One among many reasons opposition parties fail is they are consumed by hatred and resort to village women style of ‘spreading calumny’. Naturally, hatred is a raw emotion that inhibits mental faculty. Thus, one who has not overcome this weakness is incapable of the basic temperament necessary to lead by example. Literally he is mentally disabled and unfit to assume public office.
1- Edifying Lessons from the Ukraine
Folks may enjoy the emotionally charged showmanship but they rarely vote into office someone who elevates slander to an art form. I mean with a few exceptions like the Ukrainians who had bestowed the highest executive power on a certified clown. True to form, as a reward, he is wreaking havoc with the poor country and for the most part he is “in character” from his old TV series.
The price of political showmanship is beyond reckoning. Sporting T-shirts or camouflaged jackets and smarting cuss words may evoke laughter from a band of rude party goers but the actual price comes in body bags to lonely grieving parents and spouses.
For instance I have no doubt Zelensky is getting incredible ratings for his showmanship. Something which had eluded him when he was doing the comedy gigs (at least beyond the Russian speaking world).
Meanwhile Ukraine has lost half its abled young men to this unmitigated raw showmanship. Can you believe that? In just four years the population of Ukraine has plummeted from 40 million to 20 million according to a recent independent British study (by The New Statesman and reported by the Economist as well). Yet the toxic Western liberal media (CNN, the Telegraph, the Hill, etc) never finish a statement on the Russo-Ukrainian war without the standard concluding remarks that Russia is suffering 1000 casualties per day. Actually if you go around doing some random ‘fact-checking’ on average for every single fallen soldier Russia receives it hands over close to one hundred Ukrainians in body bags.
In contrast, the Russian strongman is safely anchored to a solid popular support at home turf and winning back global acquiesces if not total acceptance. Look, Russia is back in to the Olympics, Slovakia and Hungary are giving the middle finger to the EU, Trump openly derides NATO as a spineless colossus which has run out of steam; all implicitly nodding Vlad the Great on in his endeavor to make Russia great again.
Speaking of Russia, say what you gotta say but in the essence of un-manifested political will power we, Ethiopians, are almost like the Russians. We celebrate a strong willed leader who kicks hard if he has to. In other words Western liberal Democracy which enfeebles a Nation is not taken as a given self-evident truth. It always amuses me how the West had loved Boris Yeltsin who had humiliated Russia and made himself and his country the laughingstock of the entire World. The West loved that decaying Russia and its drunkard leader. Naturally whoever is trying to redeem and make Russia great again is their mortal enemy. Putin, that is. What I am trying to say is few countries want to see a strong and independent Ethiopia either and whoever is leaning on an outside party to effect regime change in Ethiopia is courting disaster.
2 – Why Ato Hailemarian had failed miserably
Bereket Simeon summed it up when he said “ይህች ታላቅ ሀገር እንዲህ ባለ ደካማ ሰዉ መመራትዋ በጣም ይቆጫል፡” in reference to Ato Hailemariam’s reckless disregard to the power and responsibility solely reserved to the chief skipper.
Azeb Mesfin was even more brutal when she demonized the former Premier as an indecisive and incapable leader who is to blame for all the problems currently suffocating the country. Perhaps they are blaming the bad odor on the dog to escape accountability but dismissing the allegation out of hand is being dishonest. I won’t repeat Tim Sebastian’s rude aberration here. He was condescending and insulted not just the Premier but the country at large by treating a former Premier of a great Nation as a butler.
Ato Hailemariam’s cardinal sin was his inability to exercise the power vested in the office of the chief executive by the FDRE Constitution for the good of the Nation. In other words the country didn’t have a leader in between Ato Meles and Dr.Abiy. The Premiership was reduced to the ceremonial role of ‘ensuring the continuity of Ato Meles’s legacy’. It was pathetic to hear the Premier lament ‘what can I do? They are indomitable’. Like all ‘subscriber EPRDFites’ he was intimidated and rendered impotent by the presumed glory of TPLF’s prowess. In this respect we have to give credit where it is due. Dr.Abiy had the nerve to break free of this vice like clutch which had an effeminizing effect on the rest of EPRDFites.
