Somalia's 2017 Parliament - Opposition without a cause

Saturday May 20, 2017
By Farah Hassan Giyaajo

Putting the cart before the horse. As an opposition leader one might guess that Xiddig and his Horusocod parliamentarian group's knee jerk reaction in any situation in Somalia is to criticize the government – a twisted belief that one of the roles of a parliamentary opposition is to criticize and disband any government whom they are not part and parcel of.

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It seems Horusocod group has forgotten that a parliamentary opposition has another, more important role, a duty even – to offer an alternative to correct what is wrong or pave a new direction to rebuild a fragmented nation coming out of civil war, which begs the question – what has the current opposition group ever done to present a viable alternative to the current government? None. One of the failures of the Somali parliament is the easily created fragmented opposition groups (Kutlado) with short term goal to disrupt the government, mind you these opposition groups have not set out to lay the fundamental rules & regulations For the creation of political parties.

Four months is a short period to evaluate a government's performance, bringing down the government by convincing the authority responsible for doing so - the Parliament through a vote of no-confidence - that elections are the only viable choice for the country is irresponsible quest at this time. Even if the government , the prime Minister or the Presidents failings may be true, there are better ways to correct and counsel them than setting shop at a foreign country without explanation. At this time we have not seen the full agenda or plan of the current government.

Opposition is one the fundamentals of free and fair democracy but opposition without cause or objective is tantamount to treason or a spoiler at best. Perhaps the reason this group didn't present an alternative plan is because they don't have one. A responsible opposition leader would not meet in foreign country nor meet when the regular parliamentary session in a recess, they present their dissent to the people of Somalia who are the stakeholders through their selected parliamentarians. Political campaigns are divisive, long and waste money and the country just came out of one recently. Shaming of political opponents and pointing out their deficiencies at every turn is becoming the norm in Somalia. Let's move forward as a nation resolve our internal issues at home.

Farah Hassan Giyaajo
Independent writer
Washington DC

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