By Rashid Yahye Ali

From the day of its inception, this TFG was made of a house of cards. It was founded on fraud. Its frame was hoisted with deception and reckless disregard of the most basic sense of responsibility, almost criminal neglect of duty to the country and service to the people. Bereft of moral principles, every position of trust was openly traded for dishonest gain and for furthering personal agendas, not for national good. This unchecked decadence of all government institutions gradually degenerated into a rotten state of affairs, an unstable house of cards, waiting to tumble under the lightest breeze of air or disturbance.

What we see and hear now from Baidoa is the squeaking and creaking sound of a collapsing structure. Surely, without firing a single shot, the appearance of the clerics from afar is too much for this house of cards. It is shaking this phantom administration to its foundations. According to one reporter, cabinet members are abandoning the government like threaded beads with a broken string, strewn everywhere (sidi tusbax go’ay).

It is almost comical to watch the chaos unfolding in Baidoa. According to some insiders, top officials in the government are cahoots in a duplicitous scheme to turn the PM into a sacrificial lamb, blaming all the ills of the TFG on him. Rumor has it that when he survived the vote of no confidence, it was decided to pull the rug from under his feet by directing cabinet members to relinquish their posts.

Why the backstabbing and the invective vilification of the PM, you ask? Welcome to the house of greed! The last desperate grip to power in the hope of going to Khartoum with the empty seat of the PM to entice the clerics to trade, of course, for preserving its continuance. Huh! Not a bad bartering deal. But there is a catch in all this - which makes it the more amusing. The clerics are not even planning to come to Khartoum. Remember that cardinal sin. The unpardonable crime of inviting Ethiopian forces into Baidoa!  So why is the TFG on each other’s throat?

Not that the PM’s dismissal is worth a drop of tear, but the miserable creature was a hostage to an intricate political web of treachery, corruption, greed and cruel foreign masters. From the get go, he was under the tutelage of men oblivious to the suffering of their people, blinded by burning ambition for position, power and their purse strings.

One wonders, were they always this pathetic? Was this woeful inadequacy obvious in the world theater? No wonder, Somalia lingered so long in its painful misery and taken so lightly in the global stage.

Oh! The master sent his boy to town. You didn’t hear! Mesfin is in Baidoa. You don’t worry about a thing, everything is gonna be alright. Yes! Everything is gonna be alright! What a pity! Give me a broom, where is the trash pin? Oh! Mr. President! No! This can’t be you his Excellency Mr. PM! Why you both so small? Oh! Honey! I shrunk the President and the PM!

Mean! You say. Vengeful and enjoying the demise of others. No! Far from it, the citizen replies:

I ululated in the news of your birth – you dashed my hopes and dreams

Weak and violated, I sought protection under your authority - you abandoned me

I stood in the burning sun for hours to welcome you - you never showed up

Because you valued power more than the people, they perished in agony and in despair

With a gift of a beautiful land and people, you Palestinized me

For shallow egotistic goals, you forced me to loose hope, identity and almost my nation.

Hadrawi’s plea with the men on the mirror for sanity and common sense speaks volumes for the ordinary citizen:

Hor Allaa la tegayaa                          Wax hanbaysta baan idhi
Runta lagama hiishee                         Garta hubiya baan idhi

Xaqa halacsadaan idhi

Hawraarsan laga waa                        Haye way ku adag tahay
Wax hallaaba mooyee                        Wax hagaaga ma oggola
Qaska way horseedaan                       Xanta waw hiloobaan
Guusha ay hufnaantiyo                      Si haboon ku waayaan
Xisti bay ku hooyaan                          Hunguraa wax lumiyee  
Hawadoodu kama foga

The lesson in all this? Simple. Never trade the good of your people and country for a handful of pennies. Two- Truth and righteousness will always prevail in the end, no matter how long subdued. Always. Three – It is far better to embrace your people and seek legitimacy from them, than from outsiders. They will never let you down. You are never so sure of the foreigner.

Four – Be just and keep integrity – your people will repay you in ten folds.

So! Now that the people and the brave sons and daughters of the land stood up and cleansed some of the ailment, is it too much to enjoy a little bit of freedom to walk the streets?

Have my ears lost their hearing? If I can’t hear the tat-tat-tat of the Kalashnikov, how come I don’t hear the loud thuds and the boom or the bang of the Hoobiye?

Are the people being too bashful? What is this new radiating light on their foreheads and this inner elation and joy? Is this what they call peace? Whatever the future holds, it is too precious to loose. So, let me hold it, just a little longer. Let us pass it for posterity and let the children enjoy it for eternity.

Rashid Yahya Ali

Baltimore, MD

E-mail: [email protected]