Saturday, January 30, 2010
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Opinion A Crisis of Leadership in Ethiopian Politics
Former Prisoner of Conscious
Jan 29, 2010
Diverse political parties (including both social and democratic) are currently predicting that the death of the Woyane regime will be in pretty much same way as Haile Selassie’s and the Derg's in the 1970s and beginning of the 1990s as some have accurately done at the time.
The key problem of the past as well as today’s is the lack of critical analysis the opposition leadership were offering then and now during the Woyane leadership. As a result we have ended up repeatedly with a more brutal and deceitful dictatorship replacing another dictatorship and this trend is expected to continue unless addressed on time.
Let us assess the situation further by asking; what has the opposition and civic groups offered in terms of what they stand for relevant issues that matters to the average Ethiopian? What principle, practiced as well as preached, has the opposition and civil groups offered?
Courtesy to Woyane!! We all know for a fact that the Ethiopian elites are divided along their ethnic lines. What has the opposition and civic groups offered in terms of a united Ethiopia under the flag where all the groups have a stake in the future to challenge the Machiavellian policy?
We should realize that people do not eat full meal, drink clean water or pay for rent and child school fee just because of democracy and a brand new constitution nor will they deliver an environment for everyone to make a living and access food.
It should be highlighted that democracy is relative and at best a constitution without people's commitment is nothing but a piece of paper that can be swapped easily. We should recognize that as the opposition claims to be democratic, and so does Woyane. One can then ask who is more democratic than the other?
If we choose to overlook the glaring disregard for the core principles in the opposition ranks then we have to ask ourselves what we are opposing or fighting for?
At the core of the Ethiopians apathy is this lack of clear and principled leadership in the opposition which is cruising with a lot of rattle and hum having no clear direction and vision. Ethiopia can no longer afford to replace one directionless and visionless group of corrupt dictators with another.
When Ethiopians ask themselves the most basic questions that should form the bedrock of a long term unity of purpose in the struggle, the opposition and the civic groups are left wanting. Let us take few examples:
· What would motivate me as a democratic Ethiopian and as citizen to fight Meles when I am not even sure the opposition is any better in terms of ethnic racism?
· What would motivate me as a woman to fight Meles when I am not even sure if the opposition is any better in terms of equal rights for women?
· What would motivate us as a citizen of Ethiopia to fight Meles when the opposition is not any better in terms of freedom, justice and equal opportunity for all?
When one hears the cries for support from the likes of opposition and civic groups from Ethiopians at home and in the Diaspora, one should question these organizations and the leadership capacities and capabilities of understanding the situation in Ethiopia and whether they are worth of our support.
Ethiopians, we need to all join the march to our freedom but we need to make sure that we are all marching to the same drum that is for freedom for ALL not liberation for FEW as it happened in 1991. That opposition light at the end of the tunnel may not be the entry for triumph but a high speed train that may be ready to decimate us like Rwanda, Somalia, Congo and Bosnia.
Many Ethiopians blame the so-called arm-chair analysts of which this author may be accused of being one. My honest intention is to contribute to a wider discussion that we can all, as Ethiopians, towards what is freedom for EVERY Ethiopians. There are answers to galvanizing our people towards and united front, but these answers require unshakable principle that WE ALL have to subscribe and commit to.
Finally, we have to walk the talk unlike those “democrats” who do not accept a democratic vote when it goes against them, or liberals and old left who accept a role based on their ethnicity or worker leaders who are in the pockets of the ruling elites. I hope we can now start again to openly discuss the taboos in Ethiopia such as, ethnic racism, sexism, unemployment, illiteracy, war, poverty, inequality and injustice etc.
