As Somaliland takes a slide into the unknown,
many questions come to the mind of those of us who advocated and still believe
in the legitimacy of the Somaliland cause and have a great faith in the
ingenuity and wisdom of the people of Somaliland. Among the questions that race
through the mind is whether this downward slope brought about by the Somaliland
government’s rush to attend the London Conference on Somalia, will cause it to
free fall into the abyss or whether the slide will be due to a temporary
misstep after which Somaliland will regain her balance and will continue the
journey with her renowned stride.
Is this hasty decision to participate in the
London Conference and the unprecedented unanimous support given to Mr. Ahmed
Mohamed Silanyo’s government by the legislative houses, political parties and
some community elders an expression of desperation after twenty years of
seeking recognition have came to nothing?
Or is it an attempt to change tactics and to
reposition Somaliland’s foreign strategy by adopting a new policy of engagement
with the international community and the TFG instead of the standing policy of
Somaliland’s successive governments’ that was based on digging in their heels?
Is the government’s decision a pre-emptive
action aimed at stymieing any attempts by the recently declared mini-states of
Awdal and Khaatumo to be heard in the London Conference?
Or is it a long and drawn out agenda, carefully
crafted with shrewdness and deceit by President Silanyo and his henchmen to
scuttle Somaliland’s sovereignty and trade it for a hero’s welcome and posts in
Mogadishu?
To save time and space, I will leave most of the
above questions open to be answered by time, but I will tackle the last one,
speculating on Mr. Silanyo’s perceived intentions and agenda for Somaliland.
A Wounded Ego
Any observer who tracks Ahmed Mohamed Mr.
Silanyo’s history will surely surmise that he has never forgiven the SNM
Command for removing him from the SNM leadership in 1990 in Baligubadle and
denying him to be the hero who announces the victory of the SNM over Siyad
Barre.
At the time of Baligubadle Conference, Mr.
Silanyo was almost six years at the helm of the SNM and the military regime of
Siyad Barre was on the verge of collapse. But when Abdirahman Ahmed Ali (Tuur)
was elected to replace him, Mr. Silanyo must have naturally felt cheated. Like
any guerrilla leader, Mr. Silanyo would have definitely liked to be the one who
celebrates the victory lap, raises Somaliland’s flag and be remembered as the
founder of the new country.
It was Mr. Silanyo’s fate to watch Abdirahman
Tuur and later Mohamed Ibrahim Egal claim the honor of being recognized as the
founders of Somaliland. If someone else was called the founder, he must have
told himself, he should carve his own legacy in the people’s psyche by becoming
the hero of the reunification of Somaliland with Somalia. If anyone would think
this to be a wild claim or a stretch of imagination, let us explore together
the political legacy of Mr. Silanyo during the existence of Somaliland.
After leaving Egal’s cabinet, Mr. Silanyo stayed
in political wilderness for a while, apparently brooding about his comeback and
how he would revenge for his damaged ego.
He probably saw his first chance after Egal’s
death, when Mr. Silanyo rushed back to Hargeisa and lobbied to be elected as
Rayale’s Vice President. He even met Rayale face-to-face and asked him to
nominate him as his vice president. He must have been dumbfounded when Rayale
overstepped him and took Ahmed Yusuf Yasin, an unknown figure and a political
novice as his Vice President.
The Odyssey Begins:
Laying Out the Plan
Thinking that Rayale’s sojourn in the
Presidential palace will be short and temporary, Mr. Silanyo formed his own
party Kulmiye, pushing aside his clansman Suleiman Mahamoud Adan (Suleyman
Gaal), who was the chairman of ASAD Party, by using his SNM credentials. Even
at that time people who knew Mr. Silanyo closely made their own interpretations
about the name he chose for his party. Kulmiye (unifier) they thought was a
signal to where Mr. Silanyo would lead the nation if he was elected.
But the real blow to Mr. Silanyo came when Dahir
Rayale Kahin, a non-SNM and a former NSS officer, defeated him in the first
Presidential election 2003 on his own turf. This must have caused a permanent
dent to Mr. Silanyo’s ego and planted in him the seed for revenge.
