ከሰማያዊ ፓርቲ ብሔራዊ ምክር ቤትየወጣ የአቋም መግለጫ
የሰማያዊ ፓርቲ ብሄራዊ ምክር ቤት መጋቢት 14 ቀን 2006 ዓ.ም ባካሄደው ሁለተኛ ዓመት አራተኛ መደበኛ ስብሰባው የካቲት 30 ቀን 2006 ዓም የሴቶች ቀንን ምክንያት በማድረግ በተዘጋጀው ሩጫ ላይ በተገኙ የሰማያዊ ፓርቲ ሴት አባላት ላይ ፖሊስና ፍርድ ቤት በመተባበር የፈጸሙትን ሕገ መንግስት የጣሰ ተግባር፣ እንዲሁም ከአሜሪካ መንግስት በደረሳቸው ግብዣ መጋቢት 12 ቀን 2006 ዓም ምሽት ወደ አሜሪካ ለመጓዝ ቦሌ አውሮፕላን ማረፈያ በተገኙት የፓርቲያችን ሊቀመንበር ኢ/ር ይልቃል ጌትነት ላይ ራሳቸውን ከህግ በላይ ያደረጉ የደህንነት ኋይሎች የፈጸሙትን አሳፋሪና ሕገ ወጥ ተግባር በመመርመር የሚከተለውን የአቋም መግለጫ አውጥቷል፡፡ 1. የሴቶችን ቀን ምክንያት በማድረግ በተዘጋጀው ሩጫ ላይ የተገኙ የሰማያዊ ፓርቲ ሴት አባላት በሩጫው ከተሳተፉ በሺዎች የሚቆጠሩ ሴቶች የሚለዩት የነጻነትን ቀን ሊያከብሩ በተገኙበት ቦታ ስለ ነጻነት፣ስለ ፍትህ፣ስለዴሞክራሲ፣ስለ ሰብአዊ መብት ወዘተ ድምጻቸውን ከፍ አድርገው በማሰማታቸው ብቻ ነው፡፡ ነገር ግን በህገ መንግሥቱ አንቀጽ 29/2 «ማንኛውም ሰው ያለማንም ጣልቃ ገብነት ሀሳቡን የመግለጽ ነጻነት አለው» ተብሎ የተደነገገውን ከምንም ያልቆጠረውና ሕጉን ሳይሆን ጠመንጃውን ተማምኖ፣ የሙያውን ሥነ ምግባር ሳይሆን የአለቆቹን ትዕዛዝ አክብሮ እንደሚሰራ በተግባሩ ያረጋገጠው ፖሊስ እነዚህን የሰማያዊ ፓርቲ ሴት ወጣቶች አፍሶ ሲያስር አንዳችም ህጋዊ ምክንያት አልነበረውም፣ የፖሊስ ሕገ ወጥ ተግባር በዚህ ሳያቆም የታሰሩ የትግል አጋሮቻቸው የሚገኙበትን ቦታና ሁኔታ ለማወቅ ወደ ፖሊስ ጣቢያ የሄዱ የፓርቲው አመራር አባላትንም አሰረ፡፡ ዋስትና ለማስከልከል አይደለም ለክስ የሚያበቃ ምንም ምክንያት ሳይኖረው ለፍ/ቤት ምርመራየን አልጨረስኩም የግዜ ቀጠሮ ይሰጠኝ በማለት አባላቱ ለአስር ቀናት በጣቢያ እስር እንዲጉላሉ በማድረግ ሕግን ለማስከበር ሳይሆን የፖለቲከኞችን ፍላጎት ለማስፈጸም የቆመ መሆኑን በተግባር አረጋግጠ፡፡ የሰማያዊ ፓርቲ ብሔራዊ ምክር ቤት ይህንን ሕገ መንግሥቱን በግልጽ የጣሰ የፖሊስ ተግባር በጽኑ እያወገዘ፣ፖሊስ የግለሰቦች ሥልጣን ጠባቂ ሳይሆን ሕግ አስከባሪ መሆኑን በተግባር እንዲያሳይ ይጠይቃል፡፡2. የሕገ መንግሥቱ አንቀጽ 19/4 «የያዛቸው የፖሊስ መኮንን ወይም ህግ አስከባሪ በጊዜው ገደብ ፍርድ ቤት በማቅረብ የተያዙበትን ምክንያት ካላስረዳ ፍርድ ቤቱ የአካል ነጻነታቸውን እንዲያስከብርላቸው የመጠየቅ ሊጣስ የማይችል መብት አላቸው፡፡» ተብሎ የተደነገገውንእንዲያቀርቡ አዟል፡፡ የሰማያዊ ፓርቲ ብሔራዊ ምር ፍርድ ቤቱ ለህግ የበላይነት የሚሰራና በመተላለፍ ታሳሪዎቹን የዋስትና መብት ከልክሎ ለሁለት ግዜ ለፖሊስ የግዜ ቀጠሮ የፈቀደው ፍርድ ቤት፣ የእኔ ሥልጣን አይደለም መደበኛ ፍርድ ቤት አቅርቡዋቸው በማለት ካሰናበት በኋላ የምርመራ መዝገቡ ለክስ አይበቃም ተብሎ በአቃቤ ሕግ ውድቅ የተደረገበት ፖሊስ መልሶ እዛው ፍርድ ቤት ሲያቀርባቸው እያንዳንዳቸው 1300 ብርና የሰው ዋስ በጣምራ ለፍትህ መከበር የቆመ አለመሆኑን በተግባር ያረጋገጠበትን ይህን ተግባር እያወገዘ በሕገ መንግሥቱ አንቀጽ 79/2 «በየትኛውም ደረጃ የሚገኝ የዳኝነት አካል ከማንኛውም የመንግሥት አካል፣ከማንኛውም ባለሥልጣን ሆነ ከማንኛውም ሌላ ተጽዕኖ ነጻ ነው» እንዲሁም በአንቀጽ 79/3 ዳኞች የዳኝነት ተግባራቸውን በሙሉ ነጻነት ያከናውናሉ፣ከሕግ በስተቀር በሌላ ሁኔታ አይመሩም »ተብሎ የተደነገገው በተግባር እንዲገለጽ አጥብቆ ይጠይቃል፡፡3. የፓርቲያችን ሊቀመንበር ኢ/ር ይልቃል ጌትነት ወደ አሜሪካ የሚያደርሳቸውን አስፈላጊ የጉዞ ሰነድ አሟልተው ሻንጣቸው አውሮፕላን ላይ ካስጫኑ በኋላ ፓስፖርታቸው በደህንንት ኋይሎች ተቀዶ ጉዞአቸው እንዲስተጓጎል ተደርጓል፡፡ የሰማያዊ ፓርቲ ብሔራዊ ምክር ቤት ይህን ሕገ ወጥ ብቻ ሳይሆን እጅግ አሳፋሪ የሆነና የደህንነት ክፍሉን ብቻ ሳይሆን የአየር መንገዱንም ስም የሚያጎድፍ ተግባር በጽኑ እያወገዘ ድርጊቱን በፈጸሙት ማን አለብኝ ባዮች ላይ ከሕግ በላይ ሊሆኑ እንደማይችሉ የሚያሳይ ሕጋዊ ርምጃ አንዲወሰድ እንጠይቃለን፡፡ 4--መንግሥት ለዜጎች ዴሞክራሲያዊ መብት ጥያቄ እስራት አፈናና ማስፈራራት ምላሽ እንደማይሆን ከታሪክ በመማር ለዜጎች የመብት ጥያቄ ትክክለኛውን ምላሽ እንዲሰጥና ትግሉ ሰላማዊ፣ ዓላማው ሕዝባዊ ግቡ ዴሞክራሲያዊ ሥርዓትን እውን ማድረግ ከሆነው ሰማያዊ ፓርቲ ላይ የጥፋት እጁን እንዲያነሳ አጥበቀን እንጠይቃለን ፡፡ መጋቢት 14/2006 ዓም አዲስ አበባ
Sunday, March 23, 2014
ሃያ ሦስት የስቃይ፤ የሰቆቃና የእልቂትና ዓመታት
