Integrity at All costs

By Binyam Teferi

Nov 24, 2006

            "The most potent _expression of Jihadism in the region (East Africa) has occurred in stateless Somalia", says Alonso Pirio, a US. author.

            After Mogadishu fell into the hands of the jihadists running the Supreme Council of Islamic Courts, SCIC, political Islam is raising its head from the ashes of al-Itihaad with a grim prospect for secular Somalis and the volatile Horn.

            Recent reports by the UN experts on Somalia embargo delves into the recesses of the mystery shrouding the invisible hands manoeuvering the SCIC, in its mission to destabilize the sub-region.

            So many states including Eritrea, Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Syria were implicated in supplying the jihadists with modern weapons and ammunitions fuelling further the violence in Somalia threatening to engulf the Horn while making the battle against terror all the more harder and complicated.

            Sworn enemies of civilization and democracy will surely find an asylum under the aegis of a Taliban style Somali government should the jihadists in the SCIC remain at the helm and the UN, AU backed TFG lacks in global support.

            Major Media outlets have been decrying the situation in Somalia under the grip of spiraling violence that could lead to an all-out war the ramifications of which could be difficult to fathom.

            Quite a revelation and alarming at that was the whole content of the report to us Ethiopians for the obvious reason that we cherished peace and stability and savoured the dividends.

            All over the reports you read threats; yes, threats to our peace; threats to our vision of empowerment of the people; threats to our national interest; threats to the stability of the Horn.  In a nutshell, threats to our dignified survival.

            But to the contrary, some of the print media in the metropolis seemed to be oblivious to what was happening just next door.

            Those yonder enlightened the world on the burgeoning insecurity and peril in the Horn warning waiting with folded hands would only hasten devastation that could be reversed by taking appropriate prompt action.

            As a matter of fact, the local press could have hardly an issue as compelling as the situation unfolding in Somalia, which dictates close monitoring and analysis with all those actors plotting to put to tatters our rightful drive for peace and economic prosperity.

            Notwithstanding their political orientation, the weeklies should have given precedence to the national interest and  dwelt at length on the UN Experts Report, elucidating facts and figures and the underlying meaning to their fellow citizens and the readership at large.

            I believe this should be a duty for any press which prides itself on professionalism and the integrity it takes to be one.

            Somalia crisis would remain a challenge until such time, peaceful settlement is made possible with serious engagement of all stakeholders and the constructive and focused role of the press entrusted with the duty to serve the public reflecting its collective interest and the democratic values providing for its existence.

            No one, even those esteemed publishers and editors of the local print media, as duty-bound citizens, should fail their government and people and shun criticism after such dereliction of duty.

            Contrition could be a beginning for putting the record right.  And what we insist on is integrity at all costs.