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“It is rooted in the Cold War prospective that the only alternative to communism is liberal democracy and that demise of the first produces the universality of the second…The Cold War division of humanity is over. The more fundamental division of humanity in terms of ethnicity, religion, and civilizations remain and spawn new conflicts.” Is this the end-road for the much reviled and violent “R” word in our world? Is the art of negotiated settlement trumped over other options of resolving societal conflicts? In other words, are we living in an age of ideological wasteland where accommodation seems more attractive choice than the usual the winner-takes-all of political genre? And if so, is there a lesson that Somalia’s schizophrenic conflict actors can draw from it? In light of the past few decades’ experiences, the answers for these questions are resoundingly “yes”. The fundamentals of peace building dynamics and conflict resolution models around the world has changed, and for the better. Much of the historical bloody revolutions are now replaced by peaceful ones. As many pundits mentioned before, Somalia’ warring factions could learn a thing or two from it, had they tried to see beyond the myopic clan box, perverted religious intoxication and other personality pathos. It may sound just pipedream at this point, but could Pastoral Peace Revolution, still be the only credible panacea to the prolonged Somali predicaments? Think about historical “R” word or Revolution and you cannot help but relate with massive scale of socio-political and cultural upheavals where conflicting ideologies, ethnic nationalism or inter-class revolts over power, social mores and resources were the chief causes. Definitely, past few centuries (from 17th through 20th century) were marked by such bloody confrontations These episodes were mainly Eurocentric manifestation in nature with few exceptions. First the French revolt in 1789 followed by the Russian Bolsheviks and Chinese Cultural Revolution in 1917 and 1949 respectively. They were among very notable incidents but by no means were unique phenomena in the past. North America was unaffected while other Americas have experienced few and far between including the Cuban case. With the exception of isolated cases of the Ethiopian and Iranian popular revolts in the 1970s against ossified, unresponsive autocracies (plus early nationalism movements), there was none of its kind in Africa and the Middle East. That doesn’t mean African continent was immune to wars and social changes. In fact, there have been countless putsches, marauding LFs with crazy slogans, political intrigues and other remotely activated military men that wrought destruction on the continent since the independence, but none of it was on par with genuine revolutionary product and the reason was simple. Africa lacked much of the prerequisite of popular social revolutions including history of industrialization, class disparity and accumulation of wealth and power in the hands of few that could have resulted rivalry and sentiment among groups, not to mention non-existence of defined state border beyond the tribal bounders. Nowadays, societal changes and revolutions are reality and still take place in many parts of the world but things occur with radically different colors and intensities. Much of the paradigms of the new development have to do with reality of globalization and spread of knowledge on the top narrowing ideological polarization. However, that does not meant societal injustice and need for change, even with measured force, disappeared on the face of the earth overnight. Nor they will they do in the foreseeable future. Still, there are some who erroneously believe otherwise as if societal marginalization and dispute suddenly vanished into thin air and that single universal ideology prescription and the insatiable greed of corporatism platform is an ultimate cure for social justice. Monolithic Ideology Notion versus … To be sure, there are social thinkers who rigidly settled with the end notion as far as revolutionary movements, peaceful or otherwise, are concerned. However, their work sounds odd at best and sinister partisan thinking at worst, that could not stand any chance at closer scrutiny. These people prefer to talk about “reforms” out of vacuums, which is basically euphemism of stage managed and peaceful revolutions just to skirt around any ideological connotations. Francis Fakuyama, an early convert of neoconservative leading voice and the author of End of the World and Last Man (1992), is among the theory’s enthusiastic crowd. Professor Samuel Huntington and author of the controversial, provocative book entitled The Clash of Civilizations and Remaking the World Order (1997) is another one -- the main thrust of Professor Huntington’s argument is akin to an impending Armageddon of inter-religious civilization blocs rather than contest of any ideological bases or other practical virtues of the humanity. For instance, it predicts an inevitability of nihilistic conflict of Christianity