Somaliland Politics

Mudaaharaadyadda dadweynaha iyo dilalka ciidamadda nabadgelyada

2008-07-14T01:16:00.000-07:00

Waxa maalmahii dhawaa ee ina soo dhaafay ka dhacay mid ka mida xaafaddaha koonfurta magaaladda Hargeysa mudaaharaad aad u balaadhan oo looga soo horjeeday in riig ka qodayay ceelal biyo ah koonfurta magaaladda Hargeysa, oo deeq ahaan looga keenay wadanka imaaraadka carabta loo wareejiyo deegaanadda galbeedka Hargeysa, iyada oo hawshii biyo soo saarista ahayd ee uu halkaasi ka waday riigu aan wali laga gun gaadhin. Mudaaharaadkan waxa ku dhintay saddex qof, dad ka badan toban qofna way ku dhawaacameen.

Arrintan dilalka iyo dhaawaca ah ee lagala hortago dadka shacabka ah ee muddaaharaadada samaynaya ayaa ah mid soo noq noqota oo ay caado ka dhigteen ciidamadda nabadgelyada(i.e booliska iyo milatariga) ee Somaliland.Tusaale ahaan, bishii April ee isla sannadkan waxa rasaas nool lagu furay dad shacaba oo mudaaharaad ka sameynayay xaafadda Axmed dhagax, halkaas oo ay ku dhinteen saddex qof, dad kale oo faro badanina ay ku dhaawacmeen.

Marka ay xukuumaddi lumiso kalsoonida shacabkeeda waxa lagu gartaa argagaxa iyo cabsida ay ku muujiso isu soo baxyada iyo isu imaatinka dadweynaha, iyadda oo ka war warta in isu soo baxyadu ay isu rogaan qaar kursiga lagaga tuuro xukuumaddaa lumisay kalsoonidda shacabkeeda.Tan ayaa ah sabata ugu wayn ee ciidamadda nabadgalyada durbadiiba loogu daad guureeyo goobaha isu soo baxyadda dadweynahu ka aloosmaan.

Arrintan soo noq noqota ee cidamadda nabadgelyadu ay ku furaan rasaas nool dad si nabadgalyo ah ugu cabiraya dareeenkooda qaab mudaaharaad ayaa waxa dhiiri galiya dhowr arrimood oo ay masuuliyadeeda leedahay xukuumda Somaliland.

Ta koowaad, xukuumadda waxa ay caado ka dhigatay in marka dilalka noocan ah ay ciidamadu kula kacaan mudaaharaadayaasha, in ay tidhaahdo anaga ayaa qaadanay magta dadkaa ciidamadu dileen, iyada oo haba yaraatee aan wax baadhis ah lagu samayn dambiga meesha ka dhacay iyo cida gaysatay toona. Tani waxa ay keentaa in uu meesha ka baxo la xisaabtanka askarta dambiga ku kacaday, la xisaabtan la’aantaas oo fududaysa in asaskartaasi ama kuwo kale oo la mid ahi ay mar kale ku kacaan dambi la mid ah kan aan lagula xisaabtamin.Waxa kale oo ay tani bixinaysaa sawirka ah in ay xukuumadu liisan u siisay ciidamadda in ay siday doonaan ula dhaqmaan muwaadiniinta isu soo baxyadda sameeya.

Arrinta kale ee dhiirigalisa dilalka ciidamadu kula kacaan dadweynaha ayaa ah tabobar iyo qalab la’aan dhanka ciidamada ah , gaar ahaan kuwa booliska, oo aan loo diyaarin qaabka looga hortago isu soo baxyada dadweynaha. Sida la wada ogsoon yahay, ciidamada loo diro goobaha mudaaharaadyaddu waxa ay ku qalabaysanyihiin qoryo ay ku jirto rasaas nooli. Waxaanay u muuqataa in ay ciidamadu kaga dhabeeyaan xigmada tadhaahda hadii aad dube kaliyaata haysato wax aad la doon doonataa uun masaabiir aad ku garaacdo.Hadii aanu askarigu haysan wax kale oo uu kala hortago dadweynha, wax uu isticmaalaayaa uun qoriga uu gacanta ku sito.

Dalalka dunida ee nolosha muwaadiniintooda qiimeeya waxa ay leeyahiin ciidamo si gaar ah loogu tabobaray ka hortga mudaaharaadadda daweynaha. Ciidamadaasi waxa ay ku hubaysan yihiin qalab aan inta badan halis galin nololsha dadka sida koofiyado iyo gaashaamo dhagaxa ama waxyaabaha ay dad weynahu tuurayaan lagaga gabado, qiiqa dadka kaga ilmaysiiya, booyado biyo aad u xoog badan tuuraya iyo qalab kale oo lagula tacaalo mudaaharaadyadda .

Hadaba iyada oo ay xukuumadda Somaliland sheegato in lacagta ugu badan ee miisaaniyadda dawladu ay ku baxdo dhinaca nabadgelyadda, miyay kari way day in ay dhowr boqol oo ciidamada booliska ah u tababarto ka hortagida mudaaharaadyadda, una soo ibiiso qalabka ku haboon ee lagala hortago mudaaharaadyadda dadweynaha, halka ay ka soo kaa kicinayso ciidamo ku hubaysan qoryaha lidka diyaaraddaha iyo beebeeyo marka ay meel mudaaharaadyo ka dhacaan?

Mise waxa uga qiimo jabnaatay xukuumada Dahaahir Riyaale in ay maalin walba ciidamadeedu ku daadiyaan dhiiga dadweynaha wadooyinka magaalooyinka waaweyn, oo ay dabadeed xukuumaddu dambiga meesha ka dhacay ku dambabasto maggo laga siiyo qoysaska dhibaatadu soo gaadhay cashuurta dadweynaha laga soo urruriyay?

Gebogebodii, maamul xumadda xukuumadda talada haysa ee Daahir Riyaale waxa la filan karaa in ay horseeedi doontaa mudaaharaadyo kale oo dalka ka dhaca waqtiyadda soo socda, laakiin waxa aan la ogayn inta ay xukuumaddu ku sii badbaadi doonto siyaasadda ah ‘horta toogta , dib ayaynu magta ka bixin doonaa e’ ee ay xukuumaddu kula dhaqanto muwaadiniin si nabad ah u muujiniya cabaashooy ay tirsanayaan, haba noqdaan cabashooyinkaasi qaar qaldan mararka qarkood e.

Hadii SNM idin siisay degmo, anaguna.....

2008-06-30T23:21:00.001-07:00

Waxa habeen hore Television-ka xukuumadda Somaliland ka baxay hambalyo ay u jeedinaysay marwada madaxwaynahu, Huda Barkhad, bulshada reer Bali Gubadle ee loo magacaabay gobolka loogu wanqalay Hawd.

Hadaba, marwada madaxweynahu markii ay dhamaysan hambalyada ayay waxa ay sii raacisay in hadii ''SNM idin siisay degmo, anaguna waxa aanu idin siinay gobol!''

Arrintan ayaa runtii dad badan ka fajicisay. Maxay uga jeeday marwadu eragya ''anaguna''? waa ayo cida ay lahady anagu? Ma waxa ay u jeeday iyada iyo odaygeeda? Mise waxay u jeeday anaga oo xukuumadda ah? Mise waxaaba la odhan karaa waxa ay isbarbardhigaysay anaga oo ah.......iyo SNM?

Waxa caqliga saxa ahi ina siinayaa in aanay ''anagunada'' uga jeedin hadaanu nahay xukuumadda, waayo kuma hadasho magaca xukuumadda marawadu oo qof mushahar qaata ayaa hawshaa shaqo ku leh.

Marka taas laga reebo jawaabtu waxa ay noqonaysaa labada kale mid uun. In ay uga jeedayay ''anagunada'' iyada iyo odaygeeda, taas oo ay u badan tahay, marka aynu eegno ku tagrifalka awooda dalka ee ay caadaysteen hadba cida markaas xukunka u haysa ummada iyo ta kale ee kaba sii daran ee noqon karta in ay SNM is barbar dhigaysay marwada madaxwaynahu, oo ay u jeeday waxa SNM idin siisay waxa aanu aniga iyo odaygayga oo reer Boorama ah (i. e oo aan halgankii ka qayb gelin) idin siinay ayaa ka wanaagsan, sidaas daraadeed anagaa SNM idiinka wanaagsan , oo idiin dhaana reer Bali Gubadloooow!!!

Entertainment v. propaganda

2008-06-18T00:37:00.000-07:00

After a long day’s work, I wanted to rest and enjoy the Euro 2008 match between Italy and France on Somaliland National TV last night. Most of the people in Hargeisa watch these pirated games on SLTV.

However, the game was delayed by the not-so-uncommon propagandistic TV coverage of delegation this delegation that, which visit Somaliland for reasons at variance with those that the government ‘spin doctors’ always tell the public.

Last night it was the visit of a state minister from UK that ruined the more entertaining game and delayed it by more than 25 minutes!

Damn it!

A reflection of the weekly Geeljire Daljire piece

2007-06-11T01:02:00.000-07:00

Abdillahi Geeljire and his weekly satirical, albeit polemical, dialogue he writes from Canada is now widely read on various websites and Haatuf newspaper in Somaliland. Geeljire craftily presents his piece in the form of a conversation between his two main antagonists, Dube and Dolaal.

The setting is a Merfrish where Dube and Dolaal frequent in the afternoons to socialize by chewing the narcotic leaves of Kat.

Dolaal supports the government and defends it by questioning Dube on his two cents. He paints the picture of a man who is satisfied with the direction things political are going in Somaliland.

In contrast, Dube represents the political opposition and always finds fault with the government, questioning its motives in every move. He is very incisive in his analysis of the political developments on the ground in Somaliland.

The piece is highly entertaining and informative. But the story does not stop there.

To appreciate the piece more, let us look at the writer.

Mr. Geeljire is a very educated man who is originally from Hargeisa. Like many individuals in positions of power in Somaliland, Mr. Geeljire lived long years of exile in Canada. He was among droves of exiles who flew all the way from Europe and north America to live the 'Somaliland dream' , after peace returned to the area.

The prolonged civil wars and poverty in Somalia forced great number of Somalis to seek asylum in Europe and North America. Many of these exiles failed to fully integrate into their host countries because of cultural barriers, discrimination, lack of enterprise and, perhaps, sheer laziness on their part. As a result, many work in menial jobs or live off the unemployment and other welfare schemes in their host countries.

When multiparty election was introduced in Somaliland, many returned home to join the newly established political parties and participate in the government.

