By Mohamed Ahmed

If some of the public perception is to be believed, then, the Minister in charge of the Office of the Presidency of Somaliland, Hersi Ali Haji Hassan is the gatekeeper of the current Silanyo administration. He is the referee for Kulmiye party disputes and an arbiter of all Somaliland government business! Ask people who to pick as a comic super villain of Somaliland politics. You got your darth Vader candidate! He is portrayed as the stereotypical grand vizier of Somaliland. According to some he is a man who keeps his clan cards close to his chest, and a Machiavellian who succumbs to the trappings of power!  Someone out there is always ready to glare at him with hot fury and cold dislike! If we go by the e-mail responses I got from my last article, I have aroused enough suspicion that “I’m not a true Somalilander” .So I’m tempted here to put up a disclaimer that I don’t share all of the above descriptions of the honorable minister. This is no simple description of the person and I seek to not believe in them. Well, except on the days I’m reading clan conspiracy websites, I hardly pay attention to all these descriptions of the minister.  Perhaps it’s worth repeating the obvious here. Clan and politics are woven in all Somali society! Today clan websites made it too easy to read not only your own kind of opinions, but also your own clan ego-stroking version of Somali political reality! It is seductively easy in Somali media to imagine your clan on the right side of every story!

Whatever the merits of the description of the honorable minister, he makes no effort in hiding his powers and his hard-talking mastery of revenge tactics. I’m sure you’ve all heard of the political axiom -one campaigns in poetry, but governs in prose. The poetry of campaign is lofty, but the prose of governing is maddening and disappointing -as Hersi learned in his bid to unseat the no patsy Honorable Speaker of the House. Whenever Somaliland gatherings are held overseas many Somaliland officials like to recite poetry and anecdotal stories. This is where Somaliland success is recounted and new hyped promises made. Take for example the recent speech of Hersi in Liverpool, England. The minister revealed how he thinks he can be of a formidable power behind overthrowing the Speaker of Somaliland assembly Honorable Abdirahman Mohamed alias Cirro. He told a story about a man who once drank too much goat milk and decided to challenge his two wives and two weak sons for a match of wrestling! When at last he was convinced about his strength, the man went against his better judgment and decided to test his newly acquired “strength” in the street-only for him to ooze milk from the nostrils flowed by a disastrous defeat from a stronger opponent. You didn’t need to rove through your mind in search of keys to the riddle. From the outside, and with hindsight, it was easy to guess who the story was directed at; the Speaker of the House and the two deputies of the speakers.

If truth is not problematic, neither is it inaccessible. It is rumored that when the honorable minister came back to the country, he gave orders to the rest of the cabinet members to fight above their rank in persuading (bribing) members of parliament (MP) from their clan to vote in favor of deposing the speaker. This is grim news. According to some reports there were two motions that were cooked by Hersi at the Vice President’s house.  One of the motions was to reduce the vote needed to depose a sitting speaker and another motion to unseat Speaker Ciiro. The vote currently needed to unseat a seating speaker in Somaliland is 55 votes and Silanyo administration wants to reduce it to 42 votes. I understand Politics is a rough business and I can see why he wants to win some people to his side, but you don’t do this through clan or by buying votes. In a tribal society like Somaliland this only creates immense speculations and unnecessary controversy! It is worth knowing that such rumors leaves the observer in the oddly position of paying attention to the more compelling rumors. Somali History is replete with precedent of how clannish and corrupt governments end up! For what we see before our eyes, pursuing the vocation of corruption is like pointing a dagger at the heart of Somaliland!

Both the President and the Speaker navigated a river of skeptical questions about Hersi’s heavy hand in interfering with the parliament business. Both gave a dignified response. The president promised not to interfere with the parliament business, but there is steadily accumulating evidence of the government still interfering with the parliament business. The news out of the city indicates that indeed the two rumored motions were presented. A pandemonium broke out between the two passionate groups. Parliament was closed for a week at the request of  Haji Ali Warabe of the Gurti. It seems that Somaliland politics is becoming all about pointed jabs instead of the normal pointed words. This is just a recipe for more confrontation. The jury is still out, but this country is in the world of hurt if members of the house can’t solve a contentious issue without a Gurti member waving the white flag. I understand that there is a long complex web of historical influences of the Gurti House  in Somaliland politics, and that their contribution is deeply embedded in the symbolic and the expressive life of the country, but for how long will they be carrying fire between  rivalry passionate political parties?

There is a need for demonstration of strength of the parliament to maintain credibility in the eyes of the citizens of Somaliland. The current administration of president Silanyo spearheaded by Minister Hersi has been accused of engaging in a campaign of corrupting Members of the Parliament. If Hersi and his cohorts had an establishment with backbone and moral fiber they wouldn’t have needed to buy votes. Having listened to news clips from some members of the parliament it seems like Hersi’s hand has raised corruption to a new art form in Somaliland. If Kulmiye party wants to make Somaliland parliament a dysfunctional institution infected by corruption, then they have succeeded.  The Kulmiye campaign of reducing votes to unseat the speaker doesn’t hold up to cursory scrutiny! Instead of finding ways to unseat the speaker within the existing laws, why do they want to change the law now using dirty tricks like bribing and clandestine late-night meetings at the Vice President’s house? These sorts of clandestine moves have long been a useful tool to suppress voter’s needs. Members of the Parliament shouldn’t allow in their watch the country’s highest institution to be taken over by a corruption-wing faction that champions clan politics! It is of utmost significance that the executive not interfere with the parliament. The fact, as chilling as it is unavoidable, is that the country today is divided along clan lines.  It is not hard to tell which group supports which agenda. Somaliland today needs politically mature and morally astute parliament. We have unfinished business in the political maturity front!

Mohamed Ahmed
Email:hnur1814@gmail.com