የኢትዮጵያ ህዝብ በፋሽስቱ ህወሓት ብልሹ አስተዳደርና አምባገነናዊ አገዛዝ ስር ወድቆ በኑሮ ውድነትና በረሃብ አለንጋ እየተገረፈ፣ ሰብኣዊና ዲሞክራሲያዊ መብቱ ተነጥቆ ለአፈናና ለእስራት እየተዳረገ፣ ሉዓላዊ ክብሩ ተደፍሮ ለም መሬቱንና አንጡራ ሃብቱን እየተሸነሸነና እየተቦረቦረ ለባዕድ እየተሸጠ፣ በገዛ ሀገሩ ተፈናቃይና የውጭ እጅ ተመልካች ሆኖ ለስደትና ለእንግልት እየተዳረገ እነሆ ዛሬ ከ23 ዓመት በላይ የሰቆቃ፣ የእልቂትና የመከራ ዓመታት ተቆጠሩ።
ለአለፉት 23 ዓመታት የደፈረሰው ፖለቲካችን ወደ ጭቃነት እየተቀየረ ስለመሆኑም ምንም ምስክር አያሻውም።ፋሽስቱ ወያኔ ከሀገር ሉዓላዊነት እስከ ታሪካችን፣ ከባንዲራችን እስከ እንደ ሕዝብና እንደ ሀገር ያለን ደረጃ መቀመቅ አውርዶታል። አንዳንዶቻችን እንደዚህ ዘመን ትውልድ አባልነታችን ያለፈውን መለወጥ፣ ዛሬን የሰውነት ደረጀችን በጠበቀ ሁኔታ መኖርና ነገንም ላልተወለዱ ልጆቻችን መልክ አስይዞ ለማውረስ ከቁጥጥራችን እየወጣ መሆኑን በግልጽ እንመለከታለን። በሌላ ወገን ወያኔዎቹ የአለፉት 23 ዓመታት የአንድ ጀምበር ያህል አጥረውባቸው፤ ተጨማሪ 40 አመታትን ለመግዛት በማለም ሲንፈራገጡና በቀቢጸ ተስፋ ህዝብን ለማማለል ሲሞክሩ እያየንና እየሰማን ነው። ስንራብ መጥገባችንን ይነግሩናል። ስንታረዝ ደራርበን መጎናፀፋችን ይታያቸዋል። ሀገራችን ከአለም ሀገሮች ተርታ በሁሉም መስኮች ለማለት በሚያስደፍር ደረጃ በማይታመን ፍጥነት እየወጣች ወደ ግርጌ ስትወረወር፤ ወንበዴዎቹ ወያኔወች ግን ሀገራችን ተሞሸረች አማራች ይሉናል። የኢትዮጵያን ሕዝብ ሲረግጡት የሚደቅን ቅጠል ያህል በመቁጠር ከህግና ከአመክንዮ ውጭ በማን አለብኝነት ሕዝባችንን በንግድ ድርጅቶቻቸው እየገፈፉ እርቃኑን አስቀርተውታል።
ጉጅሌው ወያኔ ሥልጣን ሲይዝ፣ ከፎከረባቸው አንዱ፣ የኢትዮጵያ ሕዝብ በቀን ሶስቴ የሚበላበትን ሁኔት ፈጥሮ ከረሀብ በአጭር ጊዜ ውስጥ የሚገላገልበትን ባዶ ቃል ኪዳን ገብቶ ነበር። ነገር ግን ዛሬ የኢትዮጵያ ሕዝብ በቀን ሶስቴ አበሳውን እየበላ ይገኛል። ምግብማ ከየት ተገኝቶ! ረሀቡ፣ ጠኔው ከዛሬ ሀያ ዓመት ሁኔታ በሶስት ዕጥፍ ጨምሮ፣ ዛሬ እስከ 25 ሚሊዮን ሕዝብ ጦሙን የሚያድርባት አገር ስለሆነች በየጊዜው የተባበሩት መንግስታትና የበጎ አድራጎት ድርጅቶች ከሚያወጡት መግለጫ መረዳት ይቻላል። ዛሬማ፣ ነጻ ገበያ ብሎ የፎከረብን ነጻነት ተረስቶ የዘይትና የስኳር ዋጋ እስከመቆጣጠር ገብቷል። ከመብራት፣ ውሃና ኔትዎርክም ብሶ ህዝብ በእጦት ከፍተኛ ስቃይ ውስጥ ይገኛል። በቅርቡም በመላ ሃገሪቱ መብራት፣ ውሃና ኔትዎርክ እጦትን አስመልክቶ ሰልፍ ሊወጣ ቅድመ ዝግጅቶች እየተገባደዱ እንደሆነም እየተሰማ ነው። ከዚህ በላይ የጨለማ ጊዜ የለም።
የወያኔ አገዛዝ ለአለፉት 23 ዓመታት የሀገሪቱን ብሄራዊ ጥቅም አሳልፎ በመስጠትም በተደጋጋሚ ብሄራዊ ክህደት ሲፈጽም የቆየ ቡድን ነው። ይህንን ብሄራዊ ክህደት ሲፈጽም ካለማወቅ፤ ከችኮላ ወይም በደመነፍስ ከመጓዝ የተሠራ ስህተት አይደለም። ከአጠቃላይ የፓለቲካ ስትራተጂውና ግብ ጋር የተያያዘ አካሄድ ስለመሆኑ መስካሪ አያሻም። ፋሽስቱ ህወሓት በህዝብ የተተፋ ቡድን በመሆኑ የሀገሪቱን ፓለቲካና ኤኮኖሚ ለመቆጣጠር የውጭ ኃይሎችን የገንዘብ፤ የወታደራዊና የዲፕሎማሲያዊ ድጋፍ ስለሚሻ ነው የሀገሪቷን ብሄራዊ ጥቅሞች መረን በለቀቀና ድፍረት በተሞላበት መልክ ለውጭ ኃይሎች በየጊዜው አሳልፎ የሚሰጠው።ለዚህም ነው የምግብ እጥረት ያለባት የሀገራችንን ሰፋፊ ድንግል መሬቶቿን ለሀገሪቷ ዜጎች ከልክሎና አፈናቅሎ ለመካከለኛው ምሥራቅና ለእስያ ሀገሮች ልማታዊ ድርጅቶች በነፃ በሚባል ደረጃ እስከ 99 ዓመት በሚደርስ ውል ፈርሞ እየሸጠ የሚገኘው። ሰፊ ለም የድንበር መሬታችንንም ቆርሶ ለባዕዳን በመሸጥ ላይም ለመሆኑ ከሰሞኑ ለሱዳን ተላልፎ የተሰጠው መሬት ማስረጃ ነው።
በርግጥ የተደራረበ ጭቆናና መከራ ያንገሸገሸውና በልቡ የሸፈተው ህዝብ የጥቂት አምባገነኖችና ሰው በላ መሪዎች የባርነት ቀንበር ተሸክሞ ዘላለም መኖር እንደማይችል ግልፅ እየሆነ መጥቷል። በመሆኑም እንደ እሳተ ጎመራ ውስጡ ውስጡን እየተብላላ ቆይቶ ዛሬ ሊፈነዳ የተቀራበውን የህዝብ ዓመፅ መለብለብ የማይቀርላቸው መሆኑን በውል የተረዳው የጉጅሌው ወያኔ ቡድን ከመቼውም በላይ በፍርሃትና በጭንቀት ተውጠው እንዳበደ ውሻ መቅበዝበዝ፣ መወራጨት፣ መናከስና መተራመስ እንደ ጀመሩ በጋሃድ እየታየ ነው። ባለፈው ሳምንት በሰማያዊ ፖርቲ ሴት አመራርና አባላት መሪነት የታየውን አመጽ ተከትሎ ፋሽስቱ ወያኔ የወሰደው እርምጃ ለዚህ በቂ ማሳያ ነው። ሌላው የአዋጅ ጋጋታ፣ የዉሸት እምብልታ፣ ዜጎችን ያላንዳች ምክንያት ማስፈራራት፣ እስር ቤት ማጎር፣ ማሳደድ፣ መግረፍና ማፍን የመሳሰሉ የቀቢፀ ተስፋ እርምጃዎች በግልፅ የሚያሳዩን የስርዓቱን መፈረካከስና የውድቀቱን ዋዜማ መቃረቡን ነው።
