Fano Does Not Need a Unified Amhara Military and/or Political Command

By Yonas Biru

No matter how much the advocates of a unified Amhara military and or Political command want and pray for, it will not happen. A unified Amhara Command is not necessary to advance Amhara’s political interests. In fact, any effort to form such a command is counterproductive to the pursuit of a transformative democratic national movement. I summon the last 10 months as alibi.

The problem with Fano is not the lack of a unified Amhara military or political command. Its problem resides in the lack of intellectual leadership. In Amhara politics, like in Oromo and Tigray politics, it is hard to differentiate the intellectual from the yellow-blood activist. Such a political culture is driven by emotion-laden tribal instinct devoid of enlightenment of thought and the light of reason.

Allow me to ask for your indulgence to repeat the following for the umpteenth time. Whether Fano will achieve its dual objective of protecting Amhara from existential threat and bringing about a transformative national democratic governance depends on its success in implementing a three-step process.

First is Establishing Unity of Purpose in Self Defense: Unity of purpose in self-defense is a natural tendency to protect oneself from existential threats. In the early stages of Fano’s spontaneous uprising to defend the Amhara from the savagery of Oromummaa, we saw unity of purpose as each group of Fano defended the other. Fano was born out of self-preservation and survival. አማራ በአማራነቱ መደራጀቱ ግድ ይል ነበር. The political and social fundamentals and dynamics were conducive for such an endeavor. 

Second is Unity of Purpose in Consolidating Amhara-Wide Unity in Pursuit of a Transformative National Democratic Change. In this case, Amhara’s social and political fundamentals and dynamics neither require nor lend themselves to a united Amhara military or political command. When it comes to pursuing a united Amhara military or political command, the power dynamic calculus between Gojam, Gonder, Shewa and Wello is more likely to spark and feed conflicts rather than seed and germinate unity. 

It warrants repeating and emphasizing that there are fundamental differences in political dynamics between unity of purpose in self-defense and unity of purpose in consolidating Amhara-wide political power in pursuit of a transformative national democratic change.

During the self-defense phase of the Fano uprising, we have seen how Wello, Shew, Gonder and Gojam rose in tandem, supported each other and scored phenomenal achievements. We have also seen how they started conflicts and even engaged in skirmishes once they shifted from self-defense to offence in pursuit of consolidating Amhara-wide advance toward political power contention.

The reason for the conflict is that there is no common interest in Amhara-wide political power dynamics. We can bury ourselves deep under the layers of the proverbial mountain of hear-no-evil and see-no-evil dissonance, but the hard fact is that there is power conflict between Gonder and Gojam, Wello and Gojam, Shewa and Gonder.

The current Fano crisis is the result of a misguided effort to force an Amhara wide unified military and political command center. The effort not only propelled the worst people to the fore of political power contention, but also brought the worst instinct out of them.

We know about all the efforts that went into the various futile attempts to unite different Wello Fanos into one Wello Fano military and political command. We also know the same is true in Gonder, Shewa and Gojam. I would be remiss not to ask how Fano can bring Wello, Shewa, Gonder and Gojam under one command when it could not create such a command within the four Amhara regional homelands.

This is where Amhara intellectuals have failed both the Fano enterprise and the people of Amhara. The intellectual class failed to shift Fano’s thought paradigm as it progressed from a protest movement to a political power-contending enterprise.

The only way unity can be formed at the political power contention stage is by changing Fano’s gears from Amhara based to democracy based organizing principles. This requires coming to terms with the reality that a unified military and political command is counterproductive to the pursuit of a transformative democratic movement.

What needs to be done is to make sure that each Fano brigade or sub-command works in its own space without one Fano trying to forcefully incorporate other Fanos under its umbrella. The Gojam Command that outlawed Fano operations within Gojam, outside of Zemene Kassie’s Fano enterprise was utterly stupid. It did not help to plant the seeds of Amhara unify within Gojam, let alone across the four Amhara regional homebases.

