Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0329/03297.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 34KB | 538 lines

$Unique_ID{COW03297}
$Pretitle{286}
$Title{Somalia
Chapter 4A.   Government and Politics}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Jean R. Tartter}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{government
members
assembly
constitution
local
military
political
new
party
siad}
$Date{1981}
$Log{Founding Congress*0329704.scf
People's Hall*0329706.scf
}
Country:     Somalia
Book:        Somalia, A Country Study
Author:      Jean R. Tartter
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1981

Chapter 4A.   Government and Politics

     The democratic government that prevailed in Somalia for nearly a decade
after independence in 1960 degenerated in its final years, culminating in the
assassination of the president. The military government that followed has
provided the country with stability and has brought economic and social
progress, but its authoritarian features had been little modified by late
1981. Assuming power by a coup d'etat in 1969, the military junta declared its
intention of wiping out the excesses of corruption and tribal nepotism that
had brought discredit on the politicians of the civilian era. On the first
anniversary of the coup, a doctrine of scientific socialism was proclaimed by
the military government. Under this label numerous achievements were realized
in the early years of military rule, augmented by a determined effort to
replace clan loyalty with a sense of national cooperation and unity.

     Political association had been prohibited at the time of the coup, but
this was amended seven years later when the government sponsored a political
party of its socialist elite. The original controlling military council was
phased out in favor of the new party's central committee, composed of both
military and civilian members, whose role was to chart the ideological course.
A second phase in civilianizing the regime was the introduction of a new
constitution and the convoking of an elected legislature early in 1980.
Somalia's first elections in over a decade had been staged in 1979 to
demonstrate mass approval of the Constitution and the single-party slate of
candidates.

     The grip on political authority by the president and armed forces
commander in chief, Mohamed Siad Barre, continued to tighten behind the facade
of civilian government. Economic and foreign policy failures and the blunting
of ideological direction sapped the earlier revolutionary vigor of the
military leadership. But because internal dissidence was muffled by the state
security apparatus and exiled opposition groups lacked credibility, no
satisfying alternative to Siad Barre was on the horizon in 1981.

     As a result of bad management, drought, a great refugee influx, and the
drain of recent war, Somalia's survival has become dependent on financial
support from the Western and Arab countries. Lacking a reliable arms supplier
after the rift with the Soviet Union in 1977, its ambition of ending the
international partition of the Somali people has been checked by economic and
military realities. Projecting into the Indian Ocean and within range of the
Persian Gulf, however, Somalia has gained added strategic importance as the
West has moved to protect its oil supply lines. The republic hopes, through
its 1980 agreement with the United States covering use of the Soviet-built
naval base and airfield at Berbera, to forge a new military and political
relationship that will reduce its exposure to the threat from its historic
adversary, Soviet-supported Ethiopia.

The Government System

     Until 1969 Somalia was governed under a multiparty parliamentary system
based on a constitution written at independence in 1960 and ratified in 1961.
In spite of the natural inclination of the Somali people to democratic
expression and political organization, this Western parliamentary system
gradually broke down under the temptations of personal gain and the demands of
competing lineage interests.

     On October 21, 1969, a group of army officers seized control of the
government and established the Supreme Revolutionary Council (SRC), which
arrogated to itself the power to promulgate laws, administer justice, and
govern the republic. The SRC consisted originally of twenty-five officers
under the leadership of Major General Siad Barre, until then commander of the
army.

     The SRC's announcement of its takeover, known as the First Charter of the
Revolution, set forth the objectives of the new military rule as liquidating
corruption and tribal nepotism, introducing a standard written Somali
language, ending illiteracy, and bringing about rapid social, economic and
cultural development. This document constituted the ideological basis for
governing. Law Number 1, also effective as of October 21, 1969, amplified the
First Charter, vesting in the SRC the functions previously performed by the
president of the republic, the ministers, the National Assembly, the Council
of Ministers, and the Supreme Court. All existing legislation was to be
enforced until revoked or amended by the SRC or found incompatible with the
spirit of the revolution.

     Steps toward replacing military rule with civilian institutions of
government were spaced over the following decade. Local government
reorganization was begun in 1972. A single political party, the Somali
Revolutionary Socialist Party (SRSP), was created in 1976. Its standing body,
the Central Committee, was to supersede the SRC as the guiding political
instrument in the country. Real executive power remained, however, in the
hands of Siad Barre and other senior military leaders, in particular the four
officers who, with the president, functioned as the party's political bureau.

     In 1979, three years after formation of the SRSP, a nationwide
referendum was held to approve a new constitution that led in turn to the
first general election of delegates to a national legislature and to local
district councils. The new document embodied certain features of the 1961
independence constitution, including guarantees of personal rights, while
tempering the nation's strong commitment to socialist ideology and to a
Greater Somalia. Like the original constitution, many details of government
machinery, such as those concerning the size of the legislature, were left to
be defined by subsequent legislation, thereby avoiding acknowledgment of the
permanence of alien jurisidiction over Somali populated territories.

     The new civilian structure added some democratic elements to what had
been an unabashed military dictatorship. By providing for Siad Barre's
election as president of the republic by the legislature, it furthered the
legitimacy of his rule. Yet by virtue of his continued control over the SRSP,
elections, and candidates (as well as members and leadership of the
legislature), and by provisions in the Constitution authorizing him to bypass
normal legislative processes, Siad Barre effected a transformation in the
external characteristics of the system while preserving his personal
domination over the Somali government.

Structure of the Civilian Government, 1960-69

     The protectorate of British Somaliland received its independence on June
26, 1960, and five days later united with the Trust Territory of Somalia under
Italian Administration to form the Somali Republic. A formal constitution was
not ratified until June 20, 1961. The newly created government was
parliamentary, having a president as titular head of state who was elected by
the members of the unicameral National Assembly. The president selected the
prime minister, who then had to obtain a vote of confidence from the assembly.
The prime minister and his Council of Ministers, who were usually chosen from
among members of the assembly, were vested with executive powers.

     The popularly elected National Assembly was the real center of political
power under this system. Its 123 members were chosen in forty-seven electoral
districts. Within each district, seats were assigned on a complex proportional
representation basis that encouraged