The insanity has to stop

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Paulos Yrgaw(09/30/05)

Ethiopia is a whole more than the summation of its parts. However, this holistic attempted approach to magnify our shared and well earned identity becomes problematic at best and naivete at worst given the prevailing intense hatred disguised as a sincere intention to lead the country into a better future. To preserve our age old national pride and to keep intact our timeless legacy, where Ethiopia is placed in the arena of history as a beacon of independence, bereft of colonial scrooge in which the end result is tribal strife, we find it incredibly imperative to keep the transcendental distinction between our assumed tribal and lingual tag of names blurred.

Of course, our ethos and moto is, "Our diversity is our strength", we take this credo to heart because we are absolutely convinced that, our unity takes precedence over our diversity. Ostensibly, the latter seems to nullify the former, however, our much sought democratic modus operandi bridges the two in synch where our differences fade into a background noise while our unity shapes up our identity as an entity. Thus, our democratic beliefs are terribly crucial where the alternative to it is authoritarianism and all the other "isms" and worse of all, the domination of a single nationality over other nationalities which is reminiscent of our relatively recent past.

The messengers of our recent past are here and they are determined to return the new and hopeful Ethiopia into their own making where hatred is their life line. The tragic aspect of the intense hatred is not only because of its intended targets are certain nationality, rather the hatred is based on a blind misconception. The gods had not been incredibly fair with Tigrai when they geographically placed her on the top part of Ethiopia where the invasion of foreign powers had always been through the north. And consequently, Tigrai has always been there as a bulwark to defend the greater Ethiopia from the invaders.

Tigraians bled and died selflessly for the motherland from generation to a generation. If one was to trace the blood in Tigraian soil using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), one undoubtedly would have found blood stains attesting to the defeat of Italians, Brits, Sudanese, Egyptians and others. The tragedy didn’t end there, the gods were joined by men on Earth. Men whose sole aim was power and greed at the expense of those who fell defending the country in its dire moment.

Tigrai had every right to take the credit for defending the country but the men whose representative is the emperor, in an extraordinary Machiavellian fit took all the credit for himself and turned his back on Tigrai and left her with no political power and in an abject poverty as well. If this is not a crime of the highest calibre, what is? If this is not a broad day-light betrayal, what is? The new breeds of Tigrai however, with an incredible political will rose above the old motto "eye for an eye" and set out to overhaul the real thorn which was holding the country from striding forward. And they did dissect it with precision while the colonel was busy taking the country into unimaginable cruelty where Ethiopia was left with no sense of direction and decadent morale standing.

Tigrai again took the center stage when her children mobilized the people with intense political clarity and a sense of direction not only to liberate Tigrai from the yoke of abject poverty and backwardness but also to baptize the entire nation in a democratic atmosphere where the languages, customs, norms and culture is respected and exercised. It was in fact at their own disposal to impose a Tigrian language and culture in the entire nation as Ethiopia had been "Amharaized" through out better part of her history, but doing that however, not only negates the very objective they set out to materialize, it also runs against the prevailing wind which was blowing in the seventies when Marxist ideals was the norm of the day. The weak, practically non-entity Ethiopia whose tragic sketch filled the screens of TV-sets in the West in the 80s, once again came to life and made wonders in the world stage either in diplomatic circles or in its remarkable effort to make up for those lost years. The objective was clear and simple: democratic principles, freedom of speech, a complete shift from rigid command economy into open-market economy and of course respect for the rights of nations and nationalities.

The new leaders became the envy of those pariah states and Ethiopia became a power to reckon with in the region. This is a remarkable achievement. The sad thing is however, when the true believers in the betterment of Ethiopia were busy investing in a political capital, the latter day opposition parties got stuck in a warped time and interpreted the birth of a new Ethiopia as a shift of power from a certain nationality into other nationality. Fourteen years and counting, their frame of mind is still frozen in time. EPRDF true to its calling offered a democratic right to any interested party with a different political platform to contend in a ballot box for a political power, but in the receiving end, this modest act was perceived as a weakness. Simply because, the very idea of a democratic Ethiopia never downed in the psych of the opposition parties. And they are determined to see the entire political dynamism in terms of conspiracy theory in which the assent to power of the TPLF is taken as a well designed intention to decapitate the then dominant nationality.

With this fanatic and rigid and needless to say detrimental belief in mind, the leaders of the opposition parties are shuttling from Addis to Europe and USA in a heightened push to mobilize ex-Dergue members and disgruntled "aspiring" political figures into the hate orgy. And they are subscribing to violence in a bid to topple the incumbent government in un-constitutional manner. What seems to be tragically amiss in the minds of the opposition leaders is that, TPLF or EPRDF was not born in a religious convent, rather in a violent atmosphere. Nobody has a better comprehension about the barrel of a gun than the TPLF, it should not be terribly difficult to employ bullets for the state of affairs but EPRDF has grown out of it and it has opted to give peace a chance. They are stretching their patience in case the opposition display a sense of maturity. The insanity has to stop, the opposition parties need to come to their senses if they are left with one that is. The Ethiopian people if not the entire world has testified to the truth and the only truth that, EPRDF has won the election, it is a high time and wise to accept the wish of the Ethiopian people and move forward. The alternative is needless to say frightening.

Paulos Yrgaw

Ottawa, Canada.

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