Remmeber Geedi recognising Somaliland?? Aydeed's is no more

[General Duke]

The Hussain Aydeed gaff is no more than what happened when Geedi made.

 

Prime Minister Geedi Commits a Major Political Gaffe!

 

Faisal Roble

November 19.2005

 

On November 11, 2005, Mr. Ali Mohamed Geedi, Prime Minster of the ailing Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia, had committed a serious political gaffe, which came as a result of a multi-faceted interview with the BBC Somali Service where Somali listeners were given opportunity to call in. Mr. Geedi said (1) that his government does not mind and would not oppose if the international community is willing to recognize the breakaway region of North Western Somalia, also called Somaliland, and (2) there are no Somali people under a colonial rule in Ethiopia that he is aware of.

 

 

I respectfully disagree with his Excellency’s lapse of judgment, which is identical to the animalistic behavior of what Somalis refer to as “a camel that eats up its own protection or “Awr heeryadiis cunay.†How else can you read about a Prime Minister in the forefront in an onslaught of his nation?

 

On Somaliland recognition: For Prime Minster Geedi to give a green light to the dismemberment of his own country is the worst form of any political gaffe in memory. His acquiescence with a possible recognition accorded to the breakaway region by the international community could have the most far-reaching negative impact on the policies and even viability of the TFG in Jowhar. Those Somalilanders who support secession also may use the Prime Minister’s carelessly uttered statement to their advantage.

 

The political position of Geedi on the secession of Somaliland first surfaced last month. Iqbal Jhazbay at the University of South Africa and a lobbyist and consultant to Somaliland, has first reported on this issue and surprised everyone, including his employers, the Somaliland administration. Mr. Jhasbay gave a talk at a closed informational session hosted by the United States, Department of State, in collaboration with the U.S. Congressional Research Service’s Africa Unit. Mr. Iqbal Jhazbay said that he met with Geedi not long ago in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the seat where Somalia has been and would ultimately be undone, where Geedi confided and told him that the TFG does not oppose the secession of Somaliland if the international world is ready to offer recognition.

 

Many assumed at the time that Jhazbay’s claim was a fabrication and a shrewd strategy to boast the political propaganda of Somaliland’s secession advocates. However, we learned from the horse’s mouth himself, Geedi, that whatJhazbay has reported to US policy makers indeed reflects the belief of Mr. Geedi and his administration in Jowhar.

 

Is the rest of leadership of TFG and the Transitional Federal Institutions (TFI) also on board with Geedi on this matter? What does this say about the recently drafted constitution of Somalia that upholds the unity and territorial integrity of the Somali Republic? Or, is what Geedi said just the result of an inexperienced Prime Minister’s slip of the tongue – a simple political gaffe hence leaving behind a mere embarrassment? Whatever the answers to these questions may be, it is clear by now that Geedi’s gaffe did not receive any further explanation either from the president himself or from his foreign minister.

 

While drafting this commentary, reliable sources told me that Geedi’s alibi, when confronted by members of his administration, is totally unacceptable: that he is an individual and it is the constitution and not his opinion that matters is too little too late.

 

We have seen the same phenomenon in Minister Edna (foreign Minister of Somaliland) that old style of managing political affairs, merely based on charisma, does not work well in today’s media savvy and politically sophisticated world. Ms. Edna has had so many gaffes that even her staunch supporters started to worry and wondered where she was headed with her unguarded comments and repeated gaffes that almost undermined her administration. Many in Somaliland are quietly rejoicing at the low profile that she lately has assumed.

 

Likewise, if Geedi’s political gaffe is as a result of lack of experience in the diplomacy field, lest the prime minister has no prior credentials in international diplomacy, then it is time to quickly back track from his earlier mistakes and apologize to the millions of Somalis who are for united Somalia. If the TFG’s policy is one that stands for unity and territorial integrity, Geedi needs to do some serious explaining and quickly move on drafting his language of national apology. This issue will not easily go away, at least in the minds of some commentators and in Sool, and Sanaag regions, which already have officially requested an explanation of the Prime Minister’s gaffe.

 

If he stands by his statement, then let him explain to all sides his rationale as to why he would not mind if the international community recognizes the secessionist wing in Somaliland, and start preparing his people on both sides to the issue and for the eventual dislocation of the country.

