April 3, 2008

Beyond The Headlines, Much Went Wrong For Kulmiye Convention - Part 1

Kulmiye convention was held in Hargeisa, the capital of SL on March 29 – 31. After grueling negotiations of party old guard with various Isaaq sub-clans, the convention was finally put up to host ~530 delegates including new converts, old cliché party members as well as the die-hards supporters from the Diaspora.

The convention began with a speech given by Kulmiye chairman Mr. Silanyo outlining the vision and the plan of the party in a touted manner. As he wobbled, in his curtain-raised speech, over all issues, the truth remains that he was engaged in a political orthodoxy that insists solutions to any government failure is to simply make it bigger.

Preceding the convention, Silanyo and the old party guard were said to have surreptitiously held many separate caucuses with the selected delegates (esp. from certain Isaaq sub-clans) to shore up support for his nomination, roil their relations with his only contender to his post (Dr. Issa), and ratchet up among the likely clan-chauvinists in the delegates the opinion of simply not vote for non-SNM tribe members to other than subordinate and trivial positions.

Certainly those who were in the convention said there was a kind of poetic justice to the convention: a stake in the heart of non-SNM tribe members in the party that could unhinge the unity, if Kulmiye wins the election (God forbids). By the time of the convention, insiders also confirmed (listen to VOA interview with one the convention coordinators) that every thing pertinent to voting were pre-ordained among the attendees before the convention but only were botched up for a theatrical gesture for public show.

However, what is more bewildering was the joy with the acceptance of it by those who were considered vestige – a prospect that showed how these individuals were disconcertingly out of touch with their clans’ rightful place. Worst yet even one of these individuals is accused of buying the trivial post with misappropriated public money intended to help the victims of the snow rain in Awdal region.

There are many morals to be drawn from this narrative but it has surely made my critique of the Kulmiye workings all the more obvious. . The reader can ponder my critics in my previous articles posted on Harowo.com “Will Kulmiye Usher new political direction…” UDUB and Kulmiye- bilking their creditor’ ‘Silanyo’s whined to Dr. Frazer’ "The impending tyranny of the majority…" to name a few.

Kulmiye VS. Democracy

These two are most often shown to be irreconcilable. For a real democracy to take place in the convention of likelihood populace with a teeming maze of overlapping tribal and political loyalties, equal representation was tantamount. Both camps (SNM and non-SNM member clans) should have been on equal footing in the convention to court real democratic voting instead of 1:10 ratio – 1, being for non-SNM members representation. Accordingly, it showed the depth of the non-SNM camp naivety to expect other than what was thrown at them. Among the Isaaq kulmiye delegates, with the good understanding of democracy, are equally to blame for failing to uphold it…. as my father once told me, “when people with good sense won’t talk about issues, the conversation is left to people who feed the fire that burns all of us”. Thus one may ask if what has happened in the convention was Democratic or Anti-democratic demagoguery.

In part 2, I will talk about the inside workings of Kulmiye in preparation to the convention and the secret consensus of opinion between Isaaq clan chauvinists in the delegate.