Somaliland: America’s underestimated friend

[The_Emperior5]

by Bashir Goth
Tuesday, March 23, 2010



Think about Somalia and all that jumps to mind is the image of a lawless country where extremist forces have turned it into killing fields, where people are butchered, maimed and their dignities and human rights are trampled on in the name of a mangled Islam, where piracy is a lucrative business that brings brides and undreamed of wealth and luxuries to hapless maritime scarecrows. It is a place where the President of the internationally-backed Transitional Federal Government (TFG) hides in a foxhole called Villa Somalia with the protection of African Forces but gets red-carpet treatment in western countries. A place where corruption is so rife that government officials as well as clan militias and unscrupulous local contractors get hefty bribes in order to allow world donated food supplies to reach the displaced and the needy sheltered in make-shift camps. A place where the TFG’s western trained military sells its weapons to their sworn enemies due to an intricate mix of clan loyalty and endemic indifference to military values and patriotic feelings.
Somalia is a place where each of the fighting groups is so fragmented that any hope of one group coming on top as dominant force to bring stability remains a distant dream. A place where internationally-concocted peace conferences have become a profitable industry that no sooner one is held to satiate the greed of some groups, another one is demanded by groups who feel left out of the spoils of the first by starting another horrendous conflict. Topping the list of these surrealistic images is the picture of the suicidal group Al Shabab that allures disillusioned youth of Somali origin from North America and Europe to be part of what they claim to be a legendary Islamic revolution of equal status to Prophet Mohammed’s conquest of Mecca from the pagan Quraishites or to die for the fantasy of wedding virgin girls in the life after death.
Compare this to another people of Somali stock who managed to avoid all the above vices and vagaries; people who are like your next door neighbors and have worked to restore peace and stability in their territory; people who opted to consult the fine products of their culture and human mind in running their own affairs and kept Islam in God’s turf and in its dignified place of being in the hearts of people to meet the individual’s spiritual needs. It is a place where its people distanced themselves from the lawlessness and butchering taking place in former Somalia. A place where pirates are captured as criminals and put on trial, where suicidal ideologies are shunned and not adorned with grand titles and noms de guerre that are alien to the Somali psyche and culture.
This latter place is Somaliland, a country that gained its independence from Britain in 1960 and has become a full member of the United Nations before it joined the Italian colonized South in a union that brought them only destruction and misery. Almost 30 years after the union, the former British Protectorate of Somaliland walked away from the union with their towns destroyed, their infrastructure in tatters and their whole population in refugee camps. But within two decades and after several inter-clan conferences under their acacia trees, they consolidated peace and established government institutions through a unique blend of customary laws and a multi-party democratic system. Today, while world favored Italian Somalia is still in mayhem, Somaliland has an elected president, an elected parliament, a free judicial body and a vigorous free media. It also has its national flag, national currency as well as a military and a police force. A score of universities and colleges and hundreds of public and private schools sprang up in various parts of the country. Now as I write this piece, Somaliland National Election Commission is issuing voting registration cards for the upcoming second presidential elections due to take place sometime this year. This makes Somaliland one of the first countries in Africa to apply an electronic voter registration. The three political parties in the country have lined up their candidates and are on the campaign trail to sell their agenda to the people.
The people of Somaliland have achieved this without UN-sponsored conferences and with limited international assistance. But while Somaliland finds it hard to sell its success story of peace, progress and democratization to the international community, the world pours money to the bottomless vortex of lawless Somalia; money that doesn’t feed the needy and shelter the poor but lines the pockets of irredeemably corrupt diaspora carpetbaggers and terrorist groups.
It is amazing, however, how Somaliland people sustain such a strong belief that their resilience and determination would pay at the end, if not by gaining political recognition at least by getting the financial assistance they need for building their capacity in contributing to the safety of the maritime routes against piracy and for bolstering the security of the strategic Horn of African region against the threat of terrorism. Given the significant role Somaliland plays in safeguarding its coastal waters and checking the spread of Islamism with its meager resources, it is clear that Somaliland can be a vital geopolitical partner for the United States and the EU. The fact that a high profile Somaliland delegation is currently in Washington DC at the invitation of the State Department, is a good indication that the Obama administration is quickly learning that Somalis might not be the same people after all and that spending American tax payers’ money on the good people in Somaliland might put the horse before the cart in dealing with the intricate situation of that Horn of African country and might win America grateful friends who see it as beacon of hope and freedom and not as infidels worth killing.


