I have watched the debate of three chairman parties; the UCID, WADANI and KULMIYE. It happened to be one of the most well organized debates I have ever seen. It was very interesting. The mediator focused on the tipping points of the current affairs of the nation, the main cause of government ineffectiveness, and the party’s their agenda and their platform. The star television has exposed the integrity, honest media, unbiased and faithful reflection. It is fascinating. Those who asked questions did amazingly and it is safe to say they are very intelligent and intellectual. The questions they asked were interesting – they were basic with facts and current issues that are ongoing in Somaliland these days.
How the debater answered the question and how I have evaluated each one of them? I called the ugly, bad and dishonest. I do not want to point the finger who is the ugly, bad and dishonest, but I left the reader to identify it. I did not mean hurt their personalities and call them bad words for themselves, but what I want to express how they were answered the question that audiences asked.
The first question asked was precise with a short background history that include their birthday, the time they became active members of the political parties, and the platform of your party. My observation is that they totally failed to answer that question with integrity and honest. This question reminded me of the current president and his controversial birthdays that he claimed one day, he was born in 1936 and another day he claimed 1942.
Second question was really good and valid but the answers was offensive and belligerent, no one answered the question professionally. Each one of them took the question personal and as a direct attack, instead of trying to answer it in a positive way. One of them tried to insult the person who has asked the question, but overall the way they answered was a total fail.
The third question was one of the most interesting and precisely brought out the weakest in each one of the leaders. Observe the quality of these questions: as long as you’re not elected the president for two terms, why not being a consultant of the party and vacant the chairman of the party? And, the house you are leading has been blindly passing the budget for the years of 2008 to 2013, without even look at it. Is that how you are expecting to lead the whole nation, because it looks like the current president and you are on the same boat? The third question was, there have been killings for last five years and the current president has stayed silent about the killings and has never talked about it. As the chair of the party and representative of the executive branch, where do you stand on this evil act?
Did each one of them answer the above questions correctly? I’ll leave that up to the readers and those who viewed the debate. But in my opinion and thorough assessment they failed to answer these question like we would have like them to. Their answers were self-justifying and defensive.
The fourth question was the party conventions, which has tribal basic conventions. The three leaders did not answer those question in the same way. Two of them denied to answer, but the one who agreed insisted that the phenomenon is a nation tragedy, therefore, he insisted that it needs to be fix as soon as possible.
The fifth question was the international community who asked for help from the WADANI party. The person who asked the question has requested the chairman of WADANI party to halt the demanding help from the international community, and to try to solve the problem internally.
The sixth question was the inequality of social life in the nation. A great example was the education system. The private schools have been challenging the western schools, but in contrast, the public schools have failed to challenge the private ones. That question did not receive a proper answered by any of the members.
To make a long story short. The last question was the recognition of the country and what you have achieved so far? Two of them were tired to answer as it is but the third one blamed the international community particularly the western countries and five powerful nations. Overall the three chairpersons failed to answer the question honestly and to the best of their ability. Their answers were defensive, self-justifying (rude at times), offensiveness and some even lacked knowledge. I would like to conclude with a George Bernard quote, “beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.”
Osman Awad
