By Faisal Ali

I have to warn you before hand. This is a long cry for a beloved Fatherland that is being decimated from within. It is long. It is a bit incoherent and it is without decorum as it does not spare any of the cancerous cells afflicting this lovely nation that we dearly love so much..

Untold History of our Conniving Politicians

In 1960 it was a bunch of retarded politicians who convinced the unsuspecting public of a mirage called ‘Somaliweyn’. They sold a dream of Somali brotherhood so beautiful that we needed not bother about political domination, clannish repression or even possible genocide. They surrendered everything as one may surrender to their Lord.

But when they were outwitted by their southern counterparts, some of them twisted history and unflinchingly claimed they were pressured by the public to give up everything for the sake of Somaliweyn. This was despite the fact that the union case was convincingly defeated in a referendum.

What followed was decades of underdevelopment, political irrelevancy and military subjugation that ended with aerial bombardment and mass killing. But before the eventual demise of the psychopathic dictatorship, our politicians did not miss an opportunity to partake in the raping and killing of their own. They were well represented in all the southern governments including the one that openly undertook ethnic cleansening.

Just as in 1960, they had truckloads of justifying explanations for sleeping with the enemy. They claimed to be prompted by the desire to protect our stake! If only we had a stake in our own humiliation and pogrom!

Do we blame our unsophisticated nomadic population or her thin educated elites and politicians who seem always ready to commit national incest? Who exactly is supposed to carry the blame? I am not sure but personally I opine that a society without a patriotic and selfless leadership is bound to be a slave society. And given the obvious acute shortage of such leadership in Somaliland, well my guess is as good as yours.

The Extinction of SNM

The period of Somaliland renaissance was perhaps the SNM years. Those were the years we saw bravery, selfless leadership and yes we all shared a dream of a better tomorrow. The young, the disabled, the khat-addict, the old, the men, the ladies all had a strong inextinguishable sense of hope. It enabled us survive the mass killings, the Jaziras culling; the bombardment; endure the abuse, the curfews; stoically withstood the Dulcaads, the fratricide wars of early 1990s.

Then came the Manifesto-type cannibals who were cosseted by our tormentors and laid low during our hour of need. They rushed in for our collective jugulars, spewing politics of confusion aimed at consigning the real heroes into political Siberia. They ruffled the delicate situation causing unprecedented intra-clannish conflict. They then blamed the confused SNM veterans and labeled them as the villains. To the last man, we were convinced that the very SNM that sent our predators back to their villages to slaughter each other, were not to be trusted to play a role in the new national construct that we were busy molding!

The shame does not end there. The celebrated SNM has been reduced to a khat-chewing club. Their progressive atrophy (SNM) started in Egal years and has been accomplished during the tenure of the current incumbent. They went without a whimper. It is like an old bitch put down to save her from her own misery. No one dares to question their selfless sacrifices for our lives and honor but it seems they are equally not able to question the negative spin by the Manifesto type hooligans who hijacked Somaliland. They went to the slaughter house without protest. Some have either been co-opted by the later day faqash in the current strangulation of Somaliland, other reduced to toothless disgruntled individuals while the rest bask in wishful day dreaming existence adulating in empty epithet such as Mujahid!

This was just the beginning of the sadistic theatrical politics of these internal enemies of Somaliland.

Inspiring Hope

We come out of the hellish Bare years gushing with energy and a sense of purpose. We set ourselves a mission to chart our future. A future shaped by our experience, stemmed in our culture and guided by our faith in Allah. We did not take the route of reprisals, revenge and hate but rather a route that was to earn us internal cohesion, communal harmony and international admiration.

We had nothing, not a penny nor a friend. We depended on our own miserly means. Paucity of resources did not hinder us neither did the unverified claims of natural abundance beneath our feet create lassitude after the seemingly perpetual unfruitful wait for their discovery and exploitation. We went ahead and endeavored to make use of our proverbial sheep and beautiful camels. We pulled any existing clan links to ensure our Diaspora sacrificed their paltry earnings for the basic maintenance of those left behind.

