A Reality Check on
Rayaale’s Somaliland
The darkness drops again; but now I know
Those twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour comes round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
The Second Coming. By W. B. Yeats
Greetings from Maan-hadal salon, one of the many happy watering
holes in Hargeisa where everything under the sun is discussed and
varied topics are skimmed through everyday with no explicit or
implicit objectives. Loose, smooth debate and long chats are the
inherent features of Maan-hadal. Many spirited conversations grace
the eloquence and lively discourse of reasoned arguments and genial
discussions that became the hallmark of Maan-hadal. It is sometimes
referred to as the incubator of exhilarating and uplifting ideas. A
talk-shop and crossfire par excellence! Self-styled political
scientists and pundits fiercely exchange diametrically opposed
views, with the very help of my beloved catalyst, the Awaday –
that lubricates our social gathering and stimulates the intellect.
Though vocal, voluble and loquacious in conversations and articulate
arguments and discussions plied back and forth, penned expressions
were not forthcoming from Maan-hadal, lately. Renowned Maan-hadal
physicians and anthropologists, who have been engaged in exhaustive
diagnostic assessment of Somaliland's illnesses, deliberated the
need for a reincarnated SNM for the second emancipation of this
beleaguered people from the degrading hegemony of the recreated
henchman of the notorious Siad Barre's regime. In this piece,
Maan-hadal would briefly ponder the state of health of Rayaale's
tyrannical regime.
In 1997, the late Mohamed Ibrahim Egal handpicked Daahir Rayaale
Kaahin as his new Vice President - a minion addition to his unwieldy
and unpopular cabinet of Prima Donnas and mediocrities. He was sworn
as a care-taker president after Egal's death in South Africa on 3
May 2002. Rayaale won the presidential election held in 14 April
2003 with a margin of mere eighty votes. Rayaale's election was
clearly a protest vote against the Somali National Movement (SNM).
As a resistance movement, the SNM had been successful in rallying
the support of the populace against the repressive military regime.
Notwithstanding its astounding feat in routing the unruly marauding
forces of Siad Bare's regime, the SNM tragically failed to come up
with a viable political program to steer Somaliland towards the road
to peace and recovery or to constitute a cohesive visionary
leadership in the aftermath of the demise of the dictatorial regime.
Taking advantage of the serious leadership deficiency that bedeviled
the SNM, the remnants of the ousted regime and a jumbled assortment
of cunning political prostitutes and crafty opportunists – locked
in a marriage of convenience - took a firm hold of the
newly-constituted authority. An apparent antithesis of the desired
outcome of the peoples struggle for good governance
Today Somaliland remains helplessly tethered and stifled under a
tottering tyrannical regime that bore unmistakable resemblance to
the one it ousted in 1991. Trampled human rights, brutal and corrupt
dictatorship, rapid urbanization, economic stagnation, diplomatic
isolation, environmental degradation, and abject poverty are
triggering unsettling unease and anxiety, aggravating further the
plight of the largely impoverished population. Ironically enough,
the Somaliland administration has been commandeered by the remnants
of the very regime with which the people had fought against it,
gallantly. The high and mighty in present-day Somaliland
administration, including the strongman - Daahir Rayaale Kaahin, and
the all powerful minister of Interior - Abdillahi Ciro, were
faithful stalwarts of the authoritarian regime that committed
horrendous crimes against the people of Somaliland. Both were senior
ranking officers of the feared and ubiquitous National Security
Service (NSS) of Siad Barre's regime which was modeled on another
equally notorious secret police – the former East Germany's Stasi.
As devoted informants, both Rayaale and Ciro stayed clung to the
dying regime of Barre till the end, hoping to administer the last
rites to the dictator.
Rayaale presides over a police state that routinely infringes on
civil rights where the state of human rights continues to
deteriorate at a rapid pace. His corrupt, repressive, and
dysfunctional regime has the tendency to employ unsavory instruments
to suppress dissent through kangaroo courts, press gags and
detentions without trial. Rayaale and his large entourage of cohorts
and cronies have not missed any opportunity to siphon off the
locally generated meager revenue and stash the loot in foreign
banks. They have demonstrated unrivalled ingenuity in exploiting the
laws of the jungle to further their self-interest and detrimental
hegemony in the most cynical way possible.
