NAIROBI, 18 July 2013 (IRIN) - Over the past 20 years, clan elders in
Somaliland's Guurti, the upper house of parliament, have negotiated
inter-clan disputes and kept the peace, carefully steering the self-declared
republic away from the fate of south-central Somalia, which lapsed into a
long, bloody civil war after the 1991 fall of the government of President
Siyad Barre.
In 2001, Somaliland passed a constitution that installed the Guurti, a body
of traditional elders, in the upper house, giving them legislative
authority. But they have never been elected, and their constitutionally
mandated six-year term limits have effectively been ignored. Now, leaders
across Somaliland are in serious discussions about how best to reform the
body to avoid a constitutional crisis.
What is the Guurti?
"The Guurti is a traditional forum for elders for mediation," Edward Paice,
director at the Africa Research Institute in London, told IRIN. "Since time
immemorial it has been a way of settling disputes."
Elders used to convene under an acacia tree to arbitrate rows, using a
customary legal process known in Somali as 'xeer'. Disputing parties would
bring their concerns to the elders, and the proceedings would continue until
a resolution was achieved.
Leading up to the fall of Somali president Mohamed Siyad Barre in 1991,
Somaliland engaged in a brutal secession war with Somalia. In May 1991,
Somaliland declared independence as Somalia dissolved into civil strife and
eventual state failure. When Somaliland was torn apart by violence, the
Guurti stepped in.
"This was one of the key institutions that was functioning at the time,"
said Mohamed Farah Hersi, a researcher at the Academy for Peace and
Development in Somaliland's capital, Hargeisa, speaking at an event in
Nairobi, Kenya.
Clan elders came together for a number of peace conferences in the
early-1990s, the most prominent of which was the Elders Conference at Borama
in 1993. This led to the creation of the 82-member Guurti, which formalized
the mediation system as a parliamentary body. In Borama, the Guurti also
elected Somaliland's president and vice president.
"They were peacemakers for Somaliland," acknowledged Markus Hoehne, a strong
critic of the contemporary Guurti system and a research fellow at the Max
Planck Institute for Social Anthropology. "Those guys put their lives on the
line. They went to different conflict zones, often at great personal risk."
Hoehne believes that in the early 1990s, the Guurti was instrumental in
rebuilding the country, but says that now the role and composition of the
body is outdated.
The Guurti was responsible for drafting Somaliland's constitution, which was
passed in a 2001 referendum by an overwhelming majority.
According the constitution, the Guurti "shall have special responsibility
for passing laws relating to religion, traditions (culture) and security",
in addition to reviewing legislation passed by the House of Representatives.
"They are the centre of gravity. They are the cornerstone," Adam Haji-Ali
Ahmed, director at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies at the
University of Hargeisa, told IRIN. "One hundred percent of people in
Somaliland trust the Guurti. They preach about peace."
Why was the Guurti so effective?
Somaliland has a large number of clans and sub-clans, each of which has its
own structure of authority. Because its 3.85 million people are spread out
over a large area - 55 percent of people are nomadic - governing from a
central administration is tricky.
"We have a highly divided, fragmented society," said Asmahan Abdelsalam
Hassan of the NAGAAD Network, Somaliland's umbrella organization for women's
rights groups, at an event in Nairobi. In many areas of Somaliland,
customary law is the most effective and often the only way to mediate and
address disputes.
To negotiate between warring factions, Somaliland turned to their elders,
who were in charge of each group. "They got their authority from customary
law, from the clans," said Ahmed.
"They built on traditional mechanisms - there was no one from outside
telling them what to do," said Paice. "There is a tradition that no Somali
meeting ends until a consensus has been achieved."
The 1993 Borama Conference lasted four months, but it resulted in a
comprehensive framework and roadmap for a way forward. A charter with five
guiding principles was drawn up, and was used as a temporary governing
structure until a constitution was drafted.
Because many of the conference participants had strong ties to the Somali
National Movement - the secessionist movement that was key to the formation
of Somaliland - they were very effective at coordinating the demobilization
and disarmament of rebel groups. This was a crucial step to achieving peace.
"Tradition is very important for peace-building, but not for state-building"
"These elders from the different clans want the welfare of their children,
and their children after that, to be preserved," Jean-Paul Azam, professor
of economics at France's Toulouse School of Economics, told IRIN. "For them,
what matters is the collective evolution, what happens to the clan."
Minorities also have significant representation within the Guurti. "One of
the main [principles] of the Guurti is inclusivity, that all clans should be
included," said Hersi. It is the only decision-making body that rests
fundamentally on power-sharing between all groups.
The House of Representatives tends to be dominated by the larger clans, so
the Guurti is a crucial mechanism to engage all of Somaliland society.
However, since 1993 clan alliances have shifted and clans themselves are no
longer drawn along the same lines. This means that the composition of the
Guurti will need to change if it is to reflect all of Somaliland.
So, what's the problem?
The Guurti has never been elected. If a clan elder dies or retires, the seat
is passed down to one of his descendants. This, many feel, is undermining
the legitimacy of the body.
