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Abdi I. Samatar and his brother Ahmed I. Samatar, both of them working as teaching professors at University of Minnesota and Macalister College respectively wrote recently a note published on few Somali websites. The Samatars writing on behalf of what they called as the “Board of Directors” of an unknown organization called the “National Civic Forum” argues for making what they termed as a “Grand Compromise" in the current Somali political stalemate regarding the deployment of the African and Arab forces as peace keepers intended to assist the federal government to restore security and order into the lawless Somali capital. Unfortunately, the Samatars are uncritically echoing the same short-sighted and destructive political chorus that all the warlords and other myopic tribalists have been singing in recent months. The central argument of the “Samatars' Civic Forum” note titled “Impasse Over Mogadishu: A Grand Compromise” is that we should first destroy everything the Somali people have achieved so far through fourteen peace conferences and over ten years of bloodshed, despotic warlordism, political chaos, hunger, economic stagnation, lawlessness and above all the destruction of the entire Somali National state. They want the Somali people to turn the clock back to where we started several years ago and initiate fresh negotiations all over again. Those new negotiations the Samatars are proposing are to be choreographed by the Samatars' Civic Forum, which at best, they hope will produce similar political settlement that we already have achieved. In short, the Samatars grand compromise is at best a counterproductive grand delusion that will serve no purpose. Why should we have to restart the difficult journey for peace and political stability all over again when we have overcome so many political obstacles and when the ultimate success is within our reach? We have for the first in Somalia 's political history, a government of national unity, elected democratically with a wider support from all segments of the Somali people and a notable national political consensus. Unfortunately, the Samatars seem to be hiding their true political agenda behind vague, intellectually weak, and second hand arguments previously made by the warlords and their myopic tribalist followers. Thus they are unwittingly acting as political loudspeakers for the destructive warlords and those who are trying so hard to dismantle the Somali peace accord. Further more, the Samatars seem to be implying that President Abdullahi Yusuf was wrong to call for foreign troops, especially those coming from the so called “front-line states”; however they have so far failed to offer any reason why they oppose the call for African/Arab peace keepers, nor did they offer any alternative to do things differently. Hence, what they are saying is at best good intentions gone wacky or at worst crude display of political and intellectual hypocrisy. It seems to me that the two professors have been in academia very long and have spend too much time playing with theoretical models and thus have lost in touch with the realities beyond their office walls. Indeed, from what they wrote, one is left with the impression that they are far too removed from Somalia 's current political realities. Political compromise, grand or otherwise is desirable; indeed it may even be imperative to seek such compromise when there is a conflict between two or more opposing groups. Therefore making compromise is what the Somali people have been trying to do for the past fifteen years of the devastating civil war in the ground and endless arm-twisting inside many hotel rooms in Nairobi and else where. However, it is imperative to bear in mind that there is only one group of warlords and their supporters that are trying recklessly to derail the Somali peace accord, destroy the government of national unity that has been installed and as a result plunge the country into new bloody civil war so that they can complete their illegal quest for total control of the Somali interim federal government. Hence, it is a mystery to me who will make the “grand compromise” the Samatar brothers are talking about and to what end? Are they saying President Abdullahi Yusuf should hand over power to the destructive Mogadishu warlords or to the Samatars' civic forum? I think the Somali people deserve better answers than what the Samatars have provided thus far, which in my judgment, is a half baked argument based on a weak intellectual foundation. I believe we should not blindly band-wagon with the myopic tribalist political chorus. Indeed, I believe, we must be objective and see the political realities in the ground in our country as it is without allowing our observations be colored by the usual clanist “sun-glasses” most of us use in order to decipher political events at home. More importantly, we must acknowledge the positive political developments the President and the interim federal government made thus far. We must also acknowledge that to his credit, President Abdullahi Yusuf made a grand compromise by creating an inclusive government of national unity, with extended cabinet positions intended to please every tribe. Indeed, the harshest critique made against the President and his Prime Minister thus far is that the government is too large and it is dominated by the warlords. Needless to say, the President had legitimate reasons to do what he did; he wanted to make serious political compromises in order to put the interest of the Somali people above anything else and achieve the ultimate political objective of his government which is to restore peace and political stability to our country. It is worth noting that the President gave some of the most important cabinet positions in the government to his archenemies. In fact, the