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January 2006
In most tyrannical systems, student movements are the forerunners of the impending resistance against the oppressive system. Their age, education, and the fact that they are found in large numbers in one campus in close proximity, makes student to be less tolerant of oppression. They are usually the first to openly defy a tyrannical system. This is what is happening in Oromia today. The oppressive rule that the EPRDF had imposed on the Oromo population has relegated campus issues to triviality for Oromo students.
Oromo students today are raising broad political questions; they are grappling with larger societal issues and articulating the demands and wishes of the Oromo population. In a suppressive society where there is no genuine organization that represents the interest of the population in the political system, it becomes incumbent upon the students to step forward and fill that vacuum. The Oromo students, against all odds and against great personal harm and sacrifice to themselves, have shouldered that responsibility in an impressive manner. The Oromo student movement that is spreading like a wildfire throughout all of Oromia today is only the tip of the iceberg. At the basis of it is found the great simmering of the Oromo anger, which could explode anytime and take down the government once and for all.
The TPLF government is subjecting the Oromo people to an untold misery. And the Oromo students are directly reacting to that. For all who want to see, today’s Oromo students’ unrest is a sure sign that the Oromo population has by and large rejected this alien rule. This movement is an indirect manifestation of the Oromo people’s yearning to become their own masters without an outside force telling them how to live and what to do with their destiny. This great resistance that the Oromo youth is showing is a great consolation to those who have been in the struggle for the self-determination of the Oromo people, because it is one clear proof that the baton is passed to the new generation. It’s almost a guarantee that the struggle for liberation will definitely continue until liberation. A new generation that came into age during the reign of the TPLF has totally rejected the Tigray/Woyane rule and committing itself to the liberation of Oromia. What more could be comforting to the veterans of Oromo liberation struggle?
It’s one of the wonders of our time that the Tigray/Woyane minority regime that initially started its struggle to liberate Tigray, developed the audacity to claim that it’s a movement representing the whole of Ethiopia. Moreover, the ridiculous claim of TPLF that it had formed a democratic state is one of the greatest insults hurled at democracy. TPLF is an organization created by the Tigreans and for Tigreans. Nothing short of a magic wand can transform the TPLF to an organization representing the interest of all the peoples living in Ethiopia. Of course this is so clear, that even the TPLF leaders did not dare claim out rightly that TPLF represents Ethiopia. They had to devise a mechanism through which they can hide the TPLF image. It’s to hide such an offending claim like, “TPLF represents the whole of Ethiopia” that they had to don a new garb and hide their true face, under the name of EPRDF. But, again this can fool only the most naïve gullible souls, and attract only those miserable characters who will sell their souls even to the devil if he is the highest bidder. For those who are a little discerning, EPRDF is nothing but the external persona of TPLF.
One of the gambles of the TPLF when it shifted its gear from Tigray liberation to domination of Ethiopia for the benefit of Tigray was to form an Oromo organization that will represent the interest of Tigray in Oromia. The creation of the OPDO from the POWs was the result of that objective. The TPLF also thought and believed that by answering some of the Oromo issues in the name of OPDO it could make the existence of OLF superfluous. At the initial stage when the Oromo population saw the OPDO for what it is, TPLF in Oromo mask, the TPLF was heavily counting on the new generation that would grow up under its rule being fed OPDO/TPLF propaganda. They thought that with time there is big possibility that the Oromo population would forget the OLF and will start embracing the OPDO. But their biggest stake was on the new generation. They believed they could definitely win over the new generation that came to age after the OLF was ousted from the government, because according to them, there was no independent organization that could influence the thinking of the new Oromo youth. The current Oromo students’ movement had shattered that false illusion of the TPLF. In fact, this generation is more dedicated, daring, and politically savvy and clearer about what it wants to achieve compared to the generation that preceded it.
The TPLF should realize that, if it had failed up to now to garner the support of the new generation of the Oromo youth, there is not possibility that it could win the heart and soul of the Oromo population in the future. Whatever deceptive mechanism it comes up with, and what ever trick it devises, it will not have effect on the Oromo population. The consciousness of the Oromo population has reached the stage where it can easily see through the machination of the alien force. It has become an insult to the Oromo people to tell them that an organization that was formed to advance the interest of the Tigray/Woyane (whether it comes in the shape of TPLF, OPDO or EPRDF) is their organization.
The Oromo people want to be the master of their own life. Nothing less. They want to have their own homegrown organization that is not controlled by alien force. That is why the Oromo youth are crying loud and clear for the OLF to be allowed to participate in an election. That is why they are crying, “Long Live the OLF!”
The Oromo student movement of today is only a little flickering light heralding what may follow tomorrow. The Oromo population, wherever we are, should be grateful to our youth who are shouldering the responsibility handed to us down from the past generation. Hopefully, this new generation that has arisen today will be the last generation of Oromos who would live under the yoke of alien rule. Oromo students in, Finfinne, Jimma, Haro Mayaa, Makele, Bahr Dar, Gonder, Awasa universities and colleges, and high school students in Ambo, Baakko, Baddessa, Badelle, Ciro, Dambi Dollo, Diree Dhawa, Galamso, Gimbi, Guder, Hirnaa, Innaango, Kiltu Kaarraa, Jimmaa, Mandi, Moojoo, Najjo, Naqamte, Shaambu, Warra Jaarso should be commended for their heroic acts.
We should also celebrate the lives of students, Alamayyo Garbaa, Morkataa Eddosaa, Kabbada Badhassa, Jaagamaa Badhanee, Dabalaa Oliiqaa, Malaaku Tarfaa, and others whose name I do not have, who sacrificed their precocious lives in the hand of the TPLF in this round of struggle to make Oromia a better place for all of us. These are our heroes, and their sacrifice will bear fruit only and only if we continue to the end what they have started, or else their death will be in vain.
Let the struggle continue!
A Luta Continua!
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