Do we have to go to neural science to understand the politics of the Abyssinian elites? I never underestimate, as is usually the case in the Oromo paltalk rooms, the capacity of these elites to surprise and busy their supporters as well as their victims everywhere with ever new self marketing coups and propaganda turnabouts- to cajole, to mislead, to divide and to confuse their critics and admirers ad nauseam.
It is the continuation of a tradition of intrigues and brutality cultivated for centuries in the feudal militaristic Abyssinia. Its turpitude and depravity have never been lacking in the arsenal of high sounding languages. They extend from the vocabularies of religion to socialism to revolutionary democracy to federalism to developmental state to one hundred percent victory under one party election, all saturated in crimes. The fascist TPLF has been trying to perfect the techniques of the Amhara ruling classes with a lachrymose tumult, in the context of the labyrinthine complexities of the most horrible empire of history.
Externally, the main responsibility for defending this empire, especially under the TPLF, falls on western countries especially the United States and Great Britain. They are responsible for any genocide that happens today under the TPLF in Ethiopia. But this is far from exonerating ourselves as Oromos from our own duties and responsibilities for failing to produce a genuine democratic political leadership in the form a political organization that represents our struggle for liberation from the Abyssinian yoke of oppression. It must be clear to us that nobody can do our home works for us, even with the best intentions.
Not only that. We are responsible up to now for our resignation to, and, at least in part, for our collaboration with the Abyssinian empire builders where the practitioners of crimes against humanity pretend to speak ” the truth” to divide us using elegant vocabulary, managing to get away with it so far. Through our passivity and cooperation they have actually made themselves respectable in international arena. We cannot absolve ourselves, if we want to speak with integrity, from our sins against ourselves. It is a high time for us to get over this and act together in the age old gada spirit of solidarity and discipline to regain our human dignity and freedom.
We are experiencing now a unique opportunity of true Oromo solidarity that demands continuity and relentless organizational work at all levels instead of just talking and complaining incessantly. We should not waste this opportunity and we should do what we can no matter how small. But the most important question is this: is there anything more dangerous for the struggle of our people than not knowing exactly what we want to achieve at this historical stage?
I think a minimum program around an independent secular Oromo republic is a must. At the next phase of history we may choose union with equal nations on the basis of applied democracy. But that is another phase perhaps for another generation. All other nations who struggled for liberation knew what they exactly wanted.
Let us face it and ask ourselves: how many of us still keep wavering? I assume we know the answer without counting! That is why men such as Lenco Lata and Jawar Mohammad and other pro Ethiopia Oromo groups are trying to speak for us. I think this trend can develop into tragic disaster if we are not careful. Every point in history can be a cross roads. As I never tire to raise in this site, I do not trust Oromo groups loyal to EPLF either even if they seem to have a correct minimum political program. OPDO’s biggest weakness is not just its political program but its puppet nature. The necessary minimal Political program on paper does not change the undemocratic nature and composition of a political organization. I keep following for decades Oromo intellectuals writing and discussing Oromo history and politics…. It is highly ironical that they never seriously raise, in practical manner, fundamental organizational structural issues. In this regard one can almost forget the paltalk rooms altogether. Why this is so I do not really pretend to know. It is, simply speaking, tragic. It is not enough to present deterministic explanation of our history or politics. Why are we so clueless and superficial?
The pronouncement of the truth in itself will not set us free. We have whole scriptures and philosophies dealing with truth. They can practically enslave us and blind us to the ever changing realities of our existence depending on our interpretation and our concrete or subjective perception, not to mention our inclinations to misuse them systematically to achieve our greedy and aggressive agendas. That is why concepts can often fail mankind not only when they sound but even when they are perfectly right.
That is also why vigilance is a must against demagogy and general statements of of all colours, whether they are from the right or from the left, from within us or from outside. This is so especially when they are used by individuals and cliques with deeply rooted inferiority complex, engaged in compensatory efforts, no matter how seemingly refined they may be.
Just read what the extremely chauvinistic Abyssinian academics post on Ethiomedia concerning democracy and the rule of law. Their reflections on equality, unity and human brotherhood can disarm the most experienced democracy advocates in the western world. Today, some of them are pronouncing in public their superficial solidarity with the on going Oromo protests while they are privately, at the same time, stirring up old fears among ordinary Abyssinian people who keep looking on with terror and suspicion at the absolutely peaceful Oromo demonstrations. Oromos are the bete noires of Abyssinia. Their independence seems to them not only the end of their bewilderingly criminal empire but also the end of their old Abyssinia to the north.. That is why I think that the abolishment of the rotten empire will stimulate the ordinary Abyssinian people to think for themselves and free their creative energies from the tyranny and exploitation of their own extremely aggressive elites and not vice versa. I firmly believe the Ethiopian empire must be abolished by peaceful means if possible. Otherwise this must be done by force even with international involvement if the international community can be reasonable by way of exception. Am I dreaming?
