The denudation and decay of the organic and authentic Cultural leaders of Somaliland

 

Ibrahim Mead
Ottawa, Canada

How did the honourable cultural leaders ended up to this sorrow situation!?
a) Because they were corrupted by a corrupt entity as to cover their failure, or deficiencies or deception. They used them as they need them with no shame and with no mercy!
b) The victims themselves sold their soul until they become salable product!
c) The conscience of the nation was (MIA) missing in action.
d) May be it is God’s trial or wish to punish an ungrateful people who entertain the wrong more than they condone the right and the righteous.

Each community or nation has their national characteristics. That refers to the distinctive psychological make-up of that particular people or ethnic group. this means that different people living in a national territory are characterized by a distinctive mix of particular attitudes, values, emotions, motivations and abilities which is culturally reinforced by language, state etc.
National psychology of a people also plays a role in politics by way of the ideology of nationalism, the idea being that members of a nation have a common national identity, that is part of a national community, and they share common interests, like national interest.

National character of a nation “this also refers to the values, norms and customs which any other people or nations typically hold. The typical emotional responses and what we regard as virtue and as vice may vary from one people to another
The integrity and the independence of the clan or community elder, particularly so when that elder is chosen as the head of his clan by his clan or community and not by out side forces saved Somaliland from not becoming like Somalia. Those clan leaders were called the wise men-“cuqaal” not “cappo qabiil” as they call them in Somalia.
Siayd Barre changed the “cappo” title to “nabadoon” a “nabaad”- peace he later destroyed. Those “cappu qabeels or nabadoons” were not independent of government influence and interference. The government used them politically as they saw it fit! From there they were disconnected from their community they supposed to represent them.
Unfortunately this is what Siilanyo and clique are doing in Somaliland and they better stop

In the case of Somalia they died long time ago. Colonial Italy weakened the cultural leaders there, and then Siyad Barre buried organic traditional leadership alive, as not to have any body of any authority between him and the people, a people he cowed them.
The dictator created “Guulwadayaal” in their place.
In the case of Somaliland they were flourishing during the British administration.
They were the ‘local authority’ working with the central government hand in hand in all local affairs. After independence they were still the moral authority there in Somaliland even though Siyad Barre tarnished them and weakened them during his tenure. They however survived from that. They again flourished during SNM movement for they were both the logistics of the movement as well as the peace keepers and the moral campus of the organization.
When SNM handed over the liberated country to the people of Somaliland, they once again became the backbone of the establishment of the 2nd Republic of Somaliland. Peace would not have been established nor sustained nor would institutions ever been built with out their help and effort. God bless the people who played the larger role in this nation building.
Preceded governments misused that body as they politicized that moral institution. They bribed them and used most of them for their end. Now they are in the road of death in slow motion under Siilanyo’s administration.

When the organic and authentic cultural leaders died in Somalia, some one had to fill in that vacancy so 1) warlords did fill in. After the fall of the warlords, 2) political lords filled in, then 3) Religious lords filled in. In the end 4) foreign entities filled in the vacuum in Somalia!
In the case of Somaliland we still had some authentic cultural leaders and that was the main reason Somaliland was saved from havoc of war as well as the religious extremists that destroyed peace and stability in Somalia. Now this institution is corrupted more than ever by Mr. Siilanyo’s administration and now most of the ‘Sultans’ ended up as political mercenaries. Unfortunately Somaliland is heading towords stage 3 and may end up to stage-4, as per the process Somalia has gone. As above!

Somaliland’s wise men-“Cuqaal” mainly got that name because the clan leaders were carefully chosen from the wise people of the community and not haphazardly from the follies of the community as the case is now in Siilanyo’s administration, as well as the ones before him.
The “Caaqil” leadership was gradually changing and moving towards “every-thing goes” where by follies got the largest share! In other words Mr. Siilanyo hit the largest nail in the coffin of the integrity and authenticity of “caaqil leadership in Somaliland.

Siilanyo created cabals and goons from the follies in the street to replace the respectable and honorable “cuqals and Sultans” they are phony ones but still use the name “Sultan”
Follies are uncontested in Somaliland politics these days. That does not mean that the good people are no where any more. They were there they were wondering for a while but now they rose up from the dust, shake their head, wiped off their eyes and then metamorphosed in to the Forum for Consultation and Improvement. Mr. Siilanyo and his clique who already tarnished and destroyed the authentic and organic cultural leaders want to tarnish and destroy the moral voice of the people of Somaliland which is the Forum for consultation, not by bribing them but by threatening them, demeaning them and defaming them, using the public media out lets. That is not a wise idea nor is it a lasting solution. Such actions are an idiot’s delight!

Siilanyo contributed the collapse of the authentic cultural leaders more than his predecessors did when he bribed them and dragged the corrupted sultans to TV-cameras.
Now Mr. Siilanyo has corrupted and thus using those poor, otherwise people of integrity
with public money. They in that process transformed themselves in to Cabals and clan brokers. They were made mercenaries! They lost the trust of their clan-/community. Unconsciously inadvertently, the government also lost an important institution they could use for peace and conflict resolution. As Siilanyo and clique destroyed the houses of congers and judiciary they also destroyed the Caaqil / Sultan institution. Corrupted entity corrupting other entity is a-lose-lose proposition! Unless corrected, that is where we are now!

This phenomenon of the decay of the authentic and organic cultural leaders encompasses the whole Somali peninsula. Some died earlier than others. Somaliland was the last place they survived but the flawed and inefficient politicians misused them to cover their weakness, with no shame. They created a flood of sultans by alluring them with public money, in other words they bribe them so that they can use them when they are in trouble. In fairness Mr. Siilanyo is not the first to do this evil activity of using the Sultans for his ends, however he has over used this demonic activity and by way of that over killed the authentic cultural institution.

Now that institution is decaying and giving forth and order. But we have to save it and restore it and put it in its proper place. However, Mr. Siilnayo seemes determined to finish off the already weakened cultural leaders in Somaliland by further dividing them, by bribing them to disgrace them, and by alienating others of the cultural leaders because of their different views to words his (wrong) agenda, all for his (astray) political scheme and tactics of the end- justifies- the means. And that is one of the reasons why the Forum for Consultations and Improvement was born and that is why Siilanyo administration is panicking! Together we have to change a lot and improve a lot to exist.

Peace and prayers
Ibrahim Mead