Failure to Lead Parliament
the Parliament is supposed to be an advocate and an agent of the people to check on the government against abuse of power as outlined on section 6 of Article 53 of Somaliland Constitution which reads, “The House of Representatives shall have the power to summon the Government or its organs or agencies in order to question them about the fulfillment of their responsibilities”.
The reasons why President Siilaanyo’s abuse of Presidential powers is not checked by Parliament starts with the fact that the Chairman of The House of Representatives (Parliament), Mr. Abdirahman Mohamed Abdillahi (Cirro), consistently lines up with the president and blocks any attempts to check on the Government (President) or its organs or agencies.
Failure to investigate local elections
Take the case of the recent municipal elections where the outcome was rigged. After bloody demonstrations Cirro promised to assign a committee to investigate how the elections were handled. Unfortunately, this promise was shelved even after it was approved by 12 parliamentarians out of 14 that were present on December 22nd, 2012.
Mr. Cirro chose, deliberately, to ignore the will of the people and Parliament and reneged on his promise to conduct a thorough investigation of the elections and why, needlessly, innocent young men demonstrating against the election outcome were massacred.
I have challenged and asked friends of mine who support Wadani Party to give a good reason why they should support Mr. Cirro. Their answer was that Mr. Cirro is a gentleman and he gets along with everybody and that we do not need a confrontational leader. This is the basis and essence of their support. But that is exactly where the heart of the problem lies. Trying to get along with everybody and preferring to be silent and not upholding the constitution.
Preferring silence over making vociferous statements against corruption and rigged local elections is a perfect example of the characteristics of week leadership. The Chairman of the Parliament, failed miserably in the eyes of the people, to investigate the root cause and failure to hold fair and transparent local elections. He also failed to investigate why the security services shot live bullets at peaceful demonstrators.
Failure to ‘censor’ Ministry of Aviation
Another example of his dereliction of parliamentary duties is not conducting a thorough review of how the Ministry of Aviation, Mr. Hashi, allowed a private entity (NASHA) to levy a $10 fee on all departing passengers at our airports. That money was collected by above privately owned entity for more than a year without the approval of parliament. It is a violation of our constitution for any ministry or government agency to collect or levy income without the approbation and express approval of parliament. The Chairman failed to ‘censor’ the Minister of Aviation for this violation – A testament to Chairman Cirro’s poor judgment.
The people want to know why Mr. Abdirahman Cirro failed to enquire where and how that money which was illegally levied on departing passengers was spent. He also failed to enquire how that money can be retrieved and returned to the treasury.
Kingpin of transactional politics
There is no doubt that this failure to scrutinize government and its agencies made him impotent because ‘transactional politics’ is at the heart of all this corruption assigning himself to be the chief protector of the status quo. It can not be described as anything else but greased wheels at work to render parliament submissive to President Siilaanyo’s whims. He failed to use his parliamentary devises to check on the President and he resigned himself to be a rudderless leader helping the sinking and demise of Somaliland into the bottom of a dark ocean.
Time for a revolution
In conclusion Somaliland as I said before Parliament is supposed to be an advocate and an agent of the people to check on the government against abuse of power. The people of Somaliland must wake up, organize themselves and start a revolution to end the corruption and demand changes to governance. We must demand just governance and an end to the transactional politics between the Chairman of The House of Representatives and the President.
Saeed M. Timir
s_timir@yahoo.com
Synthesis of the thesis is clear. Nothing short of a revolution can save Somaliland.
An excellent article by the author. The main problem facing Somaliland is one of leadership at its highest level. It is unfortunate that both President Silaanyo and Speaker Cirro are not strong leaders. It is no secret that Wadani led by Cirro is a surrogate child of Kulmiye, conceived at the presidency, born at the recent local council elections and nursed by the Kulmiye HQ. The only good news is that even the most glittering political career ends in tears, we just hope Somaliland survives the tandem of Silaanyo and Cirro
In order for Mr.Irro to be an effective leader, he has to wear only one hut. You cannot wear two huts and think you will handle every thing equally.
Speakership is a very important position that is almost equal with the Presidential power. If Mr. Irro thinks this position is not enough for him, then he has to resign from it and let someone else run the affairs of the country. The way things are now, it's not fair for Somaliland citizen that the speakership has been compromised and the speaker is not fulfilling his responsibility to be a speaker and should resign and concentrate on being the president of Somaliland.
