1. November 12, 2017, marked the second anniversary of the ongoing Oromo Protests that started on November 12, 2015. Although this eventful day was passed without much event, it is one of the days’ the Oromo people and the rest of the Ethiopian people will remember and celebrate in the years to come as the day that changed the course of Ethiopia’s history.
2. Some days have more significance than the others. In recent Ethiopian history, particularly over the last 27 years of TPLF/EPRDF rule, Ethiopians were made to remember two days. The first one is Yekatit 11, the day the TPLF was created 42 years ago by few Tigrean youth to start the civil. The second day is May 20, 1991, the day the TPLF/EPRDF rebels took the state power in Ethiopia. Nothing merry is left off these two days except misery, torture, killings, dispossession, and poverty. Ethiopians are ready to forget them for good and move on.
3. The memories of certain days are not that short lived. For the generation of our forefathers, who fought the European colonial powers and defended the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of the Ethiopia (minus Ethiopia’s coastal province of Eritrea, much of which was lost to the Italians during the reign of Emperor Yohannes’s rule of Northern Ethiopia culminating in the creation of the Italian Colony in 1890), the battle of Adwa of March 2, 1896 was the historical watershed! Adwa cemented the inalienable and sacrosanct independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ethiopia. Negotiating today’s borders of Ethiopia with the colonial powers of the day, the British, the French and the Italians were also one of the greatest accomplishments of the generation of our forefathers leaving the present generation of Ethiopians with the challenge of defending what our forefathers passed on unto us, and passing on to the next generations. Here it is important to note the two leading Oromo leaders and heroes who established the Ethiopia we know today. Ras Mekonin Gudisa, the father of Emperor Haile-Selassie, is a celebrated Oromo statesman who, among other things, commanded the Ethiopian Defense Force at the Battle of Adwa, negotiated the treaties demarcating the boundaries of Ethiopia with all of its neighbors, and established diplomatic relations between the United States and Ethiopia. Similarly, Ras Gobana Dachee, a celebrated Oromo hero and military commander, is the one who established the present boundaries of Ethiopia by stopping and defending against the British, the Italians and the French encroachments on Ethiopian territories and its people from multiple directions except part of the Borana Oromo who remained in Kenya due to early British occupation of Kenya and the untimely death of this famous and formidable warrior.
4. Although the Oromo protests that started on November 12, 2015, was not as momentous as the Battle of Adwa, the comparisons between the battle of Adwa and the Oromo Protests are fitting for two main reasons. First, the same way the battle of Adwa was fought to preserve the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ethiopia; the ongoing Oromo protests is a popular resistance movement to restore political power and popular sovereignty back into the hand of the Ethiopian people from the TPLF/EPRDF rebel forces who unlawful usurped political power and abused it for the last 26 years, and defend these rights from being usurped again by any other similar group that might arise in the future. Second, as the Oromo people and Oromo leaders, heroes and heroines of the Battle of Adwa were the major actors and leaders who mobilized all Ethiopians to defend the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of their country; so are the Oromo protests where the Oromo people are the main actors and leaders in the battle to restore the political power and popular sovereignty back into the hands of the Ethiopian people from the jaws of the TPLF/EPRDF. Adwa established the independence, the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ethiopia as a country. The Oromo Protests are meant to establish the sovereignty and political power of the Ethiopian people, the natural and the only repository of political power and political will in Ethiopia, by establishing a democratic constitutional system of governance of the people by the people for the people under rule of law, not rule of one group or rule of individual dictatorship.
5. Given this historic and important ongoing popular movement to restore political power and political sovereignty into the hands of the Ethiopian people that started on November 12, 2015, the purpose of this talking point is to initiate a national conversation on the next chapter of how to transition the Oromo Protests into national protests by building on the victories of the last two years. The Oromo protests started as a demand for policy reform on land, language, urban policy, and self-rule (including the release of political cross-cutting) of the Oromo people. The TPLF/EPRDF’s refusal or inability to address any of the demands of the Oromo people over the last two years has now transitioned the Oromo protests into a national movement to restore political power and political sovereignty back in the hands of the Ethiopian people to address those demands and other similar popular grievances by taking the political power instead of begging for one’s own rights from unlawful usurper and robber of power. The cross-cutting and national nature of the causes of Oromo protests, the vision and the determination to address these underlying causes and the strategy needs to be deployed will be the main focus of this post.
6. What are the victories and gains of the Oromo Protests over the last two years?
6.1. One of the most important and lasting victories of the Oromo protests is the reemergence of the Oromo people as single and unified political community that knows its national interests and determined to defend and protect those national interests in full force without any division along political, religious or regional lines; for the first time more than one hundred years after the Gadaa System collapsed. The Oromo protests not only made sure that the Oromo people are ready to self-rule in an unabridged and genuine federal system but also showed the determination of the Oromo people to lead Ethiopia as major shareholders and formidable defenders and protectors of Ethiopia’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity as has been the case for centuries.
