By Samuel Estefanous
estefanoussamuel@yahoo.com
Reading the captioned title, I can image, the flame raging in the eyes of the hard core detractors of the incumbent. They want the failure of Prosperity Party to go on record as a self-evident truth. You know what a self-evident truth is, of course- in the study of epistemology you aren’t supposed to argue it; you begin by assuming it as a given fact. In the study of jurisprudence you aren’t required to prove it. It is verum per se notum!
Blind categorical demonization of the government always helps it to stay afloat without any effort on its part. All it has to do is point finger at the said detractors as some kind of blood thirsty vamps and the bulk of Ethiopian society would swallow hard and take all the humiliation, disenfranchisement, displacement and abject poverty forced on it most stoically.
Opposition parties and groups badly want to forget that it is imperative for Prosperity Party to forge ahead employing the only ‘system, knowledge and method’ at its disposal-the teachings of Revolutionary Democracy. Revolutionary Democracy distinguishes only two colors. You’re either with the government or against the government. If you are against the government, you are out right declared persona non gratia in your own country and your fate is worse than East African refugees idling around Bole and Arat kilo.
To date almost all officials of Prosperity Party are proud graduates of the Ethiopian Civil Service College. This College has produced some distinguished professionals; I don’t want to deny that. But that doesn’t make them any less innocent. As a matter of fact they take the major chunk of the blame for they are placed at the forefront of the ruthless army of cadres that had irreparably damaged and poisoned the Ethiopian civil service, corporate governance and every other aspect of public and private life in the country.
You see, individually taken, they aren’t bad people. It isn’t like they are singled out from the rest of the Ethiopian public and cursed to become the black sheep of the herd. It is their training and cultivation that has twisted their outlook. Some say they are beyond redemption but I beg to differ.
Again some contend that nepotism, corruption, favoritism and all sorts of public service vices and decadence went legit beginning from the time the first batch of EPRDF’s Cadre-scholars were let loose on the unsuspecting public whom they hated with vengeance for spewing them out. Here, too, I beg to differ. I personally know some conscientious graduates of the college who are horrified at the naked avarice of the opportunistic shameless latter day EPRDFites and non EPRDFites who had graduated from conventional regular institutes of higher education.
In my humble opinion the failure of EPRDF cum Prosperity Party is more institutional than personal. EPRDFites move like a solid military formation. They actually conduct training on the basics of how to fall in formation and lose any individual choice or trait. They call it ye’serawit ginbata siltena. Every Ethiopian on the government’s pay roll is required to master it. If you fail that course, you are a goner at the snap of the finger. You will be marked with a political scarlet letter and will be mercilessly hounded for the rest of your miserable life.
EPRDF’s serawit is intact and yet in solid formation, except that it has refashioned its coat of arms, hence the continued unending plight of the bulk of the Ethiopian public.
I strongly believe that Prosperity Party can yet redeem itself though time is running out fast…
1-Quit exploiting ‘ye’basse atamitan’ for all it is worth
Can you imagine the number of households who couldn’t afford a rooster for Easter dinner and broke a two month long fast with a scrawny hen? I mean a few years back they could afford a ram-on top of the rooster- but now they have settled for a hen though the salary of the family’s breadwinner has advanced in numeric figure. Out of undying pride, for the first time in his family’s life, they wouldn’t share Easter dinner with the neighbors and they exchanged warm congratulatory texts instead.
How do you think that humiliated head of an impoverished family feels when he hears his idol prime minister joke off the cuff like-
“These days you can’t reserve a place in all eateries in Ethiopia which serve raw meat ‘cos the public can afford raw meat all week long, back to back.”
I am not saying the raw meat serving butchers’ quarters aren’t crowded. It is the composition of the same regular crowd year in and year out that unsettles the wretched of Addis and the rest of the country.
They are the same old EPRDFites and their parasitic up start cadre investors, with the exception of some established well to dos in the country. If Prosperity Party keeps propping up the 1% prosperous segment of the society whose name it has borrowed, its fate is doomed.
For the present the impoverished families have concluded their thanks giving prayer with ‘yebasse atamita’ but PP is dead wrong if it counts on their kids to repeat this age old prayer. The younger generation wouldn’t just murmur ‘ye’ zendro Tinsea le’bilitsigna mequanintoch ena sofanitoch bicha yemeta new’. Remember the wise words of Obbo Merera Gudina, TPLF has paid dearly for not heeding the wise man’s advice.