When Mr. Geeljire arrived in Hargeisa, he joined UDUB political party and become one of its greatest campaigners and party activist. He was one of the luminaries who were responsible for election of the incumbent president of Somaliland, Mr. Riyaale. Mr. Geelire remained as one of the favorite sons of UDUB, until the parliamentary elections of May 2005 in Somaliland.

When the parliamentary election approached, Mr. Geeljire hoped, with a good reason, that UDUB will return the favor and include him in their party candidate lists. However, as they say all politics is local but Mr.Geeljire failed to realize this.

As we remember, in the last and the only parliamentary election in Somaliland, submission of candidates to political parties was the responsibility of the tribes of the respective candidates. This was the case because the people in the country vote on the basis of tribal allegiances more than anything else. Abdillahi Geeljire failed, unfortunately, to win the ticket of his tribe. For reasons known only to themselves, they selected a fresh face from Bristol as their candidate in UDUB and gave Mr. Geeljire the boot.

Soon after, Geeljire joined the opposition KULMIYE political party and started to play 'DUBE', seeing evil in every move of the UDUB-led government in Somaliland.

I enjoy reading Mr.Geeljire's weekly Daljire dispatch, but always with a pinch of salt

Awil, the sadist....

2007-06-04T02:05:00.000-07:00

Xussien Ali Dualle (Awil) never ceases to amuse me! His latest press conference was very interesting in several ways. It was full of historical facts, personal slander and blatant propaganda against his political rivals.

Awil indeed was a bit truthful about the political development of Somaliland and the internal politicking of the various Issaq tribes since 1960. No one can deny the political culture of the Issaqis with respect to their attitude to political incumbents in a given time in the country. What ex-presidents of Somaliland, Mohamed Ibrahim Egal and Abdirahman Ahmed Ali, undergone in the hands of opposing coalition of Issaq tribes can hardly be denied. In this connection, Awil seems to have put those facts in a historical perspective. The Issaq tribes never learned of how to respect their leaders and statesmen. Political leaders are viewed as representatives and protectors, solely, of the interests of their tribes.

Awil talked about the SNM oldies like Muse Bihi and Mohamed Kahin and reminded them again of their political miscalculations and tribalistic tendencies. Both of these oldies are known for their erratic statements in the past and their spear-heading roles in the terrible civil wars of Somaliland in 1991-1997.

Awil also suggested to Ahmed Silanyo, the chairman of Kulmiye party, that they should both, i.e. Awil and Silanyo, retire from politics; a suggestion that Silanyo is unlikely to heed given his steadfast belief that he is the next PRESIDENT of Somaliland.

In the press conference also, Awil threatened Dr. Gaboose with an exile if he insists on his unregistered newly established political party (Qaran). He reminded Dr. Gaboose of the fact that he was responsible for putting the firs president of Somaliland, Abdirahman Ahmed Ali, on a plane to Mogadishu, while denying him to meet with President Mohamed Ibrahim Egal before doing so.

O my, politics in Somaliland would have been very boring indeed without people like Awil!!!

Somaliland: khilaafyo tiro badan oo khalkhal galin kara amaanka iyo xasiloonidda

2007-02-25T20:48:00.000-08:00

Waxa iska soo tarayay todobaadyadan ugu dambeeyay Somaliland xaaladdo murugsan oo ay sababeen khilaafyo farabadan oo oo ka soo burqanaya jihooyin kala duwan , khilaafyadaas oo saameyn ku yeelan kara aminigii iyo xasilooniddii ay Somaliland kaga duwanayd gobollo badan oo ka tirsan dalweynahii la isku odhan jiray Soomaaliya. Khilaafaadkan waxa loo kala qaadi kaara qaar ka dhexeeye xukuumadda iyo hayaddaha kale ee dawliga ah, gaar ahaan baarlamaanka ; qaar u dhaxeeya xukuumadda iyo saxaafadda gaarka loo leeyahay iyo qaar u dhaxeeya beelaha ku wada dhaqan Somaliland oo sababay colaado sokeeye oo dad badani ku naf waayeen.

Khilaafaadka xukuumadda iyo baarlamaanka

khilaafaadka iyo isla jaan qaadi la’aanta ka dhextaagan baarlamaanka iyo xukuumadda Somaliland ma aha kuwo maanta bilowday, balse waxa uu soo taagnaa ilaa iyo xiligii nidaamka doorsahadda lagu soo doortay xubnaha kuraasta ku fadhiya hada ee baarlamaanka, kuwaas oo bedelay baarlamaan beleedkii ka horeeyey. Horaantiiba baarlamaanka iyo xukuumaddu waxa ay isku qabsadeen, buuq aad u badanina ka dhashay doorashada shirgudoonka cusub ee baarlamaanka. Tani waxa ay ku dhaamatay markii dambe in ay shirgudoonka ku guulaystaan xisbiyada mucaaradka ee UCID iyo Kulmiye oo isu bahaystay si u yeeshaan shirgudoonka. Waxa mar kale khilaaf soo kale dhexgalay xukuumadda iyo barlaamanka markii ay mudanayaashu diideen in ay ansixiyaan miisanayidii sanadkii hore ee xukuumadda, iyaga oo dalbanayay in ay xukuumaddu wax ka soo badasho qodobo ku jiray odoroska miisaaniyada, balse ay markii dambe golahu si duuduub iyo xaal mastuur ah isu dhaafiyeen. Tani waxa ay durba shaki ku riday dad badan oo rajo weyn ka qabay in baarlamaankani uu ka duwanaan doono kii ka horeeyay, iyadda oo ay arrinta miisaaniyadduna tijaaboba u ahayd qaabka ay u shaqeyn doonaan baarlamaankan doorshada ku yimi mudooyinka soo socda.

Arrinta kale ee abuurtay khilaaf soo kala dhex gala baarlamaanka iyo xukuumadda waxa ay ahayd markii Amina Weris oo ah marwadda gudoomiyaha xisbiga mucaaradka ah ee Kulmiye la sheegay in shaqo ay ka heshay hayadda CARE International xukuumadu is hortaagtay. Iyaga oo daba socda arrintan ayay baarlamaanku waxa ay soo saareen mooshin lagu dalbanayo in Aamina Weris shaqada si degdeg ah loogu celiyo, mooshinkaas oo ay ku gacmo saydhay xukuuumadu iyada oo ku eedaysay baarlamaanka cusub in uu kala garan waayay shaqadiisa iyo shaqada xukuumadda.

Dhawaan waxa sidoo kale golaha baarlamaanku uu dib ugu celiyay xukuumadda xisaab celintii miisaaniyad sanadeedkii 2005, taas oo baarlamanku sheegay in ay ka maqan tahay xisaab celintaa lacago badan oo ay ahayd in lagu soo daro. Ayaamo yar uun ka dib arrintan ayaa waxa hadana baarlamaanku ku gacan saydhay in ay ansixiyaan xubnaha gudidda doorashooyinka ee cusub, xubnahan oo badali doona xubanahii hore ee waqtigoodii dhamaaday. Baarlamaanku waxa ay dib ugu celiyeen xukuumada xubnahaasi, si ay u soo dhamaystirto xukuumaddu liiska oo uu ka maqnaa xubintii ay magacaabi lahaayeen xisbiga mucaaradka ah ee Kulmiye, oo aan isagu u gudbin xukuumadda magaca xubinkaas.

Si kastaba ha ahaatee, iyada oo aanay xukuumaddu wax jawaab ah weli ka bixin arrintan ayaa waxa golaha la keenay mooshin cusub oo laba sanno loogu kordhinayo xubnahii hore ee guddidda doorashooyinka ee waqtigoodu dhamaaday, mooshinkaas oo baarlamaanku si buuxda u ansixiyay. Tani waxa ay khilaaf hor leh soo kala dhex galisay xukuumadda iyo baarlamaanka.

Hadaba khilaafyadan is daba jooga ah ee ka dhexeeya xukuumadda iyo baarlaamaanku waxa sababa ugu horeynba aqaan daro la xidhiidha dhanka maamulka dawliga ah iyo wada shaqeynta golayaasha dawladda oo saameysa labada dhinacba. Waxa kale oo sababa khilaafyadan had iyo jeer siyaasaddo daaha dabadiisa laga hago , siyaasaddahaas oo sal ku leh dano qabali ah iyo ku jiq sii ka soo burqata dhanka xisbiyadda ay ka kala tirsan yihiin mudanayaashu, kuwaas oo loo aaneeyo hab dhaqanka sharci ka boodka ah ee baraalmanku ku kaco mararka qaar.

Dhanka xukuumadda ayaa iyaduna mararka qaar isku dayda in ay baarlaamaanka ku duduucdo arrimo lagu muran sanyahay ama si toos ahba isu hor taagta soo jeedimo sharci ah oo kasoo baxa golaha baarlaamaanka, mararka qaarna kuba bixisa lacagaha dadku ugu yeedhaan ‘dhaameelka’ si ay u fushato arrimahaas.

Khilaafka xukuumadda iyo Haatuf media group

Waxa khilaaf sidoo kale ka dhex oogmay dhawaanahan mid ka mid ah saxaafadda gaarka loo leeyahay iyo xukuumadda. Khilaafkan waxa sababay qoraalo si xidhiidhsan in mudo ahba ugu soo baxay jariidada Haatuf ee ka soo baxda Harageysa, oo diiradda lagu saarayay musuqmaasuq farabadan oo lagu xidhiidhinayo xukuumadda Somaliland iyo gaar ahaan qoyska madaxtooyadda. Qoraaladdani waxa ay sababeen in muddo ku dhow laba bilood ay jeelka ugu xidhnaadaan mulkiilahii Haatuf iyo laba qof oo ka tirsan shaqaalahiisa.

Waa arrin iska macruuf ilaa heerka uu musumaasuqu ragaadiyay dhaqaalaha kooban ee Somaliland iyo sida uu ugu baahay dhamaan goobaha maamul ee xukuumadda . Dhanka kale, musuqmaasuqu ma aha mid la kowsaday xukuumadda talada haysa ee maanta, oo ay hada uun daahfureen suxufiyiinta Haatuf . Runtii, dad badani waxa ay kuba xidhiidhiyaan musuqmaasuqa ku baahay dalka hab dhaqanka ismaamul ee Somaliland qaadatay , kaas isku badhxay nidaamaka ismaamul ee casriga ah iyo ka dhaqanka Soomaalida ee qabaliga ku salaysan, oo isagu la sheego in uu dhiiri galiyo musuqmaasuqa.

