FEATURED: America’s imperial hubris threatens to push Somalia towards a catastrophe

FILE: Former immediate U.S. Ambassador to Somalia Donald Yamamoto [L] shakes hands with Farmajo [R]

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Questions on the credibility and fairness of Somalia’s federal elections continue to fuel uncertainty and fears of violence in the country as political stakeholders remain at loggerheads on the way forward. In Mogadishu, the political opposition has boycotted the elections dismissing the process as a sham.

They are not alone. Civil society and clan elders have also joined a chorus of condemnation of a process now widely seen as rigged. Faced with the prospects of delayed elections or a sham process, the international community has favored a ‘quick and dirty’ process regardless of its legitimacy.

Such a shortsighted attitude will neither lead to a credible election nor stability. Instead, it is almost certain to trigger a conflict between Farmaajo and his opposition who blame certain members of the international community for pampering a belligerent and undemocratic leader.

In particular, in Mogadishu, clan elders and political opposition have criticized the United States for choosing Farmaajo over Somalia’s stability. The United States is accused of pursuing conflicting policies in Somalia. Certain sections of the United States government are seen as being in conspiracy with Farmaajo and of tacitly aiding his rigging operation.

The conflicting policies adopted by different sections of the United States are also sending mixed signals to other international partners while emboldening the regime at the Villa Somalia precisely the time when the international community ought to be speaking with one voice.

More importantly, the mixed signals from the United States are animating Farmaajo’s obsession with producing a rigged election outcome in his favor. Over the past 4.5-years, the United States has used Qatar as its proxy in Somalia even as the oil-rich kingdom has preferred to patronize violent individuals like the former intelligence director Fahad Yassin.

As a result, the democratic space in Somalia has been obliterated during Farmaajo’s term, while independent media was brutally repressed and former warlords violently installed to impose a mafia rule.

Almost 3-years ago, the former United Nations’ top envoy to Somalia Nicholas Haysom warned that the elections in the Southwest were a litmus test for Somalia’s ability to hold meaningful and credible elections. Instead, his warning was ignored as Farmaajo rigged the elections, and then used Somali and Ethiopian troops to violently put down protestors.

Again, when Haysom warned of the dangerous precedence such tactics would set for Somalia, he was treated with disdain as the government issued a Persona non Grata. The United States stood behind the government’s decision helping kickstart a rule characterized by violence and outright rigging.

Perhaps driven by imperial hubris, the United States seems to harbor the mistaken view that it can support the sham process while coercing the opposition and political stakeholders to accept its outcome. But these are irresponsible miscalculations that will unquestionably produce the opposite result by reducing the United States to a position of irrelevancy and its coercive tools toothless.

The American experience in Somalia is replete with examples of America hedging its bets on the wrong horses and failing to take corrective steps until too late. Rather than obsessing over its protection of Farmaajo, the United States should take the responsible position of calling for a credible and fair election.

This is in the United States' own interest. Supporting discredited criminals such as Fahad Yassin and other intelligence officials who seek to escape accountability by forcing their way into the parliament will harm America’s standing in Somalia and beyond.

The United States will do its credibility a world of good by adhering to its own stated objectives of fostering democracy and stability in Somalia. American interests in Somalia are best served by supporting the rule of law and by promoting democracy.

America is at crossroads in Somalia today, it can be on the right side of history or it can continue pampering a reckless minority at the Villa Somalia over the majority of Somalis who yearn for the rule of law and stability. History will not be kind to it if it chose the latter.

GAROWE ONLINE