Yusuf Vs Jamac is it like?

 It seems that the people of Puntland haven’t learned from the past, and as a young observer of the situation it disheartens me a lot to watch what’s taking place.

It’s true that Puntland has survived this long only by the grace of Allah the ever merciful and gracious. Then it seemed that its land and its people where spared the shame of what took place in the south in order to build a better future for that neglected place known as the North East of Somalia.

 Reflection

Very few from Puntland remember the time when there where no schools and no education in the North East when Siyad and his crack troops oppressed on a daily basis the helpless people of that region.

This time which can be described only as the time of “Pain and anguish” where our famous leaders where divided, where the age old tradition of respect to the Issims or traditional elders was ignored and its hierarchy diluted. In this time economic progress of the North East was denied because the state didn’t want it. Bossaso was a village Glakacyu a ghost Village. The only famous town we had was Garowe and this fame was purely for the abhorrent taste of its drinking water. In this period those who didn’t immigrate to the Southern towns of Mogadishu and Kismayu where neglected.

 There was a generation born outside the North East in the boroughs of Mogadishu who never went to the North East and thought of their distant cousins as mere nomads and themselves as reer magal or city folk obviously civilised.

This picture would have remained but there was a paradigm, a shift, a change which came about due to the war. In this period of upheaval the civilised settlers of the south where ejected from their homes in the south and but for a few most settled back into the land of their forefathers which in this particular group was the North East.

 Changes

After the exiles had settled in they found that their kinsmen who were long neglected actually welcomed them with open arms and the pain of the South would be replaced by the resurrection of the North East. Promises battles to define the new environment where fought. In Galkacyu the final boundry was drawn not in a negotiated settlement but by fierce battles which left misery and the deaths of many to finally stop the Jagounot that was Aydeed’s milita.

Then the battles in which the Alitihad group was defeated. After the calm we experienced the civil war between the two colonels.

 War of the two colonels

Like the war in the south the war between the colonels seems to be a pseudo political struggle which is being cloaked as a clan based dispute.

The colonels dispute as many observers have highlighted before is being fuelled by the Mogadishu based media specially the Somali BBC service. This is done in support of the Carta agenda which needs no great explanation and lest of all to people who came from Kismayu. Yet what is unique is that these groups are now outsourcing from Puntland based websites who seem to revel at all this mayhem.

Everyday minute conflicts are exaggerated to such an extent you would think this was a struggle between Arial Sharon or Yaser Arafat.

Outside experts

Another factor for the deteriorating situation is the high number of exiles who are now some how involved in politics.

The ugly truth is that the North East has become a place of disgrace, when the death of men is used for political gain. You get individuals living in London or Stockholm or Minneapolis who are attending a Walworth polytechnic or a Goldfish college supposedly these people are experts in internal relations. These experts with the encouragements of Mogadishu based faction are trying their best to put to practice their theory of Siyad Barre’s divide and conquer tactics.

It seems that the experts have had enough of the cold exile and want to go back in order to show of their high school diplomas and books which the countless books which they authored about the ever desperate situation in Somalia. How ever there is a problem which they experts cannot see that in a chaotic situation no one will listen to a man who has nothing to say. That if it becomes clan Vs clan then everybody will lose out. Golodogob will look further than Mogadishu and to some Bossaso from Galkacyu will look as distant as Paris and vice versa.

So my dear friends if you have chance think before you act, remember a man who is from South Mogadishu doesn’t care about Qardo and the expert in Hargaysa has his eyes on Las Ano. Remember that a man is only mortal and that fighting a man and supporting a man without an agenda and without a clear benefit to you is blind faith.

Remember the bond between the people of the North East or Puntland is more than an article of faith we are brothers and we have the chance to change ourselves and Somalia.

Or we can go the path of others in this case, let’s create endless websites such as PUNTLANDWAR.COM and let’s fuel the ever growing stature of Carte. At least this is easy to do and our experts would have material sources for new books. The Destruction of Puntland & the cold war could be a title.

Is what is happening in the PUNTLAND an ideological dispute like the one between Arail Sharon and Arafat?

No this is a struggle between two kinsmen and who ever losses it is the kin which is damaged forever.

Burhan Yasin Wrsame (Dantay)

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