By Debebe Maru
Tigrai Online, Sept. 16, 2014
The self-proclaimed ‘Ginbot 7’, a terrorist group, has many unattainable “dreams”. Any of its wishes has never come to a friutation. Since its conception into the terrorism world, every terror plots it hatched together with Shabiya have all failed. Today, instead of witnessing the terror group’s deluded dream come true, we are seeing its disintegration – with the detention of its general secretary. This shows that the “organization” does not have any strength except for empty talks. Although there are many episodes of unsuccessful efforts exerted by the group, let me walk you through some of them.
The group wanted to orchestrate a demo during the 50th jubilee celebration of AU, which our country organized and hosted successfully. So, the “Doctor economist”, who changed ship from being an economist to a terrorist, came up with a plan prior to the event
Usually, 30 or 40 people stage rallies at various government porches and shout chants like ‘we condemn Ethiopia’s government violation of human and democratic rights’, supporting the ideological agenda of enemy of our country like the lights of ‘Human rights watch’, ‘Amnesty international’ etc … in the process. However, this time, as the Doctor mind is “bright”, they wanted to shift their approach.
Either to his ingenuity or stupidity (you be the judge of it), the man targeted United State’s foreign secretary John Kerry’s visit to Addis Ababa to attend AU’s 50th birthday celebration to use it to his advantage. To this end, he started to disseminate his through the younger brother of ‘Radio-Television Libre des Mille Collines’, a radio station responsible for instigating Rwanda’s genocide, and the bogus report mill, ‘ESAT’, by saying “in his visit to Addis Ababa to attend the jubilee celebration, it’s expected that secretary Kerry will talk about human rights handling of the country”. Their collaborator – neo-liberal extremist institutions like ‘CPJ’, ‘Human Rights Watch’ etc.
They started their day dreaming, seeing the United States interfering in other country’s affair and giving red line with regards to human rights handling. They dreamt of foreign controlled human and democratic rights being set up in our country. They thought it was the moment. However, their deluded fantasy bubble burst by Secretary John Kerry’s speech at the ceremony. As the “master doctor” is only good for selling country to foreign powers and not for diplomatic tinkering, he was hugely disappointed.
Then they were forced to show their face on that lies factory television of theirs and admit by saying “although various international human rights organization insisted to Secretary Kerry to pressure the EPRDF-led government to respect the peoples’ rights, he did not raise the issue during his talks with Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn”. I can imagine how pissed and enraged they must be.
While their personal mouthpiece ‘ESAT’ was being loquacious, the main culprits and the pseudo democratic and human rights advocacy groups like the lights of ‘CPJ’, ‘Human Rights Watch’ have all been on a ‘forced silence’ mode - even I’m sure it’s for a while.
Of course any anti-Ethiopian can spew or blabber whatever he/she wants, but the Americans knows very well the base and fulcrum of the bilateral relation, and they won’t do anything to disturb that. As it’s known, the Ethio-American relationship, except for its brief disruption during the ‘Derg’ era, has been going on for over 100 years; carrying positive experiences along with it. And today, the relation of both countries is laid on a firm base. And this firm relationship is led by policy and principle protects the both countries’ national interest, and is based on respect and mutual interest.
On our country’s part, a relation that’s based on clear and concise policy, with regards to America, is established. It’s tuned to our country’s national interest and adheres to ‘give and take’ approach. And the relation respects Ethiopia as a sovereign country and does not have an opening for it to be meddled by foreign forces on its internal affairs. And the way the government operates makes our country beneficiary and does not allow for foreign forces to interfere in any internal matter.
And this fact is clearly understood by our American counterparts. I think when Washington was setting up the bilateral relationship; they understood that they cannot impose their will on Ethiopia. They have their own reasons for this. The fact that our country is invested in building a democratic order and development, its geo-political importance in the region, and the fact that it’s playing a major role in bringing peace and stability to the region along with its acceptance in the international and continental arena are some of the reasons. And since these realities and key activities of our government and people are in the domain of American’s interest and wishes, they have served as a cornerstone for mutual benefit of the bilateral relation.
The core of the relationship revolves around even benefit based on equality; it does not take the one as “giver” and the other as “taker”. For instance, as our country does not want to meddle into America’s affairs like its anti-terrorism program, Washington knows that there’s no rational reason for them to interfere in our country’s anti-terrorism activities.