ስለዚህ ግንቦት 7 የፍትህ የነፃነትና ዲሞክራሲ ንቅናቄ ይህንን በሞት ጣር ላይ ሆኖ እያቃሰተ የሚገኘውን አገዛዝ ለአንዴና ለመጨረሻ ጊዜ ለመቅበር መፍትሄው በእጃችን ነው ይላል። ግንቦት 7 መፍትሔው ስለጨቀየው ፖለቲካ እያወሩ ፈጣሪ ባመጣው ይመልሰው ማለት አይደለም ብሎ በፅኑ ያምናል። መፍትሔው እርስ በእርሳችን ስንወጋገዝ መኖርም ሳይሆን ልዩነቶቻችን በማጥበብ፤ ጠብታዎች ባህር እዲሆኑ ማድረግ ነው። መፍትሔው እጅን አጣምሮ ጥቂቶች ታምር እንዲሰሩ መጠበቅም አይደለም። መፍትሔው ከያንዳንዳችን የሚጠበቀውን ሌላውን ሳንጠበቅ መወጣት እንጂ። ስለዚህ አምባገነኖችን መካብ ዙፋናቸውን አግዝፎ በመመልከት ከትግል መሸሽ የችግሩ መፍትሔ በጭራሽ ስለማይሆን ኑ! ግንቦት 7 የፍትህ የነፃነትና የዲሞክራሲ ንቅናቄ አገዛዙን ከህዝብ ጫንቃ ለማውረድና ሃገርን ለማዳን እያደረገ ያለውን ትግል ይቀላቀሉ በማለት ሃገራዊ ጥሪውን በድጋሚ ያቀርባል።
Saturday, March 22, 2014
In Ethiopia better citizens languish in prison By Jonas Clinton
As the most educated Ethiopian immigrants migrate to North America looking for economical opportunities, it has been suggested, and most will end up being stalwart of customer service jobs such as driving taxis and ultimately shutter an Ethiopian dream of being useful to their home countries. In Ethiopia, like in North America, where the most inspiring, patriotic and educated citizens are located is not in the important institutions of the country being part of the affairs of the country, but like in North America, in the wrong places, inside the brutal and deadly Kaliti prison.
Early this month, a milestone was reached in Kaliti prison, one of Africa’s worst prisons, as one of its celebrated political prisoners, Reeymot Alemu, marked her 1000th day of being a political prisoner. The award winning journalist of the prestigious UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Prize and the Hellman/Hammett Press Freedom Prize, Reeymot is fast becoming the face of Ethiopia and how wrong the country’s progress and priority has been.
The now 35 year old Alemu, was an English teacher and an occasional journalist when she was noticed by the Ethiopian government. She was one of Ethiopia’s eloquent voices in the then rare independent print media –Feteh – and wrote on government shortcomings and policies. In a country that still views constructive criticism as treason; the paper she wrote for was closed down by government officials and most of its journalists fled the country.
Alemu stayed behind and in a bold and daring move, started her own monthly publication – Change – and focused on long investigative reporting.
As she became a noted voice, the Ethiopian government closed her new publication and charged the young journalist with treason under Ethiopia’s 2009 Anti-Terrorism Proclamation. The Anti-Terror Proclamation was, according to Amnesty International, is intended to “restrict freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and the right to fair trial with serious implications”.
