UEDP-MEDHIN's Demand for another Apology from Pardoned CUD Leaders?
by Tesfaye Habisso habisso@yahoo.co.uk
No sooner than the FDRE government granted the CUD leaders a presidential pardon and released them from Kaliti prisonhouse on July 20, 2007, the UEDP-MEDHIN's leaders started a new chapter of an apology war targeting the same vanquished adversaries, hollering for remorse from the latter for allegedly carrying out a campaign of vilification and terror against the UEDP-MEDHIN party soon after its pullout from the coalition, the CUD, in the wake of the May 2005 national elections and just before the eruption of civil disturbances across the country.
As we are fully aware, the solemn act of apologizing as well as pardoning is a strange and new phenomenon in Ethiopia. We have never had or heard of such practices throughout our modern history. Indeed, apologizing, especially in our country where people rarely admit their failures or faults on their own volition, can be a difficult and humbling experience. We may feel vulnerable, low and bad. But the CUD leaders, after stonewalling for twenty or so months, bravely broke this cultural taboo and apologized to the Ethiopian government and people (that we think also includes the UEDP-MEDHIN's leaders and supporters): acknowledged their fault, expressed their regrets and pleaded for a pardon from both the government and the Ethiopian people. In an unprecedented and never before heard of move and decision, the FDRE government forgave the convicted and sentenced CUD leaders and released them from jail , offering them a conditional pardon. Why then does the UEDP-MEDHIN political party insist on further apology from these poor souls now? For heaven's sake, let us show them some compassion and not cruelty during these trying times when the CUD leaders have yet to face their constituencies and the general public and account for their mistakes and follies during the May 2005 national elections and during the post-election period. Now that they have apologized, let us give them the necessary space and time for healing the wounds received to the bodies and souls of many supporters and innocent bystanders during the civil disturbances that followed the contested national elections of May 2005.
Those of us who have lived in or read the history of Western democracies such as the USA fully well know that these countries are awash with the story of private/public/political apologies, apologies from friends and families, apologies from political leaders, public apologies from church leaders and apologies from the media, etc. If you take, for example, the USA, you might have heard of the Newsweek apology and the Larry Summers apology (over and over again). Republicans demanded an apology from Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean for negative things he said about their party. Opponents of the war in Iraq sought an apology from President Bush for ever starting it and almost everything having to do with it. Meanwhile, the U.S. Senate offered a somber apology for not having passed an anti-lynching law in the last century. President Franklin D. Roosevelt granted 3,687 pardons during his presidential term, and Woodrow Wilson 2,480 pardons. The lowest number of pardons, that is only 16, were granted by George Washington. In recent times, Bill Clinton granted 456 pardons during his
term of office.
In June, 2005, many world leaders apologized for past horrors. These included Pope John Paul's apology on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church's role in supporting the enslavement of Africans, Japanese Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa's apology for Japan's role in WWII, Russian President Boris Yeltsin's apology for the Soviet army's massacre of 15,000 Polish army officers in the Katyn forest during WWII, and Nelson Mandela's apology for atrocities allegedly committed by his African National Congress (ANC).
Be this as it may, the persisting demand by the UEDP-MEDHIN's leaders for further political mea culpas from the recently freed CUD leaders, I strongly argue, is simply barking up the wrong tree and adding insult to injury, so to speak. This unabated demand for public apology from the CUD leaders who have already suffered in prison for almost two years needs to be recognized for what it is: a manipulative tool used for partisan advantage that threatens to turn what should be a powerful act of reconciliation into a meaningless travesty. Instead of healing breaches, these sorry exercises widen the gulfs between people.
If we deeply examine and re-examine, and reflect upon it at some length, we will find out for ourselves that the political apologies and demand for apologies have something in common: the attacks on the "offenders" or the "alleged offenders" are overkill, and are meant to humiliate and weaken them. The interplay between the offenders and the offended resembles a duel, in which one party wins and the other loses. Neither side is seeking healing or reconciliation. A common tradition in dueling was that an apology by the offender would end the duel without bloodshed. Here, the relentless demand for apology is just another way of trying to draw blood, or a piece of someone's flesh just like Shylock in Shakespeare's play.
Finally, I hope, those of you who have been demanding an apology and those of you who have been cautiously observing these things over the past few weeks, won't be deceived into thinking that these politically motivated demands for apology and their responses are in any way representative of the true process of apology. A successful apology--a real apology-- results in the dissolution of grudges and reconciliation between two parties. The offended parties feel like they have received "gifts" and usually attempt to offer "gifts" in return. People are brought together, not pushed apart. The thirst for "apologizing" amongst some of our compatriots in the UEDP-MEDHIN party these days, though, is all about pushing apart. If you ask me, it's a sorry spectacle indeed, a spectacle from which none of us will emerge out winners except a lose-lose situation, at best.
Furthermore, there are many Ethiopians who argue that the presidential pardon should not have been granted until the Ethiopian nation--all Ethiopians at home and abroad--comprehended the full scope of the CUD leaders' role and participation in the attempted insurrection and in the civil unrest that erupted during the post-election period. In addition, the necessity of drawing lessons from these past mistakes, with the aim of not repeating them in the future and also tackling the root cause or causes of the civil disturbances, is regarded as very essential and of utmost significance. Hence, the demand from the government to come up with appropriate clarifications and statements to the general public and the international community from the very beginning to the end of this sorry state of affairs that marred the image of the country as a whole and especially the landmark national elections of May 2005. Unfortunately, the state media came up with these clarifications and statements after the issuance of the presidential pardon certificates to the CUD leaders and not before the consummation of the pardon process. Many think that the government faced a catch-22 situation: Damn if you do, damn if you don't sort of precarious scenario. That is, it couldn’t come up with fully-fledged information to the public because the case was before the court of law and thus subjudice, and hence forward its clarifications only after the presidential pardons were granted to the convicted and sentenced CUD leaders. Thus the timing proved to be seriously wrong and the outcome pitifully counter-productive, raising the concern of the very elders who brokered the CUD apology as well as the government's pardon. This 'propaganda' by the state media seems to have stopped now to the relief of the national elders and the general public who yearn to witness this chapter of apology and pardon make a smooth transition into another chapter of genuine forgiveness and reconciliation amongst all the protagonists in the nation's political arena, after which genuine discussions of what went wrong during the aforementioned elections, lessons to be learned and how we can avoid these mistakes in the future should take place at different forums throughout the country. This is what everyone of us want and wish to witness unfolding in Ethiopia today and not opening old wounds by demanding new apologies from the CUD leaders as the UEDP-MEDHIN party leaders have been insisting during the past few weeks. Let us stop this new wave or front of waging another apology war on the CUD leaders. Let us make further efforts so that real understanding, forgiveness and reconciliation prevail over the misguided spirit of revenge and hostility amongst all groups in the country. Enough is enough; let us not add insult to injury, as they say, by demanding fresh apologies from the CUD leaders after their release. For God and our country! Adieu!