Opinion
The game of democracy and the facts in Somalia
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Dec 27, 2008 - 9:23:32 PM

Following the end of the Cold War, and the collapse of the Soviet Union’s Socialist Republics and its smaller allies, which together were known as the Socialist camp, the omni-democrat (the United States) and its satellites in the West, were looking for ways and means to intervene and perhaps destroy the States of the 3^rd World. Attempting to transform them into direct or indirect colonies, and began to speak of democracy and democratization of non-European and non-Anglo-Saxon nations, particularly those of the 3^rd World. Consequently, millions of people perished in the name of democracy and civilization under the fire of the United States of America and of other NATO members (see former Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan and others).   As we are aware, during the Cold War both blocs, East and West, did not only support regimes with similar philosophical conviction, but also regimes that held opposing ideologies, or political lines (see the many friends of the United States and West such as Salazar, Francisco Franco, Leopold Sedor Sengor, Sig Man Ri, Diem, Bourqiba; the Soviet Union had as friends such as Sukarno, U of Burma and many others). This nonsensical way of handling governmental policy led American authors and scholars to compile books such as a Nation of Sheep, the Ugly America, etc. These books highlighted how poorly U.S. Government policy was informed. They showed how a few low level delegations sent by the U.S. administration to foreign countries, to whom, naturally their arrival is known in advance by the countries of destination, are simply shown only what the rulers of the visitant countries want them to see. The delegations often visits only prearranged places, meets with prearranged personalities of the regime (or their supporters), so as to be informed purely by what the ruling circles want them to know, rather than discovering the true realities of the visited countries. The true wishes of the citizens or their economic, social and political veracities are neglected. Consequently, the central governments of the West deal not with the overwhelming majority of a given visited country, but with a privileged group linked to the ruling clique.

Currently, in Somalia, the ruling circles of the Western Countries have heard lies orchestrated by fundamentalists from a particular group and instigated by the former socialist (alas!) Mario Rafaeli of Italy, supposed friend or disciple of Ricardo Lombardi a former socialist member of parliament, who is credited with the demise of Benito Mussolini in 1945. Mr. Rafaeli, took part in the embezzlement of Fondo Aiuto Italiano (monetary aid to Somalia) with then PM Bettino Craxi, and a number of Italian and Somali government officials. Rafaeli is with certainty today, distributing millions of dollars in order to force the collapse of the current Somali institutions. It appears perhaps from Italy’s actions that they are motivated by colonial ambitions, and with the assistance of other Western states are seeking to create a permanent civil war in Somalia. As a result, Somalia along with other countries is today referred to as a failed state. This is a denomination invented to justify an eventual change of the international legal status of these countries.    

Prior to outbreak of the current civil war, the afflicted leaders of Western democracies have refused to allow a peaceful transition from the Siyaad Barre regime to a more democratic system. A refusal which caused no fewer than a million and half deaths, and the destruction of all economic means and infrastructures in Somalia. Thereby making it impossible to recompose the Somali State and pacify the country.

On July 1990, I have written a working paper, entitled Dialog Between Democrats, which explained that the dictatorship in Somalia did not begin with the Military Junta, but, went back to the election of 1959. In 1959 the ruling circles of the Somali Youth League tried to exclude the opposition forces from Parliament, and then from the political scene altogether. The Military Junta was responsible for executions, detentions without trial or specific accusations, and official legalization of the ban of all political and social organizations. These things were particularly unique to the Military Junta, however, totalitarianism, autocracy, the obsession with remaining in power for life, and the uprooting of opposition, was and is common to all political dwarves who have been in power until than. Due to these realities, and because of the fact that those that belonged to the clan or sub-clan of the general staff of the Military Junta could reach the highest positions of the administration, attain valuable state contracts, and use the regime as their personal business, while those they view as opposition are in general excluded from the state administration and businesses.

