The first blow against these folks came from the current regime. After suffering under a savage military dictatorship for seventeen years, Ethiopians hoped for sanity and peace, but that was not to be, as people realized that the regime that succeeded the Dergue seemed to be determined to destroy everything an Ethiopian values – the sovereignty of his/her country; peaceful coexistence across ethnic lines and across religious lines! The bleeding continues to the point where a nation of 80 million people feel so totally paralyzed in the face of a determined agent of destruction!
The second blow came when the political organization in which the majority of ordinary Ethiopians inside and outside of Ethiopia had placed so much hope as the people’s voice, dismantled itself in public and in the most shameful way possible! Ethiopians came out in their millions to elect their leaders, defying the possible threat of repercussion by a paranoid regime that could destroy their lives! The regime’s reaction was to incarcerate the leaders, kill, maim or detain their followers in their thousands! After being in political limbo for 20 months, it appeared there was light at the end of the tunnel for Ethiopian when, after a series of Kangaroo Court sessions the opposition leaders were released from the prison! To the shock and dismay of their followers, the opposition leaders came of the prison swinging at each other,instead of defying the regime locked them up, unjustly for all that time! The blow was much more severe than that administered by the regime, because this time it was by people who were meant to rescue them from an inhuman regime that has destroyed Ethiopia!
Ethiopia is now in the process of receiving its most severe, third blow, this time from its Diaspora! In the wake of Kinijit’s debacle (which the Diaspora enthusiastically facilitated), the Diaspora which had placed, like the rest of Ethiopia, its entire hope in the organization, has become despondent, disillusioned and depressed! Consequently many don’t want to hear anything about the Ethiopian politics – they just can’t take it! My fear is that many may have chosen the company of Johnny Walker, just to take their minds of pains our people are going through!
The first blow was deliberate, and its perpetuation by the regime is by design! The design is to weaken Ethiopia and Ethiopians to the point where they will not be a threat to TPLF! That fact has been crystal clear from the beginning! The last two blows, which potentially are more devastating, were not intended to destroy Ethiopia – far from it! The Kinijit debacle is a result of internal squabbles that led to a major disagreement between the leadership, who in the process got so bitter with each other that they forgot the millions who voted for them and who were waiting for them to come out to lead them to the promised land! In a very short space of time, there was no leadership and no party to lead and Ethiopians had been rendered leaderless and without a compass in a political wilderness! The windfall was Meles’s, a man who today must be kicking himself for locking these people up for all these months and facing the wrath of the international community!
The Diaspora which has always thrown the lifeline to Ethiopians at home, having been disappointed by the Kinijit debacle and disillusioned by all the previous missteps, have largely thrown up their hands in disgust, and many people even don’t want to talk about Ethiopia – that is, THE ANGER AND THE SENSE OF BETRAYAL AGAINST THE POLITICAL PARTIES HAVE LED MANY ETHIOPIANS TO ABANDON THE PLIGHT OF THEIR KITH AND KIN IN ETHIOPIA who remain under the yoke of tyranny!
So the second and the third blows which were just expressions of anger and frustration within political parties and among the political leadership have inflicted the most excruciating pain whose effect may last for a very long time and with devastation of Ethiopia. These two blows are results of actions guided by primitive emotions and totally devoid of moderation by thoughtful deliberations, and as a consequence it is the very people whom we have been fighting for who have become victim – victims who now have nobody to turn to because we have abandoned them out of frustration!
But one thing is inevitable, as the flood of anger subsides and sanity returns, we shall start taking stock of the damage and it may become unfathomable, it may be irreparable! When that day comes, please remember what I am telling you today – that is, YOU ARE AS MUCH RESPONSIBLE FOR THAT CATASTROPHE AS ANYBODY ELSE! Print out this page and keep for your reference!
We still have time, we can start using our heads instead of our chests, and we can still make a difference! Come out in large numbers from May 15-18 – Pray, reflect, contemplate, communicate, demonstrate and plan to build solidarity among our people!