She was tried and convicted in secret with no substantive evidence and was sent to prison for 14 years and a monetary fine of $1500 – a hefty fine in Ethiopia. The government wanted to use her as an example to surpass other journalists, much like the respected Eskender Nega, and have them endorse government propaganda’s instead.
Since her arrest, She has been denied due medical care, been confined to darkness and been denied basic necessities of life in anticipation of her sharing information on her former journalist colleagues. She has refused as her suffering has continued.
Ethiopia has continued to arrest and imprison journalists while embracing its reputation of being an oppressor of press freedom and dissent in Ethiopia. Alemu once reflected how she believes that she “must contribute something to bring a better future (to Ethiopia).”Since there are a lot of injustices and oppressions in Ethiopia, I must reveal and oppose them in my articles,” and that her “principles” is “to stand for the truth, whether it is risky or not.”
As Ethiopia refuses to acknowledge the brutal treatment of its better citizens such as Nega and Alemu and many other political prisoners – what is fast becoming is the reality that Ethiopia is still a broken system that rewards bad while punishes good as it transitions to a better country in name only.
Source; Ethiomedia forum
የኢንጅነር ይልቃል ጌትነት የአሜሪካ ጉዞ ተስተጓጎለ
የሰማያዊ ፓርቲ ሊቀመንበር ኢንጅነር ይልቃል ጌትነት በአሜሪካ መንግስት ስቴት ዲፓርትመንት የአፍሪካ ስኬታማና በቀጣይነትም ሀገራቸውን መምራት የሚችሉ ወጣት መሪ ተብለው መመረጣቸውን ተከትሎ ከአሜሪካ መንገስት በቀረበላቸው ግብዣ መሰረት ለሶስት ሳምንታት ጉብኝት ወደ አሜሪካ ሊያደርጉት የነበረው የበረራ ፕሮግራም በህወሓት/ኢህአዴግ ተስተጓጎለ፡፡
ትናንት ሌሊት በረራ ለማድረግ ወደቦሌ ኤርፖርት አምርተው የነበሩት ኢንጅነር ይልቃል፣ ስፍራው ደርሰው ፓስፖረታቸውን ቸክ ለማድረግ ለጠየቃቸው አካል (የህወሓት/ኢህአዴግ አሽከር መሆኑ ነው) ሲያሳዩ ተቀብሎ ፓስፖርታቸውን መሐል ለመሐል ሊቀደው ችሏል፡፡ በመቀጠልም ‹በተቀደደ ፓስፖርት› አትሄድም በማለት ጉዞውን ሊያስተጓጉለው ችሏል፡፡ ጅራፍ ራሱ ገርፎ ራሱ ይጮሃል ነው ነገሩ፡፡
የዚህ ጉዞ ሙሉ ወጭ የተሸፈነው በአሜሪካ መንግስት ነው፡፡ ከፓርቲው ያገኘነው መረጃ እንደሚጠቁመው የሊቀመንበሩ ጉዞ መደረጉ አይቀርም፡፡ ይህ የኢህአዴግ ድርጊት ግን ምን ያህል እንደወረዱ እንደሚያሳይ ነው የመረጃ ምንጫችን የጠቆመው፡፡
ኢንጅነር ይልቃል ለአሸናፊነት የበቁት ‹‹የአሁኑ ወጣት የአፍሪካ መሪና ወደፊትም ለአገራቸው መሪ ሊሆኑ የሚችሉ፣ በአስቸጋሪ ሁኔታ ውስጥ ጥሩ ስራ የሰሩ መሪዎች መካከል በተደረገ ውድድር በአሜሪካ መንግስት ስቴት ዲፓርትመንት›› መስፈርቱን አሟልተው በመገኘታቸው ነው፡
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Letter To My Son
| Eskinder with son Nafkot |
population. But strike only against a handful and copious number of peoples are hypnotized into inaction. Our collective dignity, as the world’s oldest black nation, demands that this spell be broken irrevocably.
