Secession is Unforgivable and Out of the Question

For many of the gripes that many outspoken Yemenis, who mistakenly claim to be echoing the grievances of our fellow Yemenis in the Southern and Eastern Governorates of the REPUBLIC OF YEMEN, this observer is inclined to suggest very strongly that the latter’s claim is neither true or legitimate. This suggestion is reinforced by the audacity of these claimants to demand for the reestablishment of an “independent South Yemen”. In fact this observer is of a strong belief that such calls are not laced with good intentions and are actually a product of an unholy and unforgivable assertion that South Yemen is an autonomous regional geographical entity that has been in existence even before Adam set forth on this planet. Moreover these claimants will go further and state that this independence is also justified by the not so easily discernible attribute of a “Southern” identity. One could probably state this would be more so in the United States (at least before the American Civil War, which lasted from 1861 – 1865).
Throughout the history of Yemen, there has never been a North – South divide of any caliber existing, whether geographically, demographically or even politically. The “South Arabian Federation” was a British last ditch effort to save their hold on the Crown Colony, which was never recognized by the populations, while the British themselves were quick to recognize the right of the Imam of Yemen to keep a viceroy in Aden, to confirm his sovereign authority over all of Yemen. This was also in lieu of the North of Yemen maintaining a status quo of the British presence in Aden, which should not compromise on the holistic sovereignty of the country. This tacit unity of Yemen was the overriding reason that made the Yemen Arab Republic (the inheritor of Imamic rule in Yemen in 1962, the strong instigator of the fight against the British which eventually led to the independence of the South in 1967. With the Yemen Arab Republic fatigued from a war against the royalists, who were trying to reinstate the Imamate and with supporting the rebellion in the South against the British, the Government in Sana’a could not enforce the unity of Yemen at the time and some of the leaders of the Southern rebellion had opted to align themselves with Moscow and the Government in Aden became more radically leftist than Che Guevara during the tense years of the Cold War. If that might be the cause for the claim for this unique identity, then it is surely not what the people of Yemen look to with favor, whether in the Northern and Western Governorates or the Southern and Eastern Governorates. Even then, our Southern brothers were energetically supporting a leftist insurrection in the North, with the eventual hope of uniting all of Yemen under the hammer and sickle. I am sure our brothers in the South calling for the independence of their ”homeland” do still recall this ugly insurrection, where hundreds of thousands of land mines still pose a threat to many innocent civilians in the Central and Highlands of Yemen.
Thus, it is impossible to see how these no so loyal Yemenis can claim to have their own identity, when they know full well that Yemenis throughout Yemen identify with each other without difficulty, whether they come from Al-Mahara or Sa’ada, Hadhramaut or Taéz, Kamaran or Socotra. This is clearly discernible in the areas where large numbers of Yemeni emigrants reside, who collectively regard themselves as a Yemeni community. On the other hand, our seekers of their own separate statehood in the South should start looking at their country more deeply. How many Yemenis have migrated within the country over the centuries? Thus you have the Saqqafs, Adimis and others emanating from Hadhramaut having settled in the Ta’ez area (Al-Hadharem). The Abu Luhoums and even the Zindanis migrated from the far North to the middle part of the country. You had sultans in many of the areas of the southern governorates, who actually emanate from the North such as the Abdillis, the Fadhlis and the Kathiris, and they were readily accepted as de facto rulers of the regions under their authority (in the Yafi’a, Hadhramaut/Shabwa and Abyan. The Abdillis originate from Arhab and the Kathiris originate from Anis and the Fadhlis originate from Dhamar. We should also not forgot that during the partition period, the governments of Aden and Sana’a both had elements that were mixed of originally southern and northern habitat.
As for the claim on the oppression of the regime, that is not a monopoly of our southern brothers at all, but really a uniform state of being, of which all of Yemen is crying out to be relieved from. There is no reason why the struggle against injustice can not be more effective if all the victims of this injustice, north and south, work together to achieve the liberation of all Yemenis from the oppression that all of Yemen is facing currently. This is not just a southern issue; it is an issue that involves all of Yemen.