Finally Pro-Oromummà Elites Could Outsmart Pro-Amaranet Elites in Biltsigina Party!
By Fayyis Oropia*
It seems that pro-Oromummà elites in Biltsiginà are taking the upper hand after almost 5 years of bitter struggle. No question that Qérrô movement brought the change of 2018. Team Lammà in general and Abiy’s family in particular entered the palace in Oromo attire. We thought that Dr. Abiy is our Baro Tumsa of the century. Unfortunately, he betrayed the Oromo cause and continued to maintain the existing Amapia (Amaranet dominated Ethiopia). Amara elites hijacked him and his regime in order to use him to fight against Oromo and Tegaru nationalism. Dr. Abiy also fell in their trap and persecuted genuine Oromo and Tegaru nationalists. But, that was not enough for the cvnning Amara elites. Despite all things he did to appease them, they couldn’t trust him just because he is biological Oromo and conspired to get rid of him as well as his regime. They did every thing under the sun to weaken his rule and finally they waged all rounded war against him by using the Fanno movement. This was very good opportunity to unite Oromo nationalists, who are rallying behind OFC, OLA, OLF and OPP in order to defend the Oromo and Oromia. Now, Fanno is crushed never to be a threat for the Oromo. Dr. Abiy had no other choice than coming back to his constituency. I hope he will get courage to promote Afàn Oromô to its legitimate primary position in Ethiopia, replacing Amarigna. I think, finally pro-Oromumma elites in Biltsigina party could out smart the pro-Amaranet mischiveous forces.
To begin with, the main conflict in Ethiopia since 1270 is between the two identities: Amharanet vs Oromummà. The creation of Amarigna as Lisane Nigus by the ruling Oromo elites led by Yekuno-Amlak was the initial cause. Since this time, Amarigna became the language of royal family, which every ordinary sitzen tries to emulate and own. Parallel to this phenomenon, Afàn Oromo is considered as the language of the common in general and that of farmers in particular. Accordingly, every elite who is in power at central government rever Amarigna, but give no due respect to Oromiffà. The same trend is going on under the Hybrid rule of Abiy Ahmed. This regime is highly dedicated to keep the dominance of Amharigna by despising Oromiffa. Amarigna is still the dominating language of the palace and capital city, which every citizen in the country wants to see as a model. Thus, even Oromo elites tend to be great Amarigna speakers, instead of promoting Afaan Oromo to this level of being main working language of the palace, capital city, parliament, cabinet, military, court and security. Presently, we can divide all political forces in the country in to two blocs: pro-Amharanet and pro-Oromummaa. Those in pro-Amaranet bloc are all Amaras under explicit Amara orgs, all elites of Ethiopian parties implicitly promoting Amaranet and all in Oromo orgs with Amaranet mentality revering Amharigna whereas despising Oromiffaa. We can inlclude to pro-Oromummaa camp all Oromo nationalists respecting Afaan Oromo and all other national organisations struggling for their own national rights like Tegaru parties. To change this trend and liberate Afaan Oromo, we struggled for many years and even had three huge revolutions. No question that the Oromo nation has got lion’s share in these past three revolutions, but we failed because of selfsabotage from our elites. In all the three changes, the pro-Amharanet elites from the Oromo people could outsmart the pro-Oromummaa elites:
– 1974: the pro-Amharanet elites led by Mengistu H/Mariam (Oromo himself) of Seded party could outsmart and beat the pro-Oromummaa elites of Meison led by Haile Fida. The Oromo, who initially supported Meison in mass kept quite.
– 1992: the pro-Amharanet elites of OPDO could chase away pro-Oromummaa elites of the OLF and the Oromo mass, who were rallying behind the later were again silenced.
– 2018: the pro-Amharanet elites of OPP led by Abiy Ahmed started persecuting pro-Oromummaa elites of OFC and OLF; the Oromo mass is again reluctant to fight against the sabotaging elites in order to save the precious pro-Oromummaa elites.
Interestingly, in all the three revolutions, the Oromo mass initially overwhelmingly supported the pro-Oromummà elites and immediately after the crack downs, most of us kept quite. Who ever thought that the mass support of Haile Fida 1977, that of OLF 1992 and Qeerro’s love for Jawar 2018 could be smashed so easly? Are we, the Oromo, not sabotaging ourselves? How lucky are Abyssinian elites in general and pro-Amaranet/Amarigna elites in particular!