So, apparently comprehending the fact that this kind of master and servant arrangement has no place in a relationship that’s based on mutual benefit for the likes of ‘the doctor-terrorist’ asks additional knowledge. Based on this fact, it’s easy to understand that the relation of both countries is based on the fruits they reaped from their partnership.
This is why US foreign secretary John Kerry on a briefing he gave together with FDRE foreign minister Dr. Tedros Adhanom, during the celebration held for AU’s golden jubilee, he said “in a society where people are endowed basic rights, and there is a strong democracy in place, the economy becomes even more strong. With regards to this, we’ll continue to work with our Ethiopian partners who are working hard to lessen the problems”. This part is deliberately left out by ‘Ginbot 7’, since it doesn’t bode well with their agendas.
Although the issue of ‘whether its development or democracy that should take priority in a developing country?’ is debatable, I don’t see any harm to Secretary Kerry’s suggestion that there can be even more results achieved in addition to the rapid and sustainable development we recorded, if there’s a strong democracy. Of course, since our country’s democracy is in its feeble stage, it can face some challenges due to its inexperience.
As our democracy culture building musters some undemocratic residues that came rolling down from previous regimes, we are not in a position yet where everything miraculously appears out of the blue. Democracy is realized through an effort that follows its own process; it’s not something that would just come out of the nothing, like the extremists amateur politicians are thinking. It demands time, process and the society’s awareness. Nevertheless, our country is not sitting idly thinking that these preconditions do not exist in our country’s reality.
In addition to clearly penning down these rights on the constitution, the country is working hard for these rights to be executed fully by setting up horizontal democratic institutions like ‘Ombudsman’ and ‘Human Rights commission’ for this end. The government is doing all these because democracy for us is an existential issue; unlike what ‘Ginbot 7’and its minions are drumming about.
I think this is why FDRE Foreign Minister Dr. Tedros Adhanom in his joint briefing he gave to journalists together with US foreign secretary John Kerry, said, “… since we give priority to democracy, we want to work with the US with regards to this.” I think it’s because Secretary Kerry understood this commitment of our country that he retorted by saying “…we’ll continue to work with our Ethiopian partners who are working hard to lessen the problems.” And it’s obvious what by working in cooperation means – it means it’s based on Ethiopia’s consent (free will).
So, as far as I can understand, this comment of the foreign secretary implies that the US does not want to interfere in our internal matters. So, the lights of ‘Mr. Terrorist’ should be aware that their deluded fantasy is a barren-hope that will never materialize in to reality.
Let me provide evidence that shows the US government will not meddle in our country’s internal affairs – an episode which embarrassed our country’s would-be oppositions at a time when Ms. Hillary Rodham Clinton was the chief of US state department.
I think the episode happened two years back. At the time, former secretary of state Hilary Clinton was visiting African countries. Ethiopia was one of the countries she visited. These people; who are obsessed for foreign power-fulcrum democracy, were waiting for her with their dossiers. It seemed the US government is responsible for them not getting to power. I’m sure they would have even liked to go to Bole International Airport. The American Secretary left in a hurry after addressing her priorities, without even considering the eager opposition group because a volcano erupted at the Ethiopian border with Eritrea.
In a disappointment-borne-propaganda, the “oppositions” went great length to trumpet their frustration and rants. Especially the foreign-fulcrum democracy monger, ‘Medrek’, a party made out of the coalition of “friends” who do not trust each other, and ‘Andinet’, formerly one of Medrek’s faction party and current foe, went further and said many things. In order to give an understanding of their frustration and cry to my dear readers, I’ll try to raise some of them as instances.
When the leaders of ‘Medrek’ drummed rants like “Secretary Clinton should not have talked with the government only”, and asked the US to mend the democratic order in Ethiopia to the VOA’s Amharic program; who themselves have their own hateful agenda, they didn’t show any sign of shame or disgrace.
What’s baffling here is the fact that instead of accepting their disappointment with grace, the quarrelling leaders of ‘Medrek’ handed a dossier in the line of ‘please tell Mrs Clinton to amend Ethiopia’s democracy’. Although this is baffling and astounding, it should not be surprising – considering they bend down to foreign powers. ‘Andinet’, a set of riot mongers and disjointed politicians, has now turned into condemning Washington following its let down by US foreign secretary.
