“The tendency of aggression is an innate, independent, instinctual disposition in man... it constitutes the most powerful obstacle to culture.”  Segmund Frued

Dalmar Kahin is a fellow Somali writer based in Canada. He is a staunch supporter of Somaliland secession from the rest of Somalia. Lately, his antagonistic style towards unionists have earned him with distinction the title of the “High Priest of Secession”, an appropriate title given that his surname literally means Priest or Seer in Arabic. I have nothing against the name Kahin and I am in no way trying to twist its meaning disrespectfully. Its Somali meaning may be completely different from its Arabic equivalent.

Seer is a traditional term for a person who manifests clairvoyance or precognition. In ancient Israel the term was replaced by "judge." The judges used their psychic abilities to guide the twelve tribes from the time of the settlement in Palestine until the establishment of the monarchy under Saul.

Mr. Dalmar Kahin seems to echo the sentiments of a group that have adopted the name “Somaliland Patriots”. They can be compared to the Seers of Israel by trying to guide a section of the Somali people into a promised land of prosperity, security, democracy and progress away from what they perceive as a confused, dictatorial, backward, anarchic and bloodthirsty Somalia. Even the famous Somaliland Sheikh, Siiro, has opted to support this group instead of preaching to them the importance of Unity under Islam. Before being sacked as the Foreign Minister of Somaliland, the former Somali first lady Edna seems to have joined that group when she claimed in a VOA interview that the North and South are two different nations that would require translators to understand each other.

We are all familiar with the tactics of the Nazis who plunged the world into a period of destruction unparalleled in the history of mankind. Somaliland zealots exemplified by the Somaliland Patriots can fairly be compared to the Nazis who distinguished the German people from the rest of humanity as an Arian super race. Although Mr. Kahin at times tries to distance himself from these zealots, some of his writings convey a different message. For all practical purposes, he has become the de facto spokesperson for the group.

The Nazi tactics of the Somaliland zealots is often betrayed inadvertently by the frank Mr. Faisal Ali Warabe, the chariman of one of the three clan-based parties in Somaliland, who does not hide or camouflage his true intentions. In a TV debate with Silanyo, Mr. Warabe called for the ethnical cleansing of all those who oppose Somaliland secession. I am not making this up and it is on record. Mr. Kahin tries to play a more devious role which in my opinion is more dangerous than that adopted by Mr. Warabe. At least we know where Mr. Warabe stands but it is often difficult to understand Mr. Kahin from his contradictory articles that flip-flop from a staunch secessionist to a die-hard Somali nationalist defending the country against Ethiopia and its allies.

Mr. Kahin is fond of twisting the words of others and straddling the fence in his responses to articles authored by Somali Unionists. When I recently called upon the Federal Government and the resistance movements in Somalia, in a recent article, to stand up to the efforts of the secessionists to break away Somalia, he took my words out of context and accused me of calling upon the Shabab movement to attack Somaliland. In his rebuttal he labels the Shabab movement as a terrorist organization while in other articles attacking the TFG he labels them as freedom fighters. Is this a symptom of Schizophrenia or a calculated approach to discrediting his perceived enemies.

Mr. Kahin reacted in a frenzied manner tantamount to a run-away train to a report covering the achievements of an NSUM delegation led by the chief Garad of Sool, Sanaag and Cayn regions,to Kenya. The delegation alerted the the world community to the dangers involved in the recent forceful occupation of the capital city of these regions by Somaliland forces. They also emphasized that the unwise adventure can only lead to animosity and unnecessary conflict in a peaceful section of Somalia..

Mr. Kahin lambasted the mission of the delegation in his recent article “Somalia: When NSUM’s “Mission Report” Fails “The” Mission”. In the article, Mr. Kahin tries to marginalize the mission of NSUM and attempts to downplay the size and influence of the regions that oppose the illegal secession championed by the Somaliland Patriots.

Although Mr. Osman Hassan, the official spokesperson of NSUM already deflated the unfounded attacks against the unionist organization in a recent article posted at www.awdalnews.com, I will try to expose the tactics used by Mr. Kahin to belittle those who choose to differ with him.

