In an opinion piece published on December 6, 2019, on Aljazeera titled ‘Why Abiy Ahmed’s Prosperity Party could be bad news for Ethiopia’ Awol Allo seems to fear the formation of the new party will bring the country ‘to the edge of an abyss’.
Going through the article, one hardly finds substantive reasoning for making such an alarming prediction solely based on the formation of a new political party,( curious why Awol labels it as Abiy’s party) by the ruling EPRDF party in Ethiopia.
By Awol’s own account the party being replaced i.e. the EPRDF ‘has always been a hodgepodge of ethnic groups that served the interests of its most dominant member, the TPLF, and ruled Ethiopia with an iron fist for nearly three decades’.
If indeed this was the case, Awol should be congratulating the new party, for breaking out of the shackle, bringing along marginalized ‘partner parties’ as full-fledged members and forming an inclusive party on the ashes of EPRDF, rather than making the dark prediction because of its formation.
Again, if in Awol’s view the new party is being mainly supported by a ‘diminishing block’ of Ethiopian nationalists with a very slim likelihood of winning a free and democratic election, why worry so much?
But as it becomes clear in the article, Awol’s fear lays somewhere else. Awol seems to believe that the only viable form of political mobilization and or organization ought to be based on ethnic identity, and is a bit upset because the new party is being supported by Ethiopian nationalists. Despite his claim that Ethiopian nationalists are a ‘diminishing block’, Awol fully knows that is not the case, and therein lies his fear.
I must acknowledge that there are some fringe elements with no serious political standing on the ground that might harbor, what Awol calls ‘fixation on a homogenizing conception of unity’, but to attempt to conflate these elements with Ethiopian nationalists is being dishonest. Political calculus can not be based by using fringe elements as core variables, but by considering all and especially main prevailing currents.
Awol might be too young to remember, but the prevailing form of political mobilization and organization in Ethiopia prior to, during and after the 1974 revolution was on a multinational basis until these forces were decimated by mistakes made, and but also, mainly by the diabolical actions taken by the Derg regime against them.
Granted, the atrocities of the Derg coupled with TPLF’s relentless campaign of destroying multinational organizations in the past 27 years ( as the late Meles used to say, ‘we will wait until they sprout and get on their feet and then cut them down!) make it seems, for uncritical observers, that the Ethiopian political field is only the playground of ethno nationalists. That I had not expected from a seasoned observer as Awol.
Ethiopian nationalism is a nationalism forged by millions who sacrificed for the preservation of the nation in the fight against foreign invaders, but also by hundreds of thousands who sacrificed their lives in the fight for equality, justice and the rule of law and it will prevail.
Abegaz Wondimu
The leader of the wrestled away organization, TPLF, in his speech at the end of the recent anti merger conference has stated that ‘We have seen our vulnerabilities due to conspiracies of internal and external forces to distract Ethiopia’. What he did not elaborate was who those internal and external conspirators are. What was his problem of not mentioning them by name? Isn’t this a recipe for unfounded and wild mistrust among the citizens of that country? Who are those conspirators, when and where did they conspire? Why does he feel personally threatened? It seems to be that way. Did the noble people of Tigray mulled over the necessity of holding such a conference. There must have been a sizable amount of expenses to plan and hold this conference and did the people there approve the spending? Or is that another brand of democracy at work?
He also added ‘We should learn from our past history that our foreign enemies are not only weakening our country but are actively fighting to dismantle it; this forum should be an opportunity to send a wakeup call to all Ethiopians.’ Amen to that!!! I hope everyone there has taken a lesson or two from what was experienced in the past of which sowing distrust among citizens is one of them that has left tracks of deaths and destruction in very recent history of that gem of the colored!!! Dear Your Excellency Dr, Debretsion! Do you have names? Not only names but when and where did the conspiracies take place? The citizens including the harmonious people of Tigray are entitled to know. Who, Where and when?
I see this article by Obbo Awol something written on loaded emotion and somehow rushed to the press without due diligence deliberation. As I have said umpteen time before issues strictly concerning the national question have been satisfactorily addressed in 1995 and during the years after that. Problems bedeviling the country as a whole politically and economically are commonly shared by every man and woman in every country. But bigots in every region want us to believe otherwise. These bigots are as always and everywhere smart alecks who are being ravaged by persistent dream of carving a territory to call it their own. These blabber mouths are the products of Marxist demagogues preceding them. The content of their diatribes could look different but their ammo is the same. They both know how to feed on raw emotion. Almost all of them are highly educated and have honed their arts from their days in college campuses. They have the skills on how to dissect their ethnic group and who to target with their poison. It is a proven fact that in any society there is always going to be a section that will be challenged or lack the sophistication to look thru the diatribe these smart alecks are throwing at it. To these goons this section of the society is their bread and butter. They strive on it. They enrich themselves at its expense with its blood and sweat. They use it as their fodder and always from a safe distance at their comfy homes. When this unfortunate section of the society is having nightmares from its inability to feed and clothe itself or its family adequately, the self designated smart aleck leaders suffer from over-eating indigestion and ballooning waist lines. Fillet mignon as the main course and minimum 10 Teff bread on the dinner table, baby!!!! When this gullible section of the society is spending nights with shaky roofs over its head counting stars these bigoted connivers don’t touch anything less than 3 bedrooms as residences. What the heck!!! They don’t even fly the economy class hoping to rub shoulders with Michael Cohen or Jeffrey Skilling someday somehow!!!!
Please read that as: …commonly shared by every man and woman in every region.