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Dr. Getachew Mequanent, justice is a retroactive.__________________________________ Paulos Yrgaw
Dr. Mequanent’s curt and measured analysis of the recent punctuated events in the panorama of Ethiopian politics, invites the interested reader, into a sea of ideas where we are at liberty to chip in what ever is in our own disposal before the future slips out of our vicinities. Of course, the expectation is not a flying colours, neither it is a work of art where a refined sublime lexicon is the standard bearer. A simple idea of any feather weight will do. As they say, elegance finds her niche in simplicity. The least demanded threshold is a genuine participation of any caliber. Nothing more nothing less. Compatriots in the Diaspora get arrested or inhibited for various reasons from expressing their ideas in the on-going discussion in the e-medium as we live in a high time where Ethiopia comes of age and breaks the ceiling of the heavens. Beside the constraints of time and the burden of the fast pace society where we live in, self-consciousness, the crippling menace seems to be one of the impediments which is arresting us from expressing our ideas in the sea of e-medium. The fear of gaffs and other issues shouldn’t render us hide behind pen-names or making us self-ostracized from participating in the platter of ideas. And I commend Dr. Mequanent’s call on the rest of us to do so as a franchised stake-holders. As I read the highlighted entries of Dr. Mequanent’s recent article, I found myself unease particularly on his take or input pertaining the recent verdict rendered on the Colonel. I thought it was a bit presumptuous to say the least. I believe the verdict was a travesty of justice. As Mulugeta Asrate-Kassa beratedly put it after the verdict was rendered, the Colonel must have thrown a party to celebrate his piece of cake verdict. It is absolutely true that, our proud and seasoned culture respects elders with the highest esteem. And of course, we all take that to heart. However, what seems to be tragically amiss is that, the rabid young Colonel ascends onto the podium with a blood filled bottle in his hand to be thrown on to the ground armed with catchy-phrases such as "Down with revisionists, reactionaries and stooges of imperialism" after he had suffocated to death an elderly and frail Emperor and other sixty elderly dignitaries. I am completely at a loss. Why would the State offer a clemency to a monster with no moral scruple or compaction on virtue of an old age and chronic illnesses? I can’t possibly fathom. I am sure Dr. Mequanent’s assertion is emanated from a good hearted intention. Despite his agonies and pains during the ancien regime, his call for magnanimity of course should be applauded and emulated. However, justice also ought to be served. Justice is retroactive. It is beyond the realm of time. In recent years, there has been a futile and yet a concerted effort in certain quarters to paint a rosy picture of the Colonel with a bigger stroke in a canvass. The desperate and futile attempt is not new, it is the hall-mark of the vanquished. The annals of history is full of it. The twisted psychology is however, couldn’t have been depicted more clearer when the critique of culture Wolfgang Schivelbusch put it in his great work, "The Culture of Defeat: On National Trauma, Mourning, and Recovery." As he succinctly put it, the vanquished claims a moral superiority by reinventing himself in myths and lies in a bid to gush out a catharsis of guilt. The apostles of the Colonel claim that, the Colonel descended from an aristocratic lineage in a bid to groom him as a "respectable leader." Paul Henze however, refutes the assertion in his book "Layers of Time" when he said, "the Colonel attended the Holeta training school rather than the more prestigious Harar Academy." Of course, if he was part of the defunct aristocracy he would have attended the latter. In a generous Ethiopia however, criminals and perpetrators are white-washed. In a generous Ethiopia, myths and lies take on a life of their own. In a generous Ethiopia, a Dergist who is hell bent to weaken and reck havoc on the unity of Ethiopia can still go back to Addis at will and invest capital in business enterprises. And he comes back to the West to carry placards which spews venoms of anti-ethnic and anti-government sentiments. In a generous Ethiopia, one lives an actualized life. Don’t leave home with out her.
Paulos Yrgaw |
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