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Op-Ed:Somaliweyn-2.0–From Nationalism to Subterfuge & Conspiracy

November 22, 2010   ·   1928238 Commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fsomalilandpress.com%2Fop-edsomaliweyn-2-0%25e2%2580%2593from-nationalism-to-subterfuge-conspiracy-19282Op-Ed%3ASomaliweyn-2.0%E2%80%93From+Nationalism+to+Subterfuge+%26+Conspiracy2010-11-22+23%3A32%3A02Mo+Guledhttp%3A%2F%2Fsomalilandpress.com%2F%3Fp%3D19282

Introduction
There is a new version of the failed concept of Greater Somalia, which I have named “Somaliweyn-2.0”, being promoted by a disparate alliance of Somali Diaspora intellectuals that are hostile to Somaliland’s independence for nationalistic or other reasons, and desperate (dare one say failed?) Somaliland politicians that sought political office and financial gain through participation in the successive, so called ‘governments’ for Somalia that have singularly failed to bring peace and governance to that sorry country. I have chosen the moniker of “Somaliweyn-2.0” for this new version of Greater Somalia for several, important reasons. Firstly, it is important to distinguish it from the nationalist impulse of the 1950s/60s to establish a pan-Somali state which would unite all the Somali inhabitants of the Horn of Africa region (HOA), since this new formulation is not motivated by Somali nationalism, nor does it seek to unite all the Somali people of the HOA into one state.

Secondly, the motivations of the groups promoting this version of Greater Somalia are as disparate as the groups themselves. The Diaspora intellectuals support the concept for several reasons: firstly, it provides a rationale for their continued, although irrational, insistence upon the existence of the erstwhile Somali Republic despite the all too evident facts on the ground; secondly, it provides for a mechanism whereby Somaliland’s (SL) success in peace-making and establishing stable, democratic governance can be brought to bear in stabilising Somalia; thirdly, it provides a rationale for acknowledging SL’s success in conflict resolution and in establishing the only functioning democracy in the HOA without acknowledging the country itself! With regard to the Somaliland politicians that are part of the ‘government’ of Somalia, their motivation is quite simple – Somaliweyn-2.0 provides them with a mechanism whereby they can seek to maintain political relevance (and hopefully the slim chance of a career) as well as a route to return home as something other than venal charlatans seeking forgiveness for decrying and sabotaging the evident desire of their people for independence.

What is Somaliweyn-2.0?
Somaliweyn-2.0 comprises, in essence, the following components aimed at re-establishing the erstwhile Republic:
• A federal structure incorporating a ‘significant’ (whatever that may mean) degree of regional autonomy;
• Establishment of Hargeisa as the capital of the new Republic;
• The first President of the new Republic to be the leader of SL (possibly the current President of SL, Ahmed Mohamed Mahmoud “Silanyo”);
• Guarantee of SL holding either the Presidency of Premiership in future governments of the Republic;
• More equal (50/50?) distribution of Parliamentary seats between SL and Somalia.

Clearly, this formulation is designed to address the inequalities of the terms of the hasty union in 1960 between ex-British Somaliland and ex-Italian Somaliland, when the ex-British Protectorate rushed into union with the ex-Italian colony in a frenzy of nationalistic fervour with no negotiations or pre-conditions. What the architects of Somaliweyn-2.0 fail to recognise, however, is that the people of SL did not fight a ten year war of liberation from the genocidal, military dictatorship of Siyad Barre, endure several years of clan warfare and painstakingly build a new nation from the ground up with little or no outside help, in order to renegotiate the union of 1960.

The architects of Somaliweyn-2.0 also fail to understand that the people of Somaliland started the journey to reclaim their statehood in 1981, having laid to rest, once and for all, the Greater Somalia dream for which they had sacrificed their statehood. The calculated genocide of the dictatorship, not to mention the colonial status under which SL was governed by the Mogadishu regime during the previous 12 years was eloquent testimony to the death of this dream. The principal difference between the original dream of Greater Somalia and Somaliweyn-2.0 is that the former was the nationalist rationale underlying the creation of the Somali Republic in 1960 as the first step in the unification of the Somali people of the HOA, whereas the latter is a cynical construct aimed at conning the people of Somaliland into surrendering their hard won peace, stability and representative governance in favour of re-unification with a lawless and anarchic Somalia that seems incapable of forging a modus operandi for conflict resolution, peaceful co-existence and the re-establishment of the state.

