By Yilma Bekele

It is election season in California. Two positions are open. The governorship and Federal Senate positions are up for grabs. Both parties, that is the Democrats and Republicans are going thru the primary process to nominate their strongest candidates for the November elections. November is Six months away but the contest is becoming hot.

Television and radio are the two preferred medias to reach the electorate. We are being inundated by sleek commercials costing millions of dollars. The candidates are spending their own money, their supporter’s money and their friend’s money as if it grows on trees. There is no such thing as ordinary elections. It is both art and a science. Nothing is left to chance. Commercials are prepared after a lengthy process of focus groups, pools, psychological impact, sociological studies and good old ‘makes me feel good’ assessments.

There have been lengthy debates between the contestants organized by independent groups. Free, vibrant and long debates on issues are standard. There is a media watch group checking all the facts thrown by the candidates. A small mistake can be their undoing, so they are very careful before they open their mouth. They avoid what is known as ‘foot in the mouth disease’. Supporters organize town hall meetings, neighborhood functions and public rallies to introduce their candidate. Fans put signs on their front lawn, windows, cars and every conceivable open space to advertise their preferences. They set up phone banks to call every voter, prepare mailers, use their email accounts and move heaven and earth to reach every last voter.

There is no such thing as government imposed ‘Election code of conduct’ on the candidates, journalists or the party’s. The local Police, State Police and the Federal police (FBI) are not part of the equation. The State has not yet threatened the candidates regarding their positions on issues and the possibilities of being charged for their frank opinions. The Governor has not warned the party’s regarding any wild intentions of withdrawal from the election. No one has offered to come and observe the election. The candidates have not requested observers either.

The candidates know that the voter is sovereign. They are no attempt to belittle the citizen or intimidate an opponent. It is not acceptable behavior. One-person one vote is the rule. It is not always perfect but there is no organized attempt to steal, cheat or exclude.

The voting in our neighborhood is conducted in a small church around the corner from our house. They have a roll of names from DMV, check your name and hand you a ballot. Ethiopians that have arrived a matter of six years ago and that have acquired US citizenship can vote. The only requirement is citizenship and age.

It is election season in Ethiopia too. Citizens are voting for membership in the Federal Parliament. The Party with the highest number of winners will form the next government. That is well and good, but as they say the ‘devil is in the details’. There are a few issues we have to clarify in this Kafkaesque process of election in Ethiopia. Kafkaesque is an apt description of what is billed as election. Here I am using the term to mean ‘intentional distortion of reality, senseless disorienting, often menacing complexity and a sense of impending danger’ by the one party state.

To begin with there is the ‘National Election Board of Ethiopia’ (NEBE) appointed by the ruling party. The members of this government body owe their allegiance to the party. Please see PM Meles’s interview with Stephen Sackur’s regarding the election board. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY2NNOYKM8M) Their survival depends on the whims of the Prime Minster and his TPLF party Politburo (it is an old Soviet term to mean Central Committee of the ruling mafia group). It is alive and well in Ethiopia. There is also an ‘Election Code of Conduct’ proposed as (‘”I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse” kind) and a few ‘chosen’ ones signed the contract. The ‘code of conduct’ is an all-reaching agreement that controls the activities of the Party’s, the Media the Candidates and the air they breathe. It is entirely drawn by the ruling TPLF party and the TPLF appointed Judiciary is the final arbitrator of all issued raised. If the election is a football match this will be analogous to having the TPLF assign the referee, linesmen, the football rules and is in control of the stadium with its own security force.

There are over eighty political party’s registered by NEBE. All but less than five are organized by the ruling TPLF party. Most exist by name only to be activated on a need basis. They can field candidates recruited by the regime, accept state funds thru the ruling party and show up for make believe debates and official functions. They have assigned ‘leaders’ from their own ethnic group but TPLF cadres (mostly Tigrai) run the show from behind.

The fantasy created is so real that it puts real competition to shame. There are candidates but they cannot campaign, meetings are allowed but meeting venues are closed or owners of such places as hotel halls or parks are threatened by the state not to allow opposition activities. Candidates meetings with their constituents are discouraged by arresting and intimidating their supporters. Please read Dr. Negasso Gidada’s article (http://ethioforum.org/wp/archives/1451) Debates are held but since all parties are counted as real the opposition ends up with a fraction of the time. The opposition candidates have to be careful what they say in the heat of the debate since the Prime Minster have warned about the dangers of prosecution after the election.

The opposition cannot campaign in the Kilils due to fear of intimidation and the real danger of being beaten, jailed, and property like cars, video cameras damaged. Please see Dr. Merera’s report regarding his visit to Moyale. (http://www.voanews.com/horn/2010-05-05-voa3.cfm) The only exception seems to be in Tigrai due to the fact that the candidates were former members of the ruling party and seem to have clout in the military. It is ‘check mate’ situation in Tigrai. The rest of the Kilils are like the American ‘wild west’ where might is right.

Television and radio are the sole property of the TPLF party. The opposition is given the two minutes during debates that are also delayed for ‘editing’ purpose while the ruling party is allowed twenty-three hours and fifty minutes. The independent ‘print media’ has been decimated thus it does not play any significant role while make believe ‘independent’ newspapers are a few but loud.

Supporters of the opposition Party cannot campaign door to door, neither holds meetings in their own houses nor put up placards on their cars or front door. It will surely invite catastrophe and this fact is clear to all. The mere attempt of wearing T-shirts with the opposition name and picture is a criminal offense. The law to watch out regarding meetings is the new ‘terrorist’ law passed after the last election. Please see Human Rights Watch analysis of the law at (http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/06/30/ethiopia-amend-draft-terror-law)

Election observers are members of the TPLF party and its junior affiliates. Foreign observers are a few in number and rendered ineffective by the ‘code of conduct’ that specifies no video, no picture and no interview in the pooling places. Ferenji philosophy is ‘I will not tell unless you complain’.

Suffice to say that the only thing the two elections have in common is the word ‘election’. In California the citizen is free to make his choice without undue pressure from anyone. In California the chances of electing the most capable person for the position is statistically high. In California the candidates have utilized every available media to let the citizen know their stand on issues. In California the Kilil and the Federal government have taken ‘hands off’ attitude and recognized the right of the citizen to make a decision based on his own conscience. In California the ‘candidates’ are not threatened with harm, their family and friends intimidated or stay up all night gripped with fear of what tomorrow might bring.

In Ethiopia the election is over before it started. For the opposition it is what is called as ‘fait accompli’ situation. That means it is over before you know what happened and it is not reverse able. As the sun will rise up from the East tomorrow morning TPLF (EPDRF) will have a majority in parliament, Ato Meles will be elected Prime Minister and more than ten million Ethiopians will wake up hungry with no prospects for a good lunch the day after the ‘democratic election’.

In this election over half of the country is closed to the opposition. There have been three reported incidents of candidates being murdered the last two months. The one Party State has been known to use lethal force on its citizens. It is a clear warning of what is to come. There are not enough brave souls that are foolish enough to tempt fate and stand for elections. In the Democratic Republic of Ethiopia the Chairman of the strongest opposition party is jailed on trumped up charges (Chairman Bertukan Mideksa). The logo of the opposition is awarded to an affiliate of the ruling party (CUDP logo to EDP). The name of the opposition party is handed to ‘hand picked’ leader (CUD to Ato Ayele Chamiso). Even the Chairman of an opposition party is removed from his position and a new one replaced by the NEBE (Dr. Merera and ONC). In Ethiopia the chances of electing the most capable person is nil, zero none.

Please note this not due the Ethiopian people being stupid and incapable. It is due to a lack of good governance. Election 2005 marks a watershed in our country’s history. It showed us that our people embrace the concept of good competition and fair election. The road to the elections were the most exiting, hopeful and a rebirth of the good old Ethiopian ‘free and proud’ mindset. The atmosphere was ripe with anticipation and people were filled with purpose and unity. That Ethiopian sense of ‘not trusting’ was hovering in the background but we choose to believe that a positive outcome was possible. What can I say the Nation was drunk with hope?

The ruling party sent all kinds of signals to show that it hasn’t changed. A few candidates were murdered and some beaten. We knew it was part of the ‘weaning process’ of a Party that was used to violence. You just can’t expect them to quit cold turkey. The PM raised the specter of ‘interhawme’. Alarms were raised and dismissed. Another hiccups we thought. The May rally at Meskel Square was our epiphany. At last we knew that we are good people that can unite for a great purpose. Please read Ato Debebe Eshetu’s article on Awramba Times (http://ethioforum.org/wp/archives/2086) Meskel Square showed that under the right conditions we are capable of rising above religion, ethnic affiliation and social class.

We come to the most important question now. Why participate in such a farce? The real answer is, it does not really matter much. Why discuss something that is insignificant in the great scheme of life. What is true is that a democratic election is a process of building a successful, growing and peaceful society. Those countries that hold democratic and free elections have a stable, peaceful and healthy society. Those that deny the basic right of their people suffer from civil war, insurrection and a miserable population always on the verge of catastrophe.

The Ethiopian election is not democratic. The Ethiopian Nation the TPLF leaders have built for the last eighteen years has not borne any fruit. It has only exacerbated the problems they inherited from the failed Junta dictatorship. The TPLF philosophy is not capable of growing the economy, creating real peace and having a happy, healthy and content population. The economic system of favoring an ethnic group to lord it over all others does not work. The idea of a single ruling party and ethnic group monopolizing both the military, and the business sector does not work. The concept of power emanating from above and treating the population as serfs does not work.

Thus electing some members from Medrek, some from AEUO, EDP and others is not a game changer. The problem is not the number of party’s. The system itself is the problem. With the Ethiopian system the question is not a matter of fine-tuning it. It is a complete overhaul that is called for. Party’s can go ahead participate to their hearts content, but remember other than creating employment for a few more individuals it is not going to make an iota of difference. And arguing whether to participate or not at this eleventh hour is only to create a distraction from the shameless act that is to follow. Just do not expect us to cry when you scream foul because Meles cheated or your behind is hauled to Kaliti for further schooling on the true nature of a dictatorial one party state. We promise not to say ‘we told you so!’ Furthermore, this business of bitching because you are not offered a solution is very lame. If someone tells you jumping from a cliff will kill you it doesn’t mean that not jumping will help you solve your problem. Telling you not to jump gives you another chance to contemplate, and to find a lasting solution that will prevent you from entertaining this crazy idea of trying to solve a fundamental problem by ending your life.

