By Mikael Deribe
The life line of TPLF’s iron clad hold of power is the reluctance and inability of different Ethiopian political forces (in organization level) to move beyond their archaic and rigid political maneuvers. Each group seeks to obtain victory all alone in a quest to exercise its own political ideology without having to worry about appeasing any other organization. I doubt if they have realized yet that the old winner – loser politics will bring neither peace nor development to the people they claim to represent. TPLF has injected the possibility of cessation of any ethnic-based region by ratifying article 39 of its constitution early on. This issue all alone has been a single source of the uncompromising mentality reflected on the stubbornness of each political group and a problem that sustains TPLF’s hold of power by making a viable coalition of opposition forces nearly impossible.
Nationalist Ethiopians reject the idea of working with groups such as the OLF and ONLF by automatically citing their agenda of separating from Ethiopia and their account of Ethiopian history. OLF’s and ONLF’s claim of being “colonized” by Ethiopia angers many who consider Oromos and ethnic Somalis as fellow countrymen whom they have suffered alongside through the centuries long misrule under different regimes of our nation. Predictably, the TPLF regime works to exaggerate these differences as it knows that any dialogue and compromise between nationalists and cessationist will prove to be a major threat to their hold of power.
However, we should recognize that the leaders of OLF and ONLF have at different times shown their willingness to cooperate with nationalist forces (peaceful or armed) to work together toward liberating Ethiopia from the few TPLF mercenaries who live lavishly over the misery of our people. One example of this willingness is the formation of the Alliance for Freedom and Democracy (AFD) nearly two years ago that had TPLF leaders suffering from an acute case of paranoia. However AFD’s objectives were vague and lacked a clear picture of post-TPLF Ethiopia. AFD’s future endeavors were not discussed enough as some of the political forces in the alliance had conflicting political agendas. The alliance was not formed based on the prospect of bringing peace, stability and development to Ethiopia in a post-TPLF era but solely on the aim of overthrowing the TPLF-dominated regime. This apathy could have proved disastrous if AFD was viable until the eminent demise of the TPLF regime plunging our country into another political chaos.
Therefore, I believe, if any of the leaders of the Ethiopian opposition forces genuinely care for our people who currently suffer under a fascist regime, they will take the time to approach each other and set up a conference to at least discuss the root cause of the oppressive Ethiopian political culture and the prospect of a peaceful post-TPLF Ethiopia. This action will be crucial not only in clearing up the uncertainties of our future co-existence but also in nourishing our hope of liberating ourselves in unison. We Ethiopians do not expect these different political organizations to have a common manifesto overnight; however we do realize that there will not be unity if we remain afraid of dialogue and compromise. A viable coalition based on well-discussed political objectives regarding the pre and post-TPLF Ethiopia will be an unstoppable force not only to free our people from the ruthless tyranny, but also a remedy to tackle the many problems that has kept as the poorest of the poorest in the world.
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The writer can be reached deribe@yahoo.com
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aint that the truth!!!!
This is one of the articles that make me read ER….
August 12th, 2008 at 3:42 am
Mr. Mikael Deribe,
Thank you so much for your constructive article. You hit it the right place. Yes, we oppositions need to create our solidarity irrespective of our views and political structure. Actually, the reason why the Weyane criminal group has been in power is not because their party is strong but it was a repeated failure of the oppositions to understand and prioritize the common goal. Look at the recent failure of partitions among the kinijit leaders. Kinijit leaders could easily mangle the weyane junta, however due to the naïve mentality of Hailu shawel and his internal blinded supporters inside the leadership the big kinijit party was forcefully gone to undirected direction. Of course we have to still forget about the past inorder to acquire our future ambitions, i.e. to get rid of the weyane MENGA once and for all. However, I am still afraid that the members of the eyasu EPRP who have been badly damaged and dragged the opposition struggle will might still can destroy our solidarity. The so called eyasu EPRP gangs have been determined to fight against strong oppositions than Weyane. Most eyasu EPRP members are very confused and they cannot be able even to identify their no. 1 enemy. For them enemy no. 1 are the strong opposition parties and their leaders. For them enemy no. 2 is weyane. Therefore these worthless retries have been messing the struggle. So when ever oppositions solidify their solidarity they have neither to reveal nor to completely forget these eyasu EPRP gangsters. Look at what they preach on their Medias and radios, surrounded by garbage article on ethiolion, debeteraw, maheder and finote radio and other cult mechanism tools they use majorly to attack and target strong opposition leaders like Dr. Birhuanu and others. Anyway, I strongly agree with the article and I urge all leaders, members and supporters of anti weyane oppositions need to establish their solidarity just for the sake of getting rid of weyane.
