Can we reawaken in ourselves genuine love of ordinary human beings and passion for justice?
After I was removed from Bale, I was instructed by the Woyane not to leave the capital without permission. So I stayed most of the time in Addis Ababa. But shortly before I returned to Germany in 1995, I was able, in the company of an Oromo friend from Jimma, to tour Wollo and Tigray areas, having obtained a written permission for that from the EPRDF. I asked for, and obtained, permission also to attend the so-called mass rallies in the Tigray area in which, as I had to see later, people were herded together and terrorized by TPLF cadres to expose potential opposition to its rule and to drill its followers in its techniques and authoritarian political orientation. It was then that I realised beyond a shadow of doubt that the TPLF was extremely dangerous not just to the oppressed nations and nationalities of the empire, which was already clear to me, but in the long run also to the majority of Tigray people itself no matter the general ethnic euphoria of even many ordinary Tigrayans, and no matter the usual pretensions of the cadres who were personally profiting from the political power they eventually confiscated with gun and with the help of world powers.
One night as I lay in bed, wide awake, in a small hotel in Shiraro not far from the border, I thought of crossing the line to Eritrea. It was only an idea that crossed my mind. Of course I had already decided to return to Germany, fed up with Woyane atrocities. That sleepless night I tried to jot down some of the things I had already seen in my tour then, and other things which I had to mention much later in my letter from Aachen to the Pope in Rome on the situation in Ethiopia, asking for his intervention morally on behalf of defenceless peoples of our region, especially in the Ethiopian Empire. As the day was just dawning in Shiraro, I decided to destroy many pages of most of the things I had jotted down during the night. If found out, they would certainly provide TPLF with yet more dangerous reasons than narrow minded Oromo nationalism to destroy me.
But the idea of crossing the border to Eritrea was really intriguing and it obstinately kept revolving in my mind for some time. To get rid of it I was forced to think or rethink somewhat deeper. The pictures, in my mind, of the three dictators standing together- Meles Zenawi, Esaias Afwerqe and Omar Hassan Al Bashir, were of great help in my ordeal then. These are the three dictators with different faces physiologically but alike in personality and character. I know of no other dictators so far so similar yet hating one another deeply. They are the same not only in their cruelty to their own peoples but also in their methodical ideological pretensions to deceive the masses lacking the necessary political awareness. Running away from TPLF to EPLF, I had to convince myself, was like escaping from one department of hell to another.
Today, I cannot accept the idea that OLF factions based in Asmara, including the Kamal Galchu faction, are blind to the open secret. The position of the Eritrean regime on the Oromo question is not different at all from that of the Meles regime. Both are determined equally to keep the Oromo people under their control within the prison that is called Ethiopia, even though the Eritreans had to fight for thirty years to break free from the same prison, and even though the Tigrayans had to fight for eighteen years to undo the Amhara supremacy over Tigray people. Yet the double standards of our small dictators locked in the mentality of Zemenemesanft and their ultimate motives are not difficult to explain. Nor is it difficult to see the mentality and motives of OLF factions under the iron control of Eritrean regime.
More important is really to understand and explain satisfactorily why the West keeps pampering and protecting the Ethiopian dictator while trying to remove the other two from power. Meles Zenawi’s fascist army, supported recently also by the Kenyan army, is killing Somalis to save the regime in Mogadishu, a regime that is imposed on the Somali people by force, and to protect the divisive clan based cliques in Puntaland and Somaliland under the pretext of fighting the so-called Alqaida affiliated Al Shabaab.
I do not think for one moment that Al Qaida ever posed a serious threat to the Western interests in the Horn of Africa region. But then why is all this flagrant commitment to fascism in Ethiopia? I would like if our honest academics and specialists, who are known for their praise and love of democracy, could explain the riddle to us ordinary mortals. I did hint in my last article that western countries, especially the USA and Britain, would block any attempt at internationally supervised genuine fair election and referendums on the national question in Ethiopia in their bid to protect the unity of the decaying empire. Honestly speaking, I am not wholly satisfied with my own statements. Much remains to be explained in as clear a language as possible. I invite here any reader who has political integrity to contribute articles on the issue.
We may disagree on the definition of fascism, but I think we need to read what people such as Jürgen Haberman said about the threat that technology would ultimately pose to mankind, if we want to consider seriously where we are headed. Behind much of the arrogance and aggression that characterize our time is the mastery of modern technology, especially the war machines. We need to think seriously now more than ever before about groups of human beings who respect the strong and loathe the weak. For the sake of brevity, and not to appear to make a grandiose statement, I would like to narrow my focus, as often, on the Abyssinian political and military elites today. I am not talking only of the fascist clique now in power but also of many Abyssinian opposition cliques and groups. When they shout down at us about the inviolable Ethiopian unity, what they really mean is not the unity of its peoples but the territorial unity of the empire their emperors created at the expense of the other powerless peoples.
Land grabbing is always at the heart of their politics. Under Woyane this politics has taken a new form and dimension and is being maximized by selling the land itself to foreign powers and companies who would be therefore obliged, whether they like it or not, to support and legitimize the Abyssinian Tigray domination. Meles Zenawi is one of the most outspoken and uncharacteristically frank Abyssinian dictators. A number of times he openly hinted that those (peoples) who question Ethiopian unity, meaning practically people who question the Abyssinian domination, could and should leave the empire.