May 7, 2010 at 8:51 pm (Commenatry)

By Zeineb Aliye

Meles Zenawi and Co. call Ethiopians chauvinists and it is right for Ethiopians in turn to call them ethno-fascists. Ethno-fascism is fascism shrouded and served in the plate of ethnicity. However, this does not mean that all Ethiopians espousing ethnic politics are ethno-fascists. The description ethno-fascism applies to the Meles-Sebhat brand of ethnicity which has the characteristic features of fascism and racism. Ethno-fascism is the foundation of the ideology of the Tigray People`s Liberation Front (TPLF) and that is why Ethiopians call its leaders an ethno-fascists. Thus it is now time to leave aside the political correctness and resort to the use of the suitable descriptions ethno-fascism and ethno-fascists when referring to the TPLF and its leaders.

The rise of ethno-fascism to power in Ethiopia is an alarming development with potentially devastating consequences. It is threatening national as well as regional stability in the volatile horn of Africa. Its increasing dependence on western aid and willingness to go to any length to serve foreign interests, are harming the long term interests and sovereignty of the country. The ethno-fascists are demonstrating their hostility to Ethiopia by signing and giving away the vital interests of the country like access to the sea and fertile lands. Thanks to these anti-Ethiopia fascist forces, Eritrea and the Sudan have benefitted a lot at the expense of Ethiopia.

The Ethno-fascist and racist Meles Zenawi has been staging sham elections in order to deceive and portray himself as an elected leader in the international arena. In the eyes of Ethiopians his periodic sham elections are simple dramas he stages to entertain himself and his donors. Ethno-fascism is pursuing its trademark of divide and rule as a result of which our communities are polarized and the bonds holding them together are disentangling. Thus ethno-fascism should be rejected and the struggle against it should take the central stage and serve as a rallying issue. Ethiopian intellectuals should be courageous enough to call `a spade a spade` and enlighten the general public on ethno-fascism and the grave dangers it poses to the country. Meles Zenawi`s repeated references to the genocide in Rwanda are by no means mere political rhetoric. It shows what he has in store for Ethiopians and intends to do if his power comes under threat or he is forced to leave Ethiopia. It is well known that Meles Zenawi has employed fascistic propaganda and agitation methods to mobilize the Tigrayans and wage his wars against Ethiopia and Ethiopiawinet. The relatively destitute Tigrayan society has been receptive to the fascistic politics of the TPLF and Meles Zenawi. Ethiopian forces standing for Ethiopia and Ethiopiawinet receive his harsh treatment and severe punishment as the case of Birtukan Midekssa proves. History has amply demonstrated that fascism is very violent and does not entertain the ideas of equality, peace and reconciliation. Ethno-fascism is based on the politics of discrimination, exclusion and ethnic favouritism. It does not accept the equality of citizens and rule of law.

Meles Zenawi has defied and derided at repeated calls for peace and reconciliation. He has defied all the appeals and calls for the peaceful resolution of the deepening political crisis in the country. He continues to strengthen his brutal security apparatus which he uses to punish and silence the voices of peace and reconciliation. As a fascist, he has no interest in reconciliation and is squandering all such opportunities. Instead he has chosen repression and violence as his instruments of rule. His regime is declared illegitimate but clinging to power through sheer force and violence.

At this juncture, I am glad to express my support to the Ethiopian voices of democracy, freedom, justice and reason who are calling for the outright boycotting and rejection of Zenawi`s sham elections. The forces of democracy and freedom never take part in sham elections and cooperate with a ruthless dictator. Instead they stand for and pursue the course of creating an all inclusive and free political space in which fair and free elections can be conducted. It is only then that we will be able to have a democratic process in which all the stake holders take part without fear, hindrances, intimidations and restrictions. A democratic process can not be launched as long as the country is under the grip of ethno-fascism. It is also high time to put pressure on those forces who have been part and parcel of these sham elections by embracing Zenawi`s ethno-fascistic rule as a democratic process worth taking part in.. In this regard one does need only to see Zenawi`s preferential treatment and empowering of members of his golden ethnic group in the economic as well as the political arena. These facts are not lost to opposition forces vying for some seats Zenawi will kindly allocate to them. It is long overdue for these forces to review their wrong pro-Zenawi positions and come to terms with the political reality in the country. They should be aware of the long term political costs associated with taking part in sham elections and legitimizing ethno-fascism.

The so called code of conduct shows that sham elections are the joint undertakings of donors and Zenawi to improve and promote the international image of the latter. The belief among many Ethiopians that Zenawi is charming or deceiving the west is easy to refute considering the close alliance between the west and Zenawi. Zenawi can not deceive or mislead his western political advisers or coaches. Conflicting interests are at play and those are the aspirations of Ethiopians for democracy and freedom on one side and the sham elections of Zenawi. There is not any advantage to be gained by taking part in Zenawi`s farce. Nor do these sham elections advance democracy, freedom and justice in the country. Meles Zenawi has reportedly told his followers and supporters that his or the absolute power and hegemony of the TPLF will not be contested or submitted to public votes. It appears that Zenawi is more candid than the opposition groups who are lining up to get some seats from him. That is why I doubt the credibility and sincerity of the opposition who are participating in Zenawi`s farce.

I have read some contributions which arguing in favour of taking part in Meles Zenawi`s farce or what they refer to as elections. But I have not found any compelling or convincing arguments in them. In fact some of their points bear resemblance to the ones being advanced by the supporters of Meles Zenawi. Their reasonings condense to the assertion that democratization is a process and participation in the process via elections would contribute to moving it forward. There are also others who also cite  participation as a condition for the legal existence and functioning of the opposition parties in the country. Whether they take part in or not, these opposition groups and personalities are at the mercy of Meles Zenawi. Their participation in his sham elections does not safeguard them against his assaults and crack downs. They say that there is no free meal with Zenawi and one must expect to receive some pinches and punches from Zenawi. Some opposition forces claim that the peaceful struggle is the only effective means to dislodge the dictator from the palace. But in effect they are denied the basic rights such as free assembly and expression of ideas. Zenawi has banned demonstrations and the free press. They can not conduct public meetings without the permission of Meles Zenawi. Leaving aside the political cost participation in Zenawi`s farce entails, his degrading and humiliating treatments of the opposition figures sitting with his herd of cadres are unbearable. In fact as the enemy of our country, Zenawi is humiliating us all Ethiopians and derives a lot of pleasure by doing so. Even a practising Christian like ato Girma Kassa are fervently arguing for taking part in the sham elections. We know that the Bible forbids supporting deception or falsehood and ato Girma Kassa`s position contradicts the teachings of Christianity. This same person has written some pieces praising the ethno-fascist and racist rule of Meles Zenawi which is not expected of Christians. It is worth mentioning that there are also Ethiopian muslims supporting and working for ethno-fascism. This shows that our institutions of faith are becoming morally bankrupt and instruments of repression and violence. Besides, ato Girma Kassa, there are also others who are promoting and selling Medrek as a strong and unique combination of political parties with the potential effect of uniting Ethiopians and winning the sham elections. The advocates and supporters of Medrek seem to suffer from a short memory or be misleading the public. Some of the leaders of Medrek are well known personalities who have been an integral part of Zenawi`s sham elections and sitting in the rubber stamp parliament. These guys do not have any popular or national vision other than taking part in the farce and offering the sembalnce of legitimacy to ethno-fascism. Opposition politicians who have been cooperating with Meles Zenawi by taking part in his sham elections do not have any achievements to show and convince us. What they incorrectly call a democratic process is not moving forward since Zenawi is tightening his grip on power and closing the so called political space. Ethiopians are well aware of the reality and can not be deceived neither by Zenawi nor the opposition. We know why Zenawi is putting the opposition politicians in his assembly and enjoying their company. The recent successive draconian laws of Zenawi all refute the claims of those supporting participation in the sham elections. Zenawi has moved swiftly to close all the small openings or venues he thinks are available to the opposition. As a result we see no visible opposition political activity in the country. I do not see any difference between banning and stifling the opposition. Zenawi has apparently preferred stifling to banning to avoid embarrassing his donors. It is once again important to emphasize that the country has yet to set on a democratic process. A democratic process can not be initiated under a fascistic dictatorship like that of Zenawi. The sham elections Meles Zenawi stages are by no means part of the democratic process. As stated by many Ethiopians, they are designed and conducted to consolidate and legitimize his dictatorship. I think these are the essential points missing in the arguments and where the main confusion lies. Those arguing for participation are missing or deliberately overlooking these stark political realities on the ground..

As the main enemy of Ethiopia Meles Zenawi, should be denied any direct or indirect cooperation he seeks to legitimize his ethno-fascistic rule in Ethiopia. The opposition should not allow itself to be used as a pawn or tool to advance Zenawi`s anti-Ethiopia and personal agenda.. At the maximum they ought to mobilize the public and frustrate Zenawi`s ambitions of selling himself to the outside world and continuing to collect western aid cheques. At the minimum the genuine Ethiopian opposition forces should denounce his sham elections and distance themselves from them.  It is true that the west can continue to finance Zenawi`s regime irrespective of what happens. However, the election or democratic camfloulage or pretext they use should not be available to them. We recall how the donors and World Bank changed their canals of channelling money to Zenawi after the latter shed the blood of innocent citizens in the aftermath of the May 2005 elections. That is why many of us have come to the conclusion that the donors are not credible partners for democracy, freedom and development in Ethiopia. However, Ethiopians should continue their anti-fascist struggle to get rid of the illegitimate rule of Zenawi and associates and secure their rights and sovereignty.

 By Yilma Bekele

What do you do when you first wake up in the morning? Some of us cannot move without our first cup of coffee while others require a good breakfast. How about if you went to bed without dinner? I am sure you woke up a few times hungry, you did not have a good restful sleep and it is possible your rest was disturbed by all sorts of dream and nightmare due to an empty stomach.