All I can I say is *Jealousy*
stigmatizing other politicians while shamelessly promoting the mere interest of your uncle is widely kown trait of the primitive Somali mentality.
I bet your uncle is either Jamal or Faysal.
Bloody savages!
Amo, anyone who reads your comment will simply see you are playing the tribal card straight from the bottom of the deck. I urge you to refute what the author wrote. What we want to build is a transparent democracy. Tribalism has no place in Somaliland. Let us hope Speaker Ciro will have change of heart somewhere along the road. Siilaanyo is already hopeless.
LOOL, mate, the parliament, government, parties, MGoth and you are all cousins. And you call that democratic? Sad thing is, you'll as family failed to sustain this illusion nation of yours, let alone becoming country, and leading other tribes in that region.
LOOOOL@ truth10
There are 20000 african soliders raping your women
Do something about the growing half Ethiopians born kids in Berbera and Hargeysa, before you open your mouth.
Note: i am not Cirro’s tribe but walahay i know how Somali mentality works
MR Cirro as top expert diplomat, Parliamentary and Wadani Chairperson, there could be no
doubt that he holds and deserves the highest complimentary for being an expert and thorough
notable and dedicated cool politician and profoundly gentle statesman in always fulfilling
the country's good policies in collaboration with the Executive Branch as well as the Guurti
Chambers. Woes to his enemies.
Cheers.
Interesting topic, interesting conversation, Kudos folks.
You know, I never waste time on those who play the "ccommunity card", because frankly if you cannot defend your argument without resorting to the "community card", then your opinion is worthless. I know the author, and he is one of the majority of Somalilanders whose fellow citizens are equal in their eyes. If he were to criticise the President and the Speaker, he is 1. free to do so. 2. he does it from a position of a patriot 3. its his own opinion, agree of disagree, but don't play the "community card", answer back with your own opinion.
Mr.Timir:s article and points are well presented and seem to be lucid but as a person living outside the country but loves the people and country of Somaliland (my fore fathers country) and admirer of the the progress made in such a short time.also the amazing democratic electtions and peacefull change of Goverment,this achievments should be recognized and praised.infrastucture improvement like roads, airports, ports, hospitals, educational institutes etc.security et al. this are the signal priorities of this infant democracy, and should be allowed to grow organically from grassroot level to the top.we cannot walk and run before we crawl!! the finer points of democracy will be reached with politicaql maturity.calling for a revolution at this juncture is to my opinion premature and ignorent of realpolitik.
Timer,
Your aritcial is totally far fthe truth, and tribalism is what actually determines your mind. Cirro is a decent diplomat. I wonder who is your favarite politician. Muse Bihi or Samaale? The problems with somalis is that everyone support his cousin. When ignorants speak, they say peace.
Mr Cirro is a rising star. He is a raninbow in the sky. So was he when his career began So is he now as is a persidentail cnadiae in 2015. So be it when he shall become a president. And I wish my days to be bound eaech to each by natural gift. Cirro is next to non. Timer, stop cheap biases and prejudices.
Is there a point of endeavoring to reason with someone who has been blinded by tribalism?! No, it is waste of time, because, if one is fool enough to neglect the Quran and the sunnah of rasuullulaah csw) whose clearly prohibited the practicing of tribalism, why will one reconsider to listen what anyone else has to say?
There you are even (walaah) was not enough for you not to accuse me being Cirro’s clan!
Mr. Amo
Those who accuse others of being tribalist without refuting any arguments presented by the author can only be seen as sick tribalists. They would be seen as incapable of articulating what they claim to be the smell of tribalism they claim is radiating from the article because there is no single evidence they can infer from the article that stinks tribalism.
If we compare the Somaliland politicians with developed world polictians, I think we are not telling the truth to ourselves. Just look back where Somaliland is coming from, small country oppressed by dictator for 30 years, who is recovering from herrondous war killed nearly half million civilians , destroyed people's lifelyhood. Country who is not getting any help and in a way is not trading rest of the world freely. I strongly believe that Somaliland existence's is miracle and its people are doing well on their way, it could be better,but we should not be expecting too much. I can not bear corrupt politician who just feeds himself the public owned money and I also hate tribalist who sides with his tribes men and women, while ignoring the needs of the other citizens. Morever, I strongly believe that everything can not be changed within 20 years, it needs more time and patience. Hope Somaliland people will learn from each other and their past experiences.
If pinpointing the sinister political charecter of cirro makes one a sick tribalist, god help somaliland for all that corrupted figures in the helm will be untouchable powerfull monsters.