Can the people of Somaliland learn their lesson two?

Can the people of Somaliland learn their lesson two?

Since the colonial era, the people of Somaliland have always been good at fighting for their independence, liberating their land and getting their freedom back into their hands. However, we never keep that freedom for long. Whenever we get it, after a long costly struggle, we give it away and hand it over to another oppressor who is similar or even worse than the previous one.

We learnt lesson one of our individual and collective duties towards our country. Lesson one teaches us – LIBERATE YOUR COUNTRY. We also learnt this lesson by heart and we can readily use it without hesitation whenever we see the need for it. But the problem is, we never learn our lesson two of the same book – KEEP YOUR FREEDOM and KEEP IT FOR GOOD.

Why do we sacrifice the blood and precious lives of our young heroes and heroines while in the most productive days of their life time, if we know we are not capable of keeping that freedom up. There is a saying in English – easy comes easy goes. However, I think, we have the opposite in Somaliland – hard comes easy goes. Freedom never came to us free, we paid very high prices for it but it always disappears so easily.

Why do we accept the destruction of our entire national infrastructure and the total loss of many years’ investment of personal and public properties and start all over again from zero to rebuild a country where all services of all sectors ceased functioning completely.

Why do our young children, elderly and other vulnerable people suffer the extreme hardships of fleeing their homes and become refugees. Why tolerate the tremendous physical and emotional pain resulting from the above-mentioned examples and many other side effects inherited from the war and displacement syndrome.

Why are we going through these horrible experiences for the sake of freedom every now and then, if we know that we will be losing that hard-earned freedom again with our own will and without any external forces.

History records events occurring along the time line since the beginning of creation and reflects what happened in the past for our own information. These reflections are used as reminders and warnings when similar signs of previous incidents show up. However, this tool is not obviously working for us.

Human beings learn from their experiences in life and they put all their efforts and energy together and do everything possible to avoid repeating their previous mistakes. We, the inhabitants of Somaliland, are counted as members of the human species but we do not apparently act like them when it comes to dealing with common national issues and making major collective decisions for the future of our country.

When are we going to behave like other human species and stop making the same mistakes repeatedly? When are we going to learn our lesson two?

This week, Saturday 12th September 2009, the people in Hargeisa – capital city of Somaliland – witnessed the death and injuries of the first victims of another freedom-fighting mission after having nearly 2 decades of delicate but relatively stable peace. This is another episode of our traditional periodic crisis as we are not so far capable to see and correct errors before reaching up to the boiling point where nothing else but violence only can work.

Can we please and please make this one the final episode of our usual freedom struggles and from now on, not just fight and die for it but look after it as well. This time, can we learn our lesson two, once and for all.

Can we all commit ourselves solemnly to make serious, honest and responsible choices, free from any personal interest or prejudice, to select the right leaders for our country to lead us to the right direction? After electing and putting them in office, let’s not just leave it up to them to decide what is good or bad for us. Let’s all keep our eyes and ears open, spot the errors early enough, when things go wrong and sort them out right there.

Brothers and sisters, let‘s learn both our lessons one and two.

May ALLAH bless Somaliland with Peace and Prosperity – AMEEN