Rayale Should Be On Trial, Not Gabobe And Dini

EDITORIAL

After a week and half of being held illegally in detention by Somaliland’s government, the editor of the Somaliland Times, Yusuf Gabobe and the editor of Haatuf, Mr. Ali Abdi Dini were finally brought in front of a judge and their trial has started. Since they were held without an arrest warrant, their detention could only be described as abduction or hostage-taking. The reason that the C.I.D officers gave for their despicable action was that the editors defamed the president, a reference to a series of articles written by Muhamad Rashid in Haatuf, detailing massive corruption and embezzlement by the president, his wife, their close family members, and ministers. Many of the charges in Haatuf were corroborated later by Abshir Hasan Hashi, a former employee of the presidential transportation and the first lady’s chauffeur. Mr. Abshir Hashi even revealed new cases of embezzlement by the president, his wife and other family members. It was probably the combined effect of the thorough and detailed nature of the articles about the presidential household’s corruption, the domestic and international outcry against the government’s detaining of the reporters, and the confirmation of these charges by a former employee of the presidential family that forced the government to switch the main charges against the two editors from defaming the president to stirring public unrest and inciting violence.

But the change in the government’s tactics is unlikely to alter the perception among a large segment of the population that the president and his immediate family are thoroughly corrupt, and that they are obsessed with looting as much of the public purse as possible before the president’s term ends. Another reason why President Rayale is unlikely to succeed in easily changing the subject from his corruption to public security, is that Somaliland’s public, thanks to its press, now seem to be able to deal with two taboo subjects that have worked, for a long time, in favor of the president. The first one is that of peace and stability. Many Somalilanders now see that their attitude of looking the other way when faced with corruption in high places, due to their fear that challenging it might lead to conflict, was wrong, and that it has actually increased the extent of corruption, which is now one of the biggest dangers to Somaliland. Another taboo that we in Haatuf Media Network have overcome, and Somalilanders seem on their way to overcoming, is the tendency to shy away from publicly mentioning wrongdoing by female public officials or spouses of public officials. A case in point is President Rayale’s wife. Because we share the conservative Somali tradition, we had been initially reluctant to print material exposing the first lady’s illegal activities, but our reluctance seems to have only emboldened her.

President Rayale’s fabrication of new charges against the two editors will not change the fact that this trial is taking place because of Haatuf’s revelations of corruption by the president. The president and his cronies want to punish the two editors for blowing the whistle on their illegal and immoral activities. Most Somalilanders know this. The question is: will they allow him to use the tax payers’ money and the instruments of the state against the two editors or will they bring the real culprits to the dock, even if they happen to be the president and his wife?

Source: Somaliland Times

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