YEEY: LEADER OF THE PACK

[OLOL]

Abdullahi Yusuf: Leader of the pack

 

Yasin Rage Ali

september 09,2005

 

 

IT'S NOTHING NEW: Colonel Abdullahi Yusuf, the Somali president, is back to his old antics. In a recent interview with a London-based newspaper, President Abdullahi darkly warned that, unless the transitional federal government (TFG) he leads gets political and financial backing from the West, Somalia 's future lay in the hands of Islamic extremists, of terrorists. This plea by Somalia 's warlord-turned-president is consistent with prior statements he has made spanning the years of his controversial political career.

 

This declaration by the President comes as no surprise to me. During his tenure as leader of the semi-autonomous Puntland regional government, President Abdullahi was known to have collaborated with Ethiopian security services in the detention of alleged terrorists – or, rather, any Muslim male the imperialist Abyssinian administration deemed as a threat to its wide-ranging security concerns in the Horn of Africa region. It is no wonder that enemies of the President – both within and without the TFG ranks – have labeled him an Ethiopian puppet disguised beneath a three-piece business suit and a clean-shaven face.

 

But, most ordinary Somalis must be pondering over a single, instinctive question: Why has the Somali President – elected to look after the collective interest of the nation and its people – inviting prying foreign eyes into our midst, into our affairs? There is no doubt that his cash-strapped, Jowhar-based administration has knocked on many potential donor doors with the sole aim of acquiring financial aid. President Abdullahi – throughout recent years – has positioned himself as the premier candidate able to secure Western economic support needed to re-build the administrational and security infrastructure of our war-ravaged homeland.

 

Yet, Western assistance is not as forthcoming as he – and his supporters – had hoped for. There are two primary reasons as to why the President's strategy has failed thus far: one, the President's track record as a divisive leader has not escaped the attention of Western diplomats; and secondly, the West is already mindful of the pitfalls of interfering in Somali political affairs, forever immortalized by the now-notorious Black Hawk Down episode.

 

For President Abdullahi, declaring Mogadishu a terrorist stronghold is one step on his route to one day control the Capital and, by extension, the nation. He doesn't foresee – or perhaps chooses not to see – the potentially devastating long-term effects of asking for Western aid in routing out so-called terrorists. Western governments and their agent in the Horn of Africa region – Addis Ababa – don't want to see the rise of militant Islam in Somalia . The region's vastly Muslim population and its close proximity to the Middle East coupled with Somalia 's lawlessness serve as a potential base for the establishment and spread of militant Islam – a direct threat to both Addis Ababa and American President George W. Bush's so-called “war on terror†campaign. However, Professor Said S. Samatar, in his article “Unhappy Masses and the Challenge of Political Islam in Somalia,†contradicts the basis of the President's argument and therefore puts to rest the West's unfounded fear of militant Islam in Somalia :

 

In spite of the presence of all the conditions that should unleash cataclysmic upheavals in Somalia , nothing of the sort has happened there, or is likely to happen. What explains this bizarre defiance of anthropological theory? Simply put, the patterns of Somali social organization, or disorganization, provide a most satisfactory if disheartening explanation…the Somali polity is shaped by a single, central principle that overrides all others, namely the phenomenon that social anthropologists call “the segmentary lineage system.â€

 

Although all the necessary pre-conditions for the establishment of a large-scale Islamic extremist network in Somalia are tacitly in place, no such thing has occurred to date. The reason: bluntly put, Somalis place more emphasis and loyalty on clan and sub-clan lineage than on the tenets and teachings of Islam.

 

The vast majority of President Abdullahi's political opposition are headquartered in Mogadishu . They oppose his policies because they see him as a direct threat to their political powerbase and financial assets. But the President believes that, by declaring that Mogadishu is in the hands of terrorists, he'll garner Western aid so he could implement his policy of removing all his enemies – be they real or perceived – from any position of power. This includes Mogadishu warlords-turned-Cabinet ministers and the so-called Islamic courts who continue to wield influence in the Capital.

 

At the end of the day, it comes down to what it has always boiled down to in the past: no Somali leader of today is willing to give up his piece of the pie so that another may devour it. Like competence and fairness, the notion of selflessness is conveniently absent from Somali politics. If you ask me, the terrorists President Abdullahi refers to are all members of his TFG administration. They're the same men who've hijacked the Somali nation and held it for ransom – they've sold our dignity, destroyed our social fabric and are today positioned to play principal roles in Somalia 's future. And President Abdullahi Yusuf? He's just the leader of the pack.

 

Seattle , WA ( USA )

 

dabshid@hotmail.com

[Gordon Gekko]

Please stop building up aggressions. We as somalis have to stay united in the case of state-building. If Abdullahi Yusuf can build and maintane a government that let's the country deveope, it's all good. It's of great importance that we keep us calm and try to be as democratic as possible in this matter, especially us somalis living in the diaspora.

[Suldaanka]

hobyonet satire

 

Wameendhe : Beerka gaal waa noo sheegtee , beerkaagii Ilaah kuugu abuuray Aaway?

Ina Yeey: Aakhiro Ayuu galbaday kaas ha isoo xasuusin.

 

Wameendhe : Nin beerkiisii Bakhtiyay isagana Bakhti lee ma ahoo ?

Yeey : Aflagaadada Iga Daa Abti baan ahayee......