peace-keeping forces fall under the command of some of the destructive Mogadishu warlords' ministerial positions. Unfortunately, instead of drafting the terms and conditions under which the peace keeping forces could operate in Somalia , the destructive warlords foolishly kept complaining about the President's plan for peace keeping. They ignorantly failed to recognize the enormous political power they have in their hands, which if they use smartly, would enable them to shape the infrastructure of the entire security apparatus of future Somali government including the role of the peace keepers. Indeed, as mentioned above, the security of the President as well as the security of the Parliament rests in the ministries headed by the destructive Mogadishu warlords. How could they then complain and accuse the president for any wrong doing? If the destructive warlords and their supporters, the Samatars included, were honestly concerned about the role of the foreign peace keepers, they could have simply produced policy directives telling the interim federal parliament where and how the peace keeping forces should be deployed in Somalia and under what terms and conditions. It is amazing to see how the Samatars are repeating the same irrational and short-sighted political arguments made previously by the warlords without critically examining the merits of those arguments. The root of the current Somali political chaos rests upon the shoulders of the destructive Mogadishu warlords not with the president and his Prime Minister as the Samatars mistakenly seem to imply. Regrettably, for some reason the Samatars failed to recognize this self evident fact thus they unwittingly gave unjustified support to the warlords' illegitimate assault against the Somali interim federal government and President in particular. I wonder why? Unlike the tribalist Mogadishu warlords and the Samatars' “Civic Forum”, President Abdullahi Yusuf saw serious political and security obstacles blocking the road to peace and the long-awaited political settlement for the Somali Nation. He did not put his head in the sand as many people do and dishonesty engage an empty talk; instead he made serious political considerations. He weighted all the political and military options available to him. The President, after consulting all the parties concerned including all the warlords, came to the conclusion that the only viable option to achieve legitimate political control of the Somali capital, thus enabling the Somali government to relocate home, was calling for external security force from IGAD for a short period of time. His decision was based on the sad political and military realities on the ground in Somalia and particularly in Mogadishu . It is important to remember that absolutely no one, Somalis and foreigners alike are saying that there is no need for foreign peace keeping forces. Every rational Somali man or woman and indeed all foreigner political observers subscribe to the notion that there is no way the Somali interim Somali federal government could end its exile and move to Mogadishu without a substantial external security forces from the international community and Africa Union in particular. We may agree or dislike the policy decisions President Abdullahi Yusuf has made thus far; nevertheless, everything the President has done since he was elected falls within the framework of the presidential powers that the interim constitution bestows upon his shoulders. Hence, unlike the destructive Mogadishu warlords and their myopic tribalist supporters, he is at the very least acting in accordance with the interim Somali federal constitution. Indeed, neither the warlords, nor the Samatars and any one else for that matter, has so far accused the President of acting unlawfully. Yet, the Samatars, the warlords, and others with tribalist vengeance and cheap personal vendettas against Abdullahi Yusuf are acting unlawfully by among other things thrashing the rule of law and parliamentary procedures to the sidelines. Oddly enough, the Samatars, perhaps unwittingly, want to nullify the interim constitution and as a result destroy the embryonic Somali federal political system which is probably the most viable system that has ever been devised for the Somali Nation without telling the Somali people what they want to replace it! The Samatars seem to imply that President Abdullahi Yusuf does not have the necessary political legitimacy to speak for the Somali people and call for peace keeping forces under the auspices of the African Union, the Arab League and the United Nations Security Council. The question is then what sort of political legitimacy, if any at all, do the Samatars' civic forum has to speak for anyone other than the two Samatars themselves? We can argue endlessly about the technicalities of how President Abdullahi Yusuf was elected, and how he allegedly manipulated the parliamentarians to get elected but to question his legitimate claim to power and treat him just like another warlord is not only misleading but it is a misguided and cheap political propaganda that will only fuel further hostilities and political segmentation of Somali society with the resulting danger for a new devastating civil war. More importantly, it shows the political hypocrisy and the level of intellectual dishonesty displayed on the Samatars civic forum note. In short, the destructive Mogadishu warlords, the Samatars' brother all others who are unfairly criticizing President Abdullahi Yusuf and his government must bring to the table an alternative political strategy and better way of doing things. Otherwise, they should simply stay sitting idly on the sidelines as spectators rather being a destructive force undermining the interest of the Somali Nation. Bill Ainashe email: wainashe@hotmail.com
United States
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