The most brutal crackdown recently conducted on peaceful student protesters, particularly in Ambo, has induced a tremendous reaction from our people – both at home and abroad. Streamlining such popular anger and uprising towards addressing the root cause of such atrocities requires the existence of a strong leadership that is equipped with a clear vision and objective. Until that miraculously happens to us, it would only be wise to initiate or participate in conversations that such mind-boggling incidents induce. In doing so, I will try to confine myself to those crucial issues I consider to be missing from the currently on-going healthy conversations.
Before coming to what happened in Ambo on 26th of April 2014, it is important to note the nature of activities that had been undertaken in a coordinated manner prior to this incident. Doing so would enable us to put the current situation in its proper setting. The usual divisive and provocative schemes were unleashed in conjunction with Emperor Menelik, Teddy Afro and Bedele Beer debacles, and open incitements at various sports arenas. All these measures, that aim at inciting one against the other, were carried out during few months preceding the current climax situation, and some are still being orchestrated to help achieve this same devilish objective.
Such things have become so much about election rituals that they would regularly be expected to be staged about a year ahead of every single election, and yet, the reaction of most of us remains almost the same each time this happens. There seems to be no learning from the previous incidents, and we are being manipulated easily by the same old tactic over and over again. For this, we should mercilessly condemn ourselves, and no one else.
Consequent to such incitements, what usually follows is separating and launching turn by turn hit operations. At this phase, the Oromo people are usually the first to be targeted. Woyanne seems to have found this strategy very expedient. By so doing, it does, not only weaken Oromo political forces ahead of the election, but also use it to assume a strong middle ground by blackmailing the rest with this same situation. If not for the existence of Woyanne in the middle, the country’s dismemberment would be brought to the horizon as a possibility, and the usual orchestration of imagined hostility existing between Amharas and Oromos would be played to the pitch. Besides, such measures will enable Woyanne to sow discord between Oromo opposition political forces and the rest by unleashing mutual incrimination of failing to stand by one another in the face of suchWoyanne atrocities. Those notorious schemes I mentioned herein above are designed to create a desired environment for such manipulations. Elections would be held and won under such manufactured circumstances repeatedly. Given these preceding repetitive occurrences, it seems that the issue of the so-called Addis Ababa Master Plan is deliberately launched at this particular time so that the anticipated, most likely, opposition to it would be used as a pretext to silence our people a year ahead of the forthcoming election.
The only difference this time around appears to be:
1) A sort of thuggish operation was waged under the guise of peaceful student protesters in Ambo. With hitherto unknown degree of animosity, brutal measures, which seemed to have aimed at rupturing the socio-political and economic fabric of the area, were undertaken. A sinister motive of alienating the indigenous business owners from the people of their own locality was also witnessed. In what appeared to mimic colonizers’ surgical operation within the communities, Ambo residents in blanket are held as potential suspects and overt and covert security forces are being embedded through all the neighborhoods, and most visibly, in most educational establishments. Using this same incident as an excuse, hundreds are being incarcerated in an apparent attempt to intimidate residents from voicing their grievances. Though the government ridiculously tried to blame the incident on unnamed so-called anti-peace elements, all leads are unmistakably pointing to the Government itself as the sole culprit of this barbaric act. The very culprit cannot be presumed to conduct an objective investigation of this same incident. Therefore, the call recently made by Opposition forces operating in the country for the establishment of an Independent Investigation Commission,undoubtedly, is supportable. But, such a Commission needs to mandatorily be comprised of notable Oromo elders, teachers and students representatives of the most affected educational establishments, area business representatives, individuals having investigation expertise, lawyers, religious leaders, and etc. The mandate for such a Commission, unlike what Ethiopian Ambassador to the United States, Ato Girma Birru, indicated, should not be limited to verifying whether or not measures taken by law enforcement forces exceeded the standard protocol put in place for dealing with such peaceful demonstrations, but it should be broad enough to enable this body to get to the bottom of what had actually happened? Who did it? Why and how it was done? And with what motive?
2) Some actions, that are being taken consequent to this incident by various entities, indicate that some other additional objectives might have also been set to be realized in conjunction with this situation. If TPLF wants to reclaim, once again, the premiership position that slipped away from its hand due to the death of the late Prime Minister, then it should do so by exposing its true nature to other member organizations of EPRDF, and thus incurring such political costs and not at the expense of any other entity. It is worth mentioning at this juncture that this (viz. 2014) is the year during which the Oromo people and peoples of the Southern Region jointly celebrate the Golden Jubilee of the historical alliance they had established on the joint forum of the Metcha and Tulema Association.
Replacing the old with the younger generation had been EPRDF’s slogan for the preceding election. As if that generational power transfer has already been realized within the last five years, replacing the not-so-educated with the most-educated seems destined to appear as a possible slogan for the forthcoming election and, hence, getting busy fetching Doctoral degree holders from London Universities within month’s time. We can live with such dramas as long as we are not required to equally be so self-deceiving. But no drama should ever be allowed to be staged at the expense of the blood of our children.
Year in, and year out, we are reacting to the agenda and timing set by others instead of us proactively pursuing our interests at our own preferred timing. When we see the current situation and the subsequent conversations ensued, we seem to still tend to stick to the agenda prepared for us, rather than evolving our own issue in due course of these conversations themselves. The single most important issue that is missing from these conversations is the issue of the Capital City of the Oromia Region. The real issue that needs to be tackled head on is this one. So far, we have only been reacting to what others had done in this respect. We have never sufficiently dwelt on the subject as it ought to have been done. Though it is long overdue, let us try to tackle this issue; at least this time, by making it part of the currently on-going conversations. On my part, I will try to share what I have been contemplating for some time now regarding this issue, on my next article.
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* Ayele Zewge Bojia can be contacted at a_bojia@yahoo.com.
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