He launched a relentless mobilization campaign
that went non-stop for almost six years. He used the tribal card, the SNM card
and every plausible tactic he could muster to discredit Rayale even at the
expense of destroying Somaliland’s image abroad. He rallied the Somaliland
diaspora behind him by invoking the memory of the SNM struggle and tribal
sentiments.
The Garadag Conference
When the second presidential elections came
closer, Mr. Silanyo seemed to have panicked to the extent that he couldn’t
trust his party base and instead convened the Garadag Conference of his
sub-clan. This was the first time that a Somaliland national leader of his
caliber resorted to clan politics. None of the previous three leaders, Abdirahman
Tuur, Egal and Rayale, nor even Faisal Ali Waraabe, the leader of UCID, had
stooped so low to publicly and exclusively convene their sub-clans and seek
their endorsement.
The Garadag Conference had converted Mr. Silanyo
from a national leader to a tribal chief. His battle cry was: “It is our turn”,
but his tacit message was that if he was not elected this time, Somaliland had
to prepare for the return of his sub-clan to Mogadishu or what we may
retrospectively consider to have meant the creation of Garadag State.
To prove this one doesn’t have to go far. The
flight of Dr. Mahmoud Abdillahi Jama Sifir, Mr. Silanyo’s campaign manager
during the 2003 election, to Mogadisho after Mr. Silanyo’s defeat was a
stark reminder of where Mr. Silanyo would have led Somaliland if he won
the election. The unceremonious return of Dr. Sifir to Hargeisa after Mr.
Silanyo has won the country’s presidency in July 2010 is another manifestation
that Dr. Sifir was only acting as an emissary for Mr. Silanyo in Mogadishu.
Many people were perplexed how Dr. Sifir could
just return to Somaliland while the law banning Somaliland politicians who
engage in politics in Mogadishu was still in place and many prominent people
before him including General Jama Mohamed Ghalib, first police commander of
Somaliland after independence and Somali police commander and minister of
interior under Siyad Barre, were imprisoned and deported as a result. However
under Mr. Silanyo well known unionists such as Osman Kallun, Jama Galib and
others have just slipped back into the country without facing any charges. The
only interpretation of this development is that these gentlemen probably knew
well Silnayo’s stance on the sovereignty of Somaliland.
But while Mr. Silanyo was on one side showing
magnanimity and the tolerance of statesmanship to his people and pardoning
those politicians who came from Mogadishu, he on the other side denied giving
the same treatment to those hailing from Awdal. Two Somali TFG MPs from Borama,
Abdoo Shoodhe and Ahmed Huseein (Sitiin) were deported from Awdal, while a
number of Borama youth and one of the Awdal diaspora were imprisoned for
unfounded suspicions of being members of Awdal State. If this is not a
deliberate act of mockery of justice of Orwellian proportions, I do not know
what else to call it.
Another manifestation of Mr. Silanyo’s apparent
links to Mogadishu was the sense of relief felt in the South and the
congratulatory messages that Mr. Silanyo received from the various political
forces and communities in Mogadishu during his campaign and after his election.
A policy of Alienation
and Provocation
Mr. Silanyo’s first ministerial cabinet looked
like an exclusive club. The Hargeisa humor mill immediately branded it as the
government of “Xigtada iyo Xaynka” (relatives and in-laws). The stark absence
of Awdal and Sool representation in key cabinet portfolios and senior
government posts was another harsh reminder of Mr. Silanyo’s policy of
alienation and injustice-induced frustration.
In a further step that reminded people of the
tactics of socialist states, Mr. Silanyo launched a sweeping purge of the
government’s civilian employees in an apparent step of cleaning the government
house of UDUB sympathizers and making place for his own supporters. However,
many observers considered this a calculated measure aimed at driving a wedge
between the different clans of the community, particularly as the clans on the
peripheries have taken the brunt of the civil employee purge.