Arrinta la is waydiin karaa waxay tahay sababta keentay xiligan in si aad ah loo buun buuniyo, loona soo faqo musuqmaasuq lagu eedayno maamulka madaxweyne Riyaale. Waxa in badan arrintaas jawaabteedu ku soo urruraysaa loolanka awooda ee sii xoogaysanaya ee u dhaxeeya xisbiyadda mucaaraddka iyo xukuumadda , iyadda oo xisbiyadda mucaardaka ahi ay si dadban ugu adeegsadaan saxaafadda odorosyadooda siyaasadeed, taas oo mararka qaar saxaafadu ku lumiso dhex dhexaadnimadeeda. Loolankan awooda ee u dhaxeeya xukuumadda iyo xisbiyadda mucaaradka ahi waxa uu marayaa heer la odhan karo waxa uu saameyn ku yeelan karaa xasiloonida iyo amaanka Somaliland, iyada oo ay meesha ka baxday xidhiidhkii wada shaqeyneed ee asxaabta iyo xukuumaddu.

Sida xaqiiqadu tahay in badan oo ka mid ah shaqsiyaadka sida aadka ah ugu eedeeya xukuumadda musuqmaasuqu waxa ay ka mid ahaayeen maamuladdii Somaliland soo maray, mana aha kuwo dibada ka joogay musuqmaasuqa ay hada ku eedeeyaan maamulka talada haya. Tani hadana u cudurdaarimayso musuqmaasuqu aadka ugu baahay xukuumadda talada haysa ee Somaliland.

Khilaafka Haatuf iyo xukuumadda waxa sidoo kale ku kale qaybsantay beesha uu ka soo jeedo mulkiilaha Haatuf, iyada oo qayb ka mid ah beeshaasi ay xaalka ka bixisay eedaymaha musuqmaasuq ee ay jariidadu ku xidhiidhisay qoyska madaxtooyadda , halka qayb kalena ay ku gacan saydhay isla xaalkaas.

Khilaafyo sababay colaado oo ku soo badanaya Somaliland

Todobaadaydii ugu danbeeyay waxa sidoo kale iska soo daba dhacayay wararka dhiiloda ah oo ku saabsan colaado iyo dagaalo ka oogmay gudaha jamhuuriyadda Somaliland, colaadahaas oo intooda badan la sheego in ay salka ku hayaan aanooyin qabiil iyo khilaafaad ku salaysan lahaanshaha deegaamo. Dagaaladaas oo ka kala dhacay gobolka Sool , Saaxil iyo kililka 5naad ee Itoobiya ayaa waxa ugu khatar badnaa ka ka dhacday deegaanadda Daroor ee kililka shanaad ee Itoobiya ,ee u dhaxeeyey beelaha Garxajis ee wada dega deegaanadaas.

Colaadan Daroor iyo deegaaandda u dhow ayaa waxa ay sababtay dhimasho iyo dhaawac aad u fara badan oo hafiyay cusbitaaladda magaalooyinka Burco iyo Hargeysa. Beelaha ku dagaalamaya deegaanka Daroor ayaa waxa sidoo kale ay wada degaan gudaha Somaliland, taas oo keeni karta khatarta ah in uu ku soo faafo dagaalku gudaha magaalooyinka waaweyn ee Somaliland.

Dagaalka todobaakan ugu dambeeyey ka soo cusboonaaday jiidaasi waxa uu salka ku hayaa kuwo kale oo ka dhacay deeganadaasi badhtamahii sannadkii hore.Dagaaladaas oo demintiooda ay ka qayb qateen ergeeyinkii uga badnaa ee goob colaaddeed isugu yimaada ilaa inta la og yahay taariikhda deegnaadan ayaa waxa ay ka kala yimaadeen dhamaan goboladda Somaliland, iyo weliba kililka shanaad ee Itoobiya. Ergooyinkaasi waxa ay ku guulaysteen in ay joojiyaan xabadda , heshiisna dhexdhigaan beelaha ku daagalamay deegaankaas. Hasayeeshee waxa ay dad badani sheegaan in aanay ergooyinkaasi wax daba socod ah ku samayn sidii loo dhamaystiri lahaa go’aanadii heshiis ee laga gaadhay colaada ka oogantay jiidaas.

Dagaalkan ugu dambeeyay ayaa waxa uu ahaa mid aad uga xoog badan kuwii dhacay badhtamahii sanadkii hore, dhowr goorna iska soo daba noqnoqday. Dagaalkani waxa uu sabababay dhimasho iyo dhaawac aad u badan, iyadda oo ay hadana mar labaad ay u soo gurmadeen ergooyin ka badan kuwii hore u tagay jiidaas, sanadkii hore. Waxa sidoo kale imika la kala dhex dhigay dhinacyadda dagaalamaya ciidamo ka yimi kililka shanaad ee Itoobiya.

Waxa ay dadbadani is waydiinayaan goorta ay heerkan aadka u xun gaadhay colaada u dhexaysa labadan beelood oo iyagu xulufo iyo ood wadaag ba ahaa mudo aad u dheer dhanka Itoobiya iyo Somaliland-ba, horena aanay u dhex ool wax aano ah iyo arrimo kale oo ay isku khilaafsanaayeen. Tani waxa ay keentay shakiga ah in meesha ay ku jiraan arrimo siyaasadeed oo aan weli guntooda la gaadhin, arrimahaas oo ay ka shidaal qaadanayso colaada hada ka dhex oogan labadaas beelood ee ood wadaagta ah.

Gebogebadii, khilaafyaddan ku soo siyaadaya gudaha Somaliland hadii aan loo maarayn si taxadir badani ku jiro waxa ay hubaashii khalkhal wayn gelin karaan amaanka iyo xasiloonidda Somaliland ee aan lugaha sidaas aan u sii buurayn ku tukubaysa.

The consequences of Ethiopian armed intervention in Somalia

2007-02-07T20:48:00.000-08:00

As usual southern Somalia continues to be caught in the cyclical violence and lawlessness that has been associated with that part of the country for the past 16 years. The recent insertion of foreign armies into the Somali domestic political crises, however, added another dangerous dimension to the violence. The Ethiopia army, in cahoots with the US, invaded Somalia, to dislodge Islamic Courts Union from the areas that they controlled for six months in the South.

The Islamic courts controlled large swathes of Southern Somalia, after they had expelled the militias of the rival warlords from Mogadishu and the surrounding regions. These warlords were responsible for much of the lawlessness that prevailed in the south for the last decade and half.

The Ethiopians, allegedly ‘invited’ by the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia and bankrolled by the Americans, routed the Union of Islamic Courts militias from the areas they controlled in the South. In few days’ time, Islamic Courts militia fled into the jungles of Ras Camponi, near the Somali border with Kenya. Ethiopian tanks rolling in the streets of Mogadishu were quite a sight for many Somalis who considered Ethiopia as their ‘enemy’ in the Horn.

Ethiopia and Somalia had very destructive relations since the independence of latter in 1960. The two states fought two bloody wars over the Somali inhabited Ogaden region in Ethiopia. The Somali state claimed that the Ogaden was part of greater Somalia and there existed an atmosphere of hostility between the two countries. In addition, the Ethiopians were considered by many Somalis as denying the right of self-determination to the people in the Ogaden.

The Ethiopians have also been playing a very Machiavellian role in Somalia since the implosion of the latter in 1991. The Ethiopians, time and again, sided with political groups of whatever bent who opposed the emergence of any form of centralized rule in Somalia. This has been in line with Ethiopia’s national interests as viewed by the present rulers of that country. The terrible experience that they had at the hands of the Somali state at its peak must have worried the Ethiopians about the nature of central government that would finally emerge in the territory if its ‘irredentist’ neighbor in the east. In pursuit of this agenda, the Ethiopians always found willing Somali partners, who usually had their own domestic agendas in the country.

The Americans, on their part, had good relations with the military regime of Barre before its demise in 1991. They had military bases in Somalia in service of their global rivalry with the Soviets, who were also anchored in neighboring Ethiopia at the time. The Americans left when the military regime fell and the country started to disintegrate into fiefdoms ruled over by rival warlords. The Americans come back two years later at the head of massive humanitarian mission, to facilitate ‘food delivery’ to the starving Somalis affected by the civil war.

The Americans had serious confrontation with one of the local warlords in Mogadishu and in a bungled mission to capture him, 13 American rangers were killed. Following incident, the Americans left Somalia to itself and ignored the terrible civil strife that the country descended into. The terrorist bombings of American embassies in east Africa once again renewed American interest in the country. The Americans suspected that some of the operatives behind the attacks were sheltering in the lawless country.

The Americans established unholy alliances with the local warlords in the country, to hunt the Al Qa’eda operatives allegedly hiding in the country. In an attempt to formalize their relations and milk more funds from the Americans, a group of warlords created an anti-terrorism coalition in Somalia in early last year. The consequences of that coalition and the massive upheaval it precipitated in the form of the Islamic Courts revolution and the Ethiopian/US intervention in the country need not be recounted here.

At this juncture, we may ask ourselves what are or will be the consequences of Ethiopian intervention in Somalia, given the fact that Ethiopia, unlike the United States, is located within the same sub-region with Somalia, and that Ethiopia shares a long disputed border with the former. To address these issues, let’s divide them on their external and internal dimensions.

The external consequences of the armed intervention

Externally, Ethiopia seems to have set a precedent of ‘preventive war’ in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia crossed the border of an internationally recognized state on the pretext that it posed a threat, perceived or real notwithstanding, to its peace and security. Never before has a state in the Horn so brazenly invaded another on the basis of ‘perceived’ future threat to its security. This has been an anomaly even by the standards of the tortured state relations in the Horn, where there abounds plenty of grounds for inter-state wars in the sub-region.

Given the dynamic political situation in the Horn, the Ethiopian state will not be insulated in the future from a ‘preventative war’ agianst it from one or collective of its neighboring states .

Ethiopia also worsens its cozy, albeit unidirectional, relations with Somaliland as they continue to prop up President Yussuf’s TFG in Somalia. Pres. Yussuf comes from the rival Puntland region, which claims parts of Sool and Sanaag regions that fall within the borders of former British Somaliland Protectorate and the current borders of the unrecognized state of Somaliland. President Yussuf also claims that he is the legitimate president of all Somalia, including Somaliland. This incenses the government of Somaliland, and there is already a wave of discontent with the behavior of the Ethiopians in Somalia.

The government of Somaliland naively believed that they are next to no one when it comes to its relations with Ethiopia. But the recent developments in Somalia and Ethiopia’s role in it was a rude awakening for them.

The internal consequences of the armed intervention

Internally, the Ethiopians took a shot at the dream of ‘greater Somalia’. By occupying the capital of its long term enemy, Mogadishu, and bombing its international airport with impunity, the Ethiopians rode a rough shod over Somali nationalism in general, and the dream of ‘greater Somalia’ in the future, in particular.