Food is primary. Food comes first. Without food there is no you. Without food there is no life.

Food is what is lacking in our country. Food has been lacking in our country for eternity. We are famous for not having enough food. Our name has become synonymous with hunger. When you say famine the word that comes to mind is Ethiopia.

Why is there not enough food in Ethiopia? We are lazy? No. Our people are known to farm from sunup to sundown. Farming is a family business. Our land is dry? No. We have plenty of rivers flowing out of our highlands north into Egypt, East to Somalia and west to Sudan. We don’t have enough land. No. We have plenty of virgin land waiting to be developed. We are over populated. No. We have enough land to sustain twice our current population. We are stupid? No. Our dispersed citizens all over the world are proof that we are one clever people that will settle anywhere and thrive.

Thus we are not lazy, we have a beautiful fertile land, we are not over populated and we are not mentally challenged people but we are still hungry and cannot survive without a handout. Why?

There is not enough food because we are not using our resources intelligently. Did I just say resources? As soon as I said resource you automatically thought of mineral or oil or such commodity. No, we have resources more precious than that. The people are the most important resource of a country. We have not figured out a way to harness the abundant resource of eighty million souls in front of our eyes. That, in a nutshell is our problem.

It is nice to have minerals and oil. It is good to be blessed with a vast population. But by themselves they don’t mean much. There is a third important factor that makes the two work in harmony. It is a vital part of the equation. It is what we have been lacking for a long time. That is what we don’t have.

I am glad you asked. What is lacking is good governance. It is enlightened leadership. That is what is missing in our country. Our country goes back thousands of years. Our Ethiopia is not a recent phenomenon. We have such visionaries as Tewodros, Yohanes and Menelik. They have been gone a long time but their legacy still lives.

Today we are lost. We are like a vessel without a pilot but driven by the wind. We stumble from port to port. We travel without knowing our destination, we plan without knowing what we want to achieve and we fail time and time again. We are accustomed to leaders that avoid responsibility. They excel at blaming others for their mistakes and lack of vision but they have this remarkable ability to shake accountability.

Here is a quote from a classic Chinese text (Tao TeChing) written around the 6^th. Century BC about leadership:

The best rulers are scarcely known by their subjects;
The next best are loved and praised;
The next are feared;
The next despised:
They have no faith in their people,
And their people become unfaithful to them.

When the best rulers achieve their purpose
Their subjects claim the achievement as their own.

We don’t have that do we? Thus we go hungry. We roam the earth looking for a place to settle. We despair for our country and we fight each other. Whether at home or in a foreign land we have no harmony. There is no peace among the children of Ethiopia. We celebrate our differences and magnify our contradictions. We are one sorry nation.

The way we are going about building our country is not a wining formula. We all know it is not going to happen. You cannot fit a square inside a circle. You can try, but it won’t fit. My son used to try that when he was two. One week with that toy and he figured it is not going to happen. He did not force the issue. He learnt. Here we are responsible adults and we are still trying to fit a square inside a circle.

We are at it again. The current farce billed as an election is bringing out the worst in us. We are stuck with a Party that is unable to let go. It survives from day today. It survives by creating contradiction among its people. It stumbled into power without a clue of what to do with it. It has been improvising for the last seventeen years. It lacks what the American refer to as ‘Exit strategy’. I am sure the TPLF leaders would love to go into the sunset peacefully. Sit back and enjoy their ill-gotten wealth. How is the burning question keeping Ato Meles and company awake at night. Their belly is full but their mind wonders.

Think of it this way. Ato Meles his family a few of his friends can leave. How about their entourage. What is going to happen to the junior abusers that have been doing the actual dirty job? It is a very interesting situation. Lack of ‘exit strategy’ has been the Achilles heel of dictators since time immemorial. Shah of Iran, Ferdinand Marcos, Augusto Pinochet, Mobutu Sese Seko, Alberto Fujimori, Nicolae Ceausescu and so on have all been victims of that simple but vital concept. They always get caught with their pants down.

After all is said and done we are back to square one. Waking up hungry. Fourteen million Ethiopians are in a state of constant famine. Twice that number wake up hungry everyday. When it comes to our children it is said that those that are mal nourished (starved) during their developmental phase, the deficiencies are recognized to have the potential for permanent adverse effects on learning and behavior. A nation of mentally challenged is the outcome.

Everything is inter related. You cannot have food on the table without a good governance that requires a visionary leader. You cannot have a visionary leader without a democratic elections that weeds out the wheat from the chaff. You cannot weed out the chaff without an open transparent competition for the citizen to judge. So we go around this vicious circle we have created.

What do you think the current election is going to accomplish. Definitely it is not going to separate the chaff from the wheat. Why? Because it is all chaff. The wheat knows better. It is going to sit this one out. TPLF is going to win. Medrek will be allowed one hundred seats. The Europeans and the Americans will bless the outcome with ‘some’ reservation. Ato Meles and company will celebrate their emerging democracy.

The Ethiopian people will watch the drama somberly. The hunger will continue unabated. The migration of the young will be accelerated. The sale of our virgin territory will gain momentum.

All is not lost. It might look hopeless but every contradictions carries its own solution. Didn’t the divine Haile Sellasie regime crumble due to internal rot? Didn’t the mighty Derge wither away due its arrogance and abuse? The same fate awaits the criminal TPLF regime. I will leave you with what Tao TeChing said about rebellion:

When rulers take grain so that they may feast,
Their people become hungry;
When rulers take action to serve their own interests,
Their people become rebellious;
When rulers take lives so that their own lives are maintained,
Their people no longer fear death.

When people act without regard for their own lives
They overcome those who value only their own lives.

There will come a time when the people no longer fear death.

By Hama Tuma

The dictators have not had enough–we call them tyrants, butchers, thieves and robbers, corrupt and adulterers, cruel barbarians and more but they want more. The latest epithet they want us to attach to their unholy names is that of homophobe. All of a sudden, as if coordinated, from the East to the Southern regions of the continent the tyrants have started a chorus of foul words against gays or homosexuals who, by all account, are a few million in the whole of Africa compared to the hundreds of millions wanting their so called leaders to address themselves to the burdensome continental problems of democracy and under development.

The dictator in the Sudan who started out by cutting limbs of petty thieves and appointing bigger ones as ministers has resorted to Sharia and homosexuality leads to death. Sudan? Really? Where even Revolutionary Council members, dour military men, had male lovers? No one has said hypocrisy is dead. Down South, the number one enemy of gays, the man whose president was found to be gay, strongman Mugabe, has gone on record calling gays pigs and dogs and asking the world at large “can men procreate?” and if not then being gay will just “turn our ancestors in their graves”. Something to be avoided as the hapless ancestors in the graves, the very many martyrs of the struggle against the Ian Smith racist regime have been spinning in their graves as Mugabe persistently ruined his country aided and abetted by vindictive Western powers. As Brutus did not say, Mugabe is not an honourable man but the other contender to the title of, no not honourable but, democrat, that is to say the Harvard educated (two weeks course on good governance) Morgan Tsvangirai has also joined his nemesis and attacked gays in no uncertain and rather crude terms (men breathing on top of other men and the like). 38 African countries criminalise homosexual relations and Uganda recently tried to punish gays with the death sentence following a visit to Uganda by well heeled American Christian fundamentalists. Money talks and had not the outcry been very loud Uganda would have been busy these days shooting gays just like Baganda demonstrators opposing the rule of Museveni (going for his third election after amending the Constitution). Down in Malawi two gays tried a symbolic marriage and face up to 14 years in prison if convicted.

Now, the uniformed in this world maybe excused if they conclude that the primary problem of Africans is the existence of gays or that African tyrants and legislators have nothing else to do other than turn homophobe and bash the victims. Actually, the loud homophobia comes right out of the very coveted secret manual of African dictators under the chapter of “Diverting Public Opinion”. Diverting public opinion is an art and though few can do it as well as the late Idi Amin and Bokassa (what a show the duo staged over time!) they are trying hard. Massacres and jailing of dissidents have become too ordinary to attract that much attention or to generate much uproar. The world is now used to African genocides and carnages and is only surprised by reports of development for which it has no ears anyway. Hence, the resort o gay bashing. It is not that the tyrants have nothing else to worry about. Uganda has its murderous LRA and serious dissatisfaction by the majority of the populace that considers Museveni’s rule dictatorial to boot. Sudan is a mess and Beshir detested; let us not talk of Darfur and possible secession and war in the South in the near future. Mugabe’s problem is well known and Malawi of Kamuzu Banda fame has more serious problems than two gays getting married and trying to confront their miserable lives as the majority of Malawians. Africa surely has more serious concerns and problems including the very fact that the stigmatization of the gays having a negative impact on the control of the AIDS ravaging many of these countries.

Diversion is a must, though, given the problems. The gays are not many and they are helpless and the macho society has little sympathy for them. For once, the tyrants will be joined by priests, sheikhs and the populace at large (barring South Africa and Burundi that have refused to criminalize gays) to engage in a collective orgy of violence and repression. As the French would say Haro sur les Homos or Curse on their homo heads. There are those who say that some of our literal ( does not mean literate in this instance) top officials believe that gay in this context means happy and refers to people who are happy or gay without the expressed permission of the State that has a monopoly on joy in many African countries. That aside, the gay issue is useful for diversion in that there is a loud and organized gay community in the donor countries and it will raise hell against African leaders persecuting gays instead of attacking them on the absence of good governance or democracy. As the gays in Africa get their own Geldof or Bono and the outcry increases, the shout against, say Museveni, will not be “stop killing demonstrators and protestors” but rather “end the repression against gays” which is a slogan that, sadly or otherwise, will not stir that much of emotion amongst many Ugandans including their Catholic clergy. Ditto for Mugabe and the others, Diversion par excellence. And if the homophobia stops working, the tyrants have many others diversions up their sleeves to hide their real malady which is fear of democracy or “demophobia”, a malady cured only by a revolution, alas for them.

