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A. Mohamed Ali Xaashi ‘Dhimbiil’
The burden of proof and the burden of responsibility must always reside with the government of the day; defending a wrong based on one’s party affiliation is unpardonable and inexcusable. Violations of human rights and un-lawful detentions without access to the writ of habeas corpus are self-evidently evil and un-just. I oppose every infraction of human rights and support every attempt to reveal, expose and un-earth these violations.
I further believe that they should be exposed internationally as well as nationally; any attempt at squelching these rights is, in a word, unjustifiable. Moreover, I believe that democracy and human rights are prior to the state and my moral and ethical support of Somaliland is based on its commitment to protect my life, liberty and property, to borrow a phrase from John Locke. These include my fundamental human rights. The argument that we do not live in an advanced liberal democratic state, whose traditions of liberalism created these rights, is a red herring and does not apply. A human beings well being requires no such nonsense, from a dead or alive white male, or for that matter dead or alive Africans; any camel herder can tell you that we have had these rights and continue to posses them. It requires the commitment of a state to protect its citizens and not to have the state as a predator of these rights. The issue of democracy and human rights clearly represent, in my opinion, the basic building blocks of civilized politics for any progressive citizen.
The fact that I have stated these basic beliefs says much about the way the debate on this issue has emerged, speaking volumes of how it has been politicized. I have joined this debate - again - because our esteemed newspaper to which I contribute regularly - Somaliland Times - in its issue # 72 posed an important question, directed to UDUB supporters in the diaspora & particularly to Rashid Garuf - on the issue of recognition vs. human rights. The publishing of four opinions by pundits whose sympathies with Kulmiye are in the public record motivated my joining this debate as a matter of, for wont of better term, "opinion balance" given that the editorial support of these opinions.
I believe the that the question that has been posed is wrongly formulated simply because there is no apparent division between recognition and human rights, the two are not mutually exclusive rather, they are mutually inclusive. Somaliland should not be recognized if it is a flagrant abuser of human rights and becomes a dictatorship adding to what Miss Omaar has appropriately called "another basket case in Africa". Quite correctly, every progressive in Africa is haunted by the images of genocide and tribalism and civil war. Somaliland is a classic example of how to build from these disasters. Any regression then should be met - as Rakiyya correctly puts it - with grave apprehension.
The debate on human rights in the opinion pages of the Somaliland Times though has been cast on a biblical canvas with profound and dramatic explosions of indignation. Some have used private debates in the Somaliland Forum as a sounding board for their "opinions without borders" an unfortunate elevation of offensive writing as a modus operandi. Opinions have varied from the absurd - a claim made in one opinion, that Somaliland is at the grips of a dictator and his denizens of "faqash" pretending to be the legitimate government of this republic, appropriately titled "This is not the Somaliland I envisioned" - to the bizarre, where the people of Somaliland are asked if they understand democracy, appropriately entitled "Does the public understand Democracy?" No doubt our post-modern indulgences are at work here and those in the diaspora, the coming opinion elite, feel that our camel herders, making the wrong choice in the recent elections, do not deserve democracy at all. These, in a word, are the pretensions of the diaspora in their creation of Somaliland’s own Vanity Fair.
The facts of our case I believe looks somewhat like this. Somaliland stands - if we are to speak contextually - as a rather sterling protector of human rights and a country where a complete reformation of politics as we have known it, is occurring. Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Uganda, and Sudan all recognized states and members states of IGAD are basically dictatorships and massive abusers of human rights. Eritrea and Sudan, being particularly heinous examples of what is wrong with Africa; the Sudan, to say the least, a sad example of Frantz Fanon’s prophesy of what the post-colonial condition would entail. Uganda and Ethiopia are yet to hold presidential elections or for the latter multi-party elections. In short they are benevolent dictatorships. That is how the Duvaliers started in Haiti if it is remembered. Indeed these countries, situated right here in our neighborhood cannot claim any resemblance to Somaliland - a testament to the people of Somaliland determination to protect their rights. I need not debate this issue further because Somaliland has reached - to use a massive understatement - point of no return. However, much remains to be done and citizens ought to remain vigilant.
