By T.. Demeke
It is hard to criticize the opposition in Ethiopia when we in the Diaspora practically do nothing to alleviate the suffering of our people. But what we have learned from the opposition in Kenya was that for your struggle to bear some fruit, you have to stay firm in what you believe. The Ethiopian opposition parties seem not to learn from the Kenya debacle. We all thought the CUD leaders would be reinvigorated to lead the struggle after paying a heavy price of a 20 months prison time. But that is not the case. The latest news coming out of Ethiopia is confusing and lacks clarity. The CUD splinter group lead by Wzt Birtukan Medikssa seems to embark on another journey away from the people. The EMF and Ethiopian Review websites who are very close to the Wzt Birtukan & Dr. Yacob faction repeatedly reported that the splinter group has restructured the Laelay Mekerbet by laying off and replacing some preferable members who were not elected by the General Assembly. As if it has any meaning for a group who believes in collective leadership, they also appointed Wzt Birtukan as a chairwoman and Temsgen Zewdie & Dr.Yacob as a vice. If this is true then all of this activity was done behind the Ethiopian people, the President Eng. Hailu Shawel and the General Assembly who has the absolute power to elect the executive committee.
While we are debating the legality of such decision, the two websites reported again a surprising but mind boggling breaking news – that the splinter group submitted an application to the government controlled Election Board to be registered with a new name, which is kept secret from the general public and followers. This was done after Dr. Yacob gave a promising interview to the Capital by saying that the reconciliation of the two CUD factions is a must to move the struggle forward. The splinter group seems to have an agenda – in one hand they want to bury Eng. Hailu Shawel and his million supporters and on the other hand they want to shake the hand of Melese Zenawi firmly.
This is hardly a firm principled stand expected from a leading political party in whose name several people has been slaughtered by government soldiers. For the opposition to have a significant contribution in bringing change to Ethiopia – it has to stand up for what it believes and show it’s unwavering stand to the enemy and followers. Hopefully the 8 points are not up for sale.
In conclusion, I will leave the readers from excerpts taken from Ephrem Madebo’s article titled: A Good Lesson From Nairobi, posted on www.addisvoice.com. This may help some of the readers who are questioning why the West failed Ethiopia to resolve the 2005 election crisis vs. Kenya’s 2008 election crisis.
In 2005, when the then loose alliance of CUD and UEDF called the “stay home” strike, the so called western ambassadors tried to bring Meles and the opposition to the negotiation table. Both Meles and the opposition agreed. However, Meles walked out victorious as the western ambassadors doubted the will and unity of the opposition when CUD and UEDF called off the strike and made different decisions on how to continue the struggle. During the negotiation, Meles, who in advance knew the consequences of the strikes and the demonstration, did not want to see both before the opening of the parliament. He managed to avoid both by begging western diplomats to exert pressure on the opposition. The naive opposition called off the strikes and helped Meles to cool off the people’s wrath, the only power that could have brought his totalitarian regime to an end. The opposition failed to use its ultimate power, the people’s power.
