The Political Legacy of Horror Must End!

by T.Goshu

Let me make myself clear before I proceed to the comment I want to make that, as the very dirty/bloody political game is our yesterday’s terrible memory, I do not want to go into detail description here. I am well aware that there may be many fellow Ethiopians who may comment that it is better to focus on the question of what is to be done about the current challenge we are facing than going back and reflect what happened. 

I agree that this makes a lot of sense in general terms. But I strongly believe and argue that as long as the challenges we continue to face are the accumulation of the legacy of our political horror; our observation, description, analyses, arguments, dialogues and conversations cannot afford to escape the making of necessary or imperative repetition. Yes, I strongly believe that the way we approach should be relevant and politically sound to our present situation and to the way forward. Yes, there is no need to reflect and regret just for the sake of making reflection and regret. Our arguments, conversations, analyses, dialogues and the like should serve our great purposes ahead of us. This said, let me proceed to the comment I am intended to make.

It goes without saying that our political history had been and has been to be deeply and terribly far from the very essence of democratic and human rights values and practices. Yes, the patriotic history made by our forefathers and foremothers in fighting against external invaders, and passing an independent country from generation to generation is so glorious. Needless to say, this side of our national pride is a very phenomenal source of encouragement and pride not only to us but also to people who had suffered under colonial rules.

Unfortunately enough, our glorious history of independence has not been and is not being complemented with modern or civilized political culture. Being victims of an age-old political suppression, economic impoverishment and social degradation, the people of Ethiopia welcomed the “revolution” with a considerable degree of optimism in the first half of the 1970s. The young generation of the time, particularly students had played a very great role, and subsequently paid ultimate sacrifices hoping that the political history of deception and nepotism (the monarchy), and the fascistic military regime (the derg) would come to an end. Sadly enough, the genuine aspiration of the generation to move forward with better political and socio-economic way of life had miserably been crashed by a bunch of military officers who had no any sense of democratic and human rights values.     The people of Ethiopia were forced to praise (better to say worship) “the new” merciless rulers and their self- dehumanized intellectual cronies for almost two decades.

Do not get wrong that I am arguing that those opposition political actors were blameless. What I am trying to reflect is that in any political discourse the biggest and heaviest duties and responsibilities rest on the shoulders of those who were and are in political power. Have we had such a political discourse throughout our political history? Absolutely none! There was no and there is no doubt that those opposition political actors had contributed to the continuation of the legacy of staying in power by any means including the killing state machinery. This of course was because of their miserable failure to rally and stay firm around major national issues and challenges.

Because of the unbelievable degree of sufferings they went thorough under the military regime,    the people of Ethiopia once again hoped for the better when the then rebel group and the current ruling party snatched the political power from the military dictatorship by the use of the same killing machine. The innocent people of Ethiopia once again became victims of another tragic political chapter. Needless to say, as democratic and human rights vales and practices have never been parts and parcels of the very nature and practices of TPLF/EPRDF, certain level of hope that the people expected in the begging of the 1990s turned into desperation and frustration year after year. 

The political system of sheer military dictatorship was replaced by a very dangerously cynical and hypocritical ruling group.  The TPLF/EPRDF government reinforced its political power with a very dangerous politics of ethnicity and hatred, senseless politics of revenge over the majority of the people who had no and have no anything to do with the political messes or mistakes made by the previous rulers of the country. These and so many other devastating political games manifested themselves in a very tragic manner during the 2005 national elections. 

Sadly enough, the great inspiration and hope of the innocent people of Ethiopia were turned into total nightmare. The people who suffered more than enough for three decades (1974-2005) were and are being once again forced to go through the legacy of political horror and unprecedented socio-economic quagmire. There was no and there is no any devastating situation than witnessing when the people who simply demanded respect for political freedom and basic civil and human rights being gun down by the Special Forces of the ruling party who were waiting for the order of kill on command from the late Ato Meles Zenawi. Adding salt to severe injury, not only leaders, members and supporters of the opposition but also journalists and human rights activists were accused of treason and thrown into jails.

Once again, considerable number of Ethiopians showed kind of “optimism” that the current ruling party would show some level of reconciliatory steps after the death of Ato Mles Zenawi. This kind of “optimism’ arguably had its own reason. Given the very political personality and political back ground of the late Ato Meles Zenawi, this kind of “optimism” was neither surprising nor unexpected. Yes, there was no and there is no doubt that he was the mastermind and an architect of the political agenda and practice of the ruling circle throughout his political life. The highest stage of his destructive political behavior and action was unleashed right after the 2005 election. He literally put the country and her people under his monstrous political control.