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By Bashir Goth
Email: bsogoth@yahoo.com



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34 comment(s)

More comments
Mahiigaan @ 3/25/2010 4:55 PM EST "Somali..land" no one is going to recognize because the British
Goverment and all of Eurupe are aware of Hargesa, barbare,
cergabo etc. were all Dar-od cities pre-britiania Colony,
and the is-xaq were just the tenants, and when the british broke
the backs of the Dar-od, they gave the cities belongs to dar-od
to Is-xaaq as a reward for their be-trayal.

a tenant cannot sell a home that does not belong to him.

Somalipeace,
these people has always been cadow of Somalis, the somalis
just did not know, they have always been gaining the misfortune
of the rest of us, they really have great naceeb for rest of us.
they are have been trying to sell land that does not beling
to them for the past 20 years, now they are so desperate
they are trying to sell it to the Russian mafiosa, sad



somalipeace10 @ 3/25/2010 3:16 PM EST This article is fraught with distortions, fallacies, lies. The author mr.Bashir Goth is aiding and abetting Ethiopia's concerted effort to dismember Somalia. We are glad that people in "Somaliland have relative peace in comparison with their brethern but it is an outright lie to say there is democracy or political stability.There is no single service that the administration provides. The administration is corrupted and is based on cronism. All my friends from "Somaliland" continue to tell me that. The following is a comment based on an article exposing the hypocracy and contradiction by Goth and his ilk.
It is not only mr Goth who is hypocritical but the whole "Somaliland" misadventure is based on fallacy, lies and deception. To substantiate my point, following arguments are called for. First, Mohamed Egal, the late "president" of "Somaliland" was vehementally againt the seccession and dismemberment of Somalia when he attended the both Djabouti conference in early nineties. He later conveniently changed his standing and adopted seccessionist rhetoric. In the same way, late Abdirahmen Tuur was propogating for the seccession at that time but later went to Mogadishu and became cabinet member of Salbalaar.He subsequently and openly condemned the attempt to dismember Somalia .The whole concept is opportunist facade milked by anyone who wants to claim hight position in North Westren Somalia. The other obvious lie and fallacy is that the reason they claim prompted their attempt to seccede is human rights is violated. Contrary to that argument, the current head of "Somaliland" was high ranking notorious intelligence officer who was responsible for disappearance of many civilians, however, noone talks about it. Only "South" is blamed for everything. Having said that, my argument is not against people in North Western Somalia and the wrongs inflicted on them by the military dictator, but the issue I am addressing is the blatant lies that so-called leaders are spreading. The current nonsensical article by Goth, where he contradicts himself, must be read against this historical backdrop and it will be easy to understand it in its contextual place.


momo519 @ 3/25/2010 2:08 PM EST
Although historically, Khat users were predominantly from northern Somalia, my source say that most Khat users are from southern Somalia.

It is a simple fact!



egeh @ 3/25/2010 9:29 AM EST Simbe,

Wake up! this dream of undivided Somalia has been dead for the past twenty or so years and that is a fact.


simbe @ 3/25/2010 7:52 AM EST Somalilanders is our brothers and world has no interest to divide Somalia. They don’t want to se five Somali states with has equal votes as powerful nations like US in the UN, that’s fact.

Waxba ha is daalina cidna aqoonsan mayso. My advice to Somaliland and Puntland is to pan this drag KHAT or at least begun campaign against Khat users, in Somaliland almost the 70 percent of adult men use Khat- you can call Somaliland the Marqaan land, a society destroyed by this deadly drags and Puntland is working hard to match Somaliland in terms of importing this drag, that’s why I love Alshabaab sometimes to get red this disease, they are already doing good job in some places in the south.

Where is the light this idio*t is talking about Somaliland is catastrophic place like the rest of this cursed nation.

[SahanGalbeed]

Made my day !

[The_Emperior5]

sahan basheer Goth wa rageedi waleh