Mereja.Forum

Are Dr. Abiy and Oromo Prosperitans as Such Fool to Walk Democracy?

As long as there is triangular conflict between the main three nations (Amhara, Tegaru and Oromo) in Ethiopia (Great Oromia), excercising democracy is practically impossible. Till 1991, Amhara domination made this process futile. Then, up to 2018, Tegaru hegemony reduced it to fake status. Now, Oromo elites in power trying to practice democracy means a free will to allow either of the two (Amhara domination or Tegaru hegemony) dictatorial groups of elites to come back. Because of their minority status, Tegaru elites using the democratization process to come back is unlikely. But, Amhara elites have huge possibility to manipulate the election process to their advantage and grab power again. That is why they are salivating now and say: "the time is now or never!". Is Dr. Abiy in particula and are Oromo prosperitans in general as such fool to allow the canning Amhara elites get this chance? As far as I am concerned, forget democracy till we will be sure enough that Amharas are reduced to minority status by empowering the Agaw in northern part of the country so that the Agaw will be the second big nation next to the Oromo. We need to work first on this project of promoting Agaw and reducing Amhara. Then, Amhara eliites will have very minimal possibility for power in Finfinne palace.
Read more: https://fayyisoromia.wordpress.com/2018 ... mo-factor/

Ethiopia, “the ancient country with the history of 3000 years”, is one of the least democratic and least developed countries in the world! Why? We can count a lot of factors as a cause like climate, colonialism, ignorance, arrogance, general public oppression, authoritarian culture and lack of freedom for individual citizens. But all other nations who are now democratic and well developed have either tacled such problems or they are developed despite these problems. What is unique about Ethiopia? Let me put my own take 

Ethiopia, “the ancient country with the history of 3000 years”, is one of the least democratic and least developed countries in the world! Why? We can count a lot of factors as a cause like climate, colonialism, ignorance, arrogance, general public oppression, authoritarian culture and lack of freedom for individual citizens. But all other nations who are now democratic and well developed have either tacled such problems or they are developed despite these problems. What is unique about Ethiopia? Let me put my own take 

Democracy is a system of government in which either the actual governing is carried out by the people governed (direct democracy), or the power to do so is granted by them (as in representative democracy). In political theory, democracy describes a small number of related forms of government and also a political philosophy. Even though there is no specific, universally accepted definition of ‘democracy’, there are two principles that any definition of democracy includes, equality and freedom. These principles are reflected by all citizens being equal before the law, and having equal access to power. Additionally, all citizens are able to enjoy legitimized freedoms and liberties, which are usually protected by a constitution. The “majority rule” is often described as a characteristic feature of democracy, but without responsible government or constitutional protections of individual liberties from democratic power it is possible for dissenting individuals to be oppressed by the “tyranny of the majority”.

Economic development refers to increases in the standard of living of a nation’s population associated with sustained growth from a simple, low-income economy to a modern, high-income economy. Its scope includes the process and policies by which a nation improves the economic, political, and social well-being of its people.

In the above both senses, Ethiopia is at the tail of the international community. I think the main factor for this laging behind all nations is the jitherto national oppression of the great Oromo nation, which is actually a majority nation destined to lead the country, but it unfortunately had to endure the assimilation, subjugation, invasion, exploitation…etc in the last 3000 years history of the region. Other multinational states in the world either do have “majority rule”, be it democratically or dictatorially, otherwise they did disintegrate. Ethiopia is one of the very few countries where the a major nation was feared to lead and reduced to political minority by the ruling elite of minor nationalities.

Nowadays, almost all historians except the few Habesha elites do agree that the Oromo are the indigenous nation who lived south of Egypt for more than 5000 years. It was the expansion and invasion of the Middle-east Semetics in the last three tausand years, the destruction of Meroe by the Axume empire, the islamization of the region and the European occupation of the area in the process of colonization, which reduced the Oromo to our present national area.