In an interview Ato Andualem Arage; the now detained and former feeble member of the party, gave to their “friends” in the VOA, he criticized the US government by saying ‘it supports authoritarians’. This critique of the feeble politician, which used to front his party’s insult related tasks, reminds us of one thing. That is, the funny headlines we used to hear during the ‘Derg’ regime, like ‘some farmer association has condemned America’s imperialism’.
So, I think this is the perspective the Americans are looking at ‘Andinet’s condemnation and amateur critique. A party that bat each other; that’s divided, that shamelessly insults its leader ‘easily bends to anyone’ in the media cannot be taken seriously even by a new party in our country let alone a country of a stature of US. I think Washington, who is at the top of diplomatic ladder, will take the likes of ‘Medrek’ and ‘Andinet’ as crazies. This is because, whether it’s Mrs. Hillary Clinton or the US embassy in Addis Ababa, they didn’t bother to give them a reply.
What we can understand from both Mrs Clinton and Mr. Kerry is that the American government will not meddle except to work together cooperatively and in collaboration. Washington fully knows that the democratic order that’s being built in our country can only be successfully edified through the consent of the nation, nationalities and people of the country, and not through the forcing of foreign powers.
All in all, let us now move aside from reminiscing over our would-be “oppositions” failure dossiers, and move to the recent ‘Ginbot 7’ deluded fantasy and secretary john Kerry’s effusing comments. First one need to understand how the tiring black propaganda agenda of Mr. ‘terrorist’ goes about...
First, they trumpet nonexistent and unfounded stories through their own personal terror propagating mouth piece ‘ESAT’. Then, in order for this to gain reputation and taken as the truth, they disseminate it to ‘CPJ’, ‘Human Rights Watch’ and to other neo-liberal extremists forces. And the likes of ‘CPJ’ on their part will forward their bogus ‘democracy is getting crucified in Ethiopia, human rights is violated, let’s do something’ etc … propaganda. And this will in turn be assembled into a factious novel by ‘Ginbot 7’ mouthpiece ‘ESTA’ itself – an alpha and omega of agenda relaying.
Secretary Kerry, on a briefing he gave during his visit here to attend AU’s golden jubilee celebration, levied praise showering comments underlining on his country’s strong relationship with Ethiopia - defusing this empty and factious narration of ‘Mr. Terrorist.
The “Doctor economist” may be disappointed by Secretary John Kerry’s remarks, anyways let me present his praise showering comments a little further. So the Washington man on top of offering cooperative hand by saying ‘we will work together around human and democratic rights’, he disclosed that his government is committed to work with Ethiopia in economic development, trade, peace and security and other various sectors.
Secretary Kerry continues, “The economic development f the country is amazing. Ethiopia I not only one of the top ten fastest growing economies, but also it’s a country that’s recording double-digit economic growth”. Of course, I remember hearing the “Doctor economist” arrogantly insisting that the country is not growing at all – I wonder how he feels when hearing the secretary’s comments. Secretary of state John Kerry’s speech did not end with this.
He added “Ethiopia is strong ally with regards to the region’s peace and security. Especially the country’s effort to solve Sudan’s, South Sudan’s and Somalia’s crisis makes them our important partner. Ethiopians have put themselves in line in the fight against terrorism, and we should support and aid their efforts to bring peace in the region”. Although I am not sure whether the term ‘terrorist’ here applies to you or not, but as time goes by the truth will come out; and you can be sure that someday this position of yours will collide you with American’s strong position against terrorism.
All in all, what this remarks implies is the seasoned diplomacy that exists between both countries that’s based on mutual interest and respect, and one that’s not easily shaken. But dear “Doctor economist”, do you remember when you said ‘Ethiopian government is using terrorism and security for propaganda consumption?’…
I hope now, you will change this shameful and disgraceful propaganda of yours - though it’s a lost hope. All in all, the ‘Ginbot 7’ and its minions gravitated ‘since the Ethiopian government does not respect human and democratic rights, the US government should put pressure on it’ cry has ended in bitter disappointment for them with Secretary John Kerry’s praise showering comments.