Abesha Bunna Bet

I, often, choose not to share my political opinion on this blog. I, like most Ethiopians, share a deep love for my country and have an opinion of my own.

I frequent Ethiopian news sites to keep up with Ethiopian politics. And i take every article with a grain of salt.

I have found most of these writers to be biased in their publications. I have yet to see a neutral news agency that will educate the people and report the news without any bias.

I am sick and tired of most of these so-called news sites that report issues of their choice without realizing the power they hold with every single publication they put in front of us.

However, i am no fool and neither are the Ethiopians that are objective on their view of things.

Politics is ugly and i am very much aware of that. However, for those who think these news sites don’t have a political interest, i say “wake up now”.

For every horrible story out there, there is one just like it that rebuts it. So what is an average Ethiopian to do? Or where should one go to get a trustable news source?

Back to my story – Is Meles Zenawi Really A dictator That So Many Say He Is?

That is a very broad question and needs a close. Because the definition of :-

A Dictator :- is a person exercising absolute power, esp. a ruler who has absolute, unrestricted control in a government without hereditary succession.

According to that definition, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi will not be a dictator. But i can see clearly why people would label him as dictator.

Some of the actions by his government during the 2005 elections and the aftermath of the election is certainly questionable. We should also remember that democracy in Ethiopia has to be closely watched. All it took for the people to act crazy after the election is for Kinijit (CUD) members to say the election was fraudulent.

After that the people had taken matters into their own hands, and that as we all know is unconstitutional. Because of the aftermath an estimated 193 people had died and many thousands were arrested. Most of those without any just cause.

As we all know, the protests that was going around the country after the election was not on the same par as the previous protests by the civilians. It had a violence nature and the people had taken matters into their own hands.

In any type of riot, the outcome is usually a disaster, both to the police and civilians. I believe Ethiopia has come a long way and democracy in Ethiopia is still a work in progress. And that’s what i am trying to stress.

Democracy means different things to different nations. As we all know the people of Ethiopia had for the longest time chosen to give democracy their own meaning.

Democracy is definitely not lawlessness. And riots are just that – ‘riots’. As such, they are not in a position to represent the majority of the people. This is what is happening in Ethiopia today and any action that results because of a riot should be blamed, first and foremost, on those who caused the riot.

In the dictionary definition, democracy “is government by the people in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system.” In the phrase of Abraham Lincoln, democracy is a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people.”

Freedom and democracy are often used interchangeably, but the two are not synonymous. Democracy is indeed a set of ideas and principles about freedom, but it also consists of a set of practices and procedures that have been molded through a long, often tortuous history. In short, democracy is the institutionalization of freedom. For this reason, it is possible to identify the time-tested fundamentals of constitutional government, human rights, and equality before the law that any society must possess to be properly called democratic.

Democracies fall into two basic categories, direct and representative. In a direct democracy, all citizens, without the intermediary of elected or appointed officials, can participate in making public decisions. Such a system is clearly only practical with relatively small numbers of people–in a community organization or tribal council, for example, or the local unit of a labor union, where members can meet in a single room to discuss issues and arrive at decisions by consensus or majority vote. Ancient Athens, the world’s first democracy, managed to practice direct democracy with an assembly that may have numbered as many as 5,000 to 6,000 persons–perhaps the maximum number that can physically gather in one place and practice direct democracy.

Modern society, with its size and complexity, offers few opportunities for direct democracy. Even in the northeastern United States, where the New England town meeting is a hallowed tradition, most communities have grown too large for all the residents to gather in a single location and vote directly on issues that affect their lives.

Today, the most common form of democracy, whether for a town of 50,000 or nations of 50 million, is representative democracy, in which citizens elect officials to make political decisions, formulate laws, and administer programs for the public good. In the name of the people, such officials can deliberate on complex public issues in a thoughtful and systematic manner that requires an investment of time and energy that is often impractical for the vast majority of private citizens.

I have observed the different political parties in Ethiopia and i haven’t seen a genuine political party that has the people’s interests at heart. They are all good at pointing out what the current government is doing wrong.

I, like most Ethiopians, am interested in the issues. I would like to know what you stand for and why you stand for it, that’s it. I can see for myself what the current government shortcomings are and i certainly don’t need anybody to show me that.

I think the more people die and the more chaos in Ethiopia, the better for any opposition party. The same old technique that most African opposition leaders use. They have always managed to outrage the people.

I thing that’s disgraceful and in the end the people have to pay for it with their lives. The politicians move on “business as usual”

I have personally never understood why the arrested KINIJIT (CUD) parties would sign any letter asking for a pardon. I thought that was the biggest mistake a politician could make. You are admitting to a wrongdoing, after all. I ask each and everyone of these leaders “HOW DO YOU SLEEP AT NIGHT?”

If we were to call Meles Zenawi a dictator, i think by default they are ALL dictators.

I don’t want to sound like i am pro-Meles Zenaw. Very far from it.

What i am saying is this so-called opposition groups are all bogus. They are all hungry for power just like most politicians are. We the people should say enough to this and call things for what they are.

The current Ethiopian government has been in power for almost 2 decades now and that must change. Meles Zenawi has been the leader of the current government since it took power. Yes, that is along time for any leader to screw up. Specially an African leader that is facing a threat on a daily basis, both from within his country and out.

But under Meles Zenawi, our country has come a long way and we should point out these accomplishments and use them as a stepping stone towards grander accomplishments.

We should have no room for any errors. We should let no political party or leader to set us back another 10 years.

Anyone running for office should be judged by his/her past work and they should never be allowed to piggy-back on someone else’s failure. This is not a popularity contest and it’s about time that we should look at the hard facts. We should vote based on the issues our politicians stand for and not their popularity.

I think Ethiopians are falling victim by basing their judgments on so many things that are useless and in the end would hurt their own people.

We should never be taken on a false ride and false promises. I think hoping for a change just for the sake of seeing a change is the best formula for disaster and failure.

I am very confident that this post would ring a bell with some of you. This is not a political opinion whatsoever. The political situation in Ethiopia is a very dire one.

Hope is all my Ethiopian brothers and sisters have. We hope to eat one day and never have to worry about the next meal. we hope to have great leaders that would sacrifice everything in the name of their people and their country. We hope to live in peace and harmony with our neighbors. We hope to one day accomplish what the rest of the world has so far accomplished.

We are tired of talking about the problems and more than anything we are interested in talking about the solution.

I am personally tired of pointing fingers and dwelling on all the negatives that is going on around us.

It is about time that we put our differences and dislikes aside and work together towards a common goal. I am convinced the new generation is brighter, optimistic and more hopeful and thus will be the generation to bring the real change we long for.

Our good days are yet to come, but we must feel optimistic about out future – no matter how dire things might seem now.

 

I’d love to hear your perspectives on this- leave a comment if you have anything to say…