It is almost becoming clear that the other Cushitic nations in the region are the differentiation from this original nation called Oromo, so are the Beja, Agaw, Afar, Somali, Sidama, Hadiya, Kambata…etc including even the “semetized” ones like Tigre, Tigaru, Amhara, Gurage, Harari …etc emerged from the Oromo. It seems that some are more christanized and semetized, whereas others are more islamized and arabanized. The Oromo proper are the ones which tried to preserve our original language and previous traditional religion despite the exposure and pressure from the Middle-east and from the West. Even though many of the above branches of the nation and even some of the Oromo proper have accepted the religions from the Middle-east, the essence of Waaqeeffannaa (the indigeneous belief system of the nation) is preserved and even practiced in the over-taken new religions. That is why we do see a lot of elements of Waaqeeffannaa in the religious practices of the Orthodox, Protestant and Islam Oromo groups. A classical example is the religious practice of the last emperor Hailesilassie (he is 3/4th Oromo proper), who overtly claimed to be a believer of Orthodox christianity, but has used to celebrate Irreechaa yearly at Hora-Arsadi. Of course this practice of him has been defamed as an “offer to Qorix (evil spirit)” by the not good intended Habesha elites.

The actual problem is specially the fact that the christianized and semetized ones – the Habeshas – look at themselves as if they are different from their origin and they oppress the preserved Oromo proper and other nations by using the chance they got in a form of help from the “christian” Western countries. This oppression and subjugation was going on till the overtake of power by the Oromo recently. By the way, now it is clear that despite their seemingly common origin, each national group of the region has got a separate identity with its own language and way of life. So when I do refer to Oromo in this article, I do mean the national group now identifying itself with Afaan Oromo and with the related way of life. Oromo people fought and resisted the influence from Middle-east and from the West continously. Actually it is the Oromo resistance which could limit these forces from influencing the empire further. We now look at the Abyssinians as the most influenced part of our differentiated Cush body. Time and again they have been instrumentalized by Arabs and Europeans to conquer and oppress the Oromo. The recent instrument of these foreign influence was the TPLF and its Tigrean base.

Let me now concentrate on the chance the Habesha elites (actually the word Habesha means the mixed and the confused) got to oppress the Oromo and why they feared to lose this power to the Oromo. Since the time that Habesha elites identified themselves with Jews (remember the expression “lion of Juda”), they had to fight against the Oromo proper who preserved its identity including its language and religion. After they could subjugate the Oromo, they always tried to hinder that they lose power to this big nation. They did every thing possible with the help of their aid from Western “christians” to suppress the Oromo. It was this conflict between the Habesha elites and the Oromo which hitherto hindered any sort of democratization as well as development of the country. True and genuine democratization in the country means Oromo taking power for it is the majority group. Habesha elites did every thing under the sun to hinder this possibility, so that there will never be a democracy as far as the Woyane in particular and the Habeshas in general are in power.

Of Course, without democracy and freedom of the Oromo nation and other oppressed nations, the conflict will continue and the developement we actually wish to see will not be materalized. It surprises me some times when I read some Oromo nationalists accusing other Oromo groups with the allegation that they opted for “democratization of the whole Ethiopia” instead of “liberation of the Oromia”. Actually democratization of Ethiopia is a means leading to liberation of Oromia. Habesha politicains know this very well and that is why they didn’t allow it happen. The only option left for the Oromo to be liberated was combination of armed struggle and public uprising. No illusion! There will never be democratization and development of Ethiopia as long as Oromia is under Woyane or other Habesha looting and lording forces!

Democracy and development can be realized better in a sepatrate nation-states based on the public verdict of each national group than in a forced unity without the necessary public vote, like what we have been. The rhetoric of the Woyane, which told us untiredly that “we had unity of nations and nationalities based on free will” didn’t mean that there was a real unity based on free will on the ground. Let Habesha elites stop such self-deception. The way forward is to let Oromo be free to determine our destiny, be it in a form of Oromian republic (independence of Oromo proper, i.e. Gadaa Oromia) or in a form of Oromo renaissance (integration of Oromo progeny that includes all nations which emerged from it, i.e Great Oromia). If there is true democracy and freedom, the Oromo are the last nation to fear a possible union. Of cource national independence without regional union is better than oppression under forced unity! At the moment, the Oromo bring led by Dr. Abiy seem to prefer a sovereignty in form of Great Oromia (democratic Ethiopia) to the conventional Gadaa Oromia.