By Samuel Estefanous
These past five weeks, the Prime Minister’s office press secretary has been moderating successive dialogues under a broad topic – Ethiopia in Focus featuring the Young and the Ambitious PPs. So long prominently missed out in the panel are the old guard officials who have made seamless transition from being hard core EPRDFites to dedicated disciples of PP en masse and overnight without the slightest qualms of conscience. Well done Bil’lene!
I see an unmistakable trend evolving here. I think PP is trying to lose some dead weight. Remember the first batch of non-EPRDF young scholars who had joined the government? They were burnt out and fled the country. In EPRDF Amarigna-ተቃጥለዉ ወጥተዋል፡፡ PP’s inner circle kitchen cabinet must have taken good heed of that and looks like it is loath to lose these fiery young professionals in the same manner.
Honestly speaking my first impression was the language barrier had kept out the cadre school alums. You know all those Prosperity Party PhDs who avoid the English language like the plague (oddly enough it is their own medium of instruction). I was even a little upset observing to my own self that I didn’t care what language but Bil’lene should bring them aboard. Besides, I personally prefer the federal government’s working language as a choice medium for such dialogue where the guests wouldn’t be able to affect misplaced informalities like ‘yep and yikes’. It was later that I came to realize the exclusion had little to do with language.
PP might be grooming the Young and the Ambitious to edge out the old guards who have increasingly become an embarrassment to the party. But these ‘firebrands’ might end up being a bigger liability. I am not just alluding to their raw enthusiasm that makes them sound like a freshly retained graduate assistant. They lack perspective.
Do you know the one thing Tigray politicians and activities across the board advancing multiple agendas pretend like it never had happened? The unprovoked blitzkrieg attack on the Northern Army by TDF! PP couldn’t have mobilized volunteers from all regions with little effort the way it did had the unfortunate ‘blitzkrieg’ didn’t butcher unsuspecting members of the EDF.
Sometimes politicians are like that. Their eyes are wide open but they don’t see anything. Their ears are just fine but they don’t hear anything. Before TPLF’s epic blunder, the general understanding among the rest of the country was the Defense Forces are partial to Tigray and the Tigreans. One thing is for sure, over the years some kind of kinship had been established between the two and invariably members of the Force had spread a positive perception of the Northern Province in their respective places of origin. Some-like the reigning Premier- had learnt to speak the language and loved bantering with the native speakers dispersed all over the country. TDF chose to attack this Force and lost the war before it had even begun.
However, hardly any politician, activist or military strategist in Tigray or from Tigray discusses the subject seriously. Some talk of forging a lasting union with Eritrea as the rest of Ethiopia has ganged up on them as if Eritrea would be spreading the welcoming mat no question asked. But they don’t even try to reflect on the betrayal, on the bestiality of secretly withdrawing Tigrigna speakers from the camp and butchering the rest like they were hogs or something.
The moral of the story? Denial will catch up with PP sooner or later. One cannot defer it for more than a couple of years. The way the distinguished guests were holding forth, one would assume they were discussing some fairy tale land of abundance where milk flows like water. One by one opposition parties are dropping out of the National Dialogue Commission, the public is totally disillusioned with it and has practically given up on it but the narrative constructed by the distinguished guests? The public is not used to the practice of being engaged at the grass root level as it had been subjected to elite bargain to determine the fate of the Country. Really, really? We all know how the Commission engages the grass root, you wanna know how? By paying stipends, thus please spare us the ‘engagement’. I would rather they were to go a step ahead and enlighten us why the venture was launched in good faith but is most likely to slalom its way to negligible success if not total failure.
Inflation is spiraling out of control. Youth unemployment is hiking. Unchecked public spending is literally killing the urban poor. While the elite which had bargained for power is pursuing happiness in glittering halls of aesthetically refined Broad Ways, State Houses and Museums of Antiques, the rest of the country is begging for the basic necessities to stay alive -water, something-anything-to eat, someplace, anyplace to shelter from the elements. In the midst of this dysfunctional misguided ‘home grown economic policy’, the speakers are in a state of utter euphoria congratulating themselves with straight faces.
I would rather they were to research, define, dissect and explain the problem first and most important of all and then tell us where the intended cure has become the problem. They avoided the storm gathering force around the horizon and chose to depict a rosy future as if the desperation of the multitude isn’t relatable to their posh quarters. I mean being in perpetual denial is the highway to the Ivory Tower Syndrome and more than any other party they should have known it as heirs to one dissipated by the disengagement and ill-defined focus.
It would be inaccurate to suggest that the launching of the program is pointless. I, for one, liked it. However, considering the impeccable credentials of the speakers, they shouldn’t be open to second-guessing by the average person. Honest to God I had expected they would reflect on the bleak aspect of the policy packages and how they are toiling to contain or minimize the undesirable impact instead of filling in for Fana TV analysts for a change.
That Ethiopia is in focus goes without saying. I never remember a time when even private conversations among families and friends were dominated by ‘public interest’ topics as we are witnessing these days. Yeah, the public is engaged more than any other time in living memory but all for the wrong reason. Every time the TV screen flashes the Parliament building the wary public would be like-’what are they up to now?’ and in an effort to dispel the depressing vibe a family member with a good sense of humor would interject “Did you know why Bewuketu Seyoum had travelled to Los Angles? No? To take a shower, I swear to God that is what he had said I didn’t make it up. They say we won’t have a drop until the Corridor concrete slabs have their fill.” Kids are saying stuff like this.
For God’s sake re-focus!
God Bless.
The writer could be reached at : estefanoussamuel@yahoo.com
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Editor’s note : Views in the article do not necessarily reflect the views of borkena.com
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