
Tigrai Online - Ethiopian Daily Breaking News
IS “Semayawi” Party Religious?
By Frehiwot Ketema
Tigrai Online January 5, 2015
Of course anyone who sees the above question-title will respond with “there is no earthly or heavenly connection between the two”. This is because, while ‘Semayawi’ (Blue) Party is part of the mundane political universe tangled as a political party. The then wahabia controlled Awelia’s clique is a berth where it’s few disciples are expected to vigorously devote themselves to make it to heaven- although the creed cuts through the separation of religion and politics.
It’s my belief that both entities’ sentiment and credence entirely differ as if it was night and day, the only common thing they have is the word ‘blue’. This is of course notwithstanding both entities penchant for unconstitutional demeanors.
Again it should be asked,’ how on earth do they coalesced?’ and it’s an important one, cause it’s difficult to see how an oil and water can form a compatible function.
The metaphor of the political party and the clique breathing through each other’s lung; to form a symbiotic nefarious co- existence, was evident during the recent unconstitutional political rally marshaled by the power monger blue party.
Lest you hold your breath to the end of the this article, and this writer will try to run-down what seeking worldly power and celestial dominion have in common? How the recent call for mass demonstration organized by the earthly political party is unconstitutional and finally, will try to make a sense of the recent sensationalist; albeit absurd, quote given by the ever shimmering lawyer turned burned-out politician Dr.Yaqob Hailemariam once said on his interview with VOA’S Peter Hyline, in which he responded to a question of ‘how he felt on the first mass demonstration to be organized since the ‘05 election’, with ‘I am shocked’ (as if there hasn’t been any since then). Dear reader, in order for the writer break it down for you, it would be helpful to start from the basic, demonstration.
FDRE’s constitution Article 30 (1) clearly stipulates that anyone have the right to assemble, demonstrate and display grievances without resorting to violence. Manipulating this right and copying from the playbook of the former CUD (‘Qinijit’), the Blue party tried to arrange a political rally wearing all black and looking all disarrayed in front of the African Union (AU) Assembly hall.
However, coincidentally Addis was hosting the 50th jubilee of the birth of the former OAU/AU and was bustling with the leaders of the continent and other world countries, representative of international organizations, and worldwide celebrities. The country’s police force: who is responsible for all those VIP’s, was stretched thin to a point where they were incapable to deploy spare men.
Although the FDRE government fully appreciates the right of a single person let alone a constitutional bona-fide political party’s right to hold a peaceful demonstration, it’s also obligated to designate the police force responsible for the safety and well being of the demonstrators. Thus, unable to guarantee the safety of the demonstrators, the government backed down out of giving the permission and briefed the leaders of the party on the situation. Both parties then agreed to postpone the demonstration until May 25, where it will take place peacefully. The faithful day loomed, and so the unexpected happens….
It’s the view of this writer; a blue party marshaled rally should have been piled by the party’s members, burned-out politicians and a few of the former military government cronies. But to many people’s surprise, the majority of the demonstrators (maybe more than 3/4th) happened to be a very few Awelia based wahabia detractors and the Muslim brothers manipulated by the ever- higher pulpit of these fundamentalists .That number of coarse includes innocent bystanders gazing through the crowd like this writer was at the time.
During the demonstration such unconstitutional slogans such as ‘Free Political & Press Prisoners’, ‘Release Our Muslim Brothers’ (the writers begs the question of who those are), ‘We can’t carry on with the cost of living‘…etc was displayed.
Seeing as most of the partaker were chanting ‘Allah Akbar’ only to the ‘release our Muslim brother’ bit; while being hush on the others, led for the on-lookers to question if whether the demonstration was called by “Awelia’ or the (Blue) ‘Party’. There were even those who claimed ‘The Blue party led Wahabia show’ best captures the event.
Dear readers, this is where the religion-cum-politics first appears, in the above quote which captures the enigma. Both founded on polar ideology, instinct and reflexes; coalesced into a nexus of unconstitutional pied-pipers. In order to postulate on the issue, let us first see the Wahabia’s Awelia, which is a religion-clad worldly power seeking movement devoid of the constitutional ideals and practices, and the Blue party, which concocted an unconstitutional religion armored mass protest in the hopes of sabotaging the judicial system.
As my dear readers already know, FDRE’s Constitution Article 11(3) clearly stipulates that ‘state should not interfere in religious matters, as Religion in state affairs.’ It’s the writer’s understanding that this article carries two basic & distinct theories.
The first theory prohibits the government from interfering within any religious sects, by saying, “This is the righteous way, and that the wicked”, while inversely the second one forbids religion dwelling into governmental procedures by demanding, “Do this and do that”.
