Somaliland: Beware of Somalilander’s Intellectual Myth
JAMAL HASSAN
I am writing in response to a writing entitled, Treason was committed against Somaliland by Ibrahim Mead, released on the media recently.
First, I want to assure the readers that I am not defending the authority of president Silanyo in Hargeisa. I believe there are huge mistakes to be corrected and the whole system is going down the drain fast and day after day.
However, the purpsose of this writing is about the question mark (?) hung on my identity by Ibrahim, the self proclaimed political analyst. When it comes to who I am, I dont accept to be put in confusion and I dont want myself to be alienated. Somalis everywhere are my brothers and I share everything with them. I am neither Ethiopian nor Kenyan. I was deeply heartened, shamed and hurt when I read the follwing words from Ibrahim’s statements:
“Although it was London (Somalia) conference which they shamed us and which they laid the ground for “Somaliaizing Somaliland” however this time they sold not only our soul, not only our dignity but the principles and aspirations of Somaliland”.
It is unbelievable to conceptualize Ibrahim’s words such as “ Somalizing Somaliland”. We are not being baptized into Somalism today but have been Somalis since our creation and from generation to generation. As somalilander’s, there is no reasonable justification for distancing ourselves from other Somalis. We are alienating our children, our minds and our way of life.
An intellectual healthy mind should underestand that all our country was destroyed by bad government, not only Hargeisa. I was in Mogadishu when it was heavily bombarded from end to end and without discrimination. Bad governments have mistreated their people in different parts of the world. Because of one bad government I dont have to run away from my identity. I live in Somaliland but I pride with my Somalism.
In the present days, desspite the fact that our system of intellectual property is badly broken, there are those who seek
to break it even further and this man’s thinking is a true picture and an ugly one.
A realistic view of intellectual limitation is when it becomes a disease rather than a cure. That is when it arises not from a principled intellectual mind but from an obnoxious combination of medieval thinking and guilds.
Intellectual laws,principles and perfects have been known for centuries. Reasonable people have, therefore, learned to live within its capacity. However, in recent Somali generations, a myriad of other self styled ideologies, informal institutions and practices have illusively grown up around.
Consequently, a sudden elimination of intellectual property laws have brought about collateral damage in an intolerable magnitude to the intellectual thinking of the Somalis in general and particularly to many Somalilanders.
More seriously, when we have people planning the future of our country, we really should be hoping to recruit people who are both smart and wise. This is because unfiltered ideologies which do not follow right path to changes in our country are a bad way to set the nation’s course. That is why many people are concerned about the growing number of off-shore intellectual claimants who imitate as political commetators and end up in unfiltered results.
The focus of Somali political commentator militates against a leader and the nature of the writer or the speaker is generally identified as intellectual where intellectualism is associated with elitism. In many cases we end up with the lack of realism and ugly claims of intellect. From this perspective, if we follow the the trend in the debate of many people who took leave from sanity, we will get lost in the mess of the daunting personal and tribal interest groups.
Jamal Hassan, Maryland, USA
Jamal_hassan@hotmail.ca
http://samotalis.blogspot.com/
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