Why President Farole needs not to take lightly to reconcile with his people

[Jacaylbaro]

I remember at the tender age of 28, barley two years after my graduation from Poona University, Indian, I was acting Director at the Somali Affairs Department in the Foreign Ministry when on 29 October, 1983 at a reception to commemorate the Turkish Republic day on the grounds of the Turkish embassy in Mogadishu, I met again for the third time Robert Oakley, the US ambassador to Somalia.

 

After severing relations with the Soviet Union, in the 1980s, the US was Somalia’s biggest ally and Robert Oakley, a highly decorated US ambassador was very much dedicated to building the bilateral relationships of the two nations. Ambassador Oakley always showed a genuine love for Somalia. He came through as a man who had only Somalia’s best interests at heart. This is not untypical of top diplomatic postings. The success of ambassadors can be measured by how many friends they make for their nation and how much they propel their country’s relations with host nations.

 

On the 29 October 1983 evening, on the patio of the Turkish embassy, Ambassador Oakley who wished things between the two nations to run at a better pace, shared with me a meeting he had two nights earlier with the head of the state, President Mohamed Siyad Barre in which he [Robert Oakley] suggested to the former leader to reconcile and bring home the SNM (Somali National Movement), which was in the ambassador’s own words “at an early (embryonic) stage of development.” The former leader rebuffed the ambassador’s suggestion by uttering: “We are not going to reconcile with a bunch of bandits.” The rest is history.

 

We are aware that the militia which is fighting at Galgala in Puntland have themselves little to do with extremist groups such as Al-Shabab. To be precise, they [the militia] are mainly home grown, but they would use, wouldn’t they, any help they can scrape from anyone including Al-Shabab to drive their point home. However, it must be said that the militia at Galgala are mainly disgruntled Puntland citizens who are disillusioned with their administration. They are particularly unhappy with some aspects of President Farole’s “MO” (Modus operandi) which is different from his predecessors.

 

The Puntland President should not sleepwalk into something which can cause serious security and social implications for his entity and administration. The threat Puntland is faced has its nature rooted to an uprising which can grow to serious threat. He needs to understand that the militia fighting in a small plateau can bring his government down if not instigate civil war in Puntland. Before it is too late, the President of Puntland needs to think on his feet of how to extricate himself and his self-administration from the situation. He needs to reconcile with his people before things get out of hand and he should give serious thinking how to bring the militia home from the plateau.

 

President Farole also has been badly ill-advised to order the arrest of Abdifatah Jama Mire, the Director of Horseedmedia in Puntland who was only doing his job by interviewing Sheikh Mohamed Saeed Atam, the militia leader. President Farole should not take the implications which could arise from Abdifatah’s arrest lightly. It can cause irreparable damage to his authority and administration. He could lose face and standing in the eyes of his people and the International community. He should know better that politics is not the profession of those who have thin skin for criticism.

 

The Puntland President should act promptly and see to the immediate release of Abdifatah Jama Mire, who should be commended not imprisoned for bringing to the public the opinion and misgivings of Sheikh Atam. It should be understood that airing the opinion and grievances of the militia leader is in the public interest. President Farole should act on both issues and treat the matter of reconciling with his disgruntled people and the release of Abdifatah Jama Mire seriously.

 

 

Written by:

Abdullahi Dool

Hornheritage@aol.com

[NGONGE]

Aaah, the tender age of 28! Warya Jacaylbaro, remember the tender age of twenty eight? Mise wali maad gaarin?

 

Fully agree with the sentiment but been rubbed the wrong way by the delivery.