by Abdulkadir Khalif
Sunday, September 12, 2010
The two administrations in Hargeisa and Mogadishu respectively, planned to merge on July 1, 1960 to form what was to be the Republic of Somalia.
It was a joyous moment for all Somalis. The future seemed bright.
My mother served dinner early on the eve of independence celebrations, before taking us to the town square in my home-township of Beledweyne, 335km north of Mogadishu.
At the square, hundreds of school children dressed in blue and white uniforms, anxiously waited for the big announcement.
Dances from all corners of Somaliland, songs by school choirs, skits and music were performed.
When midnight struck, the crowd burst into joyous ululations, song and dance. To crown the ceremony were three district administrative policemen with a Somalia flag, neatly folded.
Also on standby for the historic moment were three army officers in starched khaki uniforms, who followed closely, holding trumpets ready to blow to the country’s independence.
As the new national anthem was sung, the Italian and UN flags were symbolically lowered; Somalia’s sky blue flag with five-pointed white stars was hoisted at full mast.
The cheers, chants and jubilations were crowned by a display of fireworks that lit the night sky.
It was a moment to savour for a country that had been through years of Italian ocupation until 1941 when the British defeated Italy in the Horn of Africa war at the height of the Second World War.
The British stayed on for nine years before the territory was granted a UN Trusteeship under Italy for 10 years.
During the trusteeship, Somalia experimented with democracy. A territorial Council, a local type of parliament, was established in Mogadishu in 1954 with 90 members acting as legislators.
The man who was later to become the country’s first president, Aden Abdulle Osman alias Aden Adde, chaired the council.
It was during the trusteeship period that an interim government was established with five ministers and a prime minister to lead Somalia to independence.
One of the milestones of independent Somalia was the 1961 constitutional referendum. When it became law, the constitution spelt out the process of picking a president, among other issues.
Somalia had two general elections, two presidential elections and three prime ministers in just nine years; a remarkable achievement.
Height of democracy
Growth of democracy was symbolised by the smooth transition of the presidency in 1967 when Aden Adde lost the top post to Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke.
With eight regions, a national assembly, a government made of just over 10 ministers and a presidency at Villa Somalia in Mogadishu, the country had a truly manageable establishment.
All checks and balances were in place.
But the political stability was to be upset on October 15, 1969. A group of army officers staged a coup d’état. Elected leaders, including the prime minister Mohamed Ibrahim Egal and Mr Adde, were ousted from leadership and forced into a camp in Afgoye town, 30km north of Mogadishu.
This was five days after President Sharmarke had been assassinated. And instead of grieving with the rest of the nation, some army officers took over power.
The Supreme Revolutionary Council that was immediately established to run the country undemocratically, quickly abolished the constitution.
Some historians believe that there were other groups in the army that were planning to overthrow the civilian government, but the group led by Gen Mohamed Siad Barre out-manouvred them.
That would explain the number of coup attempts against the junta.
A series of decrees by the Supreme Revolutionary Council eroded the civil liberties. “The nation was split. One was either Kacaan (revolutionary) or Kacaan-deed (reactionary), the latter deserving punishment — from longer jail terms to firing squads,” recalled Ali Omar Dhubow, a resident of Mogadishu.
The police were stripped of their powers as were other security agencies.
A brand of Soviet-style socialism was proclaimed to ensure that everything was under the ruling junta’s control.
The ruling party, especially its ideological branch, imported the philosophy and practices from Moscow and Pyongyang in North Korea.
But the 1990s saw the fall of the Barre dictatorial regime, leaving Somalia in turmoil.
The junta had refused to heed all calls for change from intellectuals and other stakeholders in the country.
The leadership turned repressive, filling prisons from Mandera to Hargeisa in the north, to Lanta Buur, south of Mogadishu, with dissidents.
The junta faced a gradual opposition by armed rebels, turning what they claimed as “the bloodless revolution” into bloody power struggle.
The regime could have been brutal, but the opposition was more disorganised. Most of the rebels lacked national entity, and owed their allegiance to clans, right from Somali National Movement and Somali Salvation Democratic Front in the North to the United Somali Congress in the southern regions.
Though it was mostly secular groups that were opposing the government, others with religious agenda were growing. They had no arms. Al-Ikwaan al-Muslimeen emerged influential at mosques and at clandestine meeting halls.
As the military regime disintegrated, the Islamists split into two factions, a less radical one and a more militant group.
Al-Islah chose to persuade the public to choose an Islamic State as its philosophy while Al-Ittihad Al-Islamy chose the gun to impose an Islamic state.
For nearly a decade and a half, the clan-based warlords dominated the political and military scene in southern and central Somalia.
Groups in Northern Somalia formed enclaves along clan lines known as Somaliland and Puntland. They are far more peaceful, but have had little interest in seeking the unity of the nation.
Civilian war
Millions of Somalis fled as the civil war took its toll on the country, only returning to Mogadishu when the first signs of statehood emerged, following the conclusion of the Somali Reconciliation Conference at Arta in Djibouti, that gave birth to the Transitional National Government led by Dr Abdiqassim Salad Hassan in 2000.
The TFG today faces the wrath of the Islamists who have undergone a radical transformation.
Currently, al-Shabaab, with alleged links to al-Qaeda, has radicalised the politics and has become a national and regional problem.
According to the spokesman of al-Shabaab, Sheikh Ali Momaoud Raghe alias Sheikh Ali Dhere, only Islamic holidays like Eid, the hajj and such like can be celebrated.
No wonder there was little to celebrate on the country’s 50th Independence anniversary.
Source: East African