BASRA AND QABIL; THE MARRIAGE OF HATE!
One may be forgiven to wonder why Somalia, a nation ten million people who share almost everything, same religion, language, and not to mention history among others be at war with itself.
The fact is tribal difference is the source of this civil war that has engulf the country for years now. In a nation where tribes are worshiped and is second to none in terms of the enormous influence and authority it has over the population, it’s easy to see why Somalia is in pieces.
After 21 years of brutal rule, President Siyat barre was ousted from power in 1991 by tribal militia and later fled to Nigeria. Since then nothing has changed on the political front and the advent political peace processes that followed designed to heal the tribal differences between the tribes and retrieved Somalia from the brink of self-destruction has failed on more than one occasion.
The poignant pain and suffering by innocent civilians has been the bypass product of conflict and violence within Somalia for years now, including brutality directed towards them by different tribal intuitions and factional leaders that led to hundred of thousands of Somalis to flee their be loving country. The urgent for peace is crucial to the very existence and rebuilding of Somalia now than ever before, unless the international community and Somali warring parties achieves that, then peace will remain an elusive reality for many Somalis.
This urgent need for peace was realize in the recent peace initiative designed to produce a long-term solution. The Mbagathi peaces conference held in Nairobi, Kenya that was sponsored by United Nations, IGAD and Chaired by Kenya government, but unfortunately just like many other peace initiatives before it, it failed miserably.
Unfortunately this is due to the fact that Somalia political structures is in turmoil and are both tribal base and driven where individual are encouraged to render their life, wealth, welfare and loyalty to their respectful tribal rather than the country.
Its fair to assume that the civil war was an absolute product of that misguided abnormality not to mention very sick culture that has been the driving force behind this war. Various faction leaders have taken advantages of it for almost two decades of these cultural defects that govern all Somali thinking and conscience. They have integrated this sickened value that most Somalis hold dear into the political structure for they’re on good.
We know for a fact that greed and the desire for absolute wealth and power by tribal leaders has been the engine force behind this war, our land and ocean have been raped and robbed before our very eyes repeatedly under the supervision of crooked and mentally incompetent individuals.
We have seen the decline of our fishing stocks for sometime now, and this is due to the fact that our ocean has been the dumping ground for very toxic chemicals and fishing ponds for illegal fishing vessels for years, thanks to the greed of the few who have made this possible.
The implication of this is apparent, even though the country is littered with enormous reservoirs of natural resources such as oil, rivers, among others yet the people are starving to death on daily bases. As usual they always justify the unnecessary death of their fellow countrymen by assigning blame to natural events or disaster such as draught, floods among others.
What makes such evildoing of this nature and magnitude thrive or prosper in Somalia is the absolute silence or lack of concern by our intellectuals who regard themselves as unique breed of their own, they have let the slaughter of their own fellow countrymen by very mentally ill individuals triumph over basic logic and commonsense. History will remember them as accomplices to the war crimes that consumed and send thousand of women and children prematurely to their graves.
Peace will always remain elusive unless we alter our thinking and conscience with regard to our tribal cultures that encourage loyalty to tribes and revolt to the notion of unity, democracy and authority, this has been the catalyst to this war and render us stateless for almost two decades.
Some have argued that is possible for peace to be established under present condition without abandoning our tribal values that we hold so dear and is an integral feature of our identity as both nation and people. In my view the idea peace can be established under the present condition where political hostilities and distrust among tribes is fuel by this disgusted culture that seeks not to embrace the opposing party, but seeks to destroying it is a product of a bias, misinformed and intellectually corrupt mind.
For peace to be achieved we need to completely distance ourselves from tribal politics that has been the central pillar of bad governance and prosecution in Somalia for so long, as well as a complete rethinking is required for such peace and prosperity to be established in our homeland.
Rashidy