The Ethiopian armed intervention also ‘imposed’ on Somalia the rule of a potential tyrant who was dreaming to rule the country for more than a generation. Thanks to the Ethiopians, Yussuf’s dream seems to have been finally realized. But this is not the end of the story.

Many people from Mogadishu belief that their rival Puntlanders came on the back of Somalia’s traditional ‘enemy’, Ethiopia, to rule over them. These inhabitants are bent on resisting that rule at any costs. This will have a serous repercussion on future co-existence and the peaceful interaction betweeen these groups in the South. The recent incident in Guriceel bears witness to this development.

The dispersed operatives of the Islamic Courts union, some of them lying low in the capital, have also started to introduce into the country an Iraqi-like resistance tactics, to fight Ethiopian troops and those of the ‘TFG’ in the capital. This development will be further encouraged by the reluctance of the African states to contribute troops to support the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia.

Conclusions:

The recent Ethiopian armed intervention in Somalia had serious consequences for the future of Somalia. The armed intervention disturbed the balance of power of various tribal groups in the country and poisoned the peaceful co- existence of these groups in the future.

It worsened the suspicions and age old enemity between the peoples of Ethiopia and Somalia. It also strengthened the trend of opportunistic wars alternating between the two neighboring states of Somalia and Ethiopia.

Lastly, the Ethiopian armed intervention imported into the sub region the US made doctrine of ‘preventive war’. This will add to the poisoned atmosphere and the tortured states relations in the Horn, and will further destabilize the region.

Guurti's latest distraction…

2006-02-26T20:48:00.000-08:00

The economic sub-committee of the House of the Guurti recently presented a long-winded report to the house on six ministries that the committee visited in the past few months. The sub-committee visited ministries like the Finance, Fisheries, Livestock, Planning and National Coordination, and Rural development. These ministries were said to be involved in the ‘productive’ sectors of the economy.

Although one cannot but be cynical about the timing of this latest Guurti visit to the ministries, their achievements were, nonetheless, negligible. The elders went to these ministries in Land Cruisers and listened to whatever ministers and senior functionaries told them, only to pass this back later to the house of Guurti.

To show the futility of these exercises, let’s examine the work of the sub-committee in two of the ministries that they visited.

In the first instance, the elders met with the minister and some senior officials of the Ministry of Fisheries and the Coastal Development. In the ministry, the sub-committee were informed of the fact that the ministry entered into various agreements with all kinds of ships, big and small, owned by Egyptians, Indians and Greeks, among others, to fish from the territorial waters of the country; they learned of the fact that the ministry did not have the wherewithal to protect these territorial waters; of the fact that numerous illegal fishing vessels come and fish from the area ; and of the fact that private individuals give permission to some foreign vessels to fish in the territorial waters.

The Guurti sub-committee did not deeply explore those important issues with the minister and the other officials they met, nor did they pose the right questions warranted by the occasion. The elders did not examine, and report back to the House, the contents of the alleged agreements the ministry signed with these foreign fishing vessels; the legality of these agreements; their effect on the local fishing industry and marine life, and how the revenue from these foreign fishing vessel is being utilized. The committee, by design or default, ignored these important issues.

The salience of these issues is underscored, however, by fact that there is a persistent allegation that the ‘first lady’ is engaged in a kind of business deal with some foreign vessels, fishing from the territorial waters of the country, particularly vessels under Egyptian flagship.

In the second instance, the sub-committee visited the Ministry of Planning and National coordination. Upon arrival of the ministry, the sub-committee found out that they lacked the requisite mandate to supervise the ministry. That mandate was given to the Political and International Relations Committee of the House by Guurti by-laws. The Guurti elders, embarrassed as they were, requested the house to clarify Guurti by-laws, to avoid such confusion in the future. The Guurti commitees in their thirteenth years of existence has yet to learn their roles in the political system.

One can question the existence of such sub-committees in the first place. The primary responsibility the constitution of the country grants to the Guurti is the maintenance of the peace and stability in the country and protecting the culture and religion of the people. In fact, the qualification for membership in the House comes down to someone learned either in religion or traditions and culture of the people. And while many in the Guurti House are even in short supply of these, dividing them into sub-committees and giving them the responsibility to oversee and talk about complex issues like ‘foreign’ policy and the economy is beyond me. They cannot meaningfully discuss about these complex issues.

The latest Guurti visit to the ministries has been aimed at stealing the limelight from elected House of parliament at a time the latter was engaged in a similar mission to the ministries. The elders keep on devising ways to maintain themselves in the picture and appear useful to the system.

Guurti elders have relatively played a positive role in the restoration and maintenance of peace and stability in the country. However, as time progressed, their peace making role has been reduced to supporting one political group over another, always basing their support to the one on the rule of the thumb, while leaving simmering communal flash points, like Caada in Gabilay, to explode into serious threats to the peace.

In the long run, the continued existence of the Guurti in the system, un-elected and without the mandate of the people, is a threat to peace and security in the country. In fact, as I argued elsewhere, the traditional system, which the elders represent, seamlessly fuses with the pervasive malaise of corruption in the country and the majority of Guurti are as corrupt today as the ‘ministers’ in the government.

Now that we have an elected House of parliament in place, the House of the Guurti should be dissolved.

Let the elders seek the democratic mandate of the people in the country. The sooner they do that, the better.

President Riyaale's foreign trips and the chaos that ensues on the road to the airport

2006-02-01T08:01:00.000-08:00

It has now become a commonplace that whenever president Riyaale is going to or returning from a foreign trip, the road from the airport all the way to his residence turns into an occupation zone. Uniformed Policemen, trigger happy soldiers, and plain cloths line every five or so meters along the road to the airport. Add this to the numerous battle wagons, including anti-aircraft mounted ones that accompany the president, his vice president and some of his ministers and you will be forgiven to think that you are living in a country ruled by a military junta, rather than a democratically elected government.

These heavy security arrangements put in place at the times when the President is leaving for or returning from a foreign trip interfere with the free movement of citizens and terrorize women and children, while reminding the people of the days of the military dictatorship in the country.

It is important to ensure the maximum security of the president and his entourage. It is equally important not turn the whole route the president travels on into a war zone. The president may as well ‘purchase’ a helicopter to take him to and from the airport to save citizens from the inconveniences attendant on his foreign trips and spare his security men from the painful travails they undergo during his movements. Far fetched? Perhaps not, given the huge budget allocated to the presidency, which exceeds, by some accounts, two million dollars annually. That money is spent, definitely, on anything but roads and schools.

In fact, these exaggerated security arrangements are deliberately concocted by the ministers responsible for the security of the country (i.e. the interior and the defense ministers) for a number of reasons. First, these ministers try to impress the president and make themselves indispensable in his eyes. Second, the ministers show off the forces at their command so that the opposition groups may not make mischievous calculation during the absence of the president abroad and, possibly, during his presence in the country. Lastly, these security arrangements are intended to awe citizens into total submission.

The conduct of these ministers reflects negatively on the administration of Mr. Riyaale, under whose guise these arrangements are made. Mr. Riyaale should review his security arrangements and see what is adequate for his protection on his route to and from the airport and what is the exaggerated ego of his ministers. Hargeisa in not like Baghdad and the road to the airport is not like the road to Baghdad airport.

Mr. Riyaale should be reminded of the fact that he did not assume power by the barrel of the gun, but by a democratically conducted free and fair election in the country. In fact, the exaggerated security arrangements decrease the security environment of the president due to the presence of multiple, gun totting security operatives in close proximity with him.In addition, these security arrangements create an impression that the president has the enemy in his own citizens. All this is not to suggest that the president should disavow his security entourage. Rather, he should moderate it to a level that is commensurate with his needs.

Clearly, a government that sends armored military carriers into civilian hospitals trusts the power of the gun more than the power of persuasion.

There could be twenty five TDI's....

2006-01-03T01:22:00.000-08:00

In a special programme on Somaliland TV last night, the vice minister of the ministry of post and telecommunication said there could be twenty five TDI companies. The minister was responding to a question which related to the dubious nature of TDI, raised by one of the journalists .

The exact question put to the vice minister was ‘there is an information that says TDI robbed businesses in other African countries. How can you prove that this is not the same TDI coming here to rob the private telecom companies in Somaliland?’

When a dubious business deal is masqueraded as government policy

2006-01-02T01:00:00.000-08:00

Anybody who was following the news in Somaliland during the last month must have noticed the dispute that was brewing between the minister of posts and telecommunications in Somaliland and the private telecommunications companies in Somaliland. The dispute related to an alleged contract that the minister gave to an American telecommunication company known as Transcom Digital Inc (TDI). As per the contract, TDI was supposed to set up a center for interconnecting the several private telecommunication companies operating in Somaliland and for providing Somaliland with a ‘country code’.

The contract given to TDI by the ministry follows in the footsteps of a spate of worrying shoddy deals starting with Total Red Sea Oil Company to foreign fishing companies to the latest investments agreement with MIDROC Company, owned by the Saudi tycoon Al Amoudi. The individuals who negotiated these deals sub rosa only know their contents and the general public were kept in the dark about them.

Obviously, the minister gave the contract to TDI behind the back of the private telecoms. In the first meeting on the issue held in Maansoor hotel in Hargeisa, the minister presented a kind of a fait accompli with the private telecoms. No wonder then that the private telecom representatives rejected the whole scheme outright and immediately stormed out of the meeting.

The minister did not consider a bit about the millions of dollars that the private telecoms invested in setting up these businesses, the business relationships that they have developed over the years with foreign telecom companies and the numerous business contracts they signed to become operational. The telecoms achieved all these without much support to speak of from the government. In fact, while milking thousands of tax dollars from the private telecoms, the government failed time and again to pay her telephone bills.

In his latest press conference in his office on Monday 20/12/2005, the minister, Mr. Hassan Abdi Qayre, spoke at length about the dispute with the telecom companies in Somaliland. The minister accused the telecom companies of obstructing the contract that the ministry awarded to TDI. The minister said that ‘it is the decision of the ministry that private telecoms link up to the center, use the new ‘country code’ and work with us and support us’. The minister, who was a custodial corps officer during the military regime, behaved like he was still in charge of some kind of a prison populated now by private telecom companies, rather than by common criminals.

The minister said that they established contacts with TDI, told them that they have a separate country and flag but that they lack the necessary finances… in order to be independent, therefore, they requested TDI to build them a center for interconnecting their private telecoms and to provide with Somaliland a separate country code.

The minister has got to do some convincing here if the ‘ministers’ do that at all! You do not just show up at the door of international private company and tell them that you have a separate country and flag but, nonetheless, penniless at the moment and then request them to build you a center and give you an country code so as to be an ‘independent’ country…. The company that accepts this must be very strange company indeed. One cannot be far from the truth in claiming that TDI was specially created for this eventuality two or three years ago i.e. to help rob the private telecom companies in Somaliland by fraudsters who have good local connections with some individuals in positions of power in Somaliland.

