Mereja.Forum

[OPFist]

Idaw Gebs Weyis Idaw Nebs? Don’t Mess up With the OLF (Bilisumma/Freedom Mindset of the Oromo)!

Some Amara elites with Neftegna mindset braged like this as they wedged a devasitating war against Tigray people about three years back. They thought that deafiting the TPLF is difficult, but then dealing with the OLF in particular and with the Oromo in general is as easy as “Idaw gebs new”. Now they tasted the smart soft power of the Oromo mindset of bilisumma/Freedom, i.e the OLF, so they started to cry for their nebs or hiliwuna. Similatly, some Tegaru elites with hegemonist mentality used to despise the OLF/the Oromo by saying “ye zinb bizat mesob ayikeftim". With this expression they were implying that the majority nation of the Oromo has no power to remove their strong regime of minority from FinFinne palace. Now, both the hegemonists and the neftegnas are history never to come back to Finfinne palace. They learned their lesson not to mess up with the OLF. Oromo’s mindset of bilisumma has to focus henceforth on the process how to get rid of Dr Abiy’s hybrid regime, which is dedicated to keep the hitherto domination of Amaranet/Amarigna by hindering the legitimate promotion of Oromiffa/Oromumma to its leading position in Ethiopia.
Read more: https://fayyisoromia.wordpress.com/2023 ... iltsigina/

[OPFist]

Can we compare the present Faanno movement (FM) to the past Qeerro Revolution (QR) of 2018? Why couldn’t FM get support of Qeerro now as the QR got support of Faanno at that time? The answer is clear and simple. The QR didn’t target Amara people, but focused on getting rid of the brutal Woyane (dagimawi Derg). It never belittled any thing about Amara political forces and Amara people. On the contrary, the FM started its struggle by attacking three important areas of Oromo people: Onegawinet (the beloved symbol of Oromo liberation struggle), “Galla invasion” (using the highly hated derogatory word as well as repeating the obsolete degrading narration) and Oromumma (the basic identity and the inclusive ideology of the Oromo). The FM showed with this grave mistake that it lacks smart leaders to win the hearts and minds of the Oromo, who are actually the worst anti-Biltsigina (salisawi Derg). Without support of the Oromo, FM may liberate Amara region, but can never have impact of any type in Finfinne palace as the QR could do. Actually, the best remedy against salisawi Derg is to correct this mistake of the FM and try to bring the anti-Biltsigina forces of Amara and Oromo to stage of cooperation. May be the well corrected APF (Amara Popular Force), the TDF and the OLF can come to their senses and start to work in unison against the currently ruling fascist salisawi Derg.

[OPFist]

Otherwise, how pity to see that all nations in Ethiopia are in a desperate struggle for their human and national right in the last more than 50 years. All of them revolted against the feudal monarchs just to earn brutal suppression by the three consecutive dictators (qedamawi Derg of Mengistu, dagmawi Derg of Meles and salisawi Derg of Abiy). All the three dictators ruled Ethiopian nations with iron fist by trying to favour one nation and suppressing the others. The first Derg favoured Amara, the second was considered as rule of Tegaru and the third wishes to be seen as an admnistration of the Oromo. But, fact on the ground is that no one of them represented the respective nations. It was good to see how Amara, Tegaru and Oromo peoples fought against the past dictators in unison. Can they do the same against the incumbent? Especially, can APF (Amara Popular Force), TDF (Tigrai Defence Force) and the OLF work together against the brutal salisawi Derg in order to liberate their respective nations and foster a democratic federal union, in which both human and national rights are respected? Time will tell us! I think, there is no barrier for the OLF to Work with TDF. But, APF needs to correct its wrong narration: “fighting Onegawinet, Galla-migration and Oromumma”. With this foolish narration, APF made itself an enemy of not only the OLF, but the whole Oromo people.

