National liberty preceds multinational (regional) democracy!
Fayyis Oromia
This short essay and, of course, my hitherto contributions are my x-mass gift to all my readers and, at the same time, this one is a good-bye message. Thank you all for reading my opinions till now, be it they are constructive or not to the pragmatic move of the Oromo liberation and the liberation movement of all oppressed nations in the Ethiopian empire. I have tried to do my contribution using different nick-names for the last many years. One of the fruits I am now enjoying is the current tendency of all Oromo nationalists to preach and practice Oromo unity for liberty (Tokkummaa for Bilisummaa). This is one of the results of our efforts for many years, thanks Waaqayyoo/Rabbii, we could silence to some extent Weyane cadres and “naive Oromos”, who used to sow a discord among different Oromo groups based on region, party and religion as well as using the division parameters like leaders vs followers, young generation vs old generation, etc.
Now it seems that all Oromo nationalists in the ruling party of Oromia, in the opposition parties aka Oromo democratic federalists, and in the rebel fronts like Oromo Liberation Front do agree on the necessity of Oromo unity as a source of our power to liberate Oromo and Oromia from domination, exploitation and tyranny. The Oromo nation being the third big native nation in Africa (next to Berber and Hausa), our liberation will definitely be a precedence and an example for the future self-determination of all national groups in Africa, be it they are big or small, and have their autonomy at different levels (state, province, district or county) of administrative arrangement of the future African federation.
The coming five months are, the time of “struggle for democracy per election” in the Ethiopian empire. The ruling TPLF wants this election for legitimacy in front of the international community (not necessarily in front of Ethiopian nations and peoples) to rule further for the next five years. It has prepared itself for the last five years after the defeat it experienced in the election of 2005. The final preparation it undertook is the Codes of Conduct it agreed on with three unitarist parties, which it desperately needed for the legitimacy, and as the binding procedure to secure its winning of the next election. All the three “opposition” parties which signed this agreement of the Codes of Conduct with the incumbent are the sympathizers of the ex-nefxenya Ethiopia; they chose to make the neo-nefxenya Ethiopia survive further instead of be challenged and transformed by democratic unionists like Medrek at home and AFD in Diaspora. Why did this alliance of the ex-nefxenya admirers and the neo-nefxenyas happen now? Is the movement of the Oromo people and other oppressed nations for liberty endangering the existence of the Abyssinian domination system, which the two nefxenyas try to save?
It is clear that all the oppressed nations in the Ethiopian empire, in general, and the Oromo nation, in particular, are fighting for their liberty for the last more than one century. The two nefxenyas in the contrary still sing and dance about the necessity of “unity and democracy.” Unfortunately, there can never be unity of nations and democracy of the empire without first accepting and respecting the God-given rights of citizens as individuals and the liberty of nations as groups. That is why political organizations like AFD and G-7 used to advocate for freedom to be achieved before establishing democracy in the region called Ethiopia. Liberty from exploitation, tyranny and oppression under both the ex-nefxenyas and the neo-nefxenya Weyanes should come to end. If there is such liberty (freedom) of citizens and nations, the Oromo people are the last to fear the propagated unity and democracy, which are untiringly preached by those who want to keep the empire’s domination system by any means.
We all know that liberty is a concept of political philosophy and identifies the condition in which an individual or a group has the right to act according to his or her own will. So the question we all need to ask is, do individual citizens and collective nations as a group in the Ethiopian empire have such right to act according to their will? The answer is a big NO! That is why before preaching about democracy, unity and peace, all concerned stakeholders need to fight for such liberty together. The attempt of pro-liberty forces to come together like what they did in Medrek and AFD is very encouraging to say the least. If such alliances fight first for freedom (liberty) from Weyane’s tyranny and achieve it, then the probability of forging both democracy and unity based on their free-will can be high.
