By Abdulaziz Al-Mutairi
The parliament of the semi-autonomous region of Somalia "Puntland" recently appointed Abdirahman Mohamed Farole to be the new president of next four years. The parliament is combination of tribes, where each tribe has specified number of representatives in the house.
Chief tribes decide and nominate their representatives in the parliament. However, the chief tribes neither consider development of the tribe nor development of their territories, but his personal interest and pocket money. Majority of current MPs in Puntland Parliament paid between $30,000 and $50,000 to chief tribes against their nomination to the parliament (parliament seat). The people have no role in the politics and cannot decide their future leaders.
The abovementioned political system is missing the basic behavior of the democracy. The chief tribes are the heart of the government system in "Puntland" but not the people of "Puntland" because the chief tribe selects the MPs and than President is appointed between the MPs.
"Who pays more money gets the seat." This is how chief tribes operate in nominating the MPs of their tribes, and if you want to be president of "Puntland" you should pay huge money to every MP and chief tribe to earn there support.
Newly appointed President Cabdiraxman Maxamed Farole is very influential pirate, and manages several bandits including hijackers of Saudi Oil Tanker. He operates pirate offices across "Puntland" and even hired translators and accounts to communicate with owners of the hijacked ships. Recently, Farole earned millions of dollars from the piracy and he used the ransom money to finance his campaign.
Forale´s boys hunt the international vessels across the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden. They hijacked more than 15 ships in one year including Ukraine Mv Fiana Ship and Saudi Oil Tanker. They received millions of US Dollars as ransom money, indicating that Farole used the money to become New President-appoint of "Puntland". His son is also head of the pirates of Saudi Oil Tanker.
The pirates in "Puntland" are well-organized gangs who have managers and translators in addition to active and reserve pirates; they all share the ransom money. Recently, the Ukrainian ship owner has denounced the effort of the translator "DR SAID" to the pirates on the ongoing negotiations in HERDERRE. He has termed him as a BROKER instead of translating the issues in Somali language. The owner has informed that he was sent his representative on the ground in a bid to secure a quick release of the vessel. Dr. SAID is originally from "Puntland" and kinsman of new President-appoint Farole.
Furthermore, as we mentioned in first paragraphs, "Puntland" is tribe based and semi-autonomous region, where tribesmen can only be citizens of "Puntland". President-appoint Farole is member of the most powerful tribe in the region; the minority tribes like Dhulbahante and Warsangali are not allowed to lead the government.
Farole is from Majeerteen tribe, who make 60% of the half million population of "Puntland"; other tribes including Dhulbahante and Warsangali failed to win the presidential seat throughout the history of "Puntland". Always, the president of the region comes from Majeerteen – the majority tribe.
Unlike neighboring independent Republic of Somaliland with population of 3.5 million, the political system is democratic and public votes – One man one vote. The current President of Somaliland Dahir Riyale Kahn won 2004 Presidential Election with close margin of 80 votes over Kulmiye Party leader Mohamed Sillanyo.
By\ Abdulaziz Al-Mutairi
email: az.almutairi@yahoo.com






 

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