Subterfuge & Conspiracy
The promoters of Somaliweyn-2.0 know full well that making such proposal openly to the people of SL will be met with mass derision and unequivocal rejection. Thus, they seek to promote their proposal behind closed doors and away from public scrutiny and debate within SL, although its adherents among Diaspora intellectuals freely promote it on the internet. However, the success of the Kulmiye Party in winning the SL Presidency at the recent elections has emboldened the politician-promoters of this doomed proposal, since Mr. Silanyo, the new SL President, has made no secret of his adherence to Somaliweyn while he was Chairman of the SNM – the liberation movement that evicted the Siyad Barre dictatorship from SL. The promoters of Somaliweyn-2.0 hope that Mr. Silanyo’s pro-Somaliweyn views during his leadership of the SNM, coupled with the inducement of the Presidency of Somalia, will secure his support for their proposal. This is a very dangerous and short-sighted gambit which imperils the very peace, security and stability of SL which distinguishes it from the Somalia it is being induced to rejoin.

Firstly, whatever his own, personal views may be (and I, for one, applaud him for being forthright and open in his views on Somaliweyn, especially during an election campaign), Mr. Silanyo is the President of SL and, as such, he has sworn to uphold the constitution of the country and defend it against foreign and domestic enemies. Article 1 of the SL Constitution states:
The country which gained its independence from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on 26th June 1960 and was known as the Somaliland Protectorate and which joined Somalia on 1st July 1960 so as to form the Somali Republic and then regained its independence by the Declaration of the Conference of the Somaliland communities held in Burao between 27th April 1991 and 15th May 1991 shall hereby and in accordance with this Constitution become a sovereign and independent country known as “The Republic of Somaliland”.

while Article 2 states:
Sovereignty resides in the people who shall exercise it in accordance with the Constitution and other laws.

Thus, Mr. Silanyo is not in a position to further the agenda of Somaliweyn-2.0; he is in fact required by the law of the land to actively and forcefully oppose it on pain of impeachment. Further, the near unanimous public antipathy in SL to any form of political union with Somalia would result in open revolt and widespread civil unrest in the country, should the Silanyo government be perceived as entertaining or supporting such a proposal. The promoters of Somaliweyn 2.0, particularly the discredited SL politicians which went to Mogadishu in search of positions and financial gain, are very much aware of this public antipathy towards their proposal – hence they are careful to only discuss it in private with carefully selected individuals (within and outside the Silanyo administration) whom they trust. It is this whispering campaign behind closed doors that has given rise to the atmosphere of subterfuge and conspiracy which is so damaging to the Silanyo administration that it threatens to de-legitimise it.

The recent sojourn in Hargeisa of Osman Jama Ali “Kaluun” (“Osman the Fish”, one of the above mentioned politicians who is wanted for treason in SL), and his subsequent departure from Hargeisa and arrival in London, both on the same days as President Silanyo departed and arrived in the respective destinations has fuelled the atmosphere of distrust and subterfuge. One cannot help but wonder why “the Fish” was not detained and prosecuted upon his arrival in Hargeisa – after all he is a wanted man? One cannot also help but be flabbergasted by “the Fish’s” statement that he met with President Silanyo in Djibouti during the latter’s recent trip there, prior to “the Fish’s” return to Hargeisa. Was “the Fish” given some form of immunity from prosecution by the President for his trip to Hargeisa? If so, on what basis was this immunity given – after all the President does not have the power to overrule the law of the land – and why was such immunity not made public? Finally, what should one make of credible press reports that, while he was in Hargeisa, “the Fish” was gifted a large sum of cash by the President which was delivered to him by the Chairman of the Guurti? Is this payment for services already rendered, or to be rendered in the future, and what kind of services would an accused traitor render to the Silanyo administration? These are some of the questions being asked by SL citizens inside and outside the country, which need clear answers.

It is impossible to conceive that President Silanyo would allow his government to actively conspire to subvert the very constitution that it has sworn to uphold and defend at all costs. Nevertheless, it is true that the recent trip of “the Fish”, concurrent public statements in the press by his colleagues in infamy, such as Ismail Buubaa, and the SL government’s studied silence on the matter have given rise to deep disquiet among SL citizens. The President and his government must quickly put this disquiet and suspicions of double dealing to rest by issuing a clear and categorical statement regarding their position on Somaliweyn 2.0 and their commitment to SL’s independence and sovereignty.

This issue has ended the honeymoon period of the Silanyo administration and they would be well advised to not underestimate either the unease among the public, nor the grave risk to the country’s peace and stability if they do not defuse the looming crisis of confidence this issue is fomenting. It is one thing for individuals (even the heads of national political parties) to flirt with Somaliweyn-2.0 and its promoters, it is quite another matter for those holding high political office to acquiesce in, or indeed foment, widespread public perception that they are conspiring with accused traitors to subvert the constitution of the country and the will of the people.

