Monday,
July 21, 2008 - Dr.
Muhammad S. Megalommatis deserves to be thanked,
to be honoured and to be rewarded with the highest
national award. When most of us celebrate whenever
Dr. Muhammad Publishes an article that purports
our unity and exposes the ugliness of Tigre regime
and its agents in dear Somalia, stooges are united
to defame this honourable personality. The three
puppet administrations in Somalia, Puntland, and
Somaliland are united to attack him for exposing
their demeaning enslavement by Melez and his
entourage. Dr. Muhammad, don’t give a damn to
what these mean hearted stooges say. The sons and
daughters of Somalia and Oromo will script your
name with golden ink in their history. We shall
teach our youth now and generations to come your
unreserved support, your selfless endeavour and
your unlimited sense of responsibility. You stood
for what is right when so many Somali politicians
collaborate to the destruction of their country
and people. You give us what ever you can, while
most of us take everything from our country and
give back nothing. We sell short our dignity and
national honour.
We
shall honour your struggle for our cause
nationally in due time. That day will witness our
unity. And believe you me it will be soon. That
day will be the same day when Somalis in Hargeisa,
Borame, Bosaaso, and Mogadishu once more
united, united for the well-being of all of us. We
are one tribe, neither divided by language, colour
or religion.
No
Somali with a drop of Somali gene, can stoop so
low to entertain Tigre Woyanes. That is what is
happening in Hargeisa and in Bosaaso willingly.
Mogadishu and Beletweyne are shedding their blood
to free Somalis from this indignity. I am a
Hargeisa citizen, from Isaq clan. I lost brothers,
cousins, and uncles in SNM struggle.
I took
my share of the noble struggle of SNM. I
believe the atrocity of military regime against my
clan was so immense and deep to be forgotten. That
pain cannot make me forgive the massacre committed
by Ethiopian imperialism against my people present
and past.
To
sense with tribal minded, let us remember that
half of Isaq live in the occupied territory of
Western Somalia. Our historical towns and villages
are annexed by Ethiopia with the help of British
colonial power. Remember Jigjiga, Aware, Harshin,
Daroor, Gaashamo and many more. There is no Somali
clan that is free of Ethiopian aggression and
butchery. Western Somalia is the heart of all
Somalis. All clans: Isaq, Dir, Darod, Hawiye,
Rahanweyn, Gabooye and Jareer live side by side in
the pasture land of Western Somalia.
To
go back to the genocide of Siyad Barre and his
administration, in reality it was engineered by a
dictatorial regime that used its entire means
including clan tensions. The regime used its
institutions spearheaded by NSS, Military and
Police. We cannot forgive the hands of the regime
and hunt down the heads. That is naive and justice
adulterated. We
either forgive all or punish for every action of
genocide and other human right violations,
regardless which clan the perpetrator belongs to.
Today
my Somaliland is the only part of Ex-Somalia where
remnants of military dictatorship form the
government. Where else the head of State and
Government is an Ex-NSS colonel who directly
executed and initiated orders to kill, maim and
imprison without court judgement of innocent
civilians in District of Berbera. No one denies
that President Riyale was NSS District Officer of
Berbera till it was liberated in 1991, when he ran
away with military officers from the south to
Lasanod. There he met other NSS northerners and
told to put up with them, assuring him they will
be treated as to other Isaq officers. He contacted
Abdirahman Tolwa his tribal cousin, who reaffirmed
him being northerner he will be treated same as
the Isaq officers.
Being
tribal, we forgave criminals and labelled insult
to innocent people because they share clan name
with Siyad Barre. That was wrong. Justice knows no
clan or colour. A criminal should be no more than
that. No tribe is to be punished for the shame
subjected to our people. There should be no
collective punishment. And no Isaq, Gadabursi,
Harti and others who committed crime against
humanity, be pardoned because they belong to
Somaliland clans. Forgive all or prosecute all.
On
the balance, we are better than rest of Somalia
right now. We have peace. They have war. War will
end, and it will end if we engage to. Our future
is gloomy. We are walking towards Ethiopian trap.
They want to isolate us within Somali hemisphere.
Internally, degree of corruption in every level of
government is unprecedented. In national budget we
spend more in the President’s office than
Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education,
Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Women and
Social Affairs together. Bribery is the norm. A
traffic police will stop your vehicle without any
excuse and tells you frankly, either to pay or he
will accuse you what ever he wants. Judges
negotiate with criminals and judge for the highest
paid price. We love free trade, and it never
happened in our history that livestock trade being
intervened by government before current puppets.
Not even during dictatorship. Livestock is handed
to a single Saudi trader in a monopoly deal that
tied with fixed price of $35.00 a head of a sheep
and for 5 years. Somalialnders who can sell a head
of sheep at $60.00 were rejected. Where else a
state intervenes to reduce export price of their
only resource?
Be
warned of the Ethiopian intention. Visualize what
our beautiful city Hargeisa will look like in
20-50 years time. What language will prevail? How
many Amharic words are mixed with the daily talk
of ordinary people in Hargeisa? Multiply that with
the number of years to come. What will be our
culture and ethnicity, when our brothers of Somali
West and Somalia are not welcome, and on the
contrary non-Somali Ethiopians are welcomed with
open hands? They (Non-Somali Ethiopians) come,
settle and open any trade they so choose. No visa
is required and no rules to comply. Where that
will lead us? Think and act, before it is too
late. Remember once there was an Oromo Kingdom, an
Arusi, a Harar, a Wallo, an Afar Sultanates and
kingdoms. Where are they now? They have been
assimilated and swallowed. How that will measure
with our small and less populated Somaliland?
I
have no personal enmity towards our neighbours. I
love to see a free Somalis in their country side
by side with free Ethiopians, cooperating for the
good of the region. We have to compete in
development rather than in annihilation and
destruction. Let us respect one another. That is
how the Horn will succeed.
May
my people think, think, and think about the future
more than they do about the past. May they focus
on what we share as Somalis, May they remember
thousands that sacrificed their soul for the
Greater Somalia. No family in Hargeisa without a
relative that fought against Ethiopian hegemony.
Many of them died for this noble cause, others are
handicapped for life and others suffer mental
disorder for the state we are in. They see daily
Ethiopians not only respected but enthroned in
their home town, while they are despised and left
unemployed and unsheltered. Same is true in Borama,
Buroa, Berbera, Erigabo, and Lasanod.
Brothers
and sisters think for the generations to come. We
owe them at least to maintain and safe their
Somali identity.
Ahmed
Haji Abdi
