KULMIYE
CANNOT SURVIVE FIVE YEARS AS OPPPSITION IF DEFEATED IN THIS ELECTION.
Waxa qorey: Axmed Cali Adan
- UK
I, and the others who have the same view as me long to see the definition of the
word Kulmiye, what is it uniting? what is it unifying ? what is it bringing
together? is it the people of somaliland that it is uniting? Well, one may say
yes, but it is a
debatable question. I thought the people of Somaliland were
already united. There was a consensus of opinion that the Somaliland's people
have agreed 12 years ago when they brought their independence back from the
former Republic of Somalia then again on second occasion they have re-iterated
that decision in May 2002 by holding a referendum in which 97o/o [ninety seven
per cent ] have voted in favour of the seccesion. Many people still do not
understand that the people of somaliland are scared of any word starting with
the letter, U, like unity,united,unifacation,unify,unison and etc. Likewise the
Somali words starting with the letter, M, like midnimo, midoobid, midqudha,
muqadas and etc. and above all, the word starting with the frightening letter, K
like Kulmiye.
In this article, I am snubbing neither mr Siilaanyo nor mr Riyaale personally
but I am shedding a light about their political activity, because personal
insults are barred. There are five point which I am prohibited to make a comment
about, they are: a) Persons age and ethnicity. b) Personal appearance. c)
Private life such as persons family, marital status. d) person's addiction such
as smoking, cheming qat and etc. and last one but not least. e) Person's
background when this is the negative side. Apart from those five above-mentioned
subjects I am scathing about Kulmiye's principles,believes,policies,performances
and also the characters of both men {mr.Siilaanyo and mr Riyaale.} and their
cronies.
For many months I was wondering why mr Siilaanyo established Kulmiye when Egal
has passed away, Ucid was announced long before the death of the late president,
Asad and Sahan were in existence as well. Some may argue that he had something
else in mind but I wouldn't have said that he was afraid that he will not win an
election while Egal is around but the answer is far more than that. Ask mr
Siilaanyo what his stance on greater Somalia is, his answers are evasive not
straightforward.
When every now and then, the Somali warlords and the so-called delegations at
the Somali peace conference in Kenya make requests to the Kenyan summit envoy to
summon Somaliland to the conference, Kulmiye is very reluctant to answer their
cheap and dirty argument while Ucid and Udub are promtly defending Somaliland's
position with a sharp tongue. This does not mean that Kulmiye is out of touch
with the people and lost the sense of Somaliland's self-determination and the
desire of its people to be recgnised as an independent country from the former
Somali republic. But it is a confusion within the Kulmiye party that the party
policy makers are indecisive to which policies are first imperative to be
pursued. Is it Somaliland's self-determination and finding an international
recognition or winning this election.
I think the latter is Kulmiye's most important policy, that is why Kulmiye's
reply to aggressive calls from the Somali warlords is always so late and it is
the last one of the three parties. Kulmiye in theory is a very big party
now you can find peole from all walks of life in the party, It has a massive
supporters in the diaspora who inundated its central office with letters, calls,
and e-mails, all pledging their financial assistance and commitment to the
party. Despite that influx of loyalist into the party Kulmiye has yet
failed to attract substantial number of people from the middle class.
In spite of making long and unprepared speeches at political rallies in every
region of the country, their hretoric and ambigious speeches lack of substance
and direct focus of agenda. During the local government elections Kulmiye
embarked a long and tiring journey into the heart of the country to woe waverers
and get potential supporters for the party but came back to its headquaters with
having a little impact on people. Kulmiye's prominent leaders are often
boasting that they are the people who liberated this country from the horror and
the milatary regime of Siad Barre. well, no doubt about that we all respect and
appreciate what they have done for us all but now the time and the task with
which we are to overcome are totally different from the senario they were in
when they were fighting against the Siad tyrany.
