January 5, 2018 | Morning Headlines
Ministry Of Finance Says Progress Was Made In 2017
04 January – Source: Shabelle Media -117 Words
The Minister of Finance for Somalia’s Federal government, Abdirahman Dualle Beyle has announced that his Ministry has made a tangible progress during the year 2017. Speaking at an event held in Mogadishu, Minister Beyle noted that he has achieved an important step of raising revenues in order to provide basic services to the public.
The Federal government of Somalia managed to pay the salaries of the public servants and the soldiers who had not been paid well by the past governments. Somalia is achieving economic development despite challenges as the country is now recovering from decades-long conflict and fighting against Al Shabaab for years.
Key Headlines
- Ministry Of Finance Says Progress Was Made In 2017 (Shabelle News)
- Why The 3 Somali Ministers Were Sacked (Radio Dalsan)
- Juha: My Sacking Was Revealed To Me By A Radio (Goobjoog News)
- IRM’s Wells Initiative A Boon For Somalis (Bernama News Agency)
- Somaliland Is A Beacon Of Democracy In An Unstable Region (Cleveland.com)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Why The 3 Somali Ministers Were Sacked
04 January – Source: Radio Dalsan – 262 Words
True to Radio Dalsan’s analysis and prediction that was published several months ago it came to pass that Ministers Abdi Farah Said Juha, Yusuf Garaad and Khadra Ahmed Dualle would face the sack. Interior Minister Abdi Farah Said Juha was in charge of a sensitive and significant portfolio in a country merging from over two decades of civil war. He found himself under intense scrutiny when he fired his Director General(DG) with no consultation with his boss the Prime Minister of Somalia. PM Hassan Khaire had to intervene when the public demanded answers for the summary dismissal of the DG.
There had been concerns about alleged absenteeism and supposed unnecessary trips abroad at the expense of the tax payer in a period of crisis. Sacked Foreign Affairs Minister Yusuf Garaad was under public scrutiny a few months after his appointment. His critics pointed out supposed disconnect to the happenings in Somalia, especially at a time when regional states were raising concerns over the need to have them included in foreign affairs matters that directly affect them.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry had been under scrutiny recently following a controversial decision by the Minister Khadra Ahmed Dualle to dissolve the Somalia Chamber of Commerce. Insiders say relations between the Chamber of Commerce and the Minister had been at an all time low consequently affecting the running of the body. Radio Dalsan had learnt that no consultation was made with the PM prior to the controversial move by Dualle.
Juha: My Sacking Was Revealed To Me By A Radio
04 January – Source: Goobjoog News – 221 Words
Former federal interior minister , Abdi Farah Juha came to know of his sacking through the media when he heard the announcement on the radio while on his way to Mogadishu airport to fly to Puntland state. He was travelling to Puntland in order to organize and supervise the expected arrival of President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo in the coming days in Garowe, the state capital. “This morning I was on my way to the airport to supervise the visit of the president in Puntland when I heard through the radio of my sacking from my ministerial post. Authority revolves and everyone is entitled to” posted Juha in his Facebook page.
He expressed his appreciation towards president Farmaajo and PM Khaire who honoured him to be part of the administration. He appealed for forgiveness on those he assumed he brushed up the wrong way while executing his official duties. “I seek forgiveness from those we have collided on duty through difference in thoughts and work. The country is a federal one and the administration is a consultative one and the aim is interwoven even if differences exist on federalism” added Juba.
Abdi Farah Juha was among three key ministers sacked this morning by PM Hassan Ali Khaire. The other two are ministers Yussuf Garad Omar and Khadra Ahmed Duale who held foreign affairs and trade and industry respectively.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
IRM’s Wells Initiative A Boon For Somalis
04 January – Source: Bernama News Agency – 144 Words
The initiative by Islamic Relief Malaysia (IRM) to build wells in Somalia is not only aimed at supplying water to the locals but also for farming and development in the strife-torn country.So far IRM has dug more that 40 wells which has helped development in several areas including Somaliland, Puntland and parts of southern Somalia.
Its chief executive Zairulshahfuddin Zainal Abidin said they would next be building two more wells in the Shabelle province at a cost of RM1.5 million. Although they had achieved the collection target, the public could still donate for the cause until the end of this month, he told Bernama after appearing as a guest on the Nine11 programme produced by Bernama News Channel today. “The wells we are building benefits Somalis as a source of water for daily use, farming, for schools and health facilities,” he said.
OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE
“It’s time for the U.S. Congress to reassess U.S. policy on Somalia and not only hold hearings on the deepening U.S. military involvement in Somalia, but also examining Somaliland as a partner worth recognizing diplomatically,”
Somaliland Is A Beacon Of Democracy In An Unstable Region
04 January – Source: Cleveland.com – 822 Words
In November, the voters of the unrecognized Republic of Somaliland in the volatile Horn of Africa region went to the polls to elect a new leader. It would be the second time since 2010 that an elected leader of Somaliland handed over power peacefully to another one. It would be the first time an incumbent president, in this case Ahmed Silanyo, decided not to run, which is very rare in the Middle East or Africa.
The Somaliland National Election Commission, to combat fraud, deployed the world’s first-ever iris recognition technology to all polling stations. During the election campaign, all political parties had free access to state and private media and campaigned freely to conduct get-out-the-vote efforts. On Election Day, thousands of voters drove or walked miles to their polling stations. They stood all day patiently in the baking sun, waiting eagerly just to vote. They were voting to decide their own political destiny, and to help efforts for Somaliland to gain diplomatic recognition.
According to the National Election Commission (NEC), they chose Muse Bihi Abdi with 55 percent of the vote. Abdi is a former military commander who fought against the murderous and corrupt Siad Barre regime of Somalia. In an op-ed piece in the Financial Times of London, Bihi acknowledged the challenges facing Somaliland: dilapidated infrastructure; a rudimentary health care system; corruption; and recurring droughts due to climate change that decimated Somaliland’s livestock. The country’s economy depends on the export of mutton and sheep to the Middle East.
Bihi also vowed to attract foreign investment to address youth unemployment. So far, the deal by Dubai-based DP World to invest $442 million to expand the deep sea port of Berbera is the largest single foreign investment Somaliland has received. The new project will help landlocked Ethiopia, the region’s largest economy, to get alternate access to shipping lanes. In 1992, following the collapse of the authoritarian Somali government, Somaliland declared independence from the rest of Somalia. The 4 million Somaliland people, not by sheer luck but through painstaking reconciliation and hard work, embarked a nation-building process. Today, what Somalilanders have for their efforts is a legitimate, functioning state, albeit a poor one, that has the consent of the people, maintains law and order, protects its people, and boasts a security force that has denied a sanctuary for terrorists.
In May 2001, the will of the people was supported in a referendum for Somaliland independence by more than 90 percent of the population. Somaliland’s frequent free and fair elections and the peaceful transfer of power demonstrate that Somalilanders not only have managed their own affairs but also have embraced democracy and the rule of law in a dangerous but strategically located region, infested with violence, corruption, despotism and terror. Yet efforts for Somaliland to gain diplomatic recognition, or even acknowledge its transformation into the only functioning democratic state in the Horn of Africa, for political reasons, languish.