Jacaylbaro Posted December 30, 2009 A critique of Farah Maalin’s visit to Somaliland Honourable Farah Maalin, Deputy Speaker of Kenya’s parliament, has been until now a man held in high regard among almost all Somalis who have come to know him or heard of him in Kenya and Somalia. Before his election to parliament in the Kenya general election of December 2007, he was a regular participant in the BBC Somali Service programmes where he would frequently call for peace, denounce foreign interference in Somalia and strongly defend the country’s unity and territorial integrity. All the more shocking then that he would now jettison or betray all these valued positions by his ingratiating visit this week to Somaliland - a secessionist entity symbolising all he derided and decried in the past. Somali politicians are notoriously known for making complete turnarounds in their political stances as they pursue personal interests of the day. But all the same, this unexpected surprise comes like a thunderstruck. Somaliland has been assiduously soliciting recognition from both Ethiopia and Kenya and has been ready to pay any price (and indeed paid) to win their good turns in terms of recognition. Its purported direct financial support to Raila Odinga in the presidential elections, to the tune of close to one million dollars in return for recognition should he win, has been the talk of town among Somalis in Kenya. Unfortunately for Somaliland but happily for the rest of Somalia, Mr. Raila Odinga lost the election and much as he is the Prime Minister in the current union government of Kenya, it is the president and not him who has the final word on recognition. What is not as yet known is whether Hon Farah Maalin and his delegation’s visit to Somaliland is at the behest of Prime Minister Raila and meant to be a sop to the disappointed secessionists who put their money on the wrong horse, or whether it is one independently initiated by the Deputy Speaker? What is clear though is the great symbolic propaganda value it represents for Somaliland at a time when little else was going right for them. To its supporters, long despairing of recognition, the visit will be presented as presaging imminent recognition and will be exploited to the full by the ruling party and their authoritarian leader in the forthcoming presidential and parliamentary elections. At a time when the secessionists needed a little push to come back to the fold, Hon Farah Maalin’s visit and his giving them a pat on the back for their much-vaunted achievements will only send the wrong message, stiffen their resolve and simply deepen their siege mentality. Both Ethiopia and Kenya never stop to profess how much they support the current Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and yet there are some elements like Mr Farah Maalin who somehow opt for derailing and undermining any support given to TFG and it appears that Mr Farah Maalin’s visit has been initiated over the head and most likely without the knowledge of the TFG. It is bad enough that the Kenya delegation should be gallivanting around the country without the blessing of the internationally recognised government, but what adds injury to insult is their visit to occupied Lascanod, the capital of Sool region. Quite clearly, the visit to Lascanod was not a fact finding mission on the part of the Deputy Speaker but rather a public relations propaganda engineered and organised by the rulers of Hargeisa, in which Hon Farah Maalin was accompanied by stooges from Sool, Sanaag and Cayn (SSC) in the pay of Somaliland and met in Lascanod only some handpicked interlocutors with little choice but to echo the occupier’s wishes. His conclusion after his mission that the SSC people would be better off throwing their lot with Hargeisa rather than Puntland or Somalia is a gratuitous slap on the face of the suffering SSC people yearning for their freedom and an end to the occupation. It is also brazenly anti Somalia - a pronouncement that must have come as music to the ears of the secessionist occupiers. It is not as though Hon Farah Maalin is not aware of the true situation in the SSC regions. He met three SSC Garaads recently in Nairobi and is in touch with the SSC Diaspora in Kenya who are bound to provide him up-to-date information about the SSC occupation. He acknowledged that 20 000 SSC refugees have recently arrived at the refugee camps in the NE region of Kenya, a testimony to the hellish occupation they are running away from. He is aware also that 100 000 residents of Lascanod have been displaced soon after the occupation and only 20 000 now remain in the city. And to cap it all, almost all the Garaads have been forced to flee the city and now live in makeshift homes in the bush. Given all these facts, the only good purpose a visit to Lascanod would have served now was to see at first hand the pain of the occupation: a visit to the overcrowded prisons and the ongoing systematic imprisonment of innocent people as collective punishment, the collapse of public services and businesses, the onerous taxation, but above all the denial of basic human rights. Giving the area kudos for its deceptive and fragile peace and its modicum of governance, the Hon Deputy Speaker went as far as recommending recognition for the enclave but not in so many words. He knows but seems to overlook that this is a one-clan based entity that has rebelled against