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NOT FOR CIRCULATION OUTSIDE CRISIS GROUP

NOT FOR CIRCULATION OUTSIDE CRISIS GROUP

Levels of corruption within the TFG have increased significantly in the last one year, and many local and foreign
observers now regard the Sharif TFG as the most corrupt since the cycles of ineffectual transitions began in the
early 90’s. Sharif’s long-time ally and confidante, Sharif Hasan Sheikh Aden (now Speaker of Parliament after a
well-orchestrated campaign to unseat the old Speaker), and handful of cabinet ministers, now preside over a
corruption syndicate that is massive and sophisticated and well beyond Somalia’s borders. The impunity with
which these elements operate and manipulate the system to serve their greed is mind-boggling. These individuals
are not fit to hold any public office and they must be forced to resign, sanctioned and isolated.

Thoroughly inept, increasingly corrupt and paralysed by Sharif’s indecisive and weak leadership, exacerbated by a
vicious internal power struggle, every effort to make the government modestly functional, has come unstuck.

Sharif Hasan, for his part, is known to be harbouring presidential ambitions. He has been discreetly campaigning
since early 2009 to emerge as a credible candidate, gingerly outflanking potential rivals. He is a skilful operator and
a supremely persuasive politician, adept at mobilizing support, often using his immense wealth and superior
knowledge of the political terrain. His dextrous manoeuvre to secure the powerful post of Speaker, was, to many, a
political masterstroke. Ethiopia and other regional and international actors are said to favour him. He has cleverly
exploited the widespread suspicion of Sharif and his Aala Sheikh supporters, to project himself as a secularist and
the only man capable of stopping “closet Shabaabists” from completely taking over the TFG. It is important to
highlight this because arguments in support of Sharif Hassan are gaining traction with certain segments of the
international community. The notion that Sharif Hassan is a secularist is without any merit and those propagating
this ludicrous myth, certainly, do not know the man. Allowing Sharif Hassan to achieve his ambition, primarily on
the vague and uncritical assumption he is a “secularist” and likely to be much more decisive and competent leader
than Sheikh Sharif, is to completely misread his character and his brand of politics and to ignore his negative and
destructive influence within the TFG and on the wider body politic. To argue that the choice is between these two
leaders – one who is inept and one who is corrupt, but nonetheless effective and competent – is cynical. This is a
false choice to which Somalis must not be condemned.