AFD—Success Stories Behind the Lime light

By Workie Briye*
A friend of mine sent me the URL that enabled me to retrieve some articles I missed over the last three months. One of the articles posted on Ethiomedia.com in the first week of June this year caught my attention. It was an article written by one called Qooraa Jaarsoo.The article analyzes issues related to the AFD vis-à-vis the unity of Ethiopia, the OLF and the question of the Oromo people. I found it to be a great analysis. It doesn’t matter whether you agree on each and every point or not. The analysis portrays a patriot who fights on two battle fronts at the same time: an ethnic Oromo fighting for the dignity and the legitimate place for the Oromo people on the one hand, and a guy who believes that he is Ethiopian and will die so because an “Ethiopian” identity is not antithesis to the freedom of the Oromo people. I contacted the writer; we got along very well and cordially. Later on he sent me most of those e-mails he received from readers. Some of those e-mails were not just a one time message and reply but a series of e-mail exchanges with individuals, constituting a full-fledged dialogue that look like live discussion.
Those e-mail exchanges are of course typical of the discussions many Ethiopians are engaged in after AFD was made public. I thought that what we chat over coffee and on e-mails is a miniature representative of how AFD is viewed and what its future look like at a national level. Out of the several e-mails between Qooraa and readers, one of them held between the writer and one called Berhanu gripped my attention and forced me to share my feeling with the Ethiomedia family.
Those e-mail dialogues prove and disprove many of the issues we Ethiopians have been debating over the last few decades. It is not uncommon to hear negative remarks about our weakness on dialogue and compromise. We get this remark from foreigners and Ethiopians alike: that we Ethiopians cannot see out of the window and agree whether or not it is raining. Many of us possibly heard from university professors, panelists, or a crowd of friends, drawing Ethiopians as difficult, quarrelsome, and bad-tempered people. (It may be true but we are not lonely on the planet!) I don’t believe that to argue is always bad. Whether this caricature of us as “confrontational” true or not, our enormous potential for polite and gentle discussion had never had a chance to come out until the AFD became a reality, in certain respects.
Healthy discussion between ethno-centric groups and, those who want “unity” more accentuated have been a dream for many. The discussion observed between Qooraa and his readers was gentle, civilized and thoughtful discussion, a type we wish to see at national level. Qooraa and some Ethiomedia readers who disagreed with him started their dialogue from positions as wide as any political difference between Ethiopians could get. However, those e-mail discussions are now living testimonies that we Ethiopians can agree on any seemingly intractable issues if we get a counterpart who can explain and discuss issues soberly and politely. The stereotype squabble between the two political paradigms in our country (ethnic rights versus Unity) has been mostly a zero-sum game: unity and ethnic rights are presented as terms repugnant to one an other. Post AFD debates disclose the other side of us that, underneath our heart, we Ethiopians feel not only the prick of our own pain but also the pain and agony of our brothers. It was only that politics did not give us the chance or we were not blessed with the kind of political leaders we deserve.
The issues raised and debated are those similar issues prevailed before the AFD. The most important breakthrough ushered by the AFD is that, now we are not shouting those issues at one another but talking to one another. E-mail, telephone, chat room, and personal discussions have been intensified after the AFD. AFD brought no new issues nor new people with it. The new aura of discussion simply demonstrates that this kind of feeling was smothered amidst emotional slogans, conceitedness, and war cry from all directions. Post AFD debates proves that we managed to reclaim our humble soul, the modest spirit, and the “true beauty” within us. For many in the diaspora, they say that it is the first time in decades to greet each other, to speak a common local language, or to go to the same restaurant as compatriots or churches. Many are delighted now.
