EDP’S
TORCH LIT IN LONDON
TO
SYMBOLISE UNITY, HOPE AND LIFE FOR
ETHIOPIA
“Standing shoulder to shoulder with EDP
rather than Shaebia, like that of the Meles regime is a way of defending
Ethiopia and Ethiopians. The problem remains to be that TPLF and EDP are not
“out of the same womb politically.” EDP is Ethiopian and TPLF is a Shaebian
agent.”
n
“The dogmas of the quiet past are
inadequate to the stormy present. The Occasion is piled high with difficulty,
and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think a new,
and act a new.” – (Abraham Lincoln, 12/01/1862).
I am a mild, moderate peace-loving Ethiopian and a
freedom fighter for my people, my country and my history. I am not advocating violence, war or ask people to
bomb the Ethiopian dictators and in the process kill innocent people like the
Meles regime but a Christian democrat of the kind EPRDF hates whose torrent of
the past eleven years fury in my country clearly shocked me. Because the “democracy” about which Meles and his cronies keeps
prating operates in a peculiar way. Hence I have always said we need to win
this on the basis of peaceful argument not confrontation or armed struggle.
I believe
we cannot let the Shaebian agents under the cover name of TPLF or EPRDF for
that matter blackmail our history, threaten and hold freedom-loving people of
Ethiopia hostage everywhere and systematically pass our sovereignty to our
traditional enemies. It is becoming the received wisdom that the prime minister
of Ethiopia has taken the biggest political risk of his career by clearly
siding with our enemy, Shaebia. Their ships have long rusted, but the bases are
still there to revive themselves to be able to fully destroy our country. But
they will soon crumble if show them our strength.
Meles’s TPLF is proved to be a Shaebian agent. Meles
is more Eritrean than the Eritreans themselves. This Shaebian agent group
snatched victory from the jaws of defeat of the Derg and with the kind support
of Tigrians and Ethiopians who hated the rule of the Derg regime and thus
wanted change in the process. There has also been a strong streak of
anti-Amhara, anti-Oromo and anti-Tigre since they got into power. We need to
always fight and fight and fight again to defeat their divide and rule
strategy, unilateralists and racists in every party. We need not to be seen too
licking every leader’s bottom just because he/she happens to be from our
particular tribe or to secure undeserved position by the back door. Therefore,
I warn all party leaders to be careful.
The first duty of each political leader is to be on
good terms with other political leaders. The “special
relationship” have to be “real and is strong
and that it is important” to loyally and wholeheartedly serve their
country as a group of elected and trusted politicians. Ethiopian rulers cannot
ride two horses at the same time like the Meles regime that are ruling Ethiopia
but serving Eritrea and Ethiopia. Similarly, Amhara leaders cannot & must
not rule Ethiopia for the benefit of Amhara region only, Tigre for Tigrai and
Oromo for Oromia. Each leader must see Ethiopa & Ethiopians equally.
I therefore think it would be better for Ethiopians to
have an informed debates rather than just a debate. We Ethiopians will never
forget what Meles and his cronies did to us. He took a happy peace-loving
people, great country and tried to destroy them. Memories of the recent
atrocities and the 50,000 Ethiopian soldiers who perished to keep Meles and
Isaias on power remain fresh. We don’t need other evidences more than these
that Meles is evil, has weapons, loyal soldiers and the backing of Shaebia to
destroy Ethiopia hence we ought to find some way to get rid of him from power
and have assurances that Ethiopia will become a stable and democratic country.
We must also immediately bring them to justice whether they continue to be on
power or not.
The fact that Ethiopians everywhere are already
discussing the future of Ethiopia is an indication of how developed the mood
for change has become. I think the discussions are sufficiently sensitive to
the need to rid of Meles Zenawi, his traitorous and reckless regime so that
this won’t be an issue when the election time comes in 2005 or before that.
Admittedly the Ethiopian people today lack a unified voice and yes that can be
partly attributed to the turmoil it faces; but sadly the power-hungry political
leaders and their opportunist tribal cults with ulterior agendas choose to
reject it and prefer to make mischievous and divide the nation further to suit
their selfish purpose. My whole life was taken up with talking to such people,
persuading them, listening to people reading and writing to unite the public. “With woodwork, it is just the wood and I.” Hence we
Ethiopians must stop putting the blame on everybody but ourselves.
