Dr. Ali Fatah exposes TFG Premier's silence on SL's atrocity against the people of Khatumo

[NASSIR]

It's time we demand for a clear explanation as to why the so called national leaders are silent of the secessionists's naked aggression and aggrandizement at the expense of the people of Khatumo.

 

http://wardheernews.com/Articles_12/Feb/Fatah/22_Response_TFG_PMs_Letter_to_the_Somali_Diaspora.html

[Taleexi]

The TFG has to be more responsible. Thanks for sharing NASSIR.

[NASSIR]

Taleexi, At least Premier Farmaajo would have done something and braught the atrocious acts of "SL" to the attention of the international community. President Yusuf had warned the secessionists of its self-destructive, violent militias in Las Anod once.

It's high time we hold the TFG responsible. Why is it so quick and so excited to condemn of every little action taken by al-Shabaab yet choose to be silent on SL's atrocities or other issues of much importance. Should its policies be coached always to defend and respresent Western regional interests?

Somali Diaspora are disproportionately in favor of the restoration and unity of the Somali republic and they remit over $1 billion a year to sustain livelihoods in Somalia. And they demand a legitimate and responsible government.

[NASSIR]

Dr. Abdiweli Mohamed Ali, TFG Prime
Minister’s Letter to the Somali
Diaspora: A Response…
By Ali A. Fatah
Feb. 22, 2012

In the interest of full disclosure, Professor Abdiweli M. Ali is a friend, whom I have known for many years as decent man and a highly credentialed academic. He has been active in Somali affairs, especially Puntland state, long before he assumed the Premiership of the TFG.
As member of the Somali Diaspora that he addressed in his letter that was published in WardheerNews.com, let me say a word about that throng before examining his message : The Somali Diaspora is quite an eclectic mass of people—now numbering in hundreds of thousands and scattered in all four corners of the world—sharing four basic common denominators: 1) Somali ethnicity, 2) the Islamic faith, 3) living as emigrants in different countries, mainly in the West, and 4) an abiding desire, by overwhelming majorities of its members to see Somalia restored to its former glory (before the troubles began during the reign of the past military dictatorship).

Beyond that the group is politically and socially heterogeneous amalgam comprised of an ideological potpourri, including Islamists of various stripes, small “d” democrats, self-described secularists, as well as small band of incorrigible secessionists who wish to split the country asunder to create clan hegemony in parts of the North.

It is a milieu to which the Honorable Prime Minister needs no introduction due to his many years of living and working in the Diaspora. That is why his message to this sundry mass of people cries out for a thematic policy approach and an overriding vision that would appeal to their patriotism. Instead, random activities emanating from various power bases, mostly from outside the country were offered as a panacea; a mode that can be hardly relied upon as a rallying point or a source of inspiring the multitudes living outside Somalia proper to respond enthusiastically to the TFG’s tentative message asking them to redouble their efforts. This is particularly significant when you consider that the Diaspora population has become jaded due to years of receiving groundless declarations and nebulous promises from successive TFGs. If, however, the Honorable Prime Minister’s message contained subtlety that sufficiently appealed to the better angels of Somalis living abroad, it went totally above this writer’s head!

To his credit, though, Dr. Abdiweli’s report is in an improvement over some of the previous TFG reports that were in the main spin documents and poorly crafted ones at that; it contains many kernels of truth about the emergence of a new environment that is pregnant with possibilities. The situation in which years of uninterrupted disasters consistently gave way to conditions of more devastation and hopelessness seems to be ebbing. Still the situation too dicey for anyone to run victory laps anytime soon.

There are now as the Honorable Prime Minister alluded to tentative opportunities for progress in the horizon. Whether the so-called Front Line states, the AU, the TFG, the UN, the International Community or all of the above take credit for any improvements that may come to Mogadishu—the epicenter for the struggle for the soul of Somalia—is immaterial at this point in time; history will sort out those whose contributions made the difference for the long-suffering Somalis in the nation’s capital and elsewhere in the country.

My main problem—and it is not a small one—with the Honorable Prime Minister’s letter to the amorphous Somali Diaspora grouping is this: while, as mentioned above, the letter contained good, hopeful points, however vague, it also showed gaping holes concerning what was not mentioned; an omission that, I’m sure, left many Somalis confused about the glaring inconsistency contained therein if not the veracity of the message as a whole.

For example, the Honorable Prime Minister made a point to the effect that the TFG (and its partners) are engaged in a life and death struggle with religious zealots who would stop at nothing in their repeated attempts to impose their extremist ideology on the country exclusively through violent means. It is a clear statement of principle and an apparent commitment to defend the country, at least from domestic foes.

However, Dr. Abdiweli went mum regarding the equally dangerous and potentially catastrophic 20 year campaign that is been waged by secessionists aimed at dismembering the country to fulfill their chauvinistic agenda of establishing clan hegemony in the North. Now, here is a group that organized state apparatus solely to cede part of the country into an independent, one clan state called “Somaliland”. Not only that, those secessionists are trying to forcibly grab the lands of neighboring pro-union communities to expand their enclave, and according to some of their politicians, evict the people there, as the population is not interested in joining their unlawful secession scheme voluntarily.

Granted, the secession project is doomed to failure. But the question remains: what or who is keeping Somalia’s Prime Minister and his colleagues at the TFG, from making a clear, unambiguous statement condemning that illegal and unjust plot on the part of those campaigning to establish the illusory “Somaliland” enclave as an independent country. After all, their surreptitious operations are not without victims. On the contrary, they are hell-bent on forcibly taking pro-union communities with them, kicking and screaming! This is what makes those rebels clearly dangerous, even when their campaign is pound to lose!

The Honorable Prime Minister is praiseworthy when he states that his administration is advancing reconciliation in the Ximan and Xeeb area of Somalia, among other places. Again, people have the right to know, where have the TFG leaders been when Mr. Siilaanyo’s militia was dispatched from Hargeisa to attack and kill many civilians in the northern town of Buhoodle and its environs for the crime of supporting the newly inaugurated Khaatumo—a courageous stance of a besieged community standing its ground to defend its basic liberty and at the same time supporting Somalia’s national unity and territorial integrity? Also, what or who kept the honorable PM and the other TFG leaders from speaking out when the same clan-based, “Somaliland” militia gunned down unarmed civilians in cold-blood in the occupied City of Las ‘Anod? Where is his righteous indignation regarding Mr. Siilaanyo’s tyrannical repression on peace-loving, pro-union communities?

Lastly, silence can be a political option. But what are Somalis supposed to make of their national politicians turning deaf ears and blind eyes to the atrocities being committed, time and again, against unarmed men, women and children by the illegitimate, rouge regime calling itself “Somaliland”. It seems as though the leaders of the TFG are nonplused by the massacres of innocent Somali civilians by the clan militia based in Hargeisa. Yet these same TFG leaders are quick to claim to represent the nation as a whole, while attending the serial international conferences on Somalia, such the mysterious one taking that is taking place in London as of this writing.

The situation calls for vision and clarity of purpose. And I’m certain that given the opportunity to reconsider, the Honorable Prime Minister is up to the job.

Ali A. Fatah
E-Mail: amamakhiri@aol.com