The President, The Parliaments And The Party Chiefs

By Dr. Omar Ibrahim Hussein

The tug of war or call it the battle of nerves between the President and the Parliament could be a legitimate exercise of a teetering democracy or it could be a sign of impending constitutional crisis.

Although the democratization process has its pros and cons, the checks and balance is expected to deal with the potential abuse of power. The expectation was each Branch of government will defend itself by its own actions and deeds. The whole concept of checks and balances is based on the reality that no one Branch of government is going to have it all. Democracy needs this check and balance because legislators often face a conflict of interest wherever the interest of their constituents clashes with their personal ambitions.

In Presidential democracies like ours, it is easy for either the President or the Parliament to accuse one another to escape public outrage. The President will blame the Parliament, and the Parliament will blame the President when the two sides collide. Such collusions are within the domain of the democratic system we have chosen. But a Parliament bent on paralyzing the activities of the government is beyond the democratic mandate. Conversely a government engaged in pushing its will down the throat of an elected Parliament is also unacceptable. The Parliamentarian was elected not only to make laws but also to oppose government excesses; and that is where the word opposition Party came from. But opposition is not confrontation and conflict creation. They represent the people and they must serve the public interest and rise above their private interests. One of the cardinal mistakes a parliamentarian can commit is to insult the intelligence of the ordinary man and women in the street. Although both the President and the Parliament are ultimately accountable to the people, there is one major difference between the two. A Member of Parliament (MP) is accountable to a constituency, where the President is accountable to all constituencies. When its time comes an MP will face his constituency and the President will meet the nation. The people are well aware of what the Government and the Parliament are doing and both will face the music in the people’s court of Justice. For the President the judgment day is less than a year away. For the Parliament it may be a number of years away, but the people will not forget; in a democracy the voice of the people is sovereign.

Although the two opposition parties can block, and frustrate the government, they can’t get rid of the government. The government can not get rid of the Parliament either. If each stuck to his gun, there will be a stand off and the people will get the short end of the stick. It will be akin to an old adage which says; when two elephants fight, only the grass gets hurt. But the poor down trodden grass will have his day. It will be the day of reckoning when the culprit will face the music.

We hope the Parliament will not be a stumbling block to the efforts of the government, and vice versa, since neither can get rid of the other or cajole the other side to blink. The Parliament and the Executive should work together in the best interest of the people who elected them, and trusted them to run their affairs. The Parliament and the Government should never lose sight of why they were elected in the first place. They should know it takes two to Tango. We expect the separation of powers to bring cooperation not confrontation. Our hopes and our expectations were high when the democratization process was completed, but the situation is not promising as the Parliament decided to have it all.

The President versus the Party Chiefs.

Faisal Ali Warabe of UCID Party, who is accused of being a loose canon, spoke recently of cooperation not confrontation with the government for the public good. Faisal may be trigger happy with his words, but nobody with his right mind can accuse him of not speaking his mind. He is known to have no hidden agenda; what you see is what you get. What he says is his political agenda. He is a politician who has a robust political agenda for leadership too.

Ahmed Sillanyo is a different animal all together; a politician with political calculations and intrigues. He is an opposition man who opposes the government to the letter. For him an opposition party that supports the government in any form amounts to sleeping with the devil. There is a belief that opposition parties prosper in chaotic and unstable political environments. I personally don’t subscribe to that.

Lately I was taken aback when I heard Sillanyo say, “We could agree between us before we invoke the law as we used to do”. How can somebody publicly advocate turning a blind eye to the law of the land? I asked myself. But after some serious thought I realized there was a method in his madness. That reminded me of a friend of mine who was doing law at the time. It was hard to go along with him for whatever we said reminded him of law and illegality. “Please put your law aside for a minute and let us talk freely without violating any law,” we pleaded. I think Chairman. Sillanyo has come a long way by saying that, and the President should exploit that window of opportunity and reciprocate it. After all Sillanyo is not dealing with a law student as we did. The law of the land should not be broken, but it can be bent for the common good. We can respect the law of the land without being law students

I want the government and the opposition parties to meet halfway at this critical time of our history. But meeting halfway should not mean scratch my back and I will scratch your back. For then there will be nobody to scratch the people’s back.

I want the three Party Chiefs to hold hands and work together without any one of them compromising his political agenda. It is said there are more than one ways of skinning a cat. They will have different opinions and views about how to solve the daunting problems of the day, but they could agree to disagree without being confrontational or engaged in marginalizing the other side. Their work is clearly demarcated and there is inherently no conflict between their responsibilities. But there could be a conflict of interest and that is the genie that should be kept in the box. In that vein I want the Chairman of KULMIYE Party to select the member of the Election Commission without hesitation as a starting point for cooperation. It is the right thing to do at this time. It will also have a cooling effect on the agitated atmosphere in Hargeisa. On the other hand the government should involve and work closely with the Opposition.

I was glad to read that a Parliamentary group headed by Chairman Ciro and one of his vices are traveling to a number of African countries to plead for our recognition case. It is said ‘it never rains but pours’. They never go on missions but when they go they go by the kilo. A delegation composed of 13 individuals is rather too many for me. It is as big as a football team with their coach and assistant coach. It looks as though any body who is anybody is in the team. I think this has come as a result of me too. I only hope there is an equal and opposite team on the other side to play with them the recognition tournament.

Captain Ciro should know his team and assign responsibilities according to their capability. But the irony of the matter is, if two Ministers go for a mission it is a crowd, but 13 Parliamentarians on one mission is a company. The government is expected to be lean and efficient; the Parliament could be fat and inefficient. Quality is that should matter for the Government; quantity is that matters for the Parliament. What is bad for the Government is good for the Parliament, two different measuring rods in a teetering democracy.

A delegation of 13 dignitaries will be a logistical nightmare to the host countries. Winning the recognition battle is the only commonality they have. I am sure when all the 13 speak at the same time; the other side will blink and accept our demand for recognition if for nothing else but to get rid of the visiting team. Who in his right mind oppose the demand of 13 Waryas; or Shiftas alone in the same room?

Whether the delegation is a crowd or a company, it is a good initiative and we hope they will succeed. Protecting and safeguarding the nation is a common and a shared responsibility. But charity begins at home: such a higher powered delegation should have gone to Lascanod first. The President started his first mission there and he escaped an assassination attempt by a miracle. In the name of fair play, the Parliament should have gone to Lascanood to face certain assassination attempt too. It is no good to expect from the President to bring the stars. The Guurti and the old parliament tried their best but failed. To my knowledge this Parliament did not venture to visit Lascanood since they were elected; at least in a visible way. At the same time they are the most vocal about the Government’s inability to bring Sool into Somaliland fold. May be the Opposition Parties are harboring a military solution. But the government does not see that to be a viable option now. If the Opposition has any viable solution for the Lascanood quagmire, the Parliament could force the Government their way as they did in the recent budget case, the wife of Sillanyo’s bid for a job, Haatuf news paper’s court ruling. But they did nothing about Sool and the country that is divided in the middle. Mohamed Ibrahim Egal, when he was the Prime Minister of Somalia in 1967, said he reached an agreement with Ethiopia on minor issues, and the major issues will follow later. So far this is a Parliament of minor issues. It is high time they started dealing with the major issues.

We elected the new parliament to replace the old parliament in order to further democratize the country and deal with the major issues. Due to their collective efforts, we expected to have a place in the history of democratic nations. But that feeling may be slipping away due to a Parliament bent on playing hard ball. But it is never too late to change course.

Omarh1980@hotmail.com

Home | Contact us | Links | Archives