Rebuffing: Is Somaliland – Taiwan Tie-Up Suicidal?

The article Is Somaliland – Taiwan Tie-Up Suicidal? on July 15th, by Mr. Abdirahman M. Dirye, who says that he is a co-editor of Somaliland.com, is not something one would have expected from a person claiming to be an editor.

If Mr. Dirye indeed has an auditorial job at Somaliland.com, I really don’t know what to say. The article is a jumbled piece making unfounded assertions. 

This self-styled editor argues that “many Somalilanders fear that China may decide to arm Somalia and help them invade Somaliland.”

Does he really think Somalia has the guts to again invade Somaliland?

Does he not think Somalia would have prioritised liberating its own country from the Al-Shabaab militant group in and around the Mogadishu area, rather than wanting to kill innocents in Somaliland more than 1500 km away?

Doesn’t he know that Somalia is already blacklisted for massacring innocent people in Somaliland, and because of that, there is a weapons embargo imposed on Somalia?

The author appears to be disgruntled.

He really does not know what he wants with his article.

Is he telling the Taiwanese not to come to Somaliland?

Is he telling Somaliland not to bother about looking for diplomatic relations?

It is obvious that the new relationship between Somaliland and Taiwan has shocked all enemies, silenced Somaliland’s number one enemy, the failed state of Somalia, and has disgruntled all those who wish to see the state of Somaliland disappear from the map.

The relationship between the two countries of Somaliland and Taiwan is going to be beneficial to our people. Somaliland is the gateway to the most populated country in the Horn of Africa; Ethiopia.

Now that Berbera Port is being expanded, and the Berbera Corridor is under construction, the hope Somalilanders have frightens all its enemies, and that hope is sky high.

Unlike the author of this jumbled article, Somalilands’ aspiration is not a dying cause.

Somaliland has paid in blood to achieve its independence.

The people of Somaliland have suffered under the government of Somalia in the form of genocide, rape, property plundering, being held without charge, a total destruction of its main cities and villages, and more.

Millions of mines were planted around the nation, even in destroyed buildings to maim returnees after the occupying forces were defeated. 

The last thirty years has seen Somaliland citizens retrieving their country from the ashes, and building from within, all progress coming from within.

No help was received from overseas comparable to the billions spent by donors on the failed state of Somalia.

Mr. Dirye’s writing may have something to do with the cheap propaganda that the failed state has placed inside and outside Somaliland to criticise all that Somaliland has achieved.

This disgruntled pseudo élite is one of the many groups who have been sidelined by the present Somaliland government, so perhaps he thinks he can destroy what these people have achieved, with the stroke of a pen. 

I conclude with this response – that the Somalia of today and tomorrow can do nothing to destroy our blessed Republic of Somaliland.

It will never happen.

That may annoy the likes of Mr. Dirye, but there is nothing they can do about it.

Genuine progressive Somaliland citizens are thankful for this new relationship with Taiwan, and hope Somaliland will benefit from Taiwan’s technological advances while the disgruntled have to come to terms with reality. 

Dr. Hussein Abdillahi

Hussein Abdillahi, Ph.D. is a former senior consultant to the Ministry of Agricultural Development in Somaliland and formerly a self-exiled dissident. He can be followed on Twitter here