The 1961 Presidential elections of the Somali Republic: A test of Democracy

On July 1^st 1960, The United Nations Trust Territory of Somaliland under Italian Administration and the British Protectorate of Somaliland joined to form a new nation called the Somali Republic. On that day the only biding element of the two territories was a “brotherly love of two Somali lands separated by European powers” without regard for the peoples concerned; and a document known as the Act of Union. The act was not a charter or a constitution defining the form and type of Government. It was simply a list of declarations uniting the institutions of the two territories, such as the armed forces, the civil services, etc.

The most important action was the unification of the Legislative Assembly (south) with 90 members; and the Legislative council (North) with 33 members into a unicameral National Assembly with a total of 123 deputies. At the time, the joy of having a united independent Somali nation was bigger than anything else. Everything else was shelved for future considerations. That included the ratification of the country’s constitution.

The first business of the National Assembly was to “select” a Provisional President of the new Republic. The deputies unanimously agreed the Speaker of the Parliament, fifty-two year old deputy from Belet-weyn, Honourable Aden Abdullah Osman popularly known as Adan Cadde, to lead the nation for one year. Adan Cadde was a veteran politician and an early member of the Somali Youth League - the majority party in the National Assembly.

Under a year later, the new constitution was completed by a Somali committee with the help of UN experts. A date was set on June 20, 1961 to put the constitution on a referendum throughout the country. An absolute majority of 1,952,662 or over 90 percent of the electors voted in favour of the new constitution. The referendum had another important significance: It exposed the long-held doubt of the colonial population census of the Somali people estimated at only 2.5 million.

The Somali Republic’s constitution is modelled on the Italian pattern of Parliamentary Democracy, which gives central role to the Prime Minister. According to article 1 of the new constitution, the Somali Republic is a “representative, democratic, and unitary state … indivisible” for which the Islamic sharia is the main source of the laws. Under the Parliamentary system, the government is headed by the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers, subject to the confidence of the parliament.

As a republic, Somalia has an elected President as Head of State. In article 75 of the constitution, symbolic power is vested in the President of the Republic, who is elected by the National Assembly for a six-year term. He is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and authorizes “the presentation to the Legislative Assembly of bills originated by the Government.” The President’s most important task is to select the Prime Minister. Since the Prime Minister is answerable to the parliament, the President is bound to select someone he believes can command the majority support of parliament.

On election the President takes residence in Villa Somalia, an uphill beautiful mansion overlooking the Indian Ocean. It was formerly the residences of the British Military Administrator of Somaliland in the forties, and in the fifties, the Italian Administrator of the United Nations Trust Territory of Somaliland.

The constitution approved, it remained for Parliament to convert the Provisional Government into a permanent legal form. The most urgent aspect of the business of Parliament was to elect the President of the Somali Republic. The date for the election of the President was fixed by Parliament on July 6, 1961 – nearly a week after the July 1^st Independence celebrations. A notice for the interested candidates was published in both Government and independent newspapers.

The constitution clearly states the qualifications and the way the President of the Republic is to be elected. Any Somali citizen who has attained the age of forty years with original Somali parents can run for the office of the President of the Somali Republic. The National Assembly shall elect the President by a secret ballot. A two-thirds majority is required on the first or the second ballot, but a simple majority is needed on the third ballot.

In an extraordinary session, the ruling Somali Youth League party Central Committee, officially nominated Adan Cadde as their candidate. The next day a deputy also from Belet-weyn, Honourable Sheikh Ali Jiumale Barale declared his interest in the office of the President of the Somali Republic and submitted the nomination papers to the National Assembly.  Sheikh Ali Juimale was also an SYL party old establishment. He also held ministerial portfolios in both 1956 and 1959 under the Government of Prime Minister Abdullahi Issa.

