by Mohamed Heebaan
June 26, 2009
Having benefited from the experience and the successful strategy of 'buy-the-leaders', and then divide and conquer that they used against the Sunni Resistance in Iraq, the US decided to employ the same strategy against the Somali Islamists. The favorite target of the divide strategy had been Sheikh Sharif, the hero of the Mogadishu Revolution!
Amin Amir, the renowned Somali cartoonist, and one of the most perceptive observers of Somali politics, understood how Sheikh Sharif was being courted, and he underlined that in a famous cartoon that he published right after Mogadishu fell to the invading Tigreans. The said cartoon showed the fighters of the Islamic Courts all drowning, and each and everyone of them hopelessly fighting for survival, except one man, Sheikh Sharif, who was leaving behind the drowning Islamists, and was treading on fine thread, cautiously heading to the safety and to the side of the Americans! The thinness of the thread that Sheikh Sharif was walking on, and the fact that the Americans were holding the thread with one finger suggested the precarious nature of Sheikh Sharif's position. This was of course a cartoon, but cartoons reflect reality. Whether or not the Sheikh ever paused for a moment, and thought about how he was being courted, targeted, and won over is an open question.
Though he crossed to the safety, Sheikh Sharif continued the struggle, not in the battle field, but in the jungle of politics. Even though the way he became president was somewhat questionable, and the role he played divided the Resistance into two camps, Asmara camp and the Djibouti camp, still Sheikh Sharif's stature and integrity were largely intact until he became president in Feb. 2009.
When Sheikh Sharif was becoming a president, the presidential office wasn't vacant. It was occupied. But the occupant, Abdullahi Yusuf, fell out of favor with the colonialists he served, and their masters who paid them. And since Abdullahi Yusuf was never supported by the Somali people, hardly anyone shed any tears for him. The humiliating and the unceremonious way in which their man was sent off enraged some of Abdullahi Yusuf's supporters, but there was nothing they could do about it. At any rate, prompted perhaps by a guilty conscious they had been secretly nursing for their support of the enemy that destroyed the peace and the stability in Mogadishu and Southern Somalia, some of Abdullahi Yusuf's ardent supporters found a silver-lining in Sheikh Sharif's ascendancy: Now they said, 'The only difference between Sheikh Sharif and Abdullahi Yusuf is the names of their clan lineages.' Meaning Sheikh Sharif is just as bad as Abdullahi Yusuf!
This was not true. On the day that Sheikh Sharif became president, the comparison between him and Abdullahi Yusuf could not have been starker. On one side we have Abdullahi Yusuf, a man with a bloody past, and dubious distinction of being the first Somali officer ever to cross to the enemy, and whole heartedly worked with Ethiopia, and effectively saw the first seeds of the destruction of the Somali nation!
On the other side, we have Sheikh Sharif, a man with a clean slate, who neither killed nor terrorized anyone, and who, at the same time, happened to be the charismatic hero of the Mogadishu Revolution—A turning point in Somali history whose profound impact will enlighten and inspire generations of Somalis to come!
Unfortunately for Sheikh Sharif, and unfortunately for the Somali people, the hero who had everything going his way squandered everything in just short six months! When Sheikh Sharif started relying for his safety and security on the African Mercenaries in Mogadishu just like Abdullahi Yusuf, and denounced Somali Resistance fighters as Al-Qaida and foreign terrorists just like Abdullahi Yusuf, and allied himself with the notorious Mogadishu warlords just like Abdullahi Yusuf, and threw his lot and loyalty with Ethiopia just like Abdullahi Yusuf, and went one step ahead and gave Somalia's territorial waters to Kenya UNLIKE Abdullahi Yusuf, and called upon Ethiopia to invade and occupy Somalia just like Abdullahi Yusuf, Somalis were simply shocked and dumbfounded! Are we dealing with Sheikh Sharif, or an imposter operating in his name?
Because the two leaders were starkly different in terms of their past and personalities, the impact they had on the Somali scene was naturally expected to be quite different. But in a rather queer and ironic way, Sheikh Sharif's impact on our nation turned out to be far more destructive than Abdullahi Yusuf's!
