THE REAL DEATH OF A NATION
Posted: Thu Dec 28, 2006 6:10 pm
Somalia was dead for a long time. The death process started in 1976 when Siyad Barre, popular untill then, decided to attack Ethiopia instead of risking losing power. To me this is one of the saddest episodes in Somali poltical history because if he kept his promise and actually held a free election he and his well-chosen mixture of milatry, former milatry and civilian government would have won easily because they were so popular.
He had in his cabinet an array of honest men - ranging from the moderate Islamist milatry men like Ismail Ali Abokor, Cisman Maxamed Jelle and Ahmed Xasan to Euro-communists like Warsame Ali Kimiko and Maxamed Adan Sheekh to commited hardline Marxists like Warsame Indhole and Abdirhaman Ceydid Dhabdhable to Arabist masters like Cumar Carte Ghalib to liberal free market economists like Silanyo to old Colonial hands like Kulmiye and Jaamac Ghalib to new breed of Somalist educationalist reformers like Gahayr.
The country was humming with pride and self-confidence only dented by the Northern drought of 1974. This was handled after a little dithering, with effieciency that defied the image of Africa the inefficient. Hundreds of thousands of people were airlifted hundreds of miles from the parched badlands of Northern Somalia to the riverine areas of lower and Upper Jubba in less than a month. Sablale, an unknown village, all of a sudden became a heroic symbol of saving our people and ushering in the new era of integrated Somalia where Somalis can live anywhere in a great nation.
Pride restored with efficiency. And then someone, we still dont who, advised Siyad Barre not to hold the elections he promised. Instead he formed the XHKS(Somali Socialist Revolutionary Party) and held a `referendum' on it being the only party of State. Knowing that it wasnt enough he then launched the attack on Ethiopia in 1976. I must say it was popular: We young ones loved the idea of Somalia `liberating' Ogaden and creating Greater Somalia.
Of course we got defeated by Ethiopia with its allies.
And then today we have the `Somali government' allied with Ethiopia; our historic enemy; attacking Somalia which is supposedly being defended by crazed un-Somali Wadaads with very Unsomali ideology and failing with undignified haste.
This is the real death of a Nation
He had in his cabinet an array of honest men - ranging from the moderate Islamist milatry men like Ismail Ali Abokor, Cisman Maxamed Jelle and Ahmed Xasan to Euro-communists like Warsame Ali Kimiko and Maxamed Adan Sheekh to commited hardline Marxists like Warsame Indhole and Abdirhaman Ceydid Dhabdhable to Arabist masters like Cumar Carte Ghalib to liberal free market economists like Silanyo to old Colonial hands like Kulmiye and Jaamac Ghalib to new breed of Somalist educationalist reformers like Gahayr.
The country was humming with pride and self-confidence only dented by the Northern drought of 1974. This was handled after a little dithering, with effieciency that defied the image of Africa the inefficient. Hundreds of thousands of people were airlifted hundreds of miles from the parched badlands of Northern Somalia to the riverine areas of lower and Upper Jubba in less than a month. Sablale, an unknown village, all of a sudden became a heroic symbol of saving our people and ushering in the new era of integrated Somalia where Somalis can live anywhere in a great nation.
Pride restored with efficiency. And then someone, we still dont who, advised Siyad Barre not to hold the elections he promised. Instead he formed the XHKS(Somali Socialist Revolutionary Party) and held a `referendum' on it being the only party of State. Knowing that it wasnt enough he then launched the attack on Ethiopia in 1976. I must say it was popular: We young ones loved the idea of Somalia `liberating' Ogaden and creating Greater Somalia.
Of course we got defeated by Ethiopia with its allies.
And then today we have the `Somali government' allied with Ethiopia; our historic enemy; attacking Somalia which is supposedly being defended by crazed un-Somali Wadaads with very Unsomali ideology and failing with undignified haste.
This is the real death of a Nation