It was the first ever Presidential election in Somali history and the local media played with fanfare the Adan Cadde – Sheikh Ali Juimale rivalry. The media also fairly covered the programme and the biography of both candidates. Actually there was no conflict over ideological or political issues, domestic or international as both men were from the SYL party; there was no clan rivalry involved as both candidates were from the same clan-family. It seemed there was bitter personal rivalry between the two men.

Both men vied for the voter-rich constituencies of Banadir with 18 members, Upper Jubba 22 members and the two Northern Regions with 33 members. The SYL party establishment and the Central Committee supported the elder Adan Cadde. But he was not without a weakness.

The Northern Issaq clan-family with 22 members in the National Assembly, had grievances towards Adan Cadde for not selecting Mohamed Haji Ibrahim Egal as Prime Minister. That decision left a scar and had had a long term effect in his political career. It had become a vulnerable area where future rivals could easily point out.

A shrewd politician, Sheikh Ali Jiumale immediately manipulated the Achilles’ heal of Adan Cadde. Convinced that he could not muster enough support in the south, he reached out  to the Northern voters. If elected President, he promised to select Egal as the next Prime Minister.

Thursday July 6, 1961 was a rainy day in the coastal capital Mogadishu. The Legislative members presented themselves in the Parliament building earlier than usual. National and traditional music was playing over the loud speakers in the building corners. Supporters of both candidates crowded on either side of the Piazza with slogans and chanting “Long Live” to their candidate. Smart dressed officers lined around the Parliament grounds to keep the peace.

The capital has seen little sleep the night before. Coffee shops and other gathering places were filled with political agitators spreading the latest rumours. Who got what and how much money is involved. Even one story had it that the Defence chief of staff, General Daud, will stage a coup and take over the Government.

Eight o’clock sharp the loudspeakers announced that the Speaker of the Parliament is seated. The two candidates are present and the time has come to start the election. The whole Piazza fell into dead silence. As was the custom, the opening ceremony started with the reciting of the Qur’an. The speaker shouted the roll call to find out who was present. Of the 123 members, there were 121 members present. To the disappointment of Sheikh Ali Juimale, two Northern members were absent. The Speaker cautioned the house and reminded all members the importance of respecting the voting rules and the regulations.

The members set out to cast their ballots:

1^st ballot:  60-60 a draw. The speaker withheld his vote.

2^nd ballot: 60-61 in favour of Sheikh Ali Jiumale. The speaker casted his vote in the second ballot. 

Since no candidate accumulated the required two-thirds majority a third ballot is needed.

3^rd ballot: 62-59 in favour of Adan Cadde!

Two voters changed sides and tipped off the balance. Since the vote was secret and personal, no body knew who these members were. There were a lot of rumours about the identity of these two members but the real story will never be known. The most important thing is that Somali Democracy has been tested for the first time. An American journalist likened the 1961 Somali Presidential election to that of the 1960 U.S. Presidential election between Kennedy and Nixon in terms of the small victory margin.

Source;

http://www.hiiraan.com/op2/2010/sept/the_somali_republic_1961_presidential_election_a_test_of_democracy.aspx

Case Study; The progress of the Clinton Administration 1993-2000

• Longest economic expansion in American history
  The President’s strategy of fiscal discipline, open foreign markets and investments in the American people helped create the conditions for a record 115 months of economic expansion. Our economy has grown at an average of 4 percent per year since 1993.

• More than 22 million new jobs
  More than 22 million jobs were created in less than eight years -- the most ever under a single administration, and more than were created in the previous twelve years.

• Highest homeownership in American history
  A strong economy and fiscal discipline kept interest rates low, making it possible for more families to buy homes. The homeownership rate increased from 64.2 percent in 1992 to 67. 7 percent, the highest rate ever.

• Lowest unemployment in 30 years
  Unemployment dropped from more than 7 percent in 1993 to just 4.0 percent in November 2000. Unemployment for African Americans and Hispanics fell to the lowest rates on record, and the rate for women is the lowest in more than 40 years.