For the last decade we have managed to reconstruct a social contract and put in place governing structures that continue to evolve. Unlike our enemies, we have decided to let by gone be by gone. We don’t expend our time scheming against them or global trotting with hateful campaigns against them.

Squashing of our Hope

But despite these resilience and express determination, Somaliland seems to have hit a rock. The government that we put in place has effectively become a three man show that operates on its own rules. We have absolutely no idea how much tax the government collects, all we know is that almost the entire declared amounts is expended on or by the president.

It is beyond argument that our government is the most corrupt and the most inept government ever elected in the continent. Our ministries are nothing but entities created to provide salaries to about three or four individuals. There is no public service to talk about, not system to examine, in short there is nothing. All we have is on paper and excessively corrupt municipal and council offices.

The very same politicians who bedded with Bare and whom we generously forgave are squeezing out every ounce of our determination, hope and resolve. They are employing similar tactics. This time it is the constitution, our acute need for international legitimacy and desperate effort to avoid communal strife that they are employing to blackmail us to accept their slow strangulation of our Fatherland. They are using these three factors to makes us timid and accept wanton misuse of government resources, retard our democratization and development all in the name of respecting the existing constitution, seeking international legitimacy and retaining existing harmony.

An Indifferent World

Our brethrens in the middle-east repeatedly denied us our only livelihoods. We did not beg but wanted to undertake the internationally protected right to trade in our livestock. Their own selfish interest stopped them from feeling our pain and respecting our inalienable right to self determination. When they saw that we were not wavering from our determined course, they embarked on dirty games that started with unfounded allegation of livestock disease. When this did stick they resorted to illegal embargoes, open theft of our marine resources, hateful diplomacy to turn our regional neighbors against our case and arming of our arch-enemies.

The international community on the other hand assumed a tunnel vision that only saw Hamar and equated it to Somalia. Despite the high sermons of democracy and freedom, they opted not to see any democratic development in Somaliland. Yes we received paltry handouts from the UK and some other NGOs but that was all. No amount of academic treatise, positive commentaries or even calls by international experts will weaken this determined indifference to our political development or even rights as enshrined in all international covenants.

Did these wither our determination? Nah. Somaliland has survived as a lonely but happy nation. The resilience of our nomadic population is unmatched. They have withstood all these and managed to reconstruct their livelihood literally from scratch. The smoldering ruins that were our urban centers are long gone. We have in their stead built ourselves decent properties, expanded our towns beyond the wildest estimations and most importantly nurtured a culture of peace and tolerance.

Selfishly Myopic Neighbors

The empty spin about the goodwill of Ethiopia is now very glaringly dangerous to our sovereign ambitions. This was a country we were told over and over again that is has all but officially declared its recognition of Somaliland sovereign existence. Now the bitter truth that cannot be swept pushed under the carpet even by the futile whining of the current administration is that fact that Ethiopia’s only interest, however myopic and selfish, is a chaotic Somalia.

Our either imbecile or outright treasonous politicians have been successful in hiding the blaring truth about the long cohabitation between Puntland clannish dictators and Meles administration. This success has embolden the Ethiopian dictatorship to arm sections of our population under the illegal occupation by the Majerteenian militia as they are sure the current administration will do the dirty job of reducing any possible breakdown in their relationship with Somaliland. The undefined representative of Meles’ dictatorship will be called, there will be a possible denial of the incidence, an imbecile minister or even the President of Somaliland will go to Addis Ababa and we will be treated to another barrage of half truths and outright lies.

What about Kenya? This is yet another country that can theoretically reap benefit from the recognition of Somaliland. Somalia without Somaliland will never be in any position to threaten the territorial integrity of both Kenya and Ethiopia. In short extending political recognition to Somaliland will effectively be a death blow to Somali irredentism. Then the question is why don’t they grab this opportunity and finish off this resilient threat to their territories?

While Ethiopia is determine to perpetuate the current status quo indefinitely, Kenya is simply held back but perennial policy weakness of its foreign department and the strong standing of the Ogaden clans in its government structures. Although the current quagmire is not costly to Ethiopia, Kenya is disproportionately incurring huge economic, security and demographic costs that are occasioned by the never ending influx of refugees to its country.

