Tandem activity in Oromo liberation movement (By Fayyis Oromia)

Tandem activity in Oromo liberation movement

Fayyis Oromia

We Oromos have no luxury and time to be devided and fight against each other now. We need to percieve the reality on the ground, interpret our perception of the reality, think, believe, wish, feel, move, act, behave and live as a one single entity striving in a good service of our national interest and purpose. We need to have clear view about our selves as well about our foes and friends. We need to thank our friends, but fight against our foes in unison. We are Oromos as one people, who do struggle for our right to self-determination. Every other individual or collective promoting our struggle is our friend, and any one trying to hinder our move to our goal covertly or overtly as well directly or indirectly is our foe.

Let's leave the other momentarily "harmless" foes aside and take that our main enemy now is Weyane. We fought against all our enemies starting from our subjugation in the end of the nintienth century to the end of the twentieth century to come to our status quo in 1991. A lot of our heros have given their precious life and limb to achieve this status; a lot are still suffering from the sequel of the inflicted injuries. From 1992 on, Weyane is the main enemy of Oromo nation hindering us from moving forwards. No question that we are under the slavery of Weyane and that there are Oromos who contributed to our slavery knowingly or unkowingly. Now the question we need to answer is: how should we deal with our main enemy Weyane, with our other currently "harmless" enemies, with Oromo collaborators, with Oromo "neutrals" and with Oromos doing their best for the liberation movement, while even overtly working with the enemy aka Weyane?

Let's look at Oromo nation as one human body. Then, our main enemy Weyane and the other currently harmless foes are not definetly part of this body. But Oromo collaborators, Oromo "neutrals" and Oromo freedom fighters are part and parcel of this one organism. We can designate and put them as gangrenous parts (collaborators), as paralysed parts ("neutrals") and as functioning parts (fighters). What should we naturally do with these three parts of our body? The gangerenous parts must be removed before they affect other parts of the body, the paralysed parts should be reactivated using some methods like physiotherapy or regular gymnastic or excercise and of course the functioning parts need to be fed well and trained further to continue with their functions or even to do better than they are functioning now!

So we need first to discern these five groups (main enemy Weyane, currently "harmless" foes, gangerenous parts of our body as well paralysed parts and healthy parts). To put it in short all Abesha parties excluding Weyane, but having in their programme an intention to dismantle Oromia are our momentarily "harmless" foes. The gangerous parts of our body are the CRIMINAL Oromos working with Weyane and still covertly or overtly fighting against our liberation struggle. Mind you all OPDO Oromos are not criminal. The paralysed parts of our body are those not yet politically conscious parts of Oromo nation, who can potentially be activated to play a great role in the liberation movement. The functioning parts of our body include the politically conscious and active Oromos in the ruling party aka OPDO, in the opposition parties like OFDM and OPC as well in rebel fronts like OLF and other ULFO members.

No question the appropriate approach towards our main enemy aka Weyane is that we do fight against it with all our possible meanses. The "harmless" foes can now be tactical friends for they are also suffering under the tyrannic subjugation of Weyane. If they come to their senses and respect our God-given right to self-determination, they even can be our strategical friends. Otherwise we just check each other tactically to certain extent as long as we do have common enemy aka Weyane. It is their stubborn wish to get rid of Oromia by opposing "ethnic" federation in principle, what makes these Abesha forces a potential foe for Oromo nation and this attitiude of theirs is an obstacle for a possible strong alliance against the fascist Weyane regime.

Now the question we Oromos need to answer is how can we coordinate our own functioning body parts, who are moving at the above mentioned three different levels? Here is where we need TANDEM activity. Imagine three people pedaling on a tandem cycle which can be rided by three persons. The synchronized pedaling of the three persons is very necessary for the cycle to move forward and even to move as quickly as possible. If one of the three riders is not synchronized with the other two, there will be a distortion in the forward movement or it slows the speed markedly. That is why I do advocate for the synchronized move of the genuine non criminal Oromo activists in the ruling party OPDO, the activists in the opposition parties and the freedom fighters in the rebel fronts, specially those rallying behind OLF in order to promote our liberation journey forward and accelerate it to reach our destiny efficiently.

To support such tandem activity, I do advocate for the following measures yet to be taken by our Oromo functioning body parts:

- let's be reserved from villifying OPDO in general, but concentrate on the criminal action of certain individuals in OPDO as well we need to encourage genuine Oromos doing their best being part of this organization and part of the government

- let's have an understanding for the rhetoric of the opposition politicians, which may talk against the kaayyoo of our liberation movement aka self-determination, for they are in a dire situation and encourage the working together of the two main opposition parties as they tried under the umberella called OFC

- let's stop the foolish ololaa of one rebel faction of OLF against the other faction, even if it may help to gain more memebers and supporters for the concerend faction of the liberation front making the ololaa. We should do our best to bring all mini-fronts under one strong structural OLF, behind which we all can rally

- let's activate constantly the paralysed parts of ours using all meanses of agitation and teaching. It is surprising to observe how little we do use the modern media like internet to reach our people. I would like here to encourage all able Oromos to share what they do can to other little informed ones.

- last , but not least, let's be radical to remove and throw away the gangerenous parts of our body, but be very carefull not to include a single functioning cell to the part to be cut away. In this regard, we need to be very meticulous!

If we take such decisive measures on our foes, friends and on different parts of our own body, I am sure the time we need to achieve our liberation from the current tormentors is not far.