The Big Bang Incident

By Mohamud Tani

It is not funny. It is not amusing. Yet I can not stop myself from laughing. It reminded me of my younger days. Many a time we had fights and brawls in playing fields, school yards and in other more picturesque places. I was pretty good with my left hand those days (you can ask that everybody). Had I been there in that parliament that day, some guys would have counted their teeth one and two and three and four.

Well as I say there is no humor in what had happened. It was an unfortunate incident. It is a serious matter and it will be a scar on the history of Somaliland . . The people of Somaliland , the poor and the unschooled, the lay as some would call them, have more dignity and class than their elected and unelected elite, and that has been proved today.

Look at what has happened. The law-makers of the land have taken the law into their hands. What a surprise! They broke the law the first day of their job. Woe betides you opposition members of parliament and their leaders. Everybody thought you were better than that.

How on earth you could make a decision in which you would knowingly disregard the parliamentary procedures and the law of the land, while you are the elected law-makers of the land. The procedure was clear. The oldest member would lead the parliament until a new speaker is to be elected. The oldest by accident of history happened to belong to the government party of UDUB. If the guy surprised you by adjourning the session for three days, are you going to fist fight your idea into the floor? It is at that point that I can not keep myself from laughing. Well, if the lawful chair of the session, who was appointed by the supreme court due to his credentials as the most aged member would not listen to you and left the house, are you going to take the law into your hands and disregarding parliamentary procedures and legality of the highest court of the land and declare your self winners and elect your own chair? It is at that point that I can not keep myself from being totally disappointed.

Yet the blame is not exclusively on the corner of the opposition parties and their leaders... The UDUB party and their leadership acted with a tremendous amount of arrogance. They were totally out of line in acting the way they did. Inside any parliament nothing happens without negotiations. That is the very essence of law making. Even if the law was on their side and they could adjourn the session of the parliament, they should not have done it unilaterally. That was absolutely irresponsible. Law makers or no lawmakers we are all human beings. If human beings are cornered, their animal instinct comes forth and they lash out. That is exactly what happened to the opposition members of the parliament. The provocateurs among them got the upper hand when the chair acted the way he did. He was absolutely insensitive to the demands of the opposition members, and the result was a disaster.

Any way in democracy there are ups and downs. I feel very ambivalent about this incident. Sometimes laughing, sometimes feeling sad. However, when all the cows come home to the barn, I hope we would learn a good lesson out of it. LONG LIVE SOMALILAND .

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