LET US IMPROVISE

We Ethiopians are plagued by what has become a destructive political culture that we have inherited from our past generations. The old politics of fear tactics that disseminated to the public by few good natured naïve or/and evil individuals including some egotistic need not to be taken so gravely and avoided but discussed mutually to arrive at an amicable resolution for a common cause. We need to build a system of transparency, honesty and accountability if we all Ethiopians need to work together in a united effort. We often attempt to destroy instead of building on or improving the existing projects, organizations and other supportive entities, to fulfill our self-righteousness. We should also not be disconcerted by those people who have weighed down our contributions and unity by creating division, destruction, rumor mongering, mischief, blaming, lying, envying rather than commending those who have achieved enormously in their personal life or helping others and those who are sharpening and strengthening their self-interest. At sometime in our lives, no doubt we men deserved our shame for our past mistakes, but as justified as they may be, naming, blaming and shaming our fellow comrades are solid barriers to connecting, understanding and only serves to create bitterness, widening isolation and more wounding. Therefore, we must drop our culturally inherited blame game and not pursue who is wrong and right as this will not serve our purpose and see the good side of our common cause and start our journey of healing. The blame game will stop when we understand each other in ways that delight us, or inspire our compassion, revealing our true identity when communicating electronically or visually rather than using nicknames and fake identities which will create more suspicion and limits heart to heart interactions and encouraging each other with healing words and, most of all, offering our recognition and gratitude for the good works we have done. If honesty is the best policy why conceal our identity. Only if we reveal our true identity to each other that we will be able to redeem our mistakes and communicate honestly and earnestly. If all is not well and taken too far, it becomes the pursuit of power and self-interest appears as controlling behavior, bullying and insensitive to the needs of everyone.

