May 7, 2008

Kulmiye Party Always Creates A New Dilemma And The Guurti Always Solve It!

In a country other than Somaliland when a nation’s attention focused on election, the inevitable of political tensions to intensify in that country would be viewed as nothing more than an election fever by anyone whose knowledge of democracy equals with his/her pronunciation of this ancient word.

Even a lousiest democracy harsh debates and ridiculing one another amongst political foes are regular events and it is acceptable behavior. But what is not permitted even in a fake democracy is to preach hate and encourage violence. And it is inappropriate for political elites who are competing in a democracy to insight hate or violence no matter whether they belong to the ruling party or the apposition parties.

However today Somaliland democracy is being kicked around without good reasons and many people are led to believe that the Guurti, the very people who create Somaliland are the ones who are destroying it today. But that is not the case and the house of Guurti where our tree of peace was planted in 1991 and still grows are being targeted unfairly, not only by the opposition parties and their supporters, but also few other political commentators who many of them seem to know nothing about Somaliland peace building era are condemning and disrespecting these noblemen.

It was not long ago when this house “Guurti” was the only trustworthy institution in the land. And I would say to those people who write damming articles against our Guurti, they should first study the role that the Guurti played both in our reconciliation process and setting up our constitution. The Guurti are the people who saved Somaliland from anarchy, and they are the only reason that Somaliland is so different from south Somalia.

In addition, they were there well before the so call elected parliament which could never much the ability and the credibility of these elders men, was established. So in my view it is mistaken to even compare the two let alone condemning them in a same way.

Therefore instead of wasting our energy and time by criticizing the very people who create our country and who their only intentions are to safe Somaliland, we need to concentrate on preventing the real politicians with the real political danger whom their eager of power permitted them to destroy Somaliland if they don’t get their way.

Nevertheless while all political parties including the ruling party play their part of the political confusion, unfortunately the Kulmiye opposition party is the one creates the most political troubles in the country.

Apparently Kulmiye party is becoming the Hiroshima bomb in Somaliland which will not only destroy the nation’s aspiration for world recognition but will unquestionably destroy Somaliland democracy for very long-time if these short-sighted and self-interested groups continue to behave the way they do at present time. It is unbelievably repulsive how their hunger of power and their absolute desperation of being in a government have reached beyond the political boundaries, and this it the real danger to any good publicity that Somaliland had earned from the rest of the world over the years.

One may argue that with the existence of disproportional share of power amongst clans, Somaliland is warranted to fail and any disturbances or anarchy that visit Hargeisa city will surely put smiles on the faces of some people who are not necessarily against Somaliland sovereignty or its successes but whose their grievances about the inequalities that exist in every institution in the land are being ignored time and again.

Having said that the distressing news coming from Hargeisa is something that every true SomaliLander would probably dislike and we all wish this political pandemonium should go away without further escalations.

But the trouble is if Kulmiye and its supporters are not being tackled now, whether we like it or not the Somaliland democracy and our idea of being the darling of democracy in the horn of Africa will soon disappear in to thick clouds and will go beyond our reaches.

Nothing else can be acceptable to some one like Mr Siilaanyo whose desire of the presidential seat is being glued to this particular matter and as long as his political ambitions remain the same Somaliland people will have two choices. (One is to ignore Siilaanyo and others alike) the second choice which carries its consequences is (to give in Kulmiy’s demand).

Perhaps the latter one could be tempted by many citizens in an effort of keeping the peace and to safe Somaliland from the ruthless determination of these uncaring bunches and self interested groups. But it will be foolish to believe that giving in to the pressure of these people right now will stop them making our democracy a laughingstock. In fact any group of people that come to power with the result of political pressure hold on to power and they never vacate easily from office until they obliterate the values of the nation that allowed them to manage its affairs, and in the case of Kulmiye if their bully tactics work for them now God helps Somaliland if they ever come to power.

No one should be denied for his/her basic rights for freedom of speech in this land of ours ( Somaliland ) but when a freedom of speech goes back to the old slogans that carry clan messages which spread hate amongst people then the messenger of this sort of freedom of speech should face severe consequences in a swift manner. And I believe even though almost all the people in the Kulmiye camp committed a crime against democracy one man stands out from the crow. Ahamed Kahin a man who supposes to be the spokesman of a national party keep on sneezing some of his true believes.

He believes, there are some sub clans in Somaliland who deserve to be the superior forces over others, and his constant remarks and undiplomatic language that coming from his mouth do not sound words that coming from a man who has slightest consideration about democracy. So the point is when kulmiy’s spokesman name clans and sub clans every time he gives press conference and no one comes out and dismiss his remarks from kulmiy’s camp let alone dismissing him from the very important post that he uses as platform two revisits the old and the recent conflicts in the country, it is nothing less than disgrace not only to the honesty and the naïve supporters of kulmiye party but to all of us, because its our national party regardless whatever political ideology they may carry.

Finally compare our attitude towards democracy, to the Western world where people make stories out of events in every political climate without accepting everything their politicians preach, we the ordinary citizens of Somaliland are to blame much about the blunders of these sorts of politicians because we always allow them to spread their venoms in to the society.

Kulmiye and their supporters are propagating violence as ever, but there is no reason to generate a dilemma which doesn’t exist at present time. We should all bear with the hassles and the puzzles of political predicaments after all we owe for democracy, but what we can not and should not tolerate as a society is the behavior of the power hungry politicians who want to use us as their playground.