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Guled Ismail
Sunday, April 27, 2008
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President Riyale of Somaliland | |
Many Somalilanders including this writer often criticise, mock and sometimes denounce President Riyale for all kinds of real or perceived shortcomings and weaknesses. We snigger at his supposed lack of gravitas and many amongst the chattering khat-room intellectuals cringe at his naivety on international affairs and his innocence of the cloak-and-dagger moves of international diplomacy. “How on earth could he openly invite a foreign power to build a military base in his country” asked one Khat-room Kissinger. “And why would America want a base in Berbera when it already has a perfectly good one just down the road in Djibouti”? sneer his friend both shaking their heads in agreement at their superior grasp of world politics.
But I reminded them of the famous Somali proverb “Winning a wrestling match appears much too easy for a seated old lady”.
After all the Khat Intellectuals do not run an impoverished nation of 3.5 million souls traumatised by 20 years of civil war; plighted by endless droughts and pestilence and denied any chance of development by an institutionally racist world which refuses to acknowledge its very existence let alone its human right to self-determination.
And this nation also happens to be one of the worst in the world for rumour-mongering; conspiracy theories; cynicism and unparalleled believe in the virtues of hollow, pointless talk. This is a nation of supreme Egalitarianists who believe authority is there to be treated with utter contempt.
Neither is Riyale helped by his own background. He was a member of the hated NSS under the last regime although to his credit not a shred of evidence was ever found of any personal wrongdoing on his part. That in itself is quite remarkable given that the way to progress within that organisation was to mistreat people. It would’ve been easy for him to find `opponents of the State’ to rough up given he was a local man who knew the nooks and the crannies of his community better than most of his colleagues who travelled from far-off Mogadishu and beyond.
Yet despite all these seemingly insurmountable obstacles he manages to run a functioning semi-state with surprisingly stable democratic institutions. He pays his soldiers, police and his ill-trained civil servants on time, an unusual occurrence in Africa. He stuck to the letter of the Constitution at every turn frustrating the impatient opposition who sometimes appear to want mini meltdown of the political system so they could take advantage and blame it all on him. But this canny man was not going to give them the pleasure.
He may not be a mastermind in foreign affairs but when it comes to local clan politics he demonstrated a sublime grasp; flashes of genius even. The patient calmness with which he handled the Sool issue is a testament to his vision and decisiveness when decisiveness was called for. He not only outmanoeuvred his regional opponents like Puntland and Somalia he bamboozled his local rival Silanyo who considered himself the only man with the ability to convince wary Soolians of re-engaging with Somaliland given his blood and cultural ties with Sool.
Riyale achieved the Sool victory with minimum bloodshed and cemented it with the deftest of political touches. When Sool elders asked him to release 70 odd Sool fighters captured in an earlier skirmish he not only obliged he held a luncheon in their honour, addressed them as `fellow countrymen’ and offered them the choice of either staying in Hargeisa as free men or free transport to their home villages. There is no better way of winning hearts and minds than showing magnanimity in victory.
No one is suggesting President Riyale is the perfect Politician. Far from it. He created a bloated bureaucracy stuffed full with incompetent and often venal Ministers. He has rather incomprehensibly stained his democratic credentials by curtailing free speech and creating state owned newspapers and radio stations reminiscent of 70s African dictatorships. His economic policies lack direction. He has no comprehensive strategy for gaining recognition or living without it in the long-term.
But these are the shortcoming of an imperfect leadership in a normal State. When Khat-room intellectual chide him for shortcomings they are comparing to him an imperfect leader in a normal state. That is a testament to the achievements of this often underestimated man. History will remember him as one of Somaliland’s founding fathers and the man who kept his nation together and steered through it through one of it’s most dangerous periods of existence. He doesn’t think so himself. When asked by a journalist whether he thought his job was difficult he responded “No. My predecessor’s was far more difficult. I inherited a functioning system”. A glimpse of strength only seen amongst the greatest of leaders.
Guled Ismail
E-mail: [email protected]