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Lencho Letta is among the pioneers of radical ethnic Oromo Nationalism. He says the view he has been advancing for the last thirty years has been one that accepts Ethiopia as a country.
In his latest interview with “Betty Show”, he remarked on a range of things including the peace agreement, political parties in the country, the security situation in the Oromo region of Ethiopia, sovereignty and foreign intervention, and Amhara nationalism – among other things.
On the peace agreement, he says he could not believe that the TPLF accepted it. However, he revealed skepticism that the TPLF might try again.
He also commented on political parties in the country. What he cited as a weakness, rightly, in fact, is that the parties lack ideology.
Regarding the sovereignty issue, he insinuated a message that would rather put the government in a negative light ( although he portrayed it diplomatically) in terms of bending low for foreign pressure. He said it is something that highlights Ethiopia’s history as an uncolonized nation. Indeed, the United States’ Pressure and the Americanization of Ethiopian institutions – including media – are noticeable.
Amhara Nationalism is also a topic he remarked on. He accepted the narrative from the talk show host that “too many people in the Amhara region are armed” which he described as dangerous. No evidence was cited and the intention to frame the region that way is unclear.
Mr. Lencho also remarked about the OLF Shane movement in the Oromo region. The new thing he revealed is that the command for the rebel group is village based. His views are not verified by other sources.
Watch his two parts interview below
Part I
Part II
Video : embedded from EBC Youtube channel
Cover photo : screenshot from the video
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Lencho , OLF-Shane, and cohorts, and their TPLF counterparts, together with their masquerading PP puppets and disciples are on the contrary, saturated with ethnofanatic ideologies. Their derg predecessors too were soaked in Marxist-Leninist ideologies. None of these mumbo jumbo has gotten Ethiopia anywhere. Fifty years after the constant barking of “Land to the tiller”, fifty years after all the noise about the modernization of the agricultural sector, the Ethiopian farmer, irrespective of his/ her ethnicity, is still seated at an average of 1.1 – 1.2 acres of subsistence farming land, living hand to mouth.
Federalism is not a new concept to Ethiopia. Its fundamental concept were already in place as the King of kings (central/ federal head of government) with power devolvement to the regional kings/ lords . Now it is true that for centuries there has been power struggle in Ethiopia before the periphery and center as to who basically is in charge.
The claim by both the derg, tplf, olf, pp etc. about the marginalization of other languages etc. is not consistent with the facts on the ground. The greatest federal government and model of best federalist style of government in the world is the USA. In the USA, people whose ancestries encompass hundreds and hundreds of diverse languages, dialects and who come from diverse religious backgrounds and ethnicities coexist for a greater purpose, share a common language of work and communication, ie ENGLISH, and attempt to attain individual excellence based on meritocracy while at the same time aspiring to achieve and contribute to their community goals.
The misunderstanding and deliberate corruption of federalism by the tplf buffoons has brought Ethiopia to her current misery. During the time of Emperor Haile Selassie and even during the derg era, to a large extent the freedom of movement of Ethiopians from one region to another was not an issue. Nearly every Ethiopian had also the belief that he or she belonged and had a right to live, exist and marry into any ethnic group based on personal choices. This broadly defined Ethiopianess was never marginalized or threatened until the arrival of the now defunct tplf. People forget the thousands that were massacred by the derg, including, the 60 plus high officials and military leaders of the Government of Emperor Haile Selassie came from not one ethnic group but from several. The Minister of Defence during the derg era was General Haile Giorgis Habte Mariam, of Tigriyan ethnicity, who refused to join the coup against the dictator mengistu, and was killed in the incident, and in the end received a state burial by the derg!!!! Let that sink in for a second.
Speaking of multiple languages and dialects in Ethiopia is not new to Ethiopians either. To the narrow minded tplf who caved out of from their tiny village, a region like Harar was of course an enigma. It was common to Ethiopians born in the 1930s and 1940s around the Harar, Dire Dawa region to be multilingual with skills in Amharic, Affan Oromo, Harare langauge (Aderegna), Somali , Arabic, even some French and Italian, plus English, especially among those that went to school.
Today Harar, Dire Dawa, once the epi center of trade, industrial center ( especially Dire Dawn), culture and beauty have been reduced to rubble and frozen in time to the 1980s at the hands of tplf. And tplf has the nerve to speak about federalism or ethnic equality.
Tilahun Gesses’s and Bizunesh’s beloved songs in Oromo were not a by product tplf’s largesse or magnanimity. Ya Nikisie / Harkafune, a Single by Tilahun Gèssèssè was released in 1972 on Philips (catalog no. PH 7-152; Vinyl 7″), during the time of Emperor Haile Sealssie, and decades before tplf suddenly discovered “Nations and Nationalities” “allowing people to sing and talk in their ‘language’”.
I listen him last week, Though he was trying hard to be reannoble , I won’t believe whatever this old geezer and bigoted spouts in public now. In deep down and from his converse ,he still believes in either outright Oromo nationalism or total Orommuma domination in Ethiopia State . He also shows symptoms of psychological admiration for his old TPLF masters and belittles the Abiye’s current admintration due to perhaps for not submitting to the will of the total Oromo supremacy and its ascendancy in power
I listen him last week, Though he was trying hard to be reannoble , I won’t believe whatever this old geezer and bigoted spouts in public now. In deep down and from his converse ,he still believes in either outright Oromo nationalism or total Orommuma domination in Ethiopia State . He also shows symptoms of psychological admiration for his old TPLF masters and belittles the Abiye’s current admintration due to perhaps for not submitting to the will of the total Oromo supremacy and its ascendancy in power. This guy was among far right architect of the OLF ( who presumably from remote Wellega.) . I remember once reading his scribbling years ago , where he insinuated and spread unfoundd lies that Somali ethnic harbors deep hatred toward Oromos and other Habeshas . He said he casually realized this whern he was working in Metehar and later escaping to Deridewa and hiding threre fro Derg officials with the help of local people and later walking through and eating generously with Somali community while enrout to Jibouti for sdesperate cape,Well , the fire and classhes between the two communities that strted when he came back in 1991 as top political operative of OLFiers never went off thanks to his infflamary rhetorics of him and his ilk.
Somali Ethiopians must have as much right as any other Ethiopian of any ethnicity. Oromo militants like Lencho must be re-educated to respect the rights of other Ethiopians. Lencho forgets that the butcher mengistu haile mariam was a disgruntled, undisciplined and low character soldier of Oromo background, together with the likes of debela dinssa from Wollega, they were part of the derg collection of low rank officers responsible for the massacre and red terror Ethiopians suffered under in the 1970s-1980s.
When Lencho is pointing his ethnofanatic index finger at others, Lencho’s 4 other fingers are pointing back at him.
Lencho’s and other ethnofanatics from whatever ethinicity do not have a single positive contribution to make the lives of the average Ethiopian one degree better than it was before.
Lencho sees everything with probably a Wollega type of lens, but the reality is that in Harar, Dire Dawa, Harare’s, Harar Qotu people, ( whose Oromo dialect is different from Shoa, or Arssi Affan Oromo, just like Gojam Amharic dialect is different from that of Gonder), Somalis, and several other ethnicities have lived and coexisted together for centuries before the existence of OLF, TPLF, etc.