Is there or is there not a democracy in Somaliland?

[SOO MAAL]

Is there or is there not a democracy in Somaliland?

Ismail Buba poses the question most Smalilanders hate to hear

 

Ali Bahar

 

September 18, 2005

 

Ismail Hurre Buubaa - Vice premier of The TFG

Mr. Buba is someone who knows more about the history and the very fundamentals on which the creation of Somaliland is based on. Lets face it; he was there from the beginning and when dealing with the question of secession, he understands more than most of the uninformed and the emotion-driven, hypocritical Somailanders. Ismail Buba touches the heart of the fundamental question that many Somalilanders never wanted to hear. In his recent interview with Mr. Bashir Goth of AwdalNews, Buba raised a serious question that may be the beginning of some serious discussion in progress, and definitely a first step towards addressing the ambiguity surrounding the Somaliland issue. This raises the bar and challenges the Somalilanders to practice what they preach. Buba challenged the Somalilanders to accept and invite public discourse where everyone have the right to air out one's under belly grievances either in support of or in disagreement with the prevailing atmosphere regarding the often discussed secession of Hargeisa from the rest of the republic.

 

One other disturbing development in the region is the new criminal activities and the blatant attacks that some SNM loyalists have been carrying out in the coastal Awdal region, especially in Lughaya District. It smells like another Darfur, Sudan, in progress. Historically, for these coastal communities, Zeila was the main center of trade before it was badly ravaged by the French colonization in some parts of Somalia and consequently the emergence of Djibouti as a vibrant business center. Other coastal towns included Lughaya and Bulaxar, where these communities used as trade or fishing centers, though Bulaxar was consequently impacted negatively by the emergence of City of Berbara, and became insignificant to be considered for trade purposes as most of its inhabitants migrated to either Berbara or Hargeisa, where they had close tribal ties with. However, Lughaya, due to the persistence of its communities, continued to prosper against all odds and eventually became one of the prominent cities of Awdal region, as its identity is inseparable from her sisters such as Zeila, Borama, Baki, Libaxlay or Garbo Dadar, to mention a few, with whom her inhabitants share tribal ties.

 

For centuries, these communities in the Awdal coastal region were left on the cold, or in heat in this case, and were excluded from any form of government. All past governments never had compelling interest to spent money in building schools in order to educate the children of these communities, or treat the children from the grip of deadly diseases such as mosquitoes, TB, malnutrition and starvation or save them from diseases due to the lack of clean water and sanitation, let alone promoting the rich coastal area where these nomadic communities reside. As the result of this long existed neglect by rest of the Somali society, including all governments that ruled the nation in the past and present, these communities have always and are still underrepresented in all government and economic levels in the country. Because of their nomadic lifestyle and lack of education, these communities were never capable to prosper economically and were never able to create big cities and trade centers. All that they ever knew of government dealings was either someone asking them to vote for him in every few years, where truck loads of these nomadic communities would be taken to Borama, Hargeisa or Berbara, kept them in an open semi camps in the cold, around the town skirts of these cities, trained on how to punch a whole in a the picture of the would-be candidate that they would be able recognize on the voting day; since a great majority of these communities never learnt how to read or write. Nonetheless, at the end of the voting period, no one would be responsible to take them back to their nomadic area, let alone giving them compensation for the time they were away from their families and properties. They were used as properties and have always been taken advantage of.

 

Nature had not been that friendly to these communities either as to late, and these communities are facing today extinction due to unfavorable life threatening conditions such as long dry seasons and rain shortage, hunger and diseases. However, one positive progress to report in the area today, thanks to an extraordinary effort by few visionaries in the area who created self-help organizations such as READ/ IQRA and by selfless young men and women residing both in Somaliland and in the Diaspora, is that we have been able to help these communities to focus on the hope of rebuilding their future without the support of any government. We were able to build schools and maintain them to some levels, where nomadic children have the chance of going to school without being removed too far from their environment and family. An idea based on the vision of creating a self-sustaining community, that could definitely lead to resettlement of the nomadic families on their lands; a mission to change the nomadic lifestyle and replacing it with farming and urbanization in the region.