The attempt of Weyane to tell us that we do have already achieved freedom, unity based on free will and democracy under their rule is the 21st century big LIE we ever heard in the world. Weyane talks freedom and walks tyranny; talks unity, but walks divide-and-rule method; talks peace, but walks state terrorism; talks democracy, but walks dictatorship. What the neo-nefxenyas talk and walk are diametrically opposite. What about the opposition? Here we should differentiate the unitarists like AEUP and EDP from the unionists like Medrek and AFD. The unitarists being the nostalgic admirers of the ex-nefxenya just emulate the neo-nefxenyas in their hypocrisy. They talk democracy, but walk to achieve Amhara elite’s dictatorship; they talk unity, but want to keep the empire with its domination system, etc. The unionists are the only genuine opposition group struggling for both freedom and democracy as a precondition for the union of liberated nations in the empire/region to forge a possible united states of Ethiopia as a base for the future United States of Africa.
Of course, democracy is a political government either carried out by the people (direct democracy), or the power to govern is granted to elected representatives (representative democracy). In this sense, the democracy, which was tried by the monarchy of T. Mekonnen, by military dictatorship of Mengistu and now by ethno-cratic dictatorship of Meles are the pseudo-democracies we had in the empire. Actually, it is practically impossible to democratize an empire, where there is a sort of domination system. For the empire to be democratized, the domination system of both the ex- and neo-nefxenyas must be destroyed. This shows us that first comes national liberty, then follows regional (empire’s) democracy. Democracy under national slavery (unity without liberty), such us what we do see in the Ethiopian empire system, is only a dream, which can never be realized. The Oromo nation, in particular, and all other oppressed nations, in general, need to fight for our liberty by any means now. We can realize democracy only in a liberated Oromia and in the other liberated national areas; that is why the democratization of the Ethiopian empire is a futile exercise even though it is one of the means leading us to our Kaayyoo (the END-goal). To achieve the liberty we do want, we need to be well-informed and well-armed (empowered). Empowering the Oromo nation and other oppressed nations can only come through Tokkummaa for Bilisummaa (unity for liberty) of all national liberation fronts. So let’s unite first to achieve liberty from Weyane’s tyranny and then forge a democracy in a multinational union of the region called Ethiopia. Democratization of such a NEW Ethiopia is possible on the contrary to the attempt of democratizing the imperial Ethiopia.
Regarding the unity we do talk about, there are two types of unity: the one required to achieve liberty, which is the unity of the freedom movements of all nations (unity for liberty), and the other one is which we need after liberty, that is a union of nations in the region/empire. To have the first one (unity for liberty), it is good to have a common ground for all opposition freedom fighters regarding what to achieve after liberty. The common ground can only be to have a union of liberated nations in the empire/region. The two nefxenyas, including those who want to dismantle Oromia (the wish of the ex-nefxenya) and those who want to keep the status quo of the de-autonomized Oromia (the wish of the neo-nefxenya), must be dealt with by the cooperation and the coordination of the two parts of the unionist opposition, i.e. by the working together of those, for instance, who want to achieve only Oromian autonomy in the Ethiopian federation, like what OFC of Medrek is trying, and those who do fight for Oromian independence in a possible union of nations in the empire/region like for what OLF struggles.
So let us the unionist opposition groups at home in the form of Medrek and groups in Diaspora in the form of AFD, which does now include OLF, ONLF, SLF, BPLM and GPLM, cooperate and coordinate our efforts. I hope the other ‘quasi-unionists’ like G-7, EPPF, EPRP and UEDF-Diaspora will join the AFD group or we will see in the near future if they are part and parcel of the unitarist admirers of the ex-nefxenyas. I know that specially G-7 already made an acceptance of the unconditional Ethiopian unity as a precondition to forge any sort of alliance with AFD member organizations. With such arrogant position, G-7 just showed its color of a tendency to long for the unitarist Ethiopia. I just recommend G-7 and the likes to make the right of citizens and the wish of nations for liberty as a common ground, not their mantra about unconditional unity. Only free citizens and free nations can decide on the issue of Yes vs No to a union of nations in the empire/region, in which we can forge democracy of multi-national Ethiopia, of course, after securing our individual and national liberty. That is why we tend to say: national liberty, such as Oromian liberty, precedes regional democracy like that of Ethiopian democracy!
Galatoomaa and nagaan ta’aa!!
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