The debate that was initiated by the articles of Gamal Hassan and Ali O. Samatar on WardheerNews.com regarding the “ Memo to Mr. Paul Martin " has provoked a hasty response from a Sulayman Egeh and others. As expected the articles generated discussion on the issue of " Somaliland secession" from supposedly the rest of Somalia. However, distorting facts on the secession agenda, which we have already seen with Egeh's piece, is at best short-sighted and at worst self-serving recommendations and careless argument.
Mr. Egeh's piece which was posted on several websites, triggered a conflict between my heart and mind, where my heart told me to leave the man alone. But my mind said "NAY, do not let such an author who propagates fabrications off the hook." For the sake of educational purposes, and to avoid the reoccurrence of such essays in the future, the latter was adopted.
As a start Mr.Egeh's confusing writing style does not distinguish negative sentences from the affirmative ones and at times mixing entire negative paragraphs as affirmative ones. Consider for example this paragraph which read like a question but ends up as affirmative joined sentence:
“ Where were this selective nationalists, when all the faculties of the Somali national university was just concentrated around Mogadishu and its environs. where were these agitating nationalists, when northern children have to leave behind their families and everything they know and venture into a unknown territory thousands of miles away, simply because to get access to higher education. isn't that called selective activism and advocacy”.
In terms of content, it seems that he is either lacking the capacity to grasp that politics is the art of the possible based on compromises and consensus or greedily doesn't want to get the problem at hand.
His interpretation of “ Somaliland 's” status and its constituents is mind-boggling. For instance, when we want to interpret an issue at hand, three factors should be considered; comprehensiveness, coherence, and context. Therefore, Mr. Egeh's analysis of the matter is contradictory. On the one hand Mr Egah is advocating that ethnocentric “ Somaliland ” administration as being the only legitimate authority in all the northern regions. On the other hand, based on his political miscalculations, he thinks that the people of Sool, Sanaag, and Cayn have no right to self-determination and decide on their destiny like their counterparts. He is arguing that by any means, they will remain to be an integral part of the so-called “ Somaliland ” administration, regardless of how loud they speak time and again about being part of Puntland and their wish to preserve Somali unity. Thus Mr. Egeh's coherence is questionable. At minimum, it is a new form of arrogance emanating from those areas of northern Somalia that have more familiarity with oppression and suppression than any other region.
Additionally, the author eluded that 95% of the northerners voted to secede from the Republic; what a propaganda! That made its way out. The number 95% itself invalidates the legitimacy of the outcome. In free societies this kind of percentages are long time obsolete except if one is under authoritarian rule or Marxist states such as the case of North Korea and some Arab states or in the Somali Regional State of Ethiopia.
I must admit here that I am amused to teach a "researcher," an “instructor” and a self-appointed "freelance writer," (these are qualifications that Mr. Egeh claims on all the pieces that he posts on the Web), a thing or two about sampling. It is probably inevitable that I revisit my past basic statistics courses. Such visits to basics are often necessary when one is calculating percentages, unless one claims such preposterous numbers for the purpose of eluding the public.
Let us assume that we are to conduct an election in northern Somalia . The process calls that we set up some polling stations in Hargeisa, and mass-produce ballot papers. When election time comes around, we proceed and let the people vote. Let us assume also that a lot of people show up at the polling stations and vote even in high numbers and the outcome is in favor for secession. Then the big question is; does that voting exercise in Hargeysa has any relevance in the reality of the people who reside in Borame, Buroa, Lascanod, or Las Qoray? Or can we learn anything newsworthy pertaining to northerners' destiny from that exercise? I leave that to you as a reader to figure out.
Moreover, the author is conveying implicitly that northern Hartis make up less than 5% of the population of the north; again all I will say to that is even an elementary school child will take that as the joke of the day. What is not a joke however is his attempt to jockey what he perceives as the second largest community in the so-called “ Somaliland ”.
Like most of his clansmen, Mr. Egeh was a staunch Somali unionist prior to Mr. Rayaale's coming to power in “ Somaliland ”. All of a sudden, he is a new convert to the “ Somaliland ” cause and the unknown sent down a revelation to him to abruptly switch his political affiliation. The cause is no longer a mystery to many. As spectators of the here today and there tomorrow of some politically immature groups who are unsure exactly where to affiliate themselves we shall wait until another massive switch takes place.
This type of unprincipled behavior can be equated to the phenomenon of " The Reagan Democrats". In principle; Reagan Democrats are nothing more than swing voters or balance twisters. They do not have nor control the agenda setting of the political currents around them. In a similar way, Mr. Egeh and his argument is nothing more than a well organized swingers' argument towards the well established and publicized secession of Northern Somalia, whose origins date back prior to Rayaale's coming to power. If Egeh and his elk fail to face the reality and ask themselves the question of who owns the secession agenda, I would not fail to do so and bluntly say that it is not a Harti agenda. If that prompts this Borama boy to assume that the Harti clans with all their might and massive population in the North are a mere 5%, it must serve us as a laugh factory.
With arguments like that the political discourse of “ Somaliland ” is running to a dead end. It denies self-determination and self expression to those who disagree with the secessionist agenda of the north while it depicts itself as where law and order are safeguarded. If you are sinking it is hard to swim against the current. Therefore, “ Somaliland ” cannot have it both ways, and let it be remembered that what is good for the goose is good for the gander. But the Harti is too big and powerful to be silenced or easily pushed aside.
Nothing can be further from the truth, you and I being Awdelite and northern Harti respectively, we very much know the reality of each community's strength and weakness. As such, one should not loose a wink of sleep as to who is big or small, putting aside the current craze of Somali debate where one side can claim to be larger than an entire region. Simply call it the signs of the new times.
Mr. Egeh, it escapes me as to why you chose to be part of the problem when it is wiser to align one self with the solution. I detest when freedom of expression doesn't reconcile with rationality. Being modest sometimes is a virtue and let us keep the secession debate modest and civil, where no one thinks to posses the power to decide for the other side. Remember we are a nation of clans, and what unites us is not Britain's arbitrary line of demarcation of "Somaliland Protectorate" borders from that of Italian Somalia, but is our shared ethnicity, heritage, and nationhood, which your entire line of thought is against.
Ali M. Artan
San Diego, USA
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