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HOPE AND TRAGEDY Haile Abai The continuing saga of
Ethiopian politics continues to provide lessons, none of which is more
important than the elusive quest for opposition party unity. Despite the
fact that giant strides have been made in this regard over the last 2
years, what is tolling is not simply the awareness of the mundane fact
of the presence of room for improvement, but the realization for urgent
need for a philosophical shift on the issue. That Ethiopian politics
has recently been not just sprinkled but splashed with hope and promise
is an understatement. Recent books on the main subject of contemporary
Ethiopian politics, that of election 2005, make this amply clear –Dr.
Berhanu's The Dawn of Freedom, Kiflu's
Ginbot 7, and Lidetu's Farm
of Weed. The very philosophical belief of peacefully confronting a
regime armed to its teeth, and beating it at its own electoral game and
the singular focus of Kinjit to participate in election 2005 are the
first exhibits of the harbinger of a politics of love and peace long
absent from the body politic of Ethiopia. MORE ON THE POLITICS OF HOPE Kinijt was so bewitched with the idea of love and
peace, it decided to hold open meetings without worrying about leaks and
infiltrations by the regime. It prided itself in having no secrets from
the regime, and even dared the regime to do likewise. Kinjit was so
optimistic about the new politics it was ushering; it did not even
bother to have clandestine structures and layers of leadership to
replace the executive leadership in the event of a mass arrest and
attack on the leadership. Kinjit simply abhorred the idea of secrecy and
perhaps castigated clandestine work as part of 'old
school politics' that needed to be buried once and for all. Had the peaceful paradigmatic shift succeeded and
forced EPRDF to play by the same rules, the path trailed by Kinjit
without a doubt would have garnered it a hero's welcome, and henceforth
set Ethiopian politics on an irreversible path of love and peace. Now
that we are dealing with salvaging the wreckage from this policy, we
must resist the temptation of castigating the ideal as
"unworkable" and the work of "political neophytes". Even
as it was eminently clear that EPRDF was not to play by the rules of
peace and love Kinjit set forth, the leadership of Kinjit was not
discouraged and intensified its efforts to change EPRDF's collective
mind. Prof. Mesfin unsuccessfully tried to talk to Aboy Sibhat to avert
the impending attack by EPRDF. Aboy Sibhat, a man reputed to be in his
70's, is the spiritual father of the TPLF and reportedly sways a lot of
influence over Meles. Dr. Berhanu talked to Girma Birru, an EPRDF
official, and instead of hearing a hopeful sign of change on the
regime's part, Girma repeated the old, tired hate politics and party
line of his party. Dr. Berhanu sought out one Tekle Woini, a TPLF
official, and according to Berhanu, a rational person. However, Tekle
Woini made himself inaccessible to Dr. Berhanu, perhaps indicating a man
caught between his good intuitive sense and the requirements of an
immutable, hardliner party machine. Soon after, most of Kinjit's leadership along with members of the free press and NGOs, were carted off to Kaliti and await trial on laughable treason and genocide charges. TRAGEDY WITHIN THE WOMB OF HOPE While Ethiopian politics
was being baptized with peace and love largely through the
instrumentality of Kinjit, the seeds of tragedy were also sown at the
beginning of the process. The first in a series of errors was, as
described by Dr. Berhanu, the decision by Prof. Mesfin and him in what
can only be described as engaging in activity detrimental to the newly
formed Hibret. Arriving in
Washington DC just 2 days before the convening of the Hibret forming conference, they immediately set to undermine it by
holding separate talks with leaders of the EDP party who were one of the
signatories of Hibret although their membership in Hibret was
short-lived. Their counterparts in Addis also started talking to AEUP
leaders, and hence the weakening act of this grand coalition was started
as soon as it was formed. The leaders of EDP and AEUP then started
trying to justify their withdrawal from Hibret by citing frivolous
reasons. To be fair to Prof.