It troubled them greatly because they did not know how to defeat it. Tyranny is a function of fear: the terror of state violence, the menace of imprisonment, the dread of imposed penury. None of these, however, could be applied against an entire
No myth has had wider resonance than the supposed gulf in history, lifestyle, psychology and hence politics between nations. Indeed the measure of progress has trended at varying pace for disparate peoples. But between antiquity and the 16th century, when the first flicker of scientific revolution appeared with the works of Copernicus in astronomy, the rift between the most advanced and the primal was inconsequential. It took two more centuries, until the invention of the steam engine in 1789 in Britain, before science commenced to transform society. Up to this time, the structural gap between Europe, the most advanced, and Africa, perhaps the least developed, was no more dramatic than the cleavage between rural and urban Europe itself. Only in the last 100-150 years was there a recognizable paradigm shift, with rural Europe finally overtaken by the rise of cities.
No country save the British, with their Magna Carta in 1215 and bill of rights in 1689, could claim centuries old evolution of democratic institutions. The rest of the world plunged haphazardly and unceremoniously into an unexplored world of democratic reconfiguration. The trail blazer, revolutionary France, in 1789, did not seek space for evolution to abscond from the bosom of one of Europe’s most strident monarchy to the enduringly seminal rights of men men and citizen; which enshrined not merely for France but for all humanity the principle of a gov ernment constrained by law. No less significantly France and many parts of Western Europe were democratic well before a sizable middle class emerged. The same holds for Britain. The U.S., too, was not only securely democratic in the early 19th century, but was also a nation with an overwhelmingly rural citizenry.
But fast forward to the mid-20th century and democratic countries were still far from the norm. It took a world war between 1939 and 1945 for democracy to reverse catastrophic slide and settle for an uneasy parity with ascending totalitarianism in Europe. An additional four- decades long cold war, spanning 1945 to 1990, was needed to decide the winner convincingly. Only then did democracy attain momentum.
Despite the popular convention mischievously amplified by most autocrats, to deter demands for rights, no people or country could plausibly claim an extended tradition of democracy. Unless, that is, the last 200 years of humanity’s 5,000 years of communal history is deemed as elongated.
And it seems Africa has finally moved to aptly realign with history. The tempo is to boldly march the French way. The result is breathtaking. Over two decades, the period between the collapse of Communism, in 1989, to the end of the first decade of the new millennium, Africa was transfigured from a repository of fatuous dictators to a stronghold of more democracies than Asia, the continent with the fastest growing middle class in history. How Ethiopia lagged in this transformative saga of African renaissance and reformation accounts for my imprisonment, cruelly and yet impersonally imperiling my prized duty as a father.
My parents brief matrimony was an early causalty of the intractable tension between tradition and modernity in post-liberation Ethiopia. Gruesome though the Italian occupation was, in the late 1930s, it tore down a smug culture of complacency. The need to modernize, to embrace the know-how of the outside world, was no more in doubt. The ease with which the nation had fallen to fascist Italy was proof beyond reproach. That my parents, both hailing from profoundly conservative Orthodox families, who traditionally equated modern education with Catholicism, were allowed to attend school is testimony of how deep feelings run.
Modern Singapore’s founding father, Lee Kuan Yew, idealizes, by way of his still ongoing great marriage debate, the kind of union my parents forged. Highly intelligent, both had won super-competitive scholarships to do tertiary studies in American universities. Father was in New Jersey at Rutgers University for six years. Mother’s tenure at the American University of Beirut, the jewel of higher education in the Middle East, was shorter, having pursued postgraduate studies for a year. Both returned home full of energy, with [a] plethora of bright ideas, and a healthy dose of the sanguine optimism of the inexperienced.
Like many of htier contemporaries, their rise was swift, easy and assimilated in style. Both were successful, upwardly mobile, and still hungry for more when they met. The only predicament was in how they personally embraced modernity, an allegory of the dilemma at the national level.
To his credit father did not yield to the sentiment which Lee Kuan Yew ruefully laments about: the compulsion of educated young men to marry down. In mother he met a remarkably rare Ethiopian woman: financially independent, educated, emotionally secure as a single woman, and no less ambitious than himself. But unlike many of his peers he did not dive for cover. He was in fact a persistent pursuer, her repeated protestation notwithstanding. She was not particularly wary of him, rather she was circumspect of her odds in a primeval society. But in the end, I presume, his charm, and certainly family pressure, inexorably prevailed. A lavish wedding sealed the pact.