In those same writings, I also wrote that the so-called Liberation Fronts were organized on clan basis, and at the end, they will fight each other. Since every clan, or clan liberation front, will fight to gain access to the top of the power for their clansmen, considering the privileges they could gain from their sub-clan’s control of state power. I also warned that the conflict could reach the heights of genocide, or the extermination of entire ethnic groups. Despite being delivered in secret, such warnings reached the Ambassadors of the United States, of Italy, of Britain and the UNDP. However, the only diplomat who came to visit me and discuss the subject with me was the than US Ambassador F.F. Criggler. As the notes were in Italy, the Ambassador of Italy sent me an emissary who confirmed to me that the Ambassador had received the notes, and he was thanking me for the perfect Italian. I did not however, receive any response from the British Embassy, as well as, I didn’t get an official answer from the UNDP. Though the person I have sent to deliver the notes insured me that they got the notes. When, I was sending these notes my aim was to avoid the support of the world for these politicking liberation fronts, and prevent a protracted and senseless civil war, accompanied by the possible elimination of entire clans, or sub-clans or sub-sub-clans, and to make possible a peaceful transition which Siyaad Barre agreed to in exchange for an honorable departure from power.  

It is necessary to know that the acute intellectual underdevelopment of the petty politicians of our extraction avoids a dispassionate judgment. Today, the Somalis in each and every field rely on cunning, instead of intelligence and knowledge. This intellectual underdevelopment is also accompanied by economic, social and political underdevelopment.   For these clever Somali politic-kings or politic-asters believe that packs of fibs or falsehoods are political arts, and as a result of this stratagem, they are not only lying to their citizens, but also to the international community. Contrary to their stratagem, politics means to have a philosophical conviction, to elaborate and operate a political line on the basis of this philosophical conviction, and on the basis of coherent practical actions. Following the application of such a political line, as there are always differences or gaps between the theoretical or academical elaboration of a program and its practical application, to avoid the failure of such a program, there should be an assessment of the reasons for the difference or the gaps and the generation of corrective measures.   

These same petty politicians, interested parties, and ignorant foreigners, who do not know the realities of Somalia, sustain that the removal of Nur Hussein Hassan was not legal. Based on the existence of article 51 paragraph 2 of Transitional Federal Charter, which states: “The President may not dismiss the Prime Minister, or the deputy Prime Minister during the life of parliament under any circumstances other than the clause one of this article.” However, if the Prime Minister is destroying the democratic institutions, as Nur Adde is currently   doing, arrogating to himself the collective power of Council of Ministers, while ignoring its collective responsibility,   appointing Ministers, and other high ranking government officials (a constitutional power of the President of the Republic or head of the State), ignores the fact that the projects of laws from government are authorized and transmitted to the parliament by the President and not the Speaker of the Parliament, Prime Minister, or   his deputies (deputies of the P.M.), than what are the options to defend the democratic institutions envisioned by the Charter, other than Nur Adde’s dismissal. Additionally, the notion that Nur Add’s dismissal is illegal based on Article 51, shows grave ignorance or deliberate distortion of the Charter and the 1960 Constitution (see Constitutional Provision: The Legal Dismissal of the Prime Minister by Ercole Ercoli ). If the head of state, the custodian of the constitutions, does not prevent the above-mentioned flagrant violations, he or she will be co-responsible for any dictatorial practices. The President will be held responsible for the connivance of high treason, provided by Article 15, 76, 1^st comma, 101, 103 of the 1960 Constitution of Somalia, and by Article 184 of the Somali Criminal Code.

I would like to point out to Nur Adde and his puppets (Somalis, Ethiopians or Westerners alike), that in the Simone Edition of the Italian Constitution, chapter 13, page 269, envisions the President of the Republic:

“as supreme guarantor of the constitution, structurally independent, to which one recurs or turns to when the legal system needs an independent performance, behavior or an independent choice or selection from the orientations. The Head of the State represents, therefore, the National Unity, and keeps an eye on the functioning of the constitutional mechanism and intervenes in times in which the rules that discipline them are not observed, in order to insure that they are formally and substantially respected of the constitution, its abiding and conformation with a correct equilibrium among the organ and the political leadership of the State (Martines).”