April 26, 2010 at 8:50 pm (Commenatry)
By Obo Arada Shawl

April 23, 2010

Introduction

Using the Latin alphabet to write ADWA, adwa or AADWA appears to portray insignificant difference to the naked eye or rather to the majority of Ethiopian intellectuals aka M’huran. But to a liberated Eathiopian mind and as well as to the Tsinhate M’huran (scholars), there are serious and logical implications.

ADWA, which I prefer to label as ADWA I, is about place name where in 1896, thousands of Ethiopians had volunteered to defend for their centuries old freedom.

Adwa, which I also prefer to call as Adwa II, is about cliques of leaders who were either born or raised in that historic place fought for freedom.

AADWA is an alternative name encoded in five dimensions of place, people, politics, reason and solutions (PPPRS).

Historical background

The last time Ethiopians came together physically was 114 years ago. In 1896, Eathiopians gathered voluntarily at a place called ADWA I in order to halt an invading foreign army. It was in defense of their own country (the land), their government (the king) and for their traditional values.

After the war at ADWA fundamental issues, some events and political consequences, which are documented by the filmmaker professor Haile Gerima, had taken place. The physical geography of Ethiopia was changed. Eritrea was demarcated physically but not emotionally or psychologically. There are no willing people to be colonized despite contrary claims by some quarters.

In 1974, after 78 years, once again, Eathiopians raised in political unison to change their ancient system of government – from an absolute Monarchy to a popular system of government. However, the military junta has played politics of obstruction to deny the Eathiopians to be ruled by civilian popular government. The struggle to topple the Fascist DERG went on unabated for 17 years.

In 1991, 95 years since the battle of ADWA I, or 17 years after the onset of the popular revolution, another clique of leaders of TPLF (a guerrilla peasant organization) came to play politics of obstructionism, the same way the military junta did in 1974.

As if Eathiopians had not had enough confusion especially after the victory of ADWA I, the clique of leaders who came to arrest the Eway Revolution have come to represent the paradox of Ethiopian political history. *

As a footnote to the above background, by and large, the Eathiopian people, despite their victory at ADWA I, have become victims of glory.

During the reign of Haile Sellassie, out of the 14 regions, provinces or Kifle Hagers, only 3 provinces were inaccessible to the outside world. They were Arussi, Shewa and Tigrai (AST) provinces. Arussi despite its rich resources, the people were kept isolated from modern means of transport and communication. The people of Shewa were kept apolitical while the people of Tigrai were kept away from modern industrialization.

I don’t know whether my assertion is in line with the thinking of the power holders or with the opposition parties. But that was the way the people of the three provinces were subjected to.

Whether by design or chance, the military junta had launched projects and plans in Arussi province, possibly to redress the oppression from the inaccessibility.

By the same logic, the adwa clique of leadership may have believed to open a gate to industrialization for the province of Tigrai albeit at the expense of losing access to the entire country.

POLITICAL CONSEQUENCE AS A RESULT OF WAR AND REVOLUTION

ADWA I: Ethiopians had volunteered to defend their freedom

In 1896, Ethiopia, an African nation has defeated Italy, a European nation. How come a peasant nation could defeat an advanced European nation?

“Ethiopia had a legitimate and a just cause not to be colonized”, says a historian.

Where did the war take place? It was fought at place called Adwa that I prefer to label as ADWA I. What has happened after the victory of ADWA I? For the most part,

• The land remained Ethiopian
• The king of kings had consolidated his power and
• Ethiopian families continued to live and continue to keep their traditions and values.

The current meeting being held everywhere around the world including within Ethiopia do not seem to be healthy. There is no forgetting and forgiving – if there is that would be considered reconciliation. A grievance and revenge (GG) will be wasteful to say the least.

For instance, the recent conference that was held in Arlington, Virginia would only add fuels to the followers of ADWA I. There was no issue of the past – the basis of conflict. It was a hash-hash advocacy for normalcy. Why on earth M’hur Akal (PhD) from Eritrea would clash with another M’hur Akal (PhD) from Ethiopia? This shows that they have not yet resolved their age old differences about ADWA I. One is supposedly a colonizer and the other colonized perhaps in reverse order. It is shame for both professors to represent Eathiopia. Why don’t they resolve their personal grievances first before they attempt to indulge in solving Eathiopia’s political problems?

To spell it out loud and clear, Eathiopian elites are presented with three alternative choices.

The path of ADWA I – the victory of freedom against the Italians should be recognized unconditionally by the Eritrean professors. The Ethiopian professors should likewise accept the abandonment of Eritreans to the rule of Italians. Both sides have been harping exclusively on the negative sides of true history. It has been going on for over a century. We need closure, closure and closure.

And why would an organizer who claims that the conference was highly successful demand the editors of a website to censure an opinion of an individual who had claimed to the contrary? Such conferences were held before and they all ended up in failure if not in disaster. Our issue is not the Horn of Africa. First it is about the aftermaths of ADWA I and BAD ME wars and the aftermaths of the Revolution.

In my opinion, we should go back to resolve the case of ADWA I, the adwa II and then move on to AADWA III.

ADWA II: Ethiopians were forced to fight for ethnic power

In 1991, which is after 95 years, cliques of the Tigrai People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) that I prefer to call as ADWA II came to power by force of arms. What has happened to the core issues of Ethiopia and Ethiopians after ADWA II? The results are as follows:

• Ownership of land is dead. There is no distinction or it is rather an opaque phenomenon in distinguishing among nationals, nationalities or citizens of Ethiopia

• The materialist “king” of Tigrai has gained land access to the outside world exclusively to the region of Tigrai though at the expense of surrendering a national sea outlet.
• Ethiopian families are disintegrating at a faster rate than any known countries in the world. A moral bankruptcy has set in motion among the Ethiopian societies.

AADWA III: Ethiopians chose to struggle for national politics

The third AADWA (Assimba-Debteraw-Wallelign) is a generation of conscious revolutionaries who has arrived at their conclusion, not through fight but through intellectual study. Their ideas did not come from spontaneity, they learnt them and as they learn they in turn go out to convey consciousness-forming ideas to their peers.

The new had to replace the old. This is true when it comes to society as well as to ideas. The new ideas have actively confronted and exposed the old ideas and became obsolete and bankrupt. Though ideas have no physical life in themselves Wallelign and DEBTERAW must have been engaged in clash of ideas. That became mantra of the Ethiopian Revolutionaries.

In Western Europe, there was the French Revolution – a Revolution for Equality, Liberty and Fraternity (ELF). In the Far East, there was the Chinese Revolution – a closed Revolution until the country feeds itself. In Asia Minor, there was the Russian Revolution – a Revolution to upgrade an agrarian country and in the America’s it was the American Revolution – a Revolution to promote Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness (LLP).

In Africa, there was and is the Eway Revolution that was meant to upheld a Flag, a Fidel and many Freedoms (FFFs). What happens to each Revolution and its aftermath is anybody’s understanding. Our interest should be in the Eway Revolution not in the Horn of Africa’s crisis.

What is the Eway Revolution? Although I have attempted to explain in the past using some examples drawn from DEBTERAW’s pattern of life and struggle, we need to comprehend the Eway Revolution in the context of the present as well as in its contextual future.

First of all, those who claim, as ተጋዳይ ታጋይ dichotomy is confusion by itself. It may mean a differentiation those who fought and those who struggled. It was not and still is not clear to the majority of Eathiopians. Whatever is the case, here is the scenario of the Ethiopian Revolution.

The DERG had ideological and operational advisors from the then Soviet Union and the then German Democratic Republic  (GDR). The EPLF leaders had not only supply of literature but also had training from the Chinese government. Neither the ELF nor the TPLF had followed a real Revolution such that I have mentioned above but hodgepodges of rebellious countries as their model and advisors.

The Eway Revolution, which was followed by EPRP, is not a replica of ADWA I, which was a voluntary mobilization by the people of Ethiopian for one country, one king and one family. The AADWA III, on the contrary is about one flag, one alphabet and many freedoms. It was fundamental and unprecedented. It was fundamental as it was based on

• The Ethiopian objective conditions and
• It is still going unabated on many fronts

Conclusion

This is a preliminary reading of our problems, if we really believe we have any.

ADWA I was about unity based on Voluntarism

Adwa II was about power by any means necessary and

AADWA III was and still is about Unity, politics and freedom.

Let everyone and everybody choose to volunteer, to vote and register victory.

TRUTH WILL PREVAIL

By Yilma Bekele

I am sure most of you have heard or read that the leaders of Medrek are on a tour of North America. They have held town hall meetings in Seattle, San Jose, Las Vegas, Washington DC and Atlanta and are coming to Los Angles this coming weekend. The delegation consists of Ato Seye Abreha, Ato Gebru Asrat, Dr. Negasso Gidada and Ato (engineer) Gezachew Shiferaw. All four gentlemen were ex members of TPLF, OPDO or AEUP.

For those not familiar with the alphabet soup, TPLF stands for Tigrai Peoples Liberation Front and OPDO is Oromo Peoples Democratic Union. OPDO is the brainchild of TPLF. That is neither paranoia nor a figment of my imagination. Other TPLF subsidiaries include ANDM (Amhara National Democratic Movement) SEPDM (Southern Ethiopia Peoples’ Democratic Movement) and other minor parties. They call them Teletafi (ተለጣፊ) They are organized as EPDRF (Ethiopian peoples’ Democratic Revolutionary Front).

The current Ethiopian Parliament is composed of 526 members and EPDRF controls 326 seats. That is actually not a true statement. TPLF Party control extends to all the so-called political parties organized as an independent for ‘Ferenjis’ consumption. Thus in reality the Parliament is TPLF’ Party’s’ private playing field. As the Chilean dictator Pinochet said ‘”Not a leaf moves in Chile if I don’t know about it”, nothing in Ethiopian Parliament happens without the permission of the one party state.

If you will forgive me I will start our current story with the 2005 general election as a background. To a majority of Ethiopians May 2005 is day one in the hope of our people for democracy and a better future. May 2005 left the Meles regime physically naked mentally dead and spiritually void of values. The total rejection of ethnic politics and cadre rule unnerved the regime. Meles and company panicked. They communicated with the Ethiopian people with snipers on every roof and concentration camps in every Kilil. The aftermath of 2005 election ushered the quest for a new understanding of the struggle for liberation under a totalitarian state.