If there is one party guaranteed to make
Meles Zenawi’s blood boil, it is EDP. They are the “wreckers” in chief, the
Ethiopian dinosaurs who will not stop roaring until Ethiopia is freed from the
rules of Shebian agents. Frequently,
the Ethiopian regime and their supporters depicted them as inane rangers who
are more interested in making troubles than making sense. It came to me as a
surprise then, when for the first time I arrived at “Irish
Centre in London” on Sunday the 8th of September 2002 to meet
with them and listen to these crazed characters, only to find two politically
active, matured and heavyweight human beings. They proved to be true Ethiopians
who could easily transform many listeners’ lives and looked to live up entirely
to their images and languages.
The London meeting was well organised, bright and new
in contrast with old parties and the Meles government. It looked that there
were set of attractive workable principles, strategies and convictions from EDP
leaders to guide us through each decision and later to victory over the
traitors and the dictators in Ethiopia. They must really be proud of themselves
for leading this party to date, earn good reputation and millions of supporters
in and out side the country. Many of us felt that the time has come to drop the
rhetoric and say that there are some things that EDP is strongly in favour of –
to improve the quality of life of the Ethiopian people who have been under
continuous dictatorship rule & war for so long. As far as Londoners are
concerned EDP were terribly misjudged by the Ethiopian regime and their
supporters everywhere. “Their shoulders were not
rebuilt back to front as the Melesites led us to believe” They ‘re real &
good.
“They were very able and charming, very
good one–to–one.” Their
membership is growing. Some of those people who were lauded as political
opponents to the regime have fallen badly flat on their faces. Therefore, we‘ve
clearly got to do something about the long-term financing of EDP. It looks bad
when a few individuals fund the people’s party who shouldn’t be paid by no one
or few but the peace and freedom loving people of Ethiopia. We mustn’t forget
that we have the most wonderful country in the world deciding that it has a
list of evil rulers and it wants to remove the one at the top of that list. It
may not end there. That policy is not just morally wrong, it’s so dangerous as
to keep us awake at night. The ruling party is bitterly divided. Ethiopians
have come to value democracy. Therefore we‘ve got to decide whether we ‘re part
of EDP’s struggle or not.
EDP always claimed as its greatest strength
willingness to embrace change in a peaceful struggle, an ability to move beyond
outdated and irrelevant political philosophies. There will be a battle of
course for a democratic government as opposed to an EPRDF one. The reason we
are all together with them is not because EDP snaps its fingers and we feet we
have to jump to it. We are with them because it is in our interests. Yes we
know too that there are prices to be paid. Yes what is so important too is that
at this moment of crisis, they don’t need to know simply that you’re giving
general expressions of support and sympathy. They need to know when the
election starts in 2005 or if a change of government happens before that we are
prepared to be there with them.
They are absolutely right and the reason our place is
behind them is not because of blind loyalty like the TPLF/EPRDF followers but
is because it is the right thing to do so if we have to save our country from
further divisions, destructions, and a total sell out to our enemy this being
Shaebia. They are not saying to us like Meles said to Samora Yenus, Seyoum
Mesfin, Tsehay Abaye, Addisu Legesse, Sebhat Nega Yemane Kidane (Jamaica) and
the likes: “What I want is men who will support me
when I am in the wrong” as (William Lamb, Viscount Melbourne, 1834 once said.) Cheeky Monkey! More or less EDP is only saying let us
save Ethiopia from being land-locked and bring real democracy and culture of
changing governments peacefully to the country. Are these bad and too much to
ask from fellow Ethiopians? I leave these and others on to your thinking cap.
It has
become something of a cliché to blame this sort of straightforward anti-ethnic
policies. Certainly this sick feeling existed during their tour of North
America. Some Ethiopians in the U.S.A have developed a new more sophisticated
philosophy based on weird ideology and parties isolationist tendencies. At the
same way old parties in the N. America still resent when one is successful.
Individuals, web sites, radio stations and newspapers made offensive charges
and unfounded allegations against EDP and in particular against Ato Lidetu
Ayalew.
As far as I am concerned, Ato Lidetu’s politics are as
plain as his constructive language. He did not sound to be big headed and
temperamental as some accused him. He is in fact proud of his working class
roots and more than ready to represent and respect poor and marginalized rich
people of Ethiopia. Lidetu has been called a political natural. Others
described him as simplistic and arrogant. Could all these opinions be right? I
honestly did not think so. Why be defensive? There is nothing to be defensive
about. It just did not look right to me.