the rest of Somalia, occupied some regions of Somalia and by all measures resorts to all otrocoities to any Somali citizen who is not tuned to the secessionists´s agenda. The Northern Somalia Union Movement (NSUM) is deeply shocked that Hon Farah Maalin has turned his first visit to Somalia to one serving the interest of the separatists. We appreciate his past concern for Somalia and hope he will lose no time in reasserting his support for Somali unity and the inadmissibility of secession. And the last reminder NSUM will convey to him is that the SSC people have a unique history in Somalia in which they made incalculable sacrifices for Somali unity during the Darwiish liberation struggle. They will do the same again and not surrender to a bunch of secessionists. Executive Committee NSUM Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jacaylbaro Posted December 30, 2009 Somaliland has been assiduously soliciting recognition from both Ethiopia and Kenya and has been ready to pay any price (and indeed paid) to win their good turns in terms of recognition. Its purported direct financial support to Raila Odinga in the presidential elections, to the tune of close to one million dollars in return for recognition should he win ....... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Xaaji Xunjuf Posted December 30, 2009 They seem a bit desperate Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RedSea Posted December 30, 2009 Ceeb waar raggu ma ooyo. Dhereerka iska leexi. NSUM= Nonsensical Somalis Useless movement. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Naxar Nugaaleed Posted December 30, 2009 yes yes, they're useless, they're desperate and even irrelevant but lets discuss them anyways. Lunatics! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jacaylbaro Posted December 30, 2009 NSUM= Nonsensical Somalis Useless movement. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Suldaanka Posted December 30, 2009 What these fools are trying to say is "don't believe your own eyes, don't believe what you have heard from those locals you met, don't even believe anyone..." anaga kali ah oo qurbe joog ah oo wali arag dalkii oo dhegtaa wax kala socona kali ah na rumayso. Unbelieveable. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jacaylbaro Posted December 30, 2009 I kinda like NSUM actually ,,,, u know why? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Som@li Posted December 30, 2009 Originally posted by Suldaanka: What these fools are trying to say is "don't believe your own eyes, don't believe what you have heard from those locals you met, don't even believe anyone..." anaga kali ah oo qurbe joog ah oo wali arag dalkii oo dhegtaa wax kala socona kali ah na rumayso. Unbelieveable. Abti sessecionists can show u what they want you to see, Ma la socotaa Siyaad Barre marka uu Magaalooyinka booqanayo, Sida Hargaisa in xitaa dameerada , dadka masaakiinta ah suuqaa laga kaxeenjiray, iska ba dhaaf wax ka soo horjeeda uu arkee. Markaa NSUM are the true worriars. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Xaaji Xunjuf Posted December 30, 2009 Originally posted by Jacaylbaro: I kinda like NSUM actually ,,,, u know why? I miss JNM the military wing of nsum Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jacaylbaro Posted December 30, 2009 ^ ^ .... the mad man ??? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Suldaanka Posted December 31, 2009 Originally posted by Dabshid: quote:Originally posted by Suldaanka: What these fools are trying to say is "don't believe your own eyes, don't believe what you have heard from those locals you met, don't even believe anyone..." anaga kali ah oo qurbe joog ah oo wali arag dalkii oo dhegtaa wax kala socona kali ah na rumayso. Unbelieveable. Abti sessecionists can show u what they want you to see, Ma la socotaa Siyaad Barre marka uu Magaalooyinka booqanayo, Sida Hargaisa in xitaa dameerada , dadka masaakiinta ah suuqaa laga kaxeenjiray, iska ba dhaaf wax ka soo horjeeda uu arkee. Markaa NSUM are the true worriars. Dabshid, You can say that if it were a Western person who is question. But come on, nin Somali ah oo malaha kaaga war roon waxa meesha yaal lama indho qaban karo. Faarax Macalin said it himself; what he saw on the ground and what he had been fed with before he arrived are two totally on different extreme ends. He was expecting the worse but he saw a peaceful and orderly city - the only problem he found the division which exist in the local population in which case he whole heartedly adviced the locals "tolook to Hargeisa since Hargeisa is the one that is ready for them and not Garoowe" those were his own words. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jacaylbaro Posted December 31, 2009 maqashaye ka dhego la' ..... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RedSea Posted December 31, 2009 Suldaanka I agree with you sxb. Hargeisa is ready to accept the remaining block of Soolers. If they wish to remain with villagers in Gorowe that is their choice and their loss. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Naxar Nugaaleed Posted December 31, 2009 And what would they do there? Apparently Hargeisa cant even take of Hargeisans. have you seen or heard of statistics about the mental health of hargeisans: More and more people are going crazy, worst that that bullet ridden city by the sea Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites