Can Somalia be Saved From Itself?

[SOO MAAL]

Can Somalia be Saved From Itself?

By Abdiweli M. Ali

May 30, 2005

 

 

 

 

The years long reconciliation process that started as a civil society affair, significantly spurred on by a phalanx of refugees from Europe and North America intoxicated by the democratic ideals of their adopted countries, is now hijacked by few warlords and the rest are relegated into impatient bystanders. The propaganda campaign of pacifying Mogadishu seems more of a knee-jerk dig at Abdullahi Yusuf and Ali Ghedi than a considered well-thought political strategy. The French refer to America as the country of 32 religions and only one dish to eat. The capital of Somalia became the city of 32 warlords and nothing to eat.

 

The American writer H. L. Mencken is once quoted to have said “For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat and wrong.†Simplicity of course is a bo on in its own right but the foolish statements of the warlords that they will take their technicals out of the capital but will remain under their control has an uncanny resemblance to the story of the fellow who wanted to sell ice to the Eskimos. Call me a fool but this one will not pass. It is an utter nonsense. The warlords who are loathed and feared by the inhabitants of this once beautiful city can't even bo ast any spectacular success in feeding their self-sacrificing militia who are forced to resort to thievery, road-blocking and carjacking. The resilient inhabitants of Mogadishu har bo r no illusions of what is to come out of this charade. The warlords have a record and their record tells it all. They will never exhaust finding reasons to renege on their promises, and their latest half-baked monkeyshines will soon be uncovered to be nothing but the same-all, same-all tomfoolery. The doubts voiced by President Yusuf and Prime Minister Ghedi squares completely with the experience of Muqdishanis that the warlords will never disarm unless forced to do so.

 

 

 

What they did to Abdikassim and Ali Khalif pales in comparison to what is in the oven for Abdullahi and Ghedi . These guys who never made any effort in hiding their mutual loathing are now telling the world that keeping Mogadishu captive for the past 15 years was just a bad dream. The ruthless mean machines of Mogadishu are suddenly transformed into peace-loving *****cats. What a joke! In today's Somalia where we all seem to have shor t m emory and shallow intelligence, it is no surprise that this kind of political farce could even be entertained let alone believed. We became a willing audience with an insatiable appetite for their swaggering fictions instead of realizing the uncomfortable facts that this cocktail of myths and mendacities is poured from the same potent brew of Qanyalahatto (Qanyare+Yallahow+Atto ) mixed with the flavors of the latter-day-saints---The Morganshafir ( Morgan+Sharif+Sifir ) late-comers.

 

The question everyone is asking now is whether the strategy of relocating the capital will force them into changing course or will i t m ake them a much more ferocious beast than they already are? I suspect the latter, and history shows that they are brutal when cornered. What then should Abdullahi and Ghedi do? They should continue the bullying and the pressure but at the same time let the pacification falsehood run its natural course. Without the pressure the warlords would not have done the very things they are purporting doing, but at the same time too much pressure might create a tinder lit for the clan loyalists. Therefore, as leaders they have to understand the complexity of the situation and the consequences tha t m ay follow. They should also minimize the fire-and-brimstone BBC interviews that serve no particular purposes. They should simply state the obvious without resorting to unnecessary political polarizations. They should cajole those that need cajoling, sway those need swaying, but also smack those few that knows no other language because sometimes you canno t m ake an omelette without breaking the eggs. Variety is the spice of life and they cannot avoid to be pragmatic where pragmatism succeeds and dogmatic where firmness flaunts.

 

There is enough blame to go around. The President and the Prime Minister have their share of it. The talk of the town is that bo th President Yusuf and Prime Minister Ghedi are surrounded by toadies fawning them with felicitations and unable to provide them the painful particulars. In the Somali Jargon (Way rakaab xun yihiin ). If they kept surrounded by these unsavory types, I am afraid they will ultimately become politicians with champagne dreams and soda-water ideas.

 

The affairs of the so-called parliament is another sad story; incompetent, self-serving and venal. They had bickered and blundered while the country is going to hell. And lately they have developed the habit of shuttling between Mogadishu and Nairobi chasing the political goods of payments and bribes.

 

What is then to be done if this moribund government of national reconciliation is to be revived? The future can either be bright or bleak and it depends of what we make of it. If we always look back, we will never move forward. We can't control the past, only the present. For peace to work in Somalia , it is imperative to put the past behind us. If we don't, we are stealing our children's future. We should use the past to learn, but not to poison. It is like hiking through the woods, you just look back to understand where you came from. There's a saying that war is planned by old men and fought by children. The old men did the planning, the children fought, and we all lost. We are now at a crossroad. The pass has been sold. The cat cannot be walked back. And we have to choose between kinfolk and country.

 

Abdiweli M. Ali, Ph.D.

 

Assistant Professor of Economics

 

College of Business Administration

 

Niagara University , NY 14109

[contraflow]

I'm loving the gang names 'Qanyalahatto' and 'Morganshafir'

 

A well written article

[Coloow]

War bal ibtiladaan eega?

 

Hardly a day goes by without some nuthead hurling insults at "shariifka".

 

This dhal awliyo turned merchant is not criticized because of the qaad entreprenuership that has given him a position but because he does not see eye to eye with a vet doctor turned PM and a president with the goal of "madaxweyne mar i dhaha" syndrome.

 

Would somalia want a speaker, a president and a prime minister who agree on everything? Isn't that called a dictatorship?

 

The so called constitution stipulates "check and balances"- a neccessity if somalia is to be healed.

 

That is why impartial somalis (if there are any) should welcome the voices of dissenters like Zakaria, Asha, Sifir and the rest of MPs who have the guts to say no to "the president" and PM.

 

The only crime the "sheydhaan" quudkiisa ka ganacsade shariifka did is to explore the spirit of healing1