05/16/2007
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Re: The Independent State of Somaliland
Dear Meshark Owino and Paul Nyandoto,
Regional Autonomy
It is refreshing that you have carried on with debate on the merits and
demerits for Regionalism or Majimboism, as the case may be depending on the
writer. Each of these views has propagandists. We have written and shared
views on Regional Autonomy for a while now, then took a break.
For a start, the quest for Regionalism and Economic emancipation is not
a new ideology anywhere in the world. The tendency for homogeneous groups
to break away and become autonomous is as old as history itself. On the other
hand Unification of Sovereign, autonomous or homogeneous groups under one
rule has always been done through force or conquest. Examples exist from exploits
of Alexander the Great, The Romans, Ottoman Empire,
Persian Empire , Austro - Hungarian Empire, the Japanese, Russians,
The British, the French, Portuguese, Spanish, Empires, The Shangani, the Fulani,
and Ethiopian.
One common factor with Empires is that they tended not to be democratic,
but rather ruled by Dictators, Warlords etc.
Let us look at Great
Britain England
from Northern Germany settled here. The
Romans conquered these lands at about AD43 and ruled it for about 400 years.
They left on their own, perhaps due to pressure elsewhere in the
Roman Empire . London London
The period after the Romans, the country was ruled interchangeably between
West Saxon and Danish Kings for half a century until the Norman invasion
of 1066 AD under William the Conqueror. Next, Kingdom
of England was more or less a
vassal state under the Kings in France
, until English Kings asserted sovereignty on realizing
England had become more prosperous than counterparts
in Europe as a result of both political stability,
innovations, trade and industry.
Both the The
Kingdom of England
and the
Kingdom of Scotland
were ruled by a single Monarch since 1603 under James
I, but under different Legal systems. They merged to form the unified
Kingdom of Great Britain
under the Acts of Union on 01/05/1707, making both
England (and
Wales ) and
Scotland
This union has changed its name twice: on the merger with the
Kingdom of Ireland
following the
Act of Union
in 1800 which created the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
in 1801; and again following the secession from the
union of the
Irish Free State
( Now Republic of Ireland) under the terms of the
Government of Ireland Act 1920
; it became the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
.
England has always retained a separate legal identity from its partners,
with a separate
legal system
,
English law
, from say
Northern Ireland
-
Northern Ireland law
, and
Scotland
-
Scottish law
.
Later due to the strong feelings of the Welsh,
England became known as
England and
Wales
While England was ruled
jointly by a
monarch
and the
Parliament of England
up to 1706, the Scottish and Welsh governing institutions
were created by the UK England , which
has a majority population in UK
of over 80%, as the only part of Britain
directly ruled in nearly all matters by the British government in
London
On parliamentary matters, a convention called the
West Lothian question
has become controversial. Before Scottish devolution,
purely-Scottish matters were debated at Westminster
, but subject to a convention that only Scottish MPs could vote on them
without a "reverse" convention for England
and Wales Wales this anomaly
was sorted with Welsh devolution, so that Scottish and Welsh MPs can vote
on English issues, but Scottish and Welsh issues are not debated at
Westminster
There are calls for a
devolved English Parliament
with voices calling for the dissolution of the Union
entirely, meaning Regional Autonomies including in
England
England
England would dwarf the rest of the
United Kingdom
When put to the first referendum in the North East in November 2004, to
decide whether people wanted to vote for directly-elected
regional
assemblies to watch over the work of the non-elected
Regional Development Agencies
, it was defeated.
Why? Criticism of the proposals varied from;-
-
Decentralization
was inadequate
-
proposal amounted not to devolution, but merely local government re-organization,
with no real power being removed from central government, and no real power
given to the regions, which would not even gain the limited powers of the
Welsh and Scottish Assemblies
such as the tax-varying and legislative powers of
the
Scottish Parliament
or the expanded powers of the welsh Assembly.
All these arguments are for citizens who want more control over their affairs.
The voting trends recently is a clear pointer at this desire, both in Wales,
Scotland and England where the English in recent local Authority elections,
conservatives gained against Labour, because they think Conservatives are
more pro England and Englishness, conservatism, more individual freedom of
choice, less government, anti- European super state, preservation of English
currency, unit of measure such as the pound, the mile, the pint, etc, anti-immigration,
etc.
Take the case for Finland
Swedish Kingdom
This expansion was halted by the unification of
Russia
and was rolled back. In the 18th century,
virtually all of Finland
It is said that relationship between the Finnish Grand Duchy and the Russian
Empire gradually soured when the Russian government made moves to restrict
the Finnish
autonomy
, leading to Finnish Wars of Independence
and Civil War (1917-1918)
On
December 6
,
1917
, shortly after the
Bolshevik Revolution
in Russia,
Finland declared its independence
.
Why would a sparsely populated Territory fight to be autonomous when being
part of an empire should be good for them?
The same trend has continued with Yugoslavia
, former Soviet Union ,
Indonesia (East Timor), Macau and the Portuguese,
Chechnya , Spain
and the Bask separatists, Indian Kashmir,
Uganda , and
Katanga
As seen above, the political Union in
United Kingdom Union
and not one that cannot be broken.
It is a fallacy to argue that if
Kenya
Joseph Okumu
Joluo.com
Akelo nyar Kager, jaluo@jaluo.com
IDWARO TICH?
INJILI GOSPEL
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