Rakiya Omaar’s reporting of human rights abuse is an important reminder of how long the road to institutionalizing the culture of human rights is. As well, her publishing of these reports is a prerogative of human rights activist and a right. It is the governments responsibly to disprove these allegations; it is the governments responsibility to create a position for human rights in this government so as to have an official government position on this issue; it is the governments responsibility to understand the savvy nature of our globalized world and the pundits that come along with it; it is the governments responsibility to come clean on these issues; it is the governments responsibly to learn the public opinion debate and the credibility framework under which these debates operate: in a word, the spokesperson of the government ought to be writing on these pages and internationally, instead of its supporters. The government ought to learn to be articulate, hopefully this debate and these warnings will introduce to them - by being stung - new ways of doing the business that they are in - public relations. Individuals nonetheless must speak out against these issues of human rights, the record of this writer being in the public domain.
Rashid Garuf and I hold somewhat different opinions on this issue, however, as a patriot, and a person whose contribution to the struggle for Somaliland is second to none. Mr. Garuf is entitled to his rights of free speech as everyone else. Mr. Garuf’s contention that these reports hurt the image of Somaliland is solid; that they should not be publicized is not. It is not the responsibility of the activist to self-censure himself/herself - the onus of responsibility as I have argued remains with the state. The history of governance being what it is in this continent we ought not to be too offended with this assertion.
The mantle of credibility has also been raised on this issue and particularly on the person of Miss Omaar. This I find most unfortunate. I need not repeat the lady’s record here, suffice to say that in a male organized and male dominated polity, women’s voices - and it is plain to see - get the short end of the stick given our patriarchal dispositions. Women in our country are not particularly welcome in our politics. Rakiya Omaar’s - a precious voice and a bona fide leader in the field of human rights - forceful intervention into the debate or as the creator of the debate itself is to be congratulated. However, this intervention often comes with a price, for everyone, and this is the crucial place where I part company with - in my opinion - those who refuse to recognize the principal of criticism offered to us by our new political system of our public figures; Rakiyya Omaar quite nicely fitting the description of a public figure engaged in the democratization process. The criticism is this: at a time of multi-party politics human rights organizations and human rights activists must not only be impartial in the political party process, they must be seen to be impartial. Miss Omeer herself must be wondering out loud why a segment of the population even a small segment thinks or believes this. This fact alone suggests some rectification on her part, as far as impressions go. This criticism is warranted given the tremendous uproar by Somalilanders inside the country and in the diaspora on Rakiyya Omaar’s intervention on this debate clearly situated in the discourse of the opposition.
The claim that her nearly overt support for a political party creates doubts on many of her criticism of the President and UDUB particularly during an election is a legitimate issue and should not be placed, hypocritically, on the moral high ground nor characterized as un-important or beside the point; it is the point and precisely the point. There are some criticisms to be made and no one ought to self-censure oneself for this or that reason. The right to the speech works both ways.
Impartiality and more importantly to be seen to be impartial is a crucial principal in the work of human rights and a founding tenet of human rights organizations. This point then ought not to turned, twisted, and altogether deformed - as many have done - as an attack on Miss Rakiya Omaar, a person held in high regard by the people of Somaliland and by this writer in particular - this sentiment being in the public record. What I am saying here is that we can have a civil debate on this issue without taking the moral high ground - a principal ploy by opposition pundits who clothed themselves with false and misleading moral garments in this campaign - lest others bring down the whole debate with charges of immorality and double standards to the detriment of a sterling tradition in Somaliland: debate of our issues in the pages of our national newspapers with grace, most of all with grace.
Human rights to be sure, belongs to this sphere of politics, given our new found voice in this multi-party template, important issues that characterize the underlying and recurrent themes of our collective political life ought to be exposed and brought front and center for the people of Somaliland and outsiders to consider as this young nation continues on its path to democratization. In a word, no stone should be left un-turned. I welcome further debate on this issue.
A. Mohamed Ali Xaashi ‘Dhimbiil’
dhimbiil@lycos.com
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