MAN IN THE MIRROR

by Nadamudin Elmi

USA- Wargeyska Hayaan -Editor

It is very hard to be a Somali these days, because for the first time in our
history the rest of the world and perhaps all of us are catching a glimpse
of who we are instead of what we can be manipulated to be. And it is a very
ugly picture. Cold war politics by Superpowers and their tremendous
influences can be blamed for our first forty years of "youthful
indiscretions" (rape, wholesale incarceration, state sponsored murders and
even an attempted genocide against segments of the population). But nothing
that is happening today can be attributed to anyone but to Somalis, while we
are engaged in a frantic race to find new depths to the bottom we reached
sometime ago.

The proverbial notion that those who do not learn from history are doomed to
repeat it, is still valid and certainly applies here. We are all keenly
aware of our catastrophic system failure that brought about the demise of
the Siyad Barre's regime. A regime where the pecking order was directly
linked to what tribe one was born into, a system where "reer Dini" were the
untouchables, Ogaden and Dhulbante did the bidding for them and the rest had
to prove their loyalty by terrorizing their own communities.

With this kind of history, followed by tribal wars waging wholesale rape,
looting of the nation, famine and indiscriminate killing of the civilian
population which ensued the collapse of the regime, one wonders why is it
that we are fighting so hard these days to enshrine into power not only the
system which has proven so fatal to us all, but also the very individuals at
the helm of such system.

Despite the proven record and the abysmal failure of the tribal government,
the newly formed Somali government in Djibouti is entirely based and built
on tribalism and is driven by the incessant notion of “what is in it for me”
which is the only currency we value lately. And since there are not enough
seats at the ministerial level to satiate the well known appetite of the
participants for miss-appropriating aid monies, the likelihood for this
government to succeed and bring about lasting peace in Somalia are
minuscule.

This is not a great revelation on my part, nor is it news to any Somali out
there who can put two and two together, the question is, why is it that we
tolerate this condition to turn us into a pod of whales intent on beaching
themselves? After all when all is said and done, some of us will hold a
first class ticket, the rest will be traveling economy, but the fact still
remains that we are all traveling on the Titanic, and the next iceberg is
just around the corner.

If this argument doesn’t sit too well with us, perhaps a little soul
searching is in order to snap us out the stupor of self-righteousness and
the carefully groomed select memory loss we so readily profess. For example,
we rationalize the issue of war criminals by putting forward an argument
like this one:

“Yes crimes were committed, and no, none of my people were involved in
perpetrating those crimes, and even if there was some killing, it was done
while executing duties as government officials, or involved in tribal wars 
(of course anything goes while one is engaged in a tribal war).  So you see,
it really wasn’t their individual fault, besides I don’t see any tribe out
there expelling one of their members for crimes that a member is alleged to
have committed.”

A friend of mine once told me that a Somali can change his name, his
nationality and even his religion, what he cannot do however is change his
tribe. This explains why so many nasty people found shelter in their
respective tribes blurring the line where a tribe ends and an individual
begins. In other words, the tribe automatically assumes the sins of the
individual and circles the wagons in a full defensive mode, because that is
what it does best, and other tribes view the tribe in question through the
prism of the individual’s criminal act. Case in point, I don’t know the name
of the guy who killed president Shermarke in 1969 and I doubt whether many
Somalis know his name, but I and most Somalis know that he hailed from the 
“Ali Saleebaan” clan.

This tendency not to stray too far from home base, lack of resources for the
average individual (e.g., jobs, education, etc.), wholesale exodus of the
best and brightest out of the country combined with the genuine fear of the
other, makes it possible for the least deserving people with their stash of
looted money at hand to assume position of leadership in every tribe. How
else can one explain our current list of leaders?

We have on one end Mr. Egal whose only accomplishment after eight years as
the president of Somaliland is to confound all concerned whether he is
really a large frog in search of a bigger pond or whether he really means
what he says. Of course what he says changes depending on the setting, the
company, or the alignment of the stars and the moon.  Whatever gains the
people in Somaliland achieved, they did it despite of him and not because of
him.

Next door to him from Puntland, we have Mr Abdillahi Yusuf whose legendary
ambition and quest for power is only superseded by his will to survive long
enough to sit on the throne. Minor challenges like a liver transplant or
dissent from his own community is certainly not going to get in the way of
his ordained destiny.

The only thing one can say about Aydiid Jr. is that he is well on his way in
creating the first Somali Dynasty of warlords. The bad news for him is that
he is not half as tough as his father was, and being tough is a prerequisite
in his neighborhood, that is why he is reduced to play the role of the
spoiler rather than the player his father was.

Last but not least, we have our newly tribally elected president Mr Abdi
Qassim who is an equal opportunity offender or ally, depending on where one
stands. He is a little bit of a warlord, a little bit of a war criminal, a
little bit fundamentalist, a little bit secular, and he may or may not use
force against those who do not recognize him as the man. The fact that he
does not have the military capability nor the support needed for imposing
his will on the rest of the country or even Mogadishu for that matter is of
course irrelevant, because once someone wears the mantle of power
irrespective of how one gets it, is reason enough for the rest of us to fall
in line and give our undivided loyalty and support, so says the man! And if
you don’t support him, it must be because you are against the well being of
the people and the country. Does this ring a bell? Do you remember when
opposing Siyad Barre meant you were a subversive element that needed to be
put away? The more things change, the more they stay the same in Somalia.

One thing needs to be pointed out though, and that is as bad as our
“leaders” are, they do not operate in a vacuum, they are part and parcel of
who we are, and simply reflect the values of the larger population despite
their individual shortcomings, and next time when you are absolutely sure
the fault lies elsewhere take a good long hard look at the man in the mirror
and find out whether he too is part of the problem.

Nadamudin Elmi
USA