Somali Parliament: The Dysfunction Continues

Somali parliament has set a new record: four brawls in one month.

The legislators hurled chairs, punched each other, and even used pens to stab their opponents. All in the name of who would be the Speaker of the parliament.

These confrontations, apparently, seem to gain momentum every time the MPs set foot in the chamber. It is odd that an appointed parliament that has not been meeting rergularly in the first place, and hence lacked a sense of purpose, managed to gather four times in the last 30 days only to engage in scuffles. The cause of this melee is the removal of the Speaker of the parliament, Sharif Hasan Sh. Adan. One faction supported the Speaker and the other opposed him vigorously, and they succeeded in replacing him with MP Madobe Nunow.

Somali President Shaikh Sharif called for an urgent security meeting, and then later condemned the action of the parliament to remove the Speaker as “null,” and “void.” Moreover, the President lamented about the destruction of parliament furniture and equipments, and described the episode as an unfortunate event. The brawls are now under government investigation.

The fighting, according to Somalia expert Professor Afyare Abdi Elmi, is “uncalled for.” In an interview with the Toronto Star (01/05/2012), Professor Elmi pointed out the underlying issue of these brawls as being power struggle. “This is a conflict of political survival of one group against the other,” he said.

Even former Prime Minister, Mohamed Abdullahi “Farmajo,” an old nemisis of the Speaker, opined from his cubicle in the state Transportation Department in Buffalo, New York, calling the parliament’s move constitutionally sound.

But the outbreak of violence isn’t only a Somali problem. From Ukranie to Great Britain, politics can be hazardous to your health.

Dirty Rotten Eggs!

The Ukrainian parliament has seen it all: fistfights among MPs, choking, and chairs hurled. In a debate about extending the Russian navy’s lease in the Crimean port for the Black Sea Fleet-in exchange for cheaper oil- MPs got into fights which resulted in one deputy being taken away from the chamber on a stretcher with a serious head injury. One deputy had a wrist injury. Politicians had to cover their mouths due to smoke bombs in the chamber. The Speaker of the parliament had to be shielded by two of his aides, with an umbrella, to conduct business after some rotten eggs and tomatoes were thrown at him. But one deputy who is a supporter of the government denied if there was even a brawl. “The opposition hit their own heads themselves,” said the deputy.

Finally, the motion passed with 236 out of 450 votes. Russia must have felt relieved.

Bring on the Hardware!
South Korean National Assembly has a long history of skirmishes. There is a brawl there, at least, once every nine months.

Simply stated, it is a hostile working environment.

In a debate aimed at lifting restrictions on ownership of TV stations, the MPs from the opposition did what they had to do to guarantee that the proposed bill did not pass. They feared that the new bill would lead to sympathetic media coverage for the South Korean President. The opposition members physically prevented ruling party members from entering the chamber by stacking up furniture against the doors. Government supporters responded by introducing chainsaws and ‘makeshift battering rams’ to break down blocked doors. Lawmakers bellowed at each other and pummeled one other. Female lawmakers got into the scuffle and started grabbing each other by the neck.

On one occasion, opposition members used sledgehammers to pound on the doors of a committee room that was discussing a bill to ratify a trade pact with the USA. One MP used tear gas in the hall of the National Assembly. The Economist aptly called it, “South Korea: Don’t Shed a Tear.”

Don’t You Dare Use that Word
Kuwait is a small wealthy Arab emirate that has a history of stability. Though most Kuwaitis are Sunnis, there is a Shiite population in the country.

Even tiny Kuwait is represented in the Guantanamo Bay detention facility by two of its nationals. Their detention has been a major concern for Kuwaiti officials. Last year, according to Wikileaks, Kuwait’s interior minister was quoted as saying that he hoped the detainees never return to their country. But publicly, Kuwait’s foreign minister, according to AFP, had declared that his country would never abandon “its sons,” who are held in Guantanamo “without trial.”

In a parliament session in May, 2011, discussing the case of the detainees, a Shiite lawmaker, Hussein al-Qallaf, committed a faux pas when he referred the two detainees as “terrorists,” and al-Qaida radicals.

Using the loathsome expression of the “T” word was tantamount to blasphemy.

Retribution was swift.

The Sunni lawmakers responded with venom, attacked Al-Qallaf and “floored” him. The Speaker of the parliament announced a raft of sanctions, among them suspending the parliament for one month.

Violence In Italian
The Italian legislature was not the ideal place to serve in ancient Rome. After all, it was where Julius Caesar was assassinated by fellow senators led by Cassius and Brutus in 44 B.C. Caesar’s killing led to a civil war.

These days, the Italian legislators are kinder and gentler souls, compared to ancient times. Yes, they fight, from time to time, but the violence is manageable. Not long ago, the MPs used to hurl chairs at each other regularly. But today, the chairs are tightly screwed to the floors.