[OPFist]

The common denominators of Derg, Woyane and Biltsigina are dictatorship, domination of Amharanet/Amharigna and fascism. None of them represent any particular nation in Ethiopia. It is clear that they tried to trade in the name of one nation against the others. Derg tried to favour Amharas against Tegarus and Oromos, Woyane used to promote Tegarus at the cost of Amharas and Oromos, now Biltsigina wants to present its self as pro-Oromo, disregarding Amharas and Tegarus. But, the reality we know is that all the three wanted to stay in power by instigating and using conflicts between these three major nations. Fortunately, there were many Amharas, who fought against Derg; a lot of Tegarus, who were against Woyane; and of course, most of Oromos are struggling against Biltsigina. The struggle of democratic Amharas, Tegarus and Oromos could dismantle both Derg and Woyane. The case of Biltsigina can not be otherwise. Now, it is the right time for genuine democrats of Amhara, Tegaru and Oromo to come together and cooperate against the dictatorial and fascist Biltsigina. This regime can survive by deviding and destroying democratic forces of these three nations, just as Derg and Woyane tried to do. Democratic forces of the three nations must take away this instrument of division and destruction from Biltsigina, just as they did to Derg and Woyane. It is time for the APF, TDF and OLF to come to their sense and Work together against the dictatorial incumbents.

[OPFist]

Otherwise, I once observed the dissatisfaction of Amhara elites regarding Dr. Abiy’s reshuffling of his cabinet members. Did he really discriminate the Amhara? No question that Amhara elites should take the second influential position next to the Oromo in politics of Ethiopian union we want to foster. Five ministers of Amhara vis a vis six ministers of Oromo is fair. But is there any ranking of ministerial positions of the country? Did the Amhara get second ranking? If not, Dr. Abiy needs to correct this. Amhara elites deserve second influential areas in the ranking. Only such approach can bring lasting solution in that multinational Cushland.

[OPFist]

We like it or not, there is a big ‘elephant in the room,’ which we all tend to evade, but Biltsigina effectively exploits; i.e. the conflict: ‘Amhara unitarists Vs. Oromo unionists’. This conflict is still the main area of fear not to cooperate in the ongoing possible democratization of the country. Amhara unitarists dream and wish that Oromo people share their vision, and Oromo unionists also want that Amhara elites come to their sense and struggle for freedom of Amhara people for freedom of Amhara region, to live in the future as good neighbor of free Oromia. Both blocs express their respective wish, and they do consider as if their wish is the only reality on ground, but the [ deleted ] fox, Biltsigina, knows very well that these two communities are not yet in a position to trust each other; its cadres exploit this situation to hinder consolidation of the ongoing inclusive change and democratizatio process.

[OPFist]

I personally do agree that now is the right and suitable time for an inclusive democratization of Ethiopia. Almost all citizens and nations in Ethiopia are now calling for such process after getting rid of the fascist Biltsigina regime. Of course, that is why Biltsigina is now doing everything under the sky to prevent this process. We know that, if Biltsigina stays on power, we all will suffer, not only as refugees in Diaspora, but also as slaves at home in Ethiopia. Unfortunately, it seems that ‘Amhara elites vs. Oromo elites’ face-off is yet to be hindrance to the possible democratization. It seems that ‘Amhara elites vs Oromo elites’ face-off (they neutralizing each other) is a very good historical advantage/opportunity, which Biltsigina got to rule over Ethiopia without any serious challenge and this face-off did not yet get an appropriate solution. Biltsigina survives and thrives mainly by dividing and polarizing ‘Amhara elites vs. Oromo elites’ as well as by sowing fear and mistrust among/between them. We do still hear/read that both camps (that of Amhara elites and Oromo elites) live under fear and mistrust of each other, so they seem to prefer Biltsigina’s rule or prefer not to allow each other the possibility of power.

