Is Mudulood losing its grip?
14th June 2006

This is my own personal view with regards to the current development in Mogadishu. I wrote this article with a view to generate a debate within Mudulood, which I strongly believe is paramount at this crucial moment.

It is worrying to see that Mudulood are not ready to take a leadership role in the current situation in Somalia, in particular the capital city of Mogadishu. Mogadishu is now the focus on the international community since 18th February 2006 when the new alliance of "Restoring Peace and anti Terrorist Alliance" was launched. Mudulood Group Leaders became part of this alliance without consulting or discussing with Mudulood. They thought that the alliance is a way forward to overcome tribalism and to show Somalis and others that Group Leaders can unite despite their differences, but their motives were very clear to many people which was to get financial resources from the USA with a view to advance their own goals.

As we have seen most of Mudulood were against the alliance due to their motives. The Alliance shot themselves in the foot when they produced a very poor statement that resulted the current revolution in Mogadishu. The Islamic Courts Union in Mogadishu received overwhelming support from Somalis around the world in particular Somalis in Mogadishu.

Since then we have learnt that Da'ud sub-clan in Mogadishu (those who met) decided to support their group leaders and fight for them against the Islamic Courts Union. This has followed another meeting with some Mudulood politicians and elders such as Ali Mahdi and Kadare who decided to call for a unity of Mudulood, and criticised the so called ICU's action, in particular the capture to Balad & Jowhar and the visit made by Indhadde to Balad during the capture. We have also witnessed two demonstrations one led by Kadare and the other by Bood Sh. Ali Dhere and Sh. Mudey. I am not sure if people have viewed these two demonstrations as a good show that Mudulood are democratic society and can have different points of views or whether people have viewed this as contradictory and each group felt that their demonstration was better than the other and decided to ignore the other.

Opportunities lost

It is evident that Mudulood lost so many opportunities to either lead the nation or Mogadishu, if I share those moments that I remember were as follows:
· Ali Mahdi era.
· Cairo Peace Process
· Sh. Ali Dhere's era.
· Mogadishu Administration following the agreement between Ali Mahdi & Hussein Aided.
· Abdiqasim's Government
· The nomination of Prof Ali Ghedi
· Mohamed Dhere's lead, as he brought in the TFG to Jowhar
· The nomination of Adde Gabow (either by Ali M. Ghedi or the Council).

It is also evident that Mudulood is responsible for the fighting between us and most of the mudulood killed since 1991 were killed by another mudulood. I am sure you will agree with me that all these efforts were prevented to succeed by Mudulood itself, yet some felt to blame others without evidence. I believe that all these opportunities were lost due to Mudulood's unwittingly lack of cooperation amongst within or outside and some leaders who are currently fuelling further civil war were responsible for the failure. It appears to be that Mudulood are acting that they are the victims rather than realising their full potential to be part of the decision making process. Due to suspicions amongst us led to the current failure that we are facing today. However, there is a window of opportunity that arose from Mogadishu revolution and in my view it is the only option available to us at this time. As we know that Sharif is currently leading the Islamic Courts Union, Adde Gaabow is the Mayor of Mogadishu and above all Ali Ghedi is the Prime Minister of the TFG. The question arises from here is that are we good at blaming each other rather than helping and supporting those individuals who showed leadership qualities?

Conclusion

I would like to conclude that I strongly believe that Mudulood have the potential to be part of the decision making process. However, this can only happen if and only if we all realise our potential, respect each other, listen to deferent views, see things from different angles and to stop acting like victims and/or minority groups. It is also my view that Mudulood would be better of to live in a system where law and order is the norm, regardless of who is leading that system. Division amongst us can only lead us to a further deterioration.

I would urge that we all support to the Islamic Courts Union in Mogadishu and raise with them any issues or concerns that exist with a view to overcome the current mayhem in Mogadishu. Group Leaders need to be told that their time is up and to request them to leave without further bloodshed, the same way as Murasade. This will lead us a hopeful future that we can all embrace. Please remember that we are part of the society and in order to be part of the decision making process we should aim higher and have excellent communication skills with the society. Mudulood cannot afford to waste more time and we should stop the blame culture exist among us.

A concerned Mudulood

The opinions contained in this article are solely those of the writer, and in no way, form or shape represent the editorial opinions of NEBAG.

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