This isn't because Abdullahi Yusuf was somehow a misunderstood patriot who achieved things people didn't give him credit for. He is far from patriot, and he achieved nothing. But it was because there was low expectation or perhaps no expectation associated with whatever Abdullahi Yusuf said or did. So if the Colonel made a blunder or even committed a treasonous act, people didn't feel let down, simply because no one expected any good from Ethiopia's favorite warlord! Somalis didn't trust Abdullahi Yusuf and never let their guard down. The unity and the solidarity of the Resistance was as solid as a rock. And the overwhelming majority of the Somalis from Zeilac and Borama to Kismaayo and Raskiyamboni either supported the Resistance with muscle and material or prayed for its success and victory. Under Abdullahi Yusuf, the issue was clear. On one side, there was the enemy and its stooges, and on the other side, there was the Resistance and the general public that wholeheartedly supported it. There was no confusion!
But with Sheikh Sharif it was different. There was a high expectation associated with whatever he said or did. That is why Sheikh Sharif's mistakes disappoint, and his blunders devastate! In addition, under Sheikh Sharif's stewardship the issue of armed Resistance took a disastrous turn! Because Sheikh Sharif was popular and was a part of the Resistance, his association with the Ethiopia and with the enemy camp divided the people and divided the Resistance. Creating division among Resistance fighters is the biggest disaster that can happen to any people fighting for the liberation of their country.
The mere fact that the enemy possesses superior fire power does not lead to the defeat of the Resistance. Freedom fighters are usually defeated when they become demoralized and give up! And nothing demoralizes Resistance fighters as quickly as a division among its fighters that leads the comrades in the struggle to turn their guns against one another!
The unity of purpose and the solidarity of the Resistance that our people enjoyed under Abdullahi Yusuf's worst days are now gone! And today, former comrades in arms that shared the same bunker are now killing one another. Thanks to Sheikh Sharif! People are depressed. Confusion is everywhere! The only ones content with the mayhem in Mogadishu are Sheikh Sharif's new friends: the Tigrean regime and its overseas masters!
Somewhere in Yemen or wherever else he may be living in nowadays, Abdullahi Yusuf is laughing, and is having a blast! The news of Sheikh Sharif openly calling for Ethiopia to invade Somalia must be music to Mr. Yusuf's ears! Nothing gratifies an unpopular leader than seeing his successor screw up as bad, or even worse than he did. This is a phenomenon that exists in all countries and societies.
Years after he left office, Ed Koch the unpopular mayor of New York City declared, "The best thing that ever happened to me was I was succeeded by David Dinkins and Rudy Guiliani!" I don't quite recall the particulars of Mr. Dinkins unpopularity, but Guiliani's was everywhere. Few days before he left office and up to the 10th of Sep. 2001 Guiliani's reputation was in the gutter. He was so unpopular that his political and family life were both in shambles, so much so that he was forced to abandon his life long dream of running for the US senate. Needless to say the bad things got for Guiliani, Ed koch looked better by default!(After Sep.11, tragedy, Guiliani received a superficial, yet carefully orchestrated heroism, for the news conferences he held right after the tragedy struck. It made him look good on paper, but his appeal was manufactured!)
In the last days of the Somali government, the late Mohamed Siyad Barre was so reviled by all Somalis that people never expected there could possibly be anyone worse than he. But in a short period of time, the notorious Mogadishu warlords eclipsed Mr. Barre's horrendous legacy! Disgusted with the mayhem they created, and the nightmare that the Mogadishu warlords put the Somali people through, Abshir Bacadle, the prominent Somali poet, composed a poem in which says among other things, "The old man should be recalled back to office, with thanks and prayers!"
And so it is with Sheikh Sharif and Abdullahi Yusuf. Every blunder by the Sheikh Sharif chips away Abdullahi Yusuf's enormous negativity. And speaking of blunders, Sheikh Sharif's approval of forfeiting Somalia's territorial waters to Kenya makes him complicit in treachery, and certainly makes Abdullahi Yusuf look good by comparison!
In conclusion, true reconciliation between warring parties is a must! But for the reconciliation to work, foreign interference and influence must be put at bay. We Somalis have shown that we are at our best when we are free of foreign interference, and foreign meddling. The Mogadishu Revolution, one of the most uplifting events in Somali history, in which Somalis, and Somalis alone, have accomplished, in just six months, what we could not achieve in 16 years of foreign help, foreign interference, and foreign conferences is a good example of this. Therefore for the reconciliation to start on the right foot, foreign forces must be sent home.
The Biggest Obstacle to Reconciliation:
The biggest obstacle to peace and reconciliation between warring factions is Sheikh Sharif's strange attachment to the African Mercenaries in Mogadishu, and, by extension, to the masters who sent the mercenaries to Somalia in the first place. For Sheikh Sharif, this is a red-line that he is not willing to cross!
