Somalia: the wound is still open

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Since the fall of the central state in Mogadishu in 1991, as a result of a tribal revolution emerged because of the presence of opposition fronts to the system of Mohamed Siad Barre, the Somali people are still suffering the consequences resulting from that tribal revolution. They have felt rest for over 19 years ago during which they tasted all kinds of torment, starting from displacement passing through murder and starvation that prevailed, and ending with the neighbors' attempts to get them out of that impasse. All these attempts have always ended with failure, that failure was due to the role played by tribalism, in addition to the interference of some neighboring countries, especially Ethiopia, which did its best to hinder its stability.

Tribalism takes us back to the times of ignorance. There is no doubt that the previous 19 years are similar to the Pre-Islamic period which the Arabs lived before Islam where there were disagreement, wrangling, and killing one another for trivial reasons.

Then came the role of scholars to fill the vacuum after tribalism was pushed away from the scene, and the world was playing the role of the Sponsor and the guardian of the tribal rights even though they are not good according to Islam. A scholar has a great status and reputation in his tribe, therefore he uses his power to incite his tribe against other tribes if he sees that the interest of the tribe is on the edge.

Lame Politics:

Politics or management in Somalia is based on one leg; therefore some describe it as lame and pursues a tribal approach that is not agreed upon. Politicians in Somalia list the interest of tribes first, whereas the priority of society is the last, therefore, the society was ruled by tribes. How often you see a tribe in the media complaining about marginalization in such and such field without pay attention to the interests of society and without thinking that general interest is above all.

What is worse is that the parliament itself was formed according to a standard agreed upon by all tribe delegates that means 4.5 representing the major four tribes in addition to the small tribes, exactly as the Security Council where the superpowers, which own (the veto), dominate the smaller States.

Electing the President is continuous:

Since the fall of the Siad Barre regime in 1991, politicians of Somalia try to take their country out of chaos, therefore they established internal bodies extracting their legitimacy from the tribe. Their efforts resulted in declaring the installation of Ali Mahdi as president, two days after the fall of the government, and the escape of President Mohamed Siad Barre from Mogadishu in January 26, 1991, then Ali Mahdi was re-elected in July 1991 in the Somali reconciliation conference that took place in Djibouti.

The civil war erupted again in Mogadishu a few months after assuming his office, and the conflict intensified between him and his rival, General Mohamed Farah Aidid, who was the leader of one of the fronts. The bloody battles continued between the two parties from November 1991 to 1992, then the country entered in a cycle of civil war during which the manifestations of central authority disappeared, and Somalia has known neither a president nor a government from mid-1993 until August 2000.

Later on, the participants of Djibouti Conference, which was held in the resort of Arta in the period from May to August 2000, declared their election of `Abdul-Qasim Salad Hassan as a president of Somalia in August 26, 2004.

The new President could not impose the power of the government all over Somalia because of the strong opposition he had received from the Somali warlords, and his period ended without any significant progress.

In October 2004 the Somali parliament in Kenya elected `Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed as a president of the country, and in turn, he could not restore the central authority over the country. During his rule, the Islamic courts were established and spread their influence in the south. Furthermore, he sought help of foreign forces to extend his influence over Somalia, as a result Islamic opposition fronts were formed to fight the foreign troops which ended the rule of the Islamic courts in the south, then they became a major power headed by their president Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.

There have been some internal and external pressures were exercised against the new president to resign his post which was finally done and was declared in December 2008. The fighting parties went again to Djibouti to elect a new president for Somalia, who was Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, who used to head the opposition, represented in the Islamic courts; is he able to heal the wounds of Somalis again?