Mesfin and Dr. Berhanu, their design to form Kinjit was predicated on 2
criteria: non-ethnic entities, and those who will participate in
election 2005. Thus, one may surmise that they were only doing what was
best to form a solid Ethiopianist and legal opposition inside Ethiopia.
However, this premise is belied by the fact that the formation of Hibret
was a major watershed event in Ethiopian politics, and as Dr. Berhanu
states, a much lauded event by the free press of Ethiopia. Moreover,
more than anyone else, these two, as the proponents of the new politics
of peace and love, should have figured
in their political calculus the role of political parties denied to
legally operate in their country. That is what Hibret did, and to a
great extent, Hibret played a prominent role in events surrounding
election 2005, and the opportunity of having just one big opposition
instead of two was lost and its aftermath still lingers on as we will
see below. Kiflu, a self-described follower of the new politics of peace and love does no better in practicing his belief. Throughout his book, he addresses Hibret as "Hibret yetebalew sisbsib"- roughly translated as "the gathering called Hibret". Although not derogatory, his phrase comes close to one, and is in sharp contrast to his appellation of Kinjit, just, Kinjit. He also makes a strange allegation against Hibret as an entity responsible for the jailing of Kinjit leaders due to its radical demands. Ascribing the victory of the peoples' vote substantially to Keste Demena, however significant that party's contributions might be, is old school politics that keeps tearing at the fabric of opposition efforts and unity. Perhaps due to the fact that the injection of peace and love into Ethiopian politics is a new phenomenon, even the fathers of the notion and those who have rightly accepted it, are trying to find their ways before they and we are all fully comfortable with it. Until then, these oversights and slights may be excused as the bumps on the road of a new era of peaceful politics. THE AFTERMATH There are policy issues
that Kinjit implemented and that need a deep reflection and a careful
study. Some of these might include its reliance (some might call it
over-reliance) on foreign diplomats to resolve the election impasse, its
agreement to resolve the election rigging through partisan government
structures, such as the election board and courts, while fully knowing
the results in advance, and more importantly, its alleged failure to
lead an organized and sustained mass protest the lack of which resulted
in the ad-hoc protest that eventually sputtered and died away. Soon after the Kinjit
leaders went into jail, there was a yawning gap in opposition
collaboration that could be directly traced to the undermining of
Hibret's formation described above. The Diaspora Kinjit
was not only unwilling and unable to fill the gap of the
leadership crisis, but also cascaded down as an incompetent group and a
laughing stock whose crises to manage its own party affairs are not over
yet, and whose incompetent actions may drag backwards the Diaspora
struggle for a long time to come. Had the fathers of
Kinjit envisioned a well-solidified coalition that incorporated banned
organizations as vectors of the struggle, the struggle of the opposition
would likely have weathered the shameful defections of Beyene, Merera
and Lidetu, and would have continued to galvanize the Diaspora and
citizens inside to force TPLF to respect the vote, release the jailed,
and the struggle may have been crowned with success. Another opportunity
lost in a series of lost opportunities! Instead, we have an alliance in AFD that is fatally flawed and unwilling to correct the deficiencies in its conception. Following the demise of the free Ethiopian press due to TPLF's draconian measures, we have Ethiopian Review(ER) pontificating on one wrong line after another. While ER has made in the past significant contributions to advance the struggle, of late, it has started engaging in questionable journalism. Its attempt to rehabilitate Lidetu without any apology or change of path from the latter, its uncritical endorsement of AFD, its self-appointed king-maker role of designating Ethiopian premiers further sowing division in the opposition are some of its abominable actions. Unfazed, it has now forayed into the rehabilitation of another demagogue in Ethiopian opposition politics, Col. Goshu Wodie. ER needs a good dosage of journalistic and professional ethics. Unless the opposition picks up the pieces, and learns lessons from past mistakes, if it continues to be goaded and guided by irresponsible journalism and partisan warriors, we will have very little to show for the hope and promise of a peaceful, all- inclusive politics enshrined in love. |