Politics: What it is rather than what it should be.
From the look of things Somalia is eventually on track and although it’s fallacy to attribute everything that went right to just two individuals but it’s no shadow of doubt that the current leadership of the country has masterminded innumerable milestones and Yes, obviously they should also shoulder all the shortcomings too.
It’s a trait that’s known to everyone who has a meager understanding on how politics operate that leaders who are morally good or try to do something morally permissible do not last long in the political arena — I’m not trying to say all leaders have to do evil things in order to get into power or keep it but sadly that’s how it is as opposed to how it should be! Actually, It’s one thing to be honest and virtue when trying to make your way into politics and it’s another thing to learn to adapt the realities on the ground once you find your feet in the citadel.
How politics is as opposed to how it should be.
It is no coincidence that for many people, the word “politician” has such a negative connotation! However, history teaches us that there are still a few who come close to the leadership ideals and who are good examples of an effective political leader but that doesn’t mean that these leaders did not deceit or lie. It doesn’t mean, they didn’t kill or oppress. Every leader has degree of tyranny to keep things afloat when they reach the boiling point. As the Medieval political philosopher and writer of the famous book the Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli said, ‘Never was anything great achieved without danger’. Yes, that’s definitely true. Politics has no relation to morals!
We often see Tvs and organizations promoting/advocating for peace, accountability, transparency, free speech, free choice, free movement, justice & globalization but it goes without saying that it’s obvious to them that this is not plausible in this anarchic international system where every state is on the throat of the other, where everyone is amassing weapons and trying to outwit the other. It’s the very people who advocate Human Rights that Commit the biggest atrocities in the world under the flagship of national interest. So think about this for a moment!
It’s true that we would all love the world to be without demarcations. We all know with globalization we would all thrive and sleep peace and get up peace. Sadly, that’s how the world ought to be as opposed to how it is!. In fact, this is not something I’m making up! This is something most leaders and political scholars are fully aware of because if you look at politics, the two main theories that help us explain the world politics ( Realism and Liberalism) emphasize the cliche I mentioned above — Cooperation and conflict.
‘The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present’.
As a matter of fact, a lot of people are surprised when the leaders they were so blindly in love with hadn’t lived up to their expectations. That reality had actually agitated them and they all began all over a sudden to harshly criticise the person while even sometimes some go beyond criticism and call the person names! However, one thing we all don’t know is the fact that the President (Farmajo) had learned his lessons that being weak and honest didn’t serve him any just when he was the PM and for him to hold on to the same formation they didn’t work would be unwise,’ he has to learn to deceit, lie and make some of his enemies his closest friends while at the some time distancing some close friends.
As Law 2 of the book of 48 laws of power asserts, ‘Be wary of friends — they will betray you more quickly, for they are easily aroused to envy. They also become spoiled and tyrannical. But hire a former enemy and he will be more loyal than a friend, because he has more to prove. In fact, you have more to fear from friends than from enemies. If you have no enemies, find a way to make them’.
This quote assertions what the President did to some close friends who campaigned for him to rise the highest seat. This is also why the President is always calling names to the opposition leaders. It’s simply to spice up things otherwise the whole game would boring, right?!
Hire a Henchman.
As a Niccolo Machiavelli says again, ‘ A leader who wants to command fear but is too good or honest to do so, should hire a hench-man — one who does the dirty work for him’.
And this why Khaire was precisely appointed!
The PM has been proven to be an authoritarian to a certain degree. He’s a staunch and workaholitic who doesn’t entertain nonsense. Unlike the President, he commands aggression even among his cabinets. He won’t shy away from the truth and he’s not distracted by the circumstances that constrains others. That’s precisely why the President made him the PM and he’s living up to the standard that the President anticipated from him. Even some people claim that he’s the man who runs all the show on Villa Somalia. He’s absolutely a modern Niccolo Machiavelli. The kinda person who can rule Somalia!