The Somalia Crisis & the Political Motives Underlying Somaliweyn-2.0
Successive governments of Somaliland have offered to assist in finding a solution to the political crisis in Somalia, indeed both the Egal and Riyalle administrations offered to mediate between the warring parties. Both these administrations went so far as to offer to host reconciliation conferences for the clans and communities of Somalia in SL, modelled upon SL’s successful experience of the Burao and Borama Conferences which laid the foundations of SL’s stability and emergence as a representative democracy. The international community and the self-appointed leaders of Somalia have chosen to ignore these genuine and fraternal overtures of good faith in favour of convening successive conferences in foreign capitals, each giving birth to a transitional ‘government’ that succeeds in governing only the allocation of the monies donated by its foreign sponsors among the office holders of the said ‘government’.

Now, some two decades after the collapse of the Siyad Barre dictatorship and disintegration of the erstwhile Somali Republic, this charade of revolving-door, so-called governments has become impossible to maintain, even as the threat posed by the failed state of Somalia to international security has increased with the rise of piracy and jihadist terrorism amidst the anarchy of that ungoverned country. It is a sad, but self evident, fact that these so-called transitional ‘governments’ periodically cobbled together for Somalia are neither transitional nor are they governments – rather they provide a mechanism for erstwhile and current warlords, foreign based “technocrats” and self appointed leaders to plunder the monies provided by the foreign donors. Of course, in this time-honoured endeavour of milking aid funds for personal gain the Somali participants are merely junior partners to the huge secretariat of the international aid industry and the smorgasbord of ancillary organisations encompassing experts, consultants, mercenaries (or security staff, to use the conventional nomenclature), logistics and medical services that it spawns.

The embarrassment of Somaliland establishing a stable, peaceful and functioning, indigenous democracy with no financial or ‘expert’ input from the international aid industry, next door to the anarchy, terrorism and piracy that prevails in Somalia, despite two decades of international involvement and billions of dollars expended in aid money on the latter has become impossible to ignore. Thus, in order to continue the flow of aid monies, the beneficiaries of the Mogadishu paradigm of ‘top-down’ transitional ‘governments’ through periodic games of musical chairs in foreign capitals have come up with Somaliweyn-2.0. This is nothing more than a transparent and doomed attempt to shoe-horn the success of Somaliland’s experiment in indigenous conflict-resolution and state building into a new effort to establish yet another Somali ‘government’, thereby extending the shelf-life of the charade of ‘transitional governments’.

This cynical ploy masquerading as a new nationalism will not stabilise Somalia since it does not address the underlying conflicts in that country, nor does it address the central and pivotal issue underlying the abject failure of the ‘top-down’ paradigm of nation-building – namely the accountability of the so-called government to the people of Somalia. It merely seeks to co-opt the success of Somaliland’s grass-roots, ‘bottom-up’, conflict resolution process and graft it onto the failed framework employed in Somalia. The simple fact is that the people of SL are adamantly opposed to surrendering their sovereignty and they have no wish to be co-opted to rejoin the anarchy and misery prevalent in Somalia. The people of SL have deep empathy for the plight of their brothers to the south and they are ready and willing to assist in any genuine effort to find a solution to the crisis in Somalia. The fact that SL has welcomed, and continues to welcome, hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing the madness in their country is a clear testament of this empathy, even though the same international, humanitarian aid community, which conspires with the kleprocrats in Mogadishu to fleece the aid monies provided by international donors, categorises these refugees as IDPs (internally displaced people) and will thus not provide them relief aid.

Finally, the surreptitious nature of the efforts of the promoters of Somaliweyn-2.0 to inveigle the current SL administration to their scheme and bypass engaging the people of SL in open debate and dialogue not only demonstrates their anti-democratic, praetorian mindset, but also dooms their enterprise to failure. Somaliland is ready and willing to assist any serious and genuine effort to resolve the crisis in Somalia, but the price of this assistance is the recognition of their right to self determination and national sovereignty. This is non-negotiable and the people of SL have demonstrated that they will never surrender the sovereignty for which they have fought so long and sacrificed so much. The only question that remains to be answered is how long the new, Silanyo administration will permit these shenanigans, and the atmosphere of distrust and suspicion they engender to continue. In other words, is President Silanyo willing to sacrifice the legitimacy of his administration in order to protect the discredited promoters of Somaliweyn-2.0 with whom he once sympathised, and perhaps still does on some level? We shall see.

Ahmed M.I. Egal

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By Mo Guled

Tags: Ahmed M.I.Egal, President Silaanyo, Somaliland, Somalilandpress, Somaliweyn 2.0