At the risk of sounding condescending, I am going to say this. All things considered, the Oromos have been nothing but welcoming to people of all colors and stripes from all over Ethiopia. So whenever I hear someone complaining about the recent protests across Oromia over the implementation of the Addis Ababa Master Plan, I almost cringe with embarrassment. Nobody should mistake the recent protests across Oromia as a manifestation of intolerance and racism. It might appear so at first given the guy orchestrating this whole affair is Jawar Mohammed who frankly doesn't strike a friendly tone with many people I come across.
This kind of approach sounds awfully familiar; a diaspora activist manipulating his “foot soldiers” from abroad behind the safety of his laptop, studio or whatever. I have seen him fanning this whole affair day after day on social media, yet I haven’t seen him or any of his delegates on the ground walking the talk with the crowd. The reason I think he is not doing that is because deep down he knows that will get him in trouble and endanger his safety; unlike the unlucky souls on the ground across Oromia. This, for me, is the personification of cowardice. And I think he is not alone in this respect. He is just one of a group of opposition groups based abroad who are just looking for any opportunity or opening to just slip in and have their way; probably erase any good that came out of the regime before them on their way. This part is what I find irritating about almost all opposition parties. Just before the last election, I was reading an interview with the representative of one of the main prospective political groups. Midway through interview, he said their plan was to take a majority seat in the parliament and form a government of their own. At that point, any hope I had that there will be more than one opposition member in the new parliament vanished completely.
There I was hoping and there he was dreaming. Of course you don’t ever expect a party official to throw some beat down numbers about their prospects in an election cycle but that went a step or two further. There is this “All or nothing” or “Have to start from scratch” mentality embedded in most opposition parties. Well maybe we don’t have to start from scratch or go for all or nothing. Why can’t we build on what is already there? I am not sure if this is a good analogy but I don’t think the British monarchs stopped being one after they enacted the Magna Carta in 1215. The citizens had to chip away more of their rights from their overlords over time. Now I hope ours don’t take as much given the rush people, especially party representatives, are in these days. But I am sure we will get there. God bless.
This kind of approach sounds awfully familiar; a diaspora activist manipulating his “foot soldiers” from abroad behind the safety of his laptop, studio or whatever. I have seen him fanning this whole affair day after day on social media, yet I haven’t seen him or any of his delegates on the ground walking the talk with the crowd. The reason I think he is not doing that is because deep down he knows that will get him in trouble and endanger his safety; unlike the unlucky souls on the ground across Oromia. This, for me, is the personification of cowardice. And I think he is not alone in this respect. He is just one of a group of opposition groups based abroad who are just looking for any opportunity or opening to just slip in and have their way; probably erase any good that came out of the regime before them on their way. This part is what I find irritating about almost all opposition parties. Just before the last election, I was reading an interview with the representative of one of the main prospective political groups. Midway through interview, he said their plan was to take a majority seat in the parliament and form a government of their own. At that point, any hope I had that there will be more than one opposition member in the new parliament vanished completely.
There I was hoping and there he was dreaming. Of course you don’t ever expect a party official to throw some beat down numbers about their prospects in an election cycle but that went a step or two further. There is this “All or nothing” or “Have to start from scratch” mentality embedded in most opposition parties. Well maybe we don’t have to start from scratch or go for all or nothing. Why can’t we build on what is already there? I am not sure if this is a good analogy but I don’t think the British monarchs stopped being one after they enacted the Magna Carta in 1215. The citizens had to chip away more of their rights from their overlords over time. Now I hope ours don’t take as much given the rush people, especially party representatives, are in these days. But I am sure we will get there. God bless.