We all have to bear in mind that oppositions best tool to fight weyane is UNITY. At the same time the only thing weyane doesn’t like from opposition side is THEIR UNITY. If so lets come together to resolve and minimize our difference with deep dialogue and focus on weyane.
Shame on eyasu EPRP gangsters and Death to weyane members!!!!
August 12th, 2008 at 8:00 am
This well written article is a must read for any patriotic Ethiopian who wants to see a peaceful, prosperous and just Ethiopia of the future. Time for narrow minded agendas should be thrown to the trash bin of history and all Ethiopians should have an openminded dialogue that puts the interests of all of Ethiopia's people without discrimination of anyone, the time for Ethnic dominance is what brought about all the endless conflicts in Ethiopia in the past decades and all Ethiopians specially those who benefited from the convoluted and oppressive policies of the past few regimes should come to grips with the new reality and accept the equality of participation and power sharing of all Ethiopians regardless of Ethnic origin.
August 12th, 2008 at 11:26 am
i agree with you but first all poletical parties need to re-examine its own agenda and remove those Leaders who are old,have been in the struggle for over 30 and 40 years and brings no fundamental change to the strugle.Take for example EPRP CROOKS.OLF,AND many more others.WE need new generation of leaders to accomplishn the above tasks.but with non visionary old leaders the strugle will not move an inch for the coming 20 or so years atleast.
August 12th, 2008 at 11:43 am
Yes, it takes two to tango. The OLF has come to the middle ground but could not find a partner for freedom, democracy and justice in Ethiopia. Most of the political organizations that carry the facade (name) ".. Ethiopia(n)…" are in reality ethnic parties just like the OLF, TPLF, etc but they do not want to admit that and pave the way to work for the entire people of Ethiopia. Having the name Ethiopia alone will not make them stand for the whole people. Terrorist TPLF for that matter has a facade 'EPRDF'. But we all know very well what this terrorist group is in reality. All the others that have the facade 'Ethiopia' are no different from the TPLF except may be replacing T with A. The Ethiopian people will never accept this again whether it is a T or an A. The Oromo people want a real partner to democratize Ethiopia. They do not want a back to square one game with those who vehemently oppose terrorist TPLF but only to be able to find themselves in its place instead of removing the entire repression machinery in Ethiopia for once and all.
Ayenew
August 12th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
It is very rare to have seen a country that has achieved unity through dialogue and compromise without first going to war to bring unity to its people. Indeed, on paper it looks simple to have a dialogue and a compromise, but in practice, dialogue and compromise never bring unity; therefore, unity is the product of war and defeat, not, as the article suggests, the product of dialogue and compromise.
For example, Kinijit has tried to have a dialogue and, perhaps, a compromise with Meles Seitanawi, but Meles has refused to do so, and as a result of Meles’ refusal for dialogue and a compromise, many of the opposing party would like to wage war against Meles to bring unity to the Ethiopian people, and that is the only way Meles understands, but most of us do not want war because we are afraid to die; however, unity is hard to achieve without a blood shed. I hate to say it, but that is the truth from the historical view points of many freedom fighters.
August 12th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Gettu, have you read the article?? The author is not suggesting dialogue and compromise with Meles or TPLF!! For TPLF bandits, there is not incentive for compromise with any opposition group. They have told us clearly to fight them and reclaim our country. They are absolutely determined to stay in power by any means necessary and prolong our misery. However, we need to talk to other opposition groups that are working to defeat the TPLF alone! The TPLF have the country's resources under control and they are using our money to buy weapons to kill us and they are also using our different political objectives to play us against each other. We need to move beyond the naive (perhaps ignorant) hate for each other and stand up together.
The take-home message of this article is: when the potentially powerful majority fight amongst each other or fail to resolve their differences, the obviously weak minority elites win the battle!
August 12th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
My brother (#7),
Yes, I have read the article, and I completely agree with your comment, but it has been proven that the different political opposing parties have failed many times to bring unity among themselves through dialogue and compromise, for each political organization, I assume, has its own hidden agenda, believing in itself that it would defeat the present oppressive regime without seeking the help of the other opposing political party, so when that happens it would assume a complete supremacy over the other political party. Therefore, as far as such a selfish motive exists in each political organization, there is no need for dialogue and compromise; it is simply a waste of time, money and energy. In this case, I argue that dialogue and compromise between the opposing political parties do not produce unity, and thus unity is not the product of dialogue and compromise.
