Hiiraan Online
Saturday, July 23, 2011
In a sitting attended by some 420 members of the Somali parliament, Dr. Ali’s proposal was ratified by a show of hand where only 21 MPs opposed with only two abstentions recorded.
But some MPs were quick to reject the outcome of Saturday’s parliamentary approval citing undemocratic procedure for the house business. Groups of opposition MPs were seen walking out of the house in the mid of the session.
Somalia’s parliamentary speaker Sharif Hassan chaired the important house business where premier Ali addressed lawmakers emphasizing on his agenda for the approved new government.
The premier told the bloated house that his government will ensure the return of law and order in the country by promising to improve the fragile security situation particularly in the restive capital Mogadishu.
Dr. Ali promised to have a zero tolerance for corruption in the government as a means to win the hearts and minds of the civilian populations. He further said the government will continue spearheading the ongoing peace and reconciliation process.
The new government of Dr. Ali is set to help Somalia to have an efficient governing structure during its transitional period of one year as agreed recently in Uganda’s capital Kampala.
Apart from the fragile security situation, the government will have to contend with a catastrophic humanitarian crisis of huge magnitude where an estimated millions of Somalis are groaning under the weight of a protracted drought condition.
It is just a bad season for Dr. Ali who is expected to test the tenacity of fighting for the well-being of devastated Somalia and troubled Somalis at a time when a combination of tragedies is affecting the war-torn Horn of Africa nation.
But to avoid a premature resignation of his government like his predecessor Farmaajo, Dr.Ali has to maintain a tactful balance between aloof president and an obstinate speaker.
The president and the speaker had been at odds over the future of Somalia's transitional government. TFG’s mandate was due to expire in August 2010 but a Kampala brokered agreement has allowed its extension until 2012 in exchange for Farmaajo’s recent resignation.
The international community and donor groups are pressuring Somali leaders to chart a clear path toward stability in a country that has never known law and order since the ouster of former president Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.
Somali reporting by Mohamed Haji in Mogadishu, translation and editing by Abdullahi Jamaa