Comment: About an article on Ethiomedia

By Ekulinet
June 4, 2006

Even though I am not a member of any political party, I have been very enthusiastic when hearing about the formation of AFD. The point here is not making all parties think the same way. My brother/sister Andinet, husband and wife, who we can consider as the most coupled parties on the earth would always have some differences that one has to respect for the other in order to live together. Otherwise, if one is forced to follow the idea of the other the result is a divorce. We have to respect the ideas of individuals and groups of individuals in order to live together [Techachilo Menor].

Reading your article entitled "The public needs clarification: AFD must come out boldly in defense of Ethiopian Unity and Sovereignty” on the Ethiomedia Page, I asked my self, why some people are so restrictive and negative? From our recent history, I hope you agree that Mengistu would have been a champion in singing this song of “Ethiopian Unity and Sovereignty”. The problem has never been lack of wish for the unity and sovereignty, the problem is rather how to achieve it? I would like to underline that unity can be achieved only if there is equality (ANDINET ke EKULINET gar). In the history of Ethiopia, there has been and there is unity among people but it still lacks voluntary unity that is based on mutual benefits. Why are people resisting? Why are these liberation organizations formed? Is it totally for nothing? Definitely, there have been partialities and inequalities enforced by the governing bodies in the past and at present.

After reading your article which puts OLF and the likes at the hard and red corner of the playing field and CUD at the soft and green corner, I read the OLF Mission and found nothing wrong except saying that they would like see a country that is formed based on the equality and interest of its people (http://www.oromoliberationfront.org/OLFMission.htm). Such a partial and unfair judgment that places one party as the neat and capable and the other as a threat and incapable with out tangible reason is our inherited problem that is the cause of our failure in the history. Just one question! If OLF was allowed to freely participate in last year’s election, can you guess how many places it would have won?

It is very easy for me and you to type in comments to a computer screen but the efforts required to bring group of parties to agree on some minimum platform so as to allow them enjoy their internal freedom and also work together is not a simple task. There is no way that they talk about the issue of article 39 at this level. By the way article 39 is not a threat to the unity of Ethiopia, for me it will not also be a threat and can be there or it can be removed. The big threat to Ethiopian unity is poverty, partiality and inequality not only by the governing body but also (equally or even more importantly) the partial outlook of people like me and you. We have to avoid judging people with the biased and incomplete history that we come across in our course of life.

To conclude, I personally appreciate the efforts made to have this much of common ground and would like to encourage them to continue towards achieving that common goal while enjoying their internal freedom. They could also learn from their success and place more and more common agendas through time.

[Ke Wedimawi Selamta Gar]

Best regards
Ekulinet

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The writer can be contacted for comments at ekulinet@yahoo.com