The next logical question is why does not our government understand this basic geopolitics and come up with appropriate policy measures to advance our national interest? Well, the answer is very simple. We don’t have individual with the right amount of passion, expertise and even interest to work along such lines. The only glimmer we had was in the First Lady of Somaliland politics, Mrs. Edna. But the hooligans saw the opportunity to employ Foreign policy as a ready cash cow and the rest is history.

Opposition Parties that Don’t Exist

What about the opposition parties? I would not be surprised if one asked if they exist at all! They were established amid songs and street carnivals but after loosing election to a lame duck, phew, they disappeared. We get to hear occasional cries and politics by emails. Their top brass are all to the last one a resident refugee abroad and thus the plethora of external seminars, congregation of day dreaming and self assuaging Diaspora intellects.

Has anyone ever heard of a recruitment campaign undertaken by any political in Somaliland? Or public meetings by the opposition aimed at sensitizing the public about the mismanagement of their country? Has anyone seen the development of party structures beyond the golden triangle of Hargeisa-Burco-Berbera? Is there a single political party that has developed a comprehensive manifesto other than the usual suspect mission statements that may as well be a product of cut and paste? Can anyone dare continue with the same old excuse of resource limitation to explain away these glaring failures?

Reckless Sycophancy

Another potentially fatal development is the increasing number of individuals who sycophantically are subscribing to the fanciful idea of ‘Federation or Confederation’ as middle way between the unionist extremist battle cry for Somaliweyn and passionate Somalilander nationalists. This posturing is nothing short of a complete sell out through the back door.

To put the fact straight, when a southern Somaliland denier talks of federation they know it is a face saving ploy to lure back the recalcitrant Somalilander back to Hamar. The Somaliland sycophant on the other hand has absolutely no idea what he declares to support as his immediate goal is to endear himself to southerners. He does not care that they are laughing at our failures. He is not even sensitive to know that we cannot conceivably engage in any form of negotiation aimed at discussing our rational and sovereign decision to go it separate. His is just to placate as he suffers from extreme sense of inferiority complex.

MPs Whose Work is to Earn Undeserved Salary

What are the recently elected MPs doing? Did their mandate start and end with infighting and acrimonies tussle with the Gurti? How can they justify the salaries they are earning? Is there a single MP who has gone back to his constituency and inquired about their problems let alone suggesting a solution to their problems? Is any of the established committees undertaking its duty? If they are lacking capacity, who is denying them to vigorously seek such capacities?

What kind of expertise knowledge does an MP needs to enable him rally his constituents to undertake a self help project like repairing or building a classroom? What resources does he require to raise the profile of government corruption, ineptitude and mismanagement? Ever heard of an MP talking about the needs of his constituents? Nah, it seem that is beyond their exalted positions!

What Next for Somaliland?

Should we all cry like I am doing? Or should we demand more from those whom we have elected into position of leadership? But are the politicians to be trusted with our destiny? Or do they need to be coerced into accepting the reality that the status quo is unsustainable? What about the defunct SMN? Is a resurrection possible or even necessary to safeguard ourselves from the enemy within and without?

What are the local civic organization doing and potentially capable of doing? Are they just like the amoebic ‘community organizations’ of the Diaspora whose main function is to provide salaries for their owners in the name of serving an imaginary community? Or do they have the capacity to enlighten the ordinary folks about their rights and hence effectively enable them to check against government failures and misdeeds?

What about the mass addiction to Khat? How can we stop this sinful drain on our masculinity and resources? For how long can our men opt for the psychopathic refuge aka mafrish aka Somali pub and leave behind their economic, social, marital, political and above all religious obligations? How many broken families, mental disintegration, mass indolence, empty ambitions and bankruptcy do we have to register before we start to seriously fight this mass addiction? Do we need something similar to the opium wars of China against the traders of this bitter herb? Or do we invite in Sheikh Aweys with the express instruction to clear this problem from our community?

My wailing continues till these question get answered and my people wake up to challenge the enemy within and without.

Emperor_smld@yahoo.com