Our Motto Unity in Diversity - Editorial

August 31, 2016

Over the years we have been trying to serve you with integrity. Our motto and our mission is Unity in Diversity. We have tried to be a voice for the voiceless and to uniquely position Aigaforum to become an equalizer to the many other websites who cater to the forces of doomsday. Realizing Ethiopia has reached a point where a robust democracy can function regardless of its naysayers we have been posting articles and views that are sometimes harsh and critical even to the governing party the EPRDF. We did this hoping we will become the mirror for the EPRDF to see its weakness and challenges. Unfortunately of late we have been getting many emails and calls alerting us about some articles that mainly deal with ANDM. Most of the emails and calls were to share their disappointment with us for posting such articles.

We understand it is hard to see any articles without an ethnic  glass these days. However, we have to be honest with you although we support the Federal system in Ethiopia we do not glamorize our differences at all. We value our Unity! We do not have the illusion a weak ANDM is good for Ethiopia as much as we do not think a weak TPLF is good for Ethiopia! We want EPRDF to be strong and pragmatic so it leads Ethiopia to become a middle income country.

 We will strive to promote our unity in diversity always!  When we use the word "extremists" we were not labeling them by their Ethnic makeup since there all kind of extremists among us. They speak all kind of languages.

We were alerted about a typical Facebook hate message allegedly made by a Tigregna speaking girl. Before we even finished watching it we got few more similar messages by an alleged Eritrean and an Amharic speaker recordings. We want to condemn such hateful messages in no uncertain term. Extremism is a sickness. We should strive to cure such messages from our community. Nothing good can come out of such messages.

 We plead with those of you who are regulars of Facebook and other social media to control your messages. No one will come a winner by denigrating ANDM or TPLF. Democracy requires political maturity. Name-calling and hateful messages are not a sign of political maturity.

Again we want to reiterate our impartiality. We value the contribution of all EPRDF member organizations. We respect the contribution of TPLF and ANDM members of yesterday and today! Above all we respect and honor our diverse people in Ethiopia!

We will review each articles going forward for any divisive messages and pure hearsay allegations. Those failing our guidelines will not be posted. We have decided allowing such articles in the name of free media is not constructive. Ethiopia needs to heal its wounds from the recent debacle. We must tell you our heart is broken by the latest disturbances. We never thought this could happen to our people!