2-Cut down on the endless Bulletins of Threat
Law enforcement is the uncontested prerogative of the government and it exclusively holds the monopoly of violence. No doubt about that.
But what the government does is intimidate and threaten all citizens with the scourge of its full power indiscriminately. A government cannot serve its purpose by issuing torrents of threatening bulletins. This method didn’t defer the inevitable end of both TPLF and the Dergue. Every single bulletin is a bonanza for corrupt law enforcement agents and agencies to seek extortion and harass simple law abiding citizens.
Remember how the state of emergency was abused and used to settle private and personal old scores not to mention how it has enriched a bunch cut throat high way robbers in uniform. I was extremely pleased when the Premier owned up to this fact without any reservation.
3-The Curse of the ‘friendly media’
If you ask me PP’s grave is being dug by the so called friendly media and not so much by the fringe opposition media ‘foaming at the corner of its mouth’. I can understand journalism in this country is going through some wild, funny, creepy and incomprehensible phase. But for a pro government media to practically order law enforcement agencies not trust anybody ‘not even those who are voluntarily enlisting to join the army’ is a little unsettling.
Ato Bereket Simon was a fierce advocate of a brand of hawkish, indoctrinated and loyal journalism that blindly serves and jealously guards the party line; actually his honesty was commendable. Question is has Prosperity Party changed anything except the composition of the board members of the public media outlets?
Public media is kept busy building a personality cult that makes Ato Meles appear modest. This kinda reminds mean anecdote Chairman Khrushchev liked to tell.
After Lenin had passed on Stalin emerged as the most powerful Bolshevik in the Soviet Union and eventually succeeded the first leader of the first Proletariat State to the post. But the slogans remained ‘long live Marxism and Long live Leninism’. So one day Kaganovich (I believe he was Secretary of the Central Committee, a position corresponding to head of EPRDF’s office in our country) indignantly declared “I am sick and tired of the slogan Long live Leninism and I propose we should substitute it with the rightful slogan ‘Long live Stalinism’ “
Stalin was officially ‘offended ‘ at the suggestion and argued with Kaganovich contending that compared to Lenin he was just a little finger…but eventually ‘reason’ prevailed and Stalinism was allowed to live long.
Lackey journalism will get us nowhere.
To be continued.
God Bless
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I send my pity to all Ethiopian people. Our biggest problem is that we are too unsuspecting. We think that we live in a perfect world, where everyone has a good heart. It is not the reality! Even in a single family, you can find such contrasting personalities.
As Ethiopians, we are poor and uneducated yet still we have a high birth rate. Our country has 120 million people, with three million living abroad in Western countries. The diaspora was supposed to be our saving grace, bringing knowledge and opportunities to the less privileged. Instead they brought liberal ideologies and have worked as agents of chaos because as a society, we have low intelligence and little awareness. They failed us in many ways.
Always keep in mind that this world is bigger than just us. Both China and India have 1,500,000,000 people each. These two alone are 3/8 of the global population. They have also both proven to be the smartest people in the world and both of their diaspora work to protect their country’s best interest. Unfortunately for us, our people have been wasting their time by protesting about something every year, complaining every year because we are beggars!!!!!
Excellent article and nice conversation provoking one. It is written in a dignified way by a cultured countryman. You may disagree with on some of his utterances but we should all remain civil in our conversation with Obbo Samuel and with each other.