While the writing was on the wall for all to see, it needed someone like Faisal
Ali Waraabe, Chairman of UCID Party, to say it bluntly: “Dalkii Qaylo ayaa ka
yeedhaysa la leeyahay Eexasho Xoog ah ayaa jirta oo shaqooyinkii iyo
dhaqaalihii midna looma sinna , Qabyaaladiina geeso ayey yeelatay waa in aynu
geesaha ka jaraa, Beelaha iyo gobolada cabanaaya ee ay ka mid tahay Awdal iyo
Laascaanood ay ka mid tahay waa in awooda dalka qaybtooda la siiyaa oo maaha in
la isku koobooo in ay qolo qudhi qadato awooda sare..” Faysal Cali Waraabe
(Source: Togaherer.com)
Faisal did not hide his fears that such
injustice and lack of inclusive government could lead to the collapse of
Somaliland: “…waxaan idiin sheegaya in ay ahayd waxani waxyaalihii ay Somaliya
ku burburtay in awoodii dalka ay reero kaliyi burbursaden Wadadii aynu ka
dagaalanay ee cadaalad darada ahay in aynu marno maaha…” Faysal Waraabe.
(Source: Togaherer.com)
But instead of rectifying these obvious
injustices and addressing the genuine grievances of the peripheral communities,
Mr. Silanyo has slapped them in the face again by removing all Somaliland’s
representatives (ambassadors) and appointing new ones who in contrary to
tradition did not include a single person from the Sool and Awdal regions.
Even when Mr. Silanyo sacked the country’s Chief
Justice many people assumed that the position should go to the people of Sool
who unlike those in Awdal were not represented in any key position in the
country’s government organs. However, it surprised no one but those uninitiated
in Mr. Silanyo’s policy of “segregate and provoke sedition” when he ignored the
popular demand and had filled the post with one of his own people, thus further
widening the fault line between his government and the people of Sool.
Cheerleader Opposition
What is astoundingly confusing and eerily
suspicious is how Mr. Silanyo managed to silence all types of opposition from
the clans of the central regions. Somaliland opposition on both the political
and communal level used to be robust and highly critical of all previous
governments.
The late President Mohamed Ibrahim Egal met
tough opposition from both the political establishment and the people. He even
survived a parliament impeachment by one single vote. This was the man who was
the first Prime Minister of Somaliland after Independence, the last elected
Prime Minister of the Somali Republic, the father of the new Somaliland and one
of the most charismatic statesmen that Somaliland and Somalia have ever
produced. But this brilliant leadership record and his skillful management of
clan politics did not spare Egal from being the butt of a stiff opposition from
political novices at the time such as Suleiman Mahmoud Aden (Sulieman Gaal) and
others who gave him a tough time to fight for his political survival.
Dahir Rayale also did not enjoy a peaceful time
in office as Mr. Silayo himself and the forces he mobilized have exercised no
less than scorched earth tactics to intimidate him, incite hatred against him
and eventually oust him.
But after coming to power, all opposition forces have suddenly become
emasculated. The Somaliland Forum, the Diaspora group that was extremely vocal
against Egal and Rayale and portrayed itself as the vanguard of Somaliland’s
nationalism had suddenly fallen silent. The torrent of media outlets that
peaked due to their gung-ho opposition to Rayale had laid down their gauntlets
as many of them have been rewarded for their efforts with government posts and
other favors. And the only few media people who dared to monitor the government’s
wrong doings have been intimidated, gagged and at times beaten and ruthlessly
incarcerated in dozens (Source: Guardian).
As a measure of counterbalance, Mr. Silanyo has
extended the coverage of the official national TV and has opened a branch of it
in the UK to use it as his mouthpiece and populate it with his former media
cronies. This is the leader that made freedom of speech a hallmark of his
political philosophy and never failed to assail Rayale government for its
treatment of the media and freedom of expression.
Plagued by internal conflicts, the two main
opposition parties have ended up in disarray and many people point fingers at a
hidden government hand in paralyzing them. This explains what happened to
Faisal Ali Waraabe, the only vocal and bold opposition voice heard today.