vs. the rest (but mainly against Islam.) These right-wing intellects are convinced with the absolute end-road argument (and capitulation to the capitalism beast and new world order by extension) as far as social reforms and ideological battlegrounds are concerned: the perpetual struggle of incompatible political leanings, inter-class warfare and idealistic struggles are things of the past. Instead, the credo of free market fundamentalism and neo-liberalism brand of the West will conquer of all other rivals or so it goes (e.g., hereditary Monarchy, Theocracy, Communism, Nationalism, Fascism, etc.) The point of view, Mr. Fakuyama in particular, also states that anything that could challenge the said status quo including culture, identity, religion, humanistic approach and every other human value since immemorial times should be dismissed as non credible alternative of socio-political regiment but rather as transient situation. No debate or façades of conciliatory diplomacy about the merits of society’s other intrinsic values and social order should be considered at any measure. And here is where incidentally the president Bush’s blatant message of” you are either with us or against us” few years ago manifested in its crudest form. The Realistic Con Argument Meantime, other scholars across the ideological divide see little evidence of such invincible, homogenous political and identity absolutism in the world. Take for instance, the counter-argument entitle Identity and Violence: the Illusion of Identity by Professor Sen Amartya, the Bengali noble laureate, against the notion of The Clash of Civilizations. In his definitive rebuttal to Huntington’s alarmist thesis, Sen Amartya brilliantly dissects and demolishes of what he referred to as the myth of civilization and identity “cages” perpetuated by some pundits in the west on purpose during the post-cold war era. Professor Sen argues that there is no such thing as “compartmental civilizations”: no single civilization in the world has been immune to the influences and interactions of others in terms of science, arts and culture, much less identity notions of particular group or person which can be even more complex issue per se. The core message is that conflicts within society at the local, national and international levels can be best approached through compromise and according to common intrinsic values of the humanity without dwelling on the myth of “Clash of Civilization” and caricature of ”us vs. them” mindset, and there is ample evidence in the past few decades. If one looks at the recent past political changes in many parts of the globe, the reoccurring patterns are unmistakable. A quasi genteel, holistic model of political changes swept in overnight. Much of the classic violent and mass revolts were replaced by peaceful and stage managed process. In the post-cold war period, this trend has manifested itself nowhere better than in Eastern Europe and few other places to some extent: peace, political consensus and pen solution methods triumphed over conflagration and bullet. Such peaceful movements acquired even new colorful nomenclature depending on the peculiarity of indigenous and geo-physical characteristics of given country; for example, the Orange Revolution of Ukraine, the Georgian Pink Revolution, Lebanese Cedar Revolution and so on. Lessons to Be Learned from It As for the question of what parallels to be drawn from recent trends, it is simply accommodation at the local level in which without there can never be successful co-existence and stability. It may look fading hope at this juncture, but what Somalis needs now more than ever is sort of Pastoralist Peace Revolution (PPR)or Acacia Peace Initiative: a grassroots level peace involvement under the Qudhac tree with minimum of material comfort and external influence. Somaliland and Puntiland regions have taken this rout early on with mixed results. Sadly, both cases remain unfinished project, if not regressed overtime, due to visionless and rogue clan elites who dampened hopes of the masses for opportunistic reasons. As things stands now, they are in deathwatch situation due to inherent internal and external factors including tribal/religious hooligans and unholy political meddlesome coming from hell-bent, arch-enemy neighbor. As the controversial professor M. I. Lewis observed the nature of egalitarian and consensual power structure within the Somali society long ago, they need to return their roots for answer to the seemingly nihilistic and foolish conflict. Also, they should take note of what happening around the globe. Endless reconciliation circus without reconciling any taken in fancy hotels of foreign capitals with moneybags punctuated by renewed violence/factionalism on the ground will not do the trick. Neither tribal entities aspiring for Bantustan/ Ministan status, piracy lifestyle in the high seas nor religious quarks fomenting fictitious Jihad are credible options. It is high time for the delusional actors to grasp the reality and confronts the down spiral situation.
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