[OPFist]

Despite this sabotaging each other of the two camps, I think a well coordinated non-violent popular uprising of Oromo people in cooperation with that of other nations in Ethiopia was the best way of struggle to get rid of the fascist Biltsigina. Now, Oromo people have nothing to lose, if the expected inclusive democratization succeed. One thing, beside many, in favor of Oromo movement, is the fact that TPLF left Finfinne palace, after securing its goal, i.e. after securing an independence of Tigrai. Of course, together with such move of TPLF, Oromia’s chance to get its freedom within or without Ethiopian union is high. Because of this reason, both Amhara conservatives and the Western protectors of the country didn’t want to see TPLF being cornered. They surely knew that cornering TPLF was almost tantamount to disintegrating Ethiopia. That was why, not Oromo people, but firstly TPLF itself, secondly the colonial-minded Amhara conservative elites, and thirdly their Western handlers, who did fear the coming of inclusive revolution to Ethiopia. Thus, democratic Amhara forces pushing for democratization of Ethiopia was not as such dangerous for Oromo liberation movement. Even if not Oromia’s independence per referendum, we can achieve it’s autonomy through genuine federalism within a union, i.e. we can achieve national freedom of Oromo people as a result of possible inclusive democratization.

[Abere]

Is it "Idaw Gebs" for Oromo mothers who lost their children in hundred of thousands in Amhara region? Do you think those hundreds of thousands of Oromo youth sowed in the soil of Amhara grow up and go back to hug their Oromo mothers Oromo mothers are the most precious irreplaceable lives of their children - the are su.cked up by Amhara land. So, Idaw Le'Oromo mom whose children are sheepishly flocked into Amhara and picked up by Eagle Fano. OLF is no more governing 90% of Amhara land - it is free. 90% of Amhara land is already the grave yard of hundreds of thousands Oromo kids. Yet, Woyane-OPPFist out of his cruel heart wanted innocent Oromo to go die for a worthless cause of OLF

[OPFist]

This is one of the reasons that Biltsigina cadres are nowadays very busy to hinder an inclusive democratization from taking place in Ethiopia by using their manipulation of the fact that peoples of Ethiopia are not [deleted], but different (the colonized and the colonizer), as their instrument of division and polarization. If the scare tactics, which they try to use, hinder an inclusive democratization, the only option we colonized people do have is the armed struggle, on which we have to concentrate and invest most, even though it is a very difficult job, given the little support we do have from an international community. For an inclusive democratization possibly not to take place, unfortunately the pro-independence fighters (Oromo, Ogaden, Sidama … liberation forces) and the pro-unity forces (Amhara, Gurage, Harari … patriotic forces) are still mistrusting each other. Both camps want to secure direction of the move after the freedom we achieved from Biltsigina. The unionist bloc wants no reversal of the already achieved victory of a limited cultural autonomy on the way towards national freedom (self-determination), whereas the unitarist bloc wants to be sure that Ethiopia stays intact and possibly the process will be reversed back to unitary country.

[OPFist]

But, why should these people worry too much about the situation now? Is the caution regarding unity of Ethiopia, which is lamented by pro-unity forces, different from the scare tactics used by Biltsigina cadres? The cadres go to Oromo forums and told us “the worse will come; Amhara elites will take over, and there will never be free Oromia, if you push for democratization;” and then, they go to Amhara forums and told them “take care, the worse will come; OLF can take over and it will be end of the united Ethiopia, if you make aLow the democratization.” It is fact on the ground that both Oromia and the whole Ethiopia are actually taken hostage by Biltsigina. Whenever Oromo force was stronger, Biltsigina threatened with the possibility of dismantling Oromia; and whenever Amhara force was stronger, they threatened with dismembering the whole country – Ethiopia.

