When does social and political maturity become vulnerable in societal history?,” Hinbir asked.
Hanad pondered the question for a moment, trying to find some sort of answer that would make everything clear and explain how and when social and political maturity can be eroded.
“Social and political maturity ceases to work when those who are in power deliberately disregard the common sense to invite intellectuals to think, reflect, research, consult, create, innovate, share different points of view, and gain insights and experiences from one another to nurture the ideals and values of an entire nation till the way in which people are ruled becomes punishing commands instead of protecting constitutional commitments,” Hanad replied.
“Are you telling me that ruling behavior turns into tyranny when those who are in power decide to lead the state according to their own personal outlook?”
This time Hanad decided to give Hinbir more of why maturity is of necessity required when it comes to leadership. He felt that Hinbir didn’t understand the idea behind social and political maturity and why maturity is a pre-requisite for holding leadership position.
“Hinbir, maturity is the ability to manage a problem or issue without getting any help from anybody in most cases and conditions at the time of being a leader. For example, there
comes a time when all those who surround
the leader fear to manage a problem and
leave it to the leader to handle it. If the leader doesn’t have the ability to manage such issues/problems, he or she can’t hold
leadership position in the first place. And let
me tell you what the wise leaders do when
they come to know the weaknesses of their ruling behavior, will you?”
“Of course.”
“A poet was once asked by a king, “who is the greatest king in the world?”
“He who rules his people aright,” replied the poet.
“And how may a king rule his people aright?,”
the king wanted to know.
“By protecting the “right” and punishing the “wrong”, the poet replied.
The king stared at the poet with a smile and said, “Ahem, Ahem.”
“Hinbir, why the poet was picked out from all other people and the king asked him the question that needed an aristocratic answer,” Hanad asked.
“‘I don’t know,” Hinbir returned.
“Poets are gifted artists and great composers, who are culturally obsessed
with the ups and downs of life — always expressing and interpreting publicly the goodness and badness that come along
with the events that shape the conditions
with which humans encounter. Poets always criticize what is ethically and humanely questionable. They stand for what is truly just and right and try, to the best of their ability, to object and oppose illusions that put bad
leaders into positions that keep them
grounded. They condemn any behavior that affects essence of cutlures.”
“The king,” Hanad went on, “knew how he ruled his people, but he was trying to reach one thing: “poet’s political awareness.”
That is, how the poet judged the quality
of the king’s rulng behavior.”
“And what is political awareness, Mr. Hanad?”
“Political awareness is the ability to understand the quality of social and political system that shows the true picture of how the public is governed and identify where those who rule the people are wrong and then disseminate the wrongs in the ruling behavior to public.”
“What can we infer from the poet’s answers to the king? I am a little bit confused,” Hinbir
asked.
“The first thing to understand from the poet’s answers to the king is his sensitivity to public policy — the way the poet saw that leaders should maintain law and order and rule the public faithfully and fairly.”
“Does this mean that the poet was fully
aware of what exactly public policies are all
about?”
“Poets are experts of public issues. They have the instincts to sense at an early time certain issues that most people can sense them at a later time. And public policy is how a government deals directly with day-to-day public problems through different actions from different directions and disciplines. In principle, public policy is precisely a “public problem” that needs an urgent government response.”
“Mr. Hanad, I understand from your explanation that public policies are delicate issues that require immediate response. Does this mean that responsiveness itself either increases or decresses governmen credibility. Am I right or wrong?”
“The credibility of any government is primarily revealed by what it does for the public, not only when the moment is hard, but also at easy moments. Non-responsiveness to public issues reveals a government’s inability to fulfill its commitments and that becomes an stigma of government performance.”
“According to many S/land scholars, the mujahids’ current credibility with regard to how public pressing issues are addressed, is not impressive. What is your take on how the mujahids deal with public problems?”
“See, Hinbir, news papers already reported that S/land had celebrated 30 years of its existence as an independent state in 2022. But at 30 every member of S/land society, except very, very people, has the face that they don’t actually deserve. Whether public policy resembles the reality most S/landers share is an issue that doesn’t arise. But pictures — of people living on pavements and children turning into old before reaching their youth — tell us that S/land leaders don’t vibe with the public to share in and lighten the burdens many people suffer, for S/land leaders are still unaware that they are responsible to see that the people in their charge are humans who deserve a lot of care and kindness. Taking care for humanbeings who wander around in hunger is a sign of leadership responsibiliy. Do we see such signs in S/’land system? The answer is a resounding no.”
“‘That is very sad.”
“What is it that sounds to you so sad?”
“So many things make me sad, Mr. Hanad.”
“Like what?”
“Why S/land people, from head to tails, have not matured socially and politically since the year 1960? What is holding back
S/land’s social and political rationalization and preventing the people from realizing their full potential? Which one of these factors – bad governance, corruption, and tribalism — do you realize that S/land’s soical and political immaturity evolves from?”
“Look, Hinbir. Social and political maturity is not measured by who one is or was, or what one’s age is, but by who one has become as a responsible person, when it comes to social and political participation. Social and political maturity is built by experience, feeling how others live, acquisition of knowledge, the ability to identify what is important and what not at any rate and what requires urgent response and remedy.”
