Brief comment on Mesfine's interview
Seifesilassie Sibhatu
For sometimes now we all have been speculating and guessing about the degree and extent of the damage created by internal party and personal strife with in the higher hierarchy of CUD party. Now it is no more speculation about the life and death of the ill-fated party. Prof. Mesfine has given as the official word regarding the greed and ambition of Kinjit leaders, about Kinijit the wicked sprit and lot more. The implications and significance of the hard words he spoke on VOA and DW radios regarding the state of Kinijit and its greedy leaders were too harsh not only to his supporters but to the supposed impartial VOA journalist Tizit who conducted one of the interviews. Since he spoke on VOA and DW, those words have became a bitter pill to swallow to the hardliner Diaspora, which for long have been living in denial, delusion and preferred their leaders to tell them what they wanted to hear not the reality.
Now that he spoke on international radio station and made public what most of the Diaspora hardliners feared for so long: Kinjit isn't the Sprit they wanted to believe but a collection of power hungry and greedy individuals; Kinijit is not a party that was established to give the Ethiopian people political leadership, but a subtle short cut to bring the likes of Berhanus and Hailu to power. Ouch it hurts! He turned the hard fought effort of the hardliner Diaspora to create a Holy Spirit, the 45th Tabot, out of Kinjit into a nightmare. But how will the hardliner Diaspora emerge from denial into reality that the individuals hailed by them as wise and charismatic leaders are but greedy power monger, that Kinjit is not saviour of Ethiopia as they wanted hard to believe but a means to attain individual glory and ambition? We have to wait and see the full impact of those words of Mesfine, a man ironically so revered by his supporters, on the hardliner Diaspora and Kinijit in general. A couple of days since he spoke on VOA and DW; however, there haven't been any unusual reaction from the hardliner Diaspora. Instead of coming to their sense and reality and at least at this time listen to the words of their Prophet, as usual all indication seems to suggest that the hardliner Diaspora is working hard to tear itself apart along personalities and cult lines, glorifying or demonising of individuals rather than defending ideas and principles. This should not come as a surprise given the tradition and culture Kinjit and in line with the creation of Berhanu's group, Hailu's group, those-in-prison group and so on.
But to those us who has reasonable judgment, what Mesfine said should not come as surprise. Kinijit was conceived and created mainly by Mesfine et al., out of four political parties that had only got a common ground to outs the incumbent government. With the exception of their common desire to see the current government go by any means possible, there wasn't a single fabric that could hold them together for long. From its outset the coalition lacked long term, viable and alternative vision of Ethiopia therefore doomed for failure from its inception. The man himself though couldn't hide the realities that existed in Kinijt, seems to suggested paradoxical view points. At one point in the interview he mentioned that the coalition was created to give the Ethiopian people political power not individual glory. Yet at another point he suggested that from its inception the coalition was marred with individual political feud between Berhanu vs. Lidetu, now Berhanu vs. Hailu, may be next Berhanu vs. Bertukan. In another instance he tried to make the problem that CUD faced and the feud between Hailu Shawel and Berahnu Nega as an insignificant and in fact implied their difference is a form not content. But can a difference so strong and whose fundamental cause lies in deep individual hunger and greed for power be characterised as a difference in form not content? Can a difference that brought the ill-fated coalition to its knee and to the verge of its collapse be considered as a difference in from not content? I don't think so.
Oct 18, 2007