What Would You Do as President of Somalia?

In the spirit of Somalia’s upcoming elections and on the eve of a new dawn for the young Somali Federal Republic we made the rounds in Somalia looking to ask a particular question to a particular set of individuals. We phoned contacts in four different cities across the country to ask the ordinary Somali what they would do as president. We found no better way than to go straight to the source.

After a week of trying we reached a young student who called himself Harima’adow, or Cheetah boy. Harima’adow didn’t want to talk but he connected us to his elder brother studying on a scholarship in Madras, India. Good enough we thought. His brother, Mahamud, not only told us what he’d do as president, but he went all out. We recorded every one of his youthful and optimistic reforms.

“What would I do as president of Somalia?” pondered young Mahamud.

Economic changes

Somalia relies heavily on importing its goods as opposed to local production, even for the simplest things. Fixing this problem alone could create the first great transformation in the country.

Where I’m from, in Bosaso, you will see a wealthy woman walk a full mile to buy a leather purse imported from Dubai or the far east. Meanwhile, in town we have a fully-equipped tannery that specializes in producing raw leather products to be used in the making of other merchandise in distant markets.

But unfortunately, the owner of the tannery doesn’t realize that if he started a sewing chapter in his company he could make purses, shoes, and other leather and hide goods for an eager public. This problem exists everywhere. The worst case is with animal-based food products. Somalia has more camels than the whole rest of the world combined, we have more cattle and goats than almost any other nation as well. But we import goods like powdered milk from countries that have a miniscule fraction of our livestock assets.

My government would not force companies to produce these things or subsidize them either. We would encourage companies to produce the unavailable goods in their area through a series of ad campaigns encouraging this form of mercantilism.

Every district would have a focus group dedicated to linking the public to their private providers of a large range of services. For example, if a person in a given town notices the lack of a local soda brand, he brings this up at a focus group meeting, and hopefully the respective native companies take note.

At the moment, it’s only foreign NGO groups who support local production initiatives like agriculture, and it would be much more beneficial if businesspeople took it upon themselves to produce and deliver the necessary goods for everyday life.

Politics and regionalism

Since it is decided already that Somalia will be decentralized, this program of federalism would enjoy continued support from the government so long as the Somali people yearn for it. My greatest political reform would be to end the 4.5 clan system whereby parliamentarians and government ministers are chosen based on their tribal credentials rather than their job-based merits.

Tribal elders would additionally be forcibly and permanently removed from political dialog. They have no place in the decision-making process of a modern nation.

Most importantly, parliament would be reduced from the current 275 members to just 200 members. There is no reason for Somalia to have a larger parliament than Portugal, which is much richer, or Mozambique, which has a much greater population.

National security and defense

Individual states would be allowed to decide how large a police force they would keep on payroll. Each recognized federal state would additionally be allowed no more than 1,5000 auxiliary security forces to support their local police in special circumstances, but these security forces would never be allowed to equip themselves in the same capacity of the national army. The auxiliary forces would be a step-up from the police forces and permitted to carry tactical equipment.

The military would consist of no more than 30,000 personnel. Emphasis would be placed on defensive spending rather than offensive. And under no condition would my administration bump military spending beyond a modest 0.5% of our gross domestic product during any given fiscal year. For at least a period of ten years following transition I would ban spending on air assets other than for surveillance and logistics. A robust and speedy navy would be necessary to ensure the protection of Somalia’s fishing industry.

Foreign policy

Unlike other Somali leaders who tried to skirt domestic issues by focusing their attention on war, I would do something that no Somali president has ever tried–my government would make lasting peace with its neighbors. For the foreseeable future, Somalia would temporarily relinquish its claims to territories in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Djibouti.

My government would further strengthen ties in our neighborhood by forming a Horn of Africa trade union, because unfortunately HOA states aren’t very welcome in the East African Community. Not only would a HOA economic union ease tensions among the region’s antagonistic regimes, but it would once again reconnect the brotherly peoples of the region.

Human development

The first step to human development lies in the strength of the economy. But beyond a strong economic foundation my government would provide the public with subsidized farming and construction equipment as well as free land for anyone willing to take a foray into agriculture. A country without a stable supply of food is not a truly stable country, and its people are not truly secure. This mixes economic needs with national security, and it would be a key step in human development.

In every district there would be a separate focus group from the one we earlier discussed, and this committee would be setup for the sole task of receiving complaints about public services. And to stave off the first round of complaints my government would ensure that every district come equipped with a major hospital and at least one major secondary school.

Education would be compulsory for all ages under 17. Students would be encouraged to attend university, during which time their food, housing, materials, and tuition would be fully covered by the state. Somalia would also have a universal healthcare system that would cover all healthcare needs, provided the equipment and technology is available.

Discipline and efficiency

In order to push through all of these reforms and plans, the state would conduct checks on each ministry to make sure that public needs were being met at every level. Anyone not meeting requirements would be forced to resign, sending a clear message to future applicants of the kind of pressure that is being placed on them.

Seeing that federal states are out of the central government’s direct reach, it would be entirely up to them to decide how they want to discipline public officials. But in the areas under my control rest assured that a ministry full of temp hires would send a chilling signal to those in the respective ministries slacking off at work.

We can only hope that our future leaders can think this long about what they want to change about Somalia, but I will listen to the events at home from my apartment in Madras and keep an eye on those I will hopefully one day replace.

{DN Staff Writers}

DissidentNation.com