By Mohamed M. Khawi, Alexandria, Virginia ‎

‎1. Somaliland did not have the opportunity to go through the mill of self rule. The British did not prepare ‎Somaliland for autonomy in any shape or form. The limited Somalization program started just before ‎independence in a hasty move of temporary filling. ‎

‎2. The independence bid and closer association with Somalia, was a protest reaction by the Somalilanders, after ‎the HAWD & Reserved Area were transferred to the Imperial rule of Hailesellasie in 1955. ‎

‎3. By this act, the British breached the protection treaty, which was the alleged essence of British presence in the ‎country. Sur-prisingly, this stunning betrayal, reminiscent of the CYPRUS case of •peace with Honor• remains ‎unexplained unless it has been Her Majesty•s Christmas present to His Imperial Highness. Mean and treacherous ‎as the move might have been, yet\"might was always right.\” ‎

‎4. Failed by the British, Somaliland was predicamented in the horns of a dilemma,” in the middle of nowhere.” ‎The option of closer association with Mogadishu became the inevitable Hobson\’s choice. Ironically, few years ‎earlier, the British Foreign Secretary Mr. Bevin presented a resolution to the equivalent of the Security Council ‎then, to the effect that” All Somali Territory be united under British rule” A move Russia VETOED. As a cynical ‎colonial reaction the Somali trust was betrayed. It is worth recalling that the Somalis had no voice in international ‎forums. By this disserve they were not represented the way they should. ‎

‎5. The venture of transferring Somali territory to the Imperial rule without the prior consent of the affected party, ‎and in default of the Protectorate obligation was perceived as a beginning of a scheme of Eritrea Style Take-over . ‎In pre-emption thereof, union with Mogadishu was precipitated. On June 26th, 1960 Somaliland became ‎independent and P.M Egal became the first Somali leader to hoist free Somali flag on national soil. Four days ‎later, Somaliland abdicated its sovereignty and opted for unconditional union with Somalia. P.M Egal who was at ‎its helm, was understood to retain his position while Adan Abdulle Osman be the President. As Adan Abdulle was ‎ushered-in; Egal was booted out. The stop-gap portfolio of Deputy Prime Minister deceitfully created to deny Mr. ‎Egal of the premiership was assigned to Mr. Abdi Hassan Boonie. A raw-feet draftee into the nationalistic ‎movement. Perse, this assignment added insult to the injury of Somaliland and by proxy rendered the union dead ‎on arrival. ‎

‎6. Within the first year of the union, Somaliland sensed the emptiness of southern leadership across the board. ‎This was ex-pressed in political lyrics e.g. ‘lixdankaan haybin jiray maxaa helay?’ ( Where are the 60’s I waited for ‎so long)? Towards the end of the year, the officer corp of the Somaliland Scouts, a hard-beaten regiment by British ‎Military prowess, rebelled and staged premature regional coup. Regimental pride and career dilemma and/or ‎disappointment impulsively motivated this coup, which did not fly. Newly promoted Southern officers replaced the ‎outgoing British officers. All vestiges of British command and control were thrown out of the window. The rich ‎heritage of leadership, man management, discipline, and code of military conduct was replaced by the whims of • ‎chi commanda falegge• (the commander is law). ‎

‎7. The unconditional Union with Somalia was in good faith. Disappointedly, our new partners took us for granted ‎and treated our citizenry as rejected waifs and strays that abdicated all national pride & human rights. Looked ‎upon as parasitic appendage, fitting was the abusive snubbing allied with systematic entity cleansing. Today’s ‎divisive endeavors such as Puntland encroachment , the ‘Derivation’ of certain Somaliland tribes ( Dir waqooye ), ‎Awdal courting , beating one tribe against another , etc, are but residuals of past practices of segmentation ‎pursued for polarization and strategic weakening from within. ‎
‎8. Although the coup of 1961 did not fly, it did jump-start a trend of active opposition, which marked the beginning ‎of the end of the Somali State. It began with President Adan Abdulle Osman over-ridding the majority to nominate ‎Dr. Abdulrashid Ali Sharmarke as the Prime Minister. Instead he opted to appoint Abdilrazak Haji Hussein, ‎supported by only two parliamentary votes, as the Prime Minister. This unethical move of the custodian of the ‎Somali constitution and his myopic remark • what I say goes, even Isha can lead, if I so desire, • wrecked the ‎boat. (Isha was a homeless old woman in downtown Mogadishu). ‎

