‎‎By Soyan Guled

They came in their thousands on buses, lorries, cars and airplanes. The wealthier ones even chartered private jets. They had one single purpose in mind: to gain as many ministers as possible for their clan in the new government of President Ahmed Silanyo. The weight of the collective pressure these self-appointed clan representatives exerted on the elderly statesman was so overwhelming he could not sleep for days on end.

But before you feel sorry for Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud (AMM) you need to remember he and other politicians have been playing the clan game for their own ends ever since Somaliland declared itself a separate State from Somalia in 1991.

In fact clans can justifiably claim to have liberated and then created the place itself. The armed Somali National Movement (SNM) which defeated Siyad Barre’s forces in Somaliland were not a Marxist movement or a Nationalist one as the title misleadingly implies but a clan-based, clan-armed and clan-sustained organisation fighting for the interests of a clan. To be fair to him this is not how AMM, who lead the movement for six years, would’ve wanted but he had no choice. Somalis do not readily respond to the calls of `Lets Build a Free Liberal Democracy’ or `Comrades Lets work for Marxism and Leninism’ they respond to blood-curdling, goose-bump-inducing brain-frying war cries of `Tol La’ ayey’.

After liberation the clans almost miraculously forgot their ancient blood feuds and decided not to indulge in revenge-taking against `enemy’ clans as tradition dictates. Instead they took their vengeance on the ears of modern politicians like AMM. They held endless `shir beeleds’, mega clan jamboree talkathons open to anyone who wants to have his say. And boy do they have their say. Each monologue can go on for hours without the speaker saying anything in particular. A well-known Somaliland politician driven to distraction after pretending to listen to hundreds of these talks once told me, almost in tears `the worst ones are the ones who raise your hope by starting with the famous opening line ‘everything I ever wanted to say has already been said by the last speaker..’ you sit up a little.. and then he dashes all your expectations by proceeding to say “but I will only add one or two things...” you sink back into your gloom.”

Despite the sneering of urbanised politicians, the `Shir beeleds’ in Somaliland achieved something no other set of meetings or reconciliations achieved anywhere else in Somalia: a lasting peace and stability for the people of Somaliland.

No wonder clan bosses swagger around today in Hargeisa’s halls of power as if they own the place. I have no doubt that slick, smooth, educated modern politicians like AMM thought they could use the clan leaders to create peace and then shove them aside once they were no longer useful. The collection of largely illiterate but devilsihly manipulative clan chiefs had other ideas.

The concepts of owing loyalty to a Nation State or working for national `common good’ are completely alien to them. They will acquiesce to central authority only if they believe this serves the immediate interests of their clan. The only other way is to keep them in line through sheer brute force. But that only works temporarily. Somaliland clans ultimately win any war of attrition because their bloody-mindedness outlasts the bloody-mindedness of any central authority. Anyone who does not believe this could ask Siyad Barre and before him the Mad Mullah both of whom tried and failed the force and imposition option. Al-Shabab in Somalia will soon discover this timeless wisdom: the clan always wins over any ideology or belief system imported from East, West, South or North.

Somaliland’s politicians, including AMM tried to beat the clan bosses at their own game. In AMM’s case hordes of his party apparatchiks whispered sweet nothings into hundreds of eager clan ears. Promises were hinted, winked and on many occasions actually made. ‘vote for us and you can have the Ministry of Goats all to yourself’. Some of these Ministries have been promised ten times over. It is unclear if AMM was behind each and every promise but he certainly made no attempts to stop his flunkeys either.

Instead when the moment of truth came he settled for a classic Silanyo fudge: he produced a bloated cabinet to satisfy clan demands for Cabinet posts but chose the most able from each clan. This is not necessarily what clans want. The geeky, genteel, intellectual types may not deliver the `goods’ the clan requires. And these goods are pretty literal in their minds: run the ministry for the interests of our clan only. Their ambition is as barefacedly shameless as that. Not only do they want a lot of ministries they want to put the worst clan rottweilers as heads of these posts.

No wonder that the Cabinet selection pleased no one. Some clans rioted. Others just mumbled and grumbled and hinted at dark intentions to come. Some went to war, quite literally. A clan from the wild far east formed a group calling itself SSC. Like the SNM before it they try to hide their clannist intentions in the cloak of Pan-Somali nationalism. But the `C’ in the SSC kind of gives away their real intent: It stands for `Cayn’ a reference to a village allegedly captured from them by a neighbouring clan hundred years ago. The clan who supposedly captured the village happens to be the one they believe Silanyo belongs to. And now he heaps more humiliation on the clan by not offering them the Ministry they wanted. Revenge time! It gives you a glimpse into the viciousness of clan culture.

So how does Somaliland deal with this? Actually there is a way but AMM is not your man for this. Clans may just about be accommodate meritocracy as long as they know no other clan is getting a bigger share of the pie. If AMM had the ruthlessness to look clans in the eye and told them that he will appoint the best even if all turned out to be members of his own family, clans may have blinked. But that is not his style. He is a poker player not a sharp shooter.

The opportunity will arise again for whoever follows AMM to the seat of power in five years time. But if Somaliland is to survive, the shameless empire of the clan must be replaced by the authority of the Central State.

Soyan Guled <soyan@live.co.uk>  

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