Unqualified parliamentarians can hardly bring peace

[Ashkir]

What is most interesting in this century is that most of Somali parliamentarians do not write and read well. Some unofficial research has shown that only 5 per cent of the parliamentarians can write and read, and this is an answer to the question, if you asked yourself when the “charter-debate†was going on in Nairobi, Kenya, early last year.

 

 

Although the issues concerning the peace process were absolutely sensitive, there were errors, which we didn’t understand fully. Above all, during the peace talks, every member of the attendees to the conference was being given a balk of written books, which intended to facilitate the understanding of each other to avoid any overlaps in the initiative. But worst still, most of the invited members could hardly understand the copies.

 

The Media, namely, quoted a man (ostensibly a warlord) from Mogadishu who was wearing very bright suit and carrying silver suitcase. He came to Eldoret, where the talks formerly begun, in order to participate the negotiations. Unfortunately he could speak English. After getting a deep confusion, he saw a Somali-looked person who was welcoming another delegate to the airport. The attendees cheered and requested for assistance. Then that person had taken him to the conference station.

 

Therefore the delegates had got a lot of trouble in understanding the material. And this is what had been dragging the discussion to a long time. Immediately from the second phase of the talks, we reached the sensitivity of the decisive issues, which delegates called it is a “ power sharing†agreement. It was quite hard to convince a warlord about constitution. And the most laughable unsophisticated idea was that some Ugases – clan leaders – could not be persuaded that the second language of the nation would be either Arabic or English. This, for example, had led them to a conclusion that says they would prefer Arabic or English to Italian language!

 

 

When it came to power sharing itself, my fellow parliamentarians got confusion that Somali charter is under the line that allows a ceremonial president and executive prime minister. In other words, we have an executive prime minister in the constitution. Supposedly, he would manage the five-term-administration. But another error had gone wrong here: most of the ordinary people still believe that the president is executive and he is the one who will do the odds. This is how most politically motivated Somalis (mostly uneducated ones) are taking us to a wrong side of the wave. Right, according to this foundation they [the president and the premier] should have two different job titles in the charter. Ghedi, for starters, is the executive of this administration straight away and any one who argues about it should go and look for a copy of the constitution.

 

Meanwhile, there is a note to the citizens: in order to achieve the reality and chump up from the darkness, the first aid I would recommend is to read your boos (charter) under which your rights are.

 

Lastly the government had begun what we call today “ war of wordsâ€. The president of the parliament, Sharif Hassan, had got one side and the Abdillahi another one. They began arguing about each other and the rightness of each has in the government. Each of them had had his fellow men and started having talks with the other directly or indirectly and became two main divisions.

 

The question, however, is: where are the legislators taking us if they are ignorant about what they were expected change into law? To another 15 years of crisis! Or to a government which do not realize where this modern world is heading!