The minister also mentioned in the press conference that they ‘were helped to contact TDI by some Somalilanders in the Diaspora’. As observed by keen Somali observers, individuals from the Somali Diaspora coming back home with dubious business projects have been new a phenomenon throughout Somalia. These individuals try their luck to deceive businesses and local authorities, thinking that people back home are so ignorant and gullible.

When asked the minister about the reason they did not award the contract to TDI through a public tender as required by law, the minister said that ‘ public tenders are used by those who have money’. This means that if you do not have money, you do not need to abide by the laws of the land.

Another interesting question in which the minister was asked related to the legality of the deal with TDI since it was not supposedly passed by the parliament. The minister replied by saying that he asked TDI to build the center for them and that he did not give them a single shilling; therefore there is no need to talk about the legality of the deal.

When further asked about how TDI will benefit from investing in Somaliland, the minister said that TDI ‘will benefit from all the money that will come from our golden air… I shall give them [TDI] some of the money that will come from the incoming calls when the system is put in place’. The minister is hopping here to tap into one of the major sources of income for the private telecoms in Somaliland, at no cost to himself. In my opinion, the chance of this succeeding is next to nothing. However, if the minister manages to achieve his musings, this will negatively impact on the economic development country and people will think twice before investing in the country.

The private telecoms companies were very reluctant in the past to interconnect and people and business suffered as a result. However, the private telecoms managed few months ago to interconnect on their own, and people can now communicate across the lines of the private telecoms with small additional costs. The private telecom companies are also willing to use a new county code if is given to Somaliland by International Telecommunications Union as told me by one of the chief executive officers of the private telecom companies. However, as rightly argued by the executive officer, country codes are not assigned to countries by private international companies as assumed by the minister of post and telecommunications but by the specialized UN agency of International Telecommunications Union.

The telecommunications dispute arose at a time when a new parliament led by the opposition parties was elected in and the people were hoping that the elected parliament would stimulate changes in the political governance of the country. In fact several powerful ministers, including the minister of interior, keep a very low profile nowadays to avoid losing their portfolios in the expected ministerial reshuffle by president Riyalle. In these times of uncertainty for unwieldy cabinet, the ministers’ clash and public exchanges with the private telecoms is politically incorrect at best.

The newly elected parliament would do well to conduct, as one of its first tasks, a thorough review of the foreign business deals that the successive governments of Somaliland struck. The parliament should also examine how the general public benefits from these deals.

Haatuf once again assumes its self-declared role as the ‘singular protector’ of Somaliland from its ‘enemies’ hiding in very nook and cranny:

2005-12-18T22:44:00.000-08:00

In its latest editorial on December 18, 2005, Haatuf news paper criticized the visit of the newly elected speaker of parliament, along with one member of the parliament, to the neighboring republic of Djibouti. The visit came immediately after the ‘resolution’ of the tense confrontation that resulted from the election of the speaker, from a coalition of the two opposition parties of UCID and Kulmiye.

Before his departure to Djibouti, the speaker shared his two deputies with the nature of the trip. Irrespective of this, Hatuf newspaper, the ever protector of ‘beleaguered’ Somaliland bounced on the trip and made mountains out of it.

Haatuf insinuated in the editorial that the newly speaker of the parliament, Mr. Cirro, and his companion with the trip, Khadar ambassador, were engaged in malicious conspiracy against Somaliland’s Berbera port use agreement with Ethiopia in cahoots with Ismail Omer Gelle of Djibouti.

Haatuf also linked the trip of the speaker with another trip that the chairman of UCUD party, Fiasla Ali Warabe went to Djibouti. The editorial maintained that the trip of the speaker, the accompanying member (Khadar ambassador) and the UCID chairman 'who all come from the same sub-clan' can not but be suspicious and malicious in intent.

The editorial did not come as surprise to many people who are already familiar with the reasoning of the owners of Haatuf and their grand delusion to be the sole protectors of Somaliland.

That is the independent media we speak of today in Somaliland . oops!

Parliamentary election campaigns in Somaliland

2005-12-14T01:51:00.000-08:00

September 26, 2005

Since the party candidate campaigning season was declared open by the Somaliland electoral commission, candidates have been campaigning very hard to win the support of their various clan constituencies in the different regions of the country.

While this parliamentary election campaign has not been different much from the previous presidential and municipal elections campaigns, the newly introduced government television added flavor to the candidate campaigns. Unlike the private TV in Hargeisa, the government TV is free of charge and the majority of households managed to connect to the service.

Prior to the establishment of the TV channel, the government owned media was comprised of radio Hargeisa and a newspaper with English and Arabic editions.

The old government journalists took over the new television as expected and kept entertaining the public with their inexperience in television broadcast. Candidates were interviewed prime time on the only worthwhile government TV programme, Masraxa Musharaxa, which great number of people in the city watched to know more about party candidates.

The government employed media workers behaved embarrassingly funny on camera. In one instance a candidate from UDUB political party spitted on the ground, while being interviewed on camera. Many people thought that the candidate was flushing out the remains of Buuri Dambas from his mouth. While the candidate had every right to use the Buuri as he liked, the TV people should have had the decency to edit the programme and cut the part!!!

Another amusingly regular occurrence has been how one of the TV interviewers shook the hands of interviewees so up and down ( ilaa suxulka ) with the words of Asalaama Calaykum both at the beginning of the interview and the end. Many people will remember this interviewer with his unique way of shaking hands, long past the election campaigns.

Nor many of the questions asked by these interviewers were sensible to many people. With questions like Ma dhowr hebel ayaad noqondoontaa mise hebel hadii lagu doorto? Maxaad qaban doontaa hadii labada natiijaba soo baxaan? (i.e. you win and lose at the sometime! ), the TV interviewers revealed their lack of experience in posing the relevant questions.

The candidates interviewed on the Masraxa Musharaxa were very mixed in terms of their educational background and experience. And if the claims of the many candidates on the programme is anything to go by, many had advanced degrees, Kulmiye and UCUD party candidates scoring high in this regard, compared to the ruling UDUB party candidates.

All the candidates were assigned to various election symbols, which will appear on the ballots in the voting day. Candidate symbols are important in assisting illiterate societies to cast their votes for the candidates of their choice, while it also helps the candidates in campaigning among their supporters. TV interviewers repeatedly asked party candidates to interpret for programme viewers their respective election symbols, as if every symbol assigned to a candidate had intrinsic meaning to it.

How the candidates interpreted their election symbols has been an interesting watch on the TV.

Candidates strained every nerve to put a positive spin on the assigned /selected symbols such as a wooden spoon (fandhaal ), a kettle, a camel, and an elephant. In one case, a candidate was asked to share with the viewers what his symbol was and what it meant for him. He started by telling the viewers that his election symbol was a kettle, and then proceeded to glorify the kettle by enumerating its many uses by the people now and in the past. The way the candidates interpreted these symbols did not help in the eyes of the people, as some of the candidates put forward incredibly absurd explanations of what the symbols meant for them.

A very unfortunate development from this election campaign has been the renting of rooms by candidates to serve as Merfishes for their supporters. Candidates furnished Kat to their supporters in those Marfishes and this lured many young party activists to start chewing the leaf. One of the candidates told a friend of mine that he opened over forty of such Merfishes for his supporters. This will have an adverse side affect on the society, which will remain with us for a long period of time.

Many of the candidates rented cars and buses, which roam the streets with microphones blaring out songs from the ex-military regime revolutionary times, and other songs tailor-made for the candidates. This created a serious noise pollution in the streets. It seems as though candidates and their supporters believe that over-shouting the other candidates and their supporters wins them additional votes.

One of the strangest and the funniest campaign statements, so far, was made by the minister of interior, while on a campaign trail in Gabilay district. The minister said that the opposition does not ‘have a president, a vice president, and ministers like the minister of interior (himself!), and even if the opposition wins the majority of seats in the parliament, we pay their salaries'. Did the ‘minister' know what he was talking about?

The same statement was recycled by the first lady while in Borama. However, the lady forgot to include in her statement that the opposition parties lacked first ladies as well!!

Otherwise, the election campaign is approaching a climax and candidates and their supporters are waiting the day of final reckoning at the polls.

The tribal factor in the selection of parliamentary candidates in Somaliland

2005-12-13T06:23:00.000-08:00

After a lot hassle and bustle, the electoral commission of Somaliland finally posted the total list of candidates in the upcoming parliamentary election. Now that the party lists are finalized, lets pause a moment and reflect on how the candidate selection process had been accomplished.

Long before the finalization of party lists, candidate hopefuls organized numerous meetings for their sub-clans and Jilibs, maneuverings for intra-clan confidence and support in their bids to parliamentary seats. Tribal elders cashed in on the opportunity and many candidates competing for the confidence of the tribal elders had to dish out to the latter an amount of money ranging from 500 to 1000 payable in US dollars. As a result, candidate hopefuls with cash in their pockets won the tribal confidence over those who lacked it, money becoming an important intermediary in the struggle for party lists. This development was further encouraged by the three political parties which gave priority to candidates who enjoyed the confidence of a Sultan, a Boqor or even a tribal chief, over those who were not so fortunate.

Party membership, discipline, and merit suffered in the selection of parliamentary candidates. Rank and file party hopefuls were thrown out of the window, while brand new candidates were recruited into party lists. This is symptomatic of the mismatch between modern parliamentary democracy as it is practiced in the West and how it would fare in traditional parochial systems dominant in many developing countries.

It is no secret that the majority of parliamentary candidates coveted a place in UDUB and Kulmiye party lists; two parties which secured most of the votes in the previous presidential and local council elections held in the country. Candidates queued up to UDUB and KULMIYE parties under the assumption that the two parties will win, this time round as well, the majority of the seats up for grabs in the election. Given the constant shifting of tribal allegiances in the system, this assumption is problematic at best. Nevertheless, tribal elders stepped on each others toes to put their candidates in Kulmiye and UDUB part lists.

Conversely, UCID party list was less competitive, where candidates managed without much ado to secure places in the list on first come, first served basis. Nonetheless, UCUD has taken UDUB by storm and captured some traditional UDUB constituencies in Togdheer and Sanaag regions.

When the party lists would finally be issued, the finite nature of the number of candidates in the lists was bound to disappoint many candidates, no less than their sponsoring tribes. As soon as the party lists were issued, candidates who failed to appear in the lists sounded the clarion call, denouncing political parties that failed to include them in their lists. It has become commonplace nowadays for one tribe or another to appear in the local papers, condemning this or that political party for rejecting their candidates. In addition, tribes declare the withdrawal of ‘their collective tribal confidence’ from one political party, while pledging their allegiance to another.