What is deeply worrisome is the declaration by the ruling elites of TPLF/EPRDF right after his death.  They unequivocally told the Ethiopian people that they are determined to carry out his legacy without a slightest form and content of “revision.” This kind of stupidity of politics has continued until the people get extremely sick and tired of watching and hearing all kinds of empty propagandas after his death. Yes, those “surviving” ruling elites including the new prime minister have proved themselves to the extent of being the political clones of the late Ato Meles Zenawi. Let me mention just some of the most disturbing political actions by those ruling elites in the continuation the legacy of political horror of the late “great leader”:

• We witnessed the legacy of political disaster when those elites of the ruling party (the brain-children of the late Ato Meles Zenawi) punished members and supporters of the peaceful opposition political parties, innocent journalists and thousands of innocent citizens with severe intimidation and maximum imprisonment. It is an open secret that all these politically motivated dirty dramas have been ruled by a rubber stamp judiciary (the court system). Needless to say, when one of the most important branches of government (the judiciary) becomes just another department of crazy political drama, all political and civil rights will be unprotected and victims of a bunch of ruling elites. That is exactly the legacy of political madness we continue to witness.
• We have witnessed and continue to witness when a bunch of tyrannical ruling elites of TPLF/EPRDF were busy and continue to be so in deporting and evicting innocent citizens of Ethiopia from their own villages and farms based on the back ground of their ethnicity and the language they used to speak or they speak. Is this not extremely difficult to comprehend how we are experiencing a very nonsensical political crime in this 21^st century?
• We have witnessed how the ruling party got frustrated when Semayawi Party made a breakthrough on June 2, 2013 as far as breaking the incredible silence and fear imposed by the order of the late prime minister eight years ago is concerned. We are witnessing how the inner circle of TPLF/EPRDF is working hard to crackdown this recent popular political reawakening by waging its notorious blackmailing propaganda on the party. It is so disgraceful, if not idiotic to accuse the party (Semayawi) of promoting religious extremism for the simple reason that Ethiopian Muslims have participated in the peaceful and legitimate demonstration. Imagine how the legacy of evil-driven politics is getting dangerously ugly.
• The people of Ethiopia have witnessed how the ruling party has worked hard either to distract or crackdown the demonstrations organized by UDJ (Andint) in Desssie, Gondar, Arbaminich and the like. Imagine how our country is in a state of horrible political situation when a police officer in Addis Ababa detained members of the party by declaring that he does not know a political party with a name Andinet. Imagine when the court accepted the request for more days to investigate if the name UDJ uses Andinet as its short form. This kind of horribly senseless political legacy must come to its end.
• We have witnessed an ultimatum given to a member of peaceful political opposition party toleave Mekele(Tigray) within 24 hours while he was trying to do his peaceful and legitimate task . Fellow Ethiopians, I do not know what kind of horrible political legacy we should wait for if this couldn’t be the most disgraceful and worrisome political game that must be reversed by any effective and legitimate means.
• We have witnessed and continue to witness the legacy of evil-driven politics when the inner ruling circle has made a very ugly mix between its dirty politics and religion. The mess the ruling party continues muddling in the religious rights of citizens for more than one year is a typical case in point how the level of the political quagmire is getting deeper and chronic. The recent bloody intervention by government forces in Kofle (Arsi) and its environs, and what happened to our Muslim compatriots at the end of Ramadan in Addis, Dessie and other parts of the country is nothing but the legacy of staying in power by any horrible means including state-terror. Our Muslim compatriots have once again remarkably proved that their very loud and clear demands for religious freedom have nothing to do with the very idiotic propaganda of terrorism! They have shown to all genuinely concerned Ethiopians and to the world that they are determined to get their legitimate demands through peaceful means. They also showed their resoluteness to get things right with peaceful protests even in the face of intimidation, harassment, torture, arbitrary arrest and extra-judicial killings.

All these and many other recent horrible actions by the government using its very notorious federal police and special military forces have clearly showed not only the failure of a political system as we know but the seriousness of the political legacy of horror which is getting deadly worse.

Now, the question is whether all genuinely concerned opposition political parties, movements and civic organizations have learnt their better lesson as far as how to move forward together and make a difference is concerned. I want to believe that all those opposition forces in particular and the innocent people of Ethiopia in general have gone through extremely miserable but teachable experiences for the last several years. And there is no doubt that we are observing very encouraging efforts in the making of irreversible movements towards the realization of genuine freedom and shared prosperity.  But, make no mistakes that those courageous and encouraging efforts being made by genuinely concerned opposition political actors could bring about the desired political change without a meaningful and persistent participation by the people themselves.

What about the political groups and civic associations in the Diaspora? There is no doubt that they have a lot to do with the struggle going on back home. But, again make no mistakes that the political culture of talking not walking, endless meetings not deeds, disengagement not engagement, walking out when our personal egos are challenged, reporting press releases against or in support of certain actions as great performances, forming (breeding) political and civic groups with very impressive names but have very little to do with the horrible political legacy we are experiencing should critically be reviewed and become meaningful material forces for the movement we are witnessing back home.