoming finally its General Manager. But he left the service shortly after so as to answer the call of the business sector which was then showing encouraging signs, and he remained a businessman until the collapse of the State in 1991.
Yusuf, though an Adenite in upbringing and education, remained a true Somali to the bone. For while in the service of the Aden Port Trust he worked very hard in his spare time as the Chairman of the SYL branch in Aden to awaken nationalist feelings among his fellow Somalis and it was in that capacity that he promoted Somali nationalism in order to push forward the movement for independence. It was also during his time that the physical facilities of the Somali Community Centre in Aden was built, largely through individual contributions; and the Centre is in tact and still being used by the Community to this day. It was by dint of fate (when Yusuf found himself once again in Aden after the implosion) that he became the unpaid President of the Somali Community in the Yemen and had to work in that same facility he had helped to build many decades before. While he did a lot to better the conditions of the Community his most salient and memorable accomplishment must remain a hard-won agreement from the Yemeni Government to grant five-year residence visas to Somalis – a privilege denied them so many times before. With deteriorating health and a daughter in the United States Yusuf had to decide finally to move to Minneapolis, MN in 2003.
As all those who knew him will attest Yusuf was a gentleman of the first water; he was kind-hearted, a man of pleasant temperament always wearing an infectious smile and always forgiving. I have known him since my childhood for more than a half a century being an Adenite myself and have never ever seen him angry. While the situation at home has dashed the hopes of so many of us Yusuf was incorrigibly optimistic about the resilience of his country and confident that some day in the near future its situation would dramatically turn around. He has been dearly missed, not only by his family - for he was a loving husband and father - but also by other relatives, friends and everyone else whose life he had touched.
May Allah bless his soul and settle him in the best abode in the Jannah.
Yusuf was born in 1932 in Erigabo and taken across the Gulf to Aden (then a British colony) by his parents at a very early age. There and then he received his pre-school Qur’anic teachings which gave him a firm grounding in religious studies before he had to go to a school run by Roman Catholics. The school was better known by its abbreviation, “RCM”, (which stood for “Roman Catholic Mission”) and was then the premiere institution for education in the whole of South Arabia providing, as it did, elementary – which in Aden was called ‘primary’ – intermediate, and secondary education. Aden, though a vibrant cosmopolitan city and the most advanced in the entire Arabian Peninsula, had no institutions of tertiary education. But the school’s curriculum was very strong and its graduates formed the backbone of the colonial bureaucracy as well as the flourishing and ever-expanding commercial enterprises. The urge to opt for employment in lieu of further education elsewhere was too great to resist given the abundant opportunities, the lucrative salaries, and the social standing that came with them.
The employment history of Yusuf began in 1952 as an accountant with the Aden Port Trust where he held various other positions, rising to senior levels. From there he moved on to the service of the British Army (Aden was then hosting the headquarters of the British forces in the Arabian Peninsula) as the most senior civilian officer, heading the department of procurement and supplies. At the time the base was being relocated to the Gulf area Yusuf was included in the relocation, but declined in favour of moving to Mogadishu in order to join the civil service of his motherland. Whilst in that service he worked as a senior auditor in the Auditor-General’s Office and was later transferred on promotion to a post in the Somali Ports Authority becoming finally its General Manager. But he left the service shortly after so as to answer the call of the business sector which was then showing encouraging signs, and he remained a businessman until the collapse of the State in 1991.
Yusuf, though an Adenite in upbringing and education, remained a true Somali to the bone. For while in the service of the Aden Port Trust he worked very hard in his spare time as the Chairman of the SYL branch in Aden to awaken nationalist feelings among his fellow Somalis and it was in that capacity that he promoted Somali nationalism in order to push forward the movement for independence. It was also during his time that the physical facilities of the Somali Community Centre in Aden was built, largely through individual contributions; and the Centre is in tact and still being used by the Community to this day. It was by dint of fate (when Yusuf found himself once again in Aden after the implosion) that he became the unpaid President of the Somali Community in the Yemen and had to work in that same facility he had helped to build many decades before. While he did a lot to better the conditions of the Community his most salient and memorable accomplishment must remain a hard-won agreement from the Yemeni Government to grant five-year residence visas to Somalis – a privilege denied them so many times before. With deteriorating health and a daughter in the United States Yusuf had to decide finally to move to Minneapolis, MN in 2003.
As all those who knew him will attest Yusuf was a gentleman of the first water; he was kind-hearted, a man of pleasant temperament always wearing an infectious smile and always forgiving. I have known him since my childhood for more than a half a century being an Adenite myself and have never ever seen him angry. While the situation at home has dashed the hopes of so many of us Yusuf was incorrigibly optimistic about the resilience of his country and confident that some day in the near future its situation would dramatically turn around. He has been dearly missed, not only by his family - for he was a loving husband and father - but also by other relatives, friends and everyone else whose life he had touched.
May Allah bless his soul and settle him in the best abode in the Jannah.
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