ADWA Event Tomorrow – Saturday, March 31, 2018 at 1:00pm

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The three-time Olympic gold medallist and nine-time world champion is one of the greatest female endurance runners of all-time. Here the 32-year-old Ethiopian legend and reigning Chicago Marathon champion explains her passion for running.

“I was motivated and inspired to run from a young age because of the success my older sisters and my cousin Derartu Tulu (the 1992 and 2000 Olympic 10,000m champion) enjoyed in the sport. I started running at school. I used to win all the races. In fact, I was so successful I was regularly assigned to race against the boys!

“I later developed into a professional runner and enjoyed my first major senior success when winning the World 10,000m title at the 2003 IAAF World Championships in Paris. That was the moment for me when I knew I possessed a gift for running.

“Running has given me so much throughout my life. It is always a thrill for me. It makes me happy and my passion is such that nothing else in life can match that same high I get when running.

“I also love the competitive side of the sport and nothing beats that feeling of winning after putting in many months of hard training in the countdown to a big race.

“Of course, running has also brought its financial rewards and transformed my life and that of my family. I am a country girl from a farm and my success in athletics has allowed me to live a comfortable life in the city of Addis Ababa.

“From my perspective, I cannot imagine a life without running and I would encourage anyone else to run because it is good for your health and it can become a joyful experience in your daily life.’

Source: IAAF

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March 30, 2018 

The Committee to Protect Journalists, along with 40 civil society organizations, yesterday sent a joint letter to Ethiopia’s prime minister-designate, Abiy Ahmed, urging him to ensure the immediate and unconditional release of recently arrested journalists, and human rights defenders.

All were detained without charge under Ethiopia’s latest state of emergency declared on February 16. Those arrested include journalists Eskinder Nega and Temesghen Desalegn, Zone 9 bloggers Mahlet Fantahun and Befekadu Hailu, blogger Zelalem Workagegnehu, and blogger and academic Seyoum Teshome.

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By Teshome Borago

United States Senator Marco Rubio asked the Ethiopian government to release Eskinder Nega, Andualem Aragie and other activists re-arrested recently in Addis Ababa, as Ethiopian regime nominated a new PM. With the hashtag “#expressionNOToppresion” the Republican US Senator expressed his massage on Twitter. Several members of his Republican Party (particularly Colorado Rep. Mike Coffman and NJ Congressman Chris Smith) have recently been active promoting human rights in Ethiopia, using US House Resolution 128.

Eskinder is an award winning journalist while Andualem Aragie is the leader of the UDJ opposition party in Ethiopia. Alongside a dozen other opposition activists and reporters, the two were re-arrested and put in a small prison in Gotera district of the Ethiopian capital city.

A close associate of Andualem Aragie told Zehabesha & Satenaw reporter on the inhuman condition of their jail. “Over 40 political prisoners are forced into a tiny cell,” informed the source.  Several online supporters and human rights activists have began social media campaign using the hashtags #RepealStateOfEmergency and #FreeAllPoliticalPrisoners

One of the journalists re-arrested, Temesgen Desalegn, has been sent to hospital after a severe injury.

European Union MP Ana Gomes recently retweeted a message by a UDJ affiliate diaspora group Ethiopian Republican Party (ERP) which demanded that new PM Abiy Ahmed release Andualem & co as his first step to reform. The tweet also recommended that Dr. Abiy “end 97% Tigre control of military and de-tribalize politics” as initial vital steps to progress in Ethiopia.

The imprisoned UDJ politician and journalists have yet to be charged, however they were accused by the police of displaying the old Ethiopian flag that promotes unity. After his original release, Andualem labelled ethnic politics as divisive and barbarism; adding that a lasting reform is change of policy, not the tribal change of the prime minister position in the ruling party.

Teshome Borago

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Ahmed has a unique opportunity to unite a country riven by ethnic tensions – but he is facing deep-rooted challenges.

On Monday, April 2nd, the Ethiopian Parliament will confirm Abiy Ahmed, a standard bearer for the reformist faction of the ruling Council of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), as the country’s prime minister. Following the dramatic resignation of Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn on February 15, the ruling party elected Ahmed as its new chairman in its most competitive leadership race to date, paving the way for him to become the first Oromo head of government in Ethiopia.

Ahmed will come to power amid a highly combustible crisis – a highly divided country, a vanguard party on the verge of crumbling, an economy at a standstill, a state of emergency, and an agitated population calling for revolutionary change. The retired lieutenant general and former director of the Intelligence and National Security Network (INSA), faces the tortuous task of uniting a divided nation and reforming a deeply authoritarian and kleptocratic state. Early in January, the ruling party itself admitted the menacing nature of the division within the country and pledged to work towards national reconciliation.

The new prime minister has the opportunity to move that pledge forward by crafting a new platform for peaceful co-existence and national reconciliation. But his most urgent and immediate task will be to set out a new vision for the country.

A new vision

The new prime minister needs to move away from the socially and politically ruinous policies and ideologies of the ruling party, such as revolutionary democracy, developmental state, and democratic centralism used thus far in Ethiopia’s history to circumvent the constitutional order and democratic accountability. The party’s ideological beacon Meles Zenawi, who ruled the country for over two decades with an iron-fist, used these policies to maintain absolute control over federal and state governments and institutions by channelling decisions via the party system rather than elected representatives. His successor, Hailemariam Desalegn, strictly adhered to Zenawi’s policies and visions. Nearly seven years after Zenawi’s death, his authoritarian policies and vision still shape the ruling party and the country.

The Ethiopian state and society have changed irreversibly and these authoritarian policies can no longer provide the cement that can hold this diverse country together. The new prime minister needs to imagine and articulate a new vision and progressive policies capable of responding to the urgent needs of the time. The country needs to move away from the emphasis on security and stability, towards the rule of law, democratic accountability, and human rights to create a sustainable breakthrough towards a lasting peace and prosperity.

Without a new ideological vision and a clear sense of the country and the society we want to have, the new leader will lose control of the narrative and risk squandering the historic opportunity he has to push reforms through.

National reconciliation

Ethiopia is a deeply divided nation. During the tenure of Meles Zenawi as prime minister, historical differences between various ethnic groups in Ethiopia – particularly between the Oromos and the Amaharas – have been used as an anchor for a policy of divide and rule. To secure the absolute invulnerability of the ethnic Tigrean elites to which Zenawi belongs, the Oromos and Amharas were presented as eternal adversaries who hold mutually exclusive views about Ethiopia’s past and future. Oromos were cast by the government as secessionists that threaten the unity and stability of Ethiopia, while Amharas were presented as a hegemonic group seeking to resurrect the old feudal empire. Within this framework, the current arrangement, in which ethnic Tigrayan elites play a central role, was presented as the only viable option to take the Ethiopian state forward. Over the years, both groups played into the hands of the regime, and unwittingly helped sustain the narrative it used to legitimise inequality between ethnic groups.

The protests of the last three years ruptured this narrative that allowed the regime’s policy of divide and rule to thrive. The protests allowed the notions of solidarity and unity to gain traction, transforming the national discourse from one of mutual antagonism to strategic collaboration and coordination. The expression of solidarity that began with protesters in Oromia and Amhara slowly permeated the social body, eventually reaching up to the Amhara and the Oromo wings of the ruling coalition. Ahmed’s election as prime minister would not have been possible had it not been for the decisive support of ethnic Amharas.

However, the country still remains divided. In the short term, a comprehensive package of measures designed to restore constitutional rule and confidence in democratic institutions can help orient political thinking away from historical fatalism towards civic citizenship. In the long term, the country needs to find a way to confront its internal divisions and establish a sound basis for reconciliation and democratic consolidation.

Widening the political space

Political repression is perhaps the single most important factor behind the current crisis in the country. Over the last three decades, the state built an Orwellian surveillanceinfrastructure reminiscent of the Stasi in East Germany, and its security forces acted with total impunity, vitiating the authority of the law and sapping citizens trust and confidence in institutions of justice.

Ahmed cannot hope to implement vital reform agendas while the state of emergency is hanging over his head. One of the new prime minister’s most important and immediate tasks will be to lift the state of emergency and ensure the full restoration of constitutional rule: There can be no reform while the emergency is in place. This is an important step for the new leader, not only to implement critical reforms, but also to maintain public trust and confidence in his ability and willingness to reform critical institutions.

Widening the political space also means repealing a slew of repressive legislation, and policies that decimated the press and civil society, and shrunk the political opposition to extinction, including the anti-terrorism proclamation, the press law, and the charities and societies law.

