In the Case of Total Ignorance, We can Gamble but We Can’t Trust (Response to Bertukan’s Apology to Tigrayans)

By Getachew Reda

The power hunger “Splinter” group of Berhanu Nega’s Kinijit has been galloping to every State until now with an attempt to sell them selves as the viable leadership of Kinijit after distancing themselves from legitimate leader of Kinijit “Eng. Hailu Shawel”.  Judge Bertukan Mediksa a bright, educated young lady seemed to commit bundle of negative decisions perhaps easily manipulated by wrong advisors around her.  .  

Lately, in her Minneapolis tour of speech she made to Ethiopians is the latest surprising for many of us.  Her supporters websites came out with news and headlines explaining that  “Judge Birtukan Mideksa has apologized for the reckless slurs of Kinijit.com/org, which claims to be the official website of the party. She said the website is beyond the control of Kinijit and anything it publishes does not represent Kinijit”. Source “Addis Voice website”. 

According to her speech, while touring the large United States, she and her group is been met and honored by large numbers of different Ethnic Ethiopians but not so much from Tigrayan ethnic group. She came to her conclusion reasoning to why Tigrayans were not seen in greater number in every city she tour was due to the attack of racial slur against Tigrayans made by Kinijit.com/org based in the United States.

So far, she didn’t give any evidence for her accusation on the said website. Even though, myself emailed the website editor to explain me if there is any such sort aired or published or said in the name of their website, if so by who and what was said and when, so far I didn’t get no response to my surprise (may be they are too busy to response in shorter time I demanded).

Having said this, such conclusion of hers to why Tigrayans didn’t came to support in her tour is intentionally misleading and deceptive to gain more acceptance by the intended targets and to disparage her opponents. As anti Tigrayan group. She should know better that leave alone  Tigrayans to her meetings who were been isolated from associating with detribalized community since 1977 (Ethiopian Calendar), even the rest of the Ethiopian communities themselves are been organized associated and tied up with their tribe, ethnic issues which she seemed to encourage “according to some of her fussy speech”.

It is not something new that they never accustomed to. It is naïve of her or her advisors to believe that they will come to her all in a sudden something they never been used or familiar with such call from Pan Ethiopian opposition organization.  Gonder Limat, Tigray Limat, Gurage Limat,, Adere Limat and what have you….. Of hundreds of Bantustan-zed associations had an impact to the fragile to the Pan Ethiopian unity in different forms. Judge Bertukan lives in Ethiopia and she should have known better to why such phenomenon came to this level. Kinijit.org has nothing to do with such fundamental problem of unity as she wanted us to believe as if the fragile came to surface suddenly from the consequence of a reckless slur posted on a single website against a given community.

What was she expecting, from the community that freely and voluntary and happily communicate with Meles Zenawi who enjoyed freely touring Ethiopia in and out anytime they wish to constantly boost the moral of an Eethnocentric visionary and mercenaries who are responsible for uncountable blood on their hand. There is no doubt in my mind that the community that she is talking and apologizing knows that was not the case for their boycott (if such was the case) and should not be the case for discussion. She is talking to a community who is been mislead by connive narrow ethnic elements for the last 16 years in a country where she was serving as a judge. These are Sebhat Nega and Meles boys! Let us not miss the target of the cause!

The people were been told as Dr Fulas once in his writings said  “Our problem is often, that we uncritical and categories that others have developed for their own peculiar situation and /or from their own particular perspective and we let them apply these categories to us as they see fit.  The situation reduces essentially to this: They i.e., some expatriates, tell us there is, for example, a Hausa tribe, Tigray tribe, Gurage tribe, Oromo tribe, Kikuyu, tribe, Amhara tribe, a Tigray, etc, etc, We accept and begin identifying ourselves as such. They later change the label, come, and tell us, “No, you are not a tribe, you are an ethnic group.”We gleefully accept the revision and loudly proclaim to the world, “I am an ethnic group!” Then are told, “No, not an ethnic group. You are a nationality, a nation…” and we begin to ask for self determination>!

She knew better, that Ethiopians were been Balkanized for a long time now.  There are still elements and secessionists harping on the phrase of “self determination” as we speak.  The Hoxa Albania policy of Meles Zenawi is still active and alive in the Diaspora. Knowing all this huge problem which is been there since 1977 that Tigrayans or anyone for that matter didn’t come together when it comes to a national issues and conferences. The fact is we come and smile, hug, discuss in a mood of Pan Ethiopianism together when there is bullet to throw at all of us someone an aggressor from outside against Ethiopia as a whole. Her accusation against Kinijit as an excuse to apologizing Tigrayans is the most obscured I have ever heard .It is unwise, premature propaganda it could be nothing other than to degrade her opponents to look good in front of others. Otherwise, there is no way that Kinijit.or or any individual websites or writings could cause for Tigrayans to avoid showing their support to her group. The problem is beyond the case she is trying to tell us.

