The winds of change that
has been rocking the Arab world have once again confirmed the fact that every
tyranny is a house built on sand. Unlike rock solid democratic systems that are
built on the consent of the people, evil tyrannical regimes are founded on
brutality, oppression, corruption, domination, intimidation and abuse of power.
When a ferocious wind of change starts, they never stand a chance. They crumble
into pieces and fall into the dustbins of history.
As dictators are falling
one by one, those still clinging to power are doing their best to show that
they are in a better shape than their fallen comrades. Some of the ruthless
despots are even showing their softer sides. In Saudi Arabia, Oman and Bahrain,
the corrupt autocracies have been doling out more welfare benefits to people
demanding freedom.
In Ethiopia, the Meles regime has announced on the state-controlled media
that a special taskforce has begun operation to evacuate hundreds of Ethiopian
nationals stranded in Libya.This is
indeed very unusual. But the news they don’t tell us is that the majority of
those fellow Ethiopians in such dire need of rescue have rejected the gesture
of “kindness” from a very unkind tyrant they are fleeing from.
It may seem a joke but
these Ethiopians stranded in Libya, Somalia and other tough places, after
crisscrossing so many rough terrains, deserts and treacherous territories, have
been fleeing from the same people who are out to rescue them. What Meles and his rescue team failed to realise is that the vast
majority of Ethiopians have been stranded in their own land, in their own
Ethiopia. Eighty million people are in need of rescue from Zenawi’s
ruthless and exploitative tyranny. That is why so many people are fleeing;
running away and dying to get out of the indignity they are facing in their own
country. For the desperate people of Ethiopia, their country has proven to be
worse than being stranded in a war zone and dying in harsh deserts and
turbulent oceans.
Dictators like Meles don’t get it. They are deliberately ignorant and
narcissistic that cannot see the real world beyond their noses. MelesZenawi never wants to
confront the reality because he wants Ethiopians to live in fear. He wants us
to be hopeless. He wants us to feel powerless and dispossessed. He wants us to
surrender our dreams for a better tomorrow. He wants us to lose our confidence.
He wants us not to believe in freedom. He wants us not to stand in unison but
to get divided and weak. He wants us to accept his crimes, oppression, abuse,
manipulation and corruption.He wants us
to die in silence. And yet, he fears our unity and the collective power that ordinary
people are wielding. He fears the tide of a popular movement for change. After
all, cowardice is an enduring hallmark of tyrants who dread the freedom of
others.
Building a movement
In
the aftermath of the May 2005 rigged elections, Meles
ordered his army, by his own admission, “to put down the insurrection.”After brutally killing and maiming unarmed
peaceful protesters and detaining over 40,000 people in harsh concentration
camps, he ridiculed the peaceful marches he turned into a bloodbath. “This is not your
run-of-the-milldemonstration. This is anOrangeRevolution gone wrong,”
he told foreign correspondents in November 2005.
One of the reasons why the
regime could easily quash the popular desire for change was lack of a
formidable movement. A movement is not a spontaneous and disorganised uprising
or mass protest. Professor Donatella dellaPorta defines a
movement as “an organised and sustained effort of a collectivity
of interrelated individuals, groups and organisations to promote or resist
social change with the use of public protest activities.” One can deduce from
this that a nonviolent movement aimed at ending oppression is a purposeful,
organised and sustained mobilisation whose ultimate objective is to free a
nation from unjust, and oppressive systems.
A nonviolent movement should not be
spontaneous regardless of the fact that a spontaneous mass action may provide
the trigger that can cause an unexpected uprising. As every popular uprising
does not necessarily bring about change, if a nonviolent movement is to
succeed, spontaneity should give way to an organised and sustained mobilisation
which can be done effectively where the groundwork has already been laid in
anticipation of triggers.
Building a movement is not an easy task.