Strange as it may seem to the many, with the help of the Arab oligarchs, Esaias Afwerqe has advanced successfully the old settlers’ politics in Eritrea blocking the return of Muslim lowlanders who left the country because of the conflict in war times. Western circles are generally silent about this even though they are opposed to Esaias on other issues! Still more confusing is the fact that many leaders of these Muslims are enjoying Woyane’s extreme hospitality in Addis Ababa and do not hesitate to praise and defend the regime there, as one of the Eritrean intellectuals recently pointed out in a brilliant article of the awate.com. We know that TPLF had militarily coordinated with EPLF in driving the Muslims out in the first place.The presence of OLF factions in Asmara is not less confusing to the uninformed or the misinformed, as a matter of fact. In general, even many intelligent people are really at loss unable to make head or tail of the contradictions and the paradoxes of our region, including the internal dynamics of contradictions in Somalia.
On the whole, several factors are adding fuel to the flames of Abyssinian chauvinism and warmongering as never before. The major factor is, however, a revolution that is slowly happening in Oromo thinking and awareness. It may mean the end of false hopes and also of resignation. Oromoland is the fulcrum of the Abyssinian hegemony. Most of us Oromos, mostly due to ignorance and opportunism, have kept denying important aspects of our history and our reality that are extremely unpleasant to consider, in a rare act of self-sabotage. Just think not only of the roles, no matter how subordinate, which different Oromo elites played in the past, near and distant, in erecting and defending the Ethiopian Empire; let us think also of the different roles the modern Oromo elites including academics who ostensibly identify themselves with the struggle of the Oromo people for justice are playing today to save the Ethiopian Empire in very strange and brutal ways.
Many Oromos, I would like to think, are now realizing, however, more than ever before that it is no use blaming only our external enemies while ignoring the treachery and the disorder in our own house, in our midst. Do we need a special microscope to see the apparent? Here comes yet the importance and necessity of fearless honest criticism. Some Oromos have become my worst enemies. My texts even in Oromo paltalk rooms caused apparent consternation of some participants and silence on the part of others. I am certainly not after their cheap applause and rosy flowers. I was bounced from pro Kamal Gelchu room as well as from some “Ethiopian” rooms for asking simple polite questions and for expressing my opinion.
The cold tones of some men in those rooms reminded me of Meles Zenawi’s tone, deadly serious and uncompromising, full of hate and arrogance. I remember how he used to address his stooges in the OPDO, the likes of Abbaa Duula and Kumaa Dammaksa in that tone. For the top TPLF leadership, as for all Abyssinian ruling circles, most of their members and followers are only instruments, things or inert matter to be manipulated, not feeling human beings with dignity. Am I exaggerating?
Let us not shy away from confronting our reality! Otherwise, we are going to pay a high price. Generation after generation many Oromos have selfishly adjusted themselves to the service of the Abyssinian domination, willingly accepting as normal the absolutely subhuman conditions mentioned above. Serving Ethiopia has become for them a badge of honour, not of slavery. Many Oromos have been and are still saturated with the Abyssinian value system and the Abyssinian version of history directly or indirectly despite their apparent nationalism. Their attachments to Ethiopia are not much different from those of the Abyssinian chauvinists even though they can systematically pretend otherwise for reasons that are not difficult to understand. Today, they represent the Achilles’ heel in the Oromo body politic. Some of their ideologues around Gadaa.com are openly advising us to renounce our struggle for complete liberation and independence. Others are advancing the idea that Oromos who believe in Ethiopian unity and those struggling for and demanding independence must work together in one organization for the sake of Oromo unity. What a unity !! I can only guess how many innocent Oromo lives already have been sofar betrayed by the silent believers in the unity of the Ethiopian Empire in our midst. By the way, I am surprised that the pro OLF Wirtuu room have not bounced me yet, even though once a hired voice, seemingly furious, seemed to ask the admin for that.
The revolution in Oromo thinking and awareness is frightening many of the Abyssinian opposition groups. Some are already calling for forming a government in exile in preparation for the worst in case the EPRDF regime falls apart suddenly before they are ready. In such an event, they seem to count on prompt recognition by the Western powers to secure quick international legitimacy and support so that the alleged enemies of the West will not fill the imagined vacuum. They seem certain that history will repeat itself for their sake. What worked for their emperors during the days of empire building may work for the new Abyssinian elites. Why not? Let me repeat: Contempt for the weak and respect for the powerful is all what matters in both the traditional and modern Abyssinian prevailing political thinking. I think the root of Abyssinian fascism lies in this negative and revolting orientation. In short, it is based on the application of the concept of annihilation and denials. Period. The ramifications of the dominant Abyssinian militarism in the region and its fascistic nature have been intentionally ignored by the world powers up to now. This is perhaps partly so because the Ethiopian Empire itself had been a victim of Italian fascism during the Second World War. Raising the topic of Abyssinian fascism and bringing it up today for discussion or attention is therefore difficult even among the confused victims who live for generations in fear and ignorance. If it is not curbed and stopped today, Abyssinian fascism is, I think, going to surprise the entire world sooner or later. I only hope that bariisa.com is contributing, in a small way, in breaking through the wall of fear and deadly silence in which Ethiopia is shrouded so long, the chronic fear from which the Abyssinian mentality and the mentality influenced by the Abyssinian culture suffer. One of its proven methods, well-tried even by OLF, is constantly suppressing freedom of expression and the flow of vital information by all means at its disposal. That is also why, as I already pointed out in my previous articles, any Abyssinian dominated regime in Ethiopia will never tolerate real democracy in Eritrea and Somalia.
Finally let us remember the observation once made by Hegel, one of the great and brilliant philosophers of rational thinking. He pointed out that nothing substantial was ever achieved without passion. “Abstract analysis could not get a cat to jump off a hot stove,” he said. No doubt that the scourge of the three or more, actually much more than the three, is with us in the Horn of Africa. Worse is indeed the absence of passion for justice on the part of the majority of our political elites and the masses who are in the habit of worshipping those in power no matter how horrible and criminal they may be. The price of silence and lethargy born of fear and opportunism is always very high for all involved.