By Faisal A. Roble
ONLF as a Political Commodity
In a recent interview with the Ethiopian TV, English Program, Dr. Abdiweli Ali Gaas, President of Puntland state of Somalia, uncharacteristically painted the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) with a negative broad brush and banded it with the terrorist group of Al-Shabab. However, in fairness I contacted President Gaas on this matter. He responded to me in writing by saying this: “It was a slip of the tongue and I will try to rectify it as soon as possible.” I completely accept that explanation and encourage Dr. Gaas to act on his promise as soon as possible. The President’s rectification may even be a lesson in the future for others to rectify in public when they err in their judgment.
Prior to Dr. Gaas, former President Farool of Puntland in an extrajudicial way apprehended suspected ONLF “sympathizers” and handed them over to Ethiopia; in the era of the rule of war lords in Mogadishu, hundreds of innocent civilians, including pious elders and businessmen, were passed on to Ethiopia in exchange for arms shipments. In 1996, the late President Mohamed Haji Ibrahim Egal of Somaliland also apprehended and gave innocent civilians over to Ethiopia. The same was done both by Presidents Riyale and Ahmed Silanyo.
The culture of ONLF bashing by post-civil war Somali politicians, and the political commodification of the name “ONLF” speaks more to the demise of Somalia and the vision for being Somali or “Soomalinimo” than to what ONLF‘s politics represents. In the larger geopolitical scheme of the Horn of Africa, the meek position often exhibited by post-civil war Somalia is an ostensible reflection of the weakening, if not disappearing, sovereignty of the once proud and progressive Somalia.
Read more: Reflections on the saga of the Somali question
Faisal A. Roble
Email: [email protected]
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