Let us improvise our rich society. We need to coordinate connections to have the Barack Obama’s new message of “hope and change” in our attitude and reach out across all Ethiopians by all means necessary. Forgive me, this, may be, is not construed as comparison but, if Obama and America can make a change, we, as Ethiopians and Ethiopia can make huge difference. Yichalal!! The right to solidify our unity should not be restricted by race, gender, belief, social status, intelligence, or status of other Ethiopian ethnic communities. We all are Ethiopians regardless of our different ethnic communities, organizations and any political parties we choose to belong. Barack Obama’s big impact to making his message of hope and change became a reality because of his uniting message to the American people when he said, “there is not a black America and a white America and Latino America and Asian America – there is the United States of America”. “We are not collection of red states and blue states – we are the United States”. Today, some ethnic Ethiopians living around the world do not interact with their fellow Ethiopians because of a whole lot of past grievances, political and ideology differences. I highly respect and sympathize with them knowing how my culture back home operate without going in to detail as you all know leaving that to your imagination. However, irrespective of our interactions, we share the love of our mother land and our families and friends back home. We should not hold grudges for our past, force and condemn individuals for they have their own unique views like ours for not taking part in any organizations, parties and community endeavors. We need to accentuate positive moral principles and welcome every Ethiopian with an open mind and a warm heart. We should respect everyone regardless of their commentary values for just taking part to make a difference. We can not afford not to smile to each other, to feel resentment and to dwell on the past. It is time to move on embracing, not denigrating, each other. We should not see differences as divisions rather is our right to exercise our freedom to do what’s right for ourselves without harboring hatred and alienations from our community, friends and common ideals. By abandoning our unity, we are neglecting the struggle for reversing the alarming danger of ethnic violence and potential disintegration of Ethiopia. This further tears apart the community than uniting. Consequently, this will lead the struggle for democracy and freedom for all Ethiopians in disarray. The choice is ours; we either disengage ourselves from political process out of frustration or reclaim the unity we lost for achieving higher purpose. If we, Ethiopians, wish to live in democracy, prosperity and dignity disengaging ourselves is not the best choice. The choice we should all have, unity, is apparently difficult but with new dream and approach, it is attainable. The political process of Ethiopia has been a mixture of genuine struggle for democracy, ethnic politics, prejudice, corruption, personal animosity, defamation of political figures and more. All are sources of division, but there are more important reasons that unite us than the reasons divide us. As Obama did in his campaign, great American leaders never put their race or ethnicity before their humanity and believed in the American motto of ‘E pluribus Unum’ – out of many, that we are, one! Yes, out of many, we are one! This is my message for all Ethiopians including for those who are fighting to liberate the Oromiffa-speaking side or our Ethiopian Oromo Community Associations, for those who claim to be protectors of the Tigrians or our Tigrian Communities and the predominantly governing elites of Amharas or Ethiopian Communities as others observe, it is run by Amharas leading to its fragmentation due to political differences of the people managing the community monopolizing to one ethnic group inevitably. However, as a prime founding member of the first Ethiopian community, I strongly object to that notion because of my indelible beliefs and ideals that it should and stands and serves all Ethiopians without all the prejudices. Ethiopia is a multicultural society and the people are interrelated by marriages, religions, strong friendships and good neighbourhood beliefs. It is time to realize, Obama’s words, that “our stories are singular but our destiny is shared,” it is time to understand that no one is free until we all are free - it is time to join the Solidarity Movement for New Ethiopia to bring real change to our own country. Barack Obama told supporters that "change has come to America" as he claimed victory in a historic presidential election. It is our turn now to emulate the great principle and bring change in our community consequently to our country, Ethiopia, in a united effort ”…And to all those who have wondered if America’s beacon still burns as bright, tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth but from the enduring power of our ideals – democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope! That’s the true genius of America! That America can change! Our union can be perfected!” - President-elect Barrack Obama said on November 4th, 2008. The new impetus of Solidarity movement for New Ethiopia seems, in comparison to Obama’s Doctrine, a genuine movement of “hope and change” that represents “the united states of Ethiopia”. This movement is spearheaded by genius of Ethiopia Obang Metho, Executive member of the Solidarity Movement for New Ethiopia, from Anuak, Gambella, Southwestern region of Ethiopia fully supported by all Ethiopian communities around the world and getting momentum every day and currently he’s been invited by Ethiopian community in London to speak to Ethiopians. Obang is highly driven by Obama’s doctrine, I hope as we all do, is currently preaching what he practices all around the world. Obang Metho asked all Ethiopians to focus on our humanity before ethnicity and wanted us to acknowledge no Ethiopian is free until we all are free! Obang has convincingly argued why opposition political leadership cannot provide any significant change unless the rank and file of the respective parties holds them accountable. He convincingly argued that the tyrannical regime in Ethiopia is the only beneficiary of the division. To my knowledge, Obang Metho has been non partisan, like Obama inspirational speaker, good Ethiopian and, most of all, stood for Ethiopian territorial integrity and unity among its people. What I saw in Obang is a decent unifying character and a character that truly transcends partisan and ethnic politics. The challenge for him is to overcome the incongruent political reality and inspire the public with his vision of truly, united, democratic, and prosperous Ethiopia. Through Ethiopian Solidarity Forum he has started the long and arduous journey to convince ordinary citizens and politicians alike to abandon their most deeply held positions in an effort to bring an end to self destructive political culture and put their country before self-interest. If Obang’s message is about unity and as a people we must refocus all our energies to fight for common cause rather than fight among ourselves. My observation may be limited but I cannot accept anything without reasoning. Regardless of his ethnic background, Obang should be accepted and listened to any democratic speeches he is making about our country, Ethiopia, with an open mind. It is astonishing that recently I was inspired by his conviction and fervently followed Obang’s forum, discussion conferences and his captivating speeches and I have observed a much larger turnout for meetings called by opposition whose speakers were Amharas, Oromos, and Tigrians. In the recent past, there was a large scale debate on the merit of attending or not attending the meeting called by controversial figures but with dubious vision for Ethiopian people unity and territorial integrity. Surprisingly, some supporters of the oppositions have tirelessly worked in wide scale propaganda and campaigned to go out and participate in these meetings. Why not the propagandists did the same for Obang’s clear message of unity? Are we discriminating among the messengers? Are we down playing the wisdom of the humanity loving minority leaders? Are we regarding the messages of persons coming from broader ethnic group as superior? It appears to me that we still have to fight against prejudice. If we do not win the cultural war we will have difficulties to win the political war. The idea of traveling in one direction must end for Ethiopia and Ethiopians and must use all the avenues that are available. While America seems to be ready for black president, we Ethiopians seem to have a problem with ethnic background. The greater danger we face in opposition group, as Obang notes, is to allow new walls that divide us. Opposition groups and their supporters are not perfect. They make mistakes, and there are occasions that their actions do not match with what they preach, this is just one of the many hang-ups all oppositions are facing. I conclude by saying that our political culture must focus on the issues, not on the messengers, that may help us tearing down the walls that divide us. Obang could be one of the persons who are capable of bringing the divided Ethiopians to the roundtable that desperately needed. But, he cannot do it alone!! We can enrich our Ethiopian community in Diaspora while practicing solidarity to unite all Ethiopian ethnic groups by building bridges to connect everyone by delegating respective leaders from each group regardless of our differences and ethnicity by embracing our humanity and ONE Ethiopia. As we reach out to each other and celebrate our differences and hope for the emergence of New Ethiopia. Therefore, I’m asking all members of the various Ethiopian ethnic communities and Ethiopian communities to invite the charismatic Obang Metho with a united spirit to speak about his principles, objectives and aspirations of the formidable missions of Solidarity Movement for New Ethiopia. Let’s bring change to Ethiopia by bridging change in our community. The Ethiopian communities should take a leading role to reach out to all Ethiopians and ethnic communities by radio announcements, mail, e-mail, on the web, phone, word of mouth and other ways deemed necessary to connect and have a constructive dialogue to form solidarity for New Ethiopia and invite Obang jointly. Finally, America, by not electing African-American, Los Angeles Mayor, Tom Bradley as California governor in the 1982 campaign, changed the “no you can’t” response to the “yes we can” that led to the election of Senator Barrack Obama as the 44th United States President on November 4, 2008.

In good spirits, 

TIME FOR CHANGE!