“Politicians,” Hanad added, “can be socially and politically mature when they recognize that they are to be responsible for the people that elected them to the positions of public trust; when those who are in power come to realise from their hearts that they are the officials for all citizens without distinction; when they truely, truely work heartly for their country; and when all government officials faithfully fulfill their commitments and deliver promises they made during election times. As a whole, people can turn to be socially and politically mature when they realise that the impact of the issues that turn out to be bad would not only affect particular peoole, but would affect the entire people. Government officials can be socially and politically mature when they heartly start building small things, start taking litered empty cans out of the streets and start encouraging others to do so. Of course, politicians may not be able to control all situations, but they can control their attitude and how they deal with different situations, and that’s when social and political maturity and being responsible leader occur.”
“The factors” Hanad went on, “that practically hinder S/land social and political maturity are neither corruption nor tribalism nor bad governance in the first place. These practices just show how people put their decisions into transactions. The poor mentality of leadership — how politicians in power think, act, plan, propose, and proceed to take decisions, policies and plans – is evidently what prevents S/land people from being socially and politically mature. S/land’s political immaturity stems essentially and fundamentally from poor leadership, whereas bad governance and corruption practices are just the manifestations of human behavior that has been culturally wronged.”
“Excuse me for my interruption, Mr. Hanad.
What is the importance of social and political maturity?”
“The importance of social and political
maturity is that it helps people mature to
adult supervision. The challenge of social and
political maturity is not to come up with a
rift of emotional ideas, but to come up with
a range of refined ideas that meant to respect morals and measures that can sort out what is right from what is wrong ethically, without any hesitation. Social and political maturity enhances human attitude, behaviorial mannerism, and encourages people with
deep insights and innovative ideas to create something new.”
“Mr. Hanad, how can you prove that S/land people are socially and politically immature?”
“Good question,” Hanad said. “To be well aware of how all S/’land people are immature – those who govern S/land public and those citizens that are governed – ask a post graduate student, who is your political role model?, and see what he or she would say.”
“What would they say?”
“Let me ask my Chief (Caaqil) which one our clan can elect to this position, he or she would say. Every member of S/land society cannot independently reach a decision on who could be is his or her own political role model – the person who can lead him or her by example.”
“Ask an intellectual the same question, and he would ask, what is political role model?, as if he is an illiterate who neither writes nor reads.”
“Ask a member of S/land parliament, who
you work for?, and he would reply, I work for my family, astonishingly proving his inability to remember that he represents the people that elected him. Believe it or not, this answer is the real intent by which many MPs aimed at being elected as an MP.”
“Ask S/land minister the same question and he would say, “I work for the president.” Remember what the mujahid told to his cabinet right after taking office: I am elected by the people and you are appointed by me. That message just shows that the mujahid’s initial decision was to appoint yes-men.
“Ask the mujahid, what are your national plans and policies?. And he would say and he said already in several occasions, without any fuss, “to eliminate the opposition parties before they eliminate me.”
“Mr. Hanad, where does leadership maturity begin from?”
“Leadership maturity begins from an adult supervision, a supervision that spreads kindness and care for all, a maturity that sows harmony among communities. It begins with a moral responsibility, a commitment and capability to treat all citizens on equal footing. It begins with the ability to identify the expertise and the know-how that could, by delivering what is promised, get the country out from where
it is to where it has not been.”
“Mr. Hanad, whenever you talk about leadership, you only take politicians as an example, as if politicians are the only people eligible for taking leaderhip role in the society. Can we say that tribal elders don’t have leadership roles in society?”
“As we know, there are two main types of leadership in S/land societies: Political leaders and tribal leaders. Political leaders are those people who are active politically to hold public political posts, while tribal leaders (Chiefs and Suldans) are those people whose roles in their respective tribes were traditionally to protect the reputation of the clan in times of war and of peace and resolve disputies and differences within the clan and with that of other clans. Yes, of course, traditional tribal leaders had and still have leadership roles in societies. But historically, tribal leaders were the most honorable, the wisest, the most able warriors, the best problem-solvers, the best keepers of ethics, and the most decisive agents of clans.”
“But,” Hanad continued, “beginning from the year 1988, leadership roles have dramatically changed into somewhat like seasonal shopping centre and the desire to participate in societal leadership roles increased and the number of political and trbal leaders multiplied in all clans. The effect of mind over matter was, in fact, what caused the inflation of political and tribal leaders in S/land. This inflation of leaders, particularly tribal leaders, in turn, prompted a confusion of who is to lead who and whether an elder’s role would be political or traditional, which is an issue yet to be procedurally defined and decided. The impact of the increasing number of tribal elders triggered an immediate involvement of many elders in political issues.”
“What is the forefront of how tribal elders measure their worth in the eyes of the society, when they get involved in politics?”
“What people struggle for is what they value. The more effort and ideas people put into what they value most, the more chance that the idea of self-actualisation or self-worth is earned. But having lunch with one party at midday and then having dinner with another party in the evening is not a vital evidence that one has proved himself by any practical sense, leave alone that he has gained self-worth. Standing neutral in do-or-die situations just show wickedness in the eyes of people.”
In this country of “I have been a mujahid,”
there is no wonder if most things in life come as a surprise. In the past, people were born royal. Nowadays, royalty comes from what people are not born to.
Spectrum is liberation. Aristotle’s law on prose is then compelling. Every dream has a beginning.
The question that needs asking is where does the most important thing in a dream
lie? Does it lie in the beginning, in the middle or in the end?
The way S/land people seek titles and territories is baffling. Some people chase titles, while others chase territories. Every chase induces a wan smile. And this is when the ignorant mujahiids get enmired with guilts of merry-go-round.
To be continued
By: Jamafalaag
Hargeisa, Somaliland
jamafalaag@gmail.com
As per usual the opinions expressed in this articale are those of the author and do not reflect the opinions of qarannews.com
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