6.2. The second most important victory of the Oromo Protests is the dismantling of the most vicious anti-Oromo propaganda of the TPLF/EPRDF that designated and falsely painted the Oromo people’s quest for equality, justice, fairness, democracy and self-rule in Ethiopia as separatist, secessionists, and even as Islamic terrorist movement(this might seem absurd to most Oromos’ but it is true) hell-bent on dismantling and disintegrating Ethiopia and the state institutions it is built on with the objective of destabilizing Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. Until the Oromo protests fully and completely dismantled this vicious propaganda, the majority of the Western Diplomats, including most major countries, were in cohort with this TPLF/EPRDF narratives. Not only that, the Oromo protests also dismantled the seed of suspicion, hatred and the ill-will that the TPLF/EPRDF built between the Oromo people and the rest of the Ethiopian people as the irreconcilable mortal enemies and threats to each other that only the TPLF/EPRDF is “capable of preventing to keep Ethiopia and Ethiopians together”, one of the key tool and fear factor the TPLF/EPRDF built as one of the building blocks of its policy of divide and rule. The Oromo protests proved that the Ethiopian people are assets for each other instead of being threats to each other; and the Oromo people, not the TPLF/EPRDF, are the guarantors and guardians of those thousands of years’ old social assets and Ethiopia’s national unity.
6.3. The Oromo people forced a segment of the OPDO to listen to the voices of the Oromo people and forced some to acknowledge that their political power and authority to govern Oromia emanates from the Oromo people, not the TPLF that created them in Tigray some 27 years ago. (This statement should be seriously qualified, in the sense that, still a substantial number of TPLF recruited OPDO scavengers and vultures are answerable to the TPLF than the Oromo people or the progressive elements within the OPDO (#TeamLemma). In this connection, it is also important to note that the Oromo protests have dismantled the web of cadre structures and societal parasites, including the one to five security chains, and made useless the TPLF/EPRDF Marxist-Leninist “Democratic centralism” control structure where handful of TPLF/EPRDF Executive Committee and Central committee members abused and repressed one hundred million Ethiopians for the last 26 years.
6.4. The other major victory of the Oromo protests is the starting of the process of fundamental restructuring of the Ethiopian Security structures as defenders and law enforcement officers of the people not instruments of repression, violence, and torture in the hand of the TPLF/EPRDF. Two short years ago, the Ethiopian Military, Federal Police and National Intelligence including Oromia police were exclusively instruments of violence, torture and killing machines in the hand of the TPLF/EPRDF. In the last one year, Oromia police assumed its rightful place as law enforcement and peacekeeping officers of the society not the killing and torture machines of the TPLF/EPRDF. There are clear signs that Amhara and Oromo military, federal police and national intelligence officers are following the model of Oromo police in refusing to be tools to attack the people, forcing the TPLF/EPRDF commanders to rely on minority ethnic groups as attack force on the people as witnessed in recent killings in Ambo.
6.5. The Oromo protests
also exposed that there is no governing narrative and idea of the TPLF/EPRDF regime except 1) state violence (violence committed against its own citizens by the state), 2)predatory state that believes in the principle of the so called “development by dispossession” where the government transfers wealth and land from the poor to very few politically connected cadres and ethnic cronies, 3) state supported individual predation where government connected individuals could take the land, the life and the property of the people with impunity, and 4) killings thousands of peaceful Oromo protesters and detention of tens of thousands shows the TPLF/EPRDF regime is nothing but democratic, federal, fair, just, equitable and representative of the Ethiopian people; and that the system is irreparably broken.
6.6. Last but not least, the Oromo Protests legitimized and globalized the just causes of the Oromo people for justice, equality, fairness, democracy, self-rule and joint rule of Ethiopia by ending the economic, political and social exclusion and discrimination of the Oromo people by the racist and oppressive system based on the superiority of one ethnic group. Furthermore, the Oromo protests also transitioned itself as a leader of the Ethiopian people’s movement to transform Ethiopia from organized political and armed groups based political power structure to Ethiopian people based political power structure to establish a democratic constitutional system of government of the people by the people for the people.
7. What are the key national visions of the Oromo protests?
7.1. The main vision and key goal of the Oromo protests are to establish a constitutional system of governance where the political power resides not with organized armed or political groups but with Ethiopian people where the people establish a government of the people for the people by the people through duly elected representatives under rule of law. Therefore, the next chapter of the Oromo protests is to fully dismantle the very idea of “democratic centralism”, a Marxist-Leninist theory the TPLF/EPRDF regime used as convenient tool of control and repression where a handful of ignorant and arrogant groups of unelected cadres decide on the lives and future of the Ethiopian people, by TAKING the political power from TPLF/EPRDF and restoring and placing it back into the hands of the Ethiopian people. It is incumbent on the Oromo leaders and the Oromo people to lead and mobilize the entirety of the Ethiopian people to establish a country where the political power and political sovereignty resides with the people, and every political group remain accountable and subjected to the political will of the Ethiopian people.