Now what I want to add here is what I have been saying all along. It is about the state of the opposition. It is a glaring fact on the ground that the current sitting regime is the most organized and powerful institution in that country. On the other hand the opposition is splintered into tens of group that renders it to be so weak citizens don’t seem to count on it. Just look at them. One is telling you it is a social democrat after a sabbatical 2nd thought. The one is telling you it for justice but tells you it will not merge with the social democrats. Another one will show the finesse to deafen you with how it stands for justice but will not merge with the other one telling you and me the same. Another one will be willing to live in federation but first it wants my Oromia with its untapped natural resources and 45-50 million citizens on a silver platter first separated from others. On and on and on! I started counted them once just to end up running out of breath. In a stable efficient democracy there must be strong political parties that have the leadership and resources as capable alternatives to lead the country. Our opposition parties don’t seem to go by that. By opposition I don’t mean those who took to the bushes and roam around wreaking havoc. They are lost cause and should be sniffed out of that glorious country. By opposition I mean those groups who either renounced violence or never opted for one. Those who tried to unite the opposition were said to have arranged a meeting of the minds with some of the opposition outfits but the gathering turned to be a pissing contest with representations to outdo the others in their ability to speak(mumble and jumble). The pow wow organized with good intentions became a chaotic yelling match that it so embarrassing to behold. They are all very articulate smart alecks though. That is the way it is for the opposition. As long as it remains hopelessly in weak state the piece to complete the puzzle will continue to remain missing. Such absence of a strong opposition in one or two parties will enable the current regime to remain in power for quite some time to come even decades. It may need to make name modifications but it will be around in 2050 or beyond. Abracadabra! I’m not the same party because my new name is Winnie the Pooh! Wait a minute Ittu! That name is copyrighted even may be patented that they can’t use it. How about ‘the black mane lion party?’ That will work!!!
No the current regime will not last in its current form or shape much too long. Out of sheer stupidity, greed, blind Oromumma fervor and delusions of grandeur, the Abiy regime had made huge strategical mistakes and grave miscalculations that will strangle it with its own blood soaked hands. In most advanced political systems, different political parties are smart enough not to assume full ownership of governance, thus with some power sharing outcomes. After criticizing the EPRDF for claiming to have won 100% of the votes, Abiy stupidly claimed the dawn of a new era in Ethiopia, the formation of a new independent Election board, and donned himself as the new premier with control of 96% of the seats. Abiy, Oromo militants and Oromumma sympathizers and sycophants, in short the so called PP is responsible for 96% to 100% of all the current problems in Ethiopia. The avarice and insatiable thirst for power of Oromo militants, the mass displacement of millions and the massacre of hundreds of thousands make the Abiy Oromumma first regime, the bloodiest, most deadly and the worst of the worst, even worse than the derg, in Ethiopian history. The massive inflation now in the 40% range is also never heard of in Ethiopian history and want change now. The fall and end of the Abiy regime is imminent and inevitable. The reasons are not hard to understand. Abiy is a political gambler who has miserably failed to bring peace and stability in Ethiopia, who has ineptly, arrogantly, and stupidly expanded a war that started in Tigray, for political expediency and domination, expanded it to now Afar, Gondar, Wollo and North Shoa. Abiy is a manifestation of dearth of political leadership, lack of morality, absence of ethics, possession of even an iota of empathy and humanity, and a sense of responsibility. He is surrounded by corrupt, unscrupulous, militant, psychologically diseased sociopaths masquerading as leaders, legislators, judges, diplomats, military and security apparatus of the state. Abiy has also now lost the majority of support from Ethiopians from all walks of life. Ethiopians do not trus Abiy anymore. His now too familiar boring, laboriously long and worthless speeches are eyesores and earaches to watch and listen. Everybody changes channels when he starts barking and blowing his horn, because now everybody knows that nothing worthy of listening to comes out of this motormouth, just blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah- hot air worth zilch.
Abiy Ahmed is a failure and his 15 seconds fame is all but hone now. Ethiopians across the nation gave him and his so called PP an opportunity to change course and attempt to build an Ethiopia that will be safe and secure for all Ethiopians. No other PM or leader in recent Ethiopian history enjoyed the massive support and good will of an entire nation like Abiy Ahmed.The fundamental and tragic flaw in Abiy is a lack of commitment to justice and the rule of law. This seminal defect in his nature, a bias and obsession with Oromo usurpation of everything under the sun, a characteristic feature of Oromo militants, is the reason for the rapid fall from grace before the world, and in particular, before the eyes of all Ethiopians for the despot, Abiy Ahmed. The task he was given was to right the wrongs of the ousted EPRDF, namely TPLF. Instead of doing the accomplishable, Abiy and Oromo militants, his OLF buddies chose the path of destruction, chaos, disunity and rewriting of Ethiopian history, redesigning of Ethiopian people settlements. This grand and self defeating demographics change project, first divulged inadvertently by the then Oromia regional president, Lemma Megersa, was the first indication of the inevitability of Abiy’s downfall. For four years, he blatantly ignored the fundamental responsibilities of any functioning government, safety and for all. As party chairman, Abiy also failed to take action against the corruption and moral decay of his PP members. He showed no empathy for the millions displaced in Amhara, Afar, in Tigray. His Oromia zone for the past 4 years has been awash in bloodshed, murder, mayhem and immeasurable human suffering and degradation. But not a peep from the motormouth who otherwise would be deafening everyone’s ears with his incessant, illogical boring talks that last for hours and cause rivers of tears from the eyes of viewers out of sheer boredom. The man knows nothing but talking and talking and talking and talking and talking and talking ad nauseam of nothing value, of nothing of substance. He is an empty suit with shirt and ties, trying his best to be a national leader but deep inside is a closet OLF and enemy of justice, equality, fraternity and righteousness. Abiy is an individual with no moral compass, one who is obsessed with power and self aggrandizing image of oneself.