On the other hand as I said again and again in the
past, I am not against criticisms. There is a proverb, which goes like this. “The purpose of criticism is not to destroy the confidence,
self-image and self-belief of the other person. It is to build on in the future.”
Therefore, I strongly believe that political leaders or any one who is a public
figure must be criticised, confronted and actions taken against him/her in a
civilized manner if and when things go wrong in their leadership duties or
things don’t look right at all.
We should not blindly worship them either. As they say
too, “insincere praise is worse than no praise at
all.” We need to correct them so that they learn from their mistakes.
But we have to use successful motivational criticism: the golden rule is “Praise in public, chastise in private.” Considering
the hard and demanding job they do, we should not offend them. Otherwise, “if they gave a reward for finding fault, some people would
get rich quick” will be said of us.
Ethiopians
have suffered a lot and for a long time but we ‘re still talking about
democratic changes without getting involved in any sort of actions. You can’t
be member of EDP and outside the struggle because there are no semi-detached
houses in the EDP. We’re either in or not. We talked forever in our houses,
restaurants, bars, café’s, and schools and so on about ourselves, about our
people and about our country. We talked about democracy and all the bad
cultures and problems we have but we don’t do it ourselves or help those who do.
Why?
Just
consider what happened to one of the EDP leaders, Ato Tamirat Tarekegn last
month. Such evil acts, a daring and well-prepared plot is common in Ethiopia
hence the country is slipping into chaos. These things may look independent
therefore may not be translated into violence all over the country but the
country could easily disintegrate and revert to a more dangerous civil war. As
EDP believes we must change the culture of war and “Gedaye!
Gedaye!”
EDP’S PEACEFUL STRUGGLE CAN DEPOSE MELES & BRING CHANGE
War is an
evil. As the prayer book has it: “From plague,
pestilence and famine; from battle and murder, and from sudden death, Good
Lord, deliver us.” And if war comes, it is not a free-for-all allowing
us to jettison all moral standards. We must seek the good. The enemy may
threaten us with weapons and brutality; we must not retaliate in kind. But if
our Armed forces behave honourably, in defence of the common good of our
nation, they will, by a paradox, be fighting for peace, democracy and justice
for us, as these are not an absence of war.
Peace
depends on justice. Over the past two/three decades, Ethiopia have expected
precious little justice from the Ethiopian regimes in power. Peace is “tranquillity of order.” At
the moment what we see in our country is disorder, oppression, and threats of
worse, in Ethiopia. Let us pray to God that it may, like western Europe after
Hitler’s evil was beaten, and day return to justice, peace and prosperity may
return to Ethiopia too. Now is not the time to beat swords into ploughshares.
That day will come. The only one who can bring that day closer is the Prince of
Peace. Now is the time for courage for hope that good will prevail through
peaceful struggle. May God help EDP and all Ethiopians!
“I would never back EDP if I thought they
were doing something wrong.”
But I have never found that and I don’t expect to find it in the near future at
least. If and when I do, I will of course criticise them as an Ethiopian. We
should no longer tolerate bad leaders and bad governance. The EDP leaders are
men to work with for the future good of Ethiopia. The thing that has impressed
me most is that they ‘re really direct, they ‘re really to the point, they ‘re
very straight and they ‘re extremely easy to deal with. There is no hidden
agenda or undercurrents to the conversation. But they urgently need to have
mechanisms to build their party with good, fresh politicians and professionals
in every field.
It was down to earth, down to business and
everything’s out in the open and discussed properly. So there is nothing better
than to be with EDP and topple these brutal dictators. The EDP is willing to do
that if and when they get our qualified support. Until he is either disarmed,
brought to justice or deposed one way or another, this tyrant Meles is a threat
to human life within our country and well beyond his own borders. Now we cannot
turn the clock back. We must pull ourselves together and do what is needed
before it is too late.
Dear Alemash and Kidane, as
they say, “Genuine compliments are a form of
recognition and it takes a ‘big thinking’ person to give another a compliment.”
You are indeed big thinking people to identify my strength, understand my
messages and praise me in public. You really made my day and also gave me the
best Ethiopian New Year present. I thank you and say God Bless you all.