• Raised education standards, increased school choice, and doubled education and training investment
  Since 1992, reading and math scores have increased for 4th, 8th, and 12th graders, math SAT scores are at a 30-year high, the number of charter schools has grown from 1 to more than 2,000, forty-nine states have put in place standards in core subjects and federal investment in education and training has doubled.

• Largest expansion of college opportunity since the GI Bill
  President Clinton and Vice President Gore have nearly doubled financial aid for students by increasing Pell Grants to the largest award ever, expanding Federal Work-Study to allow 1 million students to work their way through college, and by creating new tax credits and scholarships such as Lifetime Learning tax credits and the HOPE scholarship. At the same time, taxpayers have saved $18 billion due to the decline in student loan defaults, increased collections and savings from the direct student loan program.

• Connected 95 percent of schools to the Internet
  President Clinton and Vice President Gore’s new commitment to education technology, including the E-Rate and a 3,000 percent increase in educational technology funding, increased the percentage of schools connected to the Internet from 35 percent in 1994 to 95 percent in 1999.

• Lowest crime rate in 26 years
  Because of President Clinton’s comprehensive anti-crime strategy of tough penalties, more police, and smart prevention, as well as common sense gun safety laws, the overall crime rate declined for 8 consecutive years, the longest continuous drop on record, and is at the lowest level since 1973.

• 100,000 more police for our streets
  As part of the 1994 Crime Bill, President Clinton enacted a new initiative to fund 100,000 community police officers. To date more than 11,000 law enforcement agencies have received COPS funding.

• Enacted most sweeping gun safety legislation in a generation
  Since the President signed the Brady bill in 1993, more than 600,000 felons, fugitives, and other prohibited persons have been stopped from buying guns. Gun crime has declined 40 percent since 1992.

• Family and Medical Leave Act for 20 million Americans
  To help parents succeed at work and at home, President Clinton signed the Family and Medical Leave Act in 1993. Over 20 million Americans have taken unpaid leave to care for a newborn child or sick family member.

• Smallest welfare rolls in 32 years
  The President pledged to end welfare as we know it and signed landmark bipartisan welfare reform legislation in 1996. Since then, caseloads have been cut in half, to the lowest level since 1968, and millions of parents have joined the workforce. People on welfare today are five times more likely to be working than in 1992.

• Higher incomes at all levels
  After falling by nearly $2,000 between 1988 and 1992, the median family’s income rose by $6,338, after adjusting for inflation, since 1993. African American family income increased even more, rising by nearly $7,000 since 1993. After years of stagnant income growth among average and lower income families, all income brackets experienced double-digit growth since 1993. The bottom 20 percent saw the largest income growth at 16.3 percent.

• Lowest poverty rate in 20 years
  Since Congress passed President Clinton’s Economic Plan in 1993, the poverty rate declined from 15.1 percent to 11.8 percent last year — the largest six-year drop in poverty in nearly 30 years. There are now 7 million fewer people in poverty than in 1993. The child poverty rate declined more than 25 percent, the poverty rates for single mothers, African Americans and the elderly have dropped to their lowest levels on record, and Hispanic poverty dropped to its lowest level since 1979.

• Lowest teen birth rate in 60 years
  In his 1995 State of the Union Address, President Clinton challenged Americans to join together in a national campaign against teen pregnancy. The birth rate for teens aged 15-19 declined every year of the Clinton Presidency, from 60.7 per 1,000 teens in 1992 to a record low of 49.6 in 1999.

• Lowest infant mortality rate in American history
  The Clinton Administration expanded efforts to provide mothers and newborn children with health care. Today, a record high 82 percent of all mothers receive prenatal care. The infant mortality rate has dropped from 8.5 deaths per 1,000 in 1992 to 7.2 deaths per 1,000 in 1998, the lowest rate ever recorded.

