Many of us must have heard of a Janus head, a sculpture typically found at at the gate of a house. In the Greek mythology, the god, Janus, is two headed, with each face looking in the opposite directions. Today the phrase “ Janus faced” means deceitful. However, the original meaning tells us a different story. According to Evan’s Dictionary of Mythology, “ It was a peculiarity of the god that the doors of his temple were kept open in time of war and closed in time of universal peace. They were rarely closed”. The original meaning of the two-headed god is vigilance and new beginnings. By extension it means dialogue which may thwart the mutual destruction which is inevitable when we fail to recognize our disowned humanity in the face of the other. In this context self and other can enrich each other instead of negating each other, bogged down in the denials of each others’ rights, identity and uniqueness.
What has this to do with the OPDO, an organization of willing Oromo puppets and slaves of the Abyssinian dominated TPLF in Ethiopia? I can say this of the OPDO because I knew it from inside.
In 1991 I naively joined it and worked with it, night and day without rest, for almost one year, until it became clear to me, beyond any doubt, that it was an instrument of a new Abyssinian hegemony which, at the beginning, pretended very effectively to be revolutionary.
Further, it is today self evident and clear that all the Abyssinian political elites in opposition, without exception, are, so far up to this moment, absolutely incapable of recognizing the rights and identities of peoples incorporated into their empire by force in the second half of the nineteenth century with the help of European colonial powers. They may disagree among themselves on all issues except one: to negate the rights and identities of the peoples conquered by their emperors.
But to camouflage this fact there are no cardinal sins they do not commit. They pretend and lie in broad day light. They portray themselves as true champions of democracy while the rest of us are narrow minded nationalists and secessionists- miserable creatures that deserve to be ignored altogether, or hanged.
To answer my question, I must say that the OPDO bureaucrats, in the meantime, humiliated daily by the arrogant TPLF, have been thinking for sometime, about their survival beyond the era of TPLF. They know that TPLF cannot indefinitely stay in power with its complete disregard for the realities of its rule.
Therefore, the OPDO had furtively decided to change masters: it has been using the OMN and its founder Jowhar Mohammad effectively as a bridge between itself and the Abyssinian opposition.
Countless naive Oromos worship to this moment OMN and its founder thinking that they are serving the Oromo people.
In part, they may actually do that in some way, for the time being, mainly in their own interests. No doubt that they are toiling in their own fashion. They are repeating as an organized group, in an explosively high fashion, with modern media, what I did as an individual in 1991 if there is comparison at all. The difference is that I did what I did out of deep conviction whether it was wrong or right. They are acting from superficial calculation and self- interest. I did it with the disapproval of the Oromo street, which turned out to be right. They are doing it with the approval of the crowd, wich may be wrong. They seem to snatch the victory for the people easily without leaving their offices and studios. I had no such pretension. Yet I wish they are right if they are right, benefitting from the past experience. Actually this time things should have been different as one should learn from the past mistakes and opportunism.The Oromo masses today have in their midst vigilant students and are not at the mercy of the intrigues of OLF leadership during the so-called transitional period after the wayane came to power.
The truth is that Oromos have no genuinely independent media, and most of them do not even deeply appreciate its value. Most of the Oromo media outlets are censored by different limited cliques. Only a few Oromos visit this blog. And with this information, I assume their number will even dwindle! Most of us hate truth more than anything else, most of the time. That is why we are where we are, unable to break the deadlock organizationally and politically.
Be that as it may, unless the student leaders of the ongoing Oromo protests realize the game in which the OPDO and other Oromo cliques are involved, we are heading for another era of the same Abyssinian domination under new Amhara masters. At this moment, this is part of my big worry. I think the present Amhara elites are even more wicked and dangerous than the fascistTigrayan ruling clique in many ways. It is a pity that so many Oromos fail to understand this, especially, those drenched in, and saturated with the Amhara culture and world outlook. And there are legions of them even among Oromo Moslems to say nothing of Christians.
The leaders of our so-called legal Oromo parties are being picked up one by one, despite their avowed pacifism and passivity, by the TPLF fascists to end up in jails. I can have respect for them. But I disagree with them because I believe their surreal and naive collaboration with the Abyssinian groups who refuse to recognize our rights as a people is extremely dangerous.
There is no sign of a strong, truly independent underground organization with leaders in the field to lead our people in this historical moment when they are fed up with century-old tyranny, exploitation and systematic repression, at this time when they are confronting their fears of the worst tyranny in the world, with their resounding refusal to continue as usual. Unfortunately most of the OLF groups among the Diaspora are only too eager to please the Abyssinian cliques in opposition, and the Eritrean regime, instead of updating their files or getting their acts together in any form that shows an independent thinking or initiative whatsoever.
In the wake of the current crisis genuine discourse on vital issues have been purposely swept under the rug in a mad race for power by various negatively reactive opportunist cliques. Our intellectuals and academics seem to be dumbfounded by the mass protest exploding in their face. In this situation, can the OPDO’s Janus head, in its usual sense, extricate itself from its crimes to initiate a constructive dialogue in the sense of the original signification of what the ancient Janus head is? I am, as usual, entitled to my firm scepticism.