Although the prime minister is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces with extensive executive power under the Constitution, it is not clear to what extent the deep state, and its overbearing military-security complex would allow him the space necessary to drive reform agendas that will undermine the undue influence they wield within the country.

Ahmed was elected with a landslide, but without any support from the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a faction that is still at the locus of power, and controls the intelligence and the military. Although he has strong support within the EPRDF, parliament and the formal structure of government, his single greatest challenge will come from the intelligence agencies and the military.

However, coming on the back of the protests of the last three years that reconfigured the political landscape and a strong mandate from the ruling coalition Ahmed will be different from his predecessor Hailemariam Desalegn, who was largely seen as a complaint placeholder for Zenawi. Ahmed knows the military-security apparatus and its culture. He has a strong party mandate and public support behind him. He comes to power at a time when those previously in charge are reviled by the populace. These factors put him in a unique position to leave a positive and enduring legacy by carefully balancing the need for stability with the need for renewal.

Ahmed’s premiership will not end Ethiopia’s ongoing nightmare. Ethiopians will not wake up in a free country the day after he is confirmed. However, with the right strategies and tools, his premiership can pull the country back from the brink of explosion and mark the beginning of the end of a painful era.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

INSIDE STORY

Can Ethiopia’s new leader bridge ethnic divides?

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Awol K Allo

Awol K Allo is Lecturer in Law at Keele University, UK.

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State-affiliated media says 1,107 people have been arrested for violating the emergency decree announced last month.

Authorities in Ethiopia have arrested more than 1,100 people since the country declared a state of emergency after the prime minister’s resignation last month, according to state media.

Hailemariam Desalegn’s abrupt decision to step down on February 15 came after more than two years of anti-government protests.

The move prompted the government to declare a six-month state of emergency – the second such measure in two years – in a bid to stem political unrest amid long-standing demands for greater freedoms.

The state-affiliated Fana Broadcast Corporate said on Saturday that 1,107 people have been detained for violating the emergency decree, which includes a ban on protests and the dissemination of publications “that could incite and sow discord”.

“They were detained for killing peaceful civilians and security forces, setting houses and financial institutions ablaze, illicit movement of firearms, destroying government and public institutions (and) blocking roads,” Fana reported, citing Tadesse Hordofa, chairman of the State of Emergency Inquiry Board.

Oromo PM elected

Anti-government demonstrations broke out among the Oromo, Ethiopia’s biggest ethnic group, in 2015 and later spread to the Amhara, the second biggest group.

The protests, which initially began over land rights but later broadened to include calls for greater political representation at the national level, met a harsh government response.

Human rights groups said hundreds of people were killed by security forces during the violence, while thousands of others were arrested.

Earlier this week, the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) coalition elected Abiy Ahmed as its leader.

He is set to be sworn in as prime minister early next week, succeeding Hailemariam and becoming the first Oromo prime minister in the 27 years EPRDF has been in power.

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By Alemayehu G. mariam

Memorandum to Ethiopia’s Cheetahs:

What is needed in Ethiopia today is regime change, not a game of regime musical chairs. What is needed is structural change, fundamental change from thugtatorship to democracy. What is needed is transformational change which ends the culture of corruption, nepotism and cronyism. What is needed is accountability to hold those responsible for crimes against humanity and corruption. Above all, what is needed is the intensification and escalation of the nonviolent struggle through mass civil disobedience and resistance.

Everything else is window dressing, grandstanding and showboating!

That is why Ethiopia’s Cheetahs MUST continue, intensify and magnify their nonviolent struggle. That is the ONLY insurance policy, the ONLY guarantee, Abiy Ahmed has to succeed.  That is the only way the T-TPLF Beast can be beat at his own game.

It must be remembered that the T-TPLF today stands in retreat, not in defeat                  

This is Part I of a series of “open memoranda” commentary I am writing on the occasion of the anticipated formal inauguration of Dr. Abiy Ahmed as prime minister.

I am very pleased that a member of Ethiopia’s Cheetah (youth) Generation now has an opportunity to articulate the aspirations and represent the voices of Ethiopia’s youth which represent over 70% of population.

I pride myself for, arguably, being the most vocal and implacable champion of Ethiopian Cheetahs. I defended and promoted Ethiopia’s young people long before it was fashionable to do so.

I became a human rights advocate only because Meles Zenawi massacred hundreds of young Ethiopians who opposed the daylight robbery of the 2005 election. I remember the young victims of the Meles Massacres, by name. I also know the killers, by name.

I have boldly declared on numerous occasions that Ethiopia’s Cheetahs UNITED can never be defeated by the T-TPLF! I believe recent history has vindicated my total faith in Ethiopia’s Cheetahs.

I have on numerous occasions professed my abiding faith in the power of Ethiopia’s youth to transform their country and take charge of their destiny.

I have sent Ethiopia’s Cheetahs a special “Message in a Bottle” from  thousands of miles across the oceans, “You are born free! You must live free! You are condemned to be free!”

I look at Abiy Ahmed’s selection to become prime minister from a somewhat unique perspective.

I look at it from the perspective of Ethiopia’s Cheetahs.

For me, the question is not what I think or what I would prefer. Indeed, it is not about me or my generation.

The only question for me is what Abiy Ahmed’s role represents symbolically and pragmatically to Ethiopia’s Cheetah Generation.

It is the inspiring symbolism of Abiy Ahmed’s prime ministership for Ethiopia’s Cheetah generation that I find exhilarating in energizing.

The genie is now out of the bottle.

The T-TPLF magic spell is broken. The T-TPLF mold is broken.

Abiy Ahmed represents to Oromo, Amhara, Gurage, Somali, Afari… children that the T-TPLF does not have the birthright to the throne. They also can be prime ministers, generals, millionaires or whatever they want to become. They have a birthright to be free, live free, freely elect their own government and live with dignity as first-class citizens.

Ethiopia’s Cheetahs have beaten the T-TPLF wounded beast at his own game.

Ethiopia’s Cheetahs can now see for themselves in broad daylight that the T-TPLF is a wounded beast with feet of clay.

Ethiopia’s Cheetahs have used mass civil disobedience and peaceful resistance to bring the T-TPLF wounded beast to his knees. Massive and relentless nonviolent resistance can defeat even the mightiest and most brutal oppressor. The T-TPLF faced its day of reckoning because Ethiopia’s Cheetahs were engaged in civil resistance every day.

Abiy Ahmed is named prime minister only because Ethiopia’s Cheetahs kept on the pressure on the T-TPLF day and night, week after week and year after year. Abiy Ahmed is because Ethiopia’s Cheetah’s are.

The T-TPLF bosses are crowing that they let him be prime minister. They are even openly and contemptuously belittling Abiy Ahmed.

They are pumping out disinformation that they all withdrew from competition for the primeministership because they did not want the job. He got the job because nobody wanted it.

They say they appointed Abiy Ahmed by default. He did not win the votes fair and square.

They brag that they can appoint and unappoint him at will.

One T-TPLF underboss basically said that the whole prime minister selection process was an elaborate game, political drama.

T-TPLF underboss and international whore chaser Debretsion Gebremichael blustered there’s only one game in town. It is the game of ethnic apartheid in which the T-TPLF sits at the throne.

The T-TPLF makes the rules of the ethnic apartheid game, designates the players, arbitrates the rules, calls the shots, calls the fouls and declares the winner.

Debretsion implied nothing is going to change with Abiy Ahmed’s primeministership because the T-TPLF owns the military, the security forces, the economy, the bureaucracy and civil service. It does not matter who is prime minister because nothing happens without the T-TPLF’s permission.

The little man seething with repressed anger over the selection of Abiy Ahmed said:

We handpicked three people. It was a process in which we struggled more than usual to make a selection. I was one of the candidates. But I opposed myself saying I should not be a candidate. I campaign against myself. I was just appointed to head Tigray kilil only two months ago. We must respect the people of the kilil.

[Regarding the prime minister to be Abiy Ahmed]… As you know, this is not a matter of a private individual. It is our organizational matter. We all make decisions together as a collective. It is not something that is thrown to one person. We will strengthen and continue our existing tradition of collective leadership.

To invoke Shakespeare, is all that just a “tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing”?

Or is it the empty banter of a sour grapes sore loser? Apparently, Debretsion only got 2 votes out of 180.

Is Debretsion speaking in code which needs decryption?

