By Ahmed Hashi Dhimbiil ‎

Everyone has a right to join a political party that peacefully contests elections in a free and fair way. Whether that ‎political party is headed by a hydra headed monsters or whether their rank and file are gluttonous and greedy ‎corrupters of the national weal, it is the responsibility of the opposing parties that feel they are righteous angels of ‎liberation, to explain and tell the people about these issues and ask them to vote for their party in a given election. ‎

I for one have never been fond of Kulmiye. I admire them yes, I have respect for them as a national political party, ‎but I have simply never liked them. Many Somali Landers have the same view. Kulmiye they say is haughty, above ‎reproach, morally presumptuous, and elitist to the core. It is called the ‘party of the educated’ – many people use ‎this often quoted maxim to ask me why I joined UDUB the party of tomato sellers across the streets of Somaliland ‎and remnants of the former NSS. ‎ As well, I am often asked how I could support Dahir Rayale against Ahmed Sillanyo a man whose qualifications ‎and statesmanship makes the current President look like a member of the seven dwarfs. Very intelligent people ‎who I have talked to have asked me this question with a fantastic sense of incredulity and disbelief. Inside their ‎minds I can hear them say this man is either deeply infected with the tribal/clan bug – [and to make matters ‎worse, I am Habr Yoonis:].‎

Now, I have been thinking about this for a while, asking myself why all my friends are mostly in Kulmiye and why I ‎cannot bring myself to support them even when I have been the leading critic of the government – by this I mean ‎a critic with no axe to grid, unlike many Kulmiye pundits. I have come to a conclusion; I simply don’t like men who ‎deeply feel that they have the “right” above everyone and everything else. When you speak to KULMIYE supporters ‎you are in the face of a religious zealot. It reminds you of the 700 club – remember Pat Robertson was recently ‎saying that the USA should assassinate the President of Venezuela because he was a socialist. ‎
This is what I don’t like about Kulmiye. It may be the best party around and it may have abilities that other parties ‎don’t have; a charismatic leader, freedom fighters, the elite, intellectuals, and so on. What it does not have, and ‎what I look for in life itself, is what my father has always preached to me since he held me in his arms: walk with ‎kings but don’t loose the common touch! ‎

Most of all, this common everyday touch is what the party lacks and I believe it is what keeps it from winning 60-‎‎75 percent of the vote in this country. Even in these recent elections, UDUB was already buried by Kulmiye in the ‎public debate, Kulmiye stalwarts were talking of not a landslide but a political earthquake! The results say different ‎and Kulmiye needs to ask itself why it has not conquered the electorate map in Somaliland, by a clear and ‎substantial majority in the last three elections. I know why, many know why, does Kulmiye? The answer my friend, ‎is blowing in wind, is blowing in the wind…… ‎

The common tomato woman recognizes the tribal chieftain from UDUB’s hinterland because he speaks about her ‎hamlet and her business and how he will keep the “peace’ for her to flourish. Kulmiye speaks about revolution and ‎the ‘struggle’, they present huge historical questions when all they have to do is get down to the level of our ‎proverbial tomato seller and listen to what she says. ‎ UDUB hardly speaks, never says a word, they just go on and on and on like the energizer bunny. Kulmiye, on the ‎other hand, bombs the country into shock every time Musa Bihi, Abdi Au Dahir or Abdurrahman au Ali speak to ‎the media, their words sizzle with so much testosterone that residents of Somaliland jump for cover. People ‎associate Kulmiye with people who can be called on when the times get tough, but not when the rains have come: ‎Maybe Kulmiye needs it own rainmaker, its own Rooble to jump this electoral obstacle that our herdsmen keep ‎putting on their path. ‎

Like 60 percent of other Somali Landers, not for the same reasons as others, but because, I believe that self doubt ‎is a necessary ingredient to the human complex, when doubt exits your cognitive psychology, enter the Oedipus ‎tyrannous. In fact I get a hic up whenever my friends ask me to join the ranks of the liberators, I have more ‎feelings of solidarity with the Tomato sellers than these men of history, pardon my sense of temerity here but ‎wouldn’t you rather have a cup of tea with ordinary Somali Landers who are less intimidating than these men with ‎names like Julius Caesar? Who in a word can cut you down with “where were you when we were drinking our piss ‎while liberating this country”? I still don’t have an answer for this, I have always wondered whether they speak ‎literally about this or is this just a symbolic statement?

Once we have god like psychologies, like neuro-surgeons, is precisely the point where we start losing our common-‎sense and in the end the meaning of public service. Now, I will get more heat on this article or rambling, but ‎there.. My friends, all your laughter and chorus of ‘waad khaldantay’ made me write this and it your entire fault: ‎Let the games Begin! ‎

dallo57us@yahoo.com ‎

 

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