COL KU DHACYEY OO TUUGO KU CIDAMISAY (PRT. 10)

The legacy of the 21^st  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 21^st 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 2^nd republic of Somali collapsed and what went wrong.

1st July 1960 to 21st October 1969                                Somali Republic                                  1st Republic

21st October 1969 to 1st January 1991                          Somali Democratic Republic            2nd Republic

10th September 2012                                                       Somali Federal Republic                    3rd Republic

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	Negative
Writing the Somali language, Crash Programmes, Self-Help Schemes (Iska wax u qabso), Resettlement of the 1974 drought victims,	The imprisonment & Killing the members of the SRC (Lt. Col. Salad Gabeyre, Maj. Gen. Qorshel, Maj. Gen. Ainanshe) Revolutionary vanguards (Guulwadeyaal) NSS (Jajus Army similar to the east Germany STASI). Killing of the 10 religious Leaders, The Ethiopian war. The Bombardment of Hargeisa & Burao