While farmers lose their land
When government officials spend money
On weapons instead of cures
When the upper class is extravagant
While the poor have nowhere to turn
All this robbery and chaos
It is not in keeping with eternal values
If you over esteem great men
People become powerless
If you overvalue possessions
People begin to steal.
I would like to make clear from the start that the political developments in Ethiopia have helped me let go of some of my fixed concepts. Sometimes I must enjoy freedom from my own ideas, because such freedom opens the gate to infinite possibilities and inspiration. And also to more creative inquiries and listening. At times it is also better to let things take their course, trusting the wisdom of the universe and ordinary people. Since I think that I have no private political agenda, I can remain calm and learn from events what I can. At the same time, reserving my right to raise questions and voice my opinions even if I am wrong, as long as I live. I realize today, more than at any time in my life, that ideologies and dogmas, no matter how refined they may be, put limitations on human understanding and compassion. It is said the spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not sure that it is right. I do really appreciate the release of political prisoners who should not have been in prison in the first place, and the return home of opposition leaders, media figures and others some of whom were accused of terrorism without the slightest evidence. I do appreciate the end of or even the lull in indiscriminate and deliberate police and military violence and atrocity against innocent people. The end of the unnecessary and mindless conflict with Eritrea is welcome.
I was impressed also by the bi-partisan congressional resolution on Ethiopia in the United States of America. It did directly encourage openly changes in Ethiopia for the first time as far as I know. This shows that American democracy has not lost its moments of greatness even under president Trump whose foreign policy is extremely divisive and contradictory especially in the Middle East. I do not know how far the bi-partisan consensus can go to help Ethiopians to transform Ethiopia from an empire dominated by the Abyssinian minority, calling itself a federal republic, into a normal multi-ethnic or multinational country. As we know all previous attempts at crucial changes from above in Ethiopia were followed by swift and bloody reversals. What is different this time? Mainly, as I see it, it is the higher political awareness of the oppressed peoples and their commitment to peaceful struggle. But as long as this awareness is not translated into really representative democratic organizations and state institutions there is no guarantee that the process will continue. Outside encouragement to democracy is welcome. But the real democratic changes must come from inside. Otherwise the Ethiopian bureaucracy dominated by the Abyssinian Angst can block any substantial progress. Most Oromo bureaucrats themselves who seem to occupy important position in the political order in Ethiopia today suffer from the Abyssinian political mentality . There is no greater illusion than this fear in Ethiopia.
Under this condition I have no intention of emotionally joining the caravan of people who unconditionally rally around the person of the new EPRDF prime minister Abiy Ahmed. He may be well intentioned. But that is not the point. Someone did say good is not good, where better is expected. Democracy does not fall upon us from heaven. Days before the return of OLF from Eritrea to Ethiopia I made a mild statement on the process in Ethiopia in its paltalk room. My text was blocked at once. Certain academics with this faction do write impressive things about democracy and Gada values but they do not seem to care about lack of democracy in their own group. Opposition and government parties cannot give to the people what they themselves do not have in their own organizations-democracy. Each of them needs to put their own house in order in the first place. This needs more sustained struggle from below.
If there is will to do that and to take the necessary time to achieve it instead of rushing ahead for power the prospect seems good. But servile members who obeyed orders from above for decades and their leaders will not relinquish their control voluntarily to independently thinking educated young generation unless, as said, there is organized pressure from below. How much this is happening I cannot say. I think the people should continue their peaceful struggle indefinitely in all regions in more peaceful and refined ways than before and with more solidarity and unity so that democratic institutions evolve in time from below. That way we can arrive at the minimum of truly representative self governments for all the peoples of Ethiopia without exception. If the EPRDF organizations encourage this process from within themselves in the first place, which is, in my opinion, unlikely, they deserve a lasting credit and can legitimately participate in the process of change. That means they have to renounce in practice, not just in theory, their self righteousness and their claim to exclusive power.