Unlike virtually all the women of her generation, education had emancipated mother not only financially, but crucially, emotionally. Reversal of either was unsavory, to be fended off at any cost. She was in a sense a feminist, absent the creed. There was little of the past she cared for. To exemplify her feelings, she started smoking, though discretely. Had he known, her devoutly religious father would have simply died of grief. Neither, as far as I could discern, did father. He would have certainly balked at the prospect of a smoking wife. Even if he had wanted to oblige her, society, his friends and kin would have censured him. But every puff was an exhilarating expression of freedom for her. Freedom not from want, but the strictures imposed by tradition. When she finally stopped, after her divorce, it was for my sake. I was trying to emulate the only parent I knew. And by this time she also had a more serious diversion to engage her energy; the quest, unprecedented in Ethiopia, to prove that there can be a better life for a single woman after a divorce. Her vindication came, in little over five years, by way of the most successful clinic in the country, which she owned and managed. Father, awed and embarrassed, could only watch from the sidelines. A rebellious wife customarily returned to her husband chastened and humbled.
To all appearances, father was the quintessential modern man. He was moderately liberal, he lived in the right neighborhood, he dressed fashionably, his English was faultless, and until the rise of communism drove the latest cars. And he had money. But this was only the façade. His acquiescence to modernity extended only slightly beyond these parameters. The nucleus of the values he internalized from society, which were in need of metamorphosis to complement his public image, remained intact.
In this sense his profiles outlines the paradox that is the modern Ethiopian intellectual. There is the fixation with the façade of modernity—the technology, the infrastructure, the economy, the lifestyl. But there is also the corresponding resistance to its essential modus operandi— a radically transformed worldview. This means redefined relationships between husband and wife; parents and children; individual and society; the state and its citizens.
To mother, on the other hand, most established values were anachronistic. She had no compunction discarding them. In their place, a singular fixation with independence took hold. Society was, of course, less than ready to accommodate her. Though unexpressed, her husband had expected blunting of the fiery spirit, a gradual but inevitable acceptance of a place in life as a stay-at-home-mom. She thought otherwise. Forsaking a secure and well-paying job, when females with jobs were a rarity, for a precarious entrepreneurial venture was inexplicable. Both departures from convention were broadly misread as expressions of aggressive disposition. Few were able to see an indomitable spirit of individualism that make a modern society possible. This discord between a cumbersome past and a future grappling to unfold is also at the core of our national dispute over democracy.
A coarse encounter between the novel and the archaic is as old as history itself. The anecdotal evidence is rarely for the new to relinquish to the old. After all, women no[w] live in a far more liberate milieu than the yesteryears when few brave souls like mother were challenging convention.
Our modern politics has its genesis in a coup attempt in 1960. Though overwhelmed with relative ease, it left a lasting imprint on history by precipitating the rise of a fiery student movement, a precursor to the nation’s major political parties. Inspired by Egypt’s much romanticized coup, in 1952, which propelled young left-leaning revolutionary officers to power, Ethiopia’s was the first shot by soldiers to seize state power in black Africa. But while Egypt’s was conscientiously planned and executed to eschew violence, Ethiopia’s was marred by wan ton carnage. Thus the debut of modern Ethiopian politics shadowed by unbridled violence. Fifty years later, the menace of brute force still lies at the heart of politics.
By the reckoning of the imperial government, father, like many of the intelligentsia, harbored suspect reformist sentiments. Though rewarded with high positions at an early age, there was tension in his relationship with the government. But it was tension devoid of danger for both sides. For the government, father and many of the young Turks, as they were propitiously called by some, posed no danger of subversion. They were impatient for hasty reform from inside, not calamitous revolution from outside. Even if the young Turks had their way, the result would be far less than catastrophic, with some measure of discomfort, they were tolerated. And indeed no sedition was ever intended by the young Turks. All they wanted was to upgrade, not change, the software. This somewhat cozy but uneasy bond between government and intelligentsia was upstaged the day university students flooded the streets in support of the coup attempt.
In 1960, the year of the coup attempt, Ethiopia’s elite center of learning was cloistered in a lone university college. A full-fledged university had yet to be realized. This was almost a generation after liberation from the Italians. In about the same interval, war-ravaged Germany and Japan had not only reconstructed but were on the verge of crossing new economic frontiers. Ethiopia’s shortcoming was manifestly evident. And finally a new generation scandalized by the inertia, indolence, stoicism and cynicism had risen. It was palpably time for change. The 1960s could be credibly dubbed as the decade of student movements. But at its dawn, students nurtured no greater ambition than to be part of the global post-war economic boom. The revered genre of the silent, strong male, which dominated the 1950s, was still paramount. By the mid-1960s, Vietnam radicalized American youth, primarily on its colleges and universities. In France it was another war, Algeria, that was the impetus for campus militancy. In Iran and Europe [think he meant Ethiopia] it was a coup, successful in the case of the former, [a] debacle in the latter. The quartet gave the world the most animated students in history. By the mid-1970s, however, the Americans and French had fizzled out. The Ethiopians and Iranians peaked in the late 1970s, and quietly faded into oblivion in the early 1980s.
But their fleeting existence notwithstanding they left behind powerful legacies. The backlash against the counter-culture (contempt for authority and tradition) the students triggered in the US made the seminal presidencies of Nixon and Reagan possible. It took the coalition forged by Obama to win a second term to alter the dynamics of American politics. At their peak, Iranian students mesmerized the world by storming the US embassy in Tehran and humiliating a proud superpower. In less than a decade and a half, Ethiopian students inspired a nation to uproot a monarchy that had preserved for a millennium.