It requires common vision, broad-based unity, strategic planning, some sort of
organisational structure and widely accepted leadership. Almost all the
objective conditions necessary to start a serious movement for radical change
exist in Ethiopia. There is an almost universal consensus that the domination
of the Tigrian People’s Liberation Front led by MelesZenawi, his wife and their
trusted cronies is the root cause of our misery. None of the changes that
people had expected after the fall of the Mengistu
regime in 1991 have happened. The only visible change is the oppressive
domination imposed on the Ethiopian people by Meles
and his cronies, who are accumulating wealth beyond our imagination. There is
widespread discontent as a result of grinding poverty, unemployment, abhorrent
discrimination, exploitation, corruption and human rights violations in the
face of an expanding security apparatus that has been designed to sustain fear
and terror.
Despite the fact that there are so many
groups and parties that are avowed to fight the tyrannical regime all these groups
have not yet built a serious movement aimed at freeing all Ethiopians, from the
bondage of tyranny. One of the reasons why the cruel Apartheid system collapsed
was because so many whites, who were supposed to be privileged citizens, began
to question and challenge their own system, a sentiment which spread up to the
upper echelon of the Apartheid regime that realised that the horrible system
was no longer sustainable. A movement that can be appealing to all including
those who are opportunistically oppressing their fellow citizens has a greater
chance to succeed than one that intimidates and threatens any section of the
populace.
According to Dr.
Janet Cherry, a leading South African activist-scholar, a movement must have a
cause or a trigger and a clear vision appealing to a broad-section of the
populace. It should have an organisational base, a widely accepted and
respected leadership, a strategy and broad-based unity among a wide array of
allies committed to the common cause.
If a formidable movement is to emerge in
Ethiopia, it should be appealing to broader sections of the society
irrespective of their ethnic, linguistic, cultural, religious, social and
political affinity. Oromos, Amharas, Tigrians, Afaris, Somalis, Harraris, Gambelans, Sidamas, Kembatas, Gurages…Orthodox Christians, Muslims, Protestants,
Catholics or atheists. Men, women, young people, the aged,…sympathizers of OLF,
ONLF, Medrek, ARENA, AEUP, EDP, UDJ…students,
teachers, blue collar workers, peasant farmers, business people, poor, middle
class, rich…all ordinary people without distinction should be able to be
mobilized under simple visions that appeal to every Ethiopian. No one should
dominate or try to take ownership of a nonviolent movement for freedom. It
should be a movement of ordinary Ethiopians united against the oppression and
indignity they are facing in their own country. Their common vision should be
clear; i.e. to make Ethiopia free from oppression, inequality, corruption,
tyranny, grinding poverty and indignity. It should be a movement to reclaim our
country, freedom and human dignity. It should be a movement of all against a
handful of criminal tyrants.
One of the challenges that mostly arise in
a struggle is the question of leadership. Every ambitious political party and
glory-seeker individual may want to lead. But those who want to serve are the
ones who give greater weight for the cause than their own self-interests and
glory. The majority of people who have led successful struggles and helped
dismantle oppression are those who have proven to be selfless and unwaveringly
committed to the causes of freedom. Mandela, Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr.,
Lech Walesa or Vaclav Havel, have not fought for their own glory. They have not
deliberately made themselves indispensable but their unshakable resolve to win
freedom at any cost has made them globally respected and revered.
Those who aspire to lead the march for
freedom must remember the words of Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. He said: “If you want to be important—wonderful. If you
want to be recognized—wonderful.If you want to be
great—wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall
be your servant. That’s a new definition of greatness.” Simple and humble
people with clear messages that resonate with ordinary people have a compelling
chance of being great leaders of a nonviolent struggle than some of the haughty
politicians that have come and gone in Ethiopian politics. Leaders must be
unifiers that inspire the masses more than anything else. Those who do not have
this essential quality of leadership must not dare to lead in the forefront
because once a movement against a ruthless tyrannical regime is started in
earnest we cannot afford to blink. We need to remember the fact that Kinjithad a great chance of developing into a
formidable movement. But it is now a teachable moment that can lend invaluable
lessons to learn from.
Strategy
and tactics
The ancient Chinese military strategist
Sun Tzu is credited as saying: “Tactic without strategy is the noise before
defeat.” Like armed conflict, strategies and tactics devised to win battles are
critically important. Those who are devising and employing strategy and tactics
must know what they are doing and they should be able to make realistic
expectations in terms of positive and negative outcomes of their decisions and
actions.
