A democratically-elected government is the only way to legitimacy and to bring peace and harmony among all Ethiopian anywhere on the globe, and thereby pave the way for an all-round political, social and economic development with the full and equal participation of all Ethiopians. To help in achieving this lofty goal, I want to recall some events from the past in order to serve as a basis for useful lessons to mould our Country's future,

I would like to recall with you some of our recent history of division ( Pardon any errors since I am not a historian !) with the hope that the common threads in that history will help us to gather some lessons and make a radical departure from a wasted past and take a bold step into the future in the best interest of all of us and our Motherland.

I shall first briefly recall our collective (i) experience in the student movement of the 1960s and 1970s, (ii) experiences of the elite in Government, and (iii) the political power game and party proliferation since the 1990s. Then, I shall conclude with an appeal to my fellow elites to avoid division and march together in the remaining months of 2004 by agreeing on, and implementing, a humble proposal for a WAY FORWARD.

EXPERIENCES IN THE STUDENT MOVEMENT OF THE 1960S AND 1970S

The Ethiopian student movement can, perhaps, be regarded as having started at UCAA in 1959, partly because of the infusion of new ideas since 1958 from foreign students who were attending UCAA as scholarship students, and partly because of the simmering but covert dissatisfaction of Ethiopians of Eritrean origin with the developments in the administrative arrangements of the federation, and partly due to the prevailing leftist agenda of that day and the impatience of students with the pace of development in Ethiopia. The movement gathered momentum year after year, and it gave rise to UCU, NUEUS and the "Crocodiles".

Abroad, there were ESUNA and ESANA in North America, and ESUE in Europe, and a group in Algiers that laid down the ideological basis for EPRP and the first enunciation of "right of secession", which came to be one of the central points of disagreement of EPRP with the 17th. SESUNA Congress which decided that regionalism was as bad as feudalism and imperialism, and, latter on with MEISON, which had Haile Fida as one of its foremost leaders.

In fact, it was Haile Fida who traveled to Algiers in 1971 to convince the Berhane Meskel group there to merge with Haile's group, but they disagreed on (a) their assessment of the political situation in Ethiopia, (b) the way forward, (c) organizational matters, (d) the national question and EPRP's adoption of the "right of secession", and (e) the nature of the struggle wherein Haile's group opted for a peaceful one whereas Berhane Meskel's group chose armed struggle.

However, both groups were Marxists, and their differences were entirely on the means to their common goal, if, indeed, they had a common goal. Then, the issue of going back home was either " through Bale or Bole", the Bole option being that of MEISON. Hence, whereas the end was probably identical, there was a difference in the means, and that difference persisted throughout the 1970s and led to the costly and destructive sacrifices in the 1970s and latter. Couldn’t that have been avoided ? If compromise was undesirable at that time, could it be that one or both groups had other motives for being in the struggle ? One never knows !

EXPERIENCES OF THE ELITE IN GOVERNMENT

The early 1970s brought in the Derg, largely because of the inability of the elite to make compromises and work together for their common good and for that of the Motherland. Derg had never dreamt of ruling the Country, but the power vacuum created by the elite gave it all the confidence to rule Ethiopia. The result was a disaster: the first victims of the break-down of the rule of law and the forerunner of the barbaric actions under the Derg were some 60 members of His Imperial Majesties Government who were butchered without any due process overnight, and that was the first signal that there would be no way to stop those same guns from murdering others indiscriminately in the months to come. That period of madness led to the loss of thousands of our brightest youth and several of the best of Ethiopia’s sons and daughters either through outright murder or through a mass exodus to save their lives.

Then factions soon arose within the Derg and several members of the Derg were eliminated, including General Teferi Benti, Lt. Alemayehu Haile and Captain Mogus; slightly latter, Atnafu Abate and several others were murdered; lastly there was an attempted coup in 1980 and that also led to the death and murder of so many Derg members and military leaders. Again, members of the Derg could not settle their differences in a cultured way, and the outcome was brute force and further destruction. Derg wanted to always prevail only with the gun, and its guns finally gave in, and it lost out to TPLF/EPLF, which appeared to be even nastier in many respects.

TPLF and EPLF had been fighting together to bleed Ethiopia at Nakfa, Afabet, Massawa and all over Eritrea, but once in power, differences arose and they also opted to settle those differences with guns in 1998. The most bloody war in Ethiopian history was fought between two Ethiopian brothers; some 70,000 of our youth were sacrificed, and close to 30 billion Birr was wasted in a country with some 15,000,000 famine victims. Again, the absence of a compromising culture between those two led to further national bleeding !

