Hiiraan Online

Northern Somalia “Somaliland” at a Crossroads

Bahal Ceedhin madaayo, ninna caadi ma baajo.

Neither will the carnivores cease eating meat, nor will the indoctrinated change a habit learned.

Somali Proverb!

 by Ahmed I. Yusuf
Thursday, July 10, 2008

This deception to mislead the public about an idea called “Somaliland” had begun long ago.  But to be fair, there was once an opportunity: an opportunity to proceed by broadening the prospect of peaceful coexistence to bring about a better day for all, maybe even a “nation!”  That was when the people of that particular world arrived at a crossroad.  The crossroad that the northern Somalia “Somaliland” was on was the less chosen and the least traveled path of progress, against the much known and well traveled but littered with losses road.  In April 2003, when Riyale arrived at the scene of the seat of power, the northern Somalia was most in-need of a leader who would take the helm and heed the urgent call to address an urgent need; the need to raise democratic ideals from the ashes of what once was a part of a nation.  That leader would have healed the wounds of war, unite his people, make the prospect of peace palatable and possibility of business palpable.  That golden opportunity to patch the bleeding wounds that the civil-war left gored, and then would have stretched an arching arm to possibly dim the damning fire next door in south Somalia, availed itself in “Somaliland”.   Alas, that once in a lifetime golden opportunity to see the schism between the failed policies of the past and the vision to chart a bright future on a new chapter was in the hands of Dahir Riyale Kahin!                             

In April 2003 when the golden opportunity emerged, “Somaliland” had been trundling on a lonely road in search of recognition as an independent nation for twelve years.  “Without authenticity, action drifts.  Without action, authenticity remains idle conjecture and wishful thinking.  Yet there was not a glimmer of hope on the horizon for recognition, but the hot flares of secessionist rhetoric remained blazing in the north while the rest of Somalia stayed mired in a self mutilating war.  At least however, the most precious of human dignity, peace, was finally restored in the north, or so we tought, a presidential election was held for the first time in twenty six years and the private sector seemed to be sauntering toward a road of revitalization.  Most of all however, the historical significance of this presidential election was monumental. One, despite the difficulty of convincing the rest of world that the northerners were a separate nation, northerners wanted to prove that there was/is a life after Siyad Barre and that they were able to govern themselves with democratic ideals as well as get along with each other. As it looked, the public took an inventory of the political wind and felt the urge to avoid repeating the past.  Thus, they rejected the typical clanish status quo for a day and regardless of what the political might, Riyale was elected.  People seemed to sense that the “nation” needed a non-Isaaq leader and against the all odds voted for one.  The victorious Riyale was less educated, less charismatic and worse of all, was an officer in Siyad Barre’s era with the most hated secret service unit; the notorious NSS (Somali Secret Service) and on top of that was stationed in Berbera, a city that had seen its share of human rights abuses at the hands of the NSS at the peak of the struggle against Siyad Barre.  Now however, the majority of the people who suffered under such inhumane treatment still voted “yes” for reconciliation.  This signal was very important to the rest of the non-Isaaqs in north.  Once Riyale became president, the underlined interpretation of his election was that the Daarood, too, could have a say in their own homeland.  How did this opportunity of ushering Riyale in come about and why, then fissile away, one may ask? 

It looked that the public was tired of the monopolization, political chicanery and treasury theft of Riyale’s predecessor, Mohamed Ibraim Egal.

Once on the throne however, unfortunately Riyale took the baton at where Egal had left, running away with it but from the greatest opportunity, an opportunity that a catalyst leader would have seized by exhibiting “personal confidence to facilitate and mediate” all the competing, core interest issues and groups.  It was soon proven that the urgent call for leadership in the northern Somalia arrived in time but obviously with a wrong person.  Riyale would not drop Egal’s contaminated, corrupted baton, thus could not stop time and take the creative, baby steps to conceive a nation.   He leaned on the legacy of Egal’s stick that was laden with divisive dirt, damning theft and devious incompetence.  “[Vice] leaders are unwilling or unable to employ necessary and appropriate leadership strategies such as envisioning, prioritizing, communicating, educating, inspiring, persuading, mobilizing, organizing, coalition building, listening, adapting, getting information, managing, delegating, coordinating, negotiating, implementing…”  He soon saddled himself with all that was vile about Egal, Machiavellian, clannish politics and Siyad Barre boorish arrogance of power inebriation.  Riyale began to lie, steal, abuse, ignore and of course was neither fearful nor ashamed of any of his vices.  As a matter of fact, he went about his business as though wearing a badge of honor by not missing a beat of straddling himself between Siyad Barre’s pattern of despotism, and the daylight robbery of the meager financial yield of the “nation” of Egal.  And worse, Riyale began to murder now! 