[OPFist]

Biltsiginas use the opportunity of such division among the opposition to threaten both camps. If the democratization really should happen, the two camps need to be bold enough to take risk of losing their ideals and live with a possible compromise solution. This means, the unionist bloc should be ready to lose, for instance the possibility of achieving free Oromia; and the unitarist camp should be ready to risk their long-term goal of fostering a unitary Ethiopia. Otherwise, in short, TPLF is really lucky, there will never be an inclusive democratization under such condition of division between the democratic forces; and consolidating our freedom from Biltsigina is, of course, very minimal. Not to allow Biltsigina to rule us further, we need to know and tackle the methods it uses, specially its scare tactics. In short, the scare tactics, which Biltsigina cadres nowadays use are:

– “if democratization happens, Amhara elites can take over and dismantle Oromia”

– “if democrazization takes place, Oromo elites will be in power and dismember the whole Ethiopia”

– “if democratizaion happens, Biltsigina army will massacre civillians and take over power”

– “if democratization continues, there can be a mayhem against Oromos, like that of Ruanda”

– “if democratization happens, there will be absolute chaos and civil war among different ethnies”

[OPFist]

Are freedom fighters from both blocs (from pro-independence and pro-unity) ready to deal with this scare tactics of Biltsigina? Can they agree on middle ground: keep the freedom we achieved and have referendum (self-determination of citizens and nations)? Those democrats, who just want unconditional independence of nations without union, must cool down and accept public verdict, as well as those, who wish unconditional unity, also should learn to be moderates and accept public verdict. That means both camps must agree on consolidating our freedom and then democratically decide for either independence or unity per referendum; i.e. only democratic independence or democratic unity (independence or unity based on public verdict) can be a lasting solution. We like it or not, all peoples in that region are interdependent, be it they decide for political independence or for political integration or for a compromise middle position (federal union). The political will of peoples in the region is what matters at the end.

[OPFist]

Unfortunately, there are still some blind nationalists in both Amhara elites’ bloc and Oromo elites’ camp, who yet couldn’t see common convergent short-term goal of the two big nations, i.e. ‘freedom from fascism of Biltsigina.’ Such blind nationalists concentrate only on their divergent long-term goals: free Oromia (Oromo elites’ goal) vs. united Ethiopia (Amhara elites’ goal). But, smart nationalists from both Amhara elites’ bloc and Oromo elites’ camp are trying to keep together their convergent common short-term goal (freedom from Biltsigina) and then to decide on their respective long-term goals through public verdict (by referendum). The blind ones are too far from accepting and respecting the will of their respective public as final verdict. That means, in short, blind nationalists do preach democracy, which includes referendum, but they are not yet ready to practice what they preach. We hope the few smart and genuinely democratic nationalists in both camps, who try to practice what they preach, will prevail to cooperate and make Biltsigina’s fascism history. Here, we also can call blind nationalists as dictatorial nationalists. Those who want to achieve either ‘free Oromia’ or ‘united Ethiopia’ per public referendum are democratic Oromo nationalists and democratic Amhara nationalists, respectively. The others, who just want to achieve their long-term goal without public verdict, are purely dictators, who can talk about freedom and democracy, but know nothing what freedom and democracy really mean.

[OPFist]

Those of us, who do have a cognitive ability to imagine something in an abstract way, let’s just try to imagine a very big letter ‘Y’ and try to distinguish four points on the letter (bottom, middle junction, left top, and right top). Then, let’s imagine that the bottom is Ethiopian politics under TPLF’s rule, where both Amhara and Oromo nations were under tyranny; middle junction is the status quo point for freedom of both nations; left top is point of Oromia’s freedom without union; and right top is point for Democratic Ethiopia’s unity. Then, let’s imagine that this letter ‘Y’ is a figure to illustrate route of liberation journey for both Amhara and Oromo nations towards their short-term and long-term goals. Can we imagine that these two oppressed nations had a possibility to move from bottom (point of tyranny) to middle junction (point of freedom) together? This was our common route of journey towards common converging short-term goal. Then came the two diverging routes towards two different and diverging long-term goals of elites of two nations: the left top (Oromia’s freedom within or without union, which is the long-term goal of some Oromo elites) and right top (Ethiopian unity, i.e. long-term goal of most Amhara elites).

