Is the TFG political failure because of lack of intellectual capacity or a misguided fundamentalist ideology? I argue the latter is the cause of the TFG demise.

Mr. Liban Ahmed’s comment on Mr. Abukar Arman’s miss-judgment on critical Somali issues, recently posted on wardheerNews, How Somalia’s Envoy to the USA vindicated neo-cons on Somalia, puts the finger on a disturbingly opportunistic behavior of Islamic fundamentalists with the view of bringing an end to the original spirit and the intent with which the TFG was founded. A time has come, I believe, to debate on who is a friend and who is the foe of the TFG.

For a long time now in the Somali Diaspora, there existed two ideologically unbridgeable and antagonistically opposing school of thoughts being engaged, both publically and clandestinely, by the Somalis. Though fluid in nature, one group of pragmatic TFG supporters stands on one side of the ideological divide and the supporters of the radical Islamists in Somalia stand on the other side.  These two antagonistic groups, seemingly set in a binary framework, could scarcely be called unified to rebuild the Somali nation. The first group always took the position of supporting the legally recognized federal government of Abdillahi Yussuf, while the latter group remained supporting the Mogadishu warlords. The TFG-loyalists long argued that the nation needed an inclusive system of government that could restore law and order and rebuild institutions and critically damaged infrastructure in the country. Only when we support such initiative, they argued, could we then be able to build on and improve the system to have a viable government in the future. The latter group, however, remained loyal to the warlords, arguing Abdillahi Yussuf’s government, formed 2004 in Kenya, was unconstitutional, foreign -born and un-Islamic child. This latter group later aligned themselves with their clan warlords who joined the now- defunct- UIC - fundamentalists to engage war against Abdillahi Yussuf’s TFG. They long argued that Al-Qaeda-linked terrorist activities in Southern Somalia, something the rest of the world knew about for years, never existed. They asserted that it was a western fabricated propaganda in order to attack Islamic principles, even when credible evidence of Al-Qaeda-linked groups operating in Somalia has been presented. For many in the Islamist group, it was more of clan loyalty coupled with Islamic fundamentalist ideology than it was for national reconciliation, nationalism, or bringing law and order  to  strengthen governance take a root in the whole nation. They equated the TFG-loyalists (us) to the Russian Gestapo-accusing us of promoting an unpatriotic and un-Islamic ideology by supporting an un-Islamic government of President Abdillahi Yussuf. We, in turn, accused them of supporting an un-Somali, islamist radical group who is using a foreign- imported form of Islam as a cover up while destroying the fabric of our Somali culture and our spirit of brotherhood.

As recently as about a year ago, March 2009, Mr. Arman, while addressing the issue of Somali youth in the Diaspora being trained as jihadist, wrote the following:

“Every year over 300,000 children and adolescents turn out missing in the US and UK. Some are runaways who might or might never go back to their families; others might fall victims of one violent crime or another, but seldom do these daunting cases allude to some international conspiratorial or criminal activities”.

I am sure that Mr. Arman was not oblivious to the truth of the issue he was referring to, but he was clearly in total denial and in so doing willingly misled the public on the issue of terrorism in Somalia. I am not sure how long this sort of dishonesty could be sold to the American public. Let me point out that the purpose here is not to attack or use a harsh rhetoric on Mr. Arman, the person, a man I have known for more than 25 years. He is a great human being with whom I have worked in number of social issues and communities –building initiatives. Nor an attack on his long held position as a loyalist to Islamic fundamentalist ideology.  Less grandly, however, it is to question his judgment when it comes to the positions he took in the past against the TFG and his overnight renewed relationship with the Al-Shababist government of Sh. Shariif. Never apologetic, all that the islamist sympathizers offer you is more of a self-justification than self-criticism- call it arrogance; an opportunistic characteristic that Mr. Liban Ahmed rightfully described as a “dismissive” – calling the intellectual honesty of others “a lazy-thinking” – a behavior that thrives on ambiguity in president Shariif’s politics. One wonders if and whether “ideology” or “principle” means anything to those who are on the other side of the fence. Nothing of tangible significance change has happened since Abdillahi’s departure, except, maybe, the oversold government posts in Shariif’s government. Ethiopia still summons the president, Mr. Shariif, with a heartbeat whenever need be. Corruption and nepotism are ever more apparent today in Shariif’s government and the president is still asking for more foreign troops, even giving license to the Americans to carry out a more aggressive air attacks to destroy Al-shabab operating nests in and around Mogadishu. These are the same actions that Abdillahi Yussuf was accused of, but it is ok today with the islamists (Shariif’s government and his supporters) to employ the same tactic, and no one in the islamist camp in Shariif’s government is outraged by these actions.