Prominent community elders and respected
religious clerics who dared to criticize Mr. Silanyo’s government such as Boqor
Raabi were imprisoned or summoned to police for investigation. (Source:
Somaliland.org). Only Boqor Osman Aw Mahamoud Buurmadow who currently resides
outside the country remains a formidable opposition figure.
Lambasting Mr. Silanyo’s nervousness about
criticism and his government’s heavy-handedness in dealing with freedom of
speech and the disappearance of the role of the opposition, Hassan Essa Jama,
Somaliland’s former Vice President and a highly respected intellectual and SNM
veteran, said:
“…Immika labada maamul ee kala dambeeyey
midna mabuu digiigixanayn (kii hore), kuwana haddaad dhinacooda jalleecdo oo
aad xiix tidhaa adigoo cunnaha bannaysanaaya dhagaxu wuu kugu yaallaa. Waxaa la
yidhi mayd maxaa ugu dambeeyey iyo kaa la sii sido, waxaa markhaati ka ah
Faysal Cali Waraabe, Faysal waa ninka mucaaradada Somaliland ku
keliyeystay sannadka iyo badhka maamulakani jiray, laba saddex eray oo uu
meelahaa ka yidhi saska laga qaaday markhaati ayaad ka tihiin ee aan loo
kala hadhin ee cid xaal bixisay aanay jirin ee cid ladqabe ka gashay aanay
jirin ee rag iyo dumar la isu soo raacay…”
Elucidating the role of the opposition that Mr.
Silanyo’s government wants to eradicate, Jama said: “Mucaaridnimadu waa xil
qaran. Mucaaridka iyo muxaafidku waa labada lugood ee qaranimadu ku taagan
tahay. Haddii labada mid uun xanuun soo galo ummaddu waa dhutinaysaa. Markaa
labaduba waxa loo baahan yahay in ay caafimaad qabaan si ay qaranimadu u sii
waarto.”(Source: Ogaal News)
In an apparent disdain of the unwarranted
cheerleading of the opposition and the public for government officials in every
occasion, Mohamed Ibrahim Hadrawi, the renowned poet, admonished the youth in
riding such a despicable trend by saying: “Dhallinyaroy mid fadlakum sacabku
waxba ma macneeyo ee sacabka iska daaya; Wallaahi waxba ma macneeyo oo waa
jahli ee sacabka innaga daaya. Qofku wuxuu goobta u yimaad ma aha in uu
sacabiyo ee waa inuu waxa la leeyahay wax uun kala baxo meesha..”
Gladdened by the truth of Hadrawi’s statement,
Hassan Essa Jama added:
“…Waan u muusoobay oo waxaan idhi Ilaahayow yaa qodobkaa fahamsiiya
siyaasiyiinta sacabka jecel. Siyaad Barre maan arag anigu oo aad baa loogu
sacabin jiray baa la yidhi; oo isagaa xataa isu sacabin jiray marka loo
sacabinayo….malaha Hadraawow sacabkii waad ka haqab-beeshee, waxaan aqaan
qolooyin wali u jeellan oo aad ugu baahan…” (Source: Jamhuuriya)
This is indeed an unhealthy political
environment; a country without checks and balances, without dissention, a
country where the houses of parliament and opposition leaders just rubber-
stamp the president’s dictates cannot claim to have a functioning democracy.
The majority of Silnayo’s cabinet members are expatriates whose only aim is
presumably to get quick and tax-free cash to pay their mortgages in their
adopted countries. They have no interest in rocking the boat and spoiling their
newly-found fame and fortunes. It is again Faisal Ali Waraabe who illustrates
the rampant corruption practices taking place in Mr. Silanyo’s government:
“..Wakhtigii dawladii Rayaale waxaynu maqli
jiray musuqmaasuq jira, musuqmaasuqaasi wuxuu ahaa wax la wada arkayo oo aan
dhaafsiisnayn mid xooga-xada iyo ku Guri ka dhista dalka, taasi saleelo ayey
ahayd maanta Tan Siilaanyo waxa iskugu yimid niman xatooyatada iyo musuqmaasuqu
heerku gaadhay Mortgages (Caymisyo) guryo lagaga iibsanayo Yurub iyo Maraykanka
dee xogaagii aynu haysanay ma in danyarta loogu shaqeeyo ayuu noqon, mise in
Mortgageka (Caymisyo) Guryaha Yurub iyo Maraykanka lagu bixiyo..” (Source:
Qaran News)
Undoing Somaliland’s Hard
Won Gains
One of Mr. Silanyo’s loyal Ministers who used to
be a die-hard critic of the Rayale administration confided to me recently that
he was surprised to learn that Rayale’s industrious Foreign Minister Abdillahi
Duale had elevated Somaliland’s international standing to the extent that the
country was on the verge of gaining recognition.
