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E D I T O R I A L
HIIRAAN ONLINE
Saturday, October 25, 2008
More than half of the Somali Parliamentarians are currently in Nairobi and many more are reportedly on their way there. The Intergovernmental Authority on Development, the East Africa sub-regional organization (which more or less created the Transitional Federal Institutions of Somalia) summoned the MPs as well as the President and the Prime Minister of the TFG.
Though the relocation of entire national institutions and its leadership by an entity such as IGAD is unprecedented in the annals of international politics, still the acquiescent marching of the Somali MPs tells volumes about the asymmetrical relationship between Somalia and IGAD states, particularly Ethiopia and Kenya. This IGAD machination is puzzling to many observers and the Somali public at large especially in light of the successful and ongoing UN sponsored peace initiative between the TFG and the Alliance of Re-liberation of Somalia in Djibouti.
At its core, the move underscores the veracity that Somalia, being the sick man of the Horn of Africa albeit unwilling to be cured, is at the mercy of rather merciless neighbors whose geopolitical national interests dwarf any other considerations.
Speculation regarding the nature of the impending TFG presence to Kenya abounds. Many are spinning rumors for their own ends, while others are reading too much into the official “consultation” explanation given by IGAD.
Some pundits contend that Ethiopia (which provides life support and security for the TFG) wants to extract the Transitional Federal Institutions from lawless Somalia into the safety of Kenya, in order for Ethiopia to orderly withdraw its troops and end its unsuccessful military involvement in Somalia. Others opine that in order to invigorate the ailing TFG, regime change at the top is in the making and the days of the TFG President Mr. Abdullahi Yusuf are numbered.
Some further suggest the pulling of the TFIs from its Somalia seat is intended to complement the UN reconciliation efforts and therefore this will speed up the anticipated political understanding between the TFG and the Djibouti-based Alliance. Others allege the convening of the TFI leadership in Kenya is the final act of a protracted TFG odyssey that started in Nairobi four years ago and went through Jowhar, Mogadishu and Baydhabo. Cynical forces such as Kenya’s columnist Donald Kipkorir, might be fantasizing a ‘final solution” for Somalia where Ethiopia and Kenya annex their troubled neighbor with the sleepwalk approval of the TFG Parliament.
The motive and the consequences of IGAD’s summoning of the TFG Parliamentarians will be public soon. What is apparent however is that during their four-year tenure of the MPs, these supposed legislators did not give the impression of people “burdened by responsibility” as the designation xil-dhibaan (the Somali term for MP) clearly denotes.
Since their inauguration in August 2004, Somali Members of Parliament acted as democratically elected legislators of highly advanced and highly stable country. They however become known for being first-rate opportunists who were oblivious to the fact that they were protected and paid for by foreign entities. Leaders of other organs of the Transitional Federal Institutions such as the President and the Prime Minister selfishly manipulated them thereby making the parliament as one of the, if not the most mediocre Parliaments on the planet.
The 64 thousand dollar question now is, while in Nairobi, would the TFG Parliamentarians end the chronic malaise of the TFG and address the bigger, ubiquitous and existential crises facing Somalia or will it be business as usual?
Miracles do happen though, but as a close observer of the TFG Parliament and short sighed Somali politicians vying for power at all cost, Hiiraan Online is not at all optimistic.
We, however, hope that the soon-to-be-assembled Somali MPs rise to the occasion and proof us all wrong.
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