Hiiraan Online

by Idris Ahmed Guled (Idris Ganey)
Thursday, July 30, 2009

It has been obvious to everyone who is familiar with the unfolding tragedy of Somalia that there are no legitimate groups in the country that could be entrusted to the Somali affairs. The objective of the vast majority of individuals involved in politics is to benefit monetarily from the crisis in the country.  It is understandable why the international community is hesitant to get involved in the Somali affairs as there are no trustworthy interlocutors to deal with.  Recently two French men were kidnapped from the Sahafi hotel in Mogadishu in daylight with the help of high ranking officers from the interior ministry according to reports from Somalia. These TFG officers and many others in the opposition group, local media, businessmen, and civil society groups are members of cliques that are actively engaged in keeping the country hostage. These groups have one common interest that unites them strongly which is to hold the country in chaos and make money on the Somali mishap.

A snap shot of the reality on the ground reveals the sad truth about Somalia. The TFG officials who are alleged to have assisted the kidnapping of the two French men are part of the clique who emphatically opposes peace as peace translates into demise in their lexicon.  Inside the TFG there are many MPs or members of the cabinet who fall under this category. Peace is not in their interest.

The second group contesting peace includes members of the opposition group. Dahir Aweys the leader of Xisbul-Shaytaan (the Satan party) at the peak of recent fighting between his group and the government called Mogadishu residents to be patient while his militiamen continues shelling and displacing residents from their homes.  What a ridiculous call to make? Does he know that it is twenty years since the war in Mogadishu began and does he understand the extent of the human tragedy the war has caused? Or does he care about Somalia or what he calls defending Somalia from the enemy? Or may be for him the war conveniently started only in 2007 when his clan militia lost the control of most of Somalia. He is thirsty for power, but bogusly claims to be fighting against what he calls invaders of Somalia, the African peacekeeping forces. AU forces are soldiers sent to Somalia to defend the government institutions that he is planning to destroy. Are we to believe that Uganda and Burundi governments have the desire to colonize Somalia with a small number of ill-equipped soldiers? Dahir Awes and his cronies want the public and the international community to believe that AU forces are the hurdle for the stability in Somalia. Isn’t this the same deception of Sheikh Sharif and Dahir Aweys who in 2007 and 2008 argued that if Ethiopians leave Somalia the war would end? See what happened since! As Dahir Aweys boycotted the peace process, he easily changed his political stripe; now he is a leopard in sheep’s clothing, but nobody is fooled here. Xisbul Sheytaan and Alshabaab are blaming sheikh Sharif to be an Ethiopian stooge as a ploy to accomplish their ultimate goal. These bogus religious leaders twist some Ayah (verses) of the Quran to justify their evil actions. The ideology of Alshabab, a terrorist organization with close links to Al-Qaeda is not only a threat to the security of the Somali public, but it also poses grave danger to the Horn of Africa region. They will continue to kill to achieve their evil goals, but they don’t have long-tern political future in Somalia since their actions are contrary to the Islamic teachings and disgrace to the good people of Somalia. Their cruel behaviors are beyond any human imagination.

Within the opposition group there are also many individuals who have never pursued a private career in their life time but spent all their life seeking government positions. These individuals are infamously known to join opposition groups if they are not offered positions in the government.  Unfortunately, this group constitutes the majority of former cabinet members in previous administrations including those who served in Barre’s regime. Let us take the cases of Zakaria H. Abdi and Ambassador Ahmed Hashara; these two individuals have both served in the TNG of former president Abdiqasim Hassan. The TNG was created in Arte, Djibouti and was not a Somali product, but was an administration cobbled together to serve Somalia. Would you believe that these two men are now arguing that the current government of Sheikh Sharif is illegitimate as it is an outside product with no Somali ownership? What a case of Amnesia! What about the TNG that they both served?  It was conceived, birthed and midwife-d in Djibouti by non other than President Isamil Ghelle of Djibouti, the same midwife who delivered the Sharif government. It is not a matter of ideology or principle why these two men and many others are in the opposition today. And by the way what sense does it make to be part of an opposition group when the majority of the Somali population doesn’t have a decent shelter, food to eat and water to drink. Isn’t it immoral to continue shelling civilians’ everyday to achieve a political ambition?   Isn’t it corrupt to support groups that know only how to kill and destroy?  The similarity of the history of how these two men joined the opposition group is striking and it all began with decisions made by the former president Abdullahi Yusuf. Mr. Zakaria didn’t make to the cabinet of Prime Minister Ali Ghedi as President Abdullahi Yusuf made it clear that he preferred his long time friend Mr. Ali Ismail Abdigiir from the Leylkase clan to be in the cabinet and not Mr. Zakaria who also comes from the same clan.  Also as a normal government bureaucratic process, Mr. Abdullahi Yusuf named a new UN representative to replace Mr. Hashara and that has led both him and Mr. Zakaria who was not offered a cabinet position to join the opposition. Both men may claim they were against Ethiopian occupation, but the truth of the matter is they don’t care about the Somali tragedy as long as their interests are not met. Mr. Zakaria Abdi is a crusader for his personal interest, like all Somali politicians, who endlessly couch their personal interests in national and contrived patriotism. Now Ambassador Hashara and Mr. Zakaria have the gall to second guess the motives behind the peace policies of UN Special Envoy Mr. Ahmed Ould Abdalla and fault all the Somali ills on him, instead of extricating themselves from associating with terror groups and states that sponsor terrorism such as Eritrea.