It is no secret that Somaliland had many
regional and international friends during the Rayale-Duale period. Somaliland
had enjoyed robust and close relations with Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya, South
Africa and beyond. As a veteran Minister, Abdillahi Duale had travelled wide
and far during his long service and he established warm ties with many of his
African counterparts and senior personalities of the African Union. This is why
Somaliland was allowed as an observer in many regional conferences.
A friendly, suave and gregarious personality,
Duale had also built a pool of international academics and diplomats who
actively advocated and campaigned for the cause of Somaliland. Dualeh did this
without compromising the sovereignty of Somaliland in anyway. He is also known
to be one of the few ministers who did not use his government post for personal
gain.
Mr. Silanyo government has squandered all that
effort to the extent that Somaliland’s ties with Ethiopia have become untenable
and most if not all the international activists for Somaliland have
disappeared.
The stability and security of the country, two
factors that attracted great admiration for Somaliland had also suffered as the
rate of criminal acts, clan conflicts and homicides have increased while the
country has become a refuge for Al Shabab returnees who escaped from the
Ethiopian push into Southern Somalia. Extremist elements that were kept under
the government’s radar during Egal and Rayale’s administrations have become
emboldened under Mr. Silanyo.
The only explanation in my opinion for
dismantling of Somaliland’s gains and allowing the security to loosen was to
create a situation of heightened urgency to show Somaliland as a soft target
for international terrorism as a pretext to invite foreign intervention and
eventual return to the fold of the failed Somali union.
How Garadag “State”
begotten Awdal and Khaatumo “States”
Instead of dissipating the image that Somaliland
is a one clan-based entity as claimed by anti-Somaliland forces, Mr. Silanyo
reinforced this concept by forming a government of Xigto iyo xidid. He
deliberately avoided including people from Awdal & Salal in his appointed
ambassadors, key ministries, police, military and intelligence commanders and
the Chief Justice of the country. Even in his foreign trips he takes with him
his close relatives. This is not an honest oversight but a shrewd calculation
aimed at instigating sedition among the clans in the peripheries and pushing
them to convene their own Garadag-style clan conferences to design their own
future.
Unlike the policies of Egal and Rayale who saw
the damage that any retrospective reading of history could do to the peaceful
co-existence and harmony of the communities and hence avoided to invoke the
memories of the civil war, Mr. Silanyo’s revial of the Mujahid vs Faqash
rhetoric and his proposal of building monuments for the SNM fighters was
another attempt to provoke the people of Awdal and Sool and to re-ignite in
them old feelings of resentment, domination and fear.
Finally, the declaration of these peripheral
states came as a result of Mr. Silanyo’s own doing. And in a strange
coincidence the London Conference on Somalia has come to Mr. Silanyo as an
extra bonus and appears to have quickly acted to capitalize on it in line with
spirit of the Somali proverb: “Meel aan doonayey roob igu eri” or Rain has
forced me to a place I wished to be.
Mr. Silanyo’s media machinery has quickly moved
in to mitigate any resistance by the people by using buzzwords such as: “we
have been in a container for so long and it is time that we have to present our
case to the world.” Perplexed by the weird mood of the people of
Hargeisa, a young brother of mine has summed up the situation in a satirized
email he sent me from Hargeisa, saying: “ Reer Hargeisa waxa galay saar lagaga
soo tumi jiray Muqdisho…”
The Buuhoodle Fighting
It is also worth mentioning here that while
“Awdal State” remains a peaceful and Diaspora youth-driven facbeook initiative
with little reality on the ground despite hitching on domestic and negotiable
grievances, the Buuhoodle war on “Khaatumo State” is a dangerous
development that puts the peace and stability of the region in great jeopardy.
