| East African Democracy
Looks to China for the Aid It Needs Most
September 16th, 2011
East African Democracy Looks to China for the Aid It Needs Most
By Sophie Quinton
Updated: September 15, 2011 | 3:15 p.m.
September 15, 2011 | 2:09 p.m.
The West has proven a valuable source of democracy-building and
development aid for Somaliland, a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it republic
in northern Africa. But it is China that has been willing to gamble
big on the economic-development projects it needs most.
“When you talk about infrastructure development, China is one of the
leading countries in the world,” said Somaliland Foreign Affairs
Minister Mohamed Omar, who is in Washing ton this week. “You cannot
get roads built and bridges done, and ports done and airport s,with
humanitarian and development assistance.”
“Contemporary development assistance focuses on what I would call
‘soft sector’,” Omar said: things like institutional development,
education, health, capacity building. “Aid is no t aimed to build
roads—and for the economic development you would need to develop
th at infrastructure,” Omar said. “The Chinese are very good at
that.”
Chinese oil company PetroTrans plans to turn Berbera port into a
modern facility, in a de al with the Somaliland government that will
help PetroTrans export the natural gas it ex tracts from Ethiopia.
Modern roads connecting Somaliland and Ethiopia will be part of the
deal, which has yet to be finalized, Omar said.
Somaliland’s democracy is still far from perfect, 20 years in
transition from dictatorship, said Ibrahim Hashi Jama, a
Somalilander and a lawyer now living in Britain. It also took a long
time to build: Clan meetings on the constitution began in 1991, but
the document w as not finalized until 2001. Building up the judicial
system to check government power an d make sure that elections happen
on time remain major challenges.
The government is “an eclectic mix of our own,” Jama said in an
e-mail: a U.S.-style presi dent and separation of powers, but a
parliament that includes a “House of Elders,” a bod y similar to the U.K.’s House of Lords that has a special focus on traditional
issues. Somaliland is an Islamic state, and sharia is the basis of
its constitution and legal system.
Somalilanders themselves were “the ones who decided they were going
to have a stable Somaliland,” said Paul Fagan, Africa director for
the International Republican Institute. “They came together across
clan lines, set aside their differences, and did it with no
inte rnational intervention whatsoever.”
The Somaliland system balances Islamic law, tribal tradition, and
republican governance with respect for human rights and a commitment
to fighting terrorism.
“There aren’t many places like this in the world,” Fagan said. He
called Somaliland an “eas y place” to work because the government
wants to improve its democracy and eagerly cooperates with
capacity-building efforts.
The institute is helping Somaliland’s legislative branch develop, a
project financed by US AID. USAID and Britain’s Department for
International Development both set aside uniq ue aid budgets for
Somaliland.
Somaliland’s government believes it can set an example for Arab
nations beginning to w restle with regime change—and it may have
something to teach the Western aid world as well.
“We offer a lesson” for other countries going through a democratic
transition, Omar sai d. “Somaliland did it. Why can’t you do it? And
with limited resources and limited possibil ity and support, we have
done it, and we are still working on it.”
Omar traveled to Washington this week to raise his country’s profile
and ask for humanit arian and development assistance. Lack of
political recognition has hampered his countr y’s ability to attract
humanitarian and development aid—not to mention foreign direct
in vestment.
But Omar, Jama, and Fagan all agreed that Somaliland is ready to
move to a new phase and that economic investment is going to be
vital, if the impoverished, arid country is ev er going to develop.
Until Somaliland is officially recognized as an independent
nation—and not part of Somalia—it will be extremely difficult for
foreign businesses to take on the risk of investing there.
China has increasingly taken a more active role in Africa. As
state-owned companies mo ve in to extract African resources, Chinese
investment in the continent has skyrocketed. Chinese involvement in
Africa has worried some Western observers, but Omar argued that
partnerships with China and the West were both vital and would
complement each other.
“The Chinese seem to be taking a bit more risk than any other
country,” he said. “And w here else would you go in this climate of
economic difficulty? China has got the most cash and investment.”
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