If ጎንጤ’s and ጉዋንጉል’s independent Fanos in Gojam want to unite voluntarily, let it be. If Eskinder manages to unite some Fanos from all four regions, there is no reason why Zemen’s group would get its nose bent out of shape and vice versa. The two can and should operate independently. 

There is no reason to waste their energy on each other while the government is mobilizing its force to whip Fano asses. Similarly, it is past time the diaspora colony stops cheerleading their Fano group like teenage Rock & Roll band groupies. This applies particularly to Eskider’s and Zemene’s groupies.

Third is Unity of Purpose to Form a National Coalition of Democratic Forces

This must be based on universal democratic organizing principles. Its objectives may be to bring about change in governance or change in government. Change in governance requires change in policy and practice. It does not necessarily require replacing the Prime Minister. It requires forcing his administration to change course in its governance policy and practice. 

In contrast, change in government may have two different options – overthrowing the government by force or forcing the PP to change the Prime Minister.

One of the issues I continually stressed since July 2023 was that Fano will never have a unified Fano before it has a unified political agenda and strategy with a concomitant roadmap. In one such article, I wrote: “You can stand on your head and pray while doing a breakdance. You will not have a unified Fano before you have a unified political agenda. The risk is two pronged: Civil War and Warlordism.” 

By a unified Fano I did not mean an Amhara-wide Fano military or political command. What I meant and clearly explained was unity in purpose and platform in terms of political agenda, strategy, roadmap and end game.

The Fano enterprise that some told us would enter Addis Ababa in two weeks is currently bogged down in inter- and intra-conflict far from the power centers of Addis Ababa and Bahir Dar. 

Having a unified political agenda anchored in democratic organizing principles with concomitant strategy, roadmap, and end goal is important for many reasons, not least to mitigate power struggle within Amhara. 

I understand there are several independent efforts by selected and secretive groups to consolidate different Fano Manifesto drafts that are circulating in cyberspace. This is very encouraging in some sense. The more the effort, the merrier. What is disappointing is that each group is working independently under the cloud of secrecy and sending their consolidated Manifesto draft to different Fano factions. 

The very people who have been saying there is no need for a political manifesto for nearly a year are now forming secretive groups of like-minded people to write Manifest in secrecy. It is this culture that has stultified and dumbified our politics. 

The whole fucking purpose is to control the Fano enterprise and its political direction and in the process to create a sphere of influence and sense of importance in the Fano landscape. This is a docile power struggle within independent circles of the diaspora colony. This must be discouraged, exposed and condemned. 

It must also be stressed that it is intellectually dishonest to consolidate other people’s work and not share the consolidated work for discussion. I believe the final draft must be released without any name of the original authors or the consolidators. It must be released as a consensus material without any group or person taking credit. My view on this is not driven by ethics alone. It is also driven by the need to develop a robust document through spirited debate and discussion and avoid unhealthy competition.

A consensus document that is developed in a transparent manner allows Fano to build a national consensus. Grounding the manifesto in democratic principles will help the Fano enterprise to win the confidence of not only non-Amhara forces in Ethiopia but also of the international community.

It is important to acknowledge that the absence of intellectual engagement and well thought out strategic direction has given birth to Eskinder and Zemene as a divinely anointed and self-aggrandized field marshal, respectively. An intellectual barren land with a screwed up intellectual culture is doomed to suffer from such an outcome. 

Fano has already wasted 10 months pursuing the እድር-ወ-ፅዋ tradition that relied on the since of አንተም ተው አንቺም ተይ doctrine of እርቅ between self-centered Fano-leaders with propensity to ሰገጤized stupidity. What is needed is not እርቅ. Try a unifying democratic platform.

KaTefahu YiQrta  

The article first appeared on p2p forum

Editor’s note : Views in the article do not necessarily reflect the views of borkena.com


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