For
Ethiopians in the Diaspora to criticize EPRDF’s conduct has long been a matter
of extreme delicacy verging on a taboo. Opinion leaders provoke debate on many
public issues, but on EPRDF the conventional view in the Ethiopian Community
was that there were only two policies, either unqualified support or discreet
silence. These have been going on for the past ten years at least.
For
me though there were things that happened on a daily basis including a threat
and an attempt on my life that made me feel very uncomfortable as peace and
freedom loving Ethiopian. That was why I was saying things strongly “which many others believe but are hesitant to say out
loud.”
There
are many reasons why the old policy of “Diaspora
silence please” no longer hold water. With the advent of foreign agents,
traitors and murderers striking indiscriminately inside Ethiopia, Ethiopians
who visit their country are as much at risk as those who live there. By coming
to Ethiopia after many years absence, they feel and share the same fear. Also
in their lives outside Ethiopia many Ethiopians report increased discomfort as
concern rises over EPRDF policies. Some of that anti-EPRDF stems from anti
dictatorships. Often it is nothing of the kind; it is simply a reasoned
critique of EPRDF policies.
When
some of us in the Diaspora share those views, to say publicly is not a betrayal
of Ethiopia but a duty to be honest for our country. Furthermore, still the
greatest reason abandoning silence is that it gives encouragement to those
Ethiopians who have not yet dared or able to speak out. That was one of the
reasons I have been receiving praises and encouragements from all over the
world. It is an old paradox that there has always been fiercer debate and
louder dissent among Ethiopians in the Diaspora. Some agree but reluctantly
answer the call out of solidarity with their Ethiopian brothers and sisters.
Yet it is also true that the breath of debate in Ethiopia has dismissed in the
last eleven years.
The
fact that one party dominated and puppet parties share power has made frontal
opposition hard. This undemocratic governance and other dictatorial activities
have created a tighter sense of national unity. With an Election on the
horizon, the mood of conformity may not last much longer, that the potential
EDP standard-bearer, has shown a clear willingness to open a multi-ethnicity
debate and the need for serious political negotiations with all genuine
political parties and civic organizations to also avoid the folly of trying to
maintain a bankruptcy of relying exclusively on biased military force to rule
the country. For Ethiopians abroad to join discussion can only be beneficial.
So far I have gone into details on the political choices and negotiating
positions.
My
messages were a message of morality and unity but it is not less urgent a part
of the debate. We should stop the bandits who are looting, plundering and
slaughtering the nation. We should be strengthening the democratic policies of
EDP and activities of civic organizations like Solidarity (TISJD) and others
not eroding it. We need to suppress the growth of democratization process and
unity. Let’s break the silence, stop the division and get rid of the knaves and
monsters.
Former Political Prisoner Dr Taye Wolde-Semayat will be speaking
about Human Rights issue in London. Dr Taye who has a Doctorate in Political
Science was a professor of Political Science at Addis Ababa University and
President of the Ethiopian Teachers Association. He was charged with conspiring
to overthrow the Ethiopian government and sentenced to 15 years prison,
according to Amnesty International.
Amnesty also reported that Dr Taye Wolde-Giorgis endured repeated
death threats from prison guards, spent four months in solitary confinement and
was shackled in handcuffs 24 hours a day for two years during his captivity. He
wanted to expose how corrupt the Meles regime was. He objected the Ethiopia’s
oppressive regime and was punished for being active and aware. Come & meet
with him from 1.30 – 6.30 pm on
….
Sunday 29 September 2002 at Irish Centre, 50-52 Camden Square,
London, NW1 9XB.
Long Live
Mother Ethiopia!
PS: The
writer is not a member of EDP or any other Party hence opinions expressed in
this article/ critique is solely that of the writer & not that of EDP or
ETA. Furthermore, I want to make absolutely clear to Mulugeta Aserate-Kassa (BERE WELEDE) and his boss
at the London Embassy that the Sunday September 8/2002 meeting held at Irish Centre,
London was organised by EDP Support Group and that Dr. Admasu Gebeyehu, &
Ato Lidetu Ayalew were the only speakers. Mengistu Hailemariam, Meles Zenawi,
Osama bin Laden & Kassa Kebede (The Four Musketeers) were not invited to
speak at all. Thank you!