One cannot miss the role of Dr. Ali Khalif
Galaydh who must have convinced himself that the only way he could return to
the political scene is to follow Mr. Silanyo’s footsteps and go back to his
clan constituency for endorsement and blessing. It was indeed a tragedy to see
Dr. Galaydh trading his academic cloak for clan chieftainship and his
professorship mantle for a militia commander uniform.
With the exception of unfortunate incidents and
grave political differences, the people of Sool have lived in a relative peace
with their brethren in Somaliland over the last 20 years. They did this despite
many of the Sool people had never accepted the Somaliland secession. It is
therefore painful to see a man of Dr. Galaydh’s status who at one time lobbed
for a leadership position in Somaliland to use the brotherly people’s blood as
a ticket to get a seat in the London Conference.
Dr. Galaydh was expected to play a bigger role.
To be a man above the tribal fray, a peace-maker, an agent for communal harmony
and a giant academic who understood more than anyone else that the root causes
of all clan conflicts in Africa were nothing more than a rivalry on dwindling
resources and sometimes on empty nomadic pride.
Both Mr. Silanyo and Dr. Glaydh are committing
grave crimes in pitting the two brotherly communities against each other in
such an internecine and meaningless war. Neither the sovereignty of Somaliland
nor the unity of Somalia is worth wasting the life of the youth and destroying
the livelihood of communities while both men have their homes and families
tugged in peaceful places abroad.
In the internet age of the 21st century when the
youth of the world are competing on education and driving world economy on
their revolutionary innovation, it is a crime to kill our youth on hollow
nationalism and sloganeering of yesteryears and for personal ego boosting. And
for those who expect miracles from the London Conference, here is the first
reality check for them; the Buuhoodle war is one of its first fruits.
London Conference: A
virgin Defiled
In reference to the London Conference, it is
important to note that despite the euphoria and the media hype surrounding it;
the day after the London Conference ends, the reality of Somalia will still be
the same. A country under siege, a country under International Trusteeship; a
country occupied by Ethiopian, Kenyan, Ugandan, and other African forces. Al
Shabab will still be a dominant force and piracy will still be rife in the
Somali seas and beyond.
The TFG leaders will still be bickering over the spoils of the London
Conference. The situation of Somalia will unfortunately remain business as
usual as it always has over the last 20 years with only one difference. This
time the Somalis will have little say more than any time before in running the
affairs of their own country or deciding the future of their people.
On the contrary, if Mr. Silanyo’s agenda is not
thwarted by vigilant Somalilanders, Somaliland will wake up with a different
reality. It will no more be the “Best Kept Secret of Africa”, the fabled oasis
of peace and stability. The chaos in Mogadishu will spill over to it. The
beautiful virgin will wake up the next morning to find herself defiled,
disgraced and disheveled. All that she could hear in her disoriented mental state
will be the harsh words that any raped and dishonored Somali virgin detests to
hear “Ha la asturo” or let us help her to hide her disgrace, meaning that Mr.
Silanyo will put Somaliland before an insurmountable fait accompli: Either she
has to live in disgrace as a pariah forever or she has to accept a forced
marriage”. A diabolical plan made in hell. I hope President Silanyo proves me
wrong, damn wrong, and Somaliland thrives under his stewardship. Let his
history be the judge.
Bashir Goth
Copyright © 2009 - 2024 Sunatimes News Agency All Rights Reserved. |
Home | About Us | Diinta | Reports | Latest News | Featured Items | Articles | Suna Radio | Suna TV | Contact Us |
From Garadag “State” To London Conference: Mr. Silanyo’s Checkered Journey to Power
The Garadag Conference had converted Mr. Silanyo from a national leader to a tribal chief. His battle cry was: “It is our turn”