The other two groups that temporarily came together in 1991 were OLF and TPLF/EPRDF to form the Transitional Government; again a rift was created between them not long after 1991, and no compromise was reached so that OLF had to go back to the bush. Apparently, either TPLF did not want to listen, or OLF was too pig-headed, or both were under the “ Listen to me! I have to rule ” culture. As a result, the ground was prepared for further conflict between two brothers once again.

OBSESSION WITH POLITICAL POWER AND THE DISEASE OF PARTY PROLIFERATION

The love for political power is an obsession that spans across religious, cultural, ethnic and regional lines. As a result, even when political programs are very much alike, and proclaimed objectives are almost identical, groups of Ethiopians of all ages have had this disastrous obsession to form political parties all over the country and all over the globe. Obvious examples are the ten or more small political parties in the USA most of whom are members of UEDF, some 65 or more political parties in the Motherland, and, only God knows how many more elsewhere. All this is done by an elite which is never ashamed to make eloquent speeches to enhance democratization in our bleeding Motherland, and swears day and night that it is prepared to make sacrifices to bring better days for all Ethiopians. This obsession has led Ethiopia to pay a heavy price in the 1960s and 1970s, and then again in the 1980s and 1990s. The proliferation in Ethiopia has been deliberately and officially encouraged and supported by the ethnic-driven minority government to ensure its hold on to power. Has the elite learnt any lessons from all those disasters ?

Why should there be 10 or more small political parties in the USA if all have given their hearts and minds for a common struggle to save Ethiopia and bring it back to the club of respectable nations once again ? Why should there be 65 or more political parties in the Motherland when the issue that is at hand is an issue that affects each and every Ethiopian without any regard for religion, sex, age, ethnic origin, political creed, or philosophical orientation ?

All these political parties are led by the elite, which is, therefore, responsible for all this political chaos since the 1960s. This is not to say that I condemn, wholesale, all that has been done in the past, but what I am saying is that what is gone is gone, and whatever mistakes have been made, they have all been made in good faith by a generation which has had little or no democratic culture to fall back on. There was the rich Ethiopian culture to benefit from, but the wind of change at the time was such that one’s own culture was denigrated, and a foreign culture was picked up to bring better days for Ethiopia. That foreign-based vision is very much similar to that of the 17th. Century when Emperor Susnios decided to replace the Ethiopian Orthodox Church with the Catholic Church, and thereby led Ethiopia to be awash with the blood of even his own kinsmen.

That is exactly what we tried to do in the 1970s, and we paid very dearly for all that youthful bravado. By contrast, “ Land to the Tiller” was more wisely carried out in Japan in 1868, and in South Korea and Taiwan in the 20th. Century, and the results of those constructive reforms are now self-evident since South Korea and Taiwan are among the “Tigers” of South-East Asia, and Japan is the second most powerful economic power in the World today. In the Ethiopia scenario, youth and haste made waste, and 99% of Ethiopia is still paying dearly for that youthful revolution even to this day ! What are the lessons from all this ?

Clearly, if the elite is really serious about Ethiopia, then a proliferation of parties is not going to be helpful. Such party proliferation has arisen because the elite is still refusing to listen to one another. The “ I know all; you listen to me! “ attitude is till prevalent in the USA and elsewhere. There may be those who want to make some business out of it, and those that have a dream of being rulers by being catapulted to power on the back of others, and both of these are inimical to the common struggle to liberate Ethiopia from autocratic rule. These ones will not take any advice or any pleas from anywhere, but the rest will, hopefully, rethink their stand, talk to each other and then come together to advance the common cause of a bleeding motherland.

For all those who genuinely love Ethiopia and the Ethiopian people, it cannot be a problem to come to an agreement on a common peaceful struggle to realize (a) a united and stable Ethiopia, (ii) a democratic Ethiopia, and (iii) a prosperous Ethiopia. None should say that they have to lead the struggle, which should be led by all for the benefit of all Ethiopians. That was how Fascist Italy was evicted by the so-called our “feudal ” forefathers, and so was the brilliant victory against the aggressors in Adwa in 1996. This generation of Ethiopians has completely failed to even equal the heroic and far-sighted acts of the “feudal” forefathers, and shame on us all ! Unity is what they showed us if we want to be victorious and we need it badly today !