7.2. To make sure that all political prisoners and religious leaders are immediately and unconditionally released; and end all forms of political persecutions in Ethiopia by one armed and organized political group(including by the TPLF/EPRDF) on other unarmed and weakly organized political groups and their members who are not using or in possession of the state structure and state machinery. To realize this vision, it is critically important to transform and change the current TPLF/EPRDF controlled Ethiopian Defense Forces, National Intelligence and Federal Police structures and chain of command into the Ethiopian people controlled and constitutionally accountable defense force, police, and intelligence officers that will not serve and stand for one particular group while attacking and killing other Ethiopians as has been the case over the last 27 years.
7.3. To dismantle all forms of racist, discriminatory, corrupt and exclusionary political, economic, social and religious institutions that long excluded and discriminated against the Oromo people and transform them into equitable, just and representative institutions including through, but not limited to, making Afaan Oromo the working language these institutions alongside with Amharic.
7.4. To make land the property of the Ethiopian people with no ownership rights for both the local and federal government except to regulate and govern the private, communal and wildlife/forestlands according to the customary laws and practices of the community who live on it, and other future community standards and rules.
8. What are strategies to attain these visions and the set goals?
The TPLF/EPRDF is tirelessly working to undermine and sabotage the Oromo protests and the movement of the Ethiopian people to restore political power and authority into the hand of the Ethiopian people by inventing intra and inter-community conflicts, useless attention-grabbing events, and agendas with the sole purpose of diverting the people’s attention and focus on the above key visions and national agendas. In order to overcome these sustained, well organized and thought-out government sabotages and acts of violence:
8.1. The Ethiopian people should intensify coordinated resistance by organizing themselves around key crosscutting issues such as1) restoring political power into the hands of the Ethiopian people, 2)the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners and religious leaders,3) establishing democratic system of governance, 4) establishing land and natural resource ownership of by the people not the government, and 5) establishing a genuine federal system of self-rule in a multicultural and multilingual united, strong and prosperous Ethiopia.
8.2. Mobilizing and organizing the people along existing and known traditional associations and societal structures where communities know, respect and trust each other to start exercising full political and policy decision making power at local levels and uproot all remaining parasitic and repressive chains of the TPLF/EPRDF security and cadre structures. Within this context, it is very critical and urgent to organize the Oromo people based on existing Gadaa System rules and practices. The Amhara people could be easily mobilized based on "Gobez Aleka" structures. Other known societal structures in other parts of Ethiopia should be immediately explored, studied and put to use.
8.3. It is very critical and incumbent upon the Ethiopian people to change and transform the existing Ethiopian military, security and federal police that the TPLF/EPRDF has been using as an instrument of violence and repression against the Ethiopian people for the last 27 years into national defense forces that defend the borders of the country and protects the peace and security of the people. Ethiopia dismantled 130 years old Ethiopian national military that was more inclusive and more popular twenty-five short years ago simply because of the real or perceived anti-people stands that that military was accused of when the TPLF/EPRDF rebel forces took the state power in 1991. The same fate is awaiting this newly established military, security and police forces unless it immediately and unconditionally changes its behaviors, practices and starts standing with and become responsive to the will of the Ethiopian people instead of becoming instrument of violence and repression that serves the short-term and failing interests of handful of retired TPLF/EPRDF leaders and cadres. The sudden change of Oromia police into popular police that does its police duty legitimately gives a good example about the possibility of changing the existing behaviors of the Ethiopian military, security and federal police. The Ethiopian people must make working on the military, security and federal police through their sons and daughters in uniform as one of their top priorities to attain the goal of restoring political power in the hands of the Ethiopian people and permanently denying all present and future organized political and armed groups of this or that ethnicity which will not be any different from the TPLF both in practice, ideology and structure.
8.4. The main tools in the hands of any popular movements are arming the people with knowledge, understanding, and wisdom of knowing key governance structures, policies and the weaklings of the regime. The Ethiopian elites did a disservice to the Ethiopian people in failing to produce knowledge and build winning ideas and narratives to transition the Ethiopian people from political group and armed groups based political power structure into a constitutional and democratic system of governance where power belongs to the people and final authority on any key national policy issue resides with the people. Bygone are bygone. The Ethiopian elites from each and every single group must make their top priority not the aspirations to assume empty political office but empower their people to become a source of political power by producing knowledge, winning ideas and strategies. This should be the main preoccupation of the elites and the educated Ethiopians to help the Ethiopian people win this serious battle.
8.5. Last but not least, the Ethiopian people must celebrate the heroes and heroines who were sacrificed both in the Oromo protests and Amhara resistance. Celebrating and remembering heroes will create and give birth to more heroes and heroines who will stand for the cause of the people, even at the cost of their life. It is important to keep the causes and memories of Oromo protests and Amhara Resistance alive by remembering the thousands who were killed and the tens of thousands who are still in detention by:
- Considering erecting monuments at each respective capital of each Oromia and Amhara districts in remembrance of these heroes and heroines who were killed by the state violence.
- Establish funds and enterprises that will support the families and relatives of these heroes and heroines.
- Setup Neighborhood associations that will help in farming and up keeping of the families and relatives of these heroes and heroines.
- Legally declare November 12 as the national holiday to reinforce the movement and the day that marked the struggle to transfer political power from organized political and armed groups to the people.
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