Another group engaged in destabilizing the country by virtue of relaying twisted information is the local media. The Somali media emerged as clan propaganda machine serving the interest of the Somali warlords. Some of these reporters did receive a few training here and there, but only very few of them have some basic education and may understand the ethic of unbiased context-driven reporting. Although some of these media outlets receive international donations aimed to improve freedom of expression in Somalia, their main focus always remained to incite wars and endorse the political positions of their clan affiliates. It is understandable why they would not support peace as the owners of some of the most influential websites and radios are former militiamen who took part in human rights violation in Somalia.  It was shocking to read a recent comment posted at Waagacusub.com, a fierce website, about the ongoing corruption and fight within the Somali media association called ASOJ. If the information posted in this website which clearly describes the current mentality is correct; it is then obvious why the self-styled media is at war with peace in Somalia. They thrived at a chaotic period in the history of Somalia, and at this juncture, their reporting capacity is not geared to serve a peaceful society. They have more to lose in peace than in war as most of the warlords they served.

Organizations of Somali civil society groups also fall into the same “spoiler” category of those with strong interest of perpetuating the war in Somalia.  They have no interest in peace as they currently provide services that a government would normally grant if and when peace prevails. They enjoy the privilege and the connections they gained as non governmental actors that has enabled them to have easy access to the international aids and international diplomacy.  For them it is a matter of power and money as well. With a functioning government, the majority of them will become irrelevant as they will have to work under the watchful scrutiny of the government institutions, where rules and laws must to be respected.

War profiteers are one of the strong groups threatening peace and stability in Somalia. No one could have described better than Jeffrey Gettleman in his article that appeared in New York Times on April 25, 2007 titled “Opportunists in Somalia- from squatter landlords to teenage gunmen for hire to vendors of bad baby formula- profit from continuing chaos”. He pointed out Somali businessmen do not pay taxes, their businesses are totally unregulated, and they have skills that are not necessarily geared toward a peaceful society. Indeed, it can be correctly stated the skills of the NGO operators, Media reporters, civil society members, majority of MPs and cabinet members are not geared toward a peaceful society as they all thrived in the chaos and this is exactly why they will not welcome peace.

It will not be easy to rebuild the Somali nation since the groups opposing it are strong and because of their influence they continue to deceive the international community from all fronts, namely as NGO’s, politicians, media, clan elders, civil society and religious leaders. These individuals wear different hats, but their fundamental goal is to keep Somalia hostage. Somalia needs peace and stability to survive as a nation. A preview of the current Mogadishu actors described above sends a chilling reality. The question is where we go from here?

This is a human right issue and every citizen around the globe has the right to live in peace and dignity. The Somali public should equally have the right to live in peace. The public should not expect anything from anyone, but should take the matter in their hands and fight against all who hate peace. This is a war between life and death and we should not sit a side and wait crooked politicians, businessmen and their cronies to determine the future of the Somali public anymore. The public has been waiting twenty years to live in peace and every time there is someone greedy who escalates the situation for his personal goal; that should not be accepted. It is time to fight members of the clique who are united to tear the country a part. The Somali public has had a history of their liberty being severely curtailed under corrupt politicians.  How much abuses can the public stand?

The TFG is corrupt and non functional and the worst blunder they made was to accommodate the request of one of the most awful human beings (Mr. Indha Cadde) Somalia has ever produced. This man is a malign tumor that has metastasized in the body of the Somali public. He is involved in countless illegal activities from terrorism to kidnapping and pirate business and he is supposedly the man in charge of defense for the TFG. This is a smack in the face of the thousands that are grieving from the wicked deeds he perpetrated to their loved ones.

All the good men of Somalia failed to do their share of keeping evil from thriving. As Edmund Burke once quoted that all that's necessary for the forces of evil to win in the world is for enough good men to do nothing. Tyranny, corruption and religious extremism will not help Somalia. It is time to stop these anarchists. The international endeavor led by Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah to stabilize Somalia merits our support. The blame game must be over!

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