This piece is in response to an article posted in WardheerNews:  “Why Somalia Ought to Surrender Arab League Membership” written by Mohamed I. Farah

I was in Mogadishu when Somalia joined the Arab League. At that time the country was in a mess politically and economically. As soon as Siad Barre came to power, his regime followed a confrontational policy with any country that was against the Soviet Union.  The country adopted what was termed Scientific Socialism (Communism) and antagonized the West (except Italy) and also those countries which practiced free trade (call them capitalists if you wish). In this regard, the big mistake Siad Barre made was tampering with the Quran, especially Surat Al Nisa, by saying that both males and females are equal in inheritance. As you may remember, 10 Somali sheikhs who objected to this and made speeches in Abdulkadir Mosque after Friday prayers were immediately imprisoned and executed, and several hundred were imprisoned. This infuriated many Muslim countries, especially Saudi Arabia.

To calm the furor, Siad Barre sent various delegations headed by Arabic_ speaking SRC members such as Osman Jelle to King Faisal and President Sadat of Egypt and the Gulf leaders to convince them why he had negated the verses in Surat Al Nisa dealing with inheritance. King Faisal and Sadat refused to meet these delegations.  To prove that the Somali people are pious Muslims, the Somali government applied for membership in the Arab league.  This had nothing to do with Omer Arte Ghalib’s tallness or fluency in Arabic as some have argued! But the regime was trying to square a circle.

Economically, the country was facing great hardship.  The
regime monopolized for itself the importation of basic commodities such as rice and sugar, fuel and utensils.  It also nationalized the shipping companies, banks, etc.  It also fixed the price of cereals grown in the country such as wheat, maize and millet.  Suddenly everything became scarce in the whole country. Even it became difficult to get sesame oil (macsaro) in Mogadishu.

In reference Mr. to Mohamed I. Farah (Raghe) article, page 4 , the author claims that ‘Somalia has not benefited much from the Arab League membership in term of investment’.  Owing to the wrong economic policy of the regime, the prevailing environment did not encourage foreign investment. There was only one big project that was financed by Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Abu Dhabi, namely, Mareerey Sugar Factory. The Somalis in charge of the project openly embezzled the funds of the project to the extent that they purchased second hand machinery.  The Somali government could not even manage properly its agricultural and industrial projects such as Juba River Scheme, Tog Wajale Agricultural Project, Las Khorei Fish Factory, Kismayo Meat Factory and Mogadishu Milk Bottling Plant. In fact all of these ventures failed. There were two main reasons for the failure.  First, we were encumbered with inefficient and costly Russian machinery.  Secondly, we lacked the qualified cadres to manage these projects. Even Bal’ad Textile Factory, which was a joint venture with West Germany, was not successful. I think only Jowhar Sugar Mill was doing well owing to the Italian experts.  This project also immediately failed after Siad Barre came to power.

When the regime mismanaged the economy, unemployment became rife in the country and, consequently, forced thousands of Somalis to seek employment in the GCC countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE and Qatar.  The remittances sent by these immigrants home enabled the population to survive. Also most of those in the Gulf Diaspora built houses for their families and thus all the major towns in the country witnessed a construction boom.

Regarding the Somali- Ethio war (Ogaden) from the beginning it was a mistake of the Somali Government to start the conflict because the regime relied on the promise given by the US President Carter to support us in our confrontation with Ethiopia.  But when our armed forces crossed the border, Carter reneged on his promise.  However to say that the Arabs did not help us in the war effort is totally wrong and far from the truth. One should not be so ungrateful. Saud Arabia sent to us a lot of military hardware including tanks and was paying all the fuel consumed. In fact, the 1977 war (and it was not 1976 as the author mentioned) was even dubbed at the time ‘The Fahad War”.  Egypt and Iran also contributed a lot of military materiel.  The only Arab country that was against Somalia was South Yemen.  It happened during the war that one Somali pilot while flying, spoke to a South Yemen pilot by radio phone and asked him why he came to fight on the side of Ethiopia.  The latter replied that he supported Ethiopia because of the socialist ideology.

