Ethiopian Freedom Journey: From Unitary through Federation and Liberation to Political Union
Fayyis Oromia
Ethiopia (Cushland) with its “glorious” history of more than 5,000 years is now in its deep political crises. Its futurity seems to be uncertain. Its people of different nations and nationalities are suffering from the sequel of both economical and political crises. The present incumbent regime is on taking different measures out of desperation. It marginalizes and persecutes specially the biggest nation of the region, Oromo nation; it oppresses and tyrannizes almost all citizens and nationalities, who do demand and struggle for their individual and collective freedom. All the hitherto regimes in the region called Ethiopia used to rule with force by suppressing any dissent voice at gun point. It seems the current regime is the worst and the fascist one, which the empire ever had.
Now almost all pro-freedom and pro-democracy forces in the empire are trying to get rid of this fascist regime. What is lacking above all is the appropriate cooperation and coordination of the opposition groups (both “peaceful” and armed groups) to bring together their resources and use them effectively and efficiently against the tyrants. The main hindrance for such cooperation is the lack of a common purpose and common view they need to have for the freedom journey. To my understanding till now, only AFD and G-7 seem to comprehend the route of the journey to freedom and democracy. Both of them put the journey to be accomplished in two phases: first the fight for freedom from Weyane’ fascists, and then secondly to forge the basic essential democratic institutions necessary to realize democracy in which all parties and their programs can be judged by public verdict.
Here, I will try to help in making the freedom journey clear and plausible for all the stakeholders, who want to yet consolidate the necessary only ONE and all inclusive alliance against the fascists and their ethnic-apartheid. Leaving the hitherto move of all Cush nations during their last political evolution for historians, I would like to concentrate only on the recent past political conditions, on the present status quo and on the future possibilities. My choice of this topic now is inspired by the currently published collection of articles on the website Gadaa.com under the title: ‘The Bergen Meeting Revisited‘, just to re-stimulate a political discourse among the Oromo polity and with Ethiopian politicians to further “explore a new political alternative for Oromo Ethiopians”. The collection can be read under: http://www.cmi.no/publications/file/336 ... -oromo.pdf
In the article written by Obbo Daawud Ibsaa in that collection, the following assertion of him attracted my attention:
“… The new World Order has made sovereignty and territorial integrity less absolute. We saw nations determining their affair and forming new states. The right to self-determination, which used to apply only to countries under colonial rule, is now recognized as a universal right of all nations and peoples. Consequently the map of the world is being redrawn. On the contrary, with the formation of unions like the EU, state sovereignty has become more symbolic than real. Countries joining such Unions voluntarily sign treaties that undermine their sovereignty to avail their people of social and economic benefits from a large pie. We are encouraged by both trends. The increased recognition of the right of nations to self-determination gives us hope that if our genuine appeal for peace is rejected and met with violence rather than being reciprocated, as has been many times in the past, we have the right and the will to decide our fate. The trend towards cooperation is also encouraging to us because it opens new doors and creates more opportunities for our people to work with others to build a more prosperous, harmonious, stable and peaceful region…”
I think taking these two trends in to consideration, we all nations in the region called Ethiopia or Horn or Cushland should try to have one common cause and common route of journey towards the END goal of the common cause. I personally can drive from the above assertion that the common cause is to build a more prosperous, harmonious, stable and peaceful region. The feasible route to this common cause is moving from the status quo (from the unitary and very oppressive “revolutionary centralism” of Weyane), first to a true Kilil federation in which all nations in the region can have their genuine autonomy or self-administration, then secondly to achieve the necessary INDEPENDENCE of each nation to give their public verdict per referendum in a sense of self-determination so that all nations will consciously decide for the Union of Liberated Nations of the region to realize the beneficial common vision mentioned above.
In short, this will be a move from the hitherto unitary of the empire through self-administarion of nations (a kilil federation) and through self-determination of nations (a national liberation) to the END, i.e to a Union of Liberated Nations. When we look at the East African Community (EAC) member states (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda) struggling to forge a custom union, a common market and a monetary union to forge at the end a political union for common benefit, then we can only ask ourselves logically that, why should we not use the advantage of the already present custom union, common market and monetary union in the region called Ethiopia just to build a similar and optimal political union of our region on the grave of the enslaving hitherto political Ethiopian empire system.
Nowadays, even the “multi-national” parties like G-7 and UDJ have started to stress the importance of fighting first for freedom from Weyane fascism and tyranny as a precondition for the lasting multi-national democracy. The only thing such parties still need to digest is the very importance of national freedom parallel to the citizens’ individual freedom they do seem to fight for. If they do this, then they are almost on the same track and with the similar wave length to the opinion of Obbo Daawud, which I quoted above, i.e there will be no discord between the pro-democracy “multi-national” parties like G-7 and the national freedom fighters like OLF. I also don’t see any reason why other factions of OLF and other Oromo liberation movements should oppose such a move of Obbo Daawud’s group. This will be the very good base for building the very essential all inclusive TIBIBIR (alliance) against fascist Weyane. Then, it will not be difficult to coordinate overtly or covertly the opposition democratic federalists like MEDREK at home with such new TIBIBIR in Diaspora and with those moving underground to fight against the fascist regime in Ethiopia.
So I would like to recommend that all pro-freedom and pro-democracy forces do agree on the political route, i.e from the hitherto imperial unitary through a true federation and through a national liberation to a union of liberated nations as described above. This innovative move can even attract in the future nations like Eritrea, Djibouti, Somaliland, Puntland and Somalia to join the regional union. Let’s have this common vision and common route as we now start a new European year, and I wish good luck and victory for all of us in this journey for our national freedom, regional union and multi-national democracy in our common home, the Horn.
Happy new year!
Galatoomaa!
