Thursday, March 12, 2009

Is Cacophony And Sycophancy Environment Part Of Somaliland Politics?


By Mukhtar Mohamed Abby — In March 2009, the people of Somaliland will be going to the polling stations to choose a new leader; thereby every one of Somaliland politicians and the common man are preoccupied with the developments of the forthcoming presidential election, which is slated to be the second democratic presidential polls of their kind to be held throughout the republic of Somaliland.
It was 2003, when the people of Somaliland went to the polling stations in which the incumbent president of Somaliland and the current candidature of the presidential contest for the ruling party – UDUD, H. E. Dahir Rayalle Kahin had been chosen as the first ever democratically elected president ever since Somaliland reclaimed its independence in 1991.

These days the head lines were hit stern criticism and counter- criticism over the organization of the congress parties which selected the sitting leaders of the political parties of their respective candidates.
Their nominations for the presidential candidature have kicked up a row within the ranks of the parties. There are those politicians, who strongly dissatisfied with the presidential candidacy of the current chairpersons of the national political parties of the country. Those functionaries categorically argued that the leaders of the political parties have hijacked the democracy, and that there was not any sort of level playing field within the political parties for the nominations of the presidential candidature.
They felt that step –motherly treatments have been meted out to them and that they consider such presidential candidates of those parties as undemocratic and self-styled presidential aspirants. This undemocratic move has provoked as exchange of heated words on the electronic media, the printed media, as well as the local television channels of the country.

There are a handful of politicians, who had been president Rayalle's staunch friends during their days in the cabinet, who most recently levelled charges against him over the orchestration of UDUB's national convention or congress in which president Rayalle and vice – president Ahmed Yusuf Yasin were chosen for the party's candidates in the presidential polls, which is slated to be held on March 2009.

However, those politicians, who disapproved of president Rayalle's candidacy, are the very politicians who wrongly and rightly supported him and who heaped a lot of praises on the president, while they were in power; they enthused over president Rayalle's policies, and the fashion in which he runs the country. Even they never told him to listen to the voices of the masses of the people of Somaliland.
Moreover, they are known about their sycophantic behaviour and boot licking, which is diametrically act of dehumanization – they played up to the incumbent president of the country, while they were in office, and they blindly defended the policies of the government by disregarding the brotherly advices and constructive criticism from the different quarters. They believed that they would outlive in the power and they basked in their moment of headship and behaved immorally and irresponsibly.
Those functionaries who are currently dissatisfied with the manner in which the president runs the country outyesed the Hollywood yes men, while they had the portfolios in the Rayalle's government, in addition they adopted a subservient role by safeguarding the sole interest of the president and theirs, and not the national interests. They put their interests before anything else, so they are presently arguing that the president whom they regarded him as saviour and patriotic has now become a traitor and tyranny, which is completely unacceptable and ridiculous. I think the nascent politics of Somaliland has made a monkey out of those politicians

In conclusion, we, the people of Somaliland are not pawns in the political interests of those ill-fated politicians, who are trying to indoctrinate the masses of Somaliland people to willfully believe that cacophony and sycophancy is part and parcel of Somaliland politics. We are not born yesterday and we are really fed up with the double standard policy, which such feeble minded functionaries are employed day in and day out.
What Somaliland now needs is sagacious and accomplished politicians who are free from nepotism, clannism and straightforward, who put the national interests before anything else, and not their sole interests, which is why Somaliland is lagging behind economically, politically and educationally.

In a nutshell, I strongly dissuade the masses of this incipient country from not to follow blindly the politicians, who bent on achieving their political ends through vote bank politics; they have to deconstruct what they addressing at the time of the election crusade. And peacefully exercise your franchise through the ballot box, and that is the best revenge.

By Mukhtar Mohamed Abby
India, Karnataka state.
mukhtarcabi@hotmail.com

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