The Subsequent assassination of President Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke who outvoted President Adan Abdulle ‎Osman in alliance with Mohamed Ibrahim Egal, the leader of the Somaliland parliamentary block drove the last ‎nail in the coffin of the Somali State. ‎

‎9. During Egal\’s premiership in 1967, Kissinger-like diplomatic rapprochement was pursued. (PM Egal was the ‎founder of Somaliland and the father of the union) The Arusha Declaration of Minor Issues first and major Issues ‎later, was the first step towards normalizing relations with Ethiopia. Mogadishu politicians saw this as betrayal and ‎concluded that Egal was drifting Somaliland towards closer ties with Ethiopia. ‎
Such state of mind existed ever since a group of Somaliland Scouts Officers attempted a coup in 1961. Egal was ‎the Minister of Defense then and became later the Leader of the Opposition. Perhaps this was one of the reasons, ‎if not the major, that lead to the military takeover in 1969. ‎

‎10. The military takeover in 1969 was in a way, Round Two of finishing the job of Somaliland scouts in 1961 at ‎national level. Indeed the brain, the backbone, and bayonets of Siyad’s venture were the remaining few of the ‎Somaliland scouts officer corp. Like stalk-borer, they worked through, slowly but surely, bidding their time. The ‎unexpected assassination of President Abdul Rashid presented an opportunity not to be missed. In due course, ‎however, as mission was accomplished and situation crystallized, Siyad Barre and his southern clique began to ‎purge Somaliland Scout Officers one by one. Nearly all of them were as ill fated as their predecessors. Persecuted, ‎imprisoned and crestfallen in to the lurch to rot. Their daring opposition to the derailment of the declared doctrine ‎of zero tolerance to tribalism disturbed Siyad Barre’s double standard. His dedicated stewardship of his own tribe ‎was excessively unlimited. The state apparatus with its incumbent power and resources was harnessed to be his ‎tribe’s spoils. Denied of any effective voice in the upper echelon, the south unleashed the offensive of its hellish ‎treatment in the North, executed by hand picked henchmen of Siyad Barre’s choice. ‎
In persistent pattern Somaliland leaders were subject to systematic marginalization, moral abuse and persecution. ‎President Egal, the father of the unconditional union with the south, suffered the harshest beating. Solitary ‎confinement for over 10 years, arbitrary usurpation of his private property including his residence Villa Negaad , ‎later renamed Villa Baidoa. Such acts of overkill humiliation were calculated machination of alienation, ‎criminalization and social rejection. Ironically Mr. Egal was the only Somali politician who inherited, owned and ‎managed immense wealth. Indeed, it was this wealth factor that enabled him to hire the expertise of the best ‎brains from the Somaliland Civil Service pool, the only job opportunity existing at the time. Consequently he ‎ploughed them back into the activist leadership of the budding nationalistic movement (SNL-USP). It was this ‎coalition that made the Independence of Somaliland and subsequent Union with Somalia happen under his ‎charge. ‎

‎11. In 1969 when Said Barre repealed the constitution of Somalia, the act of the union became null and void. For ‎the ensuing twenty-plus years, Somaliland was a captive hostage abused and exploited to the core. While the ‎ineptitude of leadership was common factor in the south, the military establishment was the lowest in the ladder. ‎Their grotesque mismanagement drained the life of the whole nation and burnt it into ashes. The old guard lacked ‎direction, demonstration, discipline and dedication. Their modus operandi was deceitful, defensive, delusive and ‎deliberate segmentation with destructive consequences. Somaliland’s survival was attributed to the adoption of ‎pragmatic demeanor of passive resistance to offset under dog treatment as disposable utensils. The unscrupulous ‎spree of corrupt power prevailing in Mogadishu, eventually signed its death warrant. ‎
Thanks to spontaneous, national stampede, the Somali flagship fell apart in 1991. Consequently, the Somali state, ‎as we knew it, ceased to exist. ‎