Qooraa’s debate is monumental evidence in verifying our polished behavior and highly distinguished nature. Qooraa, as supporter of the aspiration of the Oromo people, started from a position as strong as any ijoolee Oromo could be on this issue: supporting OLF and its program, sustaining all demands of the Oromo people, defending Iquubee (the Latin alphabet), zealous of the Oromo language and culture, and also the unity of Ethiopia (sounds odd mix for some). Some of his opponents started from a position as strong as any pro-unity Ethiopian could get: opposing OLF, denouncing Iquubee, skeptical even cynical of AFD, apprehensive of the language question, and disparaging towards “the presence of Eritrea behind AFD”. The two positions diverge on each and every point. The entire e-mail dialogue however was characterized by a discussion that was polite, tolerant, magnanimous, matured, proud, and gentle. With every e-mail, Qooraa explained each and every issue with patience, knowledge, and magnanimity, with amazing display of calm, respect and brotherhood to his compatriots. One can see it plainly that his arguments and explanations hammer on the issues, not on the persons he address. He sounds like the proverbial teacher who never gets weary of enlightening his/her disciples even if they raise irritating and troublesome questions. Those Ethiopians on the other side of the e-mail were equally patient, attentive, curious and open-minded. Although they were strong on their beliefs and points, they never displayed “I-know-it-all” attitude. While the content of their e-mails display educated and matured people with deep and genuine love to their country, they receive and analize each response from Qooraa as curiously and eagerly as some one commencing his first lesson on a new language.
The end of the dialogue sounds like a beautiful epic comedy in classical literature. Both sides learned a lot from one and other. Qooraa seemed to have gotten important lesson that genuine movements or claims of ethnic groups must address the grass root rather than the group in power. The other Ethiopians who were at best apprehensive of any form of ethno-centric question realized that the question of the Oromo people is not antithesis to the unity of Ethiopia; on the contrary, it is an issue that will serve as a pedestal for the unity of the country. One of them even expressed a sentiment along the lines that, if what he learned from Qooraa was true, that he would be a great fan of the OLF. Qooraa’s meticulous analysis of every nuance in this complicated and highly sensitive issue was astonishing. His dignified manner wins the respect of any audience. His attitude towards those who are against OLF and the Oromo question is absolutely free from bias, bitterness, and hatred. Be it on the phone and in his e-mails, he sounds like he is addressing not his “oppressors”, as it may be viewed by some individuals in his position, but to his younger brothers who are misled or misunderstood the solution for a kind of arithmetic operation called Oromo question V. the Unity of Ethiopia. His discussions remind us that a dialogue based on mutual respect and temperate exchanges of view can bring even the most unlikely kinds of folks to one’s own side.

Those e-mail discussions demonstrate that Qooraa did not spend years or even months; he did not spend a large amount of money to educate and bring his fellow Ethiopians to stand with him for a common goal of a united and thriving Ethiopia where the Oromo people and all other ethnic groups play their legitimate role in a truly democratic society.
Qooraa was a person with a wide horizon and a very understanding person: he is aware of the fact that what made many pro unity Ethiopians weary of all ethnic related issues is the way the issue was handled and presented by TPLF. This sadist Group used our ethnicity for cynical purposes by fomenting hatred among us so that the they remain power brokers while we kill each other. It was clear that Qooraa empathize these Ethiopians, he doesn’t condemn them. He made it his mission to educate his compatriot that Woyane is the culprit by hijacking the legitimate question of ethnic groups and using it for a murder network and economic racketeer. TPLF can not be a measure of ethnicity issues.
AFD may not yet become a strong front with a clear road map. But it is serving as a pilot light striking warm debate. It has won the support of a substantial majority of Ethiopians. Despite some disagreements on all sides, the debate is brotherly and free from bitterness and hatred characterized the dispute in the past. Ethiopians of all sides of the debate are now addressing all issues of national concern including those we have been evading so far. AFD is barely 6 months old. Although the spirit is becoming a material force among the people, the AFD leadership is still decisive. With out AFD, possibility of sliding back to the dreadful past of mutual suspicion is real.
However, AFD has shown us the way. Millions of Ethiopians on all sides have already awakened that the Question of the Oromo or other people and the unity of Ethiopia are not mutually exclusive. In fact it is the other way round if we fight the Woyane syndrome within all our groups. Two of the biggest parties currently constituting the AFD are the OLF and CUD. Historic responsibility has fallen on the two groups. While a formal agreement or disagreement should not be a sine quanon for the spirit of alliance, far sighted and matured leadership from the groups is not substitutable at the moment. The spirit of AFD is not a time-bound covenant merely to dislodge Woyane. Given the political terrain in our country, continued dialogue and understanding between different parties, big and small, is a must for the future of the country. That is how we can disinfect
our country to eliminate the Woyane syndrome of divide and rule.
