Dissident Nation: AN INDEPENDENCE REFERENDUM FOR SOMALILAND

[Carafaat]

by DISSIDENT NATION on AUGUST 4, 2012 in POLITICS with NO COMMENTS

 

In 2005 the separatist Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the ruling National Islamic Front (NIF) of Sudan came together to end the Second Sudanese Civil War that had ravaged the country for a generation. In the Naivasha Agreement brokered in Kenya, President Omar Al-Bashir offered the SPLM an independence referendum following a six-year period of cooperation and ceasefire.

 

In 2011, South Sudan voted for independence from the Khartoum regime and went its separate way. Now, Somaliland may be getting a similar deal with its mother nation of Somalia.

 

Since the birth of the federalist movement in Somalia and the reintroduction of Somaliland to national politics there has been great fanfare about the fate of Somaliland within the context of regional politics. Earlier this year in the United Arab Emirates, a leader of Somaliland met with his Mogadishu-based counterpart for the first time in twenty years.

 

A nation in waiting

 

Somaliland has maintained its political status quo through a rigid program of indoctrination based on forthcoming independence. It has allowed the political establishment to stay in place and for peace to prevail amid minor disagreements. But a generation of repeated promises of independence from Somali are starting to fall on deaf ears, and the Somaliland public is tired of the long wait.

 

With pressure building on its current leader Ahmed Mahamud Silanyo, an ex-rebel and planning minister during the regime of Siad Barre, the Somaliland leadership is increasingly changing its tactics to achieve the evasive independence its people have been promised. President Silanyo’s task is no different than any of his predecessors; to bring out the recognition of Somaliland by the international community.

 

Working with Somalia

 

The people of Somaliland believe their worst mistake as a state was the union with Somalia during independence in 1960. The commonly-held belief in Somaliland has always been that it is the people of southern Somalia holding their independence goals back.

 

However, it is Somaliland’s own political misguidance that is keeping it in the current status quo. While South Sudan seized the opportunity for an independence referendum from the Khartoum regime, as did Eritrea from the Addis Ababa regime in Ethiopia, Somaliland has turned its back on Mogadishu, depriving itself of real independence.

 

In years previous, Somaliland’s leaders were forced to sit under the banner of Somalia to get an international audience, and this was viewed as a form of public humiliation by the region’s leaders, and no less for its people. The stigma of being seen alongside a broken Somalia was the driving force behind Somaliland’s fruitless twenty-year isolation, during which only peace was established.

 

Somaliland’s isolation has taken its toll on the state far beyond the political arena. Even the administrations in Mogadishu and Puntland were able to garner wider outside support and investment during the war than democratic Somaliland.

 

The referendum

 

In breaking from the failed methods of years past, Somaliland is now fully engaged with the regime in Mogadishu. And behind closed doors there is a great political game ongoing to resolve the status of Somaliland.

In exchange for relinquishing claims to the entirety of the former borders of British Somaliland, whose historic territorial extent is the basis of modern Somaliland, the regime in Mogadishu will offer an independence referendum. This was a demand from the traditional elders of Eastern Somaliland, who have given support to Somalia’s current president Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and are currently parked in Mogadishu with key figures in tow.

 

The referendum will last for a period of five years according to insiders in the Somali capital. Whereas in Sudan, the SPLM leader Salva Kiir was given the position of vice president, there will be no vice president from Somaliland. Instead, the referendum will be be based on political capitals.

 

For a period of five years, the Somali capital will be switched to a different city, but whether symbolic or political we don’t know for sure yet. Three cities will share the rotation; the first is the current seat of power Mogadishu, the second is the Somaliland capital Hargeisa, and the third will be a city from Puntland so as to not alienate other Somali stakeholders. It’s unclear if Puntland will choose its current capital Garowe or its commercial capital Bosaso to represent it in the rotation.

 

In year one the capital will be Mogadishu, in year two Hargeisa, in year three Bosaso, in year four Mogadishu again, and in year five it will end in Hargeisa for the symbolic referendum vote. During the fifth year Somaliland will have the spotlight of the nation shining on its capital for the momentous occasion..

 

 

When the new Somali constitution left out the status of the Somali capital, it wasn’t a mistake. For good reason the clause on Somalia’s political seat was deliberately left out of the constitution. The decision on a new capital will be left up to Somalia’s member states, and the extent of Somalia’s decentralization program allows all parties, even Somaliland, to voice their concerns and decide their own fate, alongside the central government and not under it.

 

DissidentNation.com

[LANDER]

Sheikh Sharif is a man Somaliland can work with, I think he made that clear enough when he started. If he's able to lead the first viable government since civil war in Somalia this will be a great step forward to a permanent settlement between Somaliland and Somalia. A settled aggreement has always been the best solution but I wonder how authentic this article is.

[Nudawn]

I'll support the seperation of somaliland from Somalia, a nation with no sustainable water supply, arible soil for crops and no known natural resources. We'll just slap tarriffs on good imported from somaliland. Boom there goes your biggest market to trade with.

[The Sage]

Sources? Pure conjecture from a blogger and not based in reality

[Somalia]

Nudawn;854395 wrote:

I'll support the seperation of somaliland from Somalia, a nation with no sustainable water supply, arible soil for crops and no known natural resources. We'll just slap tarriffs on good imported from somaliland. Boom there goes your biggest market to trade with.

Somaliland has oil in HolHol region!!

[Mooge]

^ holhol is not part of somaliland. holhol is close to lascanod and gambadha. somaliland clan territoriy starts at caynaba.

[The Sage]

Mooge;854418 wrote:

somaliland clan territoriy starts at caynaba.

This toxic mentality is what keeps progress from being made in your country. Very sad actually.

 

And the last time I checked Somaliand's forces were less than 100km from Garowe...

[Mooge]

you can cry all day but reality is reality. somaliland clan land starts at caynaba and everyone knows that. if you dispute that and think i am wrong, talk to your elders. they will tell you

[Nudawn]

Somalia;854417 wrote:

Somaliland has oil in HolHol region!!

And you're a troll.

[Somalia]

Nudawn;854463 wrote:

And you're a troll.

Don't even address me, newbie.

[uchi]

If this is true ~ I like it.

[Taleexi]

I welcome every clan state to have a referendum thus, I'm in supportive mode.

 

Sage: Occupying a city doesn't necessarily make yours!

[burahadeer]

^^exagerating your territory & population doesn't necessarily make yours

and we make where eva somaliland starts.

[LANDER]

burahadeer;854548 wrote:

^^exagerating your territory & population doesn't necessarily make yours

and we make where eva somaliland starts.

^

 

It's a fool's errand to figure where one tribe begins and another ends but apparently its become the Khatumo supporters favorite pass time!

[Abwaan]

War waddankaani waa naga badan yahay ee maad naga deysaan tafaraaruqa! I am sure magaalooyinka aad hadda wax ka soo qoraysaan oo aan filayo in badankeen aanqurbe joogno, haddii la dhaho halla kala gooyo qaar baa naxdin la suuxi lahaa, haddana tuulooyin cidlo ah kala xigsanaya.