UDUB has been on the receiving end of the wrath of many tribal groupings, while Kulmiye was not spared either. UDUB was accused of badly mismanaging Hargiesa region party list. At the behest of UDUB leadership, the total number of parliamentary seats was divided initially on arbitrary regional basis, without factoring in the varied population statistics of the six regions in the country. Irrespective of this, UDUB leadership inserted in its Hargeisa region party list candidates coming from other regions in the country, while it excluded from the list candidates who considered themselves as belonging to Hargeisa region. No group complained about UCUD party list selection process.

The clearest example, by far, of the tribal factor in operation of the party list selection processes was provided by ex- minister of air transport and civil aviation of the government. In a dramatic decision, the minister resigned from his post, condemning the President strongly for interfering in the selection of Hargiesa region party list and causing a candidate of the same tribe with the Minister to lose his place in the list. In today’s Somaliland, there exist plenty of reasons for a Minister in the UDUB-dominated government to resign from power, tribal fidelity coming last in the list.

One wonders how a parliament selected and elected on the basis of ‘the tribal blood type’ could be different from it is predecessor, which was disbanded chiefly because it was selected on the Beel system?

A few nights ago, I watched on the new Somaliland TV Hargiesa municipality councilors in session. The councilors were shouting about, not debating over, a certain plot of public land which some of the councilors claimed that the mayor of Hargeisa gave illegally to his brother. While the councilors have the right to raise such an important issue, the way they were raising it left a lot to be desired. It was uncivilized, unethical, and clownish. I slept that night with a heavy heart, regretting ever voting for these political clowns.

What does all this say about the fledgling ‘democracy’ in Somaliland?

During its short period of existence, Somaliland has been progressing towards some semblance of democracy, albeit in a perverted form. Somaliland managed to conduct municipality and presidential elections and will soon conduct parliamentary elections in the country. However, traditional governance structures have been deliberately superimposed on the incipient democratic institutions in the country and the clan is the basis of all political action and a point of departure.

The proponents of traditional governance maintain that the system was espoused in order to reduce clan frictions and take maximum advantage of conflict resolution mechanism of traditional governance. Nonetheless, traditional governance failed miserably to deal with insidious malaises afflicting the system and seem to have seamlessly fused with it. Corruptions, nepotism, human rights violation, economic stagnation, and lack of accountability are some of the dominant feature of the political system in the country.

All that the clan based governance structures managed to achieve is to set up a system of ‘clan balance of terror’, which resulted in a fragile peace, punctuated occasionally by serious upsurges of violence and ruled over by a bunch of unrelenting kleptocrats.

Democracy in Somaliland, to paraphrase Clausewitz’s famous dictum, seems to be a continuation of clan warfare by other means.

Somaliland politics 101: introduction to the art of political insult

2004-11-10T21:00:00.000-08:00

On May 13th, 2004, the chairman of Kulmiye political party held a press conference at Ming Sing restaurant, Hargeisa . The party chairman spoke about the general condition of the country and articulated the views of his party on a lot of current issues like corruption, the budget for this fiscal year and the peace and stability of the country. However, the chairman unexpectedly concluded the press conference by launching a serious assault on person of Somaliland finance minister, Mr. Awil Ahmed Du’alle.

Mr. Awil, who is known for his erratic and offensive outbursts, has been provoking the Kulmiye chairman for sometime, accusing the chairman to have been behind the assassinations of the two great SNM leaders of Abdikadir Koosaar and Adan Shiine. Awil also exchanged similar invectives with other politicians like Gen. Jama Mohamed Qalib, and the Kulmiye party member, Abdi Aw Dahir.

Silaanyo restrained himself for sometime and refused to be led into publicly trading insults with Awil, fearing from the possible negative implications that this might have for his political part. Nevertheless, as what goes around comes around, it was a matter of time before Siraayo joined ‘the insult-your-neighbor’ club.

What seems to have been the last straw that broke Siraanyo’s back was the minister of finances’ ironic comment while discussing the budget of the country this fiscal year. The minister said that Siraanyo should congratulate him for preparing the budget; a budged Siraanyo himself could not prepare for almost two years while he was the finance minister.

Siraano hit back few days later.

Referring to a book Awil wrote sometime ago, Siraanyo mentioned a paragraph where Awil spoke, allegedly, about the circumstance of his birth. Siraanyo recounts the story of Awils’ father(from the book?) and how the father married nine women, but could not have any children from any of them and then how the father consulted a witch doctor, which advised him that if he was ever to have children, he should marry a woman from the Arab sub- clan. Having being born under this circumstance, 'Awil was a miracle child indeed' Siraanyo concluded, putting a particular and ‘derogatory’ emphasis on the word ‘miracle’.

Siraanyo also cited another paragraph from Awils’ book, in which the latter is alleged to have confided that he was dismissed from Shiek secondary school in Sahil region . Siraanyo then dwelt on the reason that Awil was dismissed from school and queried if his dismissal from school was due to ill-discipline on his part(Awil) or….

Siraanyo continued with his diatribe. He recounted the story of how Awil was a ‘camel-like person ’ before the British trained him for six months (unlike Xassan Kayd , Ismail Ali Abokor and Muuse Rabiile Good who were trained for two years) and how Awil still calls himself an ambassador, while others who were more experienced than him, and posted to more prominent countries, like the US, no longer use that title …..

Siraanyos’ recent spate of insults was not confined to Awil. In the second anniversary of the establishment of Kulmiye political party, Silaanyo called the speaker of the house of the parliament, Mr. Ahmed Aden Qaybe a ‘lair’. Siraanyo was referring to the controversy surrounding the legality of the Public Order Law: No.21/63, which Qaybe argued to be a law that is in force in the country. Siraanyo rejected Qaybe’s argument and stated that the Public Order law was made null and void by the parliament sometime ago, and that Qaybe was lying about it.

As the chairman of a political party and a presidential hopeful, it is unflattering for Mr. Siraanyo to publicly exchange these lowly statements with ministers of an incumbent government and other officials that Siraanyo’s political party is striving to substitute with one of their own. Until now, Siraanyo’s Kulmiye had occupied ‘the higher moral ground’ vis-à-vis the government and Kulmiye could have done well with maintaining that position, at no cost to itself.

In the post 1991 political developments, politicians trading insults against each other as well as against opposing groups in public has become a common phenomenon in Somaliland. Indeed, the practice become, to paraphrase Clausewitz dictum, the continuation of politics by other means. And, while this muddy behavior is not uncommon among the politicians of developing/developed countries, the extensive nature of its employment by Somaliland politicians and the weight given to these foul words of dishonor by the people in the country is beyond comprehension indeed.

A notable individual who was an expert in using this technique was the deceased president of Somaliland, Mr. Mohamed Haji Ibrahim Egal . Mr. Egal used to launch a carefully prepared tirade against individual ministers whom he happened to dismiss from office and whom, Egal was afraid, may speak ill against his person as a result of their dismissal.

Igal, for instance, insulted the former cabinet members of Musa Bixi and Maxamed Barud, while at the same time dismissing them from the government. Egal recounted and imputed a notorious Somali poem recited against a woman to the former and the story of a man who raped a woman and, in attempts to deny the commission of the act###################.

Egal used the tactic of insulting ministers at the time he was dismissing them to discredit and humiliate them in the eyes of the people, before ministers had even a chance to reflect on their dismissal and hit back on his administration.

The recent upsurge of insults and counter-insults between Kulmiye and UDUB officials set many people wondering whether they have even the least credentials to rule this country. And Kulmiye, in particular, should remind itself of the futility of insulting one’s way to political power

So far, Mr. Riyaale did not show the tendency nor ‘rhetoric’ to imitate the ‘dismiss and insult’ tactic of his predecessor. But, there is no shortage of political insulters in his unwieldy government, Mr Ismail of the ministry of interior competing with Awil, the minister of finance, as the best insulter of all time in the government.

Somaliland: A dream yet to be fulfilled

2004-11-07T22:57:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, 30 September 2003

The perverted logic of clan politics.

....And some men have arrived from the frontiers
and they say that barbarians don’t exist any longer.
And now what will become of us without barbarians?
They were kind of a solution.

C.P. Cavafy, ‘Waiting for the Barbarians’

After a long and bloody civil war, the military regime that assumed power through a bloodless coup in 1969 was forcibly removed from power in 1991.

Few months only after the demise of the military regime and the declaration of Somaliland’s’ independence in 1991, the former SNM fighters, who were united only by their opposition to the military regime, jumped on each others’ throats. And a serious of violent conflicts erupted in Burao, Berbera and Hargiesa. These conflicts were mainly instigated by a group of junior ex-Somali army officers, called Alan As, who came from a coalition of sub-clans bent on wresting political power from the first president of Somaliland Mr. Abdirahman Ahmed Ali.

The perpetrators of these conflicts caused thousands of innocent people to lose their lives while thousands others were maimed for life. In addition, there was no systematic reconciliation of the clans involved in those terrible civil wars, and, as a result, powerful Issaq sub-clans became alienated from the political system. These later sub-clans do not, even today, identify with the political system nor do they worry about its survival.

The lingering antagonisms among the Issaq clans become abundantly clear during the recent presidential elections in the country. One of the most powerful Issaq sub-clans overwhelmingly voted against the stronger Issaq candidate, the chairman of Kulmiye political party, Mr.Silaanyo, and voted for underdog, the Gadabursi candidate from UDUB political party.

In the logic of clan politics, bygones are never allowed to be bygones.

The un-free within the freedom

Since the declaration of secession in 1991,the inhabitants of Somaliland enjoyed more unrestricted freedoms of association, of speech and of conscience, than they ever enjoyed under the military regime. People enjoy greater civil and political rights. However, these greater freedoms are hardly structured and institutionalized. And the unrestricted freedoms enjoyed by many negatively impinge on the rights of many other citizens. In addition the system is rigged in favor of the well off and the majority of the poor are simply not empowered enough to enjoy these freedoms.

There is also a lack of space for the expression of alternative opinions in the mainstream monotone. It is hard to believe the level of uniformity of view and opinions, appearing daily in the pages of the few newspapers in the country.

Things are starting to change slowly and notable personalities in the community are beginning to voice bold ideas in the face of the current political stagnation in the country. However one views it, Hadraawiyis’ recent peace voyage to the South and his subsequently declaration of support for the unity of Somalia set new parameters of debate and discussion on issues of great concern to the public.