There is a difference between strategy and
tactics. The leading expert on modern nonviolent struggle, Professor Gene
Sharp, identifies two strategies, i.e. grand strategy and campaign strategies.
Grand strategy is an “overall plan for conducting the struggle that makes it
possible to anticipate how the struggle as a whole should proceed.” The grand
strategy should be based on the vision of the movement and need also
analytically consider many complex issues beyond ending tyranny such as
considering a viable transition if the system collapses.
Campaign strategies are targeted at the
success of a certain campaign. If the campaign, for instance, is aimed at
achieving a nation-wide election boycott, there should be a strategy in order
to effectively reject inconsequential elections like the ones we have been
having in the last twenty years.
Civil resistance is a knowledge-based struggle.
Activists and leaders involved in nonviolent struggles should equip themselves
at least with the basics of how to wage an effective struggle that will
ultimately subvert and dismantle the tyrannical regime. They should be able to
devise smart strategy and tactics to prevail over the violent agents of
oppression. Small group studies, discussions, brainstorming, active
communications, knowledge and material sharing among those who are passionate
about the movement is an important element in the
struggle. As Gene Sharp puts it:
“The
leaders need to become experts in nonviolent struggle. Knowledge about
nonviolent struggle also needs to be spread widely. Greater knowledge and
understanding of the nonviolent techniques throughout the population will
increase the difficulty for the opponents to “behead” the movement by
imprisoning or killing the leaders. Leaders serve as spokespeople and offer,
organise, and can implement solutions to problems. Leadership can be by group,
committee, individual, or a combination of these. In some cases, it has been
difficult to identify leadership in such movements.”
Successes as well as defeats are integral
parts of any forms of struggles. The success of a nonviolent movement can be
partly attributed to strategies and tactics employed to win the battle. While
tactics also require careful planning, they are limited in scope. Tactics are
limited plans of actions and they determine, as Sharp noted, how particular
groups of resisters shall act in specific situations. “A good strategy remains
impotent unless it is put into action with sound tactics,” he underlined.
Nonviolent strategies and tactics that
have proven to be effective in one setting may not necessarily be successful in
a different setting. It is imperative that those who are involved in organising
and leading a movement at various levels should be aware of the unique
environment and situations they find themselves in. In any conflict, including
nonviolent ones, situations may change frequently and drastically. Those who
have been providing some sort of leadership and organising have to be quick
thinkers that adapt their strategy and tactics according to the dictates of the
time and changing circumstances.
The
end of fear
When ordinary Egyptians got mobilized
against the Mubarak regime, each and every individual was freed from the
shackles of fear even before the tyrant fell down. One of the cyber activists
that made significant contributions to the struggle against Mubarek
was the tech savvy Google executive WaelGhonim said the major victory in the struggle was the
defeat of fear. When people stopped being intimidated by the firepower of the
brutal regime, nothing could hold them back from reclaiming their freedom and
dignity.
In a recent TEDx
event, Ghonim said: “Everyone was silent. Almost
everyone was scared. There were only a few brave Egyptians going to protests,
getting beaten up and arrested. But the majority were scared…. Dictators cannot
live without force. They want people to live in fear. That psychology of fear
had worked for so many years….The Internet has played a great role to [allow
them] to speak up their minds….Egyptians have proven that the power of the
people is much bigger than the people in power.”
The basic rights enshrined in the constitution
must be respected. Organising, peaceful assembly, protesting injustice,
petitioning authorities, freedom of expression…should be fully respected. A
regime that does not respect its own constitution is unconstitutional and unfit
to govern. People have a legitimate right to demand the respect of their basic
rights and to live in freedom without fear of persecution and extrajudicial
killings. The constitution states, though on paper, that power belongs to the
people. An unjustified fear of the power of people is contrary to the spirit of
the constitution.
Every Ethiopian in and outside of the
country should stop fearing their evil tormentors. They are only agents of
criminals in power who are waiting their assured place in the stinky rubbish
bin of history. When people think and act fearlessly in unison, they always
destroy the barrier of fear that brutal tyrants have erected to prevent them
from living in freedom and dignity.
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The writer can be reached for comment at [email protected]
