I saw the footage of Gedu Adnargatchew directing traffic at a parking lot somewhere in Maryland. I would be lying if I say I wasn’t saddened. But I didn’t cringe either. Why would I? It is a lot most of us Ethiopians are accustomed to.
Besides, the man looked much younger, healthier, fresher, content and the way he sharply bent his forearm at one point to guide a driver would have put a seasoned traffic officer in Addis to shame. He carried himself like he had been an old hand at the job. That is what I would call steadfast as a rock of Gibraltar. Contrast this picture with the excesses of the revolting party thrown in Addis under all sorts of pretexts by some officials and their offspring costing millions of birr.
I would have stopped at that but yesterday in the middle of the night while trying to fast skim the day’s news before retiring to bed I came across Ermias Legesse’s channel and sadly heard a brief statement reflecting on his running into the former President of the ANRS and former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the FDRE at a parking lot.
To his credit he didn’t say anything mean. If we are talking about verbal communication, that is. It is the body language, the way he looked ‘vindicated’ or something-trying to hide an affected smirk, trying to hide his pleasure in vain that had disturbed me. Of all people he should have known what it is like to be a ‘reject’. He was himself a drifting castaway only a few years ago.
I don’t know, perhaps the footage has affected me much more than I would have liked to admit. Maybe it is on account of a chance encounter I had with Dr.Gedu when I shared a flight with him from Bahr Dar to Addis Ababa ten or eleven years ago. I remember he boarded the plane after all of us had comfortably settled in our respective seats and he was travelling with his family and security detail. To this day I remember his daughter throwing some kind of tantrum ‘cos someone was left behind. The fall from such Olympian heights to directing traffic at a bleak parking lot in a foreign land isn’t something to be taken lightly. That I cannot deny.
Bottom-line high ranking government officials carry a piece of the reputation of the country with them even after vacating office. Hate them or like them they deserve respect.
I remember writing a ‘scathing’ criticism of Proclamation 653/2009 (in part amended by Proclamation 1003/20017) for providing a ‘lavish benefit’ package beyond the means of the country for retired senior government officials, judges, Speakers etc and their respective families.
I protested the extent of the vast benefits generously extended to retired high ranking government officials, however, I didn’t object to the principle. As one time representatives of government to a certain extent they ‘retire’ with the office and a lifestyle worthy of the office should be secured to them and their families.
If you get the chance to read the briefs attached to the legislation before the ratification phase you would read endless accounts of how the retired officers carry tacit or express responsibilities and remain attached to the prestige of the Nation for the remainder of their natural lives.
Contrary to this principle, Dr. Negasso was humiliated at the hands of EPRDF in stark defiance of the honor of the office of the presidency. He was evicted from his abode. He was obliged to take judicial recourse. In due course he was living in a rat infested, dilapidated old house with his wife and adopted daughter.
The more EPRDF assumed it was ‘teaching him a lesson’ by humiliating the former President of the Republic, the better he was shining in the eyes of the public. We all were dotting on him like a close elderly member of the family.
Ironically he became The People’s President after exiting office not while he was occupying the Jubilee Palace. I think Dr.Gedu is slowly but surely etching his legacy on our conscience by the sheer power of his humility and confidence just like Dr.Gidada.
I know he might feel honored to direct traffic to being a sucker living off defiling his homeland to foreign Agents as we know very well most asylum seekers are doing; but even if there is the slightest element of disrepute, it is the state of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia which is degraded both legally and morally, not Dr.Gedu.
Do you know the Ivory Tower syndrome? When governments are parting ways from the people? They assume they know the people by reading briefs of news monitored and summarized from their own outlets. They don’t. Folks have a strong tendency to sympathize with the vanquished however much they disapprove of their political inclinations.
If you ask me I didn’t like Gedu’s outpouring of sentimentality towards embracing the cause of TPLF after taking flight but I would be plain stupid to expect him to echo my own personal takes on current political affairs.
What I liked about Dr.Gedu is he wouldn’t chose to become some kind of phony ‘research fellow’ at Princeton or sign up for a position of a Comparative Studies Fellow at Kennedy School of Government or become a sellout at National Endowment for Democracy pandering to diabolical agendas of the deep state or worse still attach himself to one of Gorge Soros’ foundations. Many did without the slightest qualms of conscience. I would refrain from naming and shaming. I only would like to call to mind the power of the silent majority.
Remember Princess Diana? The more she was treated as a reject by Buckingham palace the better she was liked by the world at large. The image of Princess Diana we Africans have isn’t the bejeweled fairy tale like goddess wearing diamond studded tiara but a broadly smiling beautiful woman with incredibly sad big eyes touring dangerous skull marked parameters wearing demining gear somewhere in Angola or Mozambique. She was trying to prevent another impending civil war that could maim more African kids. To honor her memory many girls have taken her name across the width and breadth of Africa. My own niece is named after her.
She was declared The People’s Princess.
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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