"Many of the experienced people and the old people have died," said Ahmed.
"The young people are coming who know nothing about the culture, about
customary law, about the history of Somaliland."
The constitution provides no direction on how Guurti members should be
chosen, saying simply that "the members of the House of Elders shall be
elected in a manner to be determined by law." A law governing this decision
has yet to be drafted.
"We believe that Somaliland's democratization has made tremendous progress.
But there are many challenges ahead with the Guurti," said Mohamed A.
Mohamoud, executive director of the Somaliland Non-State Actors Forum
(SONSAF).
There are also accusations that the Guurti has lost independence and now
bows to pressure from the president. Its unilateral decision to postpone
presidential elections in 2008 was viewed by many as a sign that their
impartiality had been compromised.
"A lot of the descendants of the original members see it as a business
opportunity. That's not in keeping with the original ethos," Paice told
IRIN. Traditionally, elders were not paid for their services on
peace-keeping and arbitration.
In addition, many consider the Guurti ill-equipped to handle some of their
legislative responsibilities. "There is by no means universal literacy in
the Guurti," Paice added. "If it's a 450-page finance bill, this is
problematic."
"Tradition is very important for peace-building, but not for
state-building," noted Hersi. "Elders can build peace, but they cannot build
a state."
Some analysts say the Guurti needs to be more gender-inclusive in its
representation. Traditionally, women are not appointed clan elders, and the
first House of Elders after Borama was an all-male body. Since then, a few
women have inherited seats from their husbands, but they still represent a
very small minority.
"Cultural and religious misperceptions undermine women's political
participation," said the NAGAAD Network's Hassan. She argues that while
women play an important mediation role in within Somaliland society, they
are significantly underrepresented in terms of political participation. She
also points out that because women were not included in the drafting of the
constitution, no special protections for them exist within the current
legislative framework.
NAGAAD and other civil society organizations lobbied for a bill in
parliament that introduced the idea of reserved quotas for women and
minorities for elected positions. Although the proposed legislation had the
support of the current president, it was thrown out by the House of
Representatives.
How can the Guurti be reformed?
"The dilemma of the Guurti is that their legitimacy has been decreasing over
time, but ultimately they are the the only recourse that Somaliland has for
these kinds of issues," said Matt Bryden, former coordinator of the UN
Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea and director of Sahan Research, a
think-tank focused on the Horn of Africa, told IRIN. "It's very risky for
Somaliland to close their eyes and hope for the best."
There is much debate over how to reform Somaliland's House of Elders, if at
all, and what mechanism should be used to select its members. Essentially,
there are three broad viable methods for choosing them: through election,
selection by quotas or nomination by clan.
Azam holds that electing the Guurti would destroy the effectiveness of the
body. "The legitimacy of these people is due precisely to the fact that they
are not elected," he said. "Their legitimacy is due to their traditional
base."
He points to the fact that the Guurti have been very organized in collecting
taxes and controlling violence. "The basic idea, when you build a new
country, is you have to have basic fiscal revenues," he said. In a research
paper, he examines the role of the Guurti system in collecting taxes from
the population. He believes that, at least for the next 10 to 15 years, the
Guurti can informally negotiate a power-sharing solution and does not need
major reform.
Hoehne strongly disagrees, and says proper governance demands more
professional, elected legislators, not clan elders. "If you want to regulate
you need to have an official system - otherwise you're just ignoring the
contradictions," he told IRIN. "I would recommend just doing away with the
Guurti and establishing legal pluralism."
Still, Hoehne acknowledged that the symbolic attachment of the Guurti to
Somaliland society would mean that it is highly unlikely that they will
choose to simply do away with the system. "You would have to develop a
face-saving strategy [for the Guurti]. You have to offer them a nice way
out. Or it will lead to very unpleasant results," he said.
SONSAF's Mohamed asks: "If the Guurti were to be elected, what's the
difference between the House of Guurti and the House of Representatives?"
One solution would be to create a criterion for selecting elders, based upon
the notion of inclusivity among disenfranchised groups. "I see the Guurti
acting essentially as a senate. My personal view would be to lean to
regional representation, with equal representation for all regions," said
Bryden. He also feels that such a system would open up the eventual
possibility of including quotas for women and the youth within the Guurti.
But before any decision regarding the method of selection to the Guurti can
be made, Ahmed argues that the process for becoming a clan elder needs to be
standardized. "We have to organize the elders system first. We have to
regulate it - there should be law," he said. "Then we have to think about
and explore a way to make the House of Guurti a very competitive,
equal-opportunity house."
The other question revolves around what the role of the Guurti should be,
and whether they are qualified to take a legislative role. "To have a
traditional house would be quite useful," said Paice. "There could still be
a national council of elders, but who are wholly impartial and outside the
system."
But Paice feels that whatever the solution, it needs to be one that is
home-grown.
"The right answer is that it's for them to decide," he said. "These things
are difficult, but I think that they have to be solved by the locals with
their hands to the pulse."
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Received on Thu Jul 18 2013 - 17:54:47 EDT