An open letter to Somaliland
An open letter to:
- President Dahir Rayale Kahin, President of Somaliland
- Chairman Ahmed Mohammed Silanyo, Chairman of Kulmiye party
- Chairman Faisal Ali Waraabe, Chairman of UCID party
- Speakers of the houses and Members of the two houses
- Somaliland Election Commission
- People of Somaliland
In Somaliland, peace is our home. Our people have realized this 18 years ago when they reclaimed their sovereignty in the conference of Burao. Emerging from a bloody and disastrous war, the wise men who met in Burao came to the conclusion that only by shaking hands with each other, by forgetting and forgiving each other in keeping with the resourceful norms and values of our culture that they could move forward to build a nation. And a nation they built that is the envy of many African states; a nation that has been deservedly known as the “Africa’s Best Kept Secret.”
Our people have put peace first, peace second and peace third. They realized that one can sleep on an empty stomach at a place he calls home but one cannot call home a place where he cannot sleep in peace. It was the people, not politicians who made this peace, and it is again the people and not politicians who will safeguard it.
So beware,
The people are watching you. They tolerate your squabbles, your petty barbs, your internal bickering and your exchange of insults. They know that you are still taking your first childhood steps in the process of democracy and they give you allowance to make mistakes.
So beware,
But you must not test the people’s patience. Try not to stretch your childish tantrums beyond the tolerable boundaries. The great offence that any politician can commit is to insult the intelligence of the people. You may insult each other, rip each other to pieces, and smear each other’s reputations if you wish, but don’t dare you involve our people in your personal mudslinging campaigns.
So beware,
President Dahir Rayale Kahin: You have already made history. You are the first elected President of Somaliland; you held and organized several peaceful elections in a highly admired democratic process. You showed wisdom in leading and maintaining the peace of an impoverished and unrecognized country located in a politically turbulent region. On many occasions, you chose peace to war; even at the risk of your own life. No one will forget how you saved Somaliland from an imminent war in 2002 in the Las Anod incident. The people have seen your sagacity when you chose prayers to war. Your words “Dagaal ducaan ka doortay” have been engraved in the history of our people. History will also remember your readiness to vacate the presidential seat in April 2003 when Kulmiye declared victory in the presidential elections before the real verdict was announced on 11 May 2003. People who were close to you know how you were arm-twisted to wait until a recount was made.
Mr. President, long after you go people of Somaliland will thank you for your policy of patience and soft diplomacy in solving issues. One of your enduring successes will be your securing of the borders of Somaliland for the first time and gaining the trust of the people of Sool to return to their homeland. People of Somaliland will not forget the great extents you went in gaining recognition for Somaliland. They witnessed how you broke walls after walls and toiled day after day in winning friends for Somaliland. These and many others will be the hallmarks of your reign. But Mr. President all these good deeds will go with the wind if you mess it up at the end. You see, you may have only few black dots on your record but it is only the black stains that stand out on a white sheet. So if you care about leaving a good legacy bring your story to a good conclusion. It is always the conclusion that echoes longer in history. Remember Mr. President, the longer you hang on to power the more tragic your fall will be. The choice is yours.
So beware,
Mr.Ahmed Mohammed Silanyo: No one doubts that you deserve to be a president. People have known you as a good fighter, a capable leader and a democrat. History vouches witness to how you left the leadership of the SNM at the heyday of the organization. This was a rarity not only in Africa but in the history of liberation movements. Rarely did a leader and the commander-in-chief of a bush militia group relinquished power in a democratic process. But you did it Mr.Chairman. This is engraved in stone.
The people of Somaliland also remember the great sacrifice you made on 16 May 2003 when the final tally of the recount of Somaliland’s presidential elections was announced. Whether you lost or won that election will forever remain as one of the greatest mysteries of our country’s history. But one thing that will always shine as bright as the sun will be your great spirit of statesmanship in relenting to the decision of the election commission and the senate elders who issued the election verdict; a verdict that neither you nor tens of thousands of Somalilanders accepted as legitimate. We know that it is historical moments like this that define the mettle of a real leader. You again set an example of how a leader should behave. You chose history over expediency, gallantry over greediness and peace over war. These deeds will be remembered as the hallmarks of your leadership but only if you sustain this record up to the end. Mr. Chairman, you may again add another jewel to your crown if you again keep an eye on history and not only on the seat. In doing so Mr. Chairman I am sure that Somaliland people will reward you and their reward will be handsome; mark my words. But Mr.Chairman, try not to cry wolf where there is no wolf. It is not a wise political tactic. Indeed it is a suicidal one. Because when people search for the wolf and they do not find one, they may see you as the only existing wolf. I am sure you will not like your heroic story to end up in such a tragedy of Shakespearean proportion. You may also need to work on the incendiary rhetoric of your fiery lieutenants. Some of them seem to be still in the trenches throwing swearing words at the enemy camp. They need to learn that using such alarmist language will only lead to one result, waking up the beast within stability and communal harmony, the beast of clannism.