Though we, the long time-TFG-loyalists feel vindicated, we are nonetheless watching with awe-struck, and almost in a humorous way to see the Islamist sympathizers, among them Mr. Arman and many others we all know of, changing their shirts sooner than Abdillahi Yussuf resigned and the Islamist-dominated government of Sh. Shariif was formed in Djibouti and imported to Mogadishu. We are witnessing a political style of aiming to increase one's political influence at almost any price, a style which involves seizing any opportunity, as an entitlement, to extend one's political influence, whenever such opportunities arise. To see men and women abandoning what was once thought were their important political principles of anti-TFG that they previously held, only to increase their political power and influence, is very amusing. Such opportunistic behavior is, in fact, what failed the reconciliation process- the original spirit of the TFG.

These opportunistic fundamentalist men and women who are today joining the TFG in massive numbers are doing so not because they believe in the process and the spirit of reconciliation, but only to establish a stronger position in the government in order to continue their fundamentalist ideology effectively. This is exactly the direction that president Shariif envisioned when he took office with the view of strengthening and empowering his fundamentalist camp in the so-called TFG in Mogadishu, while peeling away or shunning off many independent thinkers and sectarian groups for having “pre-existing condition”- being anti-radical Islamists. In consequence, a coherent rationale for building the TFG for the good of all is gradually lost. It remains to be seen whether such failure in leadership will produce a pragmatic strategic policy to rebuild a nation.

Today, we see how the process of reconciliation and governance, the once held high hope for the TFG, has vanished into the bloody streets of Mogadishu only to meet its ultimate cruel death.  Clearly the Mogadishu government does not realize that there are Somalis living beyond Mogadishu and that the whole country badly needs rebuilding. The whole country is broken down and millions of Somalis are in desperate need of help in many parts of the country. Sadly, this immediate appeal of the idea of nation was never a part of the package that Mr. Shariif embraced in his bid for presidency. For Mr. Shariif and his Islamist government, the whole notion of nationhood does not exist beyond Mogadishu’s suburbs. There is clearly a sense of political inadequacy in Shariif’s fundamentalist government to deliver a Somali nation back to her feet, or try to address whatever else might be needed to meet the needs of Somalis effectively. This uneven thin layer of clan-dominated power control is sitting rather insecurely on the top of an exceptionally violent and resilient social order that could burst through any time and could deliver the ultimate death of the so-called “unity government” of the Shariif, unless an alternative is explored.

Good bye the long-awaited reconciliation process, so long the high hopes once held for the revival of a Somali nation, and welcome a visionless Islamic fundamentalist government in Mogadishu. Make no mistake, however, about president Shariif’s government in Mogadishu. Mr. Shariif makes no secret about his deliberate attempts to discern the main structural outlines of what his government would look like in the near future - if it survives that long- and more importantly, what matters most are his attempts to establish a fundamentalist-ideolog - government in the South. More seriously, having a strong fundamentalist government under his belt and with all the international donations and military training and support at his disposal, Somaliland and Puntland should worry about the future. It is just a matter of time before the fundamentalists in the south feel strong enough again to take their ideological war to these regions. The international community ignored these regions and left them to fend for themselves.

It is critically important that the international re-evaluates its commitment towards the present so- called-TFG under Sh. Shariif. Time has come for the international community to do away with Mogadishu and began engaging Somaliland and Putland for any future deal-making. It is simply a moral issue and these regions deserve better.

Ali Bahar
E-abahar57@gmail.com

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