Several months ago, the Italian Speaker, Gianfranco Fini, 59, caused a controversy when he gave a TV interview in which he directed much of his woofing against the leader of the opposition, Umberto Bossi. At the time, parliament was debating a controversial retirement reform plan that would have increased retirement age by two years to 67. Fini, in the interview, said, “Everyone knows his wife [Bossi’s] retired at 39.”

One thing you do not do in politics is talk about your opponent’s wife, and, definitely, not her age.

There is an anecdote about two politicians who were engaged in a heated debate. One of them screamed at the other and said, “What about the powerful interest that controls you?” The other politician yelled back, “You leave my wife out of this!”

The parliament session that followed the interview was, by all measures, “molto confrontional.” Supporters of Bossi went after supporters of Fini with vengeance. They exchanged insults and punches. According to Reuters, two legislators were seen going right for the jugular by grabbing each other’s neck.

Sadly, the brawl was particularly ill-timed. There were school-children in the chamber who were brought there specifically to teach them how MPs worked.

Lesson learned.

No Shoes, Please!
When an Iraqi journalist threw his shoes at visiting American President, George Bush, in a news conference in Baghdad, the incident was seen by many as the epitome of degradation. To many, the act was the defilement of everything sacred to Arab culture. Traditionally, you don’t throw your shoes at anyone, no matter how negatively the person is viewed.

But it happened.

Bush was never in danger as the Secret Service agents were close by, but, for the dramatics, he ducked the shoes and made a joke of the incident.

Well, the tradition of throwing shoes came alive again in the Afghan parliament.

In July, 2011, the parliament was debating about rocket and artillery attacks being fired from Pakistan when a female legislator, Hamida Ahmadzai, demanded that two of the country’s vice presidents be summoned. That request did not bode well with a former army general in the parliament.

That’s another female lawmaker named Nazifa Zaki.

Yes, even in Afghanistan, there are women army officers.

Zaki did not like what Ahmadzai was proposing and considered her request hostile in tone and content. She became a volcano that erupted.

Zaki stood up and threw her shoe at Ahmadzai.

But that was not enough for the army general.

She started walking in the direction of her colleague to teach her a lesson or two about “good manners.”

Ahmadzai, in fairness, did not scrimp or hide. Nor did she waft away gracefully. She threw a water bottle in the direction of Zaki. According to CNN, Zaki punched Ahmadzai once or twice in the face, and the two began to tussle.

Whereas some male legislators managed to separate the two female lawmakers, but there were others who found the incident amusing.

The episode shattered the conventional wisdom that female lawmakers do not throw punches. Indeed, they can do whatever male lawmakers can, or better.

Who said politics is boring, even in Afghanistan?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=uGtXyL_22fc

Crossing the Line
It was the famous English parliamentarian, John Bright, who said in 1865 that “England is the mother of Parliaments.” Many legislatures across the globe tried to model after the British model but, unfortunately, few have succeeded in doing so.

Members of the government party sit on one side and the opposition across them. The two factions are separated by lines and the lawmakers are required not to cross these demarcations during debates for fear they may attack each other.

For you faint-hearted, there is a reason for this division. In the founding period of the parliament, members were allowed to carry weapons into the House of Commons.

The Speaker has, through the years, admonished members of the House not to use words such as “coward,” “hooligan,” “rat,” “swine,” and “traitor.”

And the Winner is…
The Taiwanese parliamentarians are known to engage in fistfights when things go sour. It appears to be a political culture that has no space for compromise. There are some politicians who are programmed by rage.

Strike that.

Some lawmakers are prone to rages. They are passionate about their positions and are willing to demonstrate that in action.

According to Foreign Policy, these lawmakers “don’t just oppose one another, they despise each other. Indeed, they have a greater tradition in fistfights in the halls of government than cooperating on policy.” In other words, it is a world of, “an utter and acrimonious political stalemate.”

There are, of course, some cynics who think that these brawls are staged “publicity stunts.”

But that is not the whole picture. The Taiwanese parliament, better known as, the Legislative Yuan, must be doing something positive. At least, it won the Ig Nobel Peace Awards.

Ig Nobel Peace Prize is an annual award that is given for the purpose of making “first people laugh and then make them think.” It is the anti-Nobel Peace Prize.

The Legislative Yuan was presented the prize for “demonstrating that politicians gain more by punching, kicking, and gouging each other than by waging war against other nations.”
***
Back to Somalia, the brawls among Somali legislators aren’t all bad. The good news is nobody has been killed.

Years ago, Somali politicians would have murdered each other rather than disagree on a political position. But today, they can only hurt each other with the pens they hold in their hands.