Come hell or high water , but
Posted: 03 Sep 2024, 22:32
No Ethiopian with a drop of blood in their veins would side with Ethiopia's sworn enemy, Egypt, or with Egypt's puppets, come hell or high water. The genuine question that needs to be asked is whether the love for Ethiopia and the willingness of its people to die for her are so expendable that every passing government can use and discard them at will.
A government worthy of its name—one that treats its citizens with respect, guarantees them human dignity, and dispenses justice to all—can call upon its people in the face of foreign threats, and we know how citizens would respond to such a call. But how can a government that batters and abuses its people like a foreign power—jailing them, dispossessing them, uprooting them, laughing at them, denying them protection, and treating them as foreigners in their own country—then turn around and ask them to come and die for their country? Yes, they may go, fight, and die, but can a wounded, abused, and mistreated citizen truly be an effective fighter? Isn’t the purpose of fighting a war to be motivated and to crush the enemy effectively?
We saw what happened at the end of the Derg era. For 18 long years, the Derg believed that Ethiopian nationalism could be sustained as long as the enemies were identified and the potential harm to the country was propagated. But at the same time, the Derg's cadres were making life for Ethiopians a living hell. Because of the grim situation under the Derg’s rule, some began to believe that anything was better than the Derg, and that is what helped the TPLF to land in Arat Kilo—a wishful outcome indeed.
The will to fight external enemies depends on the strength within, and that strength can only exist when citizens are treated as citizens and recognize well what they would lose if their enemies win. What needs to be done: At this time, we can be sure that a quasi-balance of power has been achieved. This means no single group can enforce its will on any other. So, the best way to defend the nation is to have a genuine conference that addresses all the political issues that have bedeviled our country for so long. A new democratic political arrangement should be established that matches the Ethiopian people's aspirations. The emphasis must be on "genuine." Anything else will be very costly in both the short run and the long run.
A government worthy of its name—one that treats its citizens with respect, guarantees them human dignity, and dispenses justice to all—can call upon its people in the face of foreign threats, and we know how citizens would respond to such a call. But how can a government that batters and abuses its people like a foreign power—jailing them, dispossessing them, uprooting them, laughing at them, denying them protection, and treating them as foreigners in their own country—then turn around and ask them to come and die for their country? Yes, they may go, fight, and die, but can a wounded, abused, and mistreated citizen truly be an effective fighter? Isn’t the purpose of fighting a war to be motivated and to crush the enemy effectively?
We saw what happened at the end of the Derg era. For 18 long years, the Derg believed that Ethiopian nationalism could be sustained as long as the enemies were identified and the potential harm to the country was propagated. But at the same time, the Derg's cadres were making life for Ethiopians a living hell. Because of the grim situation under the Derg’s rule, some began to believe that anything was better than the Derg, and that is what helped the TPLF to land in Arat Kilo—a wishful outcome indeed.
The will to fight external enemies depends on the strength within, and that strength can only exist when citizens are treated as citizens and recognize well what they would lose if their enemies win. What needs to be done: At this time, we can be sure that a quasi-balance of power has been achieved. This means no single group can enforce its will on any other. So, the best way to defend the nation is to have a genuine conference that addresses all the political issues that have bedeviled our country for so long. A new democratic political arrangement should be established that matches the Ethiopian people's aspirations. The emphasis must be on "genuine." Anything else will be very costly in both the short run and the long run.