So the nagging question becomes, why on earth is Sheikh Sharif insisting on the presence of African Mercenaries in Mogadishu? This is a critical question, and its answer will shed some light on Sheikh Sharif's ever shifting priorities. The answer to that important question is this: Sheikh Sharif's attachment to the African Mercenaries is NOT a matter of necessity, but a matter of loyalty. That is, Sheikh Sharif isn't worried about that if he sent the mercenaries out, he and his cabinet members, and parliamentarian colleagues will be slaughtered by the Resistance. NO. He is not worried about that, because he knows if he makes a pledge to send the mercenaries out within, say, one month, Mogadishu will be peaceful again, just as it was during the Revolution.
Therefore the subsequent question becomes, if the Sheikh isn't worried for his safety and for the safety of his colleagues after the mercenaries depart from Mogadishu, what compels him to insist on their presence and makes him so beholden and attached to the African mercenaries?
The answer is that Sheikh Sharif knows if he kicks the African Mercenaries out, he will anger Addis Ababa and Washington! And therefore he doesn't want to offend the sensibilities of those who put him in the office that he is holding today. In other words, for the Sheikh, the issue is a matter of loyalty. That is, a loyalty to Addis Ababa and Washington!
Differently put, Sheikh Sharif's priorities have shifted so drastically and so dramatically that, to him, whatever will please Addis Ababa and Washington is a top priority! And anything that may anger them is a red-line that he is not willing to cross!
Now even though the expulsion of the African Mercenaries from Mogadishu will be hugely beneficial for the Somali people and will restore peace, it will also outrage both Addis Ababa and Washington. So for Sheikh Sharif, instead of running the risk of angering Addis and Washington, he is willing to send Mogadishu and the entire Southern Somalia to hell, and to perpetual civil war! What a metamorphosis indeed!
For all the divisions he created, and the many blunders he made in just few months, Sheikh Sharif, once a hero, is now a damaged goods! His stature shrunk so low. And he has very little credibility left. The best option for the Sheikh and for the country would be for him to resign and leave office. But unless he starts listening to sincere counsel from anyone willing to offer, all the indications are the Sheikh will continue treading on the path of self-and-national destruction!
FINAL THOUGHTS:
The Resistance, the Elders, and the Scholars….
The leaders of the Resistance Should and must be flexible when it comes to reconciliation. To that end, the leaders of the Resistance should reach out, work with, and accommodate the elders' initiatives and proposals. Resistance leaders should also focus on the bigger picture and make their goals achievable, and their demands reasonable. In this regard, two particular points are crucially important for the Resistance and for the country, and they are:
1—The expulsion of African Mercenaries out of the country.
2—The nullification of the treacherous agreement that gave Kenya Somalia's territorial waters.
----The expulsion of the mercenaries is important because true and successful reconciliation depends on their expulsion. The only time that the people of Mogadishu got reprieve from violence, and tasted real peace and stability was the time the agents of foreign powers (i.e. the Mogadishu warlords) were crushed and kicked out of Mogadishu! And so long that foreign mercenaries remain in the country, the flame of violence and perpetual civil war, in one form or another, will continue.
----The nullification of the treacherous agreement is crucial because this is an issue of national significance that touches the pulse of all Somalis.
----The Mogadishu Elders have played a crucial role both in the peace Revolution, and afterwards the Resistance to the Ethiopian occupation. The importance of their role, their unity, and their wisdom cannot be emphasized enough. So if their role was crucial yesterday, today theirs is just as critical. The elders should keep in mind and should make it clear to Sheikh Sharif and to his ministers that the African Mercenaries in Mogadishu are cancer in the Somali body. So long the mercenaries are there, peace in Mogadishu will always be up in the air. The African Mercenaries are mutation of Mogadishu warlords, but in foreign uniforms.
----Somalia's Religious Scholars have a role to play, if they can figure out what it may be. The conflict between the warring factions in Mogadishu has given our religious scholars a perfect opportunity to try their hand, but so far success has eluded them. If they really want to undertake a reconciliation project between the two groups, they should think carefully and critically about the issues at hand, and not fall for or take empty statements at face value. In this regard, the scholars should be even handed, and make one strong demand on each side. For instance, they can ask the Sheikh Sharif's government to kick the mercenaries out of the country, and on the Resistance they can make any demand of equivalent importance that Sheikh Sharif wants to get from the Resistance. That could be the start.
Mohamed Heebaan
E- mail: mohamed19456@hotmail.com
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