1-       “The head of the State, according to this author assumes directly the decisional power of the State for the conservation of National Unity, all times in which the system is in crisis and political forces are divided.”

2-       According to the thesis elaborated by Barile, “the head of the State is the titular of the constitutional political address.” “The President of the Republic, since, it is monocratic, is capable to personify the fundamental values, drawing them from the midpoint of abstraction in which the constitutional charter inevitably collocate them ( the President as viva vox constitutions), in respect to the theory of the guarantor, the reconstruction of Barile connotes itself for major prominence or emphasis given to the powers of impulse and expression of opinion that the other thesis, centers on the defensive function carried out by the President of the Republic, necessarily puts in shadow.”

3-       For Baldassare, “The President of the Republic justifies his centralities in the           constitutional system, not thanks to participation to the general political command, but on the contrary for his tasks of a regulator organ of the constitutional system.”

4-       The President of the Republic, according to this author, intervenes, in all limbering up, and in all reaching, watches, and operates so that such system functions to the best manner, that is to say in the sense wanted by the constitution and in a manner to avoid   blockades and jams in its mechanisms.

5-       “The head of the State, the President, is a constitutional organ (superiorem non        recognoscens)”, he is monocrat, and sole power of in the State, to not be collective type organ.

Having said the above, it is necessary to mark, that paragraph 2 of article 46 of the Charter establishes that: “the President shall appoint the Prime Minister who shall be the leader of the Council of Ministers.” Paragraph 2 of Article 49 recites, “the term of office of the prime Minister shall continue until: a) he/she dies, resigns or is dismissed; b) Until another person is appointed to that office.   It is clear that the Prime Minister was dismissed due to the expirations of his term provided by Article 11 of the Charter, in addition to the numerous violations of the Charter by Hussein himself, such as appointing Ministers, dismissing high officials of the government (a prerogative of the President). In addition he has factually, or de factus, cancelled paragraph 3 of article 53, which states: “the Council of Ministers shall be accountable collectively based on the principles of collective responsibility.” In the same article paragraph 6 establishes that “the Council of Ministers shall set the general policy of the government in accordance with the Charter and laws of the land.”

As we have seen, when appropriate the Prime Minister is appointed by the President. However, if the PM engages in transgressions, such as disobedience to the constitutional norms or other laws of the land, manifestation of dictatorial tendencies, claims of power that one does not legally have, (as were the cases of Mussolini and Hitler, and other historical dictators in Europe and the Third World), the President of Republic, can and must remove such individual from the Prime Ministerial post in order to preserve the Constitution and the laws of the land. Otherwise, he can be held as co-responsible for concurring with such treasonous activities.

It is also a fact that Ethiopia in thousands of years of its existence has no historical democratic traditions. Historically it has been ruled by absolute feudal monarchs, military dictators, and currently is ruled by rebels with no respect for democracy or democratic institutions. It is also a fact that Somalia has had historical conflicts with certain members of IGAD, particularly, Ethiopia, which safely can be assumed, is not interested in seeing a stable, peaceful and developed Somalia. On the contrary, Ethiopia is actively attempting to create problems in Somalia, especially in the Southern part. The current regime in Addis Ababa considers Somalia as its protectorate, to be managed according to its appetites and passions, appointing and removing any desired governors. Recently, Ethiopia has armed and trained the clannish administration of the so called ‘Somaliland’ to occupy Lasanod in order to accomplish the transformation of Somalia into smaller emirates. However, such behavior may come to be the funeral of the ruling camorra of today’s Ethiopia.