Unfounded ground for such claim as the case is misguiding society to why we Ethiopians are not coming together. It is not Kinijit.org, but the entire society each of us who accepted to define who we are as bunch of ethnocentric community and how we should come to gather is responsible for such negative effect and outcome and failure. It is out undeniable nature of our history.  Our priests were been comforting Fascist Italy and individuals while their leader is giving his head to the bullet voluntary to defend his national pride, while certain communities were supporting Mussolini and slaughtered Ethiopian patriots during the darkest age of the colony era. Our history is mainly packed by sorrow and betrayal through out history. It is been ethnocentric mentality that was battling our psych through out. “Few” patriotic nationalist Ethiopians were the only one who fought and defend the integrity of the nation while the large number was a watcher and neutral (ask elders, they will tell you what I am intensively telling you). It is this history of ours who we are and how we come together is now defining our current nature.

It irritates me to hear such bright young lady to downgrade the maturity of the consumers for coming with such testy advertisement and misleading the core cause for our disunity. This distorted and manipulative political advertisement could give an ammunition of excuse to no one, but, for those ethnocentric elements going around dressed up with “self determination” as if they were pushed and aggravated by website but not by their own separatist tendencies. Why her group decided to come out with this bad publicity and communication is beyond believe. Her thoughts to apologize for Tigrayans because of a website is absolutely irresponsible and showed that there seems to be no potential buyer to her group in the future.

She might not aware to how such cheap temporary gain of popularity of acceptance made by her website supporters bringing her comments and her beautiful portraits for the public to see it with a skill full of photographer for consumers to satisfy what they see on her; but, as we knew commercial is essentially materialistic without glorifying the side effect.  The problem might reveal therefore later after the glorification of superficial gains.  Her determination to come public and air such distorted advertisement lacks basic ground.   By her coming with such nonsense conclusion, it wont help them but could prevent the communities to find out their own weakness and blame it on individual website operators.  What an opportunity could get than this sky fall opportunity to use excuse for a community in many ways a victim of his own self who cut off themselves from the detribalized decent others who chose to focus and associate only with their own kind, gathering together, running around like many chickens with their heads cut off? .

Is this the new brand of the Hoxa Meles propaganda policy of blame the NEFTENGA website to the why Tigrayans didn’t showed up to support the splinter Kinijit? Could this be the craft of the Betinachew Tsige and his stooges? Even if the accusation was right, could this be taken seriously as the core reason to aired it as valid ground to why different ethnic groups are not coming together in Pan Ethiopian political gatherings? If as consumers wanted to buy such premature and manipulative advertise as reliable, what could be her excuse for the rests of other ethnic communities that didn’t showed up on her meetings was the cause?

How can we trust her advertisement? Trust is a positive expectation that another will not- through words, actions, or decisions- act opportunistically.  But, in her case she disappointed me and I felt she tried to take advantage of me as a Tigrayan to fool me! There is no openness in her discussion to why Tigrayans failed to come to her meetings beside the specific minor accusation she gave by ignoring to examine the big picture behind it to why we Tigrayans are not united as one in Pan Ethiopian vision and discussions apart being Amhara nation, Tigray Nation, Oromo nation and the rest of minor nation and nationalities and people (I do not know what all those categories meant in social definition and “people” mean different than the ordinary word called People) that we were told to we are that which we are not.

In the case of a total ignorance such as this situation, we can gamble, but we can’t trust. I understand there are few jubilant of hers that received her message with full trust. But in such obvious manipulation, a clever and knowledgeable audience could be capable of correcting an advertisement that may be misleading to a less knowledgeable and less educated group (pardon me not the connive educated groups and websites who are jubilant of her in an exaggerated claims whose judgment is limited to see the effect on the struggle and the unity of the CUD party) by exposing the deceptive mock-ups as she tried to guaranteed where nothing is guaranteed that kinijit.org was the cause for her claim she failed to disclosed the defect or the claim she announce for her apology. To me such cheap attempt is nothing different than the deceptive modern advertising that wanted to fool consumers and audiences with a fraudulent ways of advertising that involve more complex schemes. In the case of such ignorance, I think we can gamble, but we can’t trust! //-/ Ethiopia will prevail!