I do not trust my own words automatically or at least I need sometime to recover from their impact and see that all is well in my inner world! For some years now, I have learned to live in two worlds, an inner and an outer world. For me both are perfect in fascinating and even strange ways despite all the crimes of this world. But nothing is more open to misuse like the human language, without which yet there is no art, literature and science. It is a double aged sword. We do not seem to escape its attractions in any way. The longer I live, the more I appreciate my inner silence and solitude which is not loneliness at all though, at times, I can be noisy and though I enjoy making patterns of rhythmic sounds. It is entirely true that character and action speak louder than words.
I must admit that I am surprised to hear the OPDO leadership contradicting its TPLF bosses publicly for the first time. With the benefit of hindsight I now see clearly that the manner and the timing of their doing it, while the Oromo protests are going on, are well calculated. The Arabic word “annas” for human beings could also mean something like “ the forgetful”. It took some seconds before I remembered this and said to myself, “ that is old criminal Abyssinia” after I heard the news.
That the OPDO reads statements prepared by the TPLF is no news to me. When I worked for it in Bale I turned down the statement TPLF handed down to it from above for me to read in Goba on the anniversary of the EPRDF taking power. I replaced it with my own. They were shocked but pretended otherwise for some reason.. I knew they would not forgive me for that. At one point, after a week or so, Kumaa Dammaksa and Abbaa Dula pretended, in the presence of a member of of the TPLF central committee, to be really furious at me because of my deed . But later, when alone, they tried to hug me, in Kumaa Dammaksa’s villa, where I spent two nights. Perhaps the TPLF told them to calm me down. At the above mentioned anniversary in Bale, hordes of blind Lenco Lata Arsi supporters heckled me during the ceremony. Two of them followed me a long way on foot to the office showering me with insults and accusations that I was a traitor. I refused to react even though I could take measures to stop them from molesting me.
I already knew as early as in the seventies that the ultimate aim of Lenco Lata and his likes was Ethiopianism at the expense of the Oromo struggle. Somehow I felt in 1991 that they were, in the long run, more dangerous than the puppet OPDO. Today I do not see much difference between the two. In the seventies and eighties I had difficulties in explaining personally through discussion the nature of OLF leadership to many ordinary Oromos. I found peace of mind when I stopped doing that.
The obsession of many Oromos with OLF is honestly speaking phenomenal. It is a general sign of mental rigidity and unwillingness to move forward by learning new forms of democratic political organization and elementary institution building. OLF embodies disorganization at this point in time. In the course of time it has become a phantom body existing only in Oromo imagination, some kind of void, like the ancient Oromo god, waaqa, to whom every body automatically belongs by birth. Its is a mirage organization for those who hate democratic organizational transparency and necessary discipline. It has become a mental handicap for most Oromos that is not easy to acknowledge and remove. Anyone carrying OLF flag without knowing this fact needs to think about this. It is a very serious matter.
Even today there are sadly those of us who do not want to open their eyes to concrete facts. The phantasmagoria of the OLF provide a fertile soil and cover for those groups and individuals running for short term ambiguous self interests who are too eager for personal benefits by all means in the name of a just cause, with minimal culture of organizational responsibility, experience and awareness. Today OLF lives on its past history, and not on the flux of the present reality though its illusory presence is becoming bigger these day in Oromo fantasies and imagination. The groups in Asmara may wish to jump on the bandwagon of the present protests with the help of the EPLF. How many of us live for ever on wishful thinking?.
All Oromo demonstrations now at home and in foreign capitals against the Abyssinian oppression and brutalities are a must. But they badly need leaderships aware of our basic organizational dilemma that I have been trying to raise here. This needs to be sorted out clearly and urgently if we are serious about the ongoing mass movement. Our organizational problems come from a fallacy of reasoning embedded deep in our disheartening psychology of manipulation, which is not much different from the Abyssinian intrigues against which we are struggling.
Unless the leaders of the present mass protest resolve this problem, the correlation between objective conditions for a successful Oromo revolution and the images and symbols most of the Oromo protesters are carrying in in their heads and hearts will be missing, leading to a massive self- betrayal and disappointment. We need to be forewarned. I am probably shouting in an arid desert.
There are elegant theories on how the world works. But the world cannot be controlled completely through their application or practice. Most of them are actually impractical. That is good. I take comfort in human capacity for vigilance, sympathy and patience. It makes us lively, cheerful and aware of human condition even in sorrow. We are not without choice. Life is great because many things in it are closely interconnected if we listen to our natural wisdom. Perhaps that is what makes it sacred irrespective of our religious and ideological cults. Any one who rejects this organic interdependence and communal spirit turns automatically into a puppet controlled from outside against the most elementary values of humane existence. Our national liberation struggle can only succeed if we rethink our priorities in a new light far, as much as possible, from manipulating and being manipulated.
Real poverty is mental. The more I try to be open by way of cultivating this perception in unconditional way the more rewarding I find it in itself. Self-awareness can be a blessing or a curse, depending on our inner intuitive attitude and rationality, not only on our external conditions, important as these may be, both for individuals and communities. When positive, it frees us from the pitfalls of destructive personal hankering for pleasures, pride, power and other destructive ambitions or preconceived ideas and predatory dreams that hurt us and others. Then our individual and collective energies are free for the tasks at hand.