 

While on the subject, the TFG leadership (Yusuf and Geedi) may better get served if it lets able ministers in the administration, who have experience in diplomacy and better understand the intricacies of international diplomacy and the opportunistic press corps that often thrives on politicians’ missteps, do their rightful jobs at which a lot of them are good and command broader experiences.

 

On the Somali-Ethiopian Question: It was unprofessional and amateurish for Prime Minister Geedi to belittle and play a revisionist on the painful history of Somalis in Ethiopia. The almost 4.5 million Somalis in Ethiopia (the second largest Somali population) have been conquered by emperor Menilink II of Ethiopia in the late 1890s. Between the regimes of the twin evils of Menilik II and Meles, (and you had the deceitful regimes of Ras Mekonen, Haile Selassie and Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam in between), unspeakable atrocities, debasement and dehumanization only paralleled by that exacted on the Palestinians Arabs.

 

If the massacres in the aftermath of 1948-1957 Geri uprisings which culminated in the public hanging of 12 martyrs, the Aysha'a killing fields of 1960, the Dhagahbuur mayhem of 1964, and the repeated wanton massive massacres in Qorahay, Faafan and Gaashaamo from the 1940s through 1980s did not serve as lessons of oppression and colonization to the good Prime Minster, nor would this November’s killing of 23 people in Qabridahar’s heavily populated streets which took place only days after the Prime Minster’s poor comments aired on the BBC air waves.

 

Owing to factors of religion and myths that augment Ethiopia’s standing in the community of nations versus the inferior image of Somalis, the world kept a blind eye to the pains of this people under Ethiopia’s primitive colony. It is doubly sad that a Somali Prime Minister joins the blind choir who are indifferent to the blight of Somalis in Ethiopia.

 

The radical movements of the 1970s in Ethiopia, however, have belatedly recognized the colonial status of the Somalis in Ethiopia. Suffice here to reiterate what Tilahun Gizaw, a radical student leader in the movement who had blood ties to the late wife of King Haile Sellasie, Empress Etige Menon, of Walloye blood line, said in a 1969 speech at the then Haile Sellasie University: “Ethiopia is a prison of nations….. There is the Oromo nation, ……, the Guragay nation… and however much you may not like it, there is the Somali nation.†He was underscoring the fact that Somalis are the most oppressed of all the oppressed in Ethiopia, yet even mentioning the name “Somali†or acknowledging their existence in Ethiopia was a crime.

 

The existing Ethiopian constitution, which Meles and his victorious Tigriyan Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) drafted at gunpoint 1991, recognizes the colonization and oppression of nationalities and nations in Ethiopia for whatever worth it is (The Tigriyans were forced to recognize the right of nations, mainly due to the latent Oromo nationalism). To safeguard the rights of hitherto colonized nations, Article 39 of the Constitution speaks to the rights of nations including secession. Despite that some Somalis were critical of his politics, the late Abdul Majid Hussien Barre fought hard (as the chairman of the subcommittee of constituent assembly that adopted the constitution) for the inclusion of this Article in the constitution. And Somalia’s Prime Minister flatters Meles by saying that he does not know of any Somalis under any colonial rule? Call it either political timidity or intellectual bankruptcy, the Prime Minster royally erred it and behaved irresponsibly.

 

The prime Minster does not have to please Ethiopia by trying to denigrate or drum up a reactionary, albeit revisionist political history of Africa’s vexing home grown colonial phenomenon – the Somali peoples colonization by Ethiopia. It is time that we collectively remind the good Prime Minister that if Somalia is to die, it is better that it dies a dignified death, or “hadaad dhimanaysona dhareerkaa la’iska duwaa.â€

 

A chronic dependency on Ethiopia for arms and fuel notwithstanding, the late General Mohamed Aidid Farah was confronted with a similar question on the Somalis in Ethiopia, when interviewed in 1992 for the Vanity Fair Magazine by Harold Marcus, a prominent Ethiopianist. Like any seasoned politician, Aidid admitted the existence of positive changes that Meles’s government brought to the Somali region, but quickly added the painful history of colonization of the Somalis. With “democracy and “policies of inclusion†being implemented in Ethiopia, Aided said Somalia need not worry about the problems of Somalis in Ethiopia. With such a vague and polemic language, Aidid predicated his bowing down to Meles with the concepts of “democracy†and “policy of inclusion†being applied to Somalis in Ethiopia. If Ethiopia fails to do so, as it is doing now, well, Aidid is covered and his diplomatic stance on Ethiopia would easily be justified to retract his bowing down to strong man Meles.