The malaise of Kleptocracy and ministers ad infinitum

In its first decade of existence, Somaliland witnessed a serious of the most corrupt and exploitative governments the country has ever seen since independence. One can hardly exaggerate the level of mismanagement, inefficiency and kleptocracy indulged in by the successive governments in power. Government became a password for personal enrichment.

One striking aspect of the political system of the period has been the constant formation and reformation of governments, which produced hundreds of parasitic and inefficient ministers. Ministers usually obtained their tenure as a result of the thick and thin operation of the policy of divide and rule, adopted by the successive presidents. And what many of these ministers ever managed to achieve has been to rob and dwarf the ministers that they were appointed to administer.

Many people who hoped that things would change for the better, after the first democratic election in the country in 2003, were sorely disappointed. Not only did the recent elections bring forth a bunch of undemocratic profiteers in the local municipal councils, but they also returned to power, thanks to Riyaale, some of the most corrupt ministers in the pre-election governments.

Indeed all the ministers appointed by Mr. Riyaale and rejected by the parliament, are still sticking to their ministerial positions. Recently, one of these ministers even issued administrative decrees, shamelessly infringing on the constitutional rights of citizens. This development challenges the legality of the whole system.

The peace incubus

After the demise of the military dictatorship in 1991, peace has become a scarce commodity throughout the Somali territories. Unlike the south, Somaliland enjoyed relative peace and stability, which was mainly due to the collective will of the people of Somaliland and not due to, as many people wrongly believe, the magic spell of traditional elders.

In the long durée, Somaliland failed to capitalize on this period of relative peace and stability and no significant headway has been made towards the strengthening of Somaliland’s institutions and the development of its poor infrastructure.

Rather than using the opportunities created by peace for the progress and the advancement of the country, peace became an instrument used to deny the rights of citizens. Talk about your rights and you will risk to be automatically branded as a troublemaker and the enemy of the peace! Peace became an obsession and a kind of incubus that descended on the whole country. It became a trade and an instrument for the self-perpetuation of the Guurti elders in the political system.

Undoubtedly, peace is the first pillar of life and every effort should be made to strengthen it. However, without justice, political transparency, accountability and respect for human right, peace can hardly be sustainable.

Recognition: the Sisyphean rock

After a decade of existence, Somaliland has yet to secure international recognition. Granting of recognition to Somaliland is said to go against the grain of African international relations and the charter of African Union, which stipulates that the inherited borders at the time of independence are inviolable and that their sanctity are to be maintained.

The position of the international community on the issue has been, all along, that the secession of Somaliland is an internal Somali affair and that it is up to the Somali people to decide and agree.

Immediately after its declaration, many people, including some SNM political heavy weights, indicated that Somaliland would face a Herculean task in achieving international recognition and acceptance.

To date, Somaliland officials failed to sell the idea of an independent Somaliland to the international community. And people are beginning to realize that securing international recognition became a hopeless exercise, a kind of Sisyphean rock kept pushed uphill only to fall back to the ground.

The deceased president of Somaliland, Mr. Egal, used to occasionally remind the people (of course indirectly) how difficult the task of securing international recognition turned out to be. I remember the president telling journalists, after returning form a foreign trip, how the international community turned its back on Somaliland. In another time, Egal proposed that Somaliland should inherit Somalia by filling the seats that the former Somali state had sat in the international organizations, like the UN and the Arab league. Of course, the later proposal could have been realized only by renouncing the claim of Somaliland’s separate existence form the rest of Somalia.

Recently, the media was amusingly celebrating the recognition of Somaliland by a Mogadishu- based USC faction! What the media did not tell the people, however, is the fact that only states, and not warlords, enjoy the right to recognize other states in the international system. If anything, the incident showed the level of Somaliland’s desperation towards securing international recognition.

Some people attribute the difficulties faced in securing international recognition to some kind of an Arab conspiracy against Somaliland. That is why one frequently sees articles very critical on Arab states in the ‘media’.

The Harti departure

The ‘media’ in Somaliland recently alerted to the people the creation of a new region, curved out of Somaliland proper, by Puntland Authorities. With Buhoodle as its the regional capital, the new region, named Ain, is said to include also Aynabo district, which is mainly inhabited by an Issaq sub-clan. While the government minimally responded to this development by establishing a ministerial committee to deal with the issue, the people of Somaliland viewed the whole affair with an uncharacterized indifference.

In the grand council of Burao, where the secession of Somaliland was declared in 1991, the Harti sub-clans participated actively and supported the secession, partly not to appear to be going against the tide in those momentous times and partly worried of what may become of them if they failed to do so. However, the Harti gradually left the fold and many of the Garaads, who earlier supported the independence of Somaliland, ended up participating in the grand council, where the rival state of Puntland was created in 1998. Later, many of the Harti leaders openly gave their allegiance to Puntland state. Understandably, the Harti were reluctant to be associated with Somaliland, which they consider to be an Issaq lake.

After his election to office, Riyaale visited the Harti capital, Laas Aanood. The presidents arrival was greeted with unexpected violence and he was forced to terminate his visit. Riyaale’s recent imprisonment of a Harti man, who is alleged to have killed a Mareehan/ Gadabursi man, maternally related to Riyaale, in America, further aggravated the situation and caused a serious friction between the Harti ministers and president Riyaale.

The incident culminated in the departure of one of the Harti heavyweight ministers, professor Mohamed Said Gees.

Nowadays, it seems that the few remaining Harti members in the government are being deliberately pushed off the boat. The media has been repeatedly accusing Mr. Qaybe of his alleged anti-Somaliland stand. In an article in Jamhuuriya on 23 September, Mr. Qaybe was accused of meeting with Dr. Ismail Buubaa in the United Arab Emirates. Even if the alleged meeting has taken place, was it a criminal act?

Conclusion

As things stand today, Somaliland even failed to fulfill the modest expectations of the people who celebrated its birth. And despite a minority who have vested interest in the status quo, the majority of the people feel that Somaliland cannot continue in this direction, indefinitely. Somaliland exists by default and as soon as some semblance of peace and stability returns to the South, Somaliland could predictably cease to exist. As far as I can see, nothing to prevent this eventuality from ever occurring has been put in place.

Recently, the traditional leaders of Somaliland declared their willingness to mediate among the warring Hawiye factions in Mogadishu. If the government allows the traditional leaders to proceed with the mediation effort (and that is the only option currently open to the government), it is going to be a major departure from the policy of non-contact and non-negotiation with the ‘other’ Somalis, followed by the deceased president.

In the final analysis, if, through the intervention of Somaliland traditional leaders, the Hawiyye and the Southerners manage to establish some semblance of peace and stability in that part of Somalia, I could pave the road to a possible negotiation between the two entities and a way out of the political quandary that Somaliland found itself.

Qaraamiyi's Distorted Interpretation of President Riyaale's Foreign Policy

2004-11-07T22:48:00.000-08:00

I have read Mr. Mohamed Hassan Qaraami’s long article posted on Somalilandnet.com, on Sep 11,2002, which discussed about president Riyaale’s foreign policy. This article will probably serve to enlighten a significant number of people, albeit in a distorted way, about the current foreign relations of the country.

I would like to shed some light on several points that I found wanting and that Mr. Qaraami did not think out adequately.

The first point is the notion that Somaliland has the right to be recognized by the international community. Ab initio, no state is obliged to recognize another in international law. In other words, no state enjoys the right to be recognized by the other states in the system. Rather, states themselves reserve the right whether to recognize a new state or not. Furthermore, it is always political considerations, rather than legal justifications, that play a larger role in the decision whether to grant recognition to a given state.

Another point, which is directly related to the above and which I found interesting, is the assertion that Somaliland is hiring international lawyers to take the UN into court for not, ostensibly, recognizing Somaliland. This is absurd and unrealistic. If Somaliland manages to achieve that, I bet, it will set a unique historical precedent in international law and international relations.

Thirdly, the notion that the republic of Djibouti opposes Somaliland and works towards its destruction because of 'economic rivalry', between the two countries vis-à-vis Ethiopian trade relations, is simplistic at best and misleading at worst. Djibouti is the shortest gateway of Ethiopian goods to the sea, which Somaliland is not, and Djibouti has a long railway link with Ethiopia, which Somaliland has not. Thus in economic terms, Ethiopia's preferences should be as clear as crystal.

Besides, if Ethiopia feels to diversify its access points to the sea, to break away from any possible Djiboutian monopoly on its goods, it could do so by striking agreements with Kenya for the use of Mombassa port, with Sudan for the use of Port Sudan, with Eritrea for the use of Assab and Mussawa ports, all three states having recognized governments, and all competing with a possible Ethiopian use of Berbera port. Does it follow then that the republic of Djibouti will have to work for the destruction of all these countries because they could compete with Djibouti for servicing Ethiopian goods?

Still, if strong and unified state of Somalia emerges, which incidentally the republic of Djibouti campaigns for, will there be any obstacles preventing the said state from granting Ethiopia the use of Berbera port? Not at all. Therefore, we have to find other explanations other than the deterministic single-factor analysis of 'economic rivalry' for dooming the state of relations between the two countries.

Fourthly, I do not agree with the notion that president Riyaale's trip to Djibouti did not serve the interest of the country.

In international relations, states are neither permanent enemies nor permanent friends. Furthermore, the fact that two states are not in good terms does not preclude them from talking to each other. Look at the current situation between the two Koreas, the Palestinians and Israelis, the Indians and the Pakistanis.... All those sets of states regard each other as enemies, but they keep on interacting diplomatically, to reach mutual common grounds.

Now, how about Somaliland, which is not recognized by a single state in the international community? Can it afford to isolate itself from the countries of the sub-region? How can it expect to secure international recognition while it cannot establish workable relations with its neighbors?

Somaliland should not only go to the Republic of Djibouti, but it should also go to the Sudan, to Eritrea, to Uganda and to Kenya. Let us be realistic. Do we have to confine ourselves to the one-directional security-oriented relations with Ethiopia? What tangible benefits accrued to us from our long love relationship with Ethiopia? Not that much, I suspect.

And finally, in one paragraph of his paper, Mr. Qaraami decried President Riyaale holding a secret meeting with President Ismail Omar Ghelle, with no one else attending the meeting. I wonder if there is anything in the constitution of the country that prevents him from doing so? Since when did we start suspecting about his motives, after all this was his first trip abroad as the President of Somaliland? Whom did Qaraami feel to have attended the said meeting with the president? The two ministers that he presented in another part of his paper as untrustworthy? Or you and I, perhaps?

Somaliland: the election debate in post-Egal political developments

2004-11-07T22:39:00.000-08:00

Aug 05 2002

Immediately after the passing away of President Egal on May 3, 2002, the ASAD political party (whose leader, Saleban Mohamed Adam, was engaged in cut-throat power struggle with Egal) formally registered with the Electoral commission. This show of goodwill made ASAD the last of eight political parties, which officially registered with the commission. ASAD’s registration closes one chapter of political party development in Somaliland, while it opens another fraught with the difficulties of ‘where to go from here?'