In this regard, we have to draw lessons from (a) the failure of the Berhane Meskel and Haile groups to unite in 1971 after the Algiers meeting, (b) the failure of the unity after the Ghion Conference in 1993, when Dr. Beyene Petros was appointed as Chairman, (iii) the failure of the unity after the Paris Conference, which again appointed Dr. Beyene Petros as Chairman, (iv) the impending failure of the Washington Conference in July 2003 when Dr. Beyene Petros of SEPDC was again appointed as Chairman, Dr. Merera of ONC as First Vice- Chairman and Ato Fassika Belete of EPRP as Second Vice-Chairman, the leadership to be rotated only among these three persons every 6 months, and the second Vice-Chairman with colossal powers to lead the struggle from the USA, (v) the disintegration of EDU into three groups, (vi) the disintegration of TPLF, (vii) the disintegration of Medhin into two groups, and ( viii) the failure of the unity discussions of AEUP and EDUP most recently.

What is common to all the disarray in all the instances cited above ? Lack of internal democracy may be the principal culprit; the absence of a compromise culture and the “ I know all ” syndrome may be another; lack of transparency is still another, and a dogged determination and love for naked power and to ensure individual loyalty even when it does not appear to be right or democratic may be other causes. In all cases, there might have been something wrong in the way unity was formed, and there might be strong elements of fair play missing in all cases. Such problems can be avoided if we all start from “Ethiopia First !”. The interests of all individuals and groups can then be effectively addressed by the Ethiopian people once we have achieved a united and democratic Ethiopia in 2005.

Let us all rethink all our stands, never ever determined to be defensive, but to work together towards the common good for all Ethiopians ! How can we blame EPRDF when we provide the principal raison d’etre for its continued rule ? Lack of internal democracy, cronyism, loyalty, dogma, an obsession for power are our primary enemies, and we need to fight them all honestly. How can undemocratic opposition parties or their coalition be any better than undemocratic EPRDF if we want safeguard the long-term best interests of all Ethiopians ?

THE WAY FORWARD

The only logical way forward for those who love their country is unity for the sake of our bleeding Motherland and for our own sakes ! Let us put dogma aside, cronyism, ethnicity and factionalism aside and agree on a coalition of independent parties such that the coalition is unconditionally internally democratic. Let no one try to have an upper hand either directly or indirectly, and let all members of the coalition do what they can do best: Those in the Diaspora can be responsible for the international lobby and propaganda, and let those in Ethiopia continue to coordinate their organizational effort to prepare adequately for the elections in 2005. The overall leadership of the coalitions should be under those parties in Ethiopia, and those in the Diaspora will give critical support to realize the overall objective to unseat the autocratic government in 2005. A formula can be agreed to share power after an election victory in 2005 based commonly shared democratic agendas for all Ethiopia, but not based on neo-feudal considerations since feudalism under any colors is still an enemy of all Ethiopia !

To do this effectively, UEDF will have to urgently revisit its political program and constitution to make sure that all members of the coalition are in full support of a (i) united Ethiopia, (ii) a democratic Ethiopia, and (iii) a prosperous Ethiopia, and that UEDF is fully internally democratic. This has to be done early in 2004 if we are to win in 2005.

The next step in this direction is for all those parties in the Diaspora to form a coalition under a common national political agenda consistent with that of UEDF; those in Ethiopia will have to do likewise and form another coalition so that joint effective preparations may be made for the elections in 2005. Coalitions like JADE, which was a fairly active coalition of AEUP, ONC and SEPDC before July 2003, will have to come back to life, with the additional participation of EDUP. Such coalitions will have to have a political agenda that goes well beyond sectarian interests, emulating those in Maichew and Adwa, and UEDF can effectively serve as a forum for preparing the ground for the formulation of such a national agenda.

We should all remember that the current enemies of all Ethiopians are: (i) backwardness and poverty, (ii) famine, (iii) Disease, and (iv) a self-serving autocratic system which nurtures the preceding three enemies. These enemies know no religious, ethnic, age, sex or regional boundaries; they are the enemies of all Ethiopians from north to south and from east to west. Hence, we have every good reason to wage a joint peaceful war on all of them and come out victorious in the defense of all political and economic rights and civil liberties for all Ethiopians within and outside Ethiopia during the national elections in 2005. A democratic and prosperous Ethiopia will be our best guarantee to ensure a safer, stable and prosperous home for all our children, and the surest and safest way for any members of the Diaspora to come back home.

Lastly, are you not tired of the humiliation from the uninterrupted image of Ethiopia as the “ Land of famine”? Look at prosperous USA, the melting-pot of some 1000 ethnic groups, and we can also make it!

May unity prevail ! May God bless you all!