There is no mistaking what Debretsion is saying:

Make no mistake about it. The T-TPLF owns Abiy Ahmed. He will do as he is told. We will put him in the middle of our traditional collective decision-making process and crush him. We’ll tell him to jump, and his only answer will be how high. We will puppet master him just as we did Hailemariam Desalegn. Don’t get your hopes up. Nothing is going to change. We are still your ethnic apartheid masters!

Is Debretsion blowing smoke on his own or was he instructed to deliver a message by his T-TPLF uber bosses?

I don’t know, and I don’t give a damn!

I’m inclined to think Debretsion is whispering the same kind of sweet nothings he whispers in the ears of the hookers he hangs out with. Just sound and fury signifying nothing.

Regardless, what is of enormous symbolic importance to me is the fact that with Abiy Ahmed in the limelight, the tens of thousands of young Abiy Ahmeds, Lemma Megerssas, Eskinder Negas, Andualem Aragies, Emawayish Alemus, Reeyot Alemus and so many others all over Ethiopia can now feel confident and empowered that they could indeed win political office in their own right, without any appointment, in a free and fair election and take political leadership, including the primeministership.

To me, Abiy Ahmed’s role as prime minister is both about the last chapter of T-TPLF rule and the beginning of a new book of government of the people, by the people for the people soon to be written by Ethiopia’s Cheetahs.

When Ethiopian Cheetahs can elect their own leaders in a free and fair election, then Ethiopia will have been SAVED.

So, I am inspired by the symbolism of Ahmed rise to the office of prime minister even under the dark clouds of a T-TPLF regime because it gives concrete hope to Ethiopia’s Cheetah Generation that they can freely elect their own government and live free.

I shall state unequivocally that Abiy Ahmed has my full support as the leader of Ethiopia’s Cheetah Generation. As cliché as it may sound, Ethiopia’s Cheetahs are really the future of Ethiopia.

It must be remembered…

This memorandum is principally addressed to Ethiopia’s Cheetah Generation. I hope they will “get the memo” and review it carefully. Indeed, that is why I have chosen the “memorandum” form (instead of open letter) for this series of commentaries. In its original Latin semantic signification, “memorandum est” means “It must be remembered (that)…).

As I think of the future of Ethiopia’s Cheetah Generation, I must remember the T-TPLF games, misrule, mistake and misadventures of the past 27 years.

After 27 years nearly to the month, there is no doubt that T-TPLF wounded beast is in retreat but not in defeat.

Over the past couple of years, the T-TPLF has taken a heavy lickin’ from Ethiopia’s Cheetahs but it just keeps on tickin’.

For the past three years, Ethiopian Cheetahs have been the tip of the spear in fighting the T-TPLF cancer.

They have been winning because they found two powerful weapons: Ethiopiawinet and nonviolent civil resistance.

What is Ethiopiawinet?

Ask Lemma Megerssa who says, “EthiopiaWINet is an addiction [deep passion]. It is in the heart of each and every Ethiopian. If there is a way to open and look at what is in the hearts and minds of Ethiopians, what we see here today [EthiopiaWINet] is what we have seen here today [our unity in our Ethiopiawinet]… [EthiopiaWINet] is to be free.

Ask Teddy Afro who says Ethiopiawinet is like oxygen in the body. “Everybody who has Ethiopiawinet inside them, [will forever] have it in them. That can never be lost. It is as deep as religion. Ethiopiawinet has a delicate mystery to itself. It has a very deep foundation. When we can agree on so many good things, it is not useful to dwell on the deficient things we have done together.”

Ask me. “Like diamonds, EthiopiaWINet is forever. Just like love is forever.”

Remembering and learning from T-TPLF con games

It is said that “those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat their mistakes.”

I say, “Those who do not learn from T-TPLF con games are doomed to be dupes!”

A few days ago, Herman Cohen, former US Assistant Secretary for African Affairs and the man singularly responsible for the T-TPLF’s rise to power in 1991 tweeted:

Message for new #Ethiopia Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed: Do not be reluctant to take bold steps toward democratic reform. TPLF politico-economic monopolists have been revealed as frauds, and will not be able to restrain you. International community is with you.

I wholeheartedly agree with Herman Cohen. But I am afraid Mr. Cohen underestimates the fiendish cunning of the T-TPLF frauds.

It must be remembered that for the past 27 years, the TPLF con artists and scammers have managed to stay in power not only by massacring, jailing and torturing innocent citizens, but also by running all types of con games on the Ethiopian people.

The best way to beat the T-TPLF wounded beast is to beat him at his own con games and scams.  That is why it is necessary to remember and critically understand the never-ending games the T-TPLF has played to cling to power in Ethiopia. Let me review some of those con games to systematically edify the Ethiopia’s Cheetah Generation.

It must be remembered that for the past 27 years, the TPLF con artists and scammers have been playing mind games on the Ethiopian people to cling to power. They have been trying to establish their ethnic supremacy by hectoring the people of Ethiopia that they are the smartest, the brightest, the bravest, the greatest, the worthiest and the only ones with the birthright to rule as they damn well please. The lesson to be learned is that the T-TPLF con artists and scammers are nothing more than a gang of ignorant bush thugs who seek intellectual respectability by purchasing academic credentials from online diploma mills.

It must be remembered that for the past 27 years, the T-TPLF con artists and scammers have played stealing election games to cling to power and reinforce its ethnic apartheid system. In 2008, in “elections for regional parliaments, the T-TPLF won 1,903 of 1,904 seats.” In 2010, the T-TPLF rigged the election and claimed to have won 99.6% of the seats in their rubberstamp parliament. In 2015, the T-TPLF had a repeat

performance when it rigged the election and brazenly declared they had won 100% of the seats in their rubberstamp parliament. The T-TPLF is the international poster child for election thieves. The lesson to be learned is that a government that comes to power by stealing elections is a kleptocracy, a government of thieves, for thieves, by thieves.

It must be remembered that for the past 27 years, the T-TPLF con artists and scammers have played zero sum games to cling to power and reinforce its ethnic apartheid system. That means the T-TPLF wins everything. In Ethiopia today the T-TPLF  controls 100 percent of the land. (As one T-TPLF party boss said, “We don’t give land to those who are not loyal to us.”) The T-TPLF owns 100 percent of the “parliament” which makes the “laws” on land. The T-TPLF owns 100 percent of the top military leadership positions, 100 percent of the security forces, 100 percent of the top businesses and 100 percent of the top civil service jobs and political appointments. The lesson to be learned is that “those who want everything every time will lose everything anytime.”

It must be remembered that for the past 27 years, the T-TPLF con artists and scammers have played divide and rule games to cling to power and reinforce its ethnic apartheid system. The T-TPLF invented a bogus ethnic federalism to create and maintain a minority ethnic apartheid system in Ethiopia. The T-TPLF’s ethnic federalism created apartheid style Bantustans called Kililistans. For 27 years, the T-TPLF managed to remain in power by throwing crumbs to its opposition and watching them fight like a bunch of hungry dogs. The lesson to be learned is that the hungry dogs are today howling angry wolves surrounding a wounded beast.

It must be remembered that for the past 27 years, the T-TPLF con artists and scammers have played cotton candy games to cling to power and reinforce its ethnic apartheid system. After the T-TPLF ripped off and sold at obscene prices the lands of struggling Oromos, they turned around and offered Oromos cotton candy: “land, free of lease payment” in the capital for construction of public, naming of charitable and cultural buildings and market places, “15% priority” to buy or rent condominium housing provided by the City Administration, “priority right to use public squares, centers, halls, stadiums, etc.” and the right to “establish schools that provide education in Oromo language for Oromo residents of the city.”  The lesson to be learned is that people who have no land have nothing to lose and they will fight back to get their land back or die trying.

It must be remembered that for the past 27 years, the T-TPLF con artists and scammers have played state of emergency games to cling to power and reinforce its ethnic apartheid system. The T-TPLF declared a state of emergency because it was terrified of the unity of Oromos and Amharas whose unity has always been like sergegna teff.  Lemma Megerssa had to teach the T-TPLF that “Ethiopians are like sergena teff [staple foodstuff in Ethiopia made whose tiny seeds resemble poppy seeds eaten as flatbread called injera]. [Grain] that is gathered together. Milled together. Eaten together.” The T-TPLF has issued three (including one renewal) declarations of “state of emergency” as a last desperate act of self-preservation and to stave off total collapse. The lesson to be learned is that the T-TPLF state of emergency decrees do not signify strength or power but the widespread and deep fear, panic, dread and trepidation among the bosses and the rank-and-file. The T-TPLF kills because it is scared to death.

