Right speech comes out of silence,
and right silence comes out of speech.
We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims
beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive
a spoke into the wheel itself.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Throughout history empires had to go because they failed to change with the demand of changing times. That is also to say the demands of the majority of the peoples under their rules. This is true of all empires: Chinese, Roman, Arab, Sassanid and others. Changing their names, by calling them republics, Roman, Soviet, Ethiopian republics, ” democratic” or not, without changing their content and structure is always self-deception and is bound to misfire and fail sooner or later.
The majority of the Oromo people have been silent in the face of evil for almost one hundred thirty years, a silence which is evil itself. But they have reached now the limits of their patience. So now the overwhelming majority of them have uttered their truth as one for the first time. Even those individuals in history who embodied in their lives the universal spirits of benevolence and goodness did speak when they felt abandoned by every body. And their speech changed the world, at least the inner worlds of those who listened.
The ongoing Oromo protest has been entirely peaceful, and their demands entirely democratic. I can be accused of wanting to dismantle Ethiopia. No one can accuse this Oromo protest of raising separatist or anti Ethiopian slogans. This is an essential point. Despite this fact, the Amhara elites and population, the second largest in Ethiopia after the Oromo, apart from the lip-service of some of their clever academics, are sitting on the fence. Why is that? Are they not oppressed by the Tigray warlords? To tell the truth, without beating about the bush, they are oppressed. But they believe saving their empire is more important than freedom from oppression. To do that they are quite willing to save the fascist ruling Tigray elite. It seems that the Amharas and Tigrayans do not mind being ruled by their own fascists as long as their lands are not grabbed. Actually their lands have never been grabbed. They are the factual grabbers of others lands- Oromo lands, Somali lands, Afar lands, Sidama lands, Beni Shangul and even Gurage lands etc. I can hazard a guess that they are not interested in real structural changes in their empire, that is, changes that affect land grabbing, no matter how they sing in chorus about democracy and human rights.
Throughout history most of them have never cared to know about democracy. The Orthodox church, as their highest spiritual authority, is, ideologically, the number one defender of the empire. To defend the empire they have to misuse one of the truly greatest religions of mankind. Even as a young man from a Moslem background, going to Amhara dominated school, I intuitively knew how great was the Christian message, even to the point of secretly attending Church gathering during the weekends, partly because I was affected by the love of drumming and moving in rhythm with the music, where males and females faced each other with joy, which is not the case in the mosques. I wondered for long, to the point of confusion, how the Amharas reconciled their aggression with this religion.
Today almost half the Oromo population is Christian. But the Abyssinian tricks of divide and rule are not working any more. They have worked for long time very well by serving foreign interests, especially the interests of superpowers. Yet the Amhara elites still underestimate our intelligence and are determined to trick the international community of nations as ever in the same old ways, but with ever changing pretentious political dramas to safeguard the status quo. The TPLF Master Plan is actually part of the basic Amhara demands for grabbing Oromo lands. On this, as on many other things, they are one with the ruling TPLF. There is no escaping from this fact. It is for the whole world to see. That is why they are sitting on the fence. They will come down only when it serves their hegemony. This fact has nothing to do with my personal convictions about the future of Ethiopia. I may be wrong or right. That is not the point. I never insist on being right anyway no matter what my convictions may be.
The Amharas are determined also to cancel even the minor concessions, like the use of our language if they can and the nominal right to self determination that the TPLF has written in its constitution on paper, the right for which our people have struggled for long time and are still struggling with higher degree of determination.
Yet, there are Oromo groups and individuals, including ODF and Jawar Mohammad, who are making enormous efforts to convince us to abandon our rights to self-determination in favour of working with the Amhara opposition to build a democratic Ethiopia. How can you build a democratic Ethiopia with the enemies of democracy? To put it as simple as possible: The Abyssinian and, for that matter, sadly, even the Oromo opposition groups and cliques, which call themselves political organizations, have no democratic structures, no memberships that elect and control the leaderships. How can they give to the population what they do not have- democracy?
