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Puntland Parliament
Appoints New Pirate President
The parliament of the semi-autonomous region of Somalia "Puntland"
recently appointed Cabdiraxman Maxamed Farole to be the new
president of next four years. The parliament is combination of
tribes, where each tribe has specified number of representatives in
the house.
Chief tribes decide and nominate their representatives in the
parliament. However, the chief tribes neither consider development
of the tribe nor development of their territories, but his personal
interest and pocket money. Majority of current MPs in Puntland
Parliament paid between $30,000 and $50,000 to chief tribes against
their nomination to the parliament (parliament seat). The people
have no role in the politics and cannot decide their future leaders.
The abovementioned political system is missing the basic behavior of
the democracy. The chief tribes are the heart of the government
system in "Puntland" but not the people of "Puntland" because the
chief tribe selects the MPs and than President is appointed between
the MPs.
"Who pays more money gets the seat." This is how chief tribes
operate in nominating the MPs of their tribes, and if you want to be
president of "Puntland" you should pay huge money to every MP and
chief tribe to earn there support.
Newly appointed President Cabdiraxman Maxamed Farole is very
influential pirate, and manages several bandits including hijackers
of Saudi Oil Tanker. He operates pirate offices across "Puntland"
and even hired translators and accounts to communicate with owners
of the hijacked ships. Recently, Farole earned millions of dollars
from the piracy and he used the ransom money to finance his
campaign.
Forale´s boys hunt the international vessels across the Indian Ocean
and Gulf of Aden. They hijacked more than 15 ships in one year
including Ukraine Mv Fiana Ship and Saudi Oil Tanker. They received
millions of US Dollars as ransom money, indicating that Farole used
the money to become New President-appoint of "Puntland". His son is
also head of the pirates of Saudi Oil Tanker.
The pirates in "Puntland" are well-organized gangs who have managers
and translators in addition to active and reserve pirates; they all
share the ransom money. Recently, the Ukrainian ship owner has
denounced the effort of the translator "DR SAID" to the pirates on
the ongoing negotiations in HERDERRE. He has termed him as a BROKER
instead of translating the issues in Somali language. The owner has
informed that he was sent his representative on the ground in a bid
to secure a quick release of the vessel. Dr. SAID is originally from
"Puntland" and kinsman of new President-appoint Farole.
Furthermore, as we mentioned in first paragraphs, "Puntland" is
tribe based and semi-autonomous region, where tribesmen can only be
citizens of "Puntland". President-appoint Farole is member of the
most powerful tribe in the region; the minority tribes like
Dhulbahante and Warsangali are not allowed to lead the government.
Farole is from Majeerteen tribe, who make 60% of the half million
population of "Puntland"; other tribes including Dhulbahante and
Warsangali failed to win the presidential seat throughout the
history of "Puntland". Always, the president of the region comes
from Majeerteen – the majority tribe.
Unlike neighboring independent Republic of Somaliland with
population of 3.5 million, the political system is democratic and
public votes – One man one vote. The current President of Somaliland
Dahir Riyale Kahn won 2004 Presidential Election with close margin
of 80 votes over Kulmiye Party leader Mohamed Siiranyo.
By Abdulaziz Al-Mutairi
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