It must be remembered that for the past 27 years, the T-TPLF con artists and scammers have played a genocide-is-coming game to cling to power and reinforce its ethnic apartheid system. The T-TPLF scammers have always dragged out the ethnic boogeyman to scare Ethiopians of a coming civil war. The late T-TPLF Beastmaster Meles Zenawi used to scaremonger that after his TPLF goes, there will be the equivalent of an “Interahamwe-type Hutu militia which massacred Tutsis in Rwanda”. Zenawi repeated his prediction of ethnic bloodbath time and again. Zenawi’s sidekick Bereket Simon predicted, “Strife between different nationalities of Ethiopia might have made the Rwandan genocide look like child’s play.” T-TPLF general Tsadkan Gebretensaye straight up predicted civil war when the T-TPLF is dumped in the trash bin of history. T-TPLF boss Abay Tsehai predicted Ethiopia will be Africa’s 21^st century Rwanda. He said things in Ethiopia are getting out of control and Ethiopia and is careening into becoming the next Rwanda. T-TPLF boss Seyoum Mesfin also predicted civil war but believed his T-TPLF will crush all opposition and remain dominant. In a bizarre interview, Seyoum effectively equated Ethiopians to Nazis and Tigreans to Jews in the Third Reich. Only the T-TPLF godfather Sebhat Nega got it right. “When the people become very bitter, they explode.  This is a universal truth.  There are no people who will not rise up when they become bitter. Historically. Now. And in the future.”  The lesson to be learned is that so long as ETHIOPIAWINET flows in the veins of Ethiopians, there will be no genocide for ETHIOPIAWINET by another name is LOVE.

It must be remembered that for the past 27 years, the T-TPLF con artists and scammers have played disinformation, propaganda and mass distraction games to cling to power. To create enmity and strife, the T-TPLF has spread disinformation that Oromos and Amharas are natural and historical enemies and they cannot possibly create genuine attraction or unity. It has waged a disinformation campaign aimed at convincing Amharas and Oromos that they are like oil and water. The T-TPLF has spread propaganda that an Oromo-Amhara unity will result in a Rwanda-style Interahamwe against Tigreans. The lesson to be learned is that Oromos and Amharas have lived together peacefully for thousands of years. As Lemma Megerssa said all Ethiopians are like sergegna teff. They are united in their humanity and cannot be divided by their ethnicity.

It must be remembered that for the past 27 years, the T-TPLF con artists and scammers have played negotiation games to cling to power and reinforce its ethnic apartheid system. The T-TPLF has been handpicking its opposition and negotiating with them. The T-TPLF has done everything it can to permanently destroy any opposition in the country. The lesson to be learned is that Ethiopian opposition leaders negotiating with the T-TPLF is like antelope leaders negotiating with hyenas about what (who) to have for dinner.

It must be remembered that for the past 27 years, the T-TPLF con artists and scammers have played pardon games two cling to power and reinforce its ethnic apartheid system.  The T-TPLF has “pardoned” innocent citizens for terrorism crimes they never committed. By forcing innocent citizens to beg for pardon and admit crimes they never committed, the T-TPLF has tried to validate them as criminals and put them in a situation where they can be imprisoned for violating the terms of their pardon. The lesson to be learned is to do what Eskinder Nega, Andualem Aragie, Bekele Gerba and so many others did. The T-TPLF can take its pardon and shove it.

It must be remembered that for the past 27 years, the T-TPLF con artists and scammers have played resignation games two cling to power and reinforce its ethnic apartheid system.  The T-TPLF shape shifters are experts at resigning and un-resigning at the same time. They are the political equivalent of Schrödinger’s cat. They play resignation musical chairs games to convince the public that they are making real changes. The lesson to be learned is that no one is fooled by T-TPLF Tweedledee resigning only to be replaced by T-TPLF Tweedledum.

It must be remembered that for the past two years, the T-TPLF con artists and scammers have played mercenary military command post games to cling to power and reinforce its ethnic apartheid system. According to Global Security, the T-TPLF as set up its own private mercenary Agazi paramilitary group (death squads) accountable only to a select few senior echelon members of  the TPLF. Its main purpose of existence is to ensure the regimes hold on power remains unchallenged. The lesson to be learned is that neither an Agazi death squad nor all the military and security forces of the T-TPLF can defeat the nonviolent resistance movement of Ethiopia’s Cheetahs.

Special T-TPLF game

It must be remembered that in the past few weeks, the T-TPLF con artists and scammers have played release and catch political prisoners games to cling to power and reinforce its ethnic apartheid system.

Why did the T-TPLF jail Eskinder Nega, Andualem Aragie, Temesgen Desalegn and many others? The answer is simple: It is retaliation for the U.S. Congress scheduling a vote on H.R. 128.

On March 21, 2018, U.S. Representative Mike Coffman (R-CO) released the following statement after receiving notification that the House of Representatives will hold a vote this April on House Resolution 128. On March 26, the T-TPLF re-arrested a number of the recently released high profile political prisoners. By re-arresting the former political prisoners, the T-TPLF wanted to send a ringing message to the U.S. Congress: “We don’t care what you do. We are still the masters of ethnic apartheid in Ethiopia. We dare you to do something. Double-dog dare you.” The lesson to be learned is that a dog should never bite the hand that feeds it.

As I write this commentary, the T-TPLF is playing a new national peace festival game at the Addis Sheraton. But they are getting an earful. Participants are demanding that the T-TPLF embrace Ethiopiawinet and stop the politics of hate and division. The T-TPLF thought they could pull one more game, but it is game over.

It must be remembered that for the past 27 years, the T-TPLF has played cling to power at all costs games. The T-TPLF has one and only one mission: Remain in power in much the same way as they are now. For one more day. One more week. One more month. One more year. One more decade… The lesson to be learned is that it’s GAME OVER for the T-TPLF!

T-TPLF reboot 2018: New game or same old game in overtime

The T-TPLF knows it is game over. But is it?

I have long learned that the T-TPLF scammers are the kind of ball players who will fall flat on the dirt, lick it and keep on playing.

Is the T-TPLF playing overtime on a game that has long been over by grudgingly going along with Abiy Ahmed’s appointment as prime minister.

Is the T-TPLF getting ready to play political soccer in overtime by grudgingly accepting Abiy Ahmed as prime minister?

For three years, the T-TPLF scammers did their best to defeat Ethiopian Cheetah Youth League. They tried everything including massacres, arrests and torture. The Cheetahs kept on coming. They kept up the pressure in every village, hamlet town and city. That T-TPLF could not win.

The T-TPLF has used up its 90 minutes on the soccer field and its back is against the goalpost. Now it wants to play 30 minutes in overtime hoping for a decisive win. Failing to do that, it hopes to win by shoot-out. The penalty kick type of shootout. I mean shootout actually by AK-47s and machine guns.

I wish to conclude Part I of my open memorandum to Ethiopia’s Cheetah Generation by  remembering and recalling a few observations I made in Part VI of my serialized 2016 commentary, “What Do “WE” Want and Do Now (that “WE” Have the Opportunity to Do it)?”:

Today, we have extraordinary opportunities to work together to bring down the Thugtatorship of the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (T-TPLF) from power and lay the groundwork for the construction of the New Ethiopia. The gnawing question in my mind is, “Will WE seize the day?” Will WE strike while the iron is hot or fall back into that old habit of never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity?

What saddens and aggravates me the most is that WE never miss an opportunity to miss an OPPORT-UNITY!

What I have personally observed over the past decade among the “opposition” (and even the T-TPLF) is the fact that WE never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. There have been many opportunities to get things right and do right by the people of Ethiopia. But every time, “WE” have let the opportunity go to waste.

Let me illustrate. Over the past decade, various political parties have formed coalitions and mobilized Ethiopian society for electoral participation and other opposition activities. Their unity to speak in one voice was inspirational. That singular voice raised the hopes and aspirations of the Ethiopian people and struck terror in the hearts of the T-TPLF. For the first time in 2005, that coalition brought a glimmer of hope for democracy and freedom for Ethiopians. But all that was short-lived. Just as those parties came together swiftly, they also broke up just as quickly and went their separate ways. If that coalition had remained strong and united, the T-TPLF today would be in the dustbin of history where it properly belongs. But the personal ambition of those craving power overpowered the needs of those disempowered by the T-TPLF for so long. Those jockeying for power let down the Ethiopian people hard. Will history judge them among the unforgiven? But that was a generational opportunity that was missed.