 

No one should expect Geedi to go into tirades of praises and sloganeering in support of greater Somali Nationalism. The concept of greater Somali nationalism does not seem to be sexy in today’s reality. Even with such a reality on the ground, the Prime Minister needs to respect the history and feelings of Somalis under Ethiopia, no matter what.

 

A dose of reality to the Somalis in Ethiopia is in order: The majority of Somalia elites’ attitude towards the noble idea of Somali unity and Somali nationalism has changed with a permanent political mutation. The ugly reality of clanism has plagued our shocked and shame-ridden memory. Due to the general disintegration and fragmentation of the Somali social fabric and the absence of any credible leader on the scene, Somalia is no longer capable to play the role it had played in the past in burdening the responsibility of Somali unity in the horn of Africa. Perhaps for the good of all concerned.

 

Therefore, Somali Ethiopians should not depend on Somalia like the dependency syndrome, that Winthrop Jordan, an antebellum historian, called “The White Man’s Burden.†In other words, Somali Ethiopians should grow up, stand on their own feet and start char.ting their own map for their survival while honoring and upholding the good traits of Somali unity.

 

The Prime Minster’s gaffe on Somaliland’s secession and his tacit endorsement of a possible world recognition is expected to have serious repercussions and has already tainted his hitherto clean image. His wrongful reading of the history of Somalis in Ethiopia must be treated as only a sign of troubling intellectual bankruptcy and symptomatic of the absence of leadership in today’s political landscape of Somalia. Which prompts one to revisit what Professor Said Samatar said in the wake of Somalia’s defeat in the 1978 Ethio-Somalia war in whose aftermath several opposition groups chose Addis Ababa as their center for undoing Somalia, “ Oh! Somalia too far from God and too close to Ethiopia.â€

 

Faisal A. Roble

Los Angeles, California

E-Mail:fabroble@aol.com

a simmilar gaff regarding Somaliland..

[Castro]

Originally posted by General Duke:

The Hussain Aydeed gaff is no more than what happened when Geedi made.

What are you saying? That Geedi and Caydiid are but two of the many buffoons making up the TFG?

 

What a buffoon attempt at spinning this buffoonery. Dude, I understand this whole spin business doesn't come naturally to you but come on. What do you take us for? Buffoons?

 

This is too much.. LOOOOOOL.

[General Duke]

^^^No what I am saying is this gaffe, is no more than previous one that Geedi made.

 

They are new to governing and thus will make many more gaffes.

[xiinfaniin]

LOL@They are new to governing and thus will make many more gaffes.

 

^^There's nothing to govern adeer. Now its time of showing loyalty and not a time to govern.

[General Duke]

^^^as ever ina adeer, you will be proven wrong again.

This governent has defeated the Eritrean backed rebels and now its time to govern.

[xiinfaniin]

^^So we all benefit from your inside information, any proof of Eritrean troops in the battle fields? Any?

[General Duke]

^^^The evidance is in the battle fields as well as those fugitives captured today in Liboye by the Kenyans. But you already now this.

[xiinfaniin]

You could easily be truthful and say that Ethiopia, supported by America, caused a significant setback on Somalia’s Islamic Courts.

 

^^Just like that yaa Duke! Learn and practice how to not spin when it’s not necessary to do so.

[General Duke]

^^^Xiin, be honest Eritrea support even in the diplomatic era was not out of Islamic devoution, they had their men and wepons coming into Mogadishu and when they started losing they have not yet stopped crying.

 

As for the clan courts, I have told you, they never enjoyed the support you assumed they did. Go ask the people of Lower Shabbele or even Kismayu if they are unhappy.

 

You can not deny the fact that Kenya already has Eritreans in their custody fleeing the country.