1- Flashbacks
This has to be asked again and again as we keep fumbling in the dark stinky alleys with or without light at the end of the tunnel. Quo Vadis, esteemed opposition groups…this question was popular back in 2018 at a different forum. We have to ask it again until such time the collective disorientation is gone.
Here we are, in 2017 E.C, twenty years after the phenomenon that was Kinjit. I remember those days. We were the roaring 90s after all. Remember the ‘Roaring 20s’ in the West, particularly in the United States? Remember the optimism, the real prosperity right after WWI that was mercilessly crushed by the lost cynical generation of the 30s which had set the stage for the dress rehearsal of the Armageddon that was WWII?
Sometimes I cannot help drawing the comparison. In the 90s almost everybody I know was against EPRDF. Almost everybody I know comes back home with a copy of Tobia, Reporter or Ethiopis and on lean days even a copy of Urji or Kibrit would do. There was something to look forward to. We didn’t know exactly what but there was Hope and we were hanging on it for dear life. There was hardly any one person or group with the slightest inclination of ‘taking to arms’. It was characterized as ‘the Woyane thing to do; the 60s thing to do’. It was even looked down on as the second recourse of a limping idea. A pity we have marched in reverse gear half a century back to the late 1960s and it would be unfair to totally blame it on those bearing arms.
Kinjit was truly a phenomenon as Birtukan had succinctly defined it. I remember how the dignified yet vocal supporters of the Coalition used to act as self-designated keepers and enforcers of the Peaceful Covenant. They would chide any shallow witted supporter who was liable to rant ethnic expletives. They used to preach ‘if possible we are out here to win over hard core TPLFites by the sheer power of the IDEA and you go about talking cheap about Tigreans, you are doing a disservice to the cause by easily playing into the hands of the incumbent.’ They would say and in most instances than not the rowdy party gets the message right and backs down instantly. You see, there were indeed isolated instances of marked disrespect towards TPLF supporters in town and it used to creep out city folks. But it was the civility and not the violence that that had made EPRDF panic in good earnest. It did everything in its power to force the opposition ‘to take to arms’ but they stood their ground and refused to budge an inch. Common EPRDFites used to say ‘we fought our way to Addis sacrificing the lives of 60,000 martyrs and you are trying to wrest power out of our hands without so much as firing a bullet from a handgun? Take AK-47, go to the den and fight us like an honest man does and earn the power you are coveting.’ Particularly the old guards were totally at loss.
You see, civil war is very divisive by its nature; every bullet fired buys a fresh enemy. EPRDF wanted it that way. From experience it knew, the Coalition would break up into nine small pieces once the first bullet is fired. Remember how everything OLF said and did was taken like an article of faith among its followers? Had it refused to take the bait EPRDF extended and stayed in town, it could have contained the former. Otherwise, there was no way EPRDF could have ejected OLF from the political landscape like it never existed back in 1985/86 E.C. EPRDF couldn’t believe its luck when OLF quit and the Transitional Government went back to the fox hole.
How ironic.
2-Kinjit? What Kinjit!?
The first disillusionment began to surface when the Coalition ceased being a leader of opinion and descended to being a follower and appeaser of the most vocal populist course. Imagine a band of seasoned educated scholars and politicians old at the job filing behind motley of fifty million people and trying to get to multiple destinations at the same time. Politics isn’t a soccer game to please and win the hearts of fans. I mean, even soccer managers refuse to kowtow to fans. In politics you are trying to sell a pre-formed idea, you don’t change horses in midstream taking cues from random spectators. (In this respect you have to give it to the reigning Premier. We all said ‘Medmer’ is baloney and at its best it could only serve a short span transitional cud to chew but look at what he is doing. He stuck to his gun and stayed in power for seven solid years).
Then the now customary and uniquely Ethiopian opposition politics of Chapa stealing treachery ensued. A crack opened and Kinjit was gone just like that. The Kinjit leadership good folks used to tell us about (the one out there trying to win over hard core TPLFites) was actually in our heads. It was an illusion. The leaders were those same quintessentially Ethiopian politicians whose resources were primarily expended on intra-party fighting amongst themselves. They were incapable of inter-party democracy and went on blind spree of demonizing their own comrades. The disagreeable epitaph -a sucker to Wonyane-was attached to anyone who harbored a different opinion. It was the meanest and cheapest thing to do. I mean to try to win popular affection at the expense of one’s own comrade.
They were so callous as to blame the dissipation of the Coalition on snitches in the service of TPLF. We had assumed it was founded on solid grounds to withstand any tsunami. So Kinjit wasn’t even an idea let alone being an invincible one staying afloat on the strength of the truth it upholds. Now Dr. Alemayehu Areda is telling us that Kinjit was a jackal in a sheep skin and it was a good riddance. I don’t even want to dwell on the bickering between Lidetu and Prof.Brehanu. The only thing I liked was the latter’s refusal to do battle with Lidetu on live TV, reasoning good-‘I have nothing to debate Lidetu about until such time we represent competing interests in the election campaign trail.’
Quo vadis, opposition parties? True, our dream was dissipated yet whether we say it aloud or keep it to ourselves, we sure dream of those days. The spirit of civilized and enlightened effective opposition transcending race and creed was sown and the roots are still alive. That the leadership has failed the supporters doesn’t disprove the potency of the cause.
3-Toilet Wall Politics
In the 90s, mobile SMS was the most convenient and conducive forum to reach out to supporters. The dark diabolical power of the social media was limited to walls of College toilets. The first cultural shock fresh College students encountered was the horrors of toilet wall social media. Before the eventual acclimatization, the only place late teen kids read something like this or that ethnic group is better than the rest is on toilet walls. After College it becomes a harmless bantering among trusting friends on Friday night drinking binge. However these days almost all ethnic parties are advancing such agendas. I don’t know, maybe it is in the nature of ethnic politics. As someone had observed– a post fourth round ‘pint of draught beer’ rude talk has come back as a legit political ideal-ይህች ድሮ ከአራተኛዉ ድራፍት ጋር ትመጣ የነበረች ጨዋታ የፖለቲካ ፕሮግራም ሆና ከች አለች፡፡
But this won’t last. In due course, it is certain to grow into maturity. You know why? Any one person who has staked his life and property for a cause greater than himself and who has put the wellbeing of his near and dear ones to pursue an ideal is certain to come round to redefine and broaden his horizon as long as he keeps asking himself ‘quo vaids.’
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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