Today, we have an opportunity to build a mass-based inter-ethnic and inter-religious coalition to take on a bewildered, alarmed and frightened T-TPLF hiding behind the skirt of its “state of emergency” declaration. The spirit of defiance, audacity and rebellion is visible in the faces of the people of Ethiopia who are sick and tired of being sick and tired of the T-TPLF. The spirit of cooperation and collaboration to rid Ethiopia of the T-TPLF manifests itself more conspicuously every day in the T-TPLF police state. The time is right, and the stars are aligned just right to fight the T-TPLF as a unified force.

But it seems WE are poised once again to miss another  opportunity of a lifetime. WE, particularly in the Diaspora, are bogged down talking about the singular importance of ethnicity and how power should be configured along ethnic lines. The self-appointed ethnic chiefs and champions of “ethnification” of politics are babbling the venomous rhetoric of hate and resentment. Ironically, these self-appointed chieftains are so blinded by ambition and starved for power, they have become political caricatures. They are indeed political jokes, but as we have seen in the recent U.S. presidential elections jokes have a way of becoming cruel ironies.

WE must use every opportunity to oppose those preaching ethnic division and sectarianism with as much vigor as we oppose the T-TPLF. The difference between the T-TPLF and those who mindlessly advance the T-TPLF cause of ethnic division is the difference between two sides of a coin. It is the difference between Tweedledee and Tweedledum. They are one and the same. They want to displace the T-TPLF so that they can take over and become the new and improved T-TPLF by another ethnic label. The right opportunity exists right now to sideline the prophets of ethnic division and hatred and build a genuine inter-ethnic and inter-faith alliances to ensure that the hate-mongers and those who sow the seeds of discord, strife and factionalism are exposed for what they truly are.

WE now have the opportunity to get real leadership to guide the opposition movement in standing up to the T-TPLF and those who advance the T-TPLF cause by a different ethnic label. Here, I am not particularly referring to “political leaders”. I am broadly addressing civic society leaders – faith and community leaders, academics and activists, youth and women’s groups leaders, leaders of professional and trade organizations, etc.–  who have missed, time and again, the opportunity to provide leadership…

… Carpe diem! Seize the day!

The T-TPLF are convinced that they have set up Abiy Ahmed to fail

The noise coming from the T-TPLF headquarters is that they have set Abiy Ahmed to fail.

They have also said exactly how they will ensure he will fail. They will put him in the middle of their collective decision-making process and crush him. They will demoralize, frustrate and bully him into submission.

But the T-TPLF will not be able to crush Abiy Ahmed if Ethiopia’s Cheetahs do what they do best: Continue, intensify and magnify their nonviolent struggle. That is the only insurance policy Abiy Ahmed has to succeed.  That is the only way the T-TPLF Beast can be beat at his own game.

I’ve got news for the T-TPLF: FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION. We are ONE in Ethiopiawinet. We will WIN because you can NEVER defeat Ethiopians UNITED!

The foundation of victory is UNITY. Let us not repeat the mistakes of history. It is a sad realization for me to say we never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Let us not miss this historic opportunity.

History is made by those who seize the day.

Let us seize the day today, beat the T-TPLF Beast at his own game by playing for “TEAM ETHIOPIAWINET” and make history.

The struggle today is for the future of Ethiopia’s Cheetah Generation. For they are truly the future of Ethiopia.

On a personal point…

My personal message for Abiy Ahmed. “Stand tall. I’ve got your back, my brother!”

T-TPLF, GAME OVER!

Power to Ethiopia’s Cheetahs. Long live Ethiopia’s Cheetahs.

ETHIOPIAWINET TODAY.

ETHIOPIAWINET TOMORROW.

ETHIOPIAWINET FOREVER.

(To be continued…)

The post Abiy Ahmed: Beating the TPLF Wounded Beast at His Own Game in Ethiopia (Part I) appeared first on Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

By Abebe Gellaw

It will be clear in the next few weeks what Dr. Abiy Ahmed can and can’t do as the leader of a regime facing an existential crisis. As the new PM has been elected in the face of fierce opposition and backstabbing by the TPLF elite, not to mention the popular discontent fueling the unrest across the nation, his reign will certainly be a rollercoaster. Whatever the case, I wish Dr. Abiy all the best during the rough and bumpy ride at this critical juncture in Ethiopian history.

Politics aside, one must appreciate the diversity within Dr. Abiy’s extended family that exemplifies the beauty and best of Ethiopia.

Born in Beshasha, Jimma Zone, in the aftermath of the 1974 revolution, his name was Abiyot, “revolution”, now using his nickname Abiy, according to the Reporter. It indicates that his parents were enthusiastic supporters of the revolution.

His father, Ahmed Ali, is a Muslim Oromo, who was once jailed suspected of being an OLF supporter.

His mother, Tezeta Wolde, is a Christian Amhara.

His wife, Zinash Tayachew, is an Amhara hailing from the city of Gonder.

Like himself, his three daughters are “Oromara.”

When Dr. Abiy swears in as the new PM, his extended Muslim, Christian, Oromo and Amhara families will proudly claim that he is one of their own. But in reality, he must be a leader for all Ethiopians regardless where he comes from. This is an incredible shift in a country affected by the toxicity of ethnic politics.

But most importantly, Dr. Abiy once said that building ethnic fences around people is not something anyone should be proud of. For the first time in the last 27 years, he will be the first leader of the EPRDF regime, who proudly identifies himself as an Ethiopian.

Even if our political differences are obvious for all to see, the fact that someone that does not see Ethiopians only in distorted ethnic lenses is the leader of our country may change the tone of the divisive ethnic rhetoric harming our unity. A true leader is one who can unify the people and build a national consensus. As John Maxwell once said:”A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.”

May God help the new PM to be a leader who will inspire and uplift the nation, side with the oppressed and turn his back on the oppressors. If he does that, his power will be steadied by the people and Ethiopia will change for the better and can transition to an all-inclusive democratic order.

TPLF’s tortuous era of cruelty, robbery, divisiveness and stupidity needs a clusure.

God bless Ethiopia!

—

N.B. Whatever the case, Ethiopia needs radical change to break away from the past and open a new chapter for all.

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Dr Abiy Ahmed has been officially sworn in as Prime Minister of Ethiopia

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Ethiopian PM Dr Abiy Ahmed Reception to the Palace

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Luel Gebremedhin(USA)

April 2, 2018

I congratulate Dr. Abiy Ahmed Ali who has been elected April 2, 2018 as 4^th Prime Minister of the Democratic republic of Ethiopia since the Ethiopian people’s Revolution Democratic Front has come to power in 1983. It is my strong believe that the election of Dr. Abiy Ahmed Prime Minster of Ethiopia will enhance and address the fat issues that have been raised by the people. The road that brought Dr. Abiy Ahmed to secure his Premierwas neither rough nor smooth. Thereafter, the E.P.R.D.F. Party deserves substantial credit for its unmistakable decision to grant Dr. Abiy Ahmed the Premier position.

People are demanding very basic, fundamental, and Universal rights such as fair and equitable wealth distribution, Government fiscal responsibility, transparency and accountability, freedom of expression, rule of law, job, and unity.  These are straight forward. The real medicine to such issues depend on real political and economic reforms. Besides, constitutional reforms, Judiciary reforms, electoral system reforms, civic society reforms, and policy reforms are indispensable. The Ethiopian people are waiting to see these reforms from the new elected Prime Minister sooner or later.

The principles of the rule of law shall not be fragmented, distorted, and treated as needed. Rule and law breakers regardless of ranks and positions shall face Justice for their action on a transparence manner to synthesis peace, stability, and democracy in the Mother land.The Ethiopian people deserve to know how the Government they elect runs the interest of their will. The contract between the people and the Government stays valid to build trust among all people of the country.  Media agency professionals can do a lot to magnify and advance the direction of the Government if the nest holds them down take off. Media advancement plays crucial role Countries like Ethiopia who have over 100 million population.

The electoral system of the land does need fundamental reform to serve all stake holders as neutral as possible for the sake of peace and stability and for the advancement of tangible and measurable democracy to prevail on the free land. A neutral and permanent electoral commission has to set inclusively and lawfully with appropriate fiscal budget. The same is true when it comes to land and Judiciary reforms. Land is the only and solely asset most people have in Ethiopia. The people shall be fully granted the ownership certificate of their land. The Government shall take his hands off the land retail business unless otherwise a land is needed for specific Government purposes in a particular time and place. For instance, land for nuclear facility, power productions, federal buildings. Land leasing creates uncontrollable problems in the long run.

