, 2010 The man with the multiple missions is back. After what appears to be a sham election, the previous speaker, the former finance minister, and of course the ex-Khat trader—and I have to state his past just for the record—reappeared in the front seat of the Somalia politics. The selection of Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adam into the speaker of the TFG parliament is certainly practical evidence that Somalia is far from way out its long-standing catastrophe. His election is a clear sign why Somalia is again a strong candidate to lead the failed states in 2010.

The election of Shariif Hassan will exacerbate the already tense relations between the president and the prime minister and will create an atmosphere of chaos and corruption in and round Villa Somalia—the only spot the TFG claims in the entire territory of the Somali Republic. However, the good news is, this conflict is not based on clannish dogma that fuels the civil war but it is all about power and money; it is all about a personal interest and who gets how many and how much.

Rationally, the speaker of a parliament—in any nation including Somalia—is expected to be the chief of the legislative body, the one, who moderates the debates and oversees the members of the parliament; the one who is next to the presidential line of succession if the president is incapable to serve the country. But in Somalia, that is not the case. The speaker leads disagreements inside the chamber of the parliament for personal gains. He guides the other members of the parliament in to disorder. It is a fact that almost every speaker of the Somalia parliaments past or present becomes an obstacle to the system, for simply a private interest.

Paradoxically, however, Somalia's advance in a peaceful power transfer in the mid 60s, its parliaments in the first nine years—post independence—were centers of clash between tarnished clan-based politicians until the military establishment stepped in and took the power. After the president of the Republic was assassinated days before the army forces stepped in, the parliament failed to elect his successor for nearly a week because of a poor leadership. Some members of that assembly insisted to inherit the presidency for that the president was from their clan. They did not comprehend the presidency system is for everybody who has talent to lead a nation. If that was the situation of a stable, though corrupted, system, today Somalia has both corrupted and weak parliament without a strong army forces that can save the country at least for a while.

The newly elected speaker, Shariif Hassan, is not only incapable to be the leader of the parliament by simply lacking the desired conditions for the position, but he has been an active member of the past and the present corrupted governments that failed to work for peace and stability for the country. He was the speaker of the previous TFG that in 2004 initiated the Ethiopian invasion to Mogadishu months before he joined the SRRC-Asmara Group. And, days before his election as a speaker he was among some cabinet members accused of public money misuses; many of us strongly believe that the speaker—then-minister of finance—employed this public money to fund his election campaign.

Therefore, the new speaker is not a man with a single mission today; he is a man with multiple missions. He intends to lead the parliament into other mistakes that can be as harmful as the Ethiopian invasion in 2006. He is not the kind of a speaker who understands the pain and the agony of the Somali people. His doctrine is all about gaining more wealth even if that requires selling out the entire country. One of the visible missions of the new speaker is to protect his friend and boss, president Sharif, from a possible vote of no confidence inside the parliament when president’s term ends next year. And, this is the main reason behind the selection of Sharif Hassan to the speaker of the parliament.

Idiotically, another mission of the new speaker is to spearhead the possible round-two-rift between president Sharif and Prime Minister Omar Sharmarke. In the coming few months, the new speaker and president Shariif will bond and unite against the friendless primer, Omar Sharmarke if he doesn't resign at present. Then, the weak prime minister (more educated but less energetic than the two Shariifs), will fight back. His rescue team will include the members of the parliament who voted against the speaker, his distant uncle, Faroole, and also some members of his cabinet as we have seen when president Sharif attempted to throw him out of office on May 26. Again, this conflict between the three men is not based on clannish doctrine; it is again all about power and money.

Realistically, the three men will avenge each other and sink one another in a similar fashion of the preceding TFG leaders. The cycle of another political confusion will lead to the installation of another poor leadership that serves the interest of the main player in the region (the Ethiopian regime) before they go to a similar path. If Sharif Hassan, the former and the present speaker of the TFG, did not collaborate with the enemy—and I have to say that as long as the Ethiopian politicians and not the people of Ethiopia maintain the policy of divide and rule against Somalis—I would give him the benefit of the doubt.

Accordingly, the election of Shariif Hassan Sheikh Adam as the speaker of the TFG parliament and giving him another chance to abuse a public office is just another way of adding insult to injury. He is not the right person for the position. Moreover, Somalis cannot trust him based on his public records as a former speaker and former finance minister who is accused of public embezzlements. Thus, He should resign from the speaker of the TFG parliament and live a normal citizen life and contribute positively the peace and the prosperity of the Somalis.

Qaranka online