Kinijit leaders were forced to forge a new path based on the experience of the 2005 debacle. Kinijit the dragon slayer was an amalgamation of different organization united for the purpose of elections. The two years in Kaliti jail dealt a heavy blow on the young party. The TPLF machine used every evil means at its disposal to create mistrust, mis-information resulting in disarray. Kaliti did a favor to the movement. It differentiated the men from the boys. Ledetu was officially recognized as a subsidiary. Hailu was exposed as spoiler. Merera and Petros became inconsequential. Berhanu reloaded and Bertukan decided to re-calibrate.

Our story revolves around Bertukan Mideksa. Upon her return to Ethiopia from her North American tour, she embarked on the formation of a new political party modeled after Kinijit. If you remember Ato Meles’s court have already handed Kinijit to some obscure individual named Ayele Chamiso. Thus Weizero Bertukan labored tirelessly to form Andenet Party. Despite the many hurdles thrown on her path she was able to dot the I’s and cross the t’s and form Andenet. It was a proud accomplishment that will be told and retold for a long time. Birtukan’s Andenet is a multi national party based on equality and resting on a strong bedrock of Democracy as its foundation.

Weizero Bertukan criss crossed the country forming headquarters in every region and managed to win the trust and respect of the Ethiopian People. Her rising star was eclipsing the faint candlelight of the TPLF cadres. That did not go well with TPLF. Chairman Bertukan was re-hauled back to Kaliti on some funky charge to be kept away until the 2010 election is over.

Her imprisonment created a void in the new party. It was not long before factions were formed and an all out war was declared. The young party was left without a rudder to steer the party in the TPLF shark infested ocean. The battle tested TPLF leaders exploited the weakness of the rookie leaders to the maximum. TPLF was not interested in killing the Party. It just wanted to deliver a crippling blow. It was not long before things degenerated to the extent that Andenet was forced to appeal to the TPLF regime for protection from its own members. Shame is an understatement. It was under these strange circumstances that Andenet joined what is known as Medrek. What exactly is Medrek?

Medrek is a coalition of different parties that include UEDF (United Ethiopian Democratic Forces led by Dr. Beyene Petros and Dr. Merera Gudina) OFDM (Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement led by Ato Bulcha Demeksa) A.R.E.N.A. Tigrai led by Ato Gebru Asrat, and Andenet led by Ato Gezachew Shiferaw. Please note Andenet is the only multi national party in the group. Andenet under the leadership of Chairman Bertukan is the only party with representation in all parts of the country and support organizations in the Diaspora.

The two independent individuals Ato Seye Abraha and Dr. Negasso Gidada joined the weak and wounded Andenet at this critical time. The void felt in the party due to the expulsion of some founding members created a fertile ground for the two ex-officials to assume positions of leadership upon arrival.

Thus, this is the Medrek that is currently touring North America. Some of my esteemed friends have used such expressions as ‘the rebirth of Ethiopia’ and ‘a new political culture in Ethiopia’ to explain the tour. Is this really a Hallelujah or Alhamdulillah moment? It is possible that both declarations are heavy on the cheerleading side but lacking in the friendly but critical assessment option.

The American expression ‘friends don’t allow friends drive drunk’ comes to mind, especially when one is a passenger in the vehicle. We are all passengers in this ship called Ethiopia. The action of the pilot affects the welfare of the passengers. The current tour leaves many questions unanswered and the timing is a puzzle to all well-wishers. The question of raising money is out of the question. The Diaspora is fighting a life and death battle to retain jobs, pay mortgages and raise expensive children. The Diaspora does not vote. Is it possible the expenditure of thousands of hard earned dollars in transporting, lodging and feeding the delegation is not a smart investment?

What exactly is Medrek trying to accomplish in the current election? The short answer is of course win. The next question will be is that possible? The simple answer is a resounding no. That leads us back to the first question, why participate in an impossible, rigged game where the outcome is pre determined? That the TPLF started the preparations for this election way back in May of 2005 is obvious to all. Meles and company vowed not to be caught with their pants down again. Thus the vibrant independent media was destroyed, capable leaders were killed, exiled or jailed, the Constitution was amended to include curbs on NGO activities, a law defining any opposition as terrorism and a new code of conduct was put in place.

In Election Ethiopian style the opposition cannot hold unauthorized meeting, cannot hold a rally, and cannot raise money from outside sources including the Diaspora. It is enough for you to say what a cockamamie idea? Wait there is more; according to the PM candidates cannot criticize the regime under threat of being charged with incitement or sedation. In emerging democratic Ethiopia the opposition cannot campaign except in a few large cities like Addis Abeba and Bahir Dar. Being a candidate or supporter of the opposition is a hazardous duty in most of the Kilils. The only exception seems to be Tigrai where the ex TPLF members can campaign in a limited areas.

Medrek has sacrificed plenty of candidates in this election. Human right activists, foreign correspondents such as VOA, Bloomberg and many others, have recorded party members being prosecuted, hounded in their villages, denied government controlled necessities and even murdered. Ethiopian politics is not for the fain hearted.

The 2005 election was proof that the minority-based regime is a paper tiger. It was resoundingly defeated where the ballot boxes were opened under the watchful eyes of the people and international observers. Thus the lesson learnt was it is not about the campaign but it is all about the counting of the ballots. What we see today is that the regime still controls the election board, recruited trained and is ready to deploy its own cadre observers and have drawn up a strict code of conduct for the Ferenji observers. It is like meet the new situation same as the old situation.

The simple question to Medrek is why do you exactly expect a different outcome when nothing has changed? The truth of the matter is actually things have change in a negative way as far as the opposition is concerned. With its star leader behind bars and its candidates and supporters terrorized by government goons how is it possible to contemplate winning when even trying has become a crime?

Why is Medrek giving legitimacy to a dictatorial regime by its involvement in a rigged game? Some will say half a loaf is better than no loaf, is that Medrek’s philosophy too? Is the idea to win a hundred or so seats in Parliament? Is that considered good whereas the regime with its majority control will continue the abuse of the few opposition members seated for show?

These are the questions Medrek have not addressed both at home and abroad. It was only last October that Ato Gezachew declared ‘The release of Birtukan Mideksa and all Political Prisoners is the main agenda for joining the 2010 Election’. What ever happened to that bravado? How come the political prisoner population of Kaliti and the Kilils has gone up let alone secure the release of our leader?

The lessons of 2005 should not be forgotten. Repeating the same mistake is definitely not a winning strategy. The Ethiopian people have paid a heavy price for an inferior and ugly outcome. We worry that what was done to us five years ago is in the process of being repeated. We ask Medrek to consider the ramifications of kowtowing to a totalitarian state that is hell bent in winning at all cost. We urge Medrek to listen to its constituents that wish it well and include their concerns in its deliberations. We have a very sick regime that considers politics as a game where winning is the only acceptable outcome. They have shown that they will kill to secure their ill-gotten power and wealth.

We feel the pain of the opposition candidates that have sacrificed trying to get involved in the affairs of their nation. We are horrified to witness the death of Ato Aregawi Gebre Yohanes, Ato Beyanza Deba and many other nameless Ethiopians whose crime was wanting to be free. We hope Medrek will take its role seriously and observe the Hippocratic oath like doctors that states ‘do no harm’. Our hope is that they contemplate if their actions bring good or harm on our people.

It is a good possibility the regime will orchestrate an election worthy of an African standard. It is also true that the US and the Europeans will declare ‘a few irregularities’ but ‘an essential first step’. Just like what happened five years ago Ato Meles and company will continue the rape and pillage of our country and sell what is left of it to the highest bidder. We hope Medrek will not be one of those parties that will sit silently in the kangaroo parliament and preach the gospel of ‘working together’ and such crap while dining with killers, psychos and future guests of the International Criminal Court.

Getachew Reda

Please post this letter on your website until I come out with a commentary in Amharic (I am not currently on PC with Amharic font) regarding the Ethiopian Free Press Association lead by the Ato Kifle Mulat. Honestly speaking, I am angry, frustrated by the so many of the called Diaspora opposition media. Hate me or like me, this is my confession. I congratulate Ato Kifle Mulat for coming out from the cave he was hide as a Monk for several years and finally to my surprise appeared with his three page (supposed to be 13 looking at the PDF) (incomplete/cut out) reporting the Houston money contribution and prayers accompanied with a candle vigil to praise Bertukan Mediksa. That is all he can offer all those years of his hiding. What happen to his good writing skill as a journalist of exposing the repressive regime? I have never heard of his pen. Not only him, but also Mulugeta Lule. Are they retired from the press? I doubt. Are they still members of the press? Are they active? Are they on the Satellite TV- where only the elite viewers see them as they are the Geraldo Rivera and the Operah whinfrey show?

Now, Kifle Mulat is officially active on media for all of us to read him after he comes out from his hide out. The former Tobia Editor and president of the so called “Free Press” (?) Kifle Mulat a man who chained his arms with iron chain when he spoke on his public forum speech years back in the Diaspora has now coming out after many free press journalists who are languishing in Yemen, India, Kenya and elsewhere were looking for his leadership but nowhere to be found, (though, he might have contacted them here and there through his third party gangs around him. The man never even heard by the public whom he claimed to speak, represent and concerned to write about their pain and fate for a long time (may be heard and seen by his compatriots of the Diaspora who run gang politics that we all are aware spreading little spiral dusts sprouting to the thin air as if they are shooting canons to Meles Zenawi).

An amazing man! I thought this man was a decent press man who has a gut and humanity and professional, but I guess not.   No one, but he let the press to be swarmed by a “elite gangs” whose business is day in day out posting pictures of Negasso, Gebru, Seye, Gizachew, Merera and Al Mariam , Berhanu Negga and Bertukan, (even a single other prisoners pictures who are languishing for over 18 years never were posted for sample for one day even in the last 5 years) by ignoring posting pictures of citizens who are suffering in the economic, politics, religious, homelessness, sickness, starvation, injustice, racism perpetrated by the TPLF security and malfunction administration . This media gangs are crazily in love with such criminal political leaders. No one but he and his circles with their experience, let the press to failed and open the gate for them the press to be taken hostage by talkative and elite propaganda spreaders using “patriotism” to highlight a toxic elite image and toxic politics shaped by criminals and manipulators.