Judiciary system and prison protection act need to be reviewed and revised immediately. People are mistrial and abuse regularly. An independent Judiciary commission has to be established to protect citizens of the land. Those who abuse the rule of the land in the prison facilities shall be brought to Justice. Unfortunately, it did not happen before and will not happen in near future either unless real and measurable reforms take place. Ethiopian people do not have the trust on the functionality of the Judiciary system of the land.

The scope of democracy in Ethiopia is not strong as needed as we all wish. The E.P.R.D.F. Party tells us time and time again that democracy is not optional to the Ethiopian people. It’s a “must and real” based on the previous statement. If so, why is too late to make it happen? When and how is democracy be effective? Why do people still die for it? Why the voice of the people not been heard? The answers are being left to get answer from the new elected Prime Minster Dr. Abiy Ahmed Ali. Political accommodation, tolerance, and calculationrequire skill and intelligence. We are way behind to practice the art of politics but we are way ahead to talk about it. Real action requires real leadership skill.  The Ethiopian people deserve unconditional right of expression because they already paid full payment for it way long time ago. Prisoning people and force application do not bring even a leaf of result but civil unrest and destruction of lives and properties. Rule of law governs everything and anything. Therefore, let us be fully defendant and dependent on the rule of law rather than the rule of the people in any administrational level. Every single person has the right to be productive wherever he or she lives in Ethiopia. Ungovernable (Lawless) people are killing innocent people unlawfully in their Mother land. I urge your administration to denounce the action and bring the killers face Justice on an open trail.

Prime Minster Dr. Abiy Ahmed, regardless of political view, religion, or race, the Ethiopian people are behind you to support your causes. So, your Government shall recall and summon all Ethiopian origin living in the diaspora to come back home including politicians, political party leaders, individuals who hate the action of your Government. By doing so, there is nothing to lose at all. This is how effective leader and party does. Let us forgive each other the sins we have carry on and come to the round table to discuss the issues of our people for good causes.  I have the hope you Prime Minister does it happen sooner or later. To be effective, let us seal the holes we have digged for so long. The way I see politics in Ethiopia is going to wrong direction and need to be deterred soon.

God bless Ethiopia.

Luel  Gebremedhin (USA)

April 2, 2018.

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 What went behind closed doors and how could that shape his premiership?

In his acceptance speech, Ethiopia’s newly appointed Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed spoke everything Ethiopians in and outside the country were eagerly waiting to hear: A desperately needed message of unity among the politically fractured and polarized Ethiopians; a speech that began by paying tribute to Ethiopians who sacrificed their lives while defending “this proud country”; a speech that went on from apologizing to the victims of state aggression to extending olive branches for exiled Ethiopians to return home; from promising to begin the process of healing by through reconciliations, even restoring peace with Eritrea to a moving tribute to his late mother and his wife, a stunning departure from past leaders. But what really happened behind the closed door meetings of EPRDF, one of the most secretive political parties next perhaps to that of the Chinese communist party? And how would that possibly shape or impact his premiership?  

Liyat Fekade & Tsedale Lemma

Addis Abeba, April 02/2018 – “If there is anyone who should take credit for putting up with six weeks of political drama played by members of the ruling party EPRDF, it should be the Ethiopian people,” said Bantayehu Yilma, a middle-class retailer in Merkato, Africa’s largest open market found at the heart of Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Abeba.

A keen political observer who says “the politics is what makes or breaks my business,” Bantayehu is not the exception. “I tell you what, I know many of my trading partners who have either suspended or significantly scaled back their business activities expecting the worst after the sudden resignation of Prime Minister Hailemarim Desalegn.”

What Bantayehu and millions others did not fathom, however, is the fact that PM Hailemariam’s resignation was not sudden. It was known to the heavy weight EPRDF party apparatchiks “for at least two months” prior to Feb 15/2018, the day PM Hailemariam announced he was resigning.

According to a party insider, “the idea was floated and approved during the 17 days closed door meeting by the executives of the four parties” who gathered to seek solutions to the rapidly deteriorating political crisis that gripped the nation. Saving the party, they agreed, was tantamount to saving the nation. A stunning admittance in itself  that shows the revolutionary democrats treat the nation’s fate as one and the same with the party.

Fissures (and serious ones)  

Three years of persistent anti-government protests in Oromia, Amhara and the southern regional states have eventually morphed to create enough weight under which the EPRDF, previously known as a tightly knit coalition of four major and five satellite parties, began to crack.

Months of verbal and administrative frictions among the leaders, rank and file members and social media warriors of the different parties have on various occasions laid bare the growing interpartyfissures within a party that governed the country for a quarter century and took pride in its  motto of “unity of purpose”.  Cracks began to appear particularly between Oromia vs Ethio-Somali, and Amhara vs Tigray regional states (which are, according to Ethiopia’s federal dispensation, governed by OPDO,  ESPDP (the Ethiopian Somali People’s Democratic Party), ANDM and TPLF respectively),

Worse, the spillover effects of the growing interparty dysfunctions have led to the deaths of hundreds of civilians and the biggest internal displacement of more than a million Oromos and ethnic Somalis from villages, towns, and cities bordering the Oromia and Ethiopian Somali regional states; and the displacement of thousands of ethnic Tigrayans from some parts of the country, especially from the Oromia and Amhara regional states.

For many astute observers of Ethiopian politics, these events revealed not just the cardinal signs of interparty fissures but EPRDF’s possible decomposition.

Serious once

The most visible of all signs were laid bare when, pushed by the protests, the OPDO leadership, the largest of the EPRDF coalition governing the Oromia regional state, which is also the epicenter of the protests, finally realized that if it continued maintaining the status quo, it was doomed to deal with a historical mess under the shadow of which it will be forced to live . For the first time in its 26 years of history, in Oct. 2016 OPDO changed guard of leadership all by itself. This change of guard is what brought in the now familiar faces dubbed “Team Lemma”, after the regional president, Lemma Megerssa, himself the result of the reshuffle.

To be fair, as Addis Standard reported in Oct. 2016 “the clearest signal that the OPDO was capable of resistance to the administrative fiat of the federal government came in 2009 when the regional state, unable to get the House of Representatives to promulgate legislation governing Oromia’s special interest in Addis Abeba, established a ‘Special Zone’ of towns and districts that surround Addis Abeba. This was the act that led to the creation of the “Integrated” Development Master Plan”. Along with a host of other grievances, the Addis Abeba master Plan would end up front and center during the three years relentless anti government protests across Oromia.

The election of Lemma Megerssa and the immediate team that surround him – one of them being newly sworn in Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed – by a semi-authoritative central committee members of the party would mark the beginning  of a bold defiance by a regional state against the central government. The new leadership of the OPDO decided it was time to start disconnecting from the organizational cord that tied it to the legacy members of the EPRDF, particularly the TPLF, which played a central role in its birth and maintained a chock hold in its affairs. To the despair and against the approved norms of the establishment OPDO’s leadership began to turn its face to its grieving constituency, the Oromo nation, a third of Ethiopia’s 100 million plus odd population.

“Team Lemma” began shaking the ground from under the feet of legacy EPRDF. Crackdowns against illicit business activities to rampant contraband trading (both admitted by the outgoing PM Hailemariam as some of the root causes of the violence in Oromia and Ethio-Somali regions); from improving police-citizen relations to testing the waters on regional autonomy (Lemma Megerssa once told disgruntled businesses in the region that he will no longer accept letters pertaining to his region’s affairs CCd to him – an apparent reference that decisions were often taken at the federal level and sent for executions by regional authorities); from returning hundreds of hectares of land sitting idle or were appropriated by federal authorities to farmers in the region to enabling the regional broadcaster OBN to become semi-independent media organization; from launching an economic revolution to engineering a people to people and party to party relations with The list goes on.

Now, the fissures have become serious and visible for all to see. Ordinary Ethiopians simply classified them as a fight between EPRDF’s old guard and a reformist camp within the OPDO. But for legacy EPRDF, particularly members of the all too powerful TPLF, it was a fight between the rightful owners of power (an eternal entitlement liberation movements often claim) and anarchists and populists who copy their acts from popular color revolutions and are too ambitious to capture the state.

Enter the drama of the pre-race for premiership 

While “Team Lemma” continued scrambling to restore the party’s thinning legitimacy in the region which continued to be rocked by successive anti-government protests, boycotts and strikes, and hosts at the same time more than a million internally displaced Ethiopians, a rush of events preceded and followed the resignation of former PM Hailemariam: the release of hundreds of political prisoners and the reinstatement of a fresh state of emergency. The later would go on to prove consequential in many ways than few.

