Somalilandsun – The Republic of South Sudan was warmly welcomed to join the East African Community (EAC) of nations, but Somalia was left in the cold and its application to join the ” Union” was thrown into the dustbin.
The East African Community (EAC) is a regional intergovernmental organisation of five Partner States, comprising Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda and now the Republic of South Sudan, with its headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania.
The EAC African community is working towards customs union, common market, monetary union and finally a political federation.
Somalia put an application forward to join EAC as it obsessively does to joint any union for the simple reason of siphoning other tax-payers monies.
The East African Community in its last summit meeting told Somalia bluntly that it has no room in that union and among the long list of cited reasons were lack of functioning government, rampant corruption, insecurity, terrorism, piracy and on and on goes the long list of the disenchanting grounds for Somalia’s application rejection.
As usual Somalia did not foresee what was coming its way from the EAC or perhaps did not care – a reasonable plumber would not apply for an advertised neurosurgeon job, but that is not the case in Somalia. They believe everyone else is deaf and blind and that they can easily ride their own tides of misrepresentation to the beautiful green shores of paradise of Eden without putting in any sincere and real effort.
After getting that bad and ‘on-your-face’ news the so called Somalia government did not give a big middle finger to all of it, did not put a clenched fist right to the face of the East African Community and did not come out sabre rattling as it habitually did to Somaliland, when Somaliland graciously tells them it will never rejoin a union with Somalia ever again.
Having politely listened to the bad news Somalia cowardly put its tail in between its hind legs and slowly walked back in trounce and with dismay back to the hell hole it calls home.
No one has the right to blame the EAC for its brutal decision to keep the doors closed on Somalia’s face, but what is bothersome is that Somaliland was citing the same reasons and more as the EAC for the disbanding its July 1st, 1960 Somaliland with Somalia union. Somaliland’s cry for justices and fairness was not going through the deaf ears of the international community, including the EAC member nations.
Somaliland, the mother country of the Somaliland and Somalia union was a separate country from Somalia, before July, 1960 and again it nullified the union with Somalia on May 18th, 1991 through a national referendum. Since then, Somaliland maintained the peace within its borders and had peaceful coexistence with its neighbours and with the rest of the world community.
Unlike its neighbour to the east (Somalia), Somaliland had 4 freely and fairly elected presidents since 1991. It has two chamber parliament, an appointed upper house and an elected lower house and it also has elected local councillors, who came into legislative being through one person one vote system and through elections, which were declared free and fair by the international observers.
Somaliland shares both similarities and the difference with South Sudan. The similarities first, both countries went through long and a bloody struggle on their way to freedom. Both peoples stood up against atrocious brutal dictatorial regimes and went through hell and back.
The differences are: South Sudan has never been a country of its own and apart from the Sudan, had no separate and different colonial history from that of the Sudan and has no permanently demarcated borders to date with its neighbour to the north.
In contrast, Somaliland was a different country and apart from Somalia before 1960 and again for the last quarter century. Somaliland has well demarcated borders with Somalia and Somaliland respects the African Union convention on borders, which are supposedly to remain as left by the colonial powers.
Somaliland has had different colonial history than Somalia – Somaliland was a British protectorate for more than 86–years until June 26th, 1960 and Somalia was an Italian colony until July 1st, 1960.
The people in Somaliland are homogenous Somalis and share the same culture and language, while similar to South Sudan, in Somalia the population there is heterogeneous despite their mendaciousness to the rest of the world – the Somalia populations speak different languages such as the Somali, the Maymay, the Barawani, and many other scores of Bantu languages and dialects. In contrast to the Somalilanders, the Somalians enjoy different cultures as variable as their languages and dialects.
Somaliland shared common colonial masters with the members of the EAC, they shared the same currency, the same laws and fought shoulder in shoulder in both WW1 and in WW2 against fascism and Nazism. On the other hand, the Somalia soldiers fell in love with their colonial masters and they aligned themselves with Nazism and the fascist Italy.
In nutshell, Somaliland has common history and political values with its brethren in the EAC and will immensely make contributions to build an East African peaceful and prosperous union. But the EAC must first understand the fact of what is unsavoury to the East African Community is lethal to Somaliland. In other words, Somaliland and Somalia union is lethal to Somaliland. Therefore, let there be no doubt in the minds of my East African brethren that there will be no prosperous and stable East African Union without sovereign and internationally recognized Somaliland.
Otherwise, Somalia will get aggressive once again and against Somaliland and there will always be an overflow of violence to the neighbours, which is unfavourable to us all.
Let us break this Somalia’s vicious cycle of ignorance and intimidation and let all Africans respect and not ignore the God given, overdue and just self-determination for Somaliland. This East African nation (Somaliland) has history; moral and legal right not to look back at the failed union with Somalia, its future sits absolutely with pan EAC of nations.
Dr. Yusuf Dirir Ali, MD
Burao, Somaliland
Copyright: Somalilandsun, 2016. www.somalilandsun.com
