Is there shame in work or this is part of clan warfare?

by Abdi Mohamed Ali
Saturday, May 31, 2008

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I see no shame in people, especially refugees working to eke a living. After all, there is no Somali who was born and brought up in a palace. Even the prophets used to chop wood or do other manual works to make a living. The questions arising from the documentary, Warlords next door are many and multi dimensional. In this article let us only deal with whether there is shame in work.

In an official visit to Britain, the Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski revealed that as an illegal immigrant he worked in a bar for 3 years in London. Also there was another leader who made a speech to the French Parliament in French revealing about how he learned French while working in Paris in the 1970s. Tony Blair learnt to speak French whilst working in Paris during his "gap year" prior to university.

I saw a different angel to the propaganda leveled against two officials in the Transitional Federal Government. From my own research, I have come to know both Ahmed Hashi Tajir, the deputy commissioner of the police and Mohamed Warsame Nur ‘Darwiish’ the head of the National Security Agency were already high ranking officers in the government in 1980s. This is one of the facts the documentary failed to mention.

The documentary did not mention the fact that Ahmed Tajir was a senior colonel in the police force of Somalia in the 1980s. What about Mohamed Warsame Nur ‘Darwish’? The documentary was also insinuating that Darwish was a laborer working as a fork lift driver in Tesco. There is a difference between an untrained laborer and someone who needed to do a certain work to temporarily eke a living.

So who is this man, Darwish? Is he an uneducated man who suddenly became spy chief for the TFG? In the 1980s, Mohamed Warsame ‘Darwish’ was already a colonel in Somalia’s National Security Service in the 1980s. If we say he was a high ranking government official then he must be guilty of crime. There are those who would unashamedly say that. We know this is what we call Double Standard which says, if you are from certain clans it does not matter if you were the vice president of Mohamed Siyad Barre for the whole 21 years of his regime. This is one of the many inconsistencies of lawless Somalia. This double standard is something we can no longer take.

We saw how a man who was a minister for Mohamed Siyad Barre for 20 years became President of Somalia in 2000 without one question asked about his past. I was in the conference in Djibouti when Abdiqassim Salad Hassan became president. We were fools to think Abdiqassim was going to tame and disarm the militia from his sub-clan who caused havoc and destruction to Somalia. We were very wrong! (2). It was never a matter of concern how the man who was the head of the NSS office in Berbera in the 1980s became the President of Somaliland. Who is this man? This is the Dahir Rayale we all know. He is the leader in Hargeisa. Are these two the only inconsistencies? No, no, no! Mohamed Ahmed Silanyo was a minister for Mohamed Siyad for 13 years. Where is Silanyo now? He is itching and being impatient to take over from Dahir Rayale to become the next President of Somaliland. What about Mohamed Farah Aideed?

Mohamed Farah Aideed, the warlord was the Director General in the presidency in 1980-83. In 1984 Aideed became Mohamed Siyad Barre’s ambassador in India. What about the current Prime Minister of Somalia, who has a house in London? Colonel Nur Adde was the Attorney in the National Security Court of Somalia. Why did the documentary film pick on Ahmed Tajir and Darwish alone?

So who is ‘Darwish’? Mohamed Warsame Nur ‘Darwish’ is a dedicated Somali officer. Under his belt he has a number of training in Egypt and Russia. Mohamed Darwish may have needed to work in Tesco as refugee in Britain, but he was already a senior colonel in Somalia’s National Security service in the 1980s. Ahmed Tajir is also a man who rose through the ranks to become a colonel in Somalia by 1987. I see another angel which makes me have a lot of respect for these two men.

If they were high ranking officials in the 1980s why did they not come to Europe with a lot of wealth to live off? Why did they need to work for anyone? I see two honest men who were high ranking officials in Somalia in the 1980s who needed to work for Tesco and Honda as refugees. If they were corrupt would they not have bought big houses in Britain like some whom we do not want to mention here? Does that not indicate they are honest offices who as refugees needed to work? Why else would they need to work for anyone to eke a living? When honesty did become a crime? When did work become shame?

So what is this hullabaloo about this documentary? I see another angel to all these. This is part of the ongoing shameless clan warfare which some Somalis have waged against some Somalis. This must not go on. The warlords who ethnically cleansed millions are traveling everywhere without hindrance. Let us not continue the fight between Somali brothers. In my judgment Mohamed Warsame Darwish and Ahmed Hashi Tajir have done nothing wrong. They have nothing to be ashamed. They have proven that they can work hard to eke a living and also they have proven that they can go back and try to serve their nation. I have nothing to accuse these men. I wish we Somalis did not pursue one another.

From Abdi Mohamed Ali
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