Let’s turn President Hassan’s proposal for a presidential system into an opportunity to overhaul the country’s politics.

By The Editorial Board

Prominent opposition members, including former presidents and former prime ministers, have recently objected to President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s call for scraping the corruption-ridden parliamentary system and instead adopting a presidential one.

The politicians have accused the president of trying to unilaterally change the Constitution and warned against dividing the country or jeopardizing the power-sharing model. They’ve also falsely claimed that the political structure in the country was a result of “an agreement among Somalis.”

While opposition figures have their own reasons to differ with the president’s views, their outright dismissal of the call to embrace a presidential system was injudicious and shortsighted.

It’s mortifying for them not to offer any alternative other than insisting that the country keeps the untenable status quo that has only worsened its political, security, economic and social crises.

The opposition’s concern was centered on fears that a president with executive powers could become a dictator.

That shouldn’t scare us into ignoring the abject failures of the current parliamentary system that is marred by bribery and whose members do the bidding of the executive organ. Let’s support the president’s proposal provided that it’s implemented in a transparent and inclusive manner that’s free from political shenanigans and deceit.

President Hassan was right to question the viability of the country’s peculiar political system that has normalized a political absurdity that calls handpicked individuals parliamentarians and regional chief administrators presidents.

The need for a political change is valid and long overdue. The country has for the last three decades been mired in an anarchic political system that hindered its efforts toward rebuilding its institutions and recreating a strong and united Somalia where the rule of law reigns supreme.

The President’s call for a presidential system must be seized on and turned into an opportunity to overhaul the whole politics in the country. We’ve to rethink the misshappen federal system and find ways we can restore the 1961 Constitution that was overwhelmingly voted for in a national referendum.

The country is in a major governance crisis and needs a radical and urgent change to survive in a dog-eat-dog world.

It can’t keep digging the hole it’s in deeper, for that will be digging its own grave. It needs to climb out of the hole, not to dig it sideways, as its politicians have been doing since the federal system was rammed down Somalis’ throats in 2004.

Somalis should have a vigorous conversation about what is good for their country, about why all their post-civil war governments have failed to realize the public’s dreams of peace and prosperity and about why Somalis, the owners of the land, are suffering and fleeing while tens of thousands of parasitic foreign troops are flocking to their country.

President Hassan — a leader with no executive powers — hasn’t offered details on how or when he would have liked to see the presidential system accomplished. Nor did he say whether the idea is a bigger initiative to restructure the country’s politics.

But we hope that he understands that no meaningful changes can be achieved under the current dispensation, which has even stripped him of the power to fire the prime minister he himself appointed, laying bare how the unpopular and foreign-imposed constitution is contributing to the country’s political dysfunction.

It’s past time that our politicians interrogated everything about the country’s affairs and came up with the best model that can meet its needs, serve its interests and strengthen its people’s unity. Somalis, like their fellow beings in the world, have to live in peace and dream big.

President Hassan, already suffering from a credibility gap, may not be the ideal person to spearhead a major political change in Somalia, where many accuse him of clan tendencies, inconsistency and poor track record of nationalism.

But that shouldn’t discourage us from considering his proposal and turning it into an opportunity to start a larger conversation on how we decolonize the country’s destructive and divisive political system, which is not fit for purpose by any stretch of the imagination.

Since 2000, when the international involvement in our politics started in earnest, the citizenry have not had an opportunity to elect their leaders and decide the trajectory of their country.

The federalism now in use is not a result of a popular vote but is an imposition from foreign countries that paid tens of millions of dollars for its promotion and implementation.

The system should have never been applied in Somalia, as it’s only designed for countries with different ethnic groups, religions and languages, not for Somalia that is literally one big family.

The discriminatory and unfair 4.5 power-sharing model was also originally a foreign idea that was realized through Djibouti during the 2000 Arte conference, an injustice that is still being supported by donor countries, which seem set to fund anything that helps tear at the fabric of our society.

Indeed, the real aim of the foreign-funded and -driven provisional constitution was – and still is — to divide Somalis and deepen their personal differences. Corruptly selected 825 individuals called members of the National Constituent Assembly were wrongly given the right to decide the destiny of 20 million Somalis.

While Constitutions around the world strengthen nations’ unity and protect people’s identity, culture and religion, in Somalia its charter appeals to its people’s worst instincts and encourages divisions. The document is alien to Somalis. It has little to do with their culture, creed and craving for social cohesion, peace and better life.

To change that, Somalis have to welcome President Hassan’s call for change.

At The Somalia Star, we’ve regularly faulted our leaders’ lack of creativity and initiative to engineer bold and consequential political reforms.

For instance, our leaders haven’t paused to think about how the country can generate its own sufficient revenue and wean itself off foreign aid to stop other countries’ malign involvement in our affairs.

We urge President Hassan to be unflinching in his determination to push for a change. The country can’t wait any longer. Our political madness must be brought to an end once and for all.

The president should also say the quiet part out loud: Foreign countries and their entities shouldn’t have any say whatsoever on how we govern ourselves. Somalia is an independent and sovereign nation that is capable of deciding what is good for its people.

President Hassan and Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre have to take the bull by the horns and declare that the current political system is a threat to the nation’s existence and well-being. They’ve to lead from the front, work with parliament and reach out to opposition members, religious leaders and other influential members of the society.

Our lawmakers have to play their vital role and debate the possibility of throwing away the current charter and restoring the old one – of course after minor amendments to address the new domestic and international challenges facing the country.

The ineffectual regional administrations, the Trojan horses for foreign countries, must be collapsed. They are not only corrupt, unsustainable, unrealistic and financially bankrupt, but they’re also susceptible to foreign influence and a threat to the country’s national security.

Worse still, the central government in Mogadishu has no real power over them – except to write protest letters as if it’s dealing with a foreign country.

The regional chiefs act as if they’re tsars of independent countries and have the audacity to bar national officials, including the president and Cabinet members, from visiting their areas when their policies are censured. Internally, there’s always one tension or another in these so-called “member states” over politics and management.

The source of this disorder is the federal system and must be undone. It’s backassword, illogical, fraudulent, Kafkaesque and unworkable in Somalia.

The system — first adopted by predatory warlords during a bogus, years-long reconciliation conference in Kenya — is so dangerous that it can lead to the breakup of the Somali Republic into clan-based cantons.

We’ve to avert tearing our country into sub-clan fiefdoms to please the wishes and dictates of foreign countries and their organizations, whose interests are inimical to ours. We’ve to act independently when it comes to deciding how we govern ourselves.

It’s our hope that the Hassan-Hamza administration is serious about the proposal and will go the whole hog and urgently raise the necessary funds from local sources to fully launch the process. The endeavor must be a Somali-owned drive and shielded from any meddling by foreign entities.

The Somali government should share, without delay, a clear roadmap with the Somali public detailing how the proposed changes can be carried out and how long will it take to complete it. The public needs to be assured that President Hassan – who’s known for pursuing personal and family interests — has no ulterior motives behind his call.

The coming days will put President Hassan’s seriousness, integrity, experience, focus and persuasion skills to the test.

Somalis would like to know whether the president’s proposal was made after a thoughtful deliberation and driven by genuine concern for the future of the country or whether it was a devious scheme aimed at amassing more powers in the president’s hands and extending his term.