By Samuel Estefanous
The latest communiqué from Morning Star of Ethiopia- a Party under Formation- caught my eyes. It was denied venue to hold press briefing by city officials just to intimidate it, its possible members and supporters- mafioso’s tactic perfected by the thugs of EPRDF. The communiqué reads that the founding members were unfazed as they got what they had expected. What is more they intimated that this is just the foretaste and graver measures are yet to come. However in the face of the unwelcoming brutal gesture, they solemnly declared that they are braced up for the difficult time ahead of them.
The party under formation promises to be a good counter balancing force to the incumbent judging by the credentials of the high profile founding members. Who knows it may herald the Dawn of Ethiopian Renaissance breaking free from the variant yokes of EPRDF. Maybe other struggling opposition parties or members may join its ranks and lend it strength. Only the name, particularly in its English version, sounds off beat, doesn’t it? Morning Star rather calls to mind a daily newspaper and not a party nomenclature.
A Deja Vu of Sorts
I don’t think folks know much about EPRDF’s thugs who used to ‘enforce party discipline’ among the multitude. They had the power to prevail over and overrule law enforcement officials. For all practical purposes they are militants of the urban jungle. The latter-unless they doubled as party scouts- would tell victims to back off quietly by way of brotherly advice. Particularly, if the victim happened to be one betraying Oromiffa accent or had an Oromo sounding name, he was a goner. He was presumed guilty until proven innocent. I am not denying the fact that there were indeed fanatics and outlaws who had tried to work outside the domain of law and ostensibly undermined it. That is why law enforcement and other organs of justice administration are in place in the first place-to bring outlaws to justice.
When I say victims of militants of the urban jungle, I am not even talking of ‘legitimate suspects’ under police custody. This is about people being declared missing while they were being held hostage by the Deep State. Recently when I perused through the lists of names released by the Ethiopian Human Right Commission as ‘persons missing and unaccounted for’, the pattern made me cringe. I was like ‘not again please’.
What ruined EPRDF was its hijacking of the justice administration system and subjecting it to the ruthless antics of the parallel government. The dirtiest thing was they used to follow the textbook example of the fascist black shirts in Nazi Germany and under el Duce’s Italy. Even government ministers and members of parliament weren’t spared as candidly recounted by General Samora a few weeks ago. How is this any different than what the Dergue had done? Isn’t this reminiscent of Pinochet’s Chile and Videla’s Argentina and the woes of the Committee of Mothers who have been searching for the bodies of their missing children to this day? Think about it, some of the high ranking government officials earned their degrees at foreign Universities studying such atrocities ‘Comparatively’. An education that doesn’t make one a better person is lost on the student unless extremely diligent parroting is taken for academic excellence.
In his book- When the Dawn of Freedom Breaks- Dr. Berhanu Nega tells the harrowing experience in great detail. His view is shared by other high profile prisoners of conscience. One of the victims even earned a dedication from Berhanu by way of expressing solidarity. Victims of the parallel Deep State envy those in the hands of proper law enforcement, however illegal and un-procedural their detention was. The parallel economy supported its counterpart in the Deep State and their efficiency was beyond reproach. I remember at this one time, good tax paying Mercato businessmen had petitioned IRM to stop army convoys smuggling merchandise into the country. A good number of them were eventually bankrupted, some incredibly prospered by making practical and convenient alignments.
EPRDF wouldn’t learn from the mistakes of the Dergue and kept playing battle songs glorifying its invincibility to the last hour, fairly well knowing that the Dergue had driven itself to the grave and the former just cleaned the mess behind it. What is more, forgetting the fact that the only invincible power is the people, it marginalized the overwhelming majority and expended its entire force and wealth in grooming a tight knit Developmental State Army. Anybody who had been in government or government affiliated services knows how every human capital was organized like an army with the rest of Ethiopians playing an auxiliary role.
You have only to read the Premier’s two books-both styled after Obama’s Dream from my Father and the Audacity to Hope- to understand how the system had worked and how it had failed spectacularly. We had taken both books as part sacrament of guilty conscience and expected the Synergy was going to break the vicious circle. Unfortunately as witnessed in the latest EHRC report we couldn’t break free from the loop and one more time the thick clouds of fear and despondency have descended upon the Nation. Looks like PP has proven itself an unrepentant EPRDFite unless it takes drastic measures to redeem itself.
The ‘Eftin’ Phenomenon
One would reasonably assume that all independent media networks would come out raging at the perpetrators of the crime EHRC has courageously exposed- not necessarily.
This is strictly for older folks and those who had come of age around 2005. The youth might have been missed out in the drama. Under close supervision and guidance of Ato Bereket EPRDF was able to groom a well informed and well-read army of scribes who could subtly influence the urban intellectual by infiltrating the ranks of the opposition backyard. Some are familiar names and reputed professionals. A few are still active in government. Cleverly, I would say, they figured out that steering clear of the social media of the day-the public ‘gutter presses’- and trying to engage the educated and the silent majority hooked on Tobia would ultimately prove EPRDF’s triumph.
They run multiple publications, one being Eftin (I believe it is a word borrowed from the good old Afaris like Dagu). They have access to power. Their tips were as good as breaking news. They could actually tip their readers about a draft proclamation about which the House Speaker didn’t have a clue. They could berate a ‘gumtu’ EPRDFite and get away with it unlike the rest of the free press. Realizing the established trend that the one organ the Ethiopian public wouldn’t turn its back on is the army, they would dedicate air time and space to it and depicted it as the guardian of the Constitution- meaning the Front.
The reason I said this might not ring a bell with those under thirty is they might not recognize the Eftins of the day (lavishly provided for and conquering the air waves with style) unless they had known the Eftins of yesterday. The Eftins of these days are almost outperforming their EPRDF counterparts- like I said with style; maybe they are having a free field day in the absence of the scrutiny of a Tobia like magazine. Question is what good would come out of it in the long run?
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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