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Let Raw Emotions Ebb…So That Reason and LawShould Prevail.
By Samuel Estefanous. 23 July 2018
Our Premier is a phenomenal shaker and the ultimate mover. I am not saying this to buy my views and self in to the ‘good grace’ of the volatile multitude and ‘infamously’ ingratiate myself to the tide of presumed popular will- the way a couple of ‘gumtu’ old guard EPRDFites are doing. I say what I mean and I mean what I say. That is the beauty of being rootless, faceless and penniless...and we aren’t just in the tilting majority, we are the enduring voice of the silent majority-remember the 99%? They are kinda quiet and rarely take to the streets or tend to hit the air waves… Some frustrated remnants of the old opposition and the queerly and awkwardly positioned ‘nouveau’ skeptics are trying to discredit him. Just because he has been serving the Front with ‘eyes tight shut and lips securely sealed’, the former echo the old mantra that nothing ‘this good’ could truly come from the domain of the Front.The latter forces think they are blindsided and eye the whole unprecedented popular tide of support for one of their own with incredible level of suspicion and a considerable degree of feeling and being ‘irrelevant’. EPRDF’s old guard is indeed rendered ‘irrelevant’ and incapable of ‘digesting’ the velvet revolution of Dr. Abiye. It was like they are caught unawares by a fleet of Trojan horse tethered in their own yard for three decades going. Indeed how could an EPRDFite win the heart and soul of the overwhelming fanatical opposition?But he kinda did, didn’t it? Swallow hard fellas, this dude is here to stay! And let this be a lesson. EPRDFites aren’t extraterrestrial. With their endless intrigue, banal tribalism and superciliousness-a good number of them actually come across asthe dominant national character.That is why some of us have been maintaining that the Front is quintessentially an Ethiopian phenomenon -ZamanaMasafnit writ large that is. Yet it is capable of rearing and grooming someone like Dr.Abiye. Never forget that he isn’t an isolated lone path blazing messiah. There are more…I mean really really more…whether we like it or not- this is a Movement. Having said that, for the good of the Nation and to help keep the momentum, I would very much like to note the following. 1-We are all in to this together. For the past three decades we have been seeking redemption by heavily investing in our differences.We were a little too quick-shamelessly too quick actually- to exhibit our birth marks. We would go to ridiculously laughable great length to flaunt the presumed ‘greatness’ of our respective tribes. We’d demand right and exact obligation on grounds of these foundations. Some who chose not to be marked and tagged were categorically and summarily denounced as ‘Nation and Nationality Wreckers’, reactionary remnants of the yesteryears.
The counter force was anything but rational. The cause was born to a consuming blind hatred and naturally incapable of inducing any positive change except serve as a momentary medium for ‘discharging’ toxic feelings. We all kinda benefited from the ‘service’ in one way or another. We all have pushed the Nation to the brink and it is up to all of us to reel it in. 2-A Troop of Emotional Devotees? You bet we are! I am not gonna lie. The Premier does command a troop of emotional devotees. May be I am one of them. May be we all are. But dear detractors, have you ever stopped to ask the number of Ethiopians who had suffered emotionally on the hands of EPRDF? You don’t know what it is like not to be an EPRDFites. The cadres do their political serenading every single blessed day. If you so much as yawn, some ‘aide’ to his Excellency would be taking notes, if you voice some skeptical idea to an obviously unviable project, you are summarily written off as someone incapable of-tenterarto makeden abeti frkomo mefetsem. I am not even talking about the Sovereign Government of the National Security. They are a disgrace to the human race. Certainly not all of them but a considerable number of them are- judging by the gruesome accounts of torture being told and retold by the victims. For the sanity of my mind and heart I have long quitted reading anything relative to that institution. Poor General Adem, he is trying to do one major spring cleaning…I wonder if he would come out of that dungeon in one piece. Ethiopians have consciously become oblivious to the fact that EPRDFites have developed in to the New Propertied Class and it barely needsany proof. We all know how the diplomatic missions of Ethiopia are manned all over the world. It has become a lucrative family business. No wonder, we all are emotional out patients suffering from the systematic injustice perpetrated bythe governing coalition. In the middle of all these travails, a Dr. Abiy comes aboard and unequivocally pleads Mea Culpa in almost all counts in the name and on behalf of the Front. By this noble gesture alone, he did heal our collective suffering and we are sure to become emotional to varying degrees...but there is time for everything. Now it is time for all of us to let our emotions subside and brace for the nitty-gritty of good governance. 3-For God’s sake don’t try to Rectify… You know we all are absolutely entitled to take issues with the Constitution. And the one I take liberty to question is ‘the rectifying’ spirit of the supreme law of the land. Do you remember the recently freed double amputee College student who’d lost both his legs for a reason we will never be able to fathom or understand?…he’d said-it has got to stop-my suffering is enough! Every single freed prisoner comes out declaring- enough already, no more retribution please! And I am asking why shouldn’t the FDRE Constitution take heed of this generosity and shed the spirit of retribution from its Clause? Dr.Abiy did speak like a ‘nebiy’ in a spiritual vibe and not like an EPRDFite, you know why? Under the circumstances to heal the oozing wounds of the Nation, it is the only way a deliverer of the Nation should speak. Had he spoken in EPRDF amarigna, we would have spewed him out. That is why he is our undisputed collective leader. So, fellas, let us blaze a fresh trail with no bitter emotional baggage weighing us down. The other day I heard a bunch of rowdy raw souls trying to talk down others in the name of Dr.Abiy and I was like-these are the very threats to the noble Cause of the Movement. Let us deny these ‘false devotees’ any meaningful forum. 4-Political Boldness is NOT Recklessness. Some ‘sober’ heads try to belittle the Premier’s achievements by contending that his measures are driven by populist agendas. I beg to differ. These agendas have been in the making for the past three or more decades. Besides even if they are, they happen to be good natured ones in the very least. They are about setting political prisoners free-not taking in some. They are about forging a united states-not about breaking it up. They tend to bring us together and not set us apart. Remember both the Dergue and EPRDF began their respective reigns by rounding up and incarcerating not by breaking chains… So I am saying Dr.Abiy’s swift radical moves aren’t political recklessness but righteous Boldness!But to help him DELIVER let us rein in our raw emotions.
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