Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Mr. President, Back Off From Your Self-Defeating Mission: And Reform Your Leadership and Administration, (Part 1 of 3).

Mr. President, the National Election Commission (NEC) is an autonomous and important national institution, which cannot be allow to become your latest victim and vehicle for concoction of another unnecessary constitutional crisis or for some mere partisan gains or for some other ulterior motives and agenda or to be undermined and relegated to a mere rubber stamp status as the other key national institutions particularly the previous un elected House of Representative, the current Guurti (House of Elders) whose tenure in office has long expired, the Judiciary Branch, the parastatal or Crown Corporations such as the Ports Authority, Water Authority, etc.

And the intrepid people of this country will take all necessary measures to reverse your unlawful behaviour and action in conformity with the Constitution and the laws of the land as well as in harmony with the remaining and unaffected national institutions such as the House of the Representatives, the national political parties, the Traditional Elders, the Religious Community, the Civil Society Organization, and others so as to legitimately challenge your manufactured constitutional crisis, abuse of office and power, callous provocations, undemocratic policies, dictatorial tendency, and criminal behaviour and actions.

Mr. President, your callousness and total disregard of the law, disdain of the House of Representatives constitutional powers and jurisdiction, contempt of the legal 2-year renewal of the tenure in office of NEC by the parliament, intimidation and violation of the premises of the NEC, the insensitivity of ordering security forces to forcefully occupy the NEC premises, the humiliation and illegitimate dismissal of the entire experienced and effective Election Commissioners, the implementation of the illegal transfer of the NEC powers and premises to an administrative body—without the presence of the Commissioners—is the straw that broke the camel’s back that will not be allowed to stand. Enough is enough.

Furthermore, if you think that you have gotten away with your previous concoctions of unnecessary constitutional crisis as well as the recent Haatuf saga, you are terribly mistaken. Consequently, this time around, you will not get away with your shadowy schemes and attempt to create political turmoil and a state of lawlessness, threatening the peace and security, endangering the unity and harmonious coexistence of the citizenry, imperiling the stability of the country, and trying to derail the democratic political dispensation of Somaliland.

Mr. President, rest assured that the intrepid people of Somaliland will rise against all odds to vehemently defend the institution of the NEC and its patriotic and respectable Commissioners. They will not allow this important national institution to be manipulated or pushed around at a time the Local Government and Presidential elections are around the corner for some cheap partisan gains and plans to rob the public a free and fair election in order to elongate your unfavourable tenure in office. In addition, the public will not allow the NEC to become your next victim in line of the country’s key national institutions in order to implement your conspiratorial schemes, to cover up your shortcomings and colossal failures, and to divert public attention and scrutiny from the damaging Haatuf saga whose case, unlawful trial, mistreatment and incarceration of its innocent journalists, and revocation of paper license cannot be swept under the rags that easy. Like it or not, this case is already at forefront of the domestic and international stage. And this case will cause untold damage and sorrow than, what you have contemplated.
As a result, your deeply rooted undemocratic governance, dictatorial tendencies, corruption, tribalism, envy and hate, disloyalty, reckless political adventurism, sabotaging policies, deceit and treachery, and clandestine schemes—bordering on treason, will not be tolerated any longer. Therefore, you will either cease your conspiratorial operations, corruption, hell-bent policies, constant provocations, and poor governing style in the public and national interest, and reform immediately for the improvement of all the concerned citizenry in conformity to the democratic norms and ethics, and the rule of law or you will, soon rather than later, be compelled to back off with your tail behind your legs, and terribly humiliated.

Mr. President, you have gone too far. And whenever the political heat is appropriately turned on you at first, tend to lie low and try to ride the waves with silence. Second, when the political heat persists or intensifies, you try to kill it off by quickly embarking on a foreign trip in the hope that the Vice President and other Senior Government Officials will cool it down for you, while you enjoy yourself abroad or that they will be compelled to resolve the mess in your absence so as to return in peace and to continue contemplating another artificial crisis. According to our observations, there is a clear pattern here in relation to your predictable and cowardice behaviour. Just think of what state of affairs was Somaliland in each time you traveled abroad, and you will clearly agree with my observations.

And the questions to be asked here are:

  • Why do you provoke and unnecessarily pick a fight with other independent national institutions and their leadership?

  • Why do you constantly flout the Constitution and the laws of the land?

  • Why do you mock and undermine our nascent democratic system, our efforts towards good governance and the rule of law, multi-party system, free economy system, the Checks and Balance mechanism stipulated in the Constitution, our efforts towards international recognition, etc?

  • Are you above the law of this land?

  • Why do you concoct one constitutional crisis after the other?

  • Why do you undermine or ignore bi-partisan efforts? And when you are rightly or lawfully challenged, and the going gets tough on your part, why do you hastily embark on a foreign trip at the eleventh hour of a given national crisis thereby leaving behind a potentially dangerous political, economic, and social land mines?

  • Why do you tend to tarnish the image and international standing of Somaliland each time a favourable international climate arises in the horizon in relation to our quest to achieve full political recognition?

Why do you tend to time and implement all of the above at critical junctures of the state of affairs of Somaliland? WALLE WIXII JIRAABA, CAKAARUHU IMAN!!

Mr. President, you have, time and again, trampled on the Constitutional and laws of this poor and unrecognized country continue to violate the liberty, freedoms, and human rights of the patient and law abiding citizenry of Somaliland to the present. In addition, you have arbitrarily arrested, illegally incarcerated, and humiliated prominent Somaliland Traditional leaders, harassed and jailed innocent SNM veterans and continue to strangle them from benefiting from the fruits of the liberation of this country; disparaged and mistreated the SNM widows and orphans, disrespected the constitutional rights of the press and journalists particularly the three Haatuf journalists whom you unlawfully continue to hold them incommunicado and in a harsh and subhuman condition at the notorious Mandera maximum prison.
(To be continued….)

Farah Ali Jama,

Ottawa, Canada.

(farah.jama@alumni.uottawa.ca).

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