My Proposal for Dr. Abiy: Foster Intra-ethnic Democracy and Inter-ethnic Dictatorship!
Dr. Abiy got initially a triangular support from the three major ethnic camps (Amara, Tegaru and Oromo). Amara elites thought that they can manipulate and use him to maintain their hitherto domination of Amaranet/Amarigna, just as they did to Mengistu H/Mariam. They are really successful till now. Tegaru elites wanted to instrumentalize and use him as a puppet, just like what they did to H/Mariam Desalegn. They calculated wrong and failed miserabily. Oromo nationalists hoped that Dr. Abiy, as an Oromo, will answer all the questions of the nation, but he disappointed them by choosing to appeace Amara elites and commited a crack down on the genuine Oromo nationalists. But now, Amara elites moved an extra mile and wanted to grab power from him, so that he is trying to comeback to his Oromo constituency. It is better late than never. We should say, welcome back and I personally would like to suggest that he foster an intra-ethnic democracy among the Oromo and inter-ethnic dictatorship towards the cvnning Abyssinians. Never be such a fool and open any chance for them to comeback to power in Finfinné palace, because of the fact that their first job will be to destroy Oromummà (Oromo identity) irreverssibly. That is why they are explicitely fighting against our identity – Oromummà.
Read more: https://orompia.wordpress.com/2023/03/1 ... tatorship/
My Proposal for Dr. Abiy: Foster Intra-ethnic Democracy and Inter-ethnic Dictatorship!
Last edited by OPFist on 25 Feb 2025, 02:21, edited 2 times in total.
Re: My Proposal for Dr. Abiy: Foster Intra-ethnic Democracy and Inter-ethnic Dictatorship!
You ferenjis have lost it all, you tried everything so far but finally God won!
VIVA ታላቁ Eskinder Nega
Bye Felicia
VIVA ታላቁ Eskinder Nega
Bye Felicia
Re: My Proposal for Dr. Abiy: Foster Intra-ethnic Democracy and Inter-ethnic Dictatorship!
Politics in Ethiopia is characterized by competition between different ethnic groups and among various ideological parties in the ethnies. Specially, the main ethnic rivals fighting for power in Finfinne palace are the Amara, Tegaru and the Oromo. Practically, there is no democratic mechanism accepted to transfer power from one ethnic influence to the other. Using force or applying dictatorship is the only way. That is why the Amara dominated Derg and Tegaru’s Woyane used brutal force to rule over the Oromo and others. Now, the Oromo led Biltsiginnà can not and should not be otherwise. Oromo elites having power in Finfinne palace need not be as such fool and naive to allow Amara elites come back through election process. Here, dictatorship is mandatory to consolidate Oromo’s power for the coming several years. It is good that Tegaru elites are now out of the game. Their possibility to revive and influence centeral power again is minimal.
But, Amara elites are not yet dead to be neglected. They must be checked regularly. That is why an inter-ethnic dictatorship is mandatory for the Oromo not to lose the existing leadership position. To the contrary, I would like to suggest an intra-ethnic democracy in national regional states like Amaria, Tigrai, Oromia, etc. For instance, there must be a democratic process to allow all Oromo political organizations to compete in Oromia. What the OPP is doing now regarding the OLF and OFC is not constructiv. Pushing the beloved Oromo parties like the OLF through intra-ethnic dictatorship only destablizes Oromo’s power in Finfinne palace. That is why Amara elites always try to instigate and escalate the conflict between the OLF and OPP. Oromo elites need to be smart enough not to fall in such trap of the rival Amara elites. Thus, I recommend that they apply intra-ethnic democracy and inter-ethnic dictatorship.
As long as there is triangular conflict between the main three nations (Amara, Tegaru and Oromo) in Ethiopia, excercising democracy is practically impossible. Till 1991, Amara 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 (Amara 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, Amara elites have huge possibility to manipulate the election process to their advantage and grab power again. That is why they are salivating 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 Amara elites get this chance? As far as I am concerned, forget inter-ethnic 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 Amara. Then, Amara eliites will have very minimal possibility for power in Finfinne palace.
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 on the situation as follows.
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, Amara, 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 Wàqeeffannà (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 Wàqeeffannà 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!
The Oromo, who resisted both the Middle-east and Western influences including the battle of Adwa, in which some Tegaru elites were acting as banda, whereas a lot of Oromo individuals fought against the invaders, continued our resistance till Oromia be free from the subjugators. Now, it seems the Oromo are free at last and we surely can promote democratization and development of Ethiopia (Great Oromia). My advice to Habesha elites is, instead of crying about a lack of democracy and development, they better look at this main factor of inhibition and support the well preserved Oromo to foster Democracy and development. Then, even they themselves can be free to enjoy democracy and development in Abyssinia of Ethiopia as a very good neighbour for a democratic and well developed Gadà Oromia. Otherwise, we all will continue to hinder each other and live under both tyranny and poverty, which are the two anti-theses of democracy and development.