[OPFist]

Now, if we could imagine this route of common journey adequately, it is not hard to comprehend that we needed alliance of Amhara and Oromo elites (all-inclusive alliance) to move from point of tyranny under Biltsigina to that of freedom from Biltsigina, but not necessarily to move together to right top (together to Ethiopian unity) or not together to the left top (together to Oromia’s freedom). After achieving our freedom from Biltsigina’s fascism together as we already did, it is up to the Oromo public now to decide, through referendum, which direction to move further: to left top or to right top. If the Oromo majority will choose to move to right top, then Oromo elites’ long-term goal will be similar to that of the Amhara elites. Otherwise, if Oromo majority will choose to move to left top, no Amhara elite can hinder Oromo nation from achieving Oromia’s independence. Just concentrating on the struggle for freedom from TPLF’s fascism, I think there were, in general, three main possible ways of struggle leading us to freedom:

– Armed struggle, which was the method of choice by the OLF and other Oromo liberation fronts,

– Popular uprising, which was tried in a well-coordinated inclusive way, and has been the best option, and

– Electoral struggle, which was the way chosen by the OFC and by other Oromo democratic federalists, despite undemocratic nature of Biltsigina.

[OPFist]

From these three ways of struggles for freedom, we have seen that both armed struggle and electoral struggle were not successful. Armed struggle was too slow because of the limited support from the so-called international community; and electoral struggle failed due to the undemocratic nature of the empire and that of its brutal rulers. The option of popular uprising was tried separately by only Oromo students during the years 2001 – 2007, Oromo public 2014 – 2017 and by the Amhara urbanites after the “election” in the year 2005 as well as Amhara public in Gondar and Gojjam 2016.

[OPFist]

Because of such uncoordinated and uncooperative moves between elites of different nations in the country, especially due to the polarization of Amhara and Oromo elites, the fragmented popular uprisings were not successful. But at last, an alliance of the elites from these oppressed nations against fascist TPLF could lead us to a successful uprising and it was a quicker means/way to freedom from TPLF’s tyranny. I think combination of the above three ways of struggles, in an optimally calculated and planned manner, was the best method, which could lead us to freedom. That is why TPLF cadres did their best to hinder this moving fire of revolution from liberating the whole Ethiopia. The “smart” Afaan Oromo-speaking/writing TPLF messengers were trying to do their job among the Oromo, both in cyberworld and in real Oromo community, just as the Amharinyaa-speaking ones were doing the same job among Amhara (Amharinyaa-speaking community).

[OPFist]

If the democrats in both liberation camps (Oromo unionists and Amhara unitarists) seriously want the democratization happen against the brutal fascist Biltsigina regime, then their evading, shelving or undermining of the ‘elephant in the room’ is not the solution. The elites in both blocs should be realistic and pragmatic to face the main and real problem. None of the two blocs can cheat or outmaneuver the other side; they have to be able to come up with a compromise solution. I personally believe that the public verdict (the popular will of each nation) is the alpha and omega of both freedom and democracy, which almost all sides do preach, but very few of them seem to be ready to practice. Especially, elites of the two big nations (Amhara and the Oromo) should learn to prepare themselves for the fate of Ethiopia based on such public verdicts per referendum. If they are smart enough, they would settle for Ethiopian union accomodating free Oromia, free Amhara state, free Tigrai and free other states, either based on polity consensus or as result of a popular referendum; otherwise, they should accept the possible peaceful separation of these free states to live as very good neighbors, just like that of the Czech republic and Slovakia). Another alternative for the anti-sovereignty forces is, of course, to sing like president Al-bashir of Sudan, as he did once: “welcome a neighboring nation of South Sudan!,” of course, unfortunately after sacrificing about 2 million Sudan citizens. May Waaqa help us all understand this fact on the ground, which, of course, is still determining the move of our common foe (Biltsigina camp) and that of the friends (two anti-Biltsigina camps – Oromo unionists and Amhara unitarists). For such cooperation of Amhara and Oromo elites to be fruitful, the Amhara should have a second influential political position in Dr. Abiy’s cabinet. If this is not the case, it is up to Dr. Abiy to correct the error!