Hell Hath No Fury
 

The famous quotation from which the title of this piece is drawn is usually listed as “Hell hath no fu ry like a woman scorned” and it comes from a 17th century play penned by William Congreve calle d “The Mourning Bride”. The full quote is actually “Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned”

This phrase, in its totality, is extremely apropos for the relationship between the Silanyo governm ent and the people of Somaliland over which it rules with an increasingly brutal iron fist. The Soma liland public swept the Silanyo regime into office with a massive margin in 2010 amid great expecta tions and even greater promises of what the septuagenarian political insider would deliver in econ omic advancement and international recognition.

With just over six months remaining of its first term, the Silanyo government finds itself the objec t of mounting public rage as the euphoria and hope that catapulted it into office has turned into hatred. The Silanyo regime has suffered many policy failures, e.g. it’s much vaunted change in for eign policy to enter into dialogue with Somalia which has produced neither tangible results nor im proved relations between the two countries and has only deepened suspicion not only about Mog adishu’s designs against Somaliland, but also the Silanyo government’s true intentions. However, the core factor underlying the gradual and sustained transformation of public adulation into deep antipathy has been the unmitigated arrogance of the regime in dealing with any form of dissent.

The sad fact is that this government, which it must be remembered campaigned on a platform of press freedom which it accused the previous Riyalle administration of muzzling, has arrested more journalists and closed more media outlets, all with no recourse to the courts, than any in Somalila nd’s short history. It has become commonplace for government critics to be woken up at dawn by the forcible home invasions of their residences by paramilitary RRU (Rapid Response Unit) of the police in full paramilitary gear, terrorising their families and children. The latest recipient of this “R RU-censorship” was the owner of HCTV (Horn Cable TV), a popular, private TV network, when his home was invaded by the RRU and his family was forcibly evicted.

The reason given for this egregious overreach by the government in using a SWAT force to evict a well-known, local businessman from his home, was that the property originally belonged to the state. Interestingly enough, when HCTV was supportive of the Silanyo regime, the status of the property as publicly owned was not an issue, yet when the network began to air reports about anti-government demonstrations in various regions of the country, the owner of the network was considered such a threat to public safety that the elite anti-terrorist unit was deployed at dawn to evict him and his family.

This culture of violence and impunity has been growing and, even more disturbingly, has begun to take a tribal slant. At the end of September this year, Captain Mohamed Aw-Rabah Yusuf and L ieutenant Jama Mahmud Hadi, the commanding officer and operations officer respectively of Soma liland's 17th army battalion respectively were killed at their QoriLugud military post in Togdeer re gion by a soldier under their command. Apparently, the two senior officers had arrested the culp rit for illegally selling weapons to local militias and he was incensed at their effrontery in arresting him for selling weapons to his kinsmen and, with the connivance and assistance of other soldiers at the post, he managed to escape detention and murder the two officers before escaping in a 4x4 vehicle that had been prepared for him. The disturbing feature of this tragedy and criminal c onspiracy is that the culprit hails from the President’s clan while the two slain officers did not. Further, the fact that the initial response of the security services was slow in seeking to apprehe nd the culprit while his location in a nearby township was widely known among local people, exac erbated and intensified the damaging tribal slant of the crime.

This high handed and insensitive treatment is an enduring hallmark and feature of the Silanyo adm inistration and even senior officials which have not played ball with the ruling, inner circle of the government have also had to bear the brunt of its fury, e.g. Abdirahman Yusuf Duale "Boobe” (the highly regarded former Minister of Information) who was summarily sacked after replacing two subordinates which had close connections to the Presidency.

The above forms only a small sample of the government’s style of brutal suppression of dissent, arrest, detention and beatings of reporters and suppression of the independent press, unparall eled official corruption within a culture of impunity and blatant nepotism. It is no wonder that pub lic opinion has soured towards the Silanyo regime and there is an unmistakeable groundswell bui lding for a change at the next Presidential elections slated for the summer of 2015. What is rema rkable is the reaction of the regime to this public opprobrium; instead of seeking to change its wa ys and adopt a more thoughtful, caring and humble approach, it has sought to inflame opposition and instigate public disorder.

This is so that it can claim that elections cannot be held due to the very disorder that it seeks to instigate, and so request the legislature to approve an extension of its term by a year or two. To this end, it has been dragging its feet with respect to establishing the new Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) which has already secured the portion of required funding from external source s, but not that portion due from the government. Unfortunately, the Somaliland public is very mat ure politically and it has understood the government’s game. Thus, despite repeated provocatio ns, including heavy handed policing at anti-government demonstrations which have resulted in ma ny civilian deaths with every single such demonstration during the last year resulting in at least one civilian death, the people have steadfastly refused to play the regime’s game and instigate widespread public disorder. Indeed, at one demonstration in Burao earlier this year, people were shouting, “Silanyo, we know what you want and we will not revolt, we brought you to power by our vote and we will dismiss you with the same vote”.

It is unprecedented in my experience for a government to seek to foment violence and widespre ad public unrest, while the people resist and insist upon political change through peaceful, constit utional means. This is the stuff of the darkest political satire, and yet in Somaliland it is the daily reality. The people have been repulsed by the corruption, nepotism, lack of vision and facile machi nations of the Silanyo clique and they are determined to fire them at the next elections. In contr ast, the clique is terrified of losing power and they are furious with the people for rejecting them, hence the fury unleashed upon its opponents and critics – perceived or real.

Before closing, we must address a crucial matter for Somaliland’s democratic governance and the accountability of public officials. The commanders of the security services must understand that while government officials are their bosses, the commanders have sworn their oaths to the peop le. Their actions are governed in the end by the constitution of the country and the laws of the la nd, and those that are found to be in breach of these laws will be called to account. Shooting unar med citizens exercising their constitutional right to demonstrate in public is illegal, no matter who issues the order. Brutalising women and children in home invasions for the political opinions of the ir husbands and fathers is illegal no matter who orders it. We would point out to these commande rs, that governments come and go but that the law and the rights of the people are immutable.

We started this piece with an adage, and it seems appropriate to close with another. There is an ancient saying that is often wrongly attributed to Euripides which says, “Those whom the gods wi sh to destroy they first make mad”. This would seem to apply to the Silanyo administration since, in their efforts to stir up public unrest and so extend their term of office (e.g. the recent failed effort to unseat the Speaker of the Parliament despite the Guurti-mediated agreement a year ago wherein the regime agreed not to interfere in Parliamentary governance matters) they are displa ying all the symptoms of political madness. The immovable bulwark of Somaliland’s stability and su ccess as an indigenous democracy is the political maturity of its people. As long as that maturity persists and is nourished by the wisdom of its elders, the hope and vision of its youth and the pat ience and forbearance of its people, the fury of a regime scorned as well as its mad machinations are doomed to failure.
 

Ahmed M.I. Egal
24 November 2014