You will find in the note entitled Constitutional Provision, which I will attach, the motives exposed. You will find that Ethiopia is destroying Somalia and its current democratic institutions. Ethiopia, it appears, has expropriated Somalia and the sovereignty of the Somali people, and recently decided to share it with other members of IGAD, in order to veil its criminal intentions. Therefore, we are asking that the African Union and the United Nation order Ethiopia to lay its hands off Somalia, before it is too late. Have, IGAD and Ethiopia the right to select Somalia’s leaders? This is a shameful behavior, it is a violation of a nation’s sovereignty, it is incivility, that Ethiopia is committing not only against Somalia, but also against humanity, which the UN is a guardian of.

Regardless of politics, Mr. Hussein has no legal right to appoint Ministers, or appoint high officials of the State under the Charter or the 1960 Constitutions. Additionally, he has violated the Charter when he requested a Parliamentary vote of confidence. In order to make such a request it is compulsory to call a meeting of the Council of Ministers—which are legally appointed by the President, on proposal of the Prime Minister as provided by the Charter. The program to be presented to the Parliament should be approved by majority of the Council of Ministers. Then, such program should be transmitted to the office of the President of the Republic, because every thing that goes from the Government to the Parliament must go through the President’s Office. Irrespective of personalities, what is legal is legal and what is not is not. Somalia today needs the rule of law to bring about or save guard peace and justice.  

 Now, I ask the civilized nations and the public opinion of the World: do you consent to give Somali Sovereignty to Ethiopia and to IGAD—in order to handpick for the Somalis the leaders of their Nation? Are you ready for the colonization of Africans by Africans in 21^st Century? We are asking the present United States administration as well as the coming one not to continue the approaches to foreign policy described in the above mentioned works (A Nation of Sheep and The Ugly America), but to approach international politics with knowledge and conscience. The lies orchestrated by the few in neighboring capitals, if officially adopted, as it appears likely, will not result in fruitful progress of the current Somali quagmire. All newly adopted Somali policies should be based on the true realities on the ground—not the wishes, interests and likes, of interested foreigners and internal factional cliques.     

  Personal Appeal

Here, I am appealing, as a prisoner of conscience for 18 years, as a man who resisted dictatorship in a situation of solitary confinement, who suffered loneliness, deprivation of all sorts, who had lost half of his life in dungeons. To all democrats of the World: stand with me against the architects of the disintegration of Somalia. Stop the transformation of Somalia into smaller and smaller emirates, with new dictatorships, led by those that benefited from such a regime; through scholarships, social positions, and profits, in few words: the profiteers of those regimes that will perpetuate misfortune on this blessed nation and people.   I appeal in particular to those who survived the holocaust, and those that have survived wars of resistance. Their children and grandchildren to stand with this galley slave who is fighting to save them from what he had undergone for long tedious years. To fight against those that are using the word democracy as a toothbrush, but that are coveting in their mind future dictatorship. To fight together against those who are speaking of freedom and democracy for all people of the world, but are longing and yearning for recolonization, despite, claiming they were ant- colonialist 20 years ago. I am asking for your support for the Somali people, as well as for all other people that are longing for freedom and happiness. I am asking you to end the dictatorship while it is in an embryonic state.

I hope that the World will save us from the governments that want to impose the former executioners of dictatorial regimes on us. I would like to remind you that Mr. Hussein was an attorney of the military National Security Court from the 1970s until 1990. The Somali version of Giovanni Preziosi of yesterday is today becoming the favorite and best child of the former Socialist Mario Raffaeli, the West (including the United States), and Ethiopia.

Giovanni Preziosi was a former Italian Priest, who threw his tunic to become a fascist. He wrote in the press, insipidities and inanities, and anti-Semitic, antidemocratic insults; and after the events of 25-26 July 1943, went to present himself to Hitler in Germany, where he transmitted from Radio Berlin fascist anti-Semitic and antidemocratic ideas. As compensation, he became Minister of State in the Salo Republic. He was politically corrupt, morally surly and sullen, and psychologically demented. Why would the world want such a man to be in power?