1. In his article, Mr. Kahin belittles the chief Garad of these regions and dismisses him off as an inexperienced and misguided young Garad while he tries to elevate to the title of Garad a chieftain who happens to have withdrawn his initial support for NSUM when it recently inaugurated its maiden office in Buhodleh where support for NSUM and its unionist agenda is not in question.
   
   
2. He also makes the glaring mistake of portraying the young Garad as the son of the late Garad Abdi Ghani who, according to him, is a co-founder of Somlailand. He ignores the fact that the late Garad was not a co-founder of the secessionist enclave but a signatory of the Burao declaration that brought peace among the Somaliland clans. The meeting was later hijacked by the SNM armed militia that used it as a platform to launch its hidden agenda of breaking up the country. He also ignores the fact that the late Garad was a true and voluntary co-founder of Puntland after he realized that the Somaliland Patriots are dead serious in their intention to break up the country whose ancestors shed their blood to defend against the British, Italian and Ethiopian colonialists.
   
   
3. Mr. Kahin ignores the fact that the young Garad Jamac comes from a long line of Garads going back several centuries and his crowning in Las Anod was attended by Somali dignitaries from all over Somalia. He spent a long time with his uncle, and not father as Kahin mistakenly claims, the late Garad Abdi Ghani, and learned from him all the nuances and subtleties of being a responsible Garad. When he speaks, he speaks for all of the people of SSC apart from the few civil servants who are based in Hargeisa and wrongfully claim to represent these regions. These civil servants have no permanent loyalties and they in fact pose a potential danger to the very existence of Somalialnd. Most of them are former employees of the former Somali Government. They are not sincere and have changed sides more than one time. Take Xaabsade as an example. This is the third time he switches sides. He is the one who chased Rayale from Las Anod when the latter tried to visit the city a few years ago.
   
   
4. Mr. Kahin says about the NSUM mission report, “An impressive guide for who to write self-defeating scathing rants”. According to Wikipedia, “A rant  is a speech or text that does not present a well-researched and calm argument; rather, it is typically an attack on an idea, a person or an institution, and very often lacks proven claims. Such attacks are usually personal attacks”. Now who is ranting here? Who is launching personal attacks against people with distinguished careers like Osman Hassan who drafted the report and accusing them of ranting? For the record, Osman Hassan is an ex-BBC commentator and an experienced retired UN staff member.
   
   
5. Mr. Kahin labels NSUM and another unionist organization NSPU as ”violent gangs with foreign cohorts”. According to this logic, unionist organizations and their supporters are violent gangs calling for the violent destruction of Somaliland while secessionists, who use force to occupy others, and their foreign hired pens such as Iqbal of South Africa, are democratic stalwarts.
   
   
6. Mr. Kahin tries to associate NSUM with Abdullahi Yusuf and his use of Ethiopian forces. He tries to deviously portray the organization as an Ethiopian stooge. There is a subtle and clever use of clan association here which is even below Mr. Kahin. We all know that Ethiopia used Berbera as a port for importing a large portion of the weapons used in Mogadishu. Hargeisa is the only city in Somalia that hosts an Ethiopian mission that oversees its clandestine activities against the unity of Somalia. Mr. Kahin fails to address this direct link between Ethiopia and the current administration in Somaliland. There are a lot of decent people in Somaliland who oppose the presence of Ethiopia in their midst and who frown upon the actions of the Rayale Regime that often hands over members of the resistance movements in Western Somalia to the regime of Meles Zenawi. Mr. Kahin ignores all these facts and tries to associate NSUM with Ethiopia instead without any credible evidence.
   
   
7. Mr. Kahin dismisses the local resistance in Las Anod as being formed largely of women and children. He forgets to tell you that most of the men have evacuated the city to join the resistance movement being assembled in Tuka Raq, 50 km east of Las Anod. The city lost 75% of its population and the women and children who could not evacuate the city are vehemently opposed to the illegal occupation as he rightfully admits. Mr. Kahin also forgets to tell you that all of the 12 Garads in these regions have opted to evacuate their houses in the city and live in surrounding villages until the occupying forces have left their city.
   