EPRDF wanted to portray the resignation of PM Hailemariam as its commitment to address Ethiopia’s deepening political crisis.  In the same token, it can ill afford to stay leaderless. But the internal struggle for power means two months after the party’s powerful bloc of the executive, a group of 36 movers and shakers (nine from each of the four major parties), sealed his fate, there was no publicly available sign of a clear answer as to who, among its party leaders, would replace the outgoing Prime Minister.

“During the 17 days meeting by the executive in late December 2017, it was agreed that the replacement would come from the OPDO once each party completed it own “deep renewal” sessions,” said a party insider quoted above, who is a member of the 180 council but wants to remain anonymous. “But it was also known that then OPDO chairman Lemma Megerssa would be out of the game as he was not a member of parliament” a constitutional requirement for the position of the prime minister. “By an OPDO, the establishment had in mind someone who is not a member of Team Lemma,” said our source, who is from the SEPDM, the party of the outgoing PM.

At the end of the 17 days nail biting closed door meeting, the party released a lengthy, part press release part resolution, statement promising to fix everything under the sky. The two parties that did not conduct their own internal evaluations were ANDM and SEPDM. The central committees of both parties have therefore went on to have their respective meetings. The ANDM, whose chairman is Demeke Mekonne, had planned to conduct a major shake up in the leadership, including a possible replacement of its chairman while SEPDM’s priority was to elect a new chairman to replace the outgoing Hailemariam Desalegn, who resigned as his party’s chairman, the chairman of EPRDF along with his premiership.

Before the central committee meetings of both ANDM and SEPDM came to an end, however, the 81 members of the OPDO Central Committee dropped a bombshell when they announced that Dr. Abiy Ahmed, a member of the national parliament, replaced Lemma Megerssa as chairman of the OPDO.  Leaders of the OPDO said the decision was to strengthen the party’s leadership to meet the demands of its constituency, and never publicly admitted the real reason behind, which is to forward an electable chairman to the 181 council members of the EPRDF, the ultimate authority which elects the party’s chairman and hence bu default the next Prime Minister.  “This was a huge risk,” said a member of the OPDO central committee, “but we were ready to gamble.”

This was not the news the legacy EPRDF, led mostly by TPLF stalwarts such as Getachew Reda, ANDM veterans such as Bereket Simon and Getachew Ambaye, as well as SEPDM’s Siraj Fegessa, wanted to hear.  OPDO’s decision would also prove consequential in the outcome of the ongoing ANDM central committee meeting, which decided to keep its leadership intact, abandoning its promise of change of guards at the highest level.

“It is going to be Demeke Mekonnen,” our source from the SEPDM said shortly after OPDO’s announcement, adding the legacy EPRDF “will not consider to take Dr. Abiy as its leader. They think he is inexperienced, overly ambitious, but most importantly, they consider appointing him as rewarding anarchy, or rewarding a rebellious leadership. They fear this would set a dangerous precedent.”

Meanwhile, the SEPDM finished its central committee meeting by electing Shiferaw Shigute, who was the deputy chairman of SEPDM under Hailemariam Desalegn, and is the secretariat of the EPRDF, as the new chairman of the SEPDM, hence paving ways for him to enter the race for the premiership.

Race for premiership

On March 07, SEPDM’s newly elected chairman and EPRDF’s secretariat, Shiferaw Shigute, said the powerful bloc of the 36 executive committee members would meet as of March 11. Since the resignation of PM Hailemariam, the executive committee meeting, a pre-meeting before the council’s meeting, (and a meeting where most decisions presented to the council would be made), has been postponed for three times.

The EPRDF wanted to make the election of the prime minister as nothing but a footnote of the real agenda during the executive’s meeting. In its lexicon, the executive meetings’ primary agenda was to “evaluate each party’s performance reports as per the “deep renewal” sessions they have been conducting”, and evaluate the six months overall performance report of the EPRDF.

But in reality, almost the entire day of the executive’s first day meeting on Sunday March 11 was spent debating on whether or not the outgoing PM and EPRDF chairman, Hailemariam Desalegn, should chair the meeting. The debate began after executive members mostly from the TPLF proposed that the meeting should be chaired by deputy PM and ANDM’s reelected chairman Demeke Mekonnen.

“By doing so TPLF members wanted to assert three fundamental points,” said one member of the OPDO who spoke to Addis Standard. “Number one, by making him the uncontested chair of the meeting they wanted to make sure that Demeke was the natural successor of  Hailemariam. Number two, they wanted to leverage Demeke for having plenty of time to have the OPDO evaluated for more than a dozen issues of protest they have against the new OPDO leadership. Number three, they wanted to leverage Demeke’s position as chair of the meeting to set the agenda for discussions, the timing, and the people who will be allowed to speak in the meeting, which are dictated by the chair of the meeting.”

After a day was wasted by debating the issue the members of the executive were eventually persuaded by the argument raised by the outgoing PM Hailemariam, who said he was still the chairperson of the party and therefore should chair the meeting.  The executive has agreed to torpedo TPLF’s argument and decided that Hailemariam should chair the meeting. “This was a bitter defeat the members of the TPLF, who are not used to being rejected in the past,” said a member the ANDM executive.

Unlike the traditional two or maximum three days the executive committee meeting should take, this one would last for one solid week. Except for two short statements released through regime affiliated media, in which EPRDF wanted to save face by asserting the meeting was happening with a sense of “unity” and “consensus”, none of the agenda that took a week to hammer out was made public. But behind closed doors, the days were spent bickering, throwing accusations and counter accusations, most of which directed at the OPDO leadership.

“There was no issue under the sky that the OPDO was not criticized for”, said the OPDO member. “The most damning criticisms were the ones accusing us of being overambitious to grab power and accusations that we looked the other way when the region was rocked by endless protests.  The issue of Qeerroo (the youth movement in the region), and accusations of instigating color revolution and wanting to capture the state were no less critical that led some members of the OPDO walk out of the meeting in protest.”

Although the OPDO, which was the second to be evaluated and was the one that took the harshest criticism of all, ANDM was the first to be evaluated on Monday March 12. It too created unprecedented tensions between ANDM and TPLF due mainly to the issue of Wolkayit, which resulted in a “heated argument” as members of the ANDM began defending the position of their constituency regarding Wolkayit.

Less contested were the evaluations of SEPDM and TPLF which came third and fourth. Unlike previous meetings, the executive meeting ended after a week on March 19, without knowing who exactly would replace the outgoing PM. The party’s secretariat said the meeting has ended  “with common understanding and consensus towards sustaining the ongoing revolutionary democracy path.” On the same day the secretariat announced the council’s meeting was scheduled to begin on March 20.

Another week of suspense at the council and the shifting alliances 

Like the executive meeting, the council’s meeting too took a week to come to an end with an election of Dr. Abiy Ahmed by a landslide majority vote of 108 out of the 169 council members who voted.

But until the last day on the 28 of March no party out of the three in the race, OPDO, ANDM and SEPDM, could say it was the favorite to win. Although the council’s meeting did spend days discussing the party’s six months performance and possible suggestions on the way forward, “there was not a single day in which members were, at least unofficially during the coffee breaks, oblivious of what was at stake,” a member of the ANDM who was inside the meeting told Addis Standard. The same procedures of criticisms and counter criticisms were conducted during the council before the last day of the week during which the voting for EPRDF’s chairman was scheduled.

According three sources from whom Addis Standard corroborated the information, in the end, it would come to a decision by Demeke Mekonnen to withdraw from the race on Wednesday morning March 28. Demeke’s decision was a “tactical decision to push back at TPLF’s pressure to have the candidate of their liking elected,” according to two of our sources from the OPDO and ANDM.

In what appears to be an attempt to dispel reports from pro TPLF bloggers and EPRDF’s secretariat itself, over the weekend, Demeke Mekonnen told the Amhara Mass media agency that his decision to withdraw from the race was a deliberate decision aimed at facilitating ways for new leadership to emerge. He made a conscious decision in consultation with his party members, he said.

