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Mr. Mohamed Heebaan critique on the author and the article titled “Understanding the collapse of Somalia: challenges and opportunities for restoring a nation-state.” is technically unsubstantiated and practically misleading. It is an exceedingly flawed interpretation of the article and incorrect account of the reality in what use to be Somalia. The critique unfairly assumes that Abdul Ahmed III has an ulterior motive to call for the dismemberment of the former Somalia. Apparently it also come into sight that Mr Heebaan assertion that the article contains antagonistic view against the Somali people is a sophomoric attempt to intentionally attempt to mischaracterize the content of the article or at best it could be a defective logic that served Habeen’s parochial interest whatever it may be. Mr Heebaan is impulsively fervent and unstoppable in portraying the original article as an Ethiopian agenda without any proof or any sound intellectual line of reasoning. His claim that the article is related to Ethiopian attempt to divide in his view a Somali country is a clear sign that he is presumptuous and uninformed about the origin and the basis of Ahmed’s work and the subsequent article. The article is one of many pieces published as an excerpt form a collaborative research work that uses a large data sets on Somali clans, ethnography, social association data and large historical data. Ahmed’s article presents in part an analysis of why the former Somalia has disintegrated; we derive a powerful clan based mechanism that leads to self segregation by the clans and shows verifiable ground truth that what use to be Somalia is no more. The notion that Somalia’s new quasi-states are somehow contrary to Somali nationhood is highly flawed and contrary to empirical evidence. With the exception of the period between 1960 – 1991, Somali people lived in their chosen traditional states, some of which were far more advanced then today’s Somalia. Somaliland, Puntland and the Southern Somalia are part of the greater Somali peninsula populated by ethnically Somali people. The original article and the study upon which it was based simply point out an endogenous self-organization of Somali people into their traditional polities. The collapse of the former Somalia is a reality; our study is neither or a cause nor a celebration of the breakdown of what use to be Somalia (1960-1991). Contrary to the assertion of Mr M. Heebaan, Ahmed’s article is an original and independent intellectual contribution and not an advancement of any particular cause. The article, while laying possible policy contingencies does not particularly prescribe a single specific solution for the former Somalia. Indeed the article rather encourages the world community to assist the peaceful parts of the former Somalia. It is only logical conclusion to assume that any Somali would be happy for the peaceful Northern States of Somaliland and Puntland. It escapes our logic however to see Mr Heebaan unfairly twist the thesis of decentralized governance; a major thesis in today’s scholastic works related to governance. Moreover the idea of solving the Somali problem through bottom up decentralized fashion is one that is far more feasible and more endogenous and far more sustainable than a policy design by well meaning but remote analysts. In an article titled Regionalism and Alternative Forms of Governance Abdul Ahmed III, urges the international community to pay attention to local metaphors and allow Somali people organize themselves as they see fit rather than imposing on them some preconceived notions of fairness among clans and restoration of nation-state and a central authority without local mandate. In fact Abdul Ahmed III urges that the only sustainable solutions to the problem of the former Somalia is a Somali solution that starts locally by the diverse Somali regions. While a fair and intellectually sound critique is acceptable, I believe that the citizenship or ethnicity of the author is immaterial to the argument of what has transpired in what we purposefully for semantic reasons call “the former Somalia”. Finally, we encourage Mr M. Heebaan and others to share whatever technical and empirical data he may to present solid counter-arguments to our work (if any at all). In the absence of such rigorous information we would invite him to get familiar with our work on Somalia and Somali peninsula in order to abort any undue , uninformed sophomoric attacks on individuals authors and the integrity of their work. Janet Britt _________________________________________________________________________ We welcome the submission of all articles for possible publication on WardheerNews.com |