‎12. All national, regional, and international efforts failed to put a viable Somalia government back in place for ‎fifteen years. As we speak warlords, the Somali version of Daliban, are the heirs and successors of the Somali ‎state in Mogadishu. The recently instituted government by IGAD sponsorship in Nairobi is challenged, not only by ‎the warlords who are its ministers, but also by individual pretender with alleged American label who made a ‎fortune out of counterfeit currency, sold to the Somali nomads as good money. Ironically the high profile of United ‎States Certificate of Naturalization offsets the criminality of counterfeits and makes it legal tender for bidding the ‎Presidency of Somalia. Such quality of leadership, with qualifying credentials of criminal deception for the highest ‎office of the land, is uniquely Mogadishu style, where the deadwood has the day. ‎

‎13. Contrarily Somaliland regrouped, reorganized, and enjoyed a House-Keeping Administration for a decade and ‎a half. This speaks for the difference in national fabric and the level of civility and future outlook that prevail on ‎either side of the border. ‎
Somaliland single-handedly made her day by restoring functional structural institutions, law and order. This ‎process created an atmosphere of peaceful, democratic and symbiotic living nationwide. ‎

‎14. Given this reality check, Somaliland cannot be accused of secession. Somalia is a failed state and is now ‎relegated to ethnic roots, cantonized by tribal warlords with no one fully in-charge. ‎
As a state, the past experience was hopelessly going through the motions, and in grim realization of their ‎ineptitude of leader-ship Somalia adopted the tribal alternative where they belong. The fictitious trusteeship cycle ‎passed as a lightening without leaving any tangible footprints. ‎

‎15. Somaliland, an entity of one country one nation, despite all odds, past and present, disowns and distances ‎itself from a culture of bigotry and trigger-happy warlordism prevailing in Mogadishu. Indeed there is no viable ‎partner existing in Mogadishu. ‎
What used to be a semblance of state is now gone with the wind and is replaced by rudderless anarchic ‎pandemonium, bar-baric in nature and practice. ‎
In the era of one world order, globalization and African union, a clan line association, highly charged with ‎homophobia is a doomsday bandwagon adding insult to the injury of Somaliland. ‎

‎16. If Singapore broke away from the FED. Of Malaysia, Bangladesh from Pakistan and East Timor from ‎Indonesia, can’t Somaliland opt for the same course? ‎
On the flip side, if major powers are guilty of colonial partition of Somali territory and shy away from Somaliland ‎statehood for that matter, a compromise course would be to work towards the formation of inclusive ‎Commonwealth States of the Horn of Africa , an option Somaliland is willing to consider. ‎
WHO WILL BELL THE CAT? NATURALLY GREAT BRITAIN ! ‎
Tony Blair’s posturing as the bastion of democracy shall be tested when we appeal to the hearts and minds of his ‎countrymen to review the past deeds of their forefathers towards the poor Somali nomads and the residual effect ‎of depravation, polarization, hatred and bloodshed in the Horn of Africa. ‎
If he mobilized superpower coalition forces to finish the job in Iraq, will he reject the plea of survivors of failed ‎state after 30 plus years of unbelievable ordeal, yet managed to hold head above water, in orderly fashion, for 14 ‎subsequent years of solicitude and isolation. ‎
In redemption of past negligence and shortfalls and in recognition of the ensuing woeful destruction, Her Majesty’s ‎government, if approached right, might be open to patronize and prop up \"Rebuild Somaliland ‎ program• a British version of the American Restore Hope initiative in the 90s, foiled by Mogadishu Warlords. The ‎Italian Aid Fund (Fondo Aiuto Italiano) of 250 million dollars, during the last years of Siyad Barre went exclusively ‎to projects and/or pockets based in the south. Given the past inequitable division of wealth, such program, if forth ‎coming, would cover essential facets of development, Institutional and/or Infrastructural. It might be sustained for ‎a determined period to provide substantial incentive for our bid of nation building. Any British involvement would ‎afford us unique opportunity of unparalleled perceived values associated with a solid heritage of civilization, ‎democracy and human dignity. ‎

H.M. Government must cherish to consolidate the democratic values in the veins of the people of Somaliland, ‎evidencing their exposure to British administration for 70 years. ‎ While the United Nation Trusteeship left behind a failed state in Somalia, Somaliland is still going strong. ‎

Mohamed M. Khawi ‎
Elder man ‎
Khawi-Dhool Clan ‎
Alexandria, Virginia ‎
ksrvicemastr@aol.com ‎

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