Though they were from four far-flung continents, had distinct histories, and promoted radically different visions, the students shared a common denominator: disdain for the status- quo. To the Americans no one older than 30 was trustworthy. As a way to unshackle tradition, they attacked its prudish sexual mores. The French were unduly agitated against their government, and vented their anger on the streets of Paris with passion unseen since the storming of the Bastille. After rejecting the modernizing pretensions of their foreign-tainted monarch, Iranian students yearned for the purity of a lost age. To the Ethiopian students, groomed by rote learning rather than critical thinking, Marxism became the Holy Grail, the panacea to all the nation’s ills.
But a pivotal divide also separated them. The Americans and the French lived in free societies. There were adept political parties, vibrant free press, useful civic organizations, multitude of professional and trade unions to channel grievances and represent interests. None of these were about to be supplanted by students. The Ethiopians and Iranians lived in tired monarchies. There were no conduits for dissent. Here was an opening for transformative impact.
Unlike the Japanese and the Chinese after the madness of the Cultural Revolution, Ethiopian students never really made the crucial connection between the indigenization of science and development. They saw national redemption primarily in the social sciences, and many of the best students flocked to them in droves despite steady underperformance on standardized reading and comprehension tests. To father and his generation, the monarchy was sacrosanct. Very few of them flirted with republicanism. Their ideal was a British monarchy. To the students who were embittered and abruptly radicalized by the events of 1960, the monarchy, and the US, which was implicated in the reversal of the coup attempt, became loathed icons. Embracing socialism seemed only logical and inevitable. And here is where an academic culture chronically short on critical thinking was to have detrimental effect. Whereas in the U.S. and France deep scholarly foundations mitigated against the swamping of the student majority by extremism, in Ethiopia and Iran intellectual buffers against infantile radicalization were ominously absent. But while Iranian students rallied around grassroot sentiments for religious chas tity and nationalism, only Ethiopian students militated against all things aboriniginal. Nothing was sacred to them. The emperor was lampooned. Religion was rejected. Culture was mocked. Tradition was attacked. History was disputed. Ethnicity was politicized. It was a tsunami at full thrust against all things established. A good measure of excitement was the intriguing possibility of engineering society from scratch.
But rejection is virtually a carefree venture. There is little strenuous intellectual effort involved. The demanding undertaking lies in the pursuit and nourishment of an alternative consensus. Ultimately, this is where the students failed calamitously. Singularly transfixed with rebellion, and only perfunctorily with its aftermath, they were governed by no moral codes, were disciplined by no hierarchy, and were direly lacking sense of proportion to temper emotions. In this sense, they had no analogue in the Americans or the French. Nor indeed in the Iranians. The Americans and the French were ultimately anchored by nationalism and ingrained identity. The Iranians of course had religion. Having rejected both nationalism and religion, Ethiopian students had nothing durably satiating to replace them with. This was the pristine environment in which militancy thrived. Extremism thus became not a mere idiosyncrasy, but rather the structural building block of the movement. Tragically, what the Ethiopians radicalized was really nothing more than nihilism. The mania was to tear down an existing order. In the end, after the collapse of the imperial order, only a small minority, by now metamorphasized into armed insurgents, had the energy to tread o. The majority was too exhausted to continue, opting for exile and a well-earned rest in the West.
Of [A] multitude of vague memories from my distant childhood, the sense of dread that permanently enveloped my grandmother’s home, where my mother and I lived intermittently after the divorce, still lingers with me. Years later, in the 1990s, I was to learn, rather to my shock, ours was only one of a handful of families in the neighborhood that mourned the fall of Haile Selassie, the diminutive king who had held sway over the nation for over half a century. Initially I thought it was loss of privilege that explained our anomalous. But I know now there was more.
If one word was to render the spirit of the revolution, it would certainly be equality. An inordinate passion for equality suddenly bewitched the public—what in theory could only have meant equality of opportunity was in practice subverted to imply equality of merit. Not even the elderly, the repository of wisdom in traditional thinking, were to be deferred to anymore. The nation’s best and brightest, whose income, lifestyle and manners marked them from the majority, became more subjects of derision than role models. They were no more in vogue. It was time to celebrate mediocrity, to artificially elevate it to a higher podium. This atmosphere endured, with disastrous consequences for the entire reign of the military dictatorship, the guardian of the revolution and still influences the present. It is this pauperization of value that lies at the provenance o fthe national malaise that has numbed the intellectual elite.
To be fair, many nations, including the meritocratic U.S., where guilt-ridden 2008 (2012?) presidential candidate Mitt Romney was bullied for his wealth, occasionally toy with debased populism, but rarely has it persisted with the kind of intensity evident in Ethiopia. It was this slide to debauched populism that distressed grandmother’s household. It was a prescient reserve that anticipated an impending moral morass.
The ultimate failure of the military dictatorship, including its gross human rights violations, is the failure of Communism. But even within the narrow constraints of communism, more was possible. The Soviets failed broadly but compensated with a world-class military- industrial complex. Nothing works in Cuba except health services, one of the best in Latin America. Mao’s China at least liberated a billion plus mass of humanity from worry about its quotidian meals. Ditto for many Communist countries, where a lone bright spot attested to the restrained potential of an oppressed people. But because the principal consensus in postrevolutionary Ethiopia had been an unremitting joy derived from the leveling of society, a culture against exceptionalism gained traction. Blending became the default modus operandi both at the individual and group levels. No distinction was made between superiority stemming from privilege and superiority attained by merit. For a government fighting multiple insurgencies, this was a fatal shortcoming. Unable to build a professional army based on merit, it eventually succumbed not to superior force but to weaker adversaries who had assembled meritocratic fighting machines. It took seventeen years, but there was no avoiding it: grandmother was vindicated. And she lived to see it all. God bless her soul.