 

Unfortunately, however, this rekindled a new interests in the minds of SNM loyalist, who are engaging a systematic, well planed geopolitical movements where some powerful groups in Somaliland, specifically in Hargeisa and Berbera, are making relentless attempts to redraw boundaries and redistricting in order to increase their voting power in this coming election in Somaliland and thereafter. Many of Lughaya District communities are forcefully denied the right to vote as Awdalites on the false claim that they are under the jurisdiction or are annexation of Hargeisa or Berbara District. The SNM movements in Hargeisa and Berbara see these Awdalites as danger that will undermine the SNM “agendaâ€, the secessionist agenda that these Awdalites fiercely and heroically resisted in the 80s and 90s when the SNM made repeated attempts to conquer the region.

 

Since the last failed attempts in the 90s, SNM has been building up its power to conquer these nomadic communities, who are forced to fight wars that they can't afford to lose, let alone winning. They are being attacked by expansionists supported by the Djibouti government on one front and by militia supported by the powerhouse of SNM from another front. Especially, after Sool and Sanag regions publicly announced that they wouldn't be part of this SNM agenda coined as Somaliland nation, today the SNM in Hargeisa felt that there is a lifetime opportune to renew their long dream of land confiscation and border redesigning. This includes building and designing pathways and create easier movements through which armed SNM army could move in and out in order to connect cities and villages, as a benevolent feature in pure wishful thinking on the part of the SNM, in order to encourage, repopulate and empower their supporters in a region that was never theirs. These criminal activities committed against these nomadic communities is intent to punish these nomadic society or eradicate them if possible for resisting the SNM agenda that these communities never accepted as a legitimate rule of the land. It is a clear intent on the part of the SNM to silence these helpless communities or to force them into submission to their illegal rule, especially as the talk of the possibility of oil exploration intensified lately. These separatists are fighting, with the support of SNM, as perpetrators of ethnic cleansing directed at the peace loving population living in Lughaya District and in other surrounding regions of Awdal Region known to have water and fertile land that is suitable for cultivation.

 

The attack on these fragile and mostly impoverished community, who was always know and praised as a peace loving, multiethnic nomadic society is an explicit plan organized by SNM and their supporters. This is another Lower Shabelle in the making. Sadly, this well thought of “design out crime†of new urbanization is happening under the watchful eye of Rayale government. As a politician, Rayale is rather win the presidency seat instead, on the expenses of his fellow Somalis, who are helplessly under attack by armed aggression of SNM, as himself may have made some concessions to the same Hargeisa –Berbara-SNM loyalists in order for him to win again. We often hear the SNM making the assertion that the old illegal boundary lines drawn by the colonizers, such as the British, should be maintained, which, according to their claim, would give them the right to dislodge from the republic. However, this all out war and land expansion that became common practice in the region is a clear indication that this whole entertainment of the idea of secession, and the relentless efforts that followed in order to gain an international recognition, is nothing more than a known secret to empower one's own clan in order to rule the rest of the clans in the region. Thus these new current borders would be tomorrow's reality. What a contradiction!

 

There is nothing new in this thought, however, and as a unionist, my number one reason for supporting the existence or the re-emergence of the Somali republic, has always been the thought that I would find myself suffocated by this continuously downsizing practice of clan oppression, the same way these nomadic society are resisting SNM domination, as apparent in today's Somaliland. My concern is that these reckless new activities in the coastal region may prolong strife and wars in the area or will at least undermine the seemingly peaceful coexistence in these communities. This may encourage the breakout of fresh wars along tribal lines.

 

The question is, as posed by Ismail Buba, whether this is the democracy on the basis of which that the Somalilanders are asking the world to recognize them as a nation. Or whether this is another ploy and a new thought of opportunity to strengthen clan domination in the region and the subjugation of the innocent, weaker and the least educated sector of the society that has been neglected for decades. One would hope otherwise.