• Deactivated more than 1,700 nuclear warheads from the former Soviet Union
  Efforts of the Clinton-Gore Administration led to the dismantling of more than 1,700 nuclear warheads, 300 launchers and 425 land and submarine based missiles from the former Soviet Union.

• Protected millions of acres of American land
  President Clinton has protected more land in the lower 48 states than any other president. He has protected 5 new national parks, designated 11 new national monuments and expanded two others and proposed protections for 60 million acres of roadless areas in America’s national forests.

• Paid off $360 billion of the national debt
  Between 1998-2000, the national debt was reduced by $363 billion — the largest three-year debt pay-down in American history. We are now on track to pay off the entire debt by 2009.

• Converted the largest budget deficit in American history to the largest surplus
  Thanks in large part to the 1993 Deficit Reduction Act, the 1997 Balanced Budget Act, and President Clinton’s call to save the surplus for debt reduction, Social Security, and Medicare solvency, America has put its fiscal house in order. The deficit was $290 billion in 1993 and expected to grow to $455 billion by this year. Instead, we have a projected surplus of $237 billion.

• Lowest government spending in three decades
  Under President Clinton federal government spending as a share of the economy has decreased from 22.2 percent in 1992 to a projected 18.5 percent in 2000, the lowest since 1966.

• Lowest federal income tax burden in 35 years
  President Clinton enacted targeted tax cuts such as the Earned Income Tax Credit expansion, $500 child tax credit, and the HOPE Scholarship and Lifetime Learning Tax Credits. Federal income taxes as a percentage of income for the typical American family have dropped to their lowest level in 35 years.

• By January 2001, more families owned stock than ever before
  The number of families owning stock in the United States increased by 40 percent since 1992.

• Most diverse cabinet in American history
  President Clinton appointed more African Americans, women and Hispanics to the Cabinet than any other President in history. He appointed the first female Attorney General, the first female Secretary of State and the first Asian American cabinet secretary ever.

Source; http://hubpages.com/hub/Bill-Clinton

The 'World Muslim Congress' making

The World Muslim Congress (Motamar Al-Alam Al-Islami) was founded in an assemblage of eminent leaders from the World of Islam held in Makkah in 1926. King Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia played host to the Congress. The Congress resolved that a permanent international Islamic organization be set up to promote solidarity and cooperation among the global Islamic community (Ummah).

It assumed organizational shape in the second International Islamic Conference held in Baitul Maqdas (Jerusalem) in 1931.The constitution and rules and regulations of the Motamar Al-Islam Al-Islami) were framed and approved in this conference.

After the birth of the Muslim-majority State of Pakistan on August 14, 1947, eminent Signatories of the World of Islam began working for the revival of the Motamar Al-Alam Al-Islam. Its revival was achieved in a World Muslim Conference held in Karachi, the capital of Pakistan at that time in February 1949.
 
In 1950, the Motamar submitted a scroll bearing a million signatures supporting the Kashmiris' right of self-determination and a UN-supervised plebiscite to the first secretary-general of the United Nations, Mr. Trygve Lie in New York.
 
This was followed by a bigger conference of the Motamar held in Karachi in February 1951. This Conference gave a new form and shape to the Motamar Al-Alam Al-Islami, making Karachi the headquarters of the Motamar, with Alhaj Aminul Hussaini, the Grand Mufti of Palestine, as its President and Dr. Insamullah Khan as its secretary-general.The Motamar's 1951 Conference held in Karachi saw the seeding of many ideas of cooperation amongthe Muslim countries and people, which in the years that followed became realities.


Source; http://www.motamaralalamalislami.org/

Great quotes in World history

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“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.”

Epicurus quotes (Greek philosopher, BC 341-270)


"Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty”

Socrates quotes (Ancient Greek Philosopher, 470 BC-399 BC)


"I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask, "Mother, what was war?"

Eve Merriam (American poet, 1916-1992)


“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.”

John C. Maxwell (International speaker)


“If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it, I know I can achieve it.”