So beware,
Mr. Faisal Ali Waraabe: You have made a name for yourself as a man of compromise. We have seen you slacken the rope when others stretched it too far. It was your brave decision of accepting the infamous verdict of the election commission and the Guurti Elders that led to the peaceful solution of Somaliand’s presidential election crisis in 2003. Indeed what some may like to see as wishy-washiness in your stances may be counted as your greatest strength. You have taught Somaliland people that to be in the opposition does not mean to be an enemy of the existing government. You have won the people’s admiration for taking the right therapeutic decision at the last decisive stage. I am sure history will remember you as Somaliland’s eleventh hour politician; a king maker whose support is covetously sought by all sides. And to me he who makes the king holds the keys. But one thing that could be the cause of your undoing is your habit of joining the doomsayers’ gang who like to create monsters at every turn. You feed and nurture the monster with them, counting on your ability to decapitate it before it strikes. But remember as the Somali saying goes: “Libaax nin korsaday ayuu dilaa”, a lion kills his warden. You may have also been told many times before to mind your language. You may have dismissed it as it a malice espoused by your enemy camp but believe me there is no weapon more powerful than words that could lead to a politician’s downfall.
So beware,
Mr. Suleiman Mohamoud Adam and the Guurti: Mr. Speaker, as the elder of elders, you have tremendous responsibility on your shoulders. Contrary to the popular perception of the Guurti being the rubber stamp of the successive Somaliland presidents, I have nothing but praise for their sagacity and wisdom in resolving crisis. As dire circumstances sometimes need dire decisions, it is no wonder that you are most of the time the butt of the opposition’s criticism. As midwives of Somaliland’s peace and stability, you are the custodians of the nation’s secrets and as a good midwife would do you only care about doing your work and keeping your secrets with you even if the all world cries foul. Until now you have been lucky not to have a single still born child.
Given the circumstances in which you work, you have done well. You have proven to us and the whole world that conventional wisdom can be a firm foundation for democracy. Gentlemen, I admire your work. But one thing that really bothers me is why no women are found among your ranks. How long do you think will pass before I address you as “Ladies and Gentlemen”. One more thing you may to have to remember is to know that Somaliland has taken a democratic system based on a multiparty parliamentary style. It is therefore imperative on you to make sure that all venues of problem solving have been exhausted before you embark on any of your last resort endeavors. You should know that the services of an experienced midwife are needed only at a specific time. Therefore, it may be advisable that you should not try to overdo your usefulness. With such eminent elders as Abdi Waraabe among you, we hold you on a high pedestal, so strive not to waste the people’s respect and trust for you. Age has its allowances but not to the extent that you make yourselves as laughing stock.
So beware,
Mr. Abdirahman Mohamed Abdillahi and the House of Representatives : Mr. Speaker, you have come to the political spectrum like a hero on a white stallion. You and your colleagues have been viewed as the dream team that would lead Somaliland to an era of good governance and real democracy. Your first session on 29th November 2005 started with a fistfight and more than two and half years later you are still clueless. Mr.Speaker, it is unfortunate that you and others of your expatriate parliament spend more time travelling abroad, savoring the hospitality of the Somaliland diaspora and using your political privileges to the maximum.
Your house has proven beyond doubt that educational qualifications are no match for the skills earned in traditional wisdom. The MPs appear to be a bunch of dwarfs compared to the giants of the Guurti. With many of them coming to Somaliland as carpetbaggers after living many years as nonentities in the west, they cannot wait to return to their host countries and impress their friends with their newly found privileges and political titles. One also wonders whether the loud noises they make in the house and the controversial statements they give to the media is but a show off game aimed for the consumption of their audience in their host countries.