Sadly, the implosion of the military dictatorship did not necessarily entail reorientation of national disposition. On the contrary, unlike their less fortunate, American, French and Iranian brethren, Ethiopian students, untempered by outside influence, ascended to power in 1991 and had their nation at their complete mercy. And they did what was unthinkable to everyone but the puritan nihilist: facilitated—nay, promoted—the secession of Eritrea, the heartland of historical Ethiopia. Whether the nation will survive the shock that ensued is still an open question.
But while this is where we are, our future is not predestined. The future is malleable, at least in its mid to long-term facets. This is God’s way of internalizing hope into our existence. And best of all, the age of the students is fading. Consider recent events.
Even in sane democracies, the death of a nation’s leader can be the slow motion drama that it customarily is in autocracies. In contentedly democratic Ghana, where the specter of succession no more bodes the possibility of bloodletting, the president’s ill-health was the state’s most guarded secret. When John Atta Mills finally spoke of his illness, it was to insist of a successful cure. In the spirit of the famous adage, he wanted a return to normalcy. What he lacked, though, was an obliging public. This is Ghana, after all. Cynicism, one could argue plausibly, is a national brand. But in the end, even his deputy and successor, John Mahama, could not help but be caught unawares by his boss’s abrupt transition.
In increasingly Orwellian Ethiopia, the mere mention of the leader’s ailment required a radical departure from an entrenched—and prized—ethos of opacity. The enduringly hapless Ethiopian public does not expect to be told the truth by its government. The absence, not the histrionics itself, would have surprised Ethiopians. Thus only the hopelessly guileless were surprised by the delayed news of the leader’s death.
The paranoia is hardly misplaced. The death of despots has altered the course of national histories scores of times, and sometimes even world history.
One of the greatest empires in world history, that of Alexander the Great, simply collapsed with news of his early death; clearing the path for the rise of the Romans. The inopportune death of Odedai Khan saved Europe from an unstoppable Mongolian invading army in 1241. Had the Mongolians overrun Europe as they did China, world history would have changed beyond recognition. Along with the body of Oliver Cromwell was buried the political prospect of republicanism in 17th century England. Ominously, cautionary tales from local history are hardly in want. The legacies of Ethiopia’s last four kings, stretching from mid-19th century to mid-20th century, have all been marred by lack of continuity. And now there is the instinctive inkling by Ethiopia’s ruling party that history is about to repeat itself. But this time, absence of an enduring legacy awaits not merely a leader or party but an entire generation, the spirited students of the 1960s. Theirs will mostly be a legacy of infamy. To paraphrase Reagan, a legacy meant for the trash bin of history.
Life is tragically short. But only when challenged by a mid-life crisis, or when shock is triggered by illness or accident, does existence’s fleeting status dominate consciousness. How people react to the challenge is a measure of character. The broad motions people go through, however, are well established. There is the initial dazed realization of how disloyally momentary life is, then a reaction abounds, and finally, either stoically or grudgingly, acceptance of the inevitable assumes primacy. Prison has been the triggering element for me. And however exalted, the cause of justice is that has landed me here.
I miss you and your mother terribly. The pain is almost physical. But in this plight of our family is embedded hope of a long suffering people. There is no greater honor. We must bear any pain, travel any distance, climb any mountain, cross any ocean to complete this journey to freedom. Anything less is impoverishment of our soul. God bless you, my son. You will always be in my prayers.
Eskinder Nega
Kaliti Prison
Monday, March 17, 2014
አልቀይዳ ወደ ፊት ከሚያጠቃቸው ሀገሮች ዝርዝር ወስጥ ኢትዮጵያን አካተተ
Ethiopia included in al Qaeda's next target: terror organization's ...
አልቀይዳ ወደ ፊት ከሚያጠቃቸው ሀገሮች ዝርዝር ወስጥ ኢትዮጵያን ማካተቱን የሽብር ድርጅቱ በሚያሳትመው ኢንስፓየር መፅ ሔት ገለፀ።
የአሜሪካው abc ዜና አውታር እንደዘገበው በአልቀይዳ በሚታተመው መፅሔት ባለፈው መስከረም በ ኬንያ እና በ 2010 በአዑጋንዳ የተፈፀመውን የሽብር ጥቃት በማስምልከት ከሁለቱ ሀገሮች ስም አጠገብ ምልክት (ቼክ ማርክ) አድርገዋል።
ይህም የጥቃት እቅዳቸውን ማሳካታቸውን ለማመላከት ይሆናል ተብሏል።
ኢትዮጵያን ጨምሮ ጅቡቲን፣ቡሩንዲ እና ሴራልዮን ስም አጠገብ ደግሞ ምልክት አለማድረጋቸው ወደፊት የአልቀይዳ ጥቃት ኢላማ ውስጥ መግባታቸውን ማመላከቻ ሊሆን ይችላል ተብሏል።
ከዚህ ሌላ መፅሔቱ በዩናይትድ ስቴትስ መንግስት ለተገደሉት የአሜሪካ ዜግነት ያላቸው አባሎቹ ሰፊ ሽፋን ሰጥቷል። እንዴት በቤት ወስጥ ቦምብ መስራት እንደሚቻል እና በአሜሪካ የሚኖሩ ሰዎችን ማጥቃት እንደሚቻል መመሪያ ማውጣቱን የአሜሪካ የሽብር-አፀፋ መላሽ ክፍል ኃላፊ ለabc ዜና አውታር ተናግረዋል።
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