Wayane is about to detonate its most deadly political bomb
I felt compelled to write this short article after listening to an eyewitness video clip posted on Ethiopian Media website (http://www.ethioforum.org/) regarding religious conflicts that reportedly took place in the Jimmaa and Ilu-Abbaa-Boora zones of Oromia. I will briefly summarize the major political patterns demonstrated by the wayane regime in the last 15 years in order to put into context the current political developments unfolding in Ethiopia, including this unprecedented religious conflict.
For any objective observer patterns in wayane's political behavior in the last 15 years indicate one basic fact, i.e. their strategy for ensuring endless dominance on Ethiopian state machinery is solely based on the infamous old approach of divide and rule, historically used by colonialists and later widely adopted by minority regimes across the world. During the heydays of the wayane regime in the 1990s, the wayane political elites cleverly charted out every conceivable lines along which the Ethiopian society can be partitioned. The first easy pick was to capitalize on the historic inequalities and repressions perpetrated by successive Ethiopian governments, chiefly directed at the peoples of the South. They cleverly manipulated these genuine grievances to pit the two largest ethnic groups (Oromo versus Amhara) against one another. Encouraged by wayane's rhetoric of correcting the historical injustice, the oppressed nations and nationalities immediately moved to demand for their legitimate places in the political life of the country. As this was not the intended outcome of the wayane tactics, the regime was forced to tone down its original rhetoric, forced to expel independent political organization, from the transitional government and forced to put cap on what the wayane-made ethnic organization (PDOs) could demand for their peoples. These measures hinted the first sign as to what the wayane regime is all about. It sent a shockwave across the files and ranks of the PDOs leading to expulsions or otherwise voluntary departure of well-versed members of these organizations, essentially turning these organizations into collections of opportunistic individuals who go to any length to please the regime and virtually out of touch with the aspirations of their respective peoples. Failing to rally the mass, these incompetent PDOs, ruling the regions, unleashed terror on their own people further alienating the mass. Unable to effectively function, the PDOs finally resorted to producing inflated statistics about their governments' performances, falsely claiming an unprecedented popularity of their governments. This led the wayane elites to believe that their tactics were working and their regime is comfortably seated and is ready to take on the next challenge.
Without carefully validating the reports filed by the PDOs, the wayane elites foolishly embarked on their next move, which was aimed at gaining more trust from their Western financiers--- earning the much needed international legitimacy. It is a common knowledge that the Western nations have been unconditionally supporting the wayane regime, solely basing their logic on the carefully worded promises made by the regime about its commitments to democratizing Ethiopia. The wayane felt that it is time to move beyond mere promises to showing something tangible in order to secure continued support from the West and also to counter accusations from opposition groups about its undemocratic practices. To this end, the wayane elites carefully planned which opposition political organizations it would allow to participate in the 2005 elections and how much room it will allow for these organizations to maneuver. For obvious reasons, it picked the opposition groups that draw much of their supports from the Amhara ethnic group, without knowing the depth of public detest for its policies among non-Amhara ethnic groups. It also decided to use the Addis Ababa city election as its showcase, taking a well-calculated risk of loosing significant seats to the opposition in return for well-executed showcase that would secure Western confidence. Every step of the plan was wrong, as it was based on false reports filed by PDOs about the level of support the regime enjoyed among various ethnic groups. What happened in the aftermath of the 2005 elections is a too recent an episode and doesn't need to be elaborated it here.
Panicked by the results of the elections, the wayane picked up its old dividing tactic all over again, but this time around, they took it further by bring in the interhamwee rhetoric. It is aimed at separating the people of Tigray from the opposition groups on the one hand and to scare the world about the possibility for interhamwee style genocide in Ethiopia if the wayane regime is removed from power. In a nutshell, they wanted to tell the world that the current regime is indispensable as the only regime that could play a balancing act between peoples of varying interests. They even went on charging the opposition leaders with ridiculous crimes as serious as treason and genocide to proof their claims. These measure finally brought to light what kind of beast the wayane regime is.
The opposition groups quickly realized what this regime has in store for the country and promptly moved to counteract its plans. They made a great deal of compromise and created a broad alliance, AFD, to seal the cracks the regime sought to exploit for its malicious agenda of pitting ethnic groups against each other.
On its part, the regime appeared to have realized that the newly created understanding between various political organizations has effectively killed its old tactic and thus appeared to have embarked on yet another poisonous tactic with far reaching consequences. First, it jumped onto Somalia's internal affairs in order to secure its position in the so-called "War on Terror ". In order to justify its actions in Somalia, the regime appeared to have decided to create connections between developments in Somalia by manipulating the delicate balance that existed between various religions in Ethiopian for centuries. Eyewitness reports coming from the fields reports on that in the religious conflicts that reportedly occurred in the Oromia zones of Jimmaa and Ilu-Abbaa-Boora some of the perpetrates of the alleged crime were in army uniforms (listen to video eyewitness report posted on:
http://ethioblogger.net/index.php?blog=8&title=a_4808_a_4843_a_
4756_a_4656_a_4651_a_466_4846&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1).
Given the behaviors of this regime (highlighted above) and its recent adventure in Somalia, it is highly probable that the regime is behind such crime. No one in his/her right mind would underestimate the ramifications of such mindless acts. Therefore, it is high time that all political organizations and religious groups raise their voices against such acts before things get out of hand. If not cut short, it will be the deadliest political bomb used so far in Ethiopia and the region.
By Lammii Biyyaa