Jesse Jackson (Civil rights activist)


"Falsehood has an infinity of combinations, but truth has only one mode of being.”

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (French philosopher, 1712-1778)

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Malcolm X defending justice of the innocent

Malcolm X appears on a television show in Chicago called "City Desk" on March 17, 1963.

The principle of Self-determination

SPEECH (EXCERPTS) OF THE PRESIDENT ADEN ABDULLE OSMAN GIVEN AT A STATE DINNER IN HONOUR OF MR. JOMO KENYATTA OF KANU PARTY.

MOGADISHU, 28 JULY 1962.

“…The principle of self-determination, when used properly to unify and enlarge an existing state with a view towards its absorption in a federal system of government is neither balkanization nor fragmentation. It is a major contribution to unity and stability, and totally consistent with the concept of Pan-Africanism”.

“A desire for unity must be matched by a willingness to sacrifice a measure of sovereignty, and to remold the machinery of government to absorb new political and administrative methods. I say that, not to alarm or discourage, but because I think it is time that our continent of Africa took a more practical and realistic view of the problems that have been created by the after effects of colonialism and their relations to a closer political association of African States”.

There are some lessons to be learned from the short but nonetheless profitable experiences of this Republic; because we can claim with justice that we have made a unique, practical contribution to African unity by merging two independent African states into one-even against the established prejudices of interested powers. I do not have to enumerate the colonial-made problems that we have encountered in the field of fiscal, judicial, linguistic and administrative integration because they still preoccupy us and are too well known. But I would like to underline three lessons”.

“First--as a prerequisite to either a federal system or a total union of states, it is necessary to accept, as we have done in Article Six of our constitution, limitations of sovereignty on conditions of parity with other states.

“Second—we have learned that the outmoded concept of territorial integrity must vanish from our habitual thinking because its roots are embedded in colonialism, and it is incompatible with Pan-Africanism”.

“Third—we have learned of a cardinal principle underlying the effectiveness or otherwise of a political union between two independent states. It is this: the ordinary person must be able to identify himself and his interests with the new order, on economic, ethnic and cultural grounds”.

“It is this last lesson that is perhaps the hardest to learn but, if we Africans are proud to take our place as a democratic people in the comity of nations, we must do more than pay lip-service to the feelings of the ordinary man and woman in our society. We claim, many of us, to be African leaders and socialists. This implies that, through our wisdom and understanding, men will follow us, and, by the equity of our laws, our people will have equal rights and opportunities”.

“Regrettably, it is becoming commonplace in Africa today to accept the development of a privileged class of rulers, with the instincts of colonialists, as a substitute from government by the people. This is one of the after effects of colonial rule. But it is my duty to give this warning to my colleagues in Africa: it will be the unwillingness of African rulers to curb their powers and to lift their artificial colonial boundaries, that will frustrate the hopes and desires of the ordinary people of Africa to be led out of isolation and ignorance into the greater union of African States”.

“I am sorry to have had to end on a not of caution, but there is too much at stake, in the prevention of the kind of tragedies that beset our brothers in the Congo, for me to refrain from bringing unpalatable facts to your notice. Of course, I hope these forebodings will not materialize, but they exist for those who have the eyes to see and the care to understand”.

President: Aden Abdulle Osman

Source; http://www.jstor.org/pss/159750

Che Guevara on Imperialism

Imam Ahmed ibn Ibrahim Al Ghazi - The legendary hero of East Africa

Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi (Arabic: أحمد بن إبراهيم ال غازي‎) (c. 1507 – February 21, 1543) ("the Conqueror") was an Imam and General of Adal who invaded Ethiopia and defeated several Ethiopian Emperors, wreaking much damage on that kingdom. With the help of an army mainly composed of East Africans, Imam Ahmad (nicknamed Gurey in Somali and Gragn in Amharic (Graññ), both meaning "the left-handed"), embarked on a conquest which brought three-quarters of Ethiopia under the power of the Muslim Sultanate of Adal during the Ethiopian-Adal War from 1529-43.