Fayyis Oromia
Ethiopia (Cushland) with its “glorious” history of more than 5,000 years is now in its deep political crises. Its futurity seems to be uncertain. Its people of different nations and nationalities are suffering from the sequel of both economical and political crises. The present incumbent regime is on taking different measures out of desperation. It marginalizes and persecutes specially the biggest nation of the region, Oromo nation; it oppresses and tyrannizes almost all citizens and nationalities, who do demand and struggle for their individual and collective freedom. All the hitherto regimes in the region called Ethiopia used to rule with force by suppressing any dissent voice at gun point. It seems the current regime is the worst and the fascist one, which the empire ever had.
Now almost all pro-freedom and pro-democracy forces in the empire are trying to get rid of this fascist regime. What is lacking above all is the appropriate cooperation and coordination of the opposition groups (both “peaceful” and armed groups) to bring together their resources and use them effectively and efficiently against the tyrants. The main hindrance for such cooperation is the lack of a common purpose and common view they need to have for the freedom journey. To my understanding till now, only AFD and G-7 seem to comprehend the route of the journey to freedom and democracy. Both of them put the journey to be accomplished in two phases: first the fight for freedom from Weyane’ fascists, and then secondly to forge the basic essential democratic institutions necessary to realize democracy in which all parties and their programs can be judged by public verdict.
Here, I will try to help in making the freedom journey clear and plausible for all the stakeholders, who want to yet consolidate the necessary only ONE and all inclusive alliance against the fascists and their ethnic-apartheid. Leaving the hitherto move of all Cush nations during their last political evolution for historians, I would like to concentrate only on the recent past political conditions, on the present status quo and on the future possibilities. My choice of this topic now is inspired by the currently published collection of articles on the website Gadaa.com under the title: ‘The Bergen Meeting Revisited‘, just to re-stimulate a political discourse among the Oromo polity and with Ethiopian politicians to further “explore a new political alternative for Oromo Ethiopians”. The collection can be read under: http://www.cmi.no/
In the article written by Obbo Daawud Ibsaa in that collection, the following assertion of him attracted my attention:
“… The new World Order has made sovereignty and territorial integrity less absolute. We saw nations determining their affair and forming new states. The right to self-determination, which used to apply only to countries under colonial rule, is now recognized as a universal right of all nations and peoples. Consequently the map of the world is being redrawn. On the contrary, with the formation of unions like the EU, state sovereignty has become more symbolic than real. Countries joining such Unions voluntarily sign treaties that undermine their sovereignty to avail their people of social and economic benefits from a large pie. We are encouraged by both trends. The increased recognition of the right of nations to self-determination gives us hope that if our genuine appeal for peace is rejected and met with violence rather than being reciprocated, as has been many times in the past, we have the right and the will to decide our fate. The trend towards cooperation is also encouraging to us because it opens new doors and creates more opportunities for our people to work with others to build a more prosperous, harmonious, stable and peaceful region…”
I think taking these two trends in to consideration, we all nations in the region called Ethiopia or Horn or Cushland should try to have one common cause and common route of journey towards the END goal of the common cause. I personally can drive from the above assertion that the common cause is to build a more prosperous, harmonious, stable and peaceful region. The feasible route to this common cause is moving from the status quo (from the unitary and very oppressive “revolutionary centralism” of Weyane), first to a true Kilil federation in which all nations in the region can have their genuine autonomy or self-administration, then secondly to achieve the necessary INDEPENDENCE of each nation to give their public verdict per referendum in a sense of self-determination so that all nations will consciously decide for the Union of Liberated Nations of the region to realize the beneficial common vision mentioned above.
In short, this will be a move from the hitherto unitary of the empire through self-administarion of nations (a kilil federation) and through self-determination of nations (a national liberation) to the END, i.e to a Union of Liberated Nations. When we look at the East African Community (EAC) member states (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda) struggling to forge a custom union, a common market and a monetary union to forge at the end a political union for common benefit, then we can only ask ourselves logically that, why should we not use the advantage of the already present custom union, common market and monetary union in the region called Ethiopia just to build a similar and optimal political union of our region on the grave of the enslaving hitherto political Ethiopian empire system.
Nowadays, even the “multi-national” parties like G-7 and UDJ have started to stress the importance of fighting first for freedom from Weyane fascism and tyranny as a precondition for the lasting multi-national democracy. The only thing such parties still need to digest is the very importance of national freedom parallel to the citizens’ individual freedom they do seem to fight for. If they do this, then they are almost on the same track and with the similar wave length to the opinion of Obbo Daawud, which I quoted above, i.e there will be no discord between the pro-democracy “multi-national” parties like G-7 and the national freedom fighters like OLF. I also don’t see any reason why other factions of OLF and other Oromo liberation movements should oppose such a move of Obbo Daawud’s group. This will be the very good base for building the very essential all inclusive TIBIBIR (alliance) against fascist Weyane. Then, it will not be difficult to coordinate overtly or covertly the opposition democratic federalists like MEDREK at home with such new TIBIBIR in Diaspora and with those moving underground to fight against the fascist regime in Ethiopia.
So I would like to recommend that all pro-freedom and pro-democracy forces do agree on the political route, i.e from the hitherto imperial unitary through a true federation and through a national liberation to a union of liberated nations as described above. This innovative move can even attract in the future nations like Eritrea, Djibouti, Somaliland, Puntland and Somalia to join the regional union. Let’s have this common vision and common route as we now start a new European year, and I wish good luck and victory for all of us in this journey for our national freedom, regional union and multi-national democracy in our common home, the Horn.
Happy new year!
Galatoomaa!
1 comment:
Everything is very open with a precise explanation of the challenges.
It was definitely informative. Your website is useful.
Many thanks for sharing!
My site - lorem ipsum meaning
Post a Comment