Here we are now, Kifle Mulat t coming out from where ever he was hide and post news that was heard repeatedly by the elite media pretending as if he is talking about the thousands of prisoners who are languishing in TPLF jail while he was in Addis Ababa (still in Kaliti and elsewhere). As press person, he failed to mention a “single name” of those who sacrifice their life and property and their life to save and defend Ethiopia’s dignity. Indeed, not unusual for papers like this to hold stories for a good news, but the timing served more than one purpose. The release of this story wrote from his pen brings the issue of elite image such as like him (coming out from his hide) into the spotlight. I believe such story is not new for readers to read it, but as I said this was done to elevate his faded image cleverly through the prisoner Bertukan Medikasa. Quite honestly, a very shrewd business , it is also a very irresponsible move on the part of this man by failing not to mention in his paper the so many popular political leaders and civic leaders, journalists in prison who also escaped harassment of TPLF security still continue harassed by TPLF gangs all over the planet.

While we have both the right and responsibility to question the actions the opposition press officials, there are also times when we have to trust them since they said they are talking on behalf of us/the public. But, if the Ethiopian public do not trust those who said they represent us with their press skills, then we need to get off our collective rear-end and replace for those we believe we can trust in future difficulties and challenges.

The media in the Diaspora (I do not know about the media in Ethiopia) is hosting elites not the public. They hijacked the majority fools and ill informed elements to use them on their agenda of pumping up “elite images”. This can’t continue forever like this. They need to know that they are accountable for their actions for what they print. Journalists have a responsibility to their readers (i.e. the ones who keep them in business), but apparently the editorial board and staff writers on Ethiomedia .com /Ethioforum.org/Abugida.org/Addis DimTs radio/Nazret, Abay media and their likes don’t think that responsible journalism is nearly as important as serving their own individual political interests. Those media mentioned above should not sacrifice decent information for the sake of business and circulation numbers. If they want to sacrifice their own decency and political agenda that’s their individual choices. I would appreciate it, however, if they would not sacrifice mine at the same time. My country is hold hostage by TPLF gangs in the country and here the Diaspora media is reflecting elite image by posting pictures and speeches of criminal elements day in day out to elevated them as our New Covenant. This is unacceptable, their action angers many victims.

Who is responsible for such elite hegemony in the media posing elite politics? It is the former press leadership who claimed themselves as “Free Press Journalist Association”. It is Kifle Mulat and the rest! Shame on you Kifle Mulat! Where were you when the journalists are still seeking help from your leadership? Can’t you at least write one paper to UNHCR and the rest of the Humanitarian organization to help journalist Araya Tesfamariam who is suffering in India with his ill 13 years old who have no mother but himself as mother and mother looking after her still harassed by TPLF SECURITY BY THE NAME “Hagos and other hidden spies)? Where were you hiding Mr. Press President? In Asmara or in the Diaspora?

Have you heard the Ethiopian Journalists cry? Did you read us when several friends and I sent you messages on your email provided to us by your close compatriots regarding journalists suffering and seeking to hear your voice? What is “Free Press journalism Association” mean Ato Kifle? Good luck in your hide out political circles where ever you are flirting around with. Finally, (leave my politics alone) I like to thank Dr. Negasso Gidada for helping journalist Eyerusalem Araya. He is the one who helped him to get financial help for his daughter‘s medical expense when he she is referred to India Hospital for further treatment. I thank you sir for your humanity and care for these young girl and her father in a darkest time of his and her life. I am sure; god will forgive you at least in one of your seen. I also want to thank Obang Metho, Addis Voice editor (Ato Abebe Gelaw) for promising they will write to UNHCR to let problem known and expedite his refugee asylum papers to a better country where his daughter will get treatment. I also want Tigringa speaking Ethiopians to hear Dejen radio (Ethiopiancommentator.com) conducted interview with Eyerusalem Araya explaining the crime of TPLF. I thank Dr. Hailemariam Abebe for doing great job on this matter (for your so many cooperation in this matter). I will translate it in to Amharic- stay tune. Let us work hard to expose the failing press in the Diaspora and inside the country. Getachew Reda Getachre@AOL.com www.Ethiopiansemay.blogspot.com

April 18, 2010 at 9:09 pm (Commenatry)

By Hama Tuma

I am sure not many of you know the word bloviator–I did not till someone told me to check it in Google. It means pompous, someone who puffs his chest and makes boastful declarations. The word defines many Ethiopian pseudo and self declared intellectuals of our time. Of course, who is an intellectual is worthy of a debate these days. One who finished Scondary School? Anyone with a diploma or a degree from a foreign institution? Who? Anyone with that Dr or Professor tag? Any fool who speaks averagely coherent English? Anyone with delusions of grandeur? Feelings of elitism?

Sadly, the bloviators are too many. They start out with the assumption that speaking and writing English is expensive to begin with. Not for you and me poor souls with miserable monthly incomes if any. African intellectuals, totally brainwashed alas, boast: “we learnt at the foot of the white man” which, it seems, give them the right and capacity to tell a plant from afar by just sniffing at the air. Ethiopian intellectuals fall in the same pit: their credential is the foreign/ferenji degree, earned in most cases not even from credible or prestigious places, sometimes from correspondence  universities who will give you a degree even if you fail!(check Meles, Tamrat and other mentally challenged TPLF officials). Yet, the Dr or Professor tag is all, supreme, it tell us all to shut up and listen, the bloviators have a degree, they are “intellos” par excellence. Alas, they are shallow, ignoramus to boot, word spinners, not worth the ink on their so called degrees. Take time off to listen to any of the loud pal talk rooms and you will hear many not only punctuating but drowning their Amharic with English phrases. Words like State, information, intelligence, saboteur (actually said “sabotateur” by our hyphenated souls), agenda, diversify, struggle, oppression, etc are words that seem to have no Amharic equivalent.  I had previously attempted to call upon them to be modest and received a tongue lashing for may alleged “jealousy” concerning their degrees which, I am proud to say, will not accept even if offered on  a golden platter.

The half baked “bloviators” use English words to impress, to be unintelligible to my mother and yours, to be pompous. I wish I had written all this in Amharic but as I am trying to deal with those who write  and speak pompously in English I have chosen the foreign language and by implication cornered myself in the dilemma. Why can’t we write our pieces in our own language so that the majority of our people understand what we are trying to say? The hypocritical attempt is to be above the mundane as it were, to rise above the masses, to parade before them with puffed out chest, to show we know and do speak English and can write articles in it no matter the spelling and grammar errors. We boast and silence our own parents and people, and fools as we are we feel proud as we shame ourselves. Delusion is taken as knowledge, ignorance becomes wisdom and we deny our identity to find some mirage of a respect for our demeaned self. The more they bloviate, the more they become incomprehensible, shallow and hollow. The exercise is to say nothing in many words, to use phrases from the Thesaurus, to say perambulate instead of walk, to sound like a Southern USA fiery Baptist preacher, to pepper one’s articles with quotes and references that are either out of place or pedestrian. I remember one “bloviator” who had to refer to Galbraith or Tagore to tell us “yenat hod zingurgur new”. The worth of an intellectual is thus situated firmly in an Ivory Tower, away from the majority of the common people, saying not I fell but declaring my verticality changed to a horizontality. One Weyane scribe, a former “tiraz netek” of the bars in Washington, recently wrote from Addis Abeba a vitriolic attack against Isayas Afewerki (of course in English and  to please his Masters), and informed us of the need to “indigenize democracy in a collectivist African cultural matrix”. Now, what the hell does this mean other than bloviating over our heads parading as a deep thinker, philosopher and a master of the foreign language? There is another Ethiopian who writes incomprehensible regular columns and whom I tried to criticize mildly and provoked his adoring fans (who do not understand what he writes but admire him just for that) to attack me with venom. One asked me in anger “who are you?” and I must admit I was tempted to do a French on her and answer back “I am still searching for my identity” (the French like such replies and will not make it easy where they can complicate).  Fake through and through, inferiority complex of the highest order when our so called intellectuals (many have become professors recently by some collective baptism like the Moonies) look down upon our language, culture, heroes (every political pretender is taken as a Mandela if he or she lands in prison for a month or a year), and our own experience.

The bloviators are also official scribes of the dictatorship. One such pathetic person, a stain on the proud history of her martyred brothers and cousins, recently wrote the following effusive nonsense:

“It is such an incredible win and an amazing era for us to witness the open and fast gain of Ethiopia’s democracy these past eighteen years.  Never in the history of Ethiopia have we witnessed such an open dialogue.   A free expression of ideas among different parties is what we are witnessing for the fourth democratic election.  It is so heartwarming and encouraging for those of us that live outside Ethiopia to have the privilege of being eyewitnesses to the myriad developments that is going on in the country. Thanks to humanity’s elevation of technology we are privy to follow the events of the country on a daily basis” If this is not empty talk what is? Democracy and the Meles regime are anathema, incompatible, opposites. The regime she lauds is known as the predator of the free press, the enemy of free expression, a repressive one holding some thirty five thousand political prisoners behind bars, has committed many massacres, is the one that disappeared dozens in its dungeons and practices systematic and wide spread torture. That makes the woman who wrote the above eulogy either totally ignorant or a shameless sell out. She says nothing in so many words even if she may gain some favors from her Masters in Addis Abeba. The art of saying nothing in five hundred words is often mastered by bloviators and the state of our intellectuals is such that they have all become experts at it. They want to browbeat us with verbosity, with the usage of “hard” English phrases and concepts (which they use not in the correct sense but who cares?), with their determined refusal to use their own language to communicate. I must say I am not amongst those African authors who insist that writers must write in their mother tongue or stop writing ( though the usefulness  of communicating in one’s language cannot be denied) but the impact of a political message is if it reaches a broad cross section of the people and influences them. Last time I checked 95% of Ethiopians are not very familiar with the Queen’s English and if truth be told not many of our self declared intellectuals write proper grammatically correct English either, notwithstanding their tendency to resort to English when they could communicate better in their own language. I could even be mistaken in this assumption of mine as most of them have no clear idea of what they want to utter and whether they do it in English or Amharic ( or any other mother tongue) their mumbo jumbo is not saved from being just that.

