The legacy of the 21st  October Revolution 1969 
History is nothing but
assisted and recorded memory; “Those
who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” or those who fail to
learn from the mistakes of their predecessors are destined to repeat them. (G. Santayana).
On 21st October 1969
at 3:00 am a day after the funeral of the Somali Republic
president a military Coup d’état seized power without any military opposition. The
putsch brought the existence of the Somali
 Republic to an end and
the Somali democratic Republic was born.  I was at that time 9 yrs old and witnessed the
reign of the October Revolution. Now I want to look back at the legacy of the October
revolution (military dictatorship) which ruled Somali for two decades and what legacy
they left behind. 
We all know that when the
army took over power, there was a functioning Government with Army, Police,
political parties, Cabinet, Parliament, Constitution and all what a government
needs. I want to discuss & share with you why 2nd republic of Somali collapsed and what went wrong. 
1st July 1960 to
  21st October 1969                                Somali Republic                                  1st Republic 
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21st October
  1969 to 1st January 1991                          Somali Democratic Republic            2nd Republic 
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10th September
  2012                                                       Somali Federal Republic                    3rd Republic 
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What kind of a leader was Maj.
Gen. Mohamed Siyad Bare? Was he a narcissistic, power hungry, tribal minded insane
dictator who couldn’t foresee his end? Was he different from all the dictators
who came and went, like Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Col. Qadaafi, Col. Mengistu
Haile Mariam etc? Or was he a dictator like anyone else?
I want to compare Maj. Gen,
Mohamed Siyad Bare with Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam & Col. Qadaafi, because
these are leaders who build a strong State and then destroyed it on their own
hands. 
I know this is a controversial
Topic but again we need to learn from the mistakes of yesterday so we don’t
repeat it again.  
Please build your opinion
without Clan motivation & Clan biased. 
Positive 
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Negative 
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