by Ali Mohamed
Thursday, September 23, 2010
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Somaliland Navy
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Recently, a group of armed ONLF insurgent group landed Somaliland western sea coast almost succeeded crossing into Ethiopia’s Eastern border without a trace. It is clear that Somaliland’s military commander in that region and local people provided intelligence and logistical support for this operation. The events that took place west coast region underscores why national security would always be the top priority for the new administration, and the bad neighborhood we live. For the past decade, former Somaliland administration kept blind eye and tacitly approved the illegal activity in the west coast region-----arms smuggling, contra-band and illegal importing of Somaliland‘s exotic animals . By any means, we are not suggesting that former President Rayaale was responsible the failure of the new government to detect and defend the latest incursion of armed militia’s into Somaliland territory.
The events of last week and the way President Silanyo’s security team handled its aftermath was very embarrassing indeed. However, we are expecting our leaders to learn from what went wrong and do whatever necessary to secure our coastal area.
Right now, it is not the time for finger pointing and bad-mouthing about the new administration’s shaky start. Constructive and objective criticism are helpful, but we would never accept those who want to take advantage and capitalize this incident for their own political or personal gains, by spreading lies ,false rumors ,trash and baseless stories..
Some editors of local websites have been waging lately, a full blown misinformation campaign to discredit the new Silanyo administration, which could tarnish Somaliland image. For example, this week, waaheen posted breaking news with this following Headline, “A group of heavily armed Ethiopian troops have reached Sayla.” And it continues with the story that the Ethiopian Government is asking its parliament to approve the deployment of Ethiopian troops into the West Coast of Somaliland. We would not be surprise, if the source of this type of news came from a fringe website like Hadhwanaag-- - the mouthpiece of Al-shabab terrorist organization.
Just because they (the editors) did not get the job from they were expecting from the new Administration; is not an excuse to post and publish whatever disparaging stories about Somaliland in order to undermine our new leader. This is really foolish and unpatriotic. What they doing are not true journalism; but a desperate way to manifest their anger toward the victory of Kulmiye party.
At the time of crisis, we need unity and we should rally behind our leader; that does not mean giving him a blank check to do whatever he wishes. We must demand real answers from our government: what really happened, why heavily armed men landed on our coast, and what agency failed to do its job on September 10, blunders. And the fact finding committee President have appointed to investigate the latest fiasco in the west coast is merely for public relation and damage control.
We know hard work, time and patience are needed in order to secure our long coastline. We strongly believe, with right leadership, strategy, commitment and determination, we can secure our Coast from East to West. Removing Somaliland coastal Guard under the jurisdiction of Ministry of interior is the logical way to start. Instead the Ministry of defense should take over the command and control of the coastal forces, since they are dealing with external forces. For wrong reason, former administration placed the Coast Guard under the supervision of the Ministry of Interior.
And establishing the Headquarters of Somaliland Coast Guard in Lughaye would bring into the region the resources and the troops needed to secure the West coast Area ---- from Bulihar to Seyla, an area of 365 km long. We should also ask assistance from donor nations to bolster our small coast Guard with the right training and equipment.
Majority of the people have serious reservations and concern about the people President Silanyo chose to surround himself. Including the Al-shabab infected, President’s chief cabinet---who lacks the experience and the credentials to run that post. We need individuals with law enforcement, intelligence and counter insurgent background to lead the Interior and Defense Ministries. Mr. Gabose and Mr. Adami are fine capable public officials; however, we believe President have picked both of them for political reasons. We should not politicize when it comes protecting our freedom and security. Sacking both security Ministers makes sense, and bringing new security team would prove to the Somaliland people that President is making tough decision for the sake our national security .
The new administration would be tested by our enemies again and would encounter problems as well. At least, our job should be how to offer a feedback to rectify those challenges. Let’s stop the culture of self destruction and we should not give comfort those want Somaliland to fail. We want the new Silanyo/Seylici administration to succeed; failure is not an option.
Finally, Somaliland entity will succeed because its political institution are organic, having built by the local indigenous people of the country rather than imposed from the outside by the donor nations or the UN.
Allah Bless Somaliland
Long live Somaliland
Ali Mohamed
Founder
Somaliland Freedom Foundation
Lewis Center,Ohio
Email: [email protected]