Yet the Awelia based Wahabia, breaking this sacred constitutional law and shielding religion, have been working on establishing an Islamic government, according to the clique leaders own words.
This frame of mind forces the democratic system to bear undemocratic behaviors and unfolds such creeds as ‘follow my christen religion’, which undermines human & democratic rights. Also religion fueled political bickering is unacceptable, as it distracts politician to futile pasturing and the public to miss out on the benefit of undistracted developmental growth.
But, most of all, this action should be condemned as it clearly as a sunny day subverted the ominous law of the land – the constitution. It ‘s the opinion of this writer, the few people behind the religion-clad Awelia’s unconstitutional claims are; in one way or the other, burned-out politicians in the lights of Dr. Yaqob or those who are trying to use them for a ride.
This makes the blue party illegal as it used the Awelia as a ride for staging the demonstration. The party called for a demonstration which pierced through the constitutional law that dictates the separation of state (government) and religion and took action that subverted the legal system.
Although, due to the democratic nature of the government, the party (with all its unlawful antics) was given permission to hold a mass demonstration, instead they were interested in displaying unconstitutional cause like ‘Release jailed Muslims and politicians’ and unlawful act that could blur the judicial system.
It’s the understanding of this writer, that the party’s antics; albeit devoid of action, of duping the public and undermining the constitution in the name of mass demonstration and prosecuted men, deserves to be accountable .
It’s a common sense , that no one in any way has the right to interfere in the judicial system by indulging on ongoing judicial session, as it’s the exclusive and inalienable authority of the courts. Those person the party called for their release, are charged and prosecuted by the law and will be judged by the law.
Thus, meddling into a matter which is being handled in the court of law is not only irresponsible but also disrespectful to the land’s legal system. The writer of this article doesn’t think the blue party, which organized a mass rally in order to propagate religious agenda and sabotage the constitution, won’t be allowed to smother the law & order (of the country) any more, especially while operating within the constitutional framework.
The party’s illusion of a grandeur and holier-than-thou attitude cannot be above the rule of law. Of course, the party’s actions are a true reflection of its inner unconstitutional self, and only the party and its backers must be the only ones who know, how on earth they are expecting to carry out their credo while also operating within the constitution.
It’s the understanding of this writer that denouncing constitutional procedures within a legal framework and pressing or influencing to get one’s way is two exceedingly different motifs.
The party can’t really expect to get a grip hold on two opposite sides of the spectrum ( it can’t have it both ways anymore) –it either has to choose between legal or illegal path, other than this the writer don’t think the legal procedures can allow the party to manipulate the system anymore.
Anyways the opposition political parties tend to subvert legal procedures based on junk blabber for a political program. If the opportunity presents itself these people won’t hesitate from dismantling the pillars of the constitution like democracy, peace etc… as they’ve already shown to be capable of.
Let me add one instance. The writer remembers that (during the 2010 national elections) the now ailing ‘Medrek’, asked the parliament before the elections to change the constitution’s basic principles.
At the time HE Prime Minister Ato Meles Zenawi (may he rest in peace) was present at the parliament to brief the governments statement, and replied to the party’s ludicrous claim by calling them” You are a Weimar Republic bigot”. Let this writer walk you through four or five years back through what the basic essence of the genius proverb/quote entails.
During the late 19th century, after Germany’s defeat at World War I, the government was replaced by a new democratic government. This new administration borrowing its name from one of the country’s cities was called “Germany’s Democratic Weimar Republic Government.”
The government who ratified one of the world’s better constitutions was named ‘Weimar Republic”, after the faithful German city. But, contrary to public opinion, the republic was short lived, only fifteen years on power. Why?
During those times the opposition parties were swinging from one side, exercising their constitutional right provided by the democratic Weimar republic unto the other, where they were actually pursuing to destroy the constitution by force- dabbling both legal & unconstitutional approaches.
So, on the left the leftist socialist and on the right wing Nazi- fascism opposition political parties, after cruising through the public opinion by appearing to be democratic and constitutional, brought down the democratic government.
After winning the election, the Adolf Hitler led Nazi party’s first action was to shred the democratic constitution and replace it with an unconstitutional one. This led for the transfer of power to one of the most undemocratic and vile government in human history.
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So, what the visionary leader at the time tried to tell-off the ’Medrek’s leaders was that, their ‘macchiavelian party’ maneuvering within both the legal and illegal realms of the law waiting to pounce, if afforded with the opportunity they won’t back down from destroying the constitution and constitutional regime, “Weimar Republic bigot”, indeed.
