Farmaajo the honeymoon is over before it began...

[General Duke]

Yesterday he was against the 4.5 formula...

 

“Wax la yiraahdo 4.5 waa ma jirto, dadkuna waa siman yihiin Alle agtiisna waa siman yihiin, qof walaalkay ahna kuma diidayo qabiil, qof kalena kuma fogeynayo”

 

Today he declares...

 

"Aniga 4.5 maanan diidin si qaldan ayaana loo fasiray waxaan kaliyah aan soo hadal qaaday sida uu yahay nidaamkaasi, saxaafada ayaa buun buunisay waxaana rajeynayaa in baarlamaanka uu fahansanyahay arrinkaasi" ayuu yiri.

[General Duke]

by J. Peter Pham, Ph.D.

World Defense Review columnist

 

Somalia's New Prime Minister: Not Quite What the Doctor Ordered

 

Just when it seems things can get no worse for Somalia's dubiously legitimate, utterly ineffective, and wholly self-serving "Transitional Federal Government" (TFG), the embattled clique pulls a surprise by sinking even deeper into the mire and, in the process, prolonging the agony of the Somali people and threatening the security and stability of both neighboring countries and the international community as a whole. Such was the case last week with the announcement of the nomination of Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed "Farmajo" as prime minister of the phantom "government" that, even backed by more than 7,000 foreign troops, cannot even show its face in more than half of the sixteen districts of its putative capital city. If his record is anything to go by, the only people the new prime minister will hearten—other than members of the Islamist insurgency fighting the TFG—will be invincibly delusional outsiders who still stubbornly cling to the fantasy of restoring a united Somalia under the interim regime.

 

If the fact that TFG head Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed took more than three weeks to find a new prime minister after forcing out the previous incumbent, Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, was not sufficient indication that something was amiss, the fact that his eventual nominee is a mediocrity with little experience in national politics—to say nothing of international relations—should have set off alarms. Certainly a closer examination of the new appointee's background raises some serious concerns for those who cared to look beyond the positive spin fed to media outlets that ran off with headlines like "New Somali Prime Minister's 'Experience' Praised by Analyst" (Voice of America) and gushed about the alleged "conflict resolution and leadership skills" of the "former diplomat" (Associated Press).

 

Farmajo was born in Mogadishu in 1962. His family, members of the ******* clan of the ***** clan-family, was originally from Gedo. That lineage was to prove decisive, both for his career to date and, as will be evident, his geopolitical Weltanschauung.

 

[General Duke]

One could even overlook all these defects if Farmajo actually brought something to the TFG, but he doesn't. Having lived outside Somalia for nearly half his life and visited the country only once in the last quarter-century, it is highly doubtful that he brings much to the regime by way of actual political constituency or military strength. His ancestral region of Gedo—where he has never lived—lies outside the control of the TFG, although expect the regime's propagandists to make a great deal of the fact that forces aligned with it took the deserted border village of Bulo Hawo there from al-Shabaab over the weekend. President Abdirahman Mohamed Mohamud "Farole" of autonomous Puntland in northeastern Somalia, where the bulk of the ***** clan-family is based, has let it be known widely that he was not consulted by Sharif Ahmed on the appointment, a fact which, when coupled with the fact that the new prime minister replaces a native son of the territory, will make it all the more difficult to restrain the region's growing secessionist impulses. In fact, Farole's minister of state planning and international cooperation, Abdulkadir Abdi Hashi, complained on the BBC's Somali Service that far from forming a government of national unity, Sharif Ahmed had consolidated control of the three highest offices—president, prime minister, and parliamentary speaker—within the former Islamic Courts Union and among southerners in violation of the traditional national consensus. As for Somaliland, given his unabashed admiration for its citizens' erstwhile chief persecutor, Siyad Barre, Farmajo is unlikely to make much headway conciliating with them even if they were predisposed to reenter the Somali charnel house—and they are not.

