Rayale’s Lying Machine

EDITORIAL

President Rayale’s latest spin on the case of Haatuf journalists who are being held behind bars is that the courts are the ones holding them and he has nothing to do with it. Rayale said this in a conversation with some Somaliland reporters who discussed the case with him. If we are to believe Rayale, then we must believe that this case was started by Haatuf uncovering the courts’ corruption and not Rayale’s corruption; that it was the courts, not Rayale, who sent armed police to attack Haatuf journalists in their work place; that it was the courts that abducted the journalists and held them at the CID headquarters; that it was the courts that ordered the journalists to be transferred to Mandera where they are still being held. Of course, no one in his right mind would believe that.

Although this is the first time that Rayale has tried to distance himself from the case, he is not the first person in his administration to claim he had nothing to do with it. The Minister of Interior, Abdillahi Cirro used to make similar claim. Cirro’s claim was not believable, and Rayale’s is even less so. The fact that both of these men continue to insult people’s intelligence with such transparent lies, shows how difficult it is for former NSS spies to get rid of their old habits.

As if jealous of being left out of Rayale’s world of lies and deceit, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdillahi Duale, has lately been making a lot of noise to take part of that world. It happened during the UFFO uprising commemorations. When the 1st Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Abdiaziz Samale, and the Chairman of Kulmiye Party, Mr. Sillanyo, mentioned the government’s violations of the constitutional rights of citizens, the foreign minister jumped to his feet and started babbling about how his government is such a staunch champion of the constitution.

The Somaliland Times had defended the foreign minister when he was attacked, not long ago, by extremists. We defended him because at the time he was right and they wrong. But this time he is clearly wrong. He is wrong because his boss has made a mockery of Somaliland’s constitution and shown the world that the constitution and courts function according to his whims. He is wrong because as a foreign minister his responsibility is to promote Somaliland abroad (he has done some of this but not nearly enough) and to build a functioning ministry of foreign affairs (it looks like he has no intention of even trying to do this). He is also wrong because as a foreign minister, he should know the most about the price Somaliland has paid for Rayale’s lawlessness.

Abdillahi Duale knows all of this, but like Abdillahi Cirro and most of Rayale’s ministers, his number one priority is to keep his job. These ministers also know that in order to keep their job, they have to keep Rayale happy, and in order to keep Rayale happy, they have to constantly spew out a lot of lies and keep feeding Rayale’s lying machine.

Source: Somaliland Times

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