In my opinion, the honesty, patriotism and integrity of the majority of this house is highly questionable. Definitely, there should be some honest men and women among them whose voices are overshadowed by the jabbering folk. It may not be futile however to remind the MPs that their time is running short and soon they would be facing the people’s verdict. People have wizened up to your team’s clownish gimmicks and their expedient use of tribal cards; they have realized that what sells Somaliland’s case is not your foreign passports but the integrity, the honesty and the hard work of its people.
So beware,
National Election Commission : Your mission is to guarantee a free and fair election in Somaliland to the best of your ability and exercise your authority as per the precincts of the law and your Commission’s terms of reference. Wisdom says that you should strive to safeguard your independence at all cost. You are here neither to fulfill the government’s dictates nor to give in to the opposition’s bullying tactics. It will be farcical to assume yourselves as members representing the conflicting interests of the political parties. As soon as you have been sworn in as members of the commission you ceased every allegiance you had to any of the parties.
Your allegiance should be only to the country’s electoral laws and to the consensus of the political parties and legislative bodies of the country. You owe no favor to any party, nor are you here to do any favor to any party. You don’t elect the candidates, your duty is only to manage the elections, tally the votes and announce the results. Just like a football referee, you only guarantee the game to be clean and faultless. You have no stake in the winning, but you have every stake in the process. No amount of arm twisting should divert you from executing your duties with all fairness and freedom. Handling elections is like defusing a time bomb, if you handle it with care and deftness, you avert a disaster, but if you flop you die first before others burn.
So beware,
Somaliland People : O, my people, you should know that it is you who writes history and history is you. You are the judge and the jury. You are the kings of your fate. You are the power. The politicians are nothing but your messengers and servants. It is therefore your duty to choose who you think is your best messenger and your best servant. It is not an easy task indeed, especially when none of the political parties shows you a strategy for what they would do for you and the country. The politicians are foxes and as you know the fox may know many things but you, my people, should be the hedgehog who knows the one big thing. The politicians know how to tell many lies to win the chair but the one big truth you know is that peace and stability is your home, that politicians may come and go with or without much impact to your daily life but once peace is gone, your life will never be the same again. Therefore, you should keep waving the peace slogan before every politicians face. Make no one who fails to swear in at the altar of peace be your leader.
My people, you should know that there will be no Kofi Annans, no Condolezza Rices and no regional leaders coming to your rescue if you mess up your peace. In fact there are many enemies waiting for our fall. So you should not count on the international community rushing to your rescue if you falter. If we fall, we will be just another sad African story, another false start that was taken for a glimmer of hope. We are all alone my people, we are left with our own resources and our own wisdom to safeguard our peace and stability, build our democracy and fashion our future. This is how we did it before. We did not wait for UN resolutions, beg for international conferences and prayed angels to descend from the sky to resolve our issues. We made a resolve to sort out our problems, relying on our centuries-old conflict resolution tools, our elders, our customary laws and our almighty. And this is how we are going to do it again. So do not believe politicians who are throwing wishes in the air. And do not believe their warmongering. None of them is worth dying for. If a conflict flares up, they will be the first to take flight. They all have foreign passports; they will hop on the first plane and return to their welfare tables in foreign capitals. They will enjoy the warmth of their families who will be away from any harm, while they will leave you with your women, your children and your elderly to burn in the hell they create.
O, my people there is one more thing you should also know. Peace is a beautiful thing, but peace without freedom is hollow. There is no peace in bondage, no peace in dictatorship, no peace in a state of tyranny. This is why it is imperative that you should not allow your leaders to sit on your back longer than you can tolerate. Change is the essence of life; even trees shed their leaves in autumn to get new ones in the spring. Leaders are no exception, they outlive their usefulness and they reach a stage where the only way to survive and renew the vigor of the nation is to change them. Elections, therefore, are the only legitimate way of reminding the leaders who is the master or at least the illusion of it. Exercising your right to vote is therefore your prerogative to delegate your decision making role to your chosen leaders. So learn my people, once the delegation term is over, the decision should return to you to either renew it or revoke it. You should teach the leaders that by revoking their license, you in fact protect them from harming their reputation and harming the dignity of the office they occupy. Because once leaders overstay their usefulness, they become stale and they stink. So my people do not let your leaders at all levels to stay above their usefulness. Remember when the Somalis said to their tyrant queen Arraweelooy urna loo dhimay ufna lama odhan, so you have to learn how to say uf unless you want to lose your olfactory sense.
So beware.
Bashir Goth
Email: bsogoth@yahoo.com