ODF and Jawar Mohammad underestimate the will of the Oromo people to liberate themselves by themselves from the Abyssinian domination even in the absence of a democratic leadership. The Abyssinian opposition groups are more consistent and realistic in terms of their points of reference and their world outlook. They refuse to budge from their ideological position.. whereas we keep shifting all the time..Of course there is a large number of the Oromo petty-bourgeoisie in hurry to get into office or to fortify their already achieved privileges. Nowadays, they make up the largest group of audience in the Abyssinian paltalk rooms! The rooms in which, not long ago, ” the young Jawar Mohammad” was applauded. Shame on shame! I do not mind their existence and their rights to their views. Slave mentality is so deep among us to hope otherwise. The Roman empire did use Germans to destroy German tribes. But it ultimately failed to defeat the spirit of the German folk. Our people need to know what our opportunist elites are up to. And we need truly free media to do this. Just look at the guys talking on OMN mirroring Abyssinian views in disguise. None of them dare to criticise or contradict Jawar Mohammad. They are all of the same views as far as I can tell. I do not know if there is rare exception. In that case, I ask pardon. Where is freedom of expression? Herd mentality is very dangerous.
Also, I do not mean to say that the conflict between the Amharas and Tigray ruling elites is not real. It is part of pure power struggle between the empire builders. Even within the Tigray elite in Ethiopia ratty power struggle for the spoils of the empire is raging now without mercy though they are careful for fear that their hegemony may suddenly collapse. The Amharas are determined to keep the Tigrayans in power until they are ready to take over. By the way, at least seventy percent of the federal bureaucracy is still made up of them even though Tigrayans occuppy commanding strategic posts—what the Amhara elites used to do in the days of their unquestioned supremacy. The Tigrayans are repeating the farce with more violence but new arabesque tapestry of tricks.
Talking about the collapse of the Ethiopian empire, many naive Oromos in Wirtuu paltalk room, even though I believe most of them are Oromo patriots, refuse to see that the Eritrean regime is determined to protect the Ethiopian empire from which it broke away. The struggle between the two militaristic Tigray elites in Eritrea and Ethiopia is also part of the ongoing power struggle among the Abyssinian elites. It is nothing really new in their history. They have always used Oromos as cannon-fodder in their wars.
An adult Oromo who refuses to hear and see this must be deaf and blind or purely an opportunist. Our people need also to know this. The one thing the Oromo people need most at this point and also in the future is freedom from very dangerous illusions on the roles of charlatan charismatic individuals. Once they are clear on this point, there is nothing they cannot achieve for their liberation even peacefully under a democratic collective leadership. Politics need not be always dishonest even in this capitalist dominated world. That is why sweeping ideological generalizations are dangerous. After all, all of us, capitalists or no capitalists, are not always good or bad, depending on countless factors beyond our control.
I think the fact that there are countless factors which we cannot control in this world is in itself the embodiment of goodness in this great universe. To see the positive in the negative and vice versa, is the essence of humour and tolerance and reality. I am no member of any Oromo clique. I want to do the work of an honest journalist and commentator if I can, even though that is not my profession. If there is self-contradiction in what I say, that is also part of my being human.
This is why I never cease to believe that the Oromo people will achieve their aims even peacefully if they remain true to themselves in the first place. On this point Beqqale Gerba is absolutely right. Peacefulness speaks louder than violence in the hearts of the majority of mankind. And I love mankind no matter what the crimes of this world may be, and no matter what my frustrations are..
We do not need to kneel down on the ground before the sworn enemies of human rights and genuine democracy. Unlike the Abyssinian perspective, the Oromo Gada horizon is wide enough, diverse enough to accommodate democracy in all of its forms. In fact the Oromo identity itself is diverse absorbing three important belief systems, among other things. That is, I think, really good luck. Fanaticism is not part of the original Oromo Gada culture. It does disservice to our fundamebtal interests and our basic political orientation in all ways.. And that is why the Oromo people are, generally speaking, the most tolerant people in the Horn of Africa. With all my disagreement with him, I agree with Jawar Mohammad when he said that Oromos have never lived alone. The Oromo people have no problem of coexistence and sharing what they have with any nation that respects their rights.
Down with the imperial politics of grabbing our lands and suppressing our legitimate national identity and aspiration.