Citizens’ Anger And Disgust With President Rayale’s Lies Is Justified

EDITORIAL

Like most Somalilanders we were happy when it was announced that the arbitration committee was able to midwife an agreement between parliament, the political parties and president Rayale. Little did we know then that President Rayale had no intention of honoring that agreement, but the signs were there. The first indication of something amiss was the fact that the President left the country for Ethiopia without meeting his end of the bargain. When he was asked by reporters at the airport about it, he sounded a bit evasive. However, given the positive atmosphere generated by the agreement, many people wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. Then he came back. Days went by. Still he had done nothing.

In the meantime, Parliament moved quickly and voted twice on the two remaining candidates of the electoral commission, thus delivering on their promise.

But still no action by the President. Instead, his flunkies went on the attack. First they claimed that Parliament broke the agreement because it did not confirm the first two candidates. Then the attacks got more vicious with the Deputy Minister of Justice, Mr. Tallaabo questioning the bona fides of the mediation committee and accusing jailed Qaran leaders of being foreign agents of al-Qaida who deserve to be shot.

The public began to sense that something has gone wrong. People wanted to know how come Qaran leaders were still in jail even though parliament had re-voted on the candidates of the electoral commission. The arbitration committee felt the heat. So they asked for an audience with the president. After waiting for two hours, the arbitration committee was told that the president would not be able to see them that day, but an appointment was set up for them to meet with the president another day.

When that day came, President Rayale put his cards on the table and said that he would only honor two sections of the agreement on the budget, and would only release Qaran leaders if they wrote a letter to him in which they asked to be pardoned. In a nutshell, the president was re-negotiating the agreement, or to put it bluntly he was not going to honor it. The Poet Gaarriye, a member of the arbitration committee summed up the president’s about-turn this way: “the President we met that day was a different person from the President we met before.”

Disappointed and embarrassed by the change in the president’s attitude, the arbitration committee ended its mediation efforts. In a press conference, Hadrawi (The Chairman of the Committee) and Gaarriye confirmed that, basically, President Rayale double-crossed them (even though they did not exactly use these words).

Immediately public anger began to swell up against a President who brazenly lied to some of Somaliland’s most respected citizens; hence the demonstrations in Hargeysa and Buroa.

In Somali culture, the only thing worse than not accepting the judgment of traditional mediators is to accept it then renege on it, and that is what President Rayale has done. What makes President Rayale’s action even more reprehensible is that he did it at the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

That is why the people’s anger and disgust with Rayale is justified

Source: Somaliland Times

Home | Contact us | Links | Archives | Search