Incidentally, do you know the Subscriber EPRDFites? It holds true to PP as well. They are like opportunistic hunters in the wild. They don’t give a damn about principle or care about remaining loyal to a charter of political manifesto as long as they drive Gemechis and send their children to international community school. They are the spitting images of Gogol’s Chameleon. For instance, if for whatever reason Dr.Abiy suddenly begins celebrating the ‘enduring legacy’ of Ato Meles they won’t hesitate to rebrand Adwa museum in his name. Thus, Ato Hailemariam’s political career was carved out for him just like that and he was your quintessential Subscriber EPRDFite who was unfit to hold the office of the Premiership.
3 – Breaking the Dominance of TPLF
Bottom-line Ato Hailemarian was under the illusion that he needed a leader to follow and created mini corrupt war lords who had conveniently filled the vacuum of leadership. The country was gutted and empty. Wealth was hoarded and accumulated by the allegorical 1% of the society while the rest of the les miserables went starving. If you really want to know the truth, that is the only lasting legacy he had bequeathed to PP leadership.
Looks like to me Dr.Abiy must have known this very well and vowed ‘the buckle stops’ here. We knew he was dangerously incorrigible when he dropped Lemma Megeresa like a disposable dilettante. His motto must have been “everybody is expendable”. If someone could effectively nurture this outlook, hate him or like him, he is capable. Look at what he had done to the ‘Minnesota militants’. Once promising erudite young firebrands were brushed aside as a band of wasted ‘noisy’ school children who are rarely taken seriously.
Perhaps his distinguished singular positive achievement is locking up hard core TPLFites at Amba Mekelle the way Zemen Mesafint Kings used to do. This is a herculean task. I mean breaking the streak of unquestioned entitlement TPLFites had assumed isn’t something to be taken lightly. If we keep whitewashing what PP is really capable of and resort to cheap name calling ad infinitum, overtime the show loses audience and without being known it is curtain down time already.
Instead of doing an honest objective review and assessment of the capacity and mettle of the incumbent and drawing practical strategy to counter it, opposition parties dwell on defining a superficial narrative of discrediting, insulting and demonizing individual members and leaders of PP in a lame effort to win cheap “affection”.
The way I see it Dr.Abiy has belted a near inexhaustible stamina to absorb shocks. After all this, it is difficult to blackmail him out of office. We cannot kick him out of office by employing social media tactics of scoring subscribers by sheer sensationalism. You know why? It seems to me he has studied in close detail not how Ao Meles had succeeded but how Ato Hailemariam had failed and braced up for the challenges.
I wish opposition political party leaders were to do both to beat him at his own game.
God Bless.
The writer can be reached at : estefanoussamuel@yahoo.com
Editor’s Note : Views in the article do not necessarily reflect the views of borkena.com
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This statement by the dear writer hit a winning home run with me:
‘We cannot kick him out of office by employing social media tactics of scoring subscribers by sheer sensationalism.’
These connivers among us have been feeding on the raw emotion of the gullible just like successive regimes in the old country since the late Emperor. They make big bucks from their smooth talking and bulging up their cushions. Their waistlines are busting at their seams. They have three fat hotdogs both at the front and back of their neck. Business is booming with crafts. I also hear that they get handouts from regimes that are hostile to the old country for not posting any article alleging those regimes. Just ask them when they last audited. You will get murderous stare from them. I tried that with one of them and did I get the scariest look in their face. I am declared persona non grata from posting any of my comments on their websites because I chastise both the current regimes in Eritrea and Ethiopia. They don’t like the Eritrean part. What sellouts!!!!
Now this is my opinion about the expected general election in the old country scheduled this coming summer. If the regime continues to harass candidates from the opposition parties and claim to win in a landslide, I will render it unfair but without giving up on my long-held staunch belief in peaceful form of struggle. I wouldn’t be surprised if that end up being the case. We should never forget the fact that all successive regimes since the late Emperor usurped power either through violence or military outfit. It has been a specter that has been haunting that gem of humanity and its upright and noble people since 1974. May The Almighty Our Creator Save Ethiopia!!!
Keep writing dear author. Blessings to you and your family.
Dear IAF
It is always such a pleasure to read your honest unvarished reflection…my take aways? war begets another war; the round table is the ultimate battle field for competing ideas! Another? EPRDF’s mortis causa was declared not in2018 but back in 2014/15 when the outcome of the 5th national election was declared…EPRDF said it won 100% of the seats @ the HPR and hit the last nail on its coffin.
If PP fails to take heed of this vulgarity… its fate won’t be any different.
God Bless.