John Goddard
A Mississauga man running for president of Puntland, an Islamic state within Somalia at the Horn of Africa, promises to end piracy against international shipping by creating jobs.
Adam Esse, who also served as a Michael Ignatieff delegate at the last Liberal convention, said pirates would rather fish or do other work, rather than raiding ships and holding them for ransom.
Stopping the piracy that is disrupting shipping and terrorizing sailors in the Gulf of Aden requires basic development that would lead to other jobs, he said by phone yesterday from the capital, Garowe.
Puntland is an arid semi-autonomous northern state occupying one-third of Somalia, a country with no effective national government. Election day is Thursday.
Esse is up against 10 other candidates, including incumbent Mohamed Musa Hersi, who also holds a Canadian passport. The winner must get the most votes in a 66-member parliament made up of appointed members from various clans, sub-clans and sub-sub-clans.
Esse, 45, is a controversial figure in the GTA. He was born in Puntland and attended post-secondary schools in Saudi Arabia, the United States and Canada.
On his website, adamesseforpuntlandpresident.com, he calls himself "an imam, adviser, facilitator, teacher, activist, mediator, arbitrator, co-ordinator and community leader." He lists his membership on the RCMP commissioner's advisory committee on visible minorities, and says he is "founder and president of the Coalition for Muslim Organizations," which appears to exist in name only, with no phone number or website.
Aside from his Puntland candidacy, he has founded breakaway mosque Darul Hijra Islamic Centre, on Kipling Ave. near Hwy. 401.
Source: Toronto Star, Jan 08, 2008