But the passion for worshipping and obeying charismatic individuals considered as saviours of the country and raising them to absolute political power and even to sainthood runs deep in Abyssinia. And it is the cause of much suffering. Already some are talking of a new Moses in Ethiopia when they talk about the new prime minister. Others are lobbying to return Ethiopia to the gloomy days of the old feudal provinces. It is also right to ask how new is the new prime minister anyway in reality. He is after all sponsored by the ruling EPRDF elite. Some are talking of the Ethiopian prime minister and the Eritrean leader as possible candidates for the Nobel Prize. Will it help them to introduce democracy in a more credible way? I doubt very much. The unparalleled inertia of the Abyssinian dominated Ethiopian bureaucracy is a major obstacle to any reformer from above, no matter how genuine he may be.
Some opposition leaders were saying on the eve of their return home from exile that their main concern was mainly to rally around the prime minister to save the country. To save the country from whom? I was astonished to hear that especially from Oromo leaders! Actually nobody was threatening the country unless they mean the people who participated in the peaceful protest. None of these people did raise as we all know demands that jeopardized the geographic unity of Ethiopia burning still in the Abyssinian imagination.. If so how do these leaders claim to represent the same people if they are afraid of them? It sound like a riddle but is not for those who know the reality of Ethiopia.
But more important at this point is the likely possibility that the Oromo and the Amhara factions in the EPRDF are preparing themselves to win the next election in an overwhelming way by appearing to distance themselves further and further from the TPLF and by riding on the popularity of the prime minister. Will they succeed in neutralizing and marginalizing the mostly charismatic opposition leaders and media figures by letting them have stakes in the system: money in the bank, homes, investments, portfolios, some desks in the parliament and other means? If that happens who is to blame? Part of the blame will certainly fall on the media bosses who have been engaged in misinforming the people by exaggerating the degree of independence that the Oromo and Amhara cliques in the EPRDF achieved from the TPLF.
That exaggeration may serve the old TPLF very well. And if the two cliques win the coming election that may be the best scenario the TPLF can hope for. It has already managed to absorb cleverly the anger of its followers in its home base on the issue of returning badme to Eritrea under the pretext that the decision to end the conflict was taken by Oromo and Amhara dominated government in Addis!
I think the Tigrayan political elites in Ethiopia and Eritrea today need each other more than anytime in their history no matter what their pretensions to the contrary may be. To underestimate them is also to commit serious error.
Since I left Ethiopia in 1966 I have always tried to understand politics better by reading and engaging in discussions. Today it is becoming difficult for me to see through the jungle of contradictions and self contradictions that dominate politics especially in our region. In the Middle East merciless military dictators, oil oligarchs and mullahs are becoming more aggressive. They have been allowed to destroy Yemen and to complicate the tragedy of the Syrian people. Yet our prime minister was upbeat after his visits to Saudi Arabia and Egypt. More questions need to be raised. I know for example that the Eritrean government did encourage Ethiopian opposition leaders including the OLF faction based on its soil to talk to the Ethiopian prime minister and join the process of reconciliation in Ethiopia. What did the Ethiopian government do in turn to help the Eritrean opposition leaders based in Ethiopia to achieve national dialogue in Eritrea likewise? Do Eritreans not need democratic changes as much?
The drama of the Abyssinian political elites and their Oromo colleagues seems to have reached a new level of complexity and dissimulation. It may dissipate entirely the energy of the protest movement causing great disappointments with far reaching consequences.
I think we must give ourselves time and space to think well. We can refine our attitudes towards peaceful struggle. We normally associate struggle with deprivation, pain and brutality. It should not be always like that. Actually it must be joyful mobilizing our physical and mental energy and alertness with much less hedonism and hilarity, passing a new culture of struggle from generation to generation. The new generation will be tested by the realities of life in ways we never dreamed and face challenges we never imagined, but that will enable them to achieve more nobel deeds with ever expanding organizational efficiency, love and commitment. The problem is that fear of freedom is still strong especially in Abyssinia. Those factions which still foment old fears and still refuse to recognize the right of the oppressed peoples to self determination will not relent and let go of their entrenched positions easily. The idea that we have no other alternatives than adding together or mutual destruction is a concession to these groups. It is not helpful.
Recently I came under pressure from Oromo errand boys and others who pretended to be friends for sometime trying to persuade me to join the caravan of supporters. Certainly I would like to go back to my dear first homeland and join the dear ones if I am not deterred from peacefully speaking out my mind. I switched to vegetarian raw food for health reasons- mostly to vegetables and nuts with the exception of peanut which is available in Ethiopia. I must see to it that I get my food so that I will not starve!