Alas, to add insult to injury (be inkirt lye joro degif) our bloviating intellectuals are not funny. Just take the above crazy eulogy and try to say you find it funny. It is actually boring, pathetic, an example of dog- like snivelling and servitude not to say shameful narrow ethnic identification. In other contexts, bloviators can be funny–they are so ridiculous that they become clowns. He was not an intellectual per se but Debella Dinsa comes to mind while in the imperial regime Yilma Deressa was another example of the funny officials. Our present day official scribes cum intellectuals take themselves too seriously as they bloviate and thus are dour and never funny. Otherwise their declaration of democracy under Meles Zenawi should have cracked us up but they believe in it and so they squeeze out the funny in their declaration. George Bush and Rumsfeld were funny with their declarations., they pretended to believe their lies but we all knew they were playacting like their claim of WMDs in Iraq. Take Rumsfeld’s foray into The Unknown:
“As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don’t know
We don’t know.

—Feb. 12, 2002.

Is not this a gem? Such bloviators can and should flourish to give grim politics a funny tinge.

Meles Zenawi, who got his degrees from a correspondence course, also plays at being an intellectuals but his feeble bloviating come out disgusting and only fools take his street smart talk as a sign of intelligence.

The redefinition of the intellectual is called for in the Ethiopian context unless we confine ourselves to the basic definition of the intellectual as someone who attempts to speak English, tries to use confusing words, and is irredeemably alien to his own people and lies as a matter of routine. Come to think of it, this defines our intellectuals “indigenized in their own matrix”. Whatever that may mean of course.

April 18, 2010 at 10:15 pm (Commenatry)

By Yelfiwos Wondaya

With all due respect, Dr. Hailu and nameless journalist, Reporter or what have you, every which way you spin it around, terrorism is terrorism. On the contrary, being selfless, generous, and brave in terms of fighting for the weak and vulnerable citizens, and being loyal to friends and causes, and taking a heroic measure as a result to reverse the terror acts unleashed against citizens in defense is moral and conscientious at any rate. Besides, a child killer who lost the battle in disgrace could not have no morale ground to accuse or convict a victim of his own success and would not be allowed to do so either. The declaration of Red Terror against humanity is found in written all over and still is fresh in the minds of all Ethiopians. But was there any declaration named “white Terror” made by any political entity ever against the public in Ethiopia? With all due respect, Dr. and nameless journalist can you come up with anything  printed then that said white terror aimed at massacring the public? Be that as it may, history has it that EPRP conducted itself with Dignity while Hirelings of the Military Junta the Dr. in question had been part of lost status, self-esteem and reputation till this very day. Cadres and kebelle officers were licensed none other than by Derg’s authorities to kill the generation. The Dr. in question was part and parcel of DERG’s executive body that enforced rules and gave orders to those foot soldiers to kill the generation indiscriminately. That is the fact! In other words, the Dr. in question together with his master lost power for another dictatorial regime. But shortly after Mengistu left for Harare and TPLF took over power in Addis Ababa, the Dr. in question continues to live without restrictions while the entire leadership of ESEPA sent to prison. Why?? Does it have anything to do with race or with being espionage from within ESEPA for woyane or both? I leave that for all to judge.  While in power, however, they were pledged to eliminate the entire youth and have done so, so to speak and that is what their history appears to be in a few words. The Bloody Butchers! Come what may, we shall never forget our history and must be told as it is now and as well must be passed down to the generation yet to come.

Yes, history has it that that nearly every family in Ethiopia was behind EPRP. The party that all cynics hate to death had also a total confidence in its ability to organize the youth and had enjoyed the support of the vast majority of Ethiopian people as opposed to those paid hirelings and doubting Thomases. In fact, it did not take him long to become big and wide in Ethiopian political landscape. EPRP moved swiftly and of course with a great deal of organizing skill and became a nightmare for DERG in no time.  EPRP proposed Provisional Government comprising different factions of different views including DERG and civil and professional  organizations like ETA and others to take place in Addis. On the other hand, DERG ignored the call and had set up PMAC single handedly. Meaning it ignored the call of EPRP and the youth at large and instead it had formed its own PMAC (Provisional Military Administrative Council) and continued to control the nation as a whole following a coup d’état it carried out against Hilesslase. And then the so-called PMAC (the Provisional Military Administrative Council) had formed SEDED and WOSELEAGUE as political wings under its own command. Since the Dr. in question was an intellectual himselfe would have been part of the Intellectuals and professionals groups called SEDED and WOSE LEAGUE that became DERG’s political wings overnight. Eventually, though both SEDED and WOSE LEAGUE happened to be at the core of DERG”S political helm and continued to train new recruits and expanded the operations of their own political units across the nation of Ethiopia. And in next to no time, MESON, ECHAT, and MALERED followed the series to join the club and had begun to slay the generation thereafter.

Realistically, though EPRP and the Youth were highly motivated by the lofty notion of Democracy, Land to the Tiller, unity based on equality and social-justice for all as opposed to that of hirelings’ falsified publications against EPRP. On the contrary however, Hirelings were motivated not by freedom but by money and power trip which are menial and unpleasant cause so to speak for one to die for.  As a result, the sphere of EPRP’S influence became invasive and persistent in terms of winning the hearts and minds of the Broad mass.  At the end of the day, however, hirelings realized that the pervasive nature of the moment led by EPRP was beyond them to control.  Wasn’t  that the reason why they became green-eyed and resentful and continue to be bitter about the same party called EPRP to this date? Be that as it may, the party that made all cynics felt devoid of love and grace had won the general level of confidence and optimism and mobilized the public at large and became far more formidable than the Military Regime and its hirelings. That was when the Dr. in question and his master felt that EPRP was embraced by the public at large and had gained far more superior willpower than their article of faith and direction as well. That was also when DERG had grown to be wary and nervous about the development it was forced to accept. Indeed, the sustained political advance of EPRP and the youth was not that easy for the military junta to ignore. So given that EPRP was highly embraced by the public at large, was there any reason why it had to unleash any terrorist act against the public? After all terrorism is defined as “Typically, they stage unexpected attacks on civilian targets, including embassies and airliners, with the aim of sowing fear and confusion”

The paranoid tendency rooted from DERGE’S character; a character it basically inherited from his combatant profession and post became evident when it employed an excessive force against the youth and has done all it can to destroy our generation. Literally though DERG began to take an arbitrary action against whoever it thought was against him without provocation. Afterward, the Military Junta in cooperation with those sub-groupings clustered beneath him under the umbrella of EMALEDH were also suspicious of any movement around them. They were totally shattered with fear of becoming secluded from the community and family of their own. Obviously though they knew that EPRP’s popularity was beyond them to avert. Worst of all, they even became more insane when learned that EPRP’S infiltrators inflicted every center of operation they were in to conduct their reign of terror against the public in general and the EPRP in particular. You see, Dr. Hailu, in this case it was the people in general and EPRP in particular that put a match to the burning oil and ignited the Revolution across the land of Ethiopia.  Consequently, turbulence among the youth, the intellectuals, workers and the peasants across the country reached a new pitch. It was due to this momentum though DERG launched a bloody campaign called Red Terror against the entire generation including the workers, the peasants, the educators, teachers and students across the country.

After all, power was what the junta was falling in love with and the cadres were there serving the powerhouse of DERG. The child killers were hired to follow DERG”S Loyal Order to kill the children and as well they were a core group assigned to control the community for the same Military Junta the Dr. in question had been part of. A Military Junta that merely knew how to hunt and kill its opponents, and the CADRES’ main line of duty was also nothing but stifling the voice of the public by guarding against the activities of the youth and of the EPRP. But to their disappointment, every which way the killers happened to spin around not only the humans, the birds and every moving creature in the land of Ethiopia were there to protest against their cruelty. As a result, the junta together with its several sub-groupings had grown to hate their ugly mirror-image when compared it with that of EPRP’S grace. The good reputation, the high opinion and the good name of EPRP won him recognition all over while the discarded and deprived cadres that the junta happened to fall in line with were became completely rootless. They were too weak to keep on harassing and irritating the hostile youth in every frightening neighborhood in which they were once treated as cynic and agnostic.  Isn’t that the reason why they became extinct along with the system they built in? Answer me if you can Dr. Hilu and Mr. Reporter Addisu.

Shortly after DERG brought the cynics together with the pretext of unity under the umbrella of EMALEDIH, which EPRP then dismissed it as of no use, was turned out to be a scene of carnage. Meaning DERG himself killed, imprisoned, tortured and abused them the same exact way it did to supporters and members of the EPRP. DERG has done so all these cruelties not in self-defense or with any other extenuating circumstances recognized by law but to monopoly power. Isn’t that what happened to those foot soldiers at the end? They were hired to kill the generation by the Dr. in question and his master and have been killed at the end none other than by the regime Dr. Hailu was  part of. That is the fact! And shortly after he wiped out those who resisted its power he converted others to be ESEPA and have them served to the last minute of his time in power. Well, for your surprise Dr. Hailu, the same cadres you hired to kill the generation had been heard of saying that EPRP & affiliates are praiseworthy for they died with their own belief and vision intact. They emulated EPRP with their own words at the end of their time. Too late! Dr. Hailu, the party you continue to hate remains strong and alive to this very day. But the rest are already no more to be seen in Ethiopian political landscape no more.

And yet, whoever was identified as member of anyone of those sub-groupings, and mouthpiece of the DERG as MESON, ECHAT, WOS_LEAG, SEDED Kebele Officers had been totally rejected by the mass and were totally graceless before the eyes of the entire community. And even they were subject to punishment and correction by non-other than their own family including and up to eviction. It was really more of a family matter and a neighborhood sort of link that made the movement led by EPRP unique at that point in time.

