By
Mahdi Warsama
Wednesday June 21, 2023
As you may have noticed from the title of this article,
the term, “politicstupidity” is not a real English term. I created it just for
this article and I hope one day, it will become a real English term for the
sake of its intrinsic value. My whole purpose of using this nonexistent term is
to come up with a new way of saying the politics of stupidity, commonly
practiced by the contemporary Somali politicians and their subclans. I combined
the two terms: politics and stupidity to make it more expressive. My definition
of “politicstupidity” is the practice of politics of exclusion,
disenfranchisement, and one clan hegemony with predictable outcome of mutually assured
self-destruction and political instability.
Throughout the contemporary history of Somalia, one man
or one clan are trying to dominate the rest by any means necessary with
disastrous results. What makes “politicstupidity” even more tragic is that it
doesn’t work for its Somali practitioners since no one man or one clan is
strong enough to permanently dominate the rest either at the regional state
level or at the national level. It only worked for Mohamed Siyad Barre for
about 8 years during his honeymoon period of 1969 to 1978. In fact, after the
attempted coup of 1978, Somalia was supervolcano waiting to erupt. The Somali
“politicstupidity” is the root cause of most Somalia political instability and
conflicts, including the lack of genuine political reconciliation process at
the national level, the tragic war between Somaliland and SSC-Khaatumo, the
election dispute between Col. Bihi’s government and other Somaliland election
stakeholders, the sacking of the popular governor of Hiiraan in Hirshabeele
state, Mr. Jeyte, the brewing tension between the people of Gedo region and
Ahmed Madoobe’s administration in Jubaland state, and the unreasonable demands
of Aaran Jaan political cult in Puntland state. In Somalia, the
“politicstupidity” routinely manifests itself in many ways, however; I will
mention only three main manifestations in this article.
Seeking Win-Lose Outcome
Win-lose mentality exists when one party or both parties
seek victory at the expense of the other party. Somali politics are very
complex and difficult to sort out with endless inter clan conflicts, interests,
grievances, and dynamics. Hence, it needs consensus building, compromise, and
extra care. Yet, in most cases, Somali politicians and their subclans do not
take this fact into consideration. They seek win-lose outcomes by refusing to
accommodate the other side’s political interests and grievances. In some cases,
the purportedly dominant party of the conflict refuses to even acknowledge the
existence of the other party let alone accommodating them. This mentality
always leads to difficult negotiations, political instability, and armed
conflict in Somalia.
What is even more astonishing is that the win-lose
mentality doesn’t work in Somalia and leads to a lose-lose situation where
parties eventually end up being worse off in the end. The lack of compromise
between the Barre regime and the armed opposition groups in late 1980s led to
the complete collapse of the Somali state followed by nearly thirty years of
anarchy. The lack of compromise between Col. Abdullahi Yusuf’s government and
the Union of the Islamic Courts led to the Ethiopian invasion. It is fair to
say that the only conceivable outcome of any armed conflict in Somalia is the
prolonging of foreign troops (ATMIS) presence in Somalia and metastasizing of
terrorist groups.
Seeking Winner Takes All Outcome
Another disastrous manifestation of Somali “politicstupidity”
is seeking a perpetual dominance with winner takes all mentality. In many
instances, the victor of an election or by force makes no attempt to
accommodate the losing side. For the sake of political stability, a fragile
state like Somalia needs all its people and stakeholders to feel sense of
ownership and belonging. Yet, victorious Somali politicians and clans behave as
if they are the rulers of Japan. When someone wins an election, he immediately
undermines the next election by seeking an illegal extension or tries to insure
his victory with sham electors and dubious electoral processes. Sharing power
and state resources among themselves has never been the strong suit of
contemporary Somalis.
Like seeking win-lose outcomes, the winner takes all
mentality doesn't work in Somalia at all since no one person or clan can rule
Somalia by writ. It only leads to endless vengeance, clan rivalry and deadly
inter clan conflicts. Consequently, no one faction was able to unilaterally
form a functioning government after the civil war in Somalia.
Seeking One Clan Hegemony
Another tragic manifestation of Somali “politicstupidity”
is seeking single clan dominance either at the national level or at the state
level. All Somali entities have this problem in some shape or form. Normalized
monopolistic power structure is so prevalent in Somalia that certain dominant
clans don’t even hide their entitlement mentality to rule others and the pride
that comes with it. People seek positions of power to advance their personal
and clan interests at the expense of the common good. Then the other clans who
are out of power fight them to regain power to do the same or in other words,
it is my turn mentality. Consequently, the posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
caused by the historical abuses of power and single clan dominance is
responsible for the ongoing mistrust and power struggles between the clans.
This creates a vicious cycle of clan-based cronyism and nepotism. Hence, the
end goal of the power struggles between the clans is not to eliminate the
problem, rather it is to avenge and repeat it if given the chance.
In conclusion, Somali “politicstupidity” is very
destructive and doesn’t work for any one clan or person. Win-lose mentality,
seeking winner takes all outcome, and single clan dominance creates a vicious
cycle of political instability, inter clan conflicts, and lose-lose situation.
All Somalis are equally suffering as result of Somali “politicstupidity”. We
the Somalis need to learn from the past abuses of power instead of repeating
them. The most accurate proverb for politics is “Those who live by the sword
die by the sword”.
Mahdi Warsama
Email: [email protected]