SYL’s founding mission opposed colonial corruption and ethnic favoritism

Evidence

Another challenge that preoccupied the attention of some party and assembly leaders was the growing corruption in the ranks of parliament, government, and public service. Malfeasance and preferential treatment given to Italians and their supporters was fundamental to the Italian colonial administration. In contrast, the party’s vital objectives were to eliminate these prejudices and to protect the rights of all citizens regardless of their identity. Further, the party and its supporters were so grieved by the illegitimate and private appropriation of collective resources by colonial masters that it set out to build Somali institutions that would reverse these practices. Establishing such institutions and a political culture that would uphold the SYL’s lofty principles was an ambitious goal. To realize such hopes required an elite group that believed in that ethos and had the will to strive for its attainment. — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 417