In conclusion, the Dr. in question together with his master used the entire apparatus and resources of the nation as a whole to kill the generation indiscriminately including their own loyal recruits and outstanding generals. Although some like to refuse to go along with this true picture of our recent history, we still have to tell it as it is so to pass the true version of our history to the younger generation and the generation yet to come. It was not even one or two organizations alone that had been wronged, mistreated and prosecuted by DERG and hirelings. It was rather the entire generation including hirelings themselves suffered torture and persecution at the end.  Young, old, male, female you name it were suffer Red Terror. And it is those cadres including those who are working both with the TPLF/EPRDF and the current oppositions that committed this horrendous human carnage against EPRP and the public at large. And yet, here they are running for power to carry out another round of terror campaign to finish the wounded victims. So at the end what made Dr. Hailu and hirelings more responsible is that they still are in the mood to kill the generation completely.

Justice shall prevail in the land of Ethiopia!

by Kassahun

Someone close to my taste said, “what is very tragic is to sleep through a Revolution”, doing a Rip Van Winkle on the momentous event shaking the given country. Let me state from the outset that I have not (yet) read the book by Maaza Mengiste (Beneath the Lion’s Gaze) and I do not know the person or the politics of the reviewer of her book, Ato Abebe Gelaw. However, his labelling of the February 1974 Revolution (Yekatit 66) as tragic and brutal spurred me to write the following lines. More motivation has also come from others who have been revising History and projecting that popular revolution in negative terms and also by the denial of the Red Terror made by the lamentable Dr, Hailu Araya (a Derg loyalist now wearing another mask) and criminals trying to hide their past despicable deeds. Read More…

No lie can live forever said another wise man. The same man who penned the poem of the truth on the scaffold and the lie on the throne. Was the February Revolution tragic? Like the Russian revolution of 1917 can it be bombarded with the question: were you premature? Was it brutal? Did it usher in a period of violence and brutality that was, as implied in Ato Abebe’s comment, unknown in our past? Revolutions do not occur out of the blue though they may appear spontaneous. For all Revolutions, the Time comes, none are really premature. The Yekatit 66 Revolution exploded because it was time for it to do so, the feudal system had become moribund, the people were fed up with their condition and more importantly determined to sacrifice all to bring change. And the ruling class was unable to govern as before, its crisis had come to a head, its mechanisms of control totally derailed. The Revolution had to be and thus it came about surprising even those who had been expecting it, it was not, however, premature.

It was not tragic either. It was a people’s revolution that erupted to put an end to a feudal system, to the autocracy of Emperor Haile Sellasie. And it did just that. It was thus a successful revolution that brought victory to the people. The Revolution was hijacked by military officers–that was what became tragic. That was what brought in the brutality as the officers could not peacefully defeat the popular unrest and struggle against the military rule. When it comes to violence, it must be said without any qualms at all that violence has been endemic, part of the Ethiopian systems for decades if not centuries. The campaigns of the Emperor’s (we can mention Tewodros, Yohannes and Menelik) were very brutal, and violence and cruel treatment of the civilian population has been sown into the politics, the means of governance. In this way, the States were all absolute, all were violent. For the people, the State has always been alien, cruel, capricious, something on top of them, heavy. It is in the respect that Ato Abebe’s reference to Hobbes becomes relevant: Here is what he wrote as he reviewed Maaza’s book:

“The tragic 1974 revolution was not just a bumpy transition from a feudo-capitalist monarchy to a more progressive system as we were told time and again. It was also the beginning of untold brutality that has still continued to haunt us. It is a story of man against man, comrade against comrade, citizen against citizen…. It was simply akin to what the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes called a state of nature, where “men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war; and such a war as is of every man against every man.” In the state of nature life was “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”.

The February Revolution did not usher in “untold brutality” but the counter revolution just continued what was imbedded in the political system of Ethiopia–rule by violence and terror. The violence did not just begin, it was there, it was revived by a brutal military regime. And what followed was not a state of nature by any stretch of imagination. Hobbes mechanistic view of life or what some called his “philosophy of fear” does not apply here. The Red Terror was not a free for all, citizen against citizen, comrade against comrade. Hobbes state of nature was inapplicable by all accounts¹. The State was neither Leviathan nor the violence haphazard and aimless. After the Revolution was hijacked by the former bosses of Dr, Hailu, that is the Derg, there was popular protest mainly organized by the EPRP. The demand for a provisional popular government was tabled, the Revolution and the people needed no military guardian it was said. This popular protest was confronted in a short while by the violence of the State as the Ethiopian State, almost instinctively, resorts to violence when challenged. I leave out here the futile argument by the criminals of the Red Terror who want to allege that the EPRP launched what they so wrongly call the “white terror” and “forced the Derg to resort to the Red Terror”. The truth cannot be hanged always and the fact remains that the repression and the violence was launched by the military regime and its intellectual allies grouped within the POMOA. The scenario of a peaceful and gentle military clique being catapulted into the realm of violence and terror by provocation on the part of the people is ridiculous and would have been funny had it not involved the deaths of hundreds of thousands. That aside, the violence was not a free for all and haphazard—the State unleashed its terror on the people, on the EPRP and its supporters. The Terror had clear cut aims: to destroy the EPRP and to cow the people unto fearful obedience. On the part of the EPRP, its actions were directed at those perceived as enemies of the people. That the Red Terror was so vast does not belie the fact that it had its aims, knew its targets and objectives. Thus, the Hobbesian State of nature, of a war pitting every man against every other man was not the reality of the Red Terror or the violent period that followed the February Revolution.

Not having read Maaza’s book, I sincerely hope that her rendition of the events of that period (even if fictionalized) does not echo this aspect of the reviewer’s interpretation or the crowning of lies in the form of a memoir attempted by another writer called Nega Mezlekia in “his” first book. The February Revolution is a historic event in the annals of our people as it was practically the first instance of a popular revolt overthrowing a brutal regime. It was historic also because of the fact that the Revolution had noble aims, not the coming to power of another ambitious despot but the transformation of the society in a democratic way, the empowerment of the people for the first time in the history of Ethiopia. Hence, it was neither tragic nor brutal and one should take care not to confuse a revolution with its sequel of a counter revolution that negates the revolution itself to take its place. As one revolutionary put it “Revolution, in history, is like the doctor assisting at the birth of a new life, who will not use forceps unless necessary, but who will use them unhesitatingly every time labor requires them. It is a labor bringing the hope of a better life to the enslaved and exploited masses”. That was the February Revolution. The brutality came after, with the counterrevolution of the Derg.

Admirers and those nostalgic of the dead and gone imperial regime have never pardoned the progressives whom they hold responsible for the end of their beloved regime and monarchy. A vigorous attempt to revise History has been put in place with endearing and eulogizing (Ababa Janhoy) pseudo biographies of Haile Sellasie being printed. That system, that autocracy was rotten to the core and a curse on the majority of the people of Ethiopia. The revision cannot prevail– the time is short and those with the memories and the wounds are still alive and around. The February Revolution was thus a tragedy to the ruling class of that period and a historic and beautiful event for the people who succeeded to get rid of a backward system. What followed is another matter altogether as the fall of the Mengistu regime would not be considered a bad thing just because those that replaced him are not any better. Revisionists may, to quote Brecht, wish “to dissolve the people and elect another” but the people cannot be wished or washed away and their memory, stifled as it may be at any given time, stays vivid and alive. For those of us who fought for a Revolution, Yekatiit 66 was a festival that, we hope, gets repeated against the present regime too.

The age of big ideas and robust ideologies may be over but that period of the Revolution cannot be analysed or investigated devoid of its ideological reality. Those who want to rewrite History and allege that “the intellectuals massacred one another” are not only factually wrong but also intellectually uninformed. The truth is that the military dictatorship slaughtered the people; it was not a mere spectator or a secondary player in the tragedy of the Terror. It was the perpetrator of the carnage it called the Red Performance (key tiryit²). Hailu Araya is feebly trying to cover up this fact when he blatantly denied there was any red Terror in the first place. History will not absolve but condemn him thoroughly along with his former masters and as those who deny the Holocaust are guilty of a crime so is the shameless Hailu who has denied the brutal killing of more than 250,000 Ethiopians by the regime he served so loyally to the end. Yesterday’s Marxists (Hailu and company) are today’s liberals, eulogizing the market, admiring pluralism, swallowing their every spit against the system they had been castigating as anti people. This conversion has not, however, led them to reassess their role and nefarious practices in the fallen system/regime, none of them have recanted or asked forgiveness from the people they had hurt so much. They have just glided smoothly, with no conscience harassing them, from being the loyalists of a Terrorist regime (that of Mengistu) to loyal followers of another equally murderous one but this time conveniently and gratuitously labelling themselves “the opposition”. That being the case they justify their previous crimes by denying it altogether or by alleging that their regime “was provoked” to excesses and also by doing a somersault back to the February Revolution which they firmly castigate as “brutal, a mistake, a curse brought upon us by young devils imbued with a foreign ideology”.

Forget utopian vision for today the very imagination of a better world has been dimmed and the prevailing tendency is to regress into condemning the past during which courageous people not only dreamed of a better world but fought and died to make it real. Valiant citizens who still echo Che’s cry : Wherever death may surprise us, let it be welcome, provided that this, our battle cry, may have reached some receptive ear, that another hand may be extended to wield our weapons, and that other men be ready to intone our funeral dirge with the staccato singing of the machine guns and new battle cries of war and victory. 

Long Live the February Revolution!

1 “Hobbes’s view was challenged in the eighteenth century byJean Jacques Rousseau, who claimed that Hobbes was taking socialized persons and simply imagining them living outside of the society in which they were raised. He affirmed instead that people were neither good nor bad. Men knew neither vice nor virtue since they had almost no dealings with each other. Their bad habits are the products of civilization. Nevertheless the conditions of nature forced people to enter a state of society by establishing a civil society”. Other philosophers including Marx have also criticized Hobbes even though “his theory of society and the state contains embryos of a materialistic appreciation od social phenomena“.

2 Another young writer Dinaw Mengistu ( he left Ethiopia when he was 2 years old while Maaza left at four) has, for example, failed to really grasp the dynamics of that period and what really transpired by writing that Mengistu Haile Mariam’s thugs killed people and nailed to their forehead a placard with the writing: “I am a Communist”.