Now, it is becoming clear that the main difference between the OLF including OFC and the OPP is based on their position regarding the prioratizaion of Amarigna or Afàn Oromô. The OLF-OFC bloc believes in Afàn Oromo as primary working language of the federation, because of the majority status of the Oromo in the whole country. The OPP-EPP camp promotes further Amharigna as primary language and considers Afàn Oromo as secondary. The OLF of Ob. Daud respects Afàn Oromô, whereas OPP of Dr. Abiy revers Amarigna, just as the previous ruling Oromo elites of Ethiopia (Menelik, H/Silassie, Mengistu and Nagàso) did. That is why the Oromo nation is not yet completly free and the liberation struggle led by the OLF is still going on. Aluta continua!
Otherwise, it was really entertaining and interesting to follow the past dialogue between OPP of Dr. Abiy and the main stream republican OLF of Ob. Dawud. Were they expected to fight and eliminate each other? It is a known fact that in History no external force ever defeated the Oromo. We have been always subjugated by our own forces collaborating with the enemy or because of our infighting. There are a lot of examples to mention, but the OPDO-OLF conflict of 1992 is enough. TPLF had no chance to defeat the OLF, if there were no fighting between the two Oromo forces. Now, the Oromo are in a very high position of achieving our vision of sovereignty beyound national freedom. If ever it happens that we again miss this opportunity, it will be attributed to the unwisely move of our forces like those in OPP and OLF. Fortunately political elites of OPP and OLF are wise enough not to repeat the same mistake. They need to agree to work together. This can be nice news for the whole Oromo. The elites on both sides previously seemed to favour their ambition for power, instead of promoting together an interest of the Oromo. But, thanks to our Abbaaà Gadàs, things can be changed to positive. Habesha elites, who tried to manipulate the two orgs surely shall fail miserably.
Whatever dictators in Abyssinian empire do and whatever mistake our forces commit, the train of Oromo national liberation movement propels forward to the final goal slowly, but surely. In 1991 the train, which started its journey from Djibouti (the hypothetical symbol/designation for colony – emulating the Djibouti-Finfinné train route), arrived at border town called Ayisha (symbol for the limited cultural autonomy), but not yet at Diredhawa (genuine federation), on the way to Adama (independence of Oromia) and/or Finfinne (union of free peoples). Whether our past Habesha coloniser’s and present Hybrid suppressors like it or not, this way or that way, next eventuality can be an opportunity for the train to move to Diredhawa. Let’s be watchful and strengthen our unity for freedom and democracy to use the opportunity. Of course, the spirit of freedom (mindset of all the freedom-loving Oromo) is working among genuine Oromo in both opposition and incumbent organizations. This spirit is uniting us, even if we seem to be disunited structurally.
Genuine Oromo in ruling party with the freedom-mindset are there to keep the status quo by making their rhetoric, that they have already liberated us, even though they know we only moved from Djibouti to Ayisha. Oromo nationalists in opposition organizations – with the same mindset, are trying their best to promote the liberation journey to Diredhawa; we hope they will succeed in the next eventuality. Those in the national liberation fronts with freedom-mindset then will surely finish the journey to Adama and/or Finfinné. To promote our forward move, we definitely need an alliance with liberation movements of all oppressed nations. But, more important above all things is unity for freedom and democracy of all Oromo organizations, which must unite to:
– live in Ayisha together (keep the status quo),
– move to Diredhawa together, and
– then finish our journey to Adama and/or Finfinne together.
The question yet to be answered is, why should we and how can we build this unity for freedom and democracy? Here is the answer: We are big nation with about 50 million people; but were colonized. One of the many factors which hindered us from success was the fragmentation of our political organizations. We did have several mini orgs roaring like baby lions against one big rival party, the Biltsigina. This well experienced enemy was laughing at our mini-lions for they were not dangerous to it. It even pretended to take one or two of them seriously and tried to negotiate with them. But, the baby lions could not win in such negotiation for the Biltsigina despised them. In order to gain in negotiation, the mini-lions needed to be strong enough in the battlefield. That was why all of them had to come under one structure and build one strong organization or foster a network to operate together for the common purpose. No one in life fears 100 baby lions, but everyone is scared of confronting one strong adult lion. Here was my small suggestion on how to forge such a strong lion:
At level of the public: we need to enhance consciousness of our people at grass-root level and organize them to be oriented towards the big picture, to our end goal, i.e. to the beneficial union of free peoples. We have to help our communities all over the world to forge unity for ‘freedom and independence’ (Gadaa Oromia) or for ‘freedom and union’ (Union Oromia) or for ‘freedom and integration’ (Great Oromia), one of which will prevail per public verdict in due time. Every Oromo at the grass-root level should take heed of the dividers, who try to play cards of region, party and religion to sow discord among the Oromo.
