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What is said to be a secretly recorded video/audio of Br. Berhanu Nega, leader of Ethiopian Citizens For Social Justice Party (EZEMA), while speaking on “What is politics/” earlier this week has stirred a great deal of criticism.
In the audio/video, Berhanu Nega is heard condoning Sheger City’s massive demolition of residential houses that reduced hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians to a status of homelessness – overnight! He was speaking standing on the ground “illegal settlement should not be encouraged.”
It has been several months, if not years, since Dr. Berhanu lost what was once a passionate support base of his political views. Now, he seems to have lost his remaining support base due to his latest remark.
He is now increasingly demonized as an opportunist political figure and apologist of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s rule who has lost his support base, especially in the Amhara region of Ethiopia where his administration imposed a six-month-long state of emergency as he is waging a full-fledged war on Fano forces- a war that has already hundreds if not thousands of civilian lives. While being the leader of the opposition party EZEMA, Dr. Berhanu is a member of Abiy Ahmed’s cabinet as Minister for Education where he is said to have brought about some positive change – at least change in direction – along the path to end the poor quality of education in Ethiopia.
One of the questions that politicized Ethiopians have been asking in the past few days was whether Dr, Berhanu Nega’s view which he shared during a party event this week is his party’s position or his personal stand on the issue.
Ethiopian Media Service (EMS) on Wednesday spoke to the Deputy leader of the EZEMA party, Yohannes Makonnen, in a video call.
The interview was not completed due to an erratic internet connection from Addis Abeba from where Yohannes was on the air.
On the question of Dr. Beranu’s view, the deputy leader mentioned that in principle illegal settlement is not right. However, he said that 30 percent of the structures in the capital Addis Ababa manifest illegality.
However, he was specific that the demolition in Sheger City manifested practices of targeting a specific ethnic group. He also mentioned that the issue is not addressed in Addis Ababa and that the case in Shegar seems to be politically motivated. Yohannes is an architect and urban planner by profession.
His explanation suggests that Dr. Berhan’s remark is far-fetched and might not reflect the view of the party. Internet on Yohannes’s side was disconnected before he finalized his remark.
Yohannes remarked on something else too when he was on the air. Asked how he ( and his party) described the current Ethiopian situation, he characterized it as one that represents a power struggle between forces who are doing everything they can to ensure the continuity of the status quo – an ethnic-based system- with the urge to maintain their privilege in all its forms on the one hand and those who are struggling to bring about fundamental change to ensure that citizenship politics replaces ethnic politics.
Ato Yohannes was also asked to remark as to where he sees Abiy Ahmed, the Prime Minister, in the existing spectrum. He described him as standing on the fence – that separates the two forces. He gave the impression that Abiy Ahmed could jump to whichever side is getting stronger. It means that Dr. Abiy represents mostly a politically opportunist figure with no political stand of his own.
His blurry “philosophy” – Medemer- waned before it was even understood. What is clear is that once the most popular politician on the grounds of promising speeches he made – which most Ethiopians now see as part of his ethnic Oromo party’s “confuse and convince” strategy – , Abiy Ahmed is now the most hated politician in Ethiopia as far as a great majority of the Ethiopian population is concerned- as seen from the conversations on social media platforms.
Video : embedded from EMS youtube channel
Cover photo : screenshot from the video.
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“”A young girl aged around 11 who is captured on video pleading to the killers: Wellahi*, I will never be an Amhara! The video shows the killers brutally killing her despite her plea, as reported by Borkena.
If this atrocity has already happened, it is heartbreaking. No amount of sentence structure or skill in word choice could explain such an atrocity.
All these crimes have already been committed in all parts of Ethiopia: Tigray, Oromia, Gumuz, Agew, Kimant, Amhara, etc. Everybody’s life, regardless of age, is priceless; however, killing innocent children is an unspeakably horrendous crime that should not be overlooked.
OLA, Fanno, or any group should NOT kill innocent, unarmed civilians, including captured, defenseless members of any army. Criminals must be brought to justice.
Let Amharas’ innocent Ethiopian civilians enjoy peace and harmony with the rest of all Ethiopians.
NO MORE WAR! NO MORE WAR! NO MORE WAR!
Peace, peace, peace, dialogue, dialogue
NO MORE WAR! NO MORE WAR! NO MORE WAR!
Innocent people are dying regardless of their ethnic, religious, or political views.
May the upcoming new year be a year of peace, stability, harmony and productivty.
borkena editors donot post any comment aginst shaleka dawit W/giorgis, is he your sponsor ? if so, you are terrorist like him .period and all people know what is doing and what he did to Tigrayans and his motives
borkena editors donot post any comment aginst shaleka dawit W/giorgis, is he your sponsor ? if so, you are terrorist like him .period and all people know what is doing and what he did to Tigrayans and his motives
you are devouring grass from vancouver as it now becoming legal here it is not ethiopian culture ethiopianwi chewa new
———————Borkena and shaleka dawit terrorists ——————-
THE END
Is this man supposed to be a leader of a political party? Was he talking to English speaking audience or Amharic speaking ones? What does he mean by ኮንሴብት መስጠት? He frequently ends his phrases and sentences with እንትን. What was he holding back when he used the Amharic word እንትን? እንትን here and እንትን there? Was he telling us that from living abroad for so long that he has forgotten how to speak in Amharic? Or was it his way of telling the audience and the rest of us that he is so much more educated than everyone else? እንትን is supposed to be used when an intended term eludes the speaker but the speaker recovers fast and finds the right word immediately after እንትን is used? It is a filler word that is supposed to be followed by the intended word. You just can’t use it on a whim and move on. Otherwise, you will lead the audience in various untended directions. Many of them will leave the room not sure what to make of your presentation.
‘ኮንሴፕት መስጠት’ ‘ኮንሴፕቱ’ ‘ዐለማዊ ኮንሴፕት መስጠት’ ‘እንትን ያደርገናል’ ‘እንትን እንዳይመስልብኝ’. እንትን, እንትን, እንትን. My goodness!!! O God! Please save the audience!!! By the way, this is not rare. I have attended and watched several presentations/lectures by many elites in our communities and many of them act as if they have forgotten their mother tongues that they grew up speaking well into their adulthood. They think they have become ‘fernjis’ ፈረንጅ. ፈረንጅ ሆነናል ማለት ነው!