   
8. Mr. Kahin accuses the NSUM of igniting an inferno in Somaliland. First of all Mr. Kahin confuses NSUM with the local armed resistance movement SUDO that has taken up arms against the illegal invasion and occupation of their peaceful city, Las Anod. Secondly it seems that Mr. Kahin suffers from amnesia. Let us ask him who really used tribal hatred to destroy a whole country? Mr. Kahin devotes most of his article to portray NSUM as a violent organization that is out to destroy Somaliland and ignite a tribal war. Mr. Kahin forgets that violence begets violence, and that even a cornered cat will fight back. SUDO has the legitimate right to resist the occupation and defend the unity of Somalia. As far as I know, NSUM is a northern political organization that is open to all Northerners who support the unity and sovereignty of Somalia. It does not call for the destruction of Somaliland even though Somaliland Patriots including their spiritual leader Mr. Faisal Ali Warabe call for ethnically cleansing those who oppose their secessionist agenda.
   
   
9. Mr. Kahin claims that the residents of SSC themselves drove Puntland out of Las Anod and that they are the ones controlling the city now. If that is the case why would 75% of the residents of the city flee from their own compatriots? Mr. Kahin wants us to believe that a clan militia can afford armored vehicles, tanks, ammunition, fuel, food supplies and salaries that can run into thousands of dollars. A quick visit to one of the controls of Las Anod is enough to debunk this baseless assertion. It seems that the Rayale administration has mobilized several thousand aging former SNM militia in the area in a clever strategy of preventing any potential coup against his increasingly unpopular administration.

1. Mr. Kahin accuses WardheerNews of forgery, plagiarism and portrays it as a springboard for unleashing a venomous cyber war towards Somlailand. As far as I know, Wardheernews is one of the few Somali sites that provides an unbiased platform for the proponents and opponents of Somaliland secession. It has posted articles by Mr. Kahin, Iqbal and other secessionists. It strives to preserve Somali culture and focuses on literary works of value to the Somali community. Mr. Kahin regards Qarannews, Somalilandpatriots, Hadhwanaagnews and other secessionist websites as unbiased. He mostly posts his vitriolic articles in these biased web sites. I have still to witness one pro-union article in any one of these sites.

Concluding Remarks

It would take me many more pages to debunk all the arguments of Mr. Kahin. He usually adopts a style of twisting the truth and misinforming his readers. I will not bore the reader with addressing all the misleading points in his article.

All the arguments of Mr. Kahin revolve around painting the SNM as a patriotic movement that had every right to destroy the Somali State and its institutions, while he paints NSUM and other unionists as terrorist organizations that have no right whatsoever to defend Somali Unity. Along the same line of logic, the signatories of the Burao declaration, albeit under duress, have no right to withdraw from the unofficial declaration that does not have any international legitimacy while Somaliland has the right to withdraw from the ACT of Union ratified by the Somali people and the International Community.

I would like to pose a challenge to Mr. Kahin and other fellow Somalilanders who believe that their secessionist enclave is democratic. As we all know, there are three parties in Somaliland that are largely based on clan allegiances. How about welcoming NSUM, NSPU and other unionists in Hargeisa as unionist parties that can run on an agenda of uniting the Somali people instead of dividing them? These parties have been formed by northerners in the Diaspora and they have every right to have a say in the future of their country. Democracy includes freedom of the press and freedom of association. You cannot ignore most its basic principles and mislead the world into believing that Somaliland is a democratic country.

A wise thing for Rayale to do now is to withdraw all his forces from Las Anod. A local police force should take over from the departing forces until an agreed upon Federal Government takes over. Short of that, we are only courting another disaster that is similar to the one we have on our hands now in other parts of Somalia. The withdrawal of the Rayale forces from Las Anod will lead to better understanding between the traditional leaders in the North who always used their wisdom to solve difficult situations. It will also allow the refugees who live in camps surrounding the city to return to their houses. Some of these refugees have fled to camps as far as Kenya.

Finally, I would advise Mr. Kahin to refrain from personal attacks and baseless accusations when defending his point of view. Words like self-defeating scathing rants, deceptive NSUM, violent gangs, trash talking, belly dancers, NSUM thugs and many more makes him look small in the eyes of many.

Ali H Abdulla
E-mail:aliegeh@gmail.com
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