At level of the media (TV, forums, radio, internet news, paltalks, etc.): we should be wise enough to discern between constructive and destructive comments, criticisms and ideas. We know that nowadays our opponents use Oromo name, Oromo language and Oromo identity in order to fight against us. Every comment, idea or criticism said or written by someone in the name of Oromo is not necessarily from an Oromo. Of course, there are some Oromo, who knowingly or unknowingly serve interest of our opponents against the Oromo cause. So, our bloggers and journalists should take heed of such destructive messages and expose them as they come.
At level of the polity: I just recommend all Oromo organizations try to work together. It is encouraging that Oromo “legal” opposition already consolidated under one strong organization – OFC. Those who moved back home from exil should try to join the OFC in a form of alliance or unity. Let our rest mini-lions come together and foster one strong adult – one OLF. They do accuse each other as if they have different goals; but, when we look at them and their programs, they do have no difference in objective. Their common goal is clear, i.e. an imperative freedom of the Oromo and an optional independence of Oromia. Where they do differ is only in attitude and way of struggle. We can understand the difference in attitude in double sense. One is because of the emotional disagreement of some Oromo politicians (antipathy to each other). The other is, of course, some politicians are putting their self-interest higher than Oromo people’s interest. I hope, in due time, these politicians learn to control their ego and work together for the sake of Oromo people’s national goal. The difference regarding the way of struggle is actually complementary rather than contradictory. They only need to accept and respect the different routes chosen by each of them (just as an example the “illegal” route and the “legal” way we’re complementary.)
Regarding the possible alliance with Abyssinian democratic forces, we may move with them to Diredhawa, but surely, they will not be willing to move with us to Adama and/or Finfinne. To comprehend the difference, let us look at the four current political blocs in the empire:
– Andinet Hayiloch: those unitary forces striving for further existence of the empire with pretext of “Ethiopian unity” as it had been before 1991.
– Abiyotawi Hayiloch: the fascist group of TPLF’s revolutionary democratic forces trying to come back to power.
– Abironet Hayiloch: the federalists, who try to achieve both freedom of nations and union of the region, be it in the name of Ethiopia, Oromia, the Horn or otherwise.
– Arinet Hayiloch: those fighting for freedom and independence of their respective nations, being open for the possibility of forging union of free peoples, of course after securing national independence.
The Andinet Hayiloch want that we move back to Djibouti; Abiyotawi Hayiloch want to keep us in Ayisha; with Abironet Hayiloch, we can move to Diredhawa, but we need an alliance with the Arinet Hayiloch of other nations to end our journey to Adama as well as Finfinne. A new alliance of opposition groups which emphasizes the importance of self-determination is already necessary in order to promote our liberation journey. Of course, only Abironet- and Arinet Hayiloch can be ready for such an alliance. It is hard for the Andinet Hayiloch to join such forward oriented alliance. I encourage Oromo organizations to foster such alliance against the Biltsigina. The dialogue we once observed between OPP and OLF was the thesis of such anti-domination alliance and it helps to end Amharanet’s hitherto dominance, if the two can come to terms. Otherwise, they are so fool to miss the golden opportunity at hand and history will never forgive them if the Oromo will again be subjugated by Abyssinian forces. I think, thanks to Abbaa Gadaas, they may agree to end their conflict and move on.
In short, unity for freedom is panacea for our hitherto predicament! I hope that we will hear successful discussion and decision of the OPP and OLF leaders to consolidate their agreement of working together. Habesha elites, who wished a war between these two forces can now see how Gadaa elites are smarter than them. Surely pro-Oromummaaa elites in OPP shall overtake the party by defeating the pro-Amharanet elites led by Abiy Ahmed, so that the OPP been in line with the OFC and OLF can finish the liberation journey of the Oromo in due process of the fourth revolution. They then surely will give Afaan Oromo its legitimate due respect and promote it to the primary working language of the country. If Afàn Oromô will be the primary working language of the palace and capital city (Finfinné), no question that others will try to emulate speaking Afàn Oromo as the model of modernity, instead of despising it as “language of the primitive”. May Wàqa help the Oromo further!
Galatôma!
Read more: https://orompia.wordpress.com/2023/01/0 ... -and-2018/