Leadership for the Common Vice

Part II

Once on power, Riyal soon stated replicating all that was malicious and mean about Siyad Barre, short of mass graves (which may be coming), and all that was baleful and beastly about Egal.  He began to build up the pile and in fact passed by them both with his luxurious villas around the globe and the lavish Mobutu-like mansions.  And just like his predecessor, Mohamed Ibrahim Egal, Riyale has yet to pass or implement a single meaningful, public policy change.  “Incompetent leaders [are] bad at meeting challenges…coping with complexity…[and] managing change”.  Every University built in the north has been raised from the dust by private donors.  Nothing has been added to the only three semi-highways in the entire “Somaliland” that were paved in Siyad Barre’s era, and even these three are decaying with disrepair.

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Amnesty International and the Paris-based Reporters without Borders have been quite alert and vocal about the perilous time that “Somaliland” journalists have been facing as well as the other human right abuses.  This “government” that has been trying to portray itself as champion of democracy, has been the worst enemy to itself, for it kept on stepping on mines that it had laid.  In other words, it has been attracting all but negative news to itself.   And now that it is murdering unarmed civilians, it will get worse!

The “government” of “Somaliland” is very keen to bankrupt businesses that do not fall inline with their bribery.  For example, the economic backbone of the whole “nation” depends on livestock exports (sheep, goats, camels and cattle).  The only port equipped to accommodate both shipping and unloading livestock is in Berbera, the ancient city hugging the Gulf of Eden.  Millions of livestock heads that are shipped to the Arabian Gulf, have become the cash cow for Riyale and his cronies.  The tax currency collected from the port goes directly into Riyale’s hands.  In addition, last year Riyale issued a presidential decree giving exclusive rights (a complete monopoly) to sell and buy all Somaliland livestock to a Saudi tycoon.  Furthermore, he set the price as well, interrupting the flow of economic growth and stifling the competition. 

As a result, I reasonably argued that in “Somaliland,” that the claim of a viable democracy is just a vacuous rhetoric.  “Somaliland” has not put foreword a legitimate argument to deserve the United Nation’s recognition as an independent nation.  The people of “Somaliland” are being misled by inept, clan politicians who have packaged the same old illness--clan politics allover again.  And worse, the man in charge of “Somaliland” today is a man who has learned from the past masters of malice and has been trapped in that mindset.  Thus, when an opportunity to lead arrived and offered a golden choice against the gruesome past, regrettably Riyale chose the crowded, much traveled road of the past where leaders of the common vice littered it with lamentable losses: losses of time, lives and opportunities.  Alas Riyale could have taken the less traveled road of hope.  He could have opened the clogged corridors of hope by letting the business minded bunch bring about ideas of commerce and create camps to cultivate capital investment.  He could have let the press pursue their interest, freedom to express their opinion.  He could have let the court calm the whole “nation” with courtesy of law.  And he could have called all the northerners to his corner by uniting columns of clannish enclaves, showing that they all share the responsibility to rebuild a “nation”, neighborhood by neighborhood, school by school and city by city.  If these steps were taken he could have invited southerners, too, to Berbera’s peaceful beaches to begin the process of reconciliation! 

Regrettably as Farah (the well known Somali writer) would note that “…we know that great many of the men at the helm of the continent [of Africa]’s power do not have the people’s mandate to be their first place and have no self pride nor foresight,” within the arena of leadership.   Riyale’s leadership validates the theory of leadership for the common vice.  He lacks the catalytic vision to inspire a cause for the common good for he is clueless to the common vice by following the same road that the previous “incompetent, rigid, intemperate, callous, corrupt, insular [and] evil” leaders like him paved. For that “Somaliland” is a lost cause.  The recognition that the northerners have been searching for is an illusion, illusion that the public has been riding on the back of a parasitic, vice leadership that also just begun to murder unarmed civilians, too. 

It’s not only Siyad Barre of 1982 allover again but painfully and poignantly so prophetic, that it is the Mugabe of today.  Unarmed civilian were murdered, for they dared to challenge Riyale’s illegitimate and ill-conceived “I, I, I, me, me, me,” narcissistic, nebulous and nescient personality.