Woyane is now in a borrowed time. AFD then will be joined by a party that will embody the true face of the people of Tagay. It won’t take a long time before those few Tigrayans who currently dance over corpses in twin with TPLF would remorse for standing behind their “Cosa Nostra”. Fascism, Nazism, even the Mafia had their supporters from a segment of the public mystified by fabricated propaganda, false promise, scare-monger, and deceptive attribution of an image of grandeur and bravery. However, the issue of how and when to remove TPLF is less important compared to the question of how to proceed from there. For millions of Ethiopians overwhelmed and humiliated by poverty , freedom from Woyane will be meaningless if the next episode of their agony has to continue due to a fight between groups, say OLF and CUD, in a bid to reign over the poor, keeping turns and rounds. Therefore, AFD must be understood as euphemism for dialogue, national reconciliation, and a framework institution for debate on the future of the nation.
True, millions of Oromos have a deep historical, sentimental, and justifiable attachment to the OLF. This will most likely remain true for a long time in the future. So also has CUD the support of millions across ethnic and regional boundaries. It is a party with farsighted leadership. It is a party that ought to have formed government with UEDF, had the May 2005 election not turned out to be a gamble with the Mafia of Carlos Meles. Still, the idea of mutual understanding and harmony between the groups representing legitimate demands of the people is a must and one that must not depend only on the good will of parties. What underpin the peoples of Ethiopia as Ethiopians is not only their distinct language and culture as ethnic groups but also are intricately interwoven by blood and history.
It is our strong desire that the parties forming the AFD will remain firm on their ground and will be proactive rather than reactive in the face of challenges from any direction. The support AFD enjoys at grass-root level is immense, though not surprising. The prevailing view among us ordinary Ethiopians is that, although we are blessed with identities interms of culture, blood, and ethnicity, we also have a value-based identity and affinity, where all of us Ethiopians who share a sense of justice, equality, fairness, and ideals truth, form our own ethnicity. This identity fights injustice whoever is the victim. Of course, there is fierce opposition against AFD. Although not a numeric majority, the sentiments reflected are strong. We should not call these groups extremist Oromos or extremest Amharas or Naftagnas, etc. These groups must be listened to. They should be one, in fact the first, beneficiaries of the spirit of “Alliance”. In fact, we can argue that, give our experience, there is no extremest. There are only people who are doubtful, may be skeptic. People have every reason to be doubtful, distrustful of politicians. People have doubts on some parties that stand for unity; people are skeptical of the role of Eritrea; people have doubts on the true objective of OLF. Doubts, fears, suspicions. This is not without reason. Our experience is full of broken promises. Is it not understandable for people to harbor strong doubts towards the Eritrean leadership? Is it not explainable for some Oromos to have doubts towards some people, some parties? But their fears could be alleviated by distending to and embracing them, nor by excluding. Excluding, condemning, insulting is Woyane. AFD is espousing, inviting, listening, tolerating, sharing, and debating. Anything opposite is Woyane’s specialization.

After reading the dialogue between Qooraa and other Ethiopians, one cannot help surmising that, in our country it is always the wrong people who are in power and in politics. One can conquer an army of millions with gentle and matured discussion, some thing which an army of millions can not achieve in years if force is the only means utilized. Many politicians, even Meles I guess, say that a true victory is a triumph over hearts and minds. This is achievable without Agazies and murderers.
The dialogue between Qooraa and other Ethiopians is not a fairy tale story. It is real, recorded, and something that happened just weeks ago. And yet, this story is not unique. It is rather typical. There are similar stories happening every day. In many of these stories, the contrast between the beginning of the discussions and their ending is unbelievable. One of the discussants who started the discussion with strong objection to Qooraa’s views, at the end concluded his remarks with the following words: “if that is the case, I will be a fan of OLF, I will go and spread the word about the OLF”.The story of Qooraa and his friends humbles our politicians from all sides.
Let’s go and spread the word about the AFD.

*The author can be reached at solwork2001@yahoo.com .