At some point ETV found out not many were listening to Meles Zenawi so they interrupted live Olympic games to broadcast recorded speeches of the late PM. The result was the exact opposite of what the fat cows in ETV and Bereket Simon hoped for. Looking at his image on TV was sickening to millions and he didn’t miss any opportunity to insult and demoralize every sector of Ethiopian society with his hateful rhetoric. Everything wrong was the fault of Ethiopians according to him and his opinion of the country itself was borderline treasonous and some times outright hate. On occasions he made long speeches without calling the country by her name, not even once. HAGERITWA he said instead.
With a Mandela t-shirt, PM Abiy Ahmed appeared in public square in June of 2018. He was the exact opposite of Meles Zenawi. TPLF tried to kill him that day and failed. It was the first of three unsuccessful attempts that the public knows of. For the following nine months, Abiy Ahmed’s popularity went up. Ethiopian nationalism was on the rise again. Many openly praised the new PM and most importantly those who were unjustly imprisoned, tortured or exiled by TPLF regime. All those uprisings in Oromo, Amhara and Gurage were now on his side, cheering him on. Songs were written for the reform team and people were really, really happy.
The focus now was on electing a gov’t by the people for the people. Abiy picked judge Birtukan Mideksa to be in charge of the National Election Board. Birtukan was a national heroine born and raised in one of Addis’s old neighborhoods and Ethiopian nationalist that was once opposition party head competing to be a PM herself. There was no doubt she was against ethnic politics in general and she has paid the price with her freedom, twice. Dr Daniel Bekele also paid with his freedom and was sentenced to a long prison term in 2006 for standing for Human Rights and yet PM picked him to lead the EHRC. The most inhumane acts of TPLF were done in Somale region by ‘Quarter’ of TPLF and the infamous ‘Abdi Ille’ and Abiy picked the exiled Mustefe to be in charge of that region. Mustefe later became almost as famous as the PM himself for making a miracle in that troubled region. Although some mispronounce his name ‘Mustefa’ he still remains the most liked regional president in Ethiopia if not the most liked politician in the ruling party.
The armed opposition came home in peace and while some leaders of those were relieved and eager, one particular group would be intercepted in Mekele to lunch with a OLF flag waver Sebhat Nega. That same group was severely punished by Sebehat’s TPLF and 20 000 of it’s soldiers killed or imprisoned 25 years earlier. The prisons of Ethiopia were full of Oromo that were jailed in suspicion of supporting that group until they were freed in 2018. The new marriage was very suspicious and soon after banks were robbed and civilians killed in Wellega. As soon as Jawar arrived at Bole, violence started to take place. The poor Gamo people were victimized by Oromo militants a few miles out of Addis and then Addis youth were killed for demonstrating against those killings. That was in September of 2018. The Gamo Gofa were one of the most innocent and liked very much for their sacrifice in the second war with Italy. There is even a large section of Addis land given to the Gamo-Gofa warriors for their war effort bearing their name to this day. Chances are they are now blended into the Addis society in the following four or five generations since they settled there and selling their land to new families from all over Ethiopia. Why would anybody want to kill those people? Jawar declared there were two gov’ts and Dawd said there was no disarming of his group, both on TV. Dawd and Jawar were trying to be in charge of ‘Oromo’ but didn’t like each other much. At one meeting of ‘Oromo’ politicians Jawar shot point blank at Dawud and said ‘tell him to stop the shootings’ which enraged Dawud. That video was posted on youTube with Amharic subtitles. Jawar was like a god to whom innocents were lynched in towns like Shashemene while he was giving speeches.
