Others do support boycotting the sham election whose machinery has been designed and built to produce a predetermined outcome we already know regardless of the desire, will and vote or choice of the Ethiopian people. The majority of the Ethiopian people has been confused by the arguments on both sides of the issue and is mostly watching the unfolding events from the safety of the sidelines. Obviously, the only one who is benefiting from the arguments, counterarguments and the entailing confusion is Meles and no surprise that Meles and his culprits are spreading the confusion like what a wind does to a wildfire in the deserts of California in the hot summer.
Regarding the arguments for and against participating in the Meles’s sham election, both sides have valid points. However, the most important issue at hand here is not only making good arguments or having valid points but it is also about choosing between two bad choices and making a tough decision. We know the world is not as perfect and fair as each of us wish for. We are living in a real world and we are forced sometimes to settle for choices that we normally would not in a perfect world. Sometimes we have to make tough and uncomfortable decisions. In our lives there are moments when we are compelled to make the best out of the worst circumstances and that is exactly what we are facing today right now and right here. We do not have the luxury of kicking the can down the road. The can has been kicked down the road as far as it can get kicked. Therefore, we have to be honest to ourselves and our country and put the all bad alternatives on the balance and weigh out which one is bad and which one is worse. What are the pros and cons of boycotting or participating in Meles’s sham election? It is prudent to be mindful that the quality of our decision is determined by the quality of our decision making process. Let us put all the facts on the table. List them all and, assess and analyze each objectively. Based on our measurement results or analysis, we have to make a decision right now and right here with a sound integrity and with no prejudice and bias. We make decisions based on the facts we have right now and with a reasonable speculation of the future. No one expects us to have a prophetic insight into the future.
Once we make a decision we are comfortable with under the given the circumstances, we have to work hard to implement our decision putting the right strategy in place. If our hardwork with a little bit of luck pays off and produces the outcome we desire, we celebrate our success with a bottle of champagne and march forward. If we do not succeed, we learn an honest and frank lesson from our mistake, regroup, revitalize, recalibrate and move on. Whatever the outcome of our action, reaction or inaction is, we will be inundated with praises and critiques sometime in the future for the decisions we make now based on the present facts at hand. There are a lot of people out there who take the vantage of a 20-20 hindsight to blame us for doing or not doing this or that. There will be a lot of patting in the back and/or condemnations and ‘I told you so’ moments. We just have to embrace ourselves for all sorts of reactions and judgments. But what we must not embrace ourselves for is shying away from our responsibilities and from making decisions fearing future criticisms if our decision fails to produce the desired outcome or if it takes us down the wrong path (Hilm teferto saytegna aytaderim). Indecision is not an option. Our action or inaction will help or hurt our cause for freedom, democracy and justice in our country. We all have refrain from inadvertently lending a helping hand to tyrant Meles by our actions or inactions.
Coming back to the argument on whether or not to participate in the upcoming Meles’s sham election, I am for participating because of the simple reason that the alternative is worse. As mentioned above, the election machinery in today’s Ethiopia has been designed and built to ensure the perpetuity of Meles and members of his small circle in power in Ethiopia for decades and may be centuries to come. Meles’s mind has been obsessed with nothing other than with how to continue to tightly control, maintain and perfect this election machinery of his at all costs. However, if we the people are determined, united and smart, we can use this same machinery to produce an outcome that tallies with the will of the Ethiopian people. This is possible. We have been there, seen and done it. Suffice to mention Meles’s last sham election in 2005 in which we totally defeated Meles. Is there any body who argues against the fact that the most effective challenge and threat to the last 19 years of Meles’s absolute dictatorship was posed at the May 2005 sham election? Meles himself conceded this fact in one of his recent interviews. Dictator Meles used the same election machinery then too. Yet we defeated him in broad day light.
Yes, we all know that the situation has been made much more difficult and hostile to our freedom and democracy torch bearers back home through the terror perpetuated by Meles and his loyalist thugs. The response to this difficulty and state perpetuated terrorism by Meles is not to throw the towel and abandon the field. Leaving the playing field means making Meles’s dream come true and allowing him to jump and roam in the field freely while on the other hand we are putting ourselves out of the game field and hence technically out of the game. This is not the high road any self respecting Ethiopian will take and allow to happen. It is a defeatist position nobody in his sane mind entertains. We must not allow Meles to push us off the field because we, as Ethiopians, have the right to be on that field. Meles has no right to revoke our God given right as Ethiopians. We must not be easy pushovers and allow a paranoidal dictator to bully us around and deny us our rights. We must find or force our way back to the field even if Meles and his thugs push us off the field we rightfully belong to.
