Yes it is the right choice to forgive for the sake of the common good.
W. Yilma
December 18, 2010
I read Mulugeta’s article with the title “We must live the future, and not for the past or in the past”
As I understood, the main message Mulugeta is intended to pass to all Ethiopians is to forgive those Derg’s officials for the crime they committed against the people of Ethiopia. The majority of Ethiopians have a life longs scars either from the former Derg’s officials or from the then infantile opposition armed groups, such as Meison and EPRP. I do not believe that it is only the Derg’s who inflict scars to the Ethiopian people, by indiscriminately killing oppositions groups. To me Derg’s shares the biggest responsibilities and accountability to be blamed. This is because as a government, Derg’s miserably failed to create an enabling environment for all political groups to work freely and peacefully in the country. Beside this no one dare to ask the reasons and the extents why and how many people were killed by Derg’s cadres. In general, Derg’s failed to fulfill his promises and vigorously working in concentrating political power in his own circles and cliques. He killed all those who opposed his power, including his own members. However, this does not mean that others do not have a role in instigating violence in Ethiopia.
My point here is not to judge the past ugly history. It happened because that was the historical juncture in which we have to pass through. Unfortunately, we make it very ugly due to our lower collective consciousness in handling internal conflicts.
We have to take history as it is. Traditionally in Ethiopia, history is not well documented as it is. Instead of reflecting what has happened in the past, most likely it reflects the opinions of those in power or those who wrote it (historians are not immune from this criticism). Meaning, the Ethiopian history from the beginning lack honesty and purity. As a result of this the successive Ethiopia governments always accused each other and blaming the past ignoring the facts on the ground. Generally we give more emphasis to what went wrong by totally ignoring the good side of the past (I believe any past or present government have good and bad performances under their terms. It differ only how we are judging them). We lack balancing the past with the present objectively and choose the good and leave the bad behind and go forward to make things better for our country. We beat the drum repeatedly with the same old fashion and sound. We focused on how we could revenge our opponents, by ignoring other means that could bring sustainable peace and tranquility to our country and to our own soul respectively. Once we focused on revenge, we should know we drag ourselves in an endless cycle and at one point it will backfire to us. It must be stopped at some point. That time is now. We already started but we should have endurance to finish it.
There is no disagreement. The past history has consumed our valuable man power as well as our multifaceted social and economic progress. It seriously damaged our collective social fabrics and values. It was a sad ending with long lasting tormenting memories. However, no one will be benefited from the past unwonted inflicting memories. To me forgiveness is a medicine to our past as well as to the present social diseases that are circulating among our societies. Although it is chronic, we can completely cure it if we have the willingness and truly believe in the medicine we are ready to swallow. We need to prepare ourselves spiritually and psychologically to swallow this new traditional medicine. As Mulugeta said, the spiritual leaders should take the initiatives to take the matter in their hand, and pursue their effort to convince the government and those victimized Ethiopian families to give a pardon for those former Derg’s officials who are waiting their future with uncertainty. As a group or as an individual, we Ethiopians should show our support to this noble effort.
These formers officials are now at their 70’s, and they do not have life no matter where they live. However, by giving them forgiveness, we can cure our social diseases prevailing among our diverse societies. It will give us a direction for the future, and leave our past for good and start a new and fresh journey, a journey which certainly will lead us to create a lasting and sustainable peace in our mother land. Yes, the whole world would be watching us how we are handling this sensitive issue. Some are watching from the side, expecting the worst, and some are hoping to see us in continuous conflict, mainly for their advantage. However, I am certain taking into consideration our past proud history I am confidence those who handle this issue will surprise us with good ending soon.
Finally, Mulugeta’s ideas need support and we should stand together to give moral for those who play a role in solving this issue. To forgive those who commit crime is not only a matter of religion, but also a matter of moral acceptance. Let me added one thing. Let’s create lasting peace for Ethiopian people, by forgiving each others for our past wrong doing. I said this because knowingly or unknowingly, and/or directly or indirectly our past involvements in Ethiopian politics play a role in shaping the prevailing shaky political situation in Ethiopia. The choice is in our hand. Let’s choose the right choice by stopping playing with an old Machiavellian intrigue politics. Be fresh by thinking positively to make the future bright for our people. Advocating reconciliation to our differences and forgiveness for our past wrong doing, these two concepts are the main integral parts of our unity. Our forefathers and fathers passed through it, and there is no reason why we could not surmount it. If we do this no power on earth will separate or defeat us. Not only this, we can win those who are beating a war drum to intimidate us from using our natural resources.
We will be strong if we united, weak if we failed to do so.
Long Live Ethiopia