 

Abroad, what positive impact the appointment might have is likewise questionable. Certainly the "former diplomat" will need to be much more diplomatic in his choice of words if he is not to alienate the principal regional and international backers of the TFG. To be successful, any aspiring Somali leader had best be on good terms—or, at the very least, have a decent working relationship—with his Ethiopian and Kenyan counterparts. Someone who describes Soviet arms shipments to Siyad Barre as "military hardware to protect the Somali population in Kenya and Ethiopia" and asserts that "the main dream" of Somalis is "to be unified, including those living under Ethiopian and Kenyan rule"is unlikely to reassure Somalia's neighbors that he has moved beyond the sort of Somali irredentism that has historically proven so poisonous to regional integration.

 

Apart from the dubious personal merits of the new prime minister

[General Duke]

Last month, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson announced a subtle, but significant, shift in U.S. Somali policy that would include not just more active engagement of the governments of Somaliland and Puntland, but also outreached to "groups in south central Somalia, groups in local governments, clans, and sub-clans that are opposed to Al-Shabaab, the radical extremist group in the south, but are not allied formally or directly with the TFG." This week he is expected to deliver a major policy speech further detailing the "dual-track" approach. The rearranging-of-the-chairs-on-the-decks-of-the-Titanic nature of the new TFG prime minister's appointment underscores the need to strengthen the second track of U.S. policy in order to secure viable pathways for achieving America's strategic objectives and those of its allies. While, for the sake of security in Somalia, stability in the Horn of Africa, and overall international order, one hopes that Farmajo may actually accomplish more than his hapless predecessors in the fifteen interim Somali regimes that have existed since 1991, in statecraft it is generally not prudent to count on miracles happening. And, given the enormous challenges the new prime minister faces—to say nothing about his rather flawed record to date—a backup plan is definitely called for.

[General Duke]

Ra´isalwasaaraha Cusub oo qaladkii u horeeyey Galey,kana soo saarey warsaxaafadeed

Posted by admin on October 19th, 2010

 

Muqdisho(Puntlandi.com) Ra’iisalwasaaraha Soomaaliya ee hada xilka loo magacaabeyMohamed Farmaajo ayaa warsaxaafadeed uu soo saarey saaka sheegey in si qaldan loo fasirtey hadalkiisii uu shaley sheegey inuusan aqoon meesha uu ku qoranyahey sharciga dhigaya 4.5 uusana kusoo dhiseyn golihiisa wasiirada, Hadalkaan kasoo yeerey Ra’isalwasaaraha ayaa ahaa mid lid ku ah axdiga lagusoo dhisey Dowlada Kumeelgaarka ah, tasoo keentey in markiiba Ra´iisalwasaare Farmaajo uu raali galin ka bixiyo hadalka kasoo yeerey afkiisa.

 

Warsaxaafadeed ka soo baxey Xafiiska Ra´isal wasaaraha ayaa Ra´isalwasaarhu ku tilmaamey in nidaamka 4.5 sida uu u sheegey shaley si aan aheyn loo turjuntey,” Ujeedadeydu waxey aheyd inaan cadeeyo in sharcigaan qaldan yahey” ayuu kusoo qorey Ra’iisalwasaaruhu warsaxaafadeedkaan.

 

Shaley ayaa R´’iisalwasare Farmaajo sheegey inuusan aqoonsaneyn Nidaamka afar dhibic shan 4.5, taasoo dhalisey in siyaasiyiin ka tirsan Baarlamaanka ay markiiba hadalo kulul ka bixiyaan, kuna tilmaamaan in Ra’iisalwasaaruhu uu ku xadgudbey sharciga. Nidaamkaan 4.5 ayaa ah kan ay ku dhisantahey Dowlada Kumeel gaarka ah

 

Puntlandi.com ayaa shaley soo bandhigey khudbada uu ra’isalwasaaruhu hadalkaan ku yiri

 

khudbadii Raiisalwasaaraha oo aan shaley soo gudbiney iyadoo maqal ah ka dhageyso halkaan hoose

[Abtigiis]

I hope I am wrong, but I am not liking what I see in this man.

 

If Sheikh Sharif picks you as competent guy, you must know something must be wrong with you.