Addis Neger

Ironic enough, Ethiopia haunts its incumbent! A crude equivalent of a centre would be an “ande-hibret” party. It can be a center that holds: a con-societal entity whose scope and program are national but has ample room to address regional and ethnic sensitivities. Now, there is one wrong place to start such an experiment from: Marxism Leninism- the ideology which trumps individual rights and freedoms, popular consent, majoritarianism and the rule of law. An ideal place to start would be by asking how liberalism addressed issues of structural inequity (based on gender, race, ethnicity, etc). But left or right, Ethiopia deserves kudos for struggling to locate its center….Forty years down the line, we have realized that the center is not a ‘given’ but rather ‘earned’. Despite the entire pejorative connotation the ‘centre’ has in Ethiopia’s political history, I reckon it is time to have some “mehal sefaris”.

Welcome to the emerging Ethiopia-an oligarchic authoritarian state that juggles the support and international assistance of an ambivalent west and a regardless China. In the tradition of Marx’s dialectical materialism (an orphan of modernity currently bashed for being Teleological, Universalist and Eurocentric), one thing is evident- every stage of societal development has systemic contradictions and hence sows its seeds of destruction.

All of the blame on the current situation cannot be laid on the door of the incumbent. We have witnessed a relentless fall out and division of the opposition camp in recent years. Most of the times, these divisions are either about strategies or personalities.
…Much of what comes in leadership also depends on the followership. In my opinion, most people who sympathize, if not support, the Ethiopian opposition has adversely impacted the way the leadership attempted to operate, often out of positive intentions. One of the usual pitfalls is the urge to see immediate results and hence hurrying opposition parties to do this or that as soon as possible. I call it the temptation of time.

All of the blame on the current situation cannot be laid on the door of the incumbent. We have witnessed a relentless fall out and division of the opposition camp in recent years. Most of the times, these divisions are either about strategies or personalities.
…Much of what comes in leadership also depends on the followership. In my opinion, most people who sympathize, if not support, the Ethiopian opposition has adversely impacted the way the leadership attempted to operate, often out of positive intentions. One of the usual pitfalls is the urge to see immediate results and hence hurrying opposition parties to do this or that as soon as possible. I call it the temptation of time.

No wonder civility and celebrating dissent were the trademarks of Ethiopian society when it comes to a very crucial issue potentially divisive and violent-our understanding of God. Some serious criticisms about Ethiopia’s modern intellectuals on my last articles have made me question whether I (as an individual) and us (as a collective) have the courage to declare that our understanding of any notion is by no means a monopoly of the truth. This is an obvious truism, which is seldom translated into action.