The BBC Somali Service interview with the Somali Prime Minister, Mohamed Abdi Mohamed (Raiisul Wasaaraha oo ka hadlay go'aankii Puntland) was a poor prime ministerial response to Puntland’s decision to stop working in partnership with the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia although the BBC let him off the hook by not asking his reaction to Puntland’s stance against renewing the TFG mandate beyond August 2011.
The prime minister cited the reconciliation efforts that members of his cabinet undertook in Mudug region last year where members of two neighboring sub-clans clashed. “No one has ever conducted such reconciliation before”, he told the BBC Somali Service. In 1993 former TFG president Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed (then head of emergencies in Mudug and Nugaal and Bari regions) and the late General Mohamed Farah Aideed signed an agreement to which Puntland and Galmudug administrations are still committed.
Mr Mohamed said he had not listened to the news about Puntland communiqué against extending the TFG mandate “but if it is true , it is unfortunate. It empowers Ahmed Godane [ Emir of Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen] and foreign jihadists.” Mr Mohamed likened Puntland to Al Shabaab supporters but this is hardly surprising. “ Puntland people are patriots who had a role in the Somali Youth League, ( the independence movement) and made their land peaceful” he said but in his U.S. Strategic Interest in Somalia: From Cold War Era to War on Terror, (2009) “ a thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the State University at Buffalo in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts Department of American Studies”, he put forward the following baseless argument:
“In the South, the Italian colony found similar willingness in two loyal tribes: the Majeerteen of the Darood clan and the Mudulod, sub-clan of the Hawiye. These two southern tribes helped the Italians without reservation. In return, Italian and British colonies enabled these clans to claim some superiority over the other clans in terms of wealth, scholarship for their children in London and Rome, and future government influence in the (sic) post-colonial era.”
Asked abut Somaliland’s search for secession, he said it was not appropriate to refer to “past colonial hegemony” to justify secession. Mr Mohamed has praised ‘Somaliland’ people for their achievements. However, his portrayal of one of the Somali clans in ex-British Somaliland in his thesis makes him the wrong person to preach Somalis against secession. Another quote from the prime minister’s 2009 thesis with relevance to ‘Somaliland’ is this:
“Most importantly, when European imperialist decided to give up their colonies in Somalia, they rewarded top leadership positions to the tribes and individuals closest to them. For instance, in the Northern colony of British Somaliland, the Isaaq tribe was awarded virtually all of the best jobs for its collaboration with the imperialists.”
It is not only Somali warlords who divide Somali clans ; many Somali ‘intellectuals’ like prime minister Mohamed, have written either lies about Somalia or justified victimising Somali clans. The Holy Koran cautions the learned against intellectual dishonesty: “ Do you enjoin right conduct on the people, and forget (to practice it) yourselves, and yet you study the Scripture? Will you not understand? 02:44 (Surat al Baqarah; verse 44).
Somalia’s Prime Minister, Mohamed A. Mohamed, had better pluck the courage to address his inconsistencies and intellectual dishonesty before discussing the merits of unity and governance for divided Somalis.
Liban Ahmad
Libahm@gmail.com
Liban Ahmad is the editor of Somalia Research