A resurrected National Security Service (NSS) – the notorious and
most despised instrument of oppression of the dethroned Barre's
dictatorial regime – has been recreated and unleashed to keep the
unwary public under surveillance. Men with known passion for
undercover work and the art of eavesdropping keep preying on the
unsuspecting civilian population and of course, Maan-hadal.
Similarly, the infamous Red Berets of Barre's regime has been
reincarnated to safeguard Rayaale's tenacious grip to an
increasingly unpopular and repressive power.
The Rayaale administration regularly interferes and influences the
performance of the judiciary system that persistently implements the
Penal Code of the deposed regime. An omnipotent extrajudicial
Security Committee – an exact replica of Siad Barre's Guddiga
Nabadgelyada, that comprises the Minister of Interior, the Minister
of Justice, the Minister of Defense, the Commander of the Police,
the Commander of the Armed Forces, the Governor, and the Mayor of
Hargeisa, has the power to arrest citizens without court order and
indefinitely.
The Hargeisa Central Prison is overflowing with innocent persons
arbitrarily detained by the unconstitutional Security Committee. The
largely dilapidated cells are filthy and overcrowded while the
communal pit latrines are full, oozing with foul smell. To satisfy
Rayaale's insatiable passion for punitive measures, the old
Mandheera Prison has been designated as a detention facility for
political prisoners. The prison population in Somaliland is
increasing exponentially which may eventually force Rayaale to build
more detention centers to lock up half the population, if the
taxpayers could afford to foot the bill.
Rayaale spared no one in his ignominious lust for incarcerations.
Editors and journalists of the two prominent and widely-read
newspapers in Somaliland, Haatuf and Jamhuuriya, are repeatedly
arrested and intimidated with a view to silence and suppress the
spirit of free speech. Rayaale has not spared even the most
venerated religious Ulemas and eminent clan leaders from his
unrestrained extrajudicial persecutions. A case in point is the
humiliating treatment meted out to the prominent politician and
traditional leader, Boqor Cusman Buur Madow, after aptly criticizing
the belligerent policies of Rayaale towards the Sool and Sanaag
regions. The latest victims of Rayaale's coercive powers are non
other than Dr. Mohamed Abdi Gabboose and Eng. Mohamed Hashi Elmi -
two highly respected political luminaries with reputable
track-records. Dr. Gabboose and Eng. Hashi together with Jamal
Aideed, another prominent politician, were arrested and detained at
Mandheera last week as prisoners of conscience, accused of forming
an illegal political party. Would this incident herald the
much-awaited coup de grace of the despotic regime?
Somaliland is not strange to supreme ironies. Most of the innocent
captives languishing in the overcrowded, untidy prison cells in
Hargeisa and Mandheera are the yesterday's heroes of the resistance
war against the brutal dictatorship who spilled their blood for the
cause of justice and freedom. With a new vicious dictatorship firmly
implanted, history is repeating itself in Hargeisa today. How long
would the people of Somaliland afford to tolerate the rule of the
jungle and self-serving dictatorship?
Lost in oblivion, the Somaliland intellectuals continue to maintain
a stony silence on Rayaale's unrelenting power abuse and human
rights violations and their long-term ramifications on prevailing
peace and stability and the delicate symbiotic relationships between
the clans that commendably succeeded in burying the hatchet. For
many intellectuals, healthy and constructive criticism towards
Rayaale's callous regime is a virtual taboo. Any justifiable sound
criticism is erroneously feared to entail adverse effect on the
quest for international recognition. Likewise, the threat of Rayaale
using the Gadabuursi card- a unionist constituency prior to
Rayaale's ascent to power – perhaps terrifies the majority of the
supporters of the secession option. The intellectuals are also
losing sight of the downhill slippery slope that Somaliland is
fatefully and gradually being propelled to. Alas, apathy and
indifference are the order of the day.
The best way forward for Somaliland is to unshackle itself from the
yoke of dictatorship and solidify the pillars of democracy. Free
press, independent trade unions and public accountability are sine
qua non in ensuring the necessary checks and balances on arbitrary
government. Certainly, Somalil and needs today the reincarnation of
the SNM to liberate itself from the clutches of the re-born old
tyrannical regime.
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