On the other hand, we must not expect naively the Western diplomats to pressure Meles to make the playing field of the election level for everybody nor do we have to expect them to play referee. Nor do they have any obligation to put us in the field or protect and defend us in the field. The primary responsibility of democratizing our country lies on our shoulder and on no body else’s. The West only acts in accordance with what it deems in its own best interest based on their assessment of the reality on the ground at the time. Whether that is morally right or not or even whether it is in their long term best interest is a different matter. Everybody fends for himself and that is exactly what they are doing and that is exactly what we are supposed to do. If they see enough signs of mobilization on our side they might be forced to revisit they strategic calculus and recalibrate their policy on Ethiopia accordingly. The facts on the ground dictate the foreign policy of any country including the West. We should not expect the West to fight our fight for us. That will never happen. We need to do our homework first before we expect any meaningful support from the West. There will come a time when they will offer us an unsolicited support once we do and complete our own homework. Until then do not expect naively a miracle to happen.
Doing our homework includes getting organized, supporting organizations of our choice and encouraging them to participate in the sham elections despite the fact that it is administered by the tyrant, Meles. We must use all available openings however small they are to promote the cause of freedom, democracy and justice in Ethiopia . We have to be pragmatic. We may not see the desired fruits right away. We should not be discouraged by that. We must weigh our efforts not only in terms of their immediate impacts but also we need to view them in terms of their strategic importance in the long run. Our participation in the sham elections, however repressive and hostile the situations are, takes the brutal regime of Meles one step closer to its grave. Some might be worried that taking part in the sham elections orchestrated by Meles is giving undue legitimacy to his regime and rightly so. It is unfortunate that this happens and this falls, as some say, into the category of the laws of the unintended consequences. However, whether or not we participate in the sham election, Meles will continue to enjoy the massive financial support from the West as long he is in power be it through the sham elections or free and fair elections. We have seen that in the last 19 years and we have no reason to believe or expect things to change by our boycotting of the upcoming sham election. To the contrary, the only time the West have been forced to reassess, albeit temporarily, their aid to Meles in the last 19 years is when we participated in the sham election in May 2005 and took the opportunity to further expose the unbridled brutality and fascistic nature of Meles. The savagery of Meles was so naked and the total rejection of Meles by the Ethiopian people was so obvious that the West could not pretend to not have seen it. True, our participation in the last sham election did not finish Meles but there is no denying that it wounded him severely. If we work hard, the next strike will finish him or at least put him on the precipice of his grave if not in his grave.
As far as the upcoming sham election is concerned, I urge everybody to support MEDREK that has the best chance of stopping Meles’s untamed dictatorship and brutality. Those who support other opposition parties participating in the sham election, I respect your choice and encourage it. However, when we support and vote, our supports and votes must be based not only on the programs and personalities of the parties but it must also take into account the strategic consequences of our supports and votes. We have to be smart enough to know how to extract the most bang for our buck. Yes Meles is using brutal force and the threat of the use of force to weaken and defeat us. However, at least at this moment, Meles is bent more on using creating and spreading confusion to divide, weaken and defeat us than he is using the actual brutal force and the threat of the use of force (Tor kefettaw, wore yefettaw). At least, we must not allow Meles to divide, weaken and defeat us by threatening the use of brutal force let alone by creating and spreading confusion. Should Meles choose the use of brutal force to stop our efforts of making the elections free, fair and democratic in our country, that is the decision we have no control over, none whatsoever, except bringing him and his accomplices to justice in due course of time. The use of brutal force is Meles’s and only Meles’s choice and decision but for our part we refuse to be intimidated by the threat of the use of force by Meles. If we may, we advise him to think twice before unleashing his thuggish janjawid loyalist militia against the innocent citizens. The threat of the use of force will not deter us from pursuing freedom, justice and democracy in Ethiopia . We will not stop short of total freedom, genuine democracy and unadulterated justice in Ethiopia by the threat of the use of force by Meles. We refuse to be intimidated by the threat of the use of force by Meles and we will not relent our efforts of making the playing field of election in Ethiopia level for all the contestants. We will not stop our struggle to make the election free, fair and democratic. We will continue to strive to make it an election in which the will of the Ethiopian people is freely expressed and their decision fully respected. Not only the right of the Ethiopian people to electing their leaders freely must be respected but also their right to getting their votes counted properly must be upheld. Short of that we accept nothing.