Many and almost all Somalilanders in the ‘comforts’ of Europe and North America would definitely point to the path of elections. However, can Somaliland really afford to conduct multiparty elections at this point of its political development?

On July 16, 2002, the Electoral Commission presented to the government and the opposition political parties its latest assessment report on the state of preparedness for elections in the country. In a scathing report, the Commission spoke of a series of obstacles to any possible near-future election scenarios in the country. In western regions, the commission spoke of boundary problems between Gabilay district and Awdal region, which could affect the peace and stability in the area; of the lack of transportation which militates against health, security and tax collection activities in Baki, (in which case they even recommended for an immediate dispatch of a vehicle to the area); and of the absence of government ministerial branch offices and lack of transportation in Lughaya.

In eastern regions of the country, the commission spoke of an urgent need for a complete disarmament and demobilization of Burao (think about it, people still carrying guns in Togdheer!) and the need to strengthen the administration and security institutions in the area; of the different political atmosphere that they witnessed in Sool and the near- impossibility of conducting elections in that region, prior to a general political reconciliation; of the nominal district administrations in Sanaag and the lack of tax collections in the region,( except possibly in Erigavo), and of the precarious peace obtaining between the four clans inhabiting in the area ….

To conduct free and fair elections, the commission recommended, there is a need to address the problems of the eastern regions of the country according to the needs and the particular circumstance of the regions; of securing the boundaries of the republic, of extending the authority and the administration of the government to the eastern regions of the country and finally, of delimiting the newly created numerous ‘political’ districts in the country.

If the assessment of the commission is anything to go by, the state of election preparedness in the country leaves a lot to be desired. The same can also be said about the state of political parties in the country. Not a single party has so far managed to present to the public the rudimentary of a convincing political program. Some of the parties do not have identifiable platforms; some have political programs that resemble those of West European countries which their party leadership were living in the last decade; some had the political program of only opposing president Egal and after his death, have not left with a reason d’etre; and still some have no political program to speak of at all. Furthermore, party structure is underdeveloped and local branch party offices are absent in most districts of the country.

There is also the evident absence of an all-appealing popular party leadership. Except one or two political parties, the party leadership is hardly new to the political system. Some of them served as ministers during Egals’ regime and joined the opposition ranks only after their dismissal from the government; some are ex-colonels and other personalities who took the lions’ share of the ‘Project’ (i.e. the civil war in the country), some are other-earthly high fliers who are in the country on a borrowed time from their families back in Europe and North America; no group seem to occupy a moral higher ground and most of them can be bought by the government, at the cost of a single ministerial reshuffle.

Nor do we have satisfactory electoral rules put in place. All that there is is an all-out creation of the late president and there was no meaningful contribution from the opposition to speak of. The constitutional three-party limitation, whatever its justification, is also an anomaly in a liberal democracy, which needs to be looked at.

Despite all these obstacles, the electoral commission set October 27 this year as the date for Municipal elections in the country. This early date astounded many people, which led them to question the motive behind it. Does the early timing of Municipal elections mean, for instance, the postponement of Presidential and Parliamentary elections? If the answer is positive, it will not augur well with some opposition quarters. Siilaanyo, the chairman of Kulmiye party, recently declared, in Burao, that his party will not accept further postponement of the election date and that the government should prepare the country for a free and fair elections within the remaining specified period of time.

The Kulmiye chairman may have a point here. For long, the political system was governed through the hard and fast rules of traditionalism and it is high time that these be put to rest. Somaliland can no longer afford to have democratically un-elected legislature and executives, handpicked according to their tribal blood type, and deciding the fate of its citizens. Furthermore, while conducting multiparty election never led to the recognition of a state in history (contrary to what some of the political party’s’ leaders tells us), it nevertheless could contribute to the good image that the international community has of Somaliland.

Multiparty politics has its rough edges to it. It can be very divisive even in a well-established democracy (remember the memorable Al Gore versus Bush confrontation in the last American presidential election?) and needs certain level of political maturity to operate smoothly. Recent African political history is replete with examples of disruptive tendencies, resulting from the introduction of multipartyism into the political system. One such an example is the Ravalomanana versus Ratsiraka spectacle in the late Malagasy elections. And while I would not go so far as to suggest the possibility of such a political scenario in Somaliland, the people must, nevertheless, be prepared for every eventuality.

Finally, if the goverment is seriuos about the elections, it must strain every nerve, within the remaining limited period of time, to put in place the necessary mechanisms and create conducive environment for undertaking free and fair elections in the country, or we would be forced once again to extend the mandate of this government for another of 'who-knows-what' months or years, with all its political costs for the country.

My first impressions on December local council election in Somaliland

2004-11-07T01:54:00.000-08:00

Jan 01 2003

After several weeks of heated campaigning by the political parties, peaceful local council election took place in Somaliland on December15, 2002. The local council election was a positive step in the right direction and a milestone for the democratic development of the country.

Participating in the first democratic election in the country, in more than 30 years, was an exciting affair for everybody who was involved in it, but it was particularly so for the youth who formed the largest section of the population in the country. The youth actively participated in the election process as observers, as enumerators, as certifiers and, more importantly, as voters. For them, the local election was a learning process on electoral democracy and a great introduction to one of the most important aspect of western democracy i.e. the right to vote.

In immediate retrospective, there have been a variety of legal ambiguities and /or fallacies and technical hurdles, which negatively impacted on the election process. And while some of these can be explained away as inevitable, many others could have been remedied or avoided altogether in time.

The current constitution of Somaliland limits the number of legal political parties to three. The political party registration law clarifies this issue further by stating that any three parties that secure 20% of the votes of four regions in the country shall gain legal personality. But the election process could have technically produced four or five parties with 20% of the votes in given four regions of the country and the law, needless to say, was silent on how to deal with this kind of a possible scenario.

The six regions of the country are not equally endowed with respect to the number of their populations. The population of some of the regions approaches half a million, while in others it is less than 25 thousand. The law discounts regional population variations, therefore, when it equally demands from all political parties to secure 20 % of the votes from any given four regions, irrespective of their populations.The law also is statistically biased against political parties, which have supporters concentrated in the more populated centers of the country, like the capital..

Indeed, the three party limitations of the constitution and the 20% threshold requirement were the two sides of the same coin of obstacles, which the ex-president put in place to load the dice against rival political parties. And as it is shown by the latest local election results, only UDUB, the government party, managed to reach the 20% threshold (it indeed secured 40.7% of the total number of votes). KULMIYE came next with 18.8% of the votes.

As the deadline for submitting party lists to the electoral commission approached, the two political parties of HORMOOD and BIRSOL joined in a union and submitted a single list of candidates to the electoral commission. The two political parties also declared Omar Arte as their candidate of choice for the presidency. The union of the two parties, from the same sub-clan, injected a tribal factor into what was, otherwise, a healthy electioneering campaign. From the union of HORMOOD and BIRSOL onwards, notices of resignations of party officials from a certain political party or another started to appear in the local papers and party supporters began to transmigrate between the parties, mostly 'for-my-tribe' sort of reasons.

And SAHAN political party reinforced the trend towards tribal electioneering. Being a latecomer to the political scene (the ownership of SAHAN was claimed by two opposing groups for some time and it was only 24 hours before the deadline for submitting party lists to the commission that the Party Registration Committee granted the chairmanship of the party to Dr. Gaboose), SAHAN leadership thought to itself that the only way that they could possibly secure supporters at this eleventh hour was to utilize the tribal card, which they did palpably.

Most of the polling stations in the local elections (600 out of the total 800) were the same polling stations that were used in the 2001 constitutional referendum of the country. Initially, the selection of referendum polling stations were not based on a census conducted on the population of the regions in the country, and using the same polling stations again for the local elections was unwarranted at best. Other ways of distributing the polling stations should have been explored. The arbitrary distribution of the polling stations did have negative implications for the fairness of the election process.

Shortly after the opening of polling stations at 7:00 o’clock, the people formed long queues to vote for the parties of their choice. As time progressed, the voting process became so slow that people started to grow impatient. One culprits that was responsible for the delay was the requirement to register the full names of the voters, their age and the name of their mothers. Noticing this, the commission changed horses in midstream and informed polling station minders to confine themselves to writing down the first name of the voters only.

The way that electoral commission timed the duration of the voting in the election day was indeed chaotic. Many days before the election, the commission publicized that the polling stations will open on the election Day at 6:00 A.M, and will remain open until 10:00 P.M. But as the Makhrib prayer approached, the commission issued a new order to close all the polls at 6:00. While some polling stations closed in time, others remained open for hours and people kept on voting.

The dye used for marking the people after voting was removable and many people managed to vote second or third time. I have met a man who told me that he used a cough syrup for his sick child to remove the dye from his hand and that he was ready to vote again for his party! Many women with Henna on their finger also voted more than once. No need to make cottage houses out of these as they were not widespread as such, and were too insignificant to have tipped the balance for one party or another, if at all.

Majority of the political parties did not send party observers to most of the polling stations. Sending observers to polling stations is a costly business and few parties, like Kulmiye and UDUB, managed to send sufficient number of party observers to polling stations. Most of the political parties lacked the funds to cover such a luxury.

On its part, the media had its fair share of the action, both in the pre-election campaign and afterwards. Every statement made by one party leader or another kept appearing on a bold face in the headlines. These statements, sometimes, came in the form of mudslings against rival political parties. In one instance, President Riyaale exchanged swords with Muse Bihi of Kulmiye party, when the latter described President Riyaales’s trip to Sool region as a failure for the government and its UDUB party.

In a speech at Khayriya the next day, president Riyaale accused Muse Bihi of being a tribalist and a warmonger. President Riyaale cited a speech Mr.Bihi made when he was the minister of the interior in 1994. In the speech, Mr. Bihi blatantly threatened the opposition to the government by quoting a saying from a poem by Hadraawi, in which the latter, referring to the forces of Siad Barre, declares that: Anigoo wax dili kara duco qaadan maayo, ee debci qorigu hay faro!!!

When the election ended, local papers started to predict the results. But due to the absence of exit polls expertise, papers invariably based the predication of election result on the whims of their editors. This was particularly true of Jamhuuriya newspaper, which, day after day, fed readers with bogus election results. In the end, the presentations of the bogus election results turned out profitable for Jamhuuriya, as it managed to sell more and thus increase its circulation.

Finally, given the socio-economic development of our people and the parochial nature of our political culture, the peaceful manner that the election took place was beyond anyone’s wildest expectations.