|
||||
Opinions expressed in this column are those of the contributors and not necessarily those of SW. HOW SHAATIGUDUUD SQUANDERED HIS 15 MINUTES OF FAME By: Abdurahman Hosh Jibril " In the television age, everyone would have his/her 15 minutes of fame", so opined Andy Warhol, a 1960s avant-garde New York artist. Well, it seems that our own Shaatiguduud had certainly had his 15 minutes of fame lately, for courageously standing up for the rights of the Digil/Mirifle community whose land has become stomping grounds for the marauding soldiers of one militia group after another for the past 10 years. Because of his courage and ingenuity, Shatiguduud became the darling of the media(at least those who could still locate Somalia on the map), and gained the sympathy of the Somali liberals inside the country and those in the diaspora. Unfortunately, instead of capitalizing on his 15 minutes of fame and extracting concrete concessions from the wider somali community, shaatiguduud squandered his 15 minutes, and is now in the precarious position of standing outside the big tent in the company of lesser men with no moral authority. When the RRA made a pact with the Devil Himself(Ethiopia) inorder to liberate its community from Aidiid's grip, most Somalis held their collective nose, and quietly rooted for the RRA, believing that, in as much as it was an ugly spectacle to see Ethiopian soldiers conducting military operations on Somali soil, in this particular case the end justified the means. Having liberated their community and restored much needed pride to a peaceable people, Shaatiguduud and his fellow RRA officers built a very highly organized political organization that embarked on an agenda of peaceful rapprochement with the wider Somali community. Enter Arta, and you realize that in this venue, there was an ample opportunity for Shatiguduud to get political mileage out of his 15 minutes of fame, and in the process obtain maximum concessions for his community, by, now guilt tripping the other players, then bluffing, and at other times entirely threatening to walk out of the conference and thus raise the possible embarrassment of the powers that be. Anyone who paid enough attention to the proceedings of that conference could not help but notice that he was a cause celebre, the man of the hour. After he was selected as an M.P in the TNA, it was not lost to President elect Abdulqassim and et al that, indeed this man had an ace up his sleeve, and that if they were going to get this project off the ground, they needed to enlist his unqualified support. Not only was he a hero to his community, but he also represented one of the large constituent elements of the TNA with 44 M.Ps. to its name. No wonder, he was one of a few MPs that the President took to New York during his maiden speech at the UN in September, and one suspects that this gesture was more of a photo op to showcase to the Somali communtiy that this adminstration was broad based. It is after departing from New York that Shaatiguduud screwed up big time, and from then on he has been wasting his 15 minutes of fame one brief minute after another. Shaatiguduud is a lawyer by training and it is said that when he was in New York he bought $1500 worth of law text books. One suspects that he did not have time to read them, for if he had, today he would not have been in the company of warlords and hooligans like Morgan and Caato, but instead would be sitting at the big table where he could be effective in putting forth his vision for the New Somalia.. The lawyer's biggest undoing came about when he threatened to resign from the legislature to which he was duly sworn , unless certain conditions were met. And the conditions he attached to his membership in the TNA were not only ludicrous, but they were also contrary to the legal percepts contained in the Transitional Charter of the TNA of which he was a signatory. The most surreal of the conditions was that he and only he shall appoint the cabinet ministers of the Digil/Mirifle community. Now, if the charter, through a miracle of sorts, were silent about this matter, perhaps he could have been accomodated. But since not many miracles happen in our corner of the world these days, the Charter explicitly empowered the Prime Minister to appoint the ministers after consulting with the President. Futhermore, The charter empowered the Parliament to either approve or disapprove the Prime Minister's nominees after vetting them. His bluff having been called most royally, Shaatiguddud lost focus on the tree and has been gazing at the forest ever since. What a loss and what a betrayal. What did Shaatiguduud squander and whom did he betray? Politically, sometimes it is better to stay inside the tent and piss in, instead of pissing on to the tent from outside.Let us see.Among all the factions, Shaatiguduud and the RRA alone have the most cogent argument to ask for the complete overhall of the body politic of the country, from inter alia, human rights, land reform/tenure/use, preservation of culture and language, and any demand they put forth(within the limits of reason) would be viewed as morally sound. Given the fact that the KMG is only a transitional administration, and given the fact that the next three yeras would see a complete rewrite of the Somali constitution, Shaatiguduud should have stayed in the tent and used the voice of his 43 MPs to hammer out what it is that his community wants out of the constitutional pie. By resigning from the TNA, he betrayed his constituency because he would have articulated their grievances like no other D/M politician. Shaatiguduud also betrayed his colleagues in Arta, who for the sake of reconciliation, broke away from the radical right within their clans. Abdulqassim not only broke away from the rejectionists from his own clan, but he continues to marginalize them. Ali Khalif Galaydh, Mohamed Abshir and Hassan Abshir broke away from the radical right within the Harti confederacy and also brought into the fold the traditional elders of their clan, therefore marginalizing the right. Buuba and Osman Jama Kalluun have also eaten into the support base of Egal and are continuously bringing the fear of God close to the hearts of the separatists. By quitting the game in midstream, the lawyer betrayed his colleagues in their hour of need. It should be noted that the D/M has long been waiting for a white knight in a shining armour, and they found that in the person of Shaatiguduud. However, what they most needed was a knight who could focus on the price, and not a Quixotic one bent on slaying wind mills. When you alienate your natural liberal allies, not only do you play in to the hands of your real enemies, but you also find yourself operating out of the margins. As a marginal outsider, the RRA leader now is fixated on two propositions. His first proposal is to have a negotiation with the government in his capacity as the head of an autonomous D/M state. Like the other self-declared autonomous states of Puntland and Somaliland, Shaatiguduud has lately caught the "Federalist" bug. Again, what he forgets is that neither bdulqassim, Ali Khalif, nor the TNA has any mandate to negotiate with respect to the form, shape or nature of any future Somali state. It is a constitutional matter, and as such, it will be deliberated by Parliament in the next three years, but can only be ratified in a referendum, by the most important stake-holders, individual Somalis. Is he not, therefore hauling the cart before the horse? His next fixation comes in the form of a question: Why is Abdulqassim not instructing his clansmen to vacate the farmlands of the D/M which they are ocupying illegally. There are two fallacies in this approach. One, it is unfair to expect Abdulqassim to expell the said settlers at the snap of his fingers, any more than you can expect Arafat to stop the Intifada by simply signing a decree. Secondly, these settlers and all the radical right in every clan see their biggest threat in the persons of Abulqassim and his colleagues mentioned above, and will not engage with them in dialogue, at least for now. Indeed, it is worth asking why General Talan, that Ghandian of a man and a colleaque of Abulqassim and et al was killed, and who killed him? Finally, the RRA leader forgets that old maxim about how in politics there are no permanent friends, only permanent intersets. If in the past, Ethiopia was bank rolling his campaigns, there will come, as sure it would, a time when the interests of Ethiopia will collide with the interests of the RRA. Since such a scenario is possble to present itself in the future, isn't it wise that he not burn bridges to his former colleagues, and perhaps even kiss and make up with them, for the interests of his people would be better served if the lawyer remained inside the tent. If Shaatiguddud remains to be an important player in the D/M politics in the future, and I believe he would, I would hope that the D/M intellectuals would shelf their Herbert Marcus manuals for now and grill the good lawyer on these issues. |
||||