By: Liban Ahmad
Somalilandsun- Six months have passed since Khatuumo administration was declared in Taleeh district. Militias loyal to the administration have clashed with Somaliland forces twice at Kalabaydh and Tukaraq. Both clashes point to a lack of mandate awareness as far as political leadership of Khatuumo is concerned. President Ahmed Elmi ( Ahmed Karaash) who is expected to hand over the rotating presidential duties to a new president in line with the Khatuumo charter, has achieved less politically compared to traditional leadership of Khatuumo , the Garaads , now based in Mogadishu.
The latter succeeded in standing up to Puntland which attempted to appoint Sool traditional leaders who will select MPs for the proposed new Somali Parliament which will elect a president in Mogadishu in August 2012.
The G10, the Diaspora group which organised the 2011 London conference and who still has an influence in the political decisions of Khatuumo leaders, has put the accent on co-existence with neighbouring on the basis of the guiding principles in the declaration of the London conference in 2011. G10 group has forgotten or ignored to address the reconciliation for people for whom Khatuumo was formed. The group insists Taleeh conference was a comprehensive gathering in which all intra-clan political differences were addressed.
For Khatuumo ‘s collective leadership banking on the consent of people without taking steps to solve persistent political problems is an option that will speed up Khatumo’s irrelevance. Ardent Khatuumo supporters can learn a lot from Taleeh conference in which traditional and political leaders withdrew support for Puntland although support for Puntland was once an unquestionable obligation towards kinship-based regional administration. Past political failures were caused by political choices of political leaders although it was traditional leaders who gave both Puntland and Khatuumo political representation privileges in 1998 and 2011 respectively. Contributor fatigue has begun to affect the Diaspora groups who pledged to contribute money to the process of building institutions for Khatuumo. Khatuumo leaders had better avoid mistaking Sool people’s right to genuine political representation for political unaccountability. Khatumo’s main mandate is reconciliation based on political accountability.
Liban Ahmad
libahm@gmail.com
