By Samuel Estefanous
estefanoussamuel@yahoo.com
Doesn’t the recent Coalition sound like the Common Wealth of the Predator and Prey? I am sorry to say it but this is increasingly looking like the fable of the assembly of animal life in the wilderness-the Council of the Carnivorous and the Herbivorous to rule wild life by managing scarce edible resources wisely.
Until I heard the ‘advisor’ to OLA pontificating about the ‘sacred mission’ of the militant group to break up the Empire I had a lingering hope that we haven’t yet heard from the real representatives of the armed groups tanging horns with the government of the FDRE. What makes this comical is he is proudly heralding the unmitigated abominable crusade to the alleged keepers of the Empire-who happen to be his nouveau comrade in arms.
Add to that Monjerno’s banal, ill-advised, condescending and indecent statement that TPLF would have Fano and OLA for dessert after the hearty meal of consuming PP raw like a generous spread of Easter feast.
On the contrary if you ask Isaias Afeworki (the presumed mortal enemy of the country) whether he likes to see Ethiopia fallen and disintegrated he would take offence in good earnest. He would say with a straight face that actually he would like to see a united strong prosperous Ethiopia. You know why? He is a seasoned politician. He knows how to talk about politics. He knows there is such a thing as political correctness.
I am not alone on this one. Every time we hear from the leadership of the militant groups we have this feeling like these are a motley of Smerdyakovs unable to put their s…together before the real deals- the Ivan Karamazov’s- make their dignified worthy appearance. (with your leave… a little explanation for the uninitiated is imperative here; remember Ivan Karamazov? He would not altogether write off Smerdyakov as a babbling lackey, instead he says the Smerdyakovs need to do the dress rehearsal before the actual curtain down for the appearance of the Super Man a.k.a the Ivans, apologies for the digression)
But listening to the likes of Jiregna and Monjerno the wilderness fable has a better credibility appeal than the strategic roadmap of the Coalition. All I can say is it is such a pity our life is held hostage by the rejects and dregs of this great nation and with all its pathetic records PP is made to look better in contrast.
What makes this more tragic is knowledgeable, well read and informed intellectuals are acting like echo-chambers knowing very well that the tragic-comedy is capable of disintegrating the Nation and induce the catalyst for the eventual slow death of the country. Raw emotions of hatred and politics don’t mix to make good sense. They make an otherwise wise man look like a plain jay walking zombie.
When politics runs on raw emotions of hatred the consequences are dire. In this respect I think the TPLF of pre- 1995 was very much mature and enlightened. I remember the interview Ato Meles had given barely controlling his anger back then alleging that in the service of the greater political goal they had to swallow hard and allow protesters in the Amharic speaking districts of freed provinces marching against TPLF carrying banners that read ‘Forward with the brave revolutionary leadership of Comrade Mengistu’. Guess what? Before the fall of Addis, too! That is the ultimate example of taming raw emotions for the good of advancing the bigger Cause.
When this Nation begins to exhibit the slightest sign of breaking up I can imagine the unbridled jubilation and ululation spreading like prairie fire from Cairo to Asmara all the way down to Mogadishu, yes, the moment the fall of this Nation is getting traction they would be in a lot hurry to celebrate. They should, I mean when they win the war of the century without firing a single bullet. What can we say? They have been playing us like a fiddle all the time, laughing behind our backs shamelessly setting us against one another like caged mice by offering and withdrawing cheese.
PFJD is very adept at this game. It is running a Nation of under five million; it cannot afford to fight a war of attrition year in and out the more so when it had a gullible excitable bunch of war lords waltzing to its racy political serenading. Can you imagine this tough talking TPLF even in its formative days used to copy all letters and important declarations to PFJD? It was acting like a scolded school boy before the Popular Front. You have only to read Engineer Gidey Zeratsion’s memoir to understand the extent of servility TPLF had subjected itself to.
Seeking political surrogacy is disagreeable and despicable. It is such a pity the God Father of the Horn is pushing on his eighties. God knows he has been dictating programs and political manifestos to a good number of leaders of armed groups in the Region. They go up north and humiliate themselves and their respective people by kowtowing to a confirmed egomaniacal dictator who is said to have been nurturing the idea of ruling over a Confederation of Horn Nations for quite some time. Otherwise how come his annual State of the Union Address is almost exclusively dedicated to Ethiopia?
In the face of all these, I think secretly PP is having a field day. I will do anything but underestimate PP leadership. In my mind I think they have had their otherwise capable arch enemies exactly where they would like to see them-pandering to PFJD and rocking to sleep to Afewereki’s lullaby. We cannot deny the fact that following the recent armed adventure of TPLF, the press release from the AU, the American Embassy, the French ministry of foreign Affairs, the EU and scores of other foreign missions sounded as if directly copied from official communiqué of the government of FDRE with slight formative editing.
The more the opposition loses focus and becomes a killing machine with little actual purpose to show for it the better it suits the government. That is almost like signing a blank check. Already public bodies are acting not just irresponsible but weird, too. There are multiple cases in point. For instance, in the name of Administrative Code Enforcement all sorts of punitive fines are slapped on unsuspecting residents at will and selectively. Imagine being fined 100,000.00 birr for a plastic bag of vegetable waste left 10 meters away from your premises while a dead dog is rotting at the opposite building and the owner going scot free.
I had worked with members of law enforcement officers and I know with all the limitations their superiors were serious about professionalism and discipline. At least they were trying very hard to inculcate an ethical code of conduct in cooperation with donor countries and agencies but nowadays some provincial officers dumped on Addis with visible communication shortcomings take out their frustration on town folks being openly hostile, aggressive and quite unprofessional for no reason at all. Never mind that, one can get used to it or avoid them whenever possible albeit the cold sense of feeling alienated, the intolerable suffering is faced by residents of the widening conflict zones.
The thing is we the people are the ultimate victims. I swear to God I felt like something in my gut snapped when I read on TIKVAH or the BBC news file from West Wollega reporting that the hapless residents are suffering indiscriminately at the hands of OLA, Fano and local administrative bodies. They were saying መድረሻ አጣን፤ግራ ገባን፤ቸገረን፡፡
God Bless
Editor’s Note: Views in the article do not necessarily reflect the views of borkena.com
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