Before the collapse of the Somali State, our main export was livestock and was mostly sold to Saudi Arabia   on FOB basis.  After 1990/1991 our banking system disappeared from the scene and it was not possible for the livestock importers abroad to open Letters of Credit (LC) to the Somali livestock traders. We then shipped our livestock to Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries at our risk and without any price guarantee.  Also the veterinary services and all the other government facilities were no more.  It then happened that the livestock trade, which was the backbone of our economy, faced an untenable situation.  Unconscionable Somali traders exported underage and sick animals.  They also exported female livestock which was totally prohibited during the time of the Barre Government.  I have seen our black-headed sheep grazing with Saudi livestock in Abha (Asir Region) and even in Riyadh! 

Therefore, we should not blame Saudi Arabia and those other countries that banned our livestock.

For example, last year, a Somali trader brought livestock from Bossaso to Dubai Hamriya Sea Port.  A lot of the animals died when they were unloaded. It happened that some Emiratis were there to buy our sheep at the time. When they saw the dead animals, they were shocked and left the place.  Therefore, who do we have to blame in such a situation?

Conference, head of Arab states

All the countries in the world prefer to join some group of countries to make a trade block.  The Somali government did not make a mistake when it decided to join the Arab League.  But the fact was that, the Siad Barre regime wasted all opportunities and could not benefit from this block.  The Arabs were neither poor nor backward as the author alludes, but we Somalia was in a great mess owing to the mismanagement of the country as a whole by the military regime. The military government unnecessarily interfered with the civil service administration and started to eliminate experienced employees beginning from Directors General and Ambassadors downwards.  You may remember that all the civil servants were forced to go through an orientation course in Bottego, later called Halane.  After every batch finished its training, the regime eliminated those individuals that it deemed undesirable.  For example one of the first casualties was the old and experienced Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Ahmed Shire Lawaha, who graduated from Lincoln University of the United States in 1939.   

Regarding the opinion that we leave the Arab League, the latter will not lose a valuable member by our departure, and nobody will miss us in this important trade block. Remember the Somali proverb “Nin magaalo ka dudow yaa ku og”. For your information, the majority of the African countries side with Kenya and Ethiopia whenever we have a political conflict with them. In fact, most of the African countries do not regard us as Africans. It is thus in our interest to stay put where we are now, and instead endeavor, first of all, to put our house in order.

Regarding the author’s discussion as to why we have been supporting the Palestinians,  the Palestinians have been robbed of their homeland since the settlement of the Jews in Palestine.  Millions of Arabs became refugees in the neighboring countries.  There are even refugees in Gaza strip. They have been facing, on a daily basis, killing, torture, imprisonment, and all forms of hardship and economic strangulation.  Even the olive trees of the Palestinians are uprooted by the settlers in West Bank.  Al Aqsa and the Omari Mosque have been under Israeli siege since 1967.It is imperative that Somalis empathize and support the just cause of the Palestinians. 

Since the collapse of the Somali State in 1991, many people have been leaving the country.  Those who made their way to Bossaso were met by criminal gangs that promised to take them to Aden.  They have been charging these unfortunate people large sums of money. Some of them reached Yemen safely but in a bad shape.  Others were forced by the criminal gangs to swim to Yemen. But the question is who is to blame? For your information no country accepts thousands of refugees in its land.  Yemen is a poor country and it does not possess great wealth like Western Europe to take care of our thousands of refugees. Even Europe is now trying to limit the intake of refugees. Also, it has always been the policy of Saudi Arabia not to accept refugees. Is the author, therefore, trying to force a country to change its laws for our sake?

To stop our people leaving the country, we have to solve our internal problems and create a peaceful environment in the country.  It is not fair to blame others for the mess we have created in Somalia.

Abdullahi Ahmed
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it