Of course, the blue party choreographed dramatic mass demonstration is nothing more than the same antics. The so-called ’Weimar bigot’ power mongers by now should realize that the post world war I Weimar public psyche and restricted flow of information doesn’t exist in this day and age.
In today’s age of Information technology there’s no way of making the Weimar’s republic mistake because people’s mentality have refurbished along with modern age technology, while rationality have amassed.
The rational and unbiased Ethiopian public has shown these people of their deeds through the last four National elections. So, it would behoove of the Blue party to think twice before adopting this out-dated unconstitutional tactics.
If the party’s recent call for political rally was after the heavenly blue dominion as its name suggests, then the party should realize there hasn’t been any record of board of election registered religious organization as far as this writer is concerned.
The party’s option is to either get its grip firm on a political ticket or register anew as religious organization. If the party’s fancy is to be some sort of a politico-religious demagogue, then they should realize by now this kind of double-edged maneuvering will kick them out of the political game. Ethiopia’s politico economic arena does not allow this kind of out-of-fashioned double–edged move of a political party canoodling with a religious clique like the one they have with the Wahabia.
In the same note, this writer has come to the conclusion that earlier claim of the Wahabia influenced Awelia camp’s motive for political (not religious) end is proved to be true. Because they have clearly
Now let us turn our attention to the intellectually-castrated and politically-finessing Dr Yaqob’s façade testimonial. After many years of succumbing to power have had him twist and turn from one party to the other, the ‘good’ Doctor has now appeared on the VOA’s show to comment on the “first” mass demonstration staged since the ’05 election, in which he retorted on being appalled. He was of course one of the anti-democratic CUD (‘qinijt’s) party leaders, who by complete disregard for popular vote, boycotted the parliament.
Sensing a blessing, he dusted off and took on the Benishangul-Gumuz case out of purgatory, even though the government has already taken swift action on the culprits, which happened to be some rent-seeking elements within the regional authorities.
Scavenging for money the ‘Doctor’ has promised the Prosecuted self-proclaimed ‘Ethiopian Muslim representative’ to weasel close to eight million birr in damages in behalf of them.
As the saying “knowing hens lay even in nettle” goes, it’s unclear on how his reputation for being undemocratic and domineering in the court of public opinion, is going to fare as a public defendant.
His known pranks for disrespecting the public, cannot change overnight into an immediate vanguard of human right- for this writer expecting this kind of solicitude from the rent-seeking CUD (qinijit) authorities is like expecting for ‘a tiger to change its color’.
Nobody can be sure whether the ‘Doctor’s’ angle is to inevitably use this unfortunate suffering as a gimmick for his personal gain. It might be a “they give, to find a pretext for asking” sort of thing.
After establishing the character of the ill-suited Doctor, the remainder of the article will dissect on his recent both manipulative & oblivious comment. As one of the then qinjit’s havoc-marshal, the writer is baffled to hear the doctor’s appalled view of the state of mass demonstration post-2005 election.
The fact is he should be appalled by his own absurd & ill-informed comments. May be he wasn’t there to quench his rent-seeking thirst, but there were demonstration organized by the likes of Dr. Negaso Gidada during the 2002 election.
Although this writer is a little foggy to remember, but there was a peaceful political rallies staged in front of the prime minister’s office, and surly there could have been a number of other assembly, demonstration & rallies.
So, apprehending the posture and numeral of the recently granted demonstration; courtesy of a little research could have saved him from spewing biased lies. The right to assemble and organize, is and has been is part of the Ethiopian political landscape during and the after the unfortunate passing of the late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
There is no change. The government is ever more determined to uphold the constitutional and democratic rights of its citizen, which it had fought since yesteryears.
Therefore, it’s safe to assume Mr. Meles and his party’s legacy of upholding democratic and constitutional rights do not take place only in the delusional mind of the would-be doctor. The public’s determination to execute the former Prime Minister’s legacy and visions can attest to the fact, as can an unbiased and hate-castrated perspective.
What baffles this writer is, just as some of these opposition tag rag (like the lights of ‘Blue party’) tactics of finessing through two polar ends, the so-called Doctor’s subversive antics on the judicial system by adjudging solely designating himself as the prosecutor, testifier and judge is done while still carrying on a legal suit with the proper procedure of the court of law.
Although, this writer will be back with his take on the ‘good’ doctor’s remark on the Blue party’s demonstration; which he insists is not part of, and his unlawful attestations which is unworthy of the profession he presents, he would like to close with the question, “Dear Doctor, is it possible to dust–off the now jaded vandal politics in the name legal prosecuting?” And let me add…Is “semayawi” party religious? I hope the short answer for these questions is in the mind of the party members and their few supporters.
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