The Oromo politicians have a long history and not necessarily a united ideology or purpose. And when suddenly power went to Oromo guy that was not even born when OLF was created, they were confused. This was not the first time that power went to Oromo but this one was openly saying he was Oromo, rendering all their ‘effort’ useless. From the Yejju aristocracy in Gondar to Mengistu H/Mariam there were Oromo ruling Ethiopia with iron feast but they don’t consider those ‘authentic’. For lack of historical background, they often tell funny historical ‘facts’ like ‘the war in TchelenQo that got half a million Oromo killed’ while that ‘war’ only lasted 15 minutes with no nuclear bomb explosion and it was b/n the Sultan of Harar and the Oromo prince from Shewa proper that was Menelik’s first cousin on his mother’s side. Haile Fida was never known for ethnic politics and was rather Ethiopian nationalist. Baro Tumsa was one of the commissioners assigned to investigate the alleged crimes of H/Selassie’s ministers before he formed his own political party and later on killed by OLF wing in the east. General Tadesse Biru was pissed that his land was confiscated and that was why he fought against DERG. But for Jawar et al all of the above were killed by ‘Amhara’. Otherwise Oromo was just as good and as bad as all the groups in Ethiopia. Expanding and waging wars to get new territories, assimilating people by force or peace. Like all societies on this earth Oromo evolved and became a strong force for his country, Ethiopia. And it is all in the past now or should be.
In 1974 the ‘means of exploitation by the ruling class’ as the communists like to say, were confiscated. Everybody was equally poor. If there was ‘Amhara ruling class’ before, there wasn’t any more. DERG was never Amhara or Oromo. When the DERG gathered at Meshwalekya in the compound of the 4th division HQ, they were from all over Ethiopia. The army units sent them there to represent them. Ethnicity was never a factor. All those ‘liberation fronts’ which were ready to ‘destroy the Amhara ruling class’ were disappointed. You can’t fight an enemy that doesn’t exist. Ethnic politics in Ethiopia is bogus.
You come off as a little bit dimwitted. Let me tell you something, politics is fake like Hollywood. The assassination attempt you speak of was staged to garner support from Ethiopians and Africans, hence the Nelson Mandela shirt. These political ethnicities are not real identities, so for you to believe them so adamantly is worrisome. “Oromo” people are not the enemies, in fact “Ethiopia” would not exist without them.
Many of our cultural attributes came from Oromo people. Hoya Hoye and Demera were taken from Cushitic customs. We did not invent these traditions, we actually stole them. Never forget that G’eez came Saudi Arabia and Yemen! The Habesh will always be outsiders, al-Habash are the true invaders.
After the Junta Derg and Woyane/EPRDF the Prosperity Party oozed out of EPRDF has become totally undisciplined lawless dictatorial tyrannical regime lead by the compulsive lair Dictator Abiy.
Dictator Abiy and his Oromo OPDO cliques are causing much more harm and theft to the country. Now whenever Abiy calls out the name Prosperity Party it produces a negative feelings of the lawless government, lawless Abiy, poverty, misery, displacement, demolishment of many years old houses and areas, landgrabs by the newly comer Oromo PP supporters, starvation, war, Genocide and secretive evil agendas in every Ethiopian minds.
ALL Orthodox Christians, non-Oromo Ethiopians, Orthodox Christians, Amharas are facing with more danger that ever. Addis Ababa land with its historical sites are targeted for looting and destructions. Dictator Abiy is treating Ethiopia’s land as his sole property and forcing poor people out of their decades old residential houses only to give it for free to his OPDO Oromo cliques.
Abiy has no ability to rule a country, His dependency is in his effortless ability to lie, deceit and place wedges between Ethiopians while expanding and controlling more of Addis Ababa land and economy. The more he stays the more people will become homeless, starved, diseased, prisoners and ethnically cleansed. Every Addis Ababan and Ethiopians must form a united form and remove Abiy and his Oromo PP cliques once and for all to live under a rule of law and without fear of losing their houses, families, friends and properties..