What Binds Somaliland Togather And What Pulls Somalilands Apart

Eleanor Roosevelt said “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.”

The above saying reminds us to ask ourselves the question “What topics do we, as Somalilanders, always discuss?” Do we discuss ideas, or events, or ourselvrs?

The correct and clear answer is we are always busy to discuss “ourselves” and point fingers to one another and blame also one another for being ignorant and accuse one another for being tribal-minded instead of talking about important topics affecting the current social and political problems of our times,  and trying to creatie the ideas that can bring solutions to our problems.

The point which is to be understood is: Why we don’t discuss about unity and utility of good governance, the language of oneness, the language of sincerity, the language of ethics and acountability, the language of transparency and trust, the language of integrity and equality, the language of one people and one nation?

We rarely give ourselves enough time to process the hard lessons (truth) about how we see things affectong our daily life as a nation-state. We hardly talk about the potential gaps between Somaliland government policy and public voice, between what our politicians and public officials preach and what they practise.

In fact talking about the problems that hurt our people socially, economically, ethically, educationally and spiritually is always more phenomenal than philosophical and more practical than political. The perception of this statement lies in the instances of whether or not those who are responsible for leadimg the nation are the ones who have hearts that never stand neutral in times of moral conflicts and confusion over how to defend and define vital interests of the state.

The vision of intending to paint a beautiful  nation state gets lingered in abstraction and natiomal resilience becomes compromised when the those who rule the state start to divide the public into favourites and foes. Equally the feelings of discomfort result when the way government power is excercised and wealth is being distributed runs counter to the required  legal and lawful level.  A classic example of this occurred in this country during Siilaanyo administration.

What seems to be gnawing our vision of nationhood and our notions of nationalism is that Somaliland people, from head to tail, have no knowledge of what it is that they share as Somaliland natives. The spirit of having a shared vision for nationhood  has already waned due to bad governance and poor leadership.

Knowingly or unknowingly, the more of a bad thing the puhlic finds in the state services, the nore a nationalist spirit disappears and the less those who govern the state understand the reality that living in a little locked container/world of self-serving lies and avoiding the truth of nation-building process takes Somaliland country to nowhere.

The absence of a shared vision of nationhood has detrimental consequences not only for people’s economical well-being and feelings of connectedness, but also for their sense of existence as a nation.

We are witnessing a reversion to tribalism across Somaliland, an illusion alluring people away from nation state. Although nationalism fully supplanted tribalism during the civil war against Siyad Barre Regime, the transition from tribe to nation was mostly crushed and completely perished after Somaliland declared itself as a separate state from Somalia in 1991.

Obviously the idea of a shared vision of nationhood vanished when a faction of SNM officers from some Somaliland tribes started to become alliances, viewing themselves as the tribes with patriotic sentiments and duties toward political ownership and power control.

The whole momentum for creating one people, one nation was curbed by egotistic motives of some members from one SNM faction, who thought or were made to think and believe thatl the power of this country had gone out of “their hands” when Abdirahman Ahmed Ali became Somaliland president.

The turmoil of tribalism that consumed much of Abdirahman Ahmed Ali’s administration stemed less from a democratic movement trying to topple a dictatorship than from tribalism and envy inspired by Muse Biixi, Mohamed Kahin, Siilaanyo, Dhegaweyne, Dayib Gurey and many other SNM officers.

The political vision of this group was and still is to dismantle the power of Garhajis tribe, and in one way or another they succeeded in fulfilling that mission (Uneasy lies the head that lost/loses his crown).

Objectively speaking the two Colonels, Muse Biixi and Mohamed Kahin and Dhegaweyne were remarkedly the ones who waged war against Abdirahman Ahmed Ali’s government. Anyone who denies that the two Colonels were the ones who succeeded in making civil war happen in Somaliland in 1994 is fool by nature.

The 1994 civil war that broke out in Somaliland was an ugly episode that even if some of us try to ignore, history will not allow us to forget. Equally those who made that episode possible should not be forgotten but ought to be remembered as civil war criminals

We are not able to deny the fact that Somaliland people had high hopes right from the day of Somaliland seccession. We are able to appreciate that our people were proud to break the barriers that stood on their way for a significant change; the change towards a true unified nation. But these hopes were short lived with numerous unexpected and unwarranted biased politics that crept in to display its ugly faces against nationalism.

Crisis, as it is widely argued, is an opportunity enabling humans to create ideas. When scholars say great minds discuss ideas, they mean to say that people discuss when they make plans in their life in order to create ideas that can be solutions to crises.

Today the crisis is, the elites and elders of the tribes that politically allied in Kulmiye party as rainbow coalition are pulling Somaliland apart, often putting tribal goals over the national interest — which is not that different from what’s happening in the country in the past decades.

The reversion to tribalism that we are witnessing today has just began when Kulmiye party rose to power. Beginning from the year 2010 envy, enmity, greed and ignorance have evidently been the powerful working elements controlling Kulmiye’s political mentality in all occasions.

Since tribalism and selfishness control the mind of Kulmiye leadership, how the unified souverign state we aspire to be achieved? How could followers of opposition parties believe  that Kulmiye adminitration is there to serve the nation without favours to any particular interest group? Nation building?

The  love of sowing division between people is most evident when tribes join sides to defeat the uniter. Equally the love of tribalism is the futility of being elated when someone is oppressed and dejected when another one is blessed.

Can a president whose mind is governed by negative tribalism, enmity, ignorance, arrogance and envy be able to build a country?  How a nation that is led with illusions of ill will survive?

Can we safely say that “Somaliland” is a souverign state today? Is the notion of our nationhood vital, viable and valid when some parts of Somaliland territory are still under the authorities of Somalia? 27 years after declaring Somaliland as an independent state, we are still struggling for a sense of being a souverign state. Forget about the rhetorics. We are still acting as rural societies qurrelling over grazing areas. We still think in terms of tribes, clans, coalitions and cronies that don’t know what they are to one another. The sanctity of Somaliland country seems to evaporate.

When there will be pertinent messages of hope, trust, commitment and selfless dedication incarnating the emergencr of a new breed of politicians who admit understanding the peoples’ plight? If people have the right to doubt the sincerity, honesty and seriousness of every politician’s purpose, will their concern be considered?

As history is our guide choas start when eroding solidarity paradoxically makes a society susceptible to confrontation. The clash between Somaliland forces and Colonel Caare’s rebellions proves the point that a chronic confrontation between Somaliland people has just begun.

Today Somaliland needs the ideas that can save it from the siege within.  If those  who sinned against the nation admit their sins, rhe siege within will be broken down. If not, as the old gag puts it, uneasy lies the head that wears thr crown.

By :Jama Falaag

       Hargeisa, Somaliland