By Mohamed Darod
Hargeisa (Somalilandsun): Haji Abdikarim Hussein Yousuf (Abdi-warabe) – a highly respected elder and member of parliament who is also one of the most senior citizen as far as it documented in age terms – has warned the country’s leading politicians of reviving tribalism and clan politics.
The respected Guurti member said the adoption of the multi-party system meant that clan-based system was over and that today’s aspiring politicians need to understand this and they should stop convening clan side meetings and clan-based lobbying to further their political agenda and believes that this only aggravates community divisions and encourages tribalism.
Haji Abdi Warabe held a press conference at his home in Hargeisa to respond to claims that politicians from the south of Hargeisa and the west of Burao are planning a clan conference and the man regarded as ‘the elder of Somaliland’ said “ such a conference is not right, we are not in a time to convene clan conferences, we sacrificed so much to end tribalism, holding such a conference would mean that all our efforts of building a nation would go to waste; it is a shameful and unacceptable for the reported politicians to hold a conference in the name of their clan or that of any other clan, we built a nation and created political parties, it is in the name of those three political parties one should organize conferences and present his views but it is wrong that one organizes conferences in the name of his clan, the politicians organizing such a thing must abandon this and stop reviving tribalism,”
Haji Abdi Warabe added “ Any politician thinking that employing clan politics and using his clan as a way of bettering his chances is only isolating himself from the country’s wider electorate or the support of other clans, i would tell women and youth to say no to these type of politicians and never vote for them,”
Haii Abdi Warabe, who was apparently infuriated by the idea of reviving clan conferences, advised the politicians believed to be organizing this conference to present their political ambitions and build their case through the country’s three political parties “ Those politicians should stop this, and the public young and old, men and women, urban or rural dwellers should all say no to the revival of tribalism, tribalism would destroy our brotherhood and unity, if a politician wants to get elected he must be do so through the political party and the ballet box but he shouldn’t be dividing the community along tribal lines.”
On the other hand, two of the politicians who took part a preliminary meeting of this proposed conference Mr. Ismael Hurre Buubaa and the former minister of planning Mr. Ali Sanyare have both insisted the two clans living in the south of Hargeisa and the west of Burao are convening such a conference to discuss common matters affecting both clans and both politicians insist the conference presents threat to no one.