The people of Somaliland are now at a different front, they are fighting on the
peaceful front, on the recognition front, on the economic front, on the health
front, on the education front, and they are trying to make progress on all
fronts bar war front. It is irritating when you see scores of peolpe who believe
that mr Siilaanyo can be called a legend, it was a suprise to me to hear that
for I understand that a legend is a title given to a person who endured and
suffered a lot for a long time for his political struggle and also fighting for
his people's rights but at the same time who is naturally impartial and not
politically greedy and above all who is once he reaches his goals ready to give
way to other generations. Can Siilaanyo fill those criteria? yes, but not all of
them, therefore he cannot be called a legend.
I am not conducting a personal vendetta against him (Siilaanyo) but the only
living legend that I know in this world is Nelson Mandela as he filled all the
above criteria. Will Siilaanyo step down after five years if we elect him now?
Will five years at the top be enough for him? well, I doubt it, you may say that
he resigned voluntarily at the summit of balay-gubadle in 1990. no, he did not
resign, he was forced to resign by the milatary hardcore the so-called red flag
group who surround now. Remember that, Egal may allah rest him in peace was not
a legend as well, he may have been hero or the father of the nation as some
people call him now but one way or another he had a different character and a
leadership skills from that of Siilaanyo and mr Riyaale.
Although a crack is already beginning to appear I am sure that if Kulmiye is
defeated they will fight internally and a raw will erupt not over the objectives
and aims of the party but amazingly over the phrase of: the cup is half full or
half empty.
While many families in Somaliland live below the level of subsistence Udub's
fatcats are busy with building luxurious houses for their families, buying posh
expensive cars and getting their household shopping from the Imirates namely
abu-dabai and shariqa each week. It is patently obvious that many Somalilanders
were observing mr Riyaale's activity since he changed course on some key issues
laid by the late president. Mr Riyaale ignored the fact that Ethiopia is our
first and best friend hence gave priority to Djibouti, he softened our position
towards the native Somaliland dissedents and invited them back to the country
without them making a declaration to renounce their position. Contrary to the
popular peace he unveiled a new war front in the Eastern regions close to the
border between us and Puntland.
I think the most dangerous U-turn that he (Riyaale) has made so far is that
there is conspicuous imblance of power sharing between the major clans of Isaq
and this the result of the president pushing himself further to one side. He may
be trying to copy Egal's clever manoeuring of the wheel of the tribal politics
but he is playing with a deadly time bomb. For the first time in the history
Somaliland's presidential election is now on the horizon, It is a turning point
for this country but while that Kulmiye is not an alternative government to the
current administration, knowing that Udub's prospect of winning this election is
highly likely is also a bleak outlook.
This government's focus is on three only area, a) the defence policy: spending
two folds of the budget on the milatary, b) the collection of revenue:
recruiting many embezzlers and putting them at customs, ports and airports, c)
Intelligence service: scattering eavesdroppers all over the country to gather
information. On the other hand it negleted all the other areas, the
Education system was set up under the auspices of the diaspora initiative,
better healthcare still out of the question, Road signs and national traffic
regulations are still a dream to the public, corruption is rife and sticks out
like a sore thumb, taking measures to protect the environment is history to
many, nine out of ten are unemployed yet the government has certainly no plans
for them.
As the election approaches the parties are moving into top gear and it seems
that there is an utter disregard of the code practice shown by mr Siilaanyo when
he began personal attacks on the president a few weeks ago, but astonishingly,
when he heard those venomous words coming from mr Siilaanyo's mouth mr Riyaale
had managed to restrain his anger and kept his mouth shut. This kind of
behaviour will work for none of the candidates and it is not the path to
democracy. If I believe it would work I could swallow my qualms, but, I don't, I
believe the reaction to this way of campaigning will be as dangerous as the
promlem we trying to resolve. We are trying to turn the whole world not against
us but in favour of us.
Ahmed Ali Aden
Birmingham
UK. Email: haykali@hotmail.com
M