My other theoretical advice (I know this sounds like a joke in the ears of Habesha elites) is that they better strive to come back to their root instead of trying to subjugate and oppress the nation from whom they have been differentiated and emerged in history. That means, if they want to keep Ethiopia as it is now and hinder Oromia and Abyssinia from being separated nations, they practically need to recognize that Ethiopia (Cushland) in a wider sense means Oromia, they should accept Afàn Oromo as a national language, they must aknowledge Oromo values like Wàqeeffannà and Irreechaa to be a national value and a national holyday respectively and last but not least they better know that it is only the Oromo people who can decide on the type of sovereignity we want to have per referendum in a process of self-determination.
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. Oromia) or in a form of Oromo renaissance (integration of Oromo progeny that includes all nations which emerged from it, i.e Oropia). 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 being led by Dr. Abiy seem to prefer a sovereignty in form of Oropia (democratic Ethiopia) to the conventional Oromia. To maintain this status of Oromo leadership for long time, we have to excercise intra-ethnic democracy and inter-ethnic dictatorship.
But, Amara elites are not yet dead to be neglected. They must be checked regularly. That is why an inter-ethnic dictatorship is mandatory for the Oromo not to lose the existing leadership position. To the contrary, I would like to suggest an intra-ethnic democracy in national regional states like Amaria, Tigrai, Oromia, etc. For instance, there must be a democratic process to allow all Oromo political organizations to compete in Oromia. What the OPP is doing now regarding the OLF and OFC is not constructiv. Pushing the beloved Oromo parties like the OLF through intra-ethnic dictatorship only destablizes Oromo’s power in Finfinne palace. That is why Amara elites always try to instigate and escalate the conflict between the OLF and OPP. Oromo elites need to be smart enough not to fall in such trap of the rival Amara elites. Thus, I recommend that they apply intra-ethnic democracy and inter-ethnic dictatorship.
As long as there is triangular conflict between the main three nations (Amara, Tegaru and Oromo) in Ethiopia, excercising democracy is practically impossible. Till 1991, Amara 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 (Amara 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, Amara elites have huge possibility to manipulate the election process to their advantage and grab power again. That is why they are salivating 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 Amara elites get this chance? As far as I am concerned, forget inter-ethnic 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 Amara. Then, Amara eliites will have very minimal possibility for power in Finfinne palace.
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 on the situation as follows.
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, Amara, 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 Wàqeeffannà (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 Wàqeeffannà 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!
The Oromo, who resisted both the Middle-east and Western influences including the battle of Adwa, in which some Tegaru elites were acting as banda, whereas a lot of Oromo individuals fought against the invaders, continued our resistance till Oromia be free from the subjugators. Now, it seems the Oromo are free at last and we surely can promote democratization and development of Ethiopia (Great Oromia). My advice to Habesha elites is, instead of crying about a lack of democracy and development, they better look at this main factor of inhibition and support the well preserved Oromo to foster Democracy and development. Then, even they themselves can be free to enjoy democracy and development in Abyssinia of Ethiopia as a very good neighbour for a democratic and well developed Gadà Oromia. Otherwise, we all will continue to hinder each other and live under both tyranny and poverty, which are the two anti-theses of democracy and development.
My other theoretical advice (I know this sounds like a joke in the ears of Habesha elites) is that they better strive to come back to their root instead of trying to subjugate and oppress the nation from whom they have been differentiated and emerged in history. That means, if they want to keep Ethiopia as it is now and hinder Oromia and Abyssinia from being separated nations, they practically need to recognize that Ethiopia (Cushland) in a wider sense means Oromia, they should accept Afàn Oromo as a national language, they must aknowledge Oromo values like Wàqeeffannà and Irreechaa to be a national value and a national holyday respectively and last but not least they better know that it is only the Oromo people who can decide on the type of sovereignity we want to have per referendum in a process of self-determination.
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. Oromia) or in a form of Oromo renaissance (integration of Oromo progeny that includes all nations which emerged from it, i.e Oropia). 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 being led by Dr. Abiy seem to prefer a sovereignty in form of Oropia (democratic Ethiopia) to the conventional Oromia. To maintain this status of Oromo leadership for long time, we have to excercise intra-ethnic democracy and inter-ethnic dictatorship.