August 13th, 2008 at 11:14 am
Gettu…a willing mind talks about what can be done and a not willing mind talks about what cannot be done! It is in our nature to offer nothing but destructive opinions and to be as pessemestic as possible about an optimistic and hopeful vission such as what's presented in this article. Let the oppositionists start a process to discuss thier differences and avoid Meles Zenwai's planned prophecy of Interhamwe! All out war without common political objectives will lead to more chaos! If we are not careful, we could be working in Meles' favore or in favore of those who hope to benefit from the disintegration of Ethiopia!
August 13th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
My brother (#9),
Dialogue and compromise are the weapons of weak people, and the reason why Meles does not want any dialogue and compromise with any of the opposing party is because he is on a strong position – his army, so we have a political opposing party – Ginbot 7, and if we all stick to this new political organization without wasting our times for the sake of dialogue and compromise with the other party, we will become stronger, and when Meles examines our strength and finds it that it is a mighty organization that could move even mountains, then he would surrender without resistance, or he would seek a dialogue and a compromise with us. Of course, we cannot have a dialogue and a compromise with an evil person, too much blood in his hand. We would simply ask him to put down his weapons and leave his office.
I believe to present an optimistic opinion to an audience is simple, but to fail to bring that optimistic opinion into reality is much worse than to offer nothing, and let us not forget that destructive opinions sometimes become constructive ones like destructive volcano that forms beautiful islands such as Hawaii. Yet, the opposing parties have been discussing both destructive and constructive opinions for almost 17 years and still have not come up with a single plan that would unite all the parties and defeat our common enemy – Meles Seitanawi.
August 14th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Gettu,
I have already said no compromise with Meles and I don't see a logical order in your reasoning and I don't want to repeat stuff or insult you, therefore, I will stop here! Thanks for caring!
August 14th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
My dear brother (#11),
Please, don’t stop commenting, and you have the right to insult or pretend to flatter me because of my logical or illogical order of reasoning, and I want you to spell out the illogical reasoning that has disturbed you in my comments so far. I am not a person who easily gets angry when a brother like you tries to correct my mistakes; I am always open for a constructive discussion at any time on any subject, comfortable or uncomfortable.
August 15th, 2008 at 8:50 am
Ok Gettu,
I guess I need to respect you at least for your sincerness. Well, first of all in your first comment (#6) you gave an example of Kinijit compromising with Meles and him refusing to take positive steps, so I doubted whether you read the artice or not, because the article does not talk about compromise and dialogue with Meles. The article suggests compromise and dialogue among opposition forces to act in unity to liberate Ethiopia!
Then in you second comment (#8) you wrote …
" it has been proven that the different political opposing parties have failed many times to bring unity among themselves through dialogue and compromise, for each political organization, I assume, has its own hidden agenda, believing in itself that it would defeat the present oppressive regime without seeking the help of the other opposing political party, so when that happens it would assume a complete supremacy over the other political party. Therefore, as far as such a selfish motive exists in each political organization, there is no need for dialogue and compromise; it is simply a waste of time, money and energy."
This "selfish motive" you pointed out again has been addressed in the article and the author had already suggested a way to eradicate this problem….here it is…
"…if any of the leaders of the Ethiopian opposition forces genuinely care for our people who currently suffer under a fascist regime, they will take the time to approach each other and set up a conference to at least discuss the root cause of the oppressive Ethiopian political culture and the prospect of a peaceful post-TPLF Ethiopia"
Thus, you can't conclude that compromise between opposition forces to have a common goal would be a waste of time. As the author put it, if the leaders of each organization care about the people they claim they represent, this is a key step to take!
So in your #10 comment you wrote….
"Dialogue and compromise are the weapons of weak people, and the reason why Meles does not want any dialogue and compromise with any of the opposing party is because he is on a strong position – his army, so we have a political opposing party"
I thought I already said dialogue with Meles is not discussed in this article! That's when it became hard to follow your order of reasoning logically!
Well, whatever organization we form to overthrow TPLF and whether our organization is successful or not, the content of the above article will still be relevant. There will never be peace or stability if majore political forces are not dealt with, with dialogue and compromise. If lets say Ginbot 7 replaces TPLF, will it tell the OLF and ONLF to wonder in the jungles like the dergue did and TPLF is doing now? I agree that we need to be armed to protect our nation, because I have been convinced TPLF compromises only in that language. But that's another issue…however, you cannot go to war with other forces who claim to represent oppressed people…talk to them and if possible work with them!! That's the point of the article above…:-)
August 15th, 2008 at 4:05 pm