The chronicle of Imam Ahmad's invasion of Ethiopia is depicted in various Somali, Ethiopian and other foreign sources. Imam Ahmad campaigned in Ethiopia in 1531, breaking Emperor Lebna Dengel's ability to resist in the Battle of Amba Sel on October 28. The Muslim army of Imam Ahmad then marched northward to loot the island monastery of Lake Hayq and the stone churches of Lalibela. When the Imam entered the province of Tigray, he defeated an Ethiopian army that confronted him there. On reaching Axum, he destroyed the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion, in which the Ethiopian emperors had for centuries been crowned.

The Ethiopians were forced to ask for help from the Portuguese, who landed at the port of Massawa on February 10, 1541, during the reign of the emperor Gelawdewos. The force was led by Cristóvão da Gama and included 400 musketeers as well as a number of artisans and other non-combatants. Da Gama and Imam Ahmad met on April 1, 1542 at Jarte, which Trimingham has identified with Anasa, between Amba Alagi and Lake Ashenge. Here the Portuguese had their first glimpse of Ahmad, as recorded by Castanhoso:

"While his camp was being pitched, the king of Zeila [Imam Ahmad] ascended a hill with several horse and some foot to examine us: he halted on the top with three hundred horse and three large banners, two white with red moons, and one red with a white moon, which always accompanied him, and by which he was recognized."

On April 4, after the two unfamiliar armies had exchanged messages and stared at each other for a few days, da Gama formed his troops into an infantry square and marched against the Imam's lines, repelling successive waves of Muslim attacks with musket and cannon. This battle ended when Imam Ahmad was wounded in the leg by a chance shot; seeing his banners signal retreat, the Portuguese and their Ethiopian allies fell upon the disorganized Muslims, who suffered losses but managed to reform next to the river on the distant side.

Over the next several days, Imam Ahmad's forces were reinforced by arrivals of fresh troops. Understanding the need to act swiftly, da Gama on April 16 again formed a square which he led against Imam Ahmad's camp. Although the Muslims fought with more determination than two weeks earlier—their horse almost broke the Portuguese square—an opportune explosion of some gunpowder traumatized the horses on the Imam's side, and his army fled in disorder. Castanhoso laments that "the victory would have been complete this day had we only one hundred horses to finish it: for the King was carried on men's shoulders in a bed, accompanied by horsemen, and they fled in no order."

Reinforced by the arrival of the Bahr negus Yeshaq, da Gama marched southward after Imam Ahmad's force, coming within sight of him ten days later. However, the onset of the rainy season prevented da Gama from engaging Ahmad a third time. On the advice of Queen Sabla Wengel, da Gama made winter camp at Wofla near Lake Ashenge, still within sight of his opponent, while the Imam made his winter camp on Mount Zobil.

Knowing that victory lay in the number of firearms an army had, the Imam sent to his fellow Muslims for help. According to Abbé Joachim le Grand, Imam Ahmad received 2000 musketeers from Arabia, and artillery and 900 picked men from the Ottomans to assist him. Meanwhile, due to casualties and other duties, da Gama's force was reduced to 300 musketeers. After the rains ended, Imam Ahmad attacked the Portuguese camp and through weight of numbers killed all but 140 of da Gama's troops. Da Gama himself, badly wounded, was captured with ten of his men and after refusing an offer to spare his life if he would convert to Islam, was executed.

The survivors and Emperor Gelawdewos were afterward able to join forces and, drawing on the Portuguese supplies, attacked Ahmad on February 21, 1543 in the Battle of Wayna Daga, where their 9,000 troops managed to defeat the 15,000 soldiers under Imam Ahmad. The Imam was killed by a Portuguese musketeer, who was mortally wounded in avenging da Gama's death.

Source; http://www.ethiopiantreasures.toucansurf.com/pages/rel-war.htm