Hard earned Somaliland Democracy May be on the Verge of Collapse

Hard earned Somaliland Democracy May be on the Verge of Collapse

Written by Medeshivalley.com

Sep 28, 2010 at 07:38 PM

Hard earned Somaliland democracy may be on the verge of collapse because of the current political atmosphere created by the policy of revenge that the new Somaliland government opted to pursue. Poor decision making coupled with revenge has become source of unrest among the Somaliland public both in Awdal and Togdheer as well as in Sool and Sanaag. For example, the recent decision by the government to replace a commander in Awdal region caused an uproar among the Sultans of the region who warned the government about the consequences of the change. In less than a day the Government of Somaliland changed its mind and decided not to pursue the change order. Another event that took place at Hargeisa airport was similar to the above. The ex-head of Somaliland Bank Mr. Abdirahman Duale was prevented boarding a plane to Djibouti for business trip. The people of Togdheer saw this as unconstitutional and a revengeful act and threatened to stage massive demonstrations. Again the government of Somaliland changed its decision to ban the ex-governor from travelling abroad and decided to publically apologise to him ( see Togdhheer: http://www.togdheernews.com//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5354&Itemid=10)Events like this are undermining the trust that the people of Somaliland had for their elected leaders. Much time and effort has been spent by Silanyo government in removing all UDUB supporters from the government quarters. The matter is now getting dirty and out of hand and could lead to public unrest and continuous demonstrations in many regions of Somaliland.Neither the interior minister nor the finance has any sort of experience in good governance and have contributed to dirty politics of revenge to the Somaliland political system since their appointment.Both men have been jailed in Mandheera prison by the previous Somaliland government for various acts of undermining Somaliland security. They are both suspected to be Islamists that are very close to Al Shabaab. For example: The Son of the current finance minister was killed in Mogadishu in 2006 while fighting along the Islamist group in Mogadishu. He was Briton who left Britain to fight along the terrorists in Somalia.The minister of Interior is also known for being from South Somalia and a close relative and personal doctor of the late dictator Siyad Barre who carried out the genocide against the people of Somaliland in the late eighties and early nineties. The doctor has been serving  Siyad Barre until he was deposed in 1991.The son of the current minister of Religious affairs is also and active leader of Al Shabab wing in Somalia ( see: http://www.medeshivalley.com/2010/09/son-of-somaliland-minister-al-shabaab.html)All the events stated above indicate that the hard earned Somaliland democracy is on the verge of collapse due to poor leadership on the part of the newly elected government of Somaliland. The government lacks both quality and sincerity . Much praise has been said by the West and other stakeholders on the recent ambiguous Somaliland elections. It is now becoming a reality that the people of Somaliland made the wrong choice in electing Kulmiye leadership that has now lost direction. Medeshivalley.com