Demeke’s withdrawal means only two candidates, OPDO’s Dr. Abiy and SEPDM’s Shiferaw Shigute remained in the race. EPRDF’s internal regulations insist three candidates should participate in the race. Demeke’s withdrawal was therefore followed by another decisive decision by the ANDM when its executive committee member, Kebede Chane, nominated Dr. Debretsion G/Michael, chairman of TPLF and deputy administrator of the Tigray regional state, to participate in the race. Knowing his slim chances, Dr. Debretsion resisted the nomination for three times but lost all the three times to the council’s decision.  “Our decision to nominate him was done deliberately because we knew that Dr. Debretsion was the least favorable candidate even among his own members of the TPLF,” said our source at ANDM, “we nominated him knowing he stands a slim chance to get votes from ANDM and SEPDM; we didn’t want to divide the votes in to three small places which would make it hard for a clear winner to emerge.”

The third decisive factor for Dr. Abiy to win the votes was the split within SEPDM following the resignation of the outgoing PM Hailemariam Desalegn. According to our source at the SEPDM, Shiferaw Shigute was supposed to “remove himself from his position as deputy along with Hailemariam” but instead he pursued Hailemariam’s place during the party’s central committee meeting and used his connections to win the chairmanship. “This was unprincipled and many of us said we will not give our votes to him.” SEPDM is also divided along a third group, under Defense Minister Siraj Fegessa. Together with Getachew Reda of the TPLF, and Getachew Ambaye and Bereket Simon of the ANDM, Siraj has fiercely resisted Dr. Abiy’s candidacy to the last day.

The OPDO now thinks its candidate Dr. Abiy has secured a significant percentage of the vote from ANDM and SEPDM members. It got zero vote from TPLF members who voted for Shiferaw instead. Shiferaw came second by getting 59 out of the 169 votes. He secured some votes from his own party and many from TPLF members. Debretsion ended up getting just two.

How would that shape Dr. Abiy’s premiership?  

Our source within SEPDM is adamant that this would have zero effect on the interparty relations. “We have elected a reform minded personality. Yes he was resisted bitterly; even back stabbed by some members. But this is a normal way of our internal procedure. Once we have decided and settled on a chairman, party disciple forces as to be loyal to our chairman,” he said.

But by all stretch, the EPRDF Ethiopians knew barely a year ago is no more.

The interparty fissures have already proven to be too costly. By default, the coalition of parties within EPRDF are not symmetrically related. Regardless of the formal pronouncement they make, everything EPRDF does suggests that there is a defacto hierarchy among these four members of the coalition. Thus, TPLF is the pre-eminently influential – for some, the only influential – political party. The election of Dr. Abiy may have just wrestled that out effectively. But the way forward may as well further bruise the party in its collective form. The disciplinary practice of closed meetings, evaluations, the communist style purging, and a myriad other modes of surveillance also subvert EPRDF’s publicly avowed claim to being a democratic organization. Add to that, the party, as a semi-collective decision, elected a candidate who is rebuffed by the dominant TPLF to the bitter end and who, in his inaugural speech openly espoused for western liberal ideals, a diametrical antithesis of “revolutionary democracy.”

Prime Minister Abiy is also stepping into astronomical expectations. “The long-awaited demand by the mass – including change of EPRDF’s leadership – that has resulted in causalities, mass arrests, and displacement on the peaceful protestors; unifying the coalition members of the ruling party and more importantly, all Ethiopians are the first challenge he will be facing,” said Masresha Taye, an independent political observer here in Addis Abeba. “Though some of the reforms demanded could take time, immediate actions, including but not limited to the lifting the state of emergency, calling for national reconciliation among all stakeholders in the Ethiopian politics and releasing the remaining political prisoners are the first and foremost steps for Dr. Abiy.”

But he also faces another potential assignment, according to Masresha. “He has to demonstrate he is a Prime Minister for all and that Oromo leaders/politicians –  contrary to what some would say, are not a source of threat for Ethiopia, rather a source of unity through inclusive leadership.”

Hallelujah Lulie, analyst on political and security affairs, on his part says “reforming the culture and composition of the security institutions should be at the heart of the political agenda of Prime Minister Abiy.  He needs to ensure the democratic accountability of the security forces. The military and intelligence should respect the constitutional principle of civilian oversight on their administration and operation. His leadership should also prioritize creating security institutions that reflect the diversity and plurality of the Ethiopian state both at the rank and file and leadership level.”

But fears linger. TPLF’s resistance against Prime Minister Abiy could come as a crippling factor given the unbridled control it maintains over the army, the security and intelligence apparatus of the country. Pushing for a reform in those areas may prove decisive in determining his tenure as a prime minister.

Despite his motivating speech, however, Ethiopians are also paying attention to the one missing element: Dr. Abiy skipped to mention that he was becoming a Prime Minister in country currently under a state of emergency, the reinstatement of which has received a widespread public rejection except in TPLF’s constituency.

AS 

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Abiy Ahmed becomes Ethiopia’s second prime minister in just five years since the death of long time dictator Melles Zenawi. His reform and unity rhetoric coupled with his long time membership of the brutally authoritarian regime makes him a confusing figure but that confusion has produced a huge hope as he ends up anywhere between maintaining the status-quo or actually reforming the dictatorship.

By Betemariam hailu

Perhaps for the very first time since the EPRDF dictatorship was installed in Ethiopia in the early 1990s, a prime minister that almost everybody from Ethiopia and the international community agreed on assumed office on monday. Abiy Ahmed, an urban Oromo politician in his early forties is now Ethiopia’s prime minister. He was everybody’s favorite prior to his selection. His ethnic region, the Oromo have paid too much price in the three years old pro-democracy protests. So someone from them becoming a prime minister is at least for the moment a happy end. The Amhara of the north also revolted and showed solidarity with the Oromo protesters. A reformist Oromo who praised their key role on their own regional state TV is not a bad choice. The Amhara regional party chief and the deputy prime minister dropped out of the race to pave the way for Abiy. And The party overwhelmingly voted for him.

The capital Addis Ababa that surprisingly remained calm and unfazed by the three years of wave in the Oromo and Amhara loves politicians who talk too much about unity, history and education. Abiy did that often. The inaugural speech was a perfect fit. His fluent urban Amharic and gentle look has already made him a celebrity among folks in the most developed and urbanized part of the country. he’s by far an interesting figure than the terribly boring Hailemariam Desalegn who he replaced for the the nation’s capital. With no cost, Addis Ababa got its choice from the EPRDF coalition.

The international community that prefers to prop up the status-quo or reform it with less costly measures as was described by the fired US secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, as “Greater freedom” also favored someone from the restive Oromo to get the top job, thinking it might calm their horn Africa ally. The only one that didn’t get their man are the ruling Tigrean elite for the obvious reasons.

Given the brutal violent history of power struggle in the last fifty years, there have always been two choices for any Ethiopian opposition, the bad and worse. This is why the Ethiopian opposition is puzzled about Abiy Ahimed. He is not necessarily bad but he still came from EPRDF. Chairman of the powerful rebel movement, Patriotic Ginbot 7 threw his cautious optimism on a VOA interview. Top Oromo politicians hailed his selection as a victory for the Oromo protests but doubted if he could really hold real power. His first speech was positive for most of them.

Actually nobody knows whats on the mind of Abiy. This is where it is interesting. He came out to the front 0nly in the last three years after protests began. He and his former boss, the Oromo regional president became front runners after a leadership shuffle following the violent protests. When Melles Zenawi was replaced by his deputy Hailemariam Desalegn in 2012 in a natural death, there was no hope. It was clear that Hailemariam would only be a weaker shadow of his deceased mentor as he embarrassingly praised the dead man several times as an immortal man with an immortal spirit even to the surprise of his Christian family.

But Abiy Ahmed don’t seem to go that way. The news of his selection came after a long long wait of weeks. It was clear that the ruling coalition fought too much on his selection. He is not defiantly the new Hailemariam. They didn’t name him as a prime minister easily. They labored too much. This is a clear signal that there is fear among the ruling elite that Abiy is a gamble. He embarrassed them by missing the parliamentary voting session on the draconian state of emergency. He didn’t vote Yes or no for the martial law the country is now under. For the deep state that rules the nation from behind, that was a stab in the back. Why didn’t he attend the session? It is simple. He did not want to. He does not agree with them on the state of emergency. Thats clearly a rebel act and still they were forced to name him as the nation’s prime minister. Its intriguing!

Under the new leadership of Abiy Ahmed and Lema Megersa, the Oromo region looked to have some space. There were massive peaceful rallies held for released political figures in big cities in which regional officials gave speeches too. Despite killings by the national army, there was a sense of bravery and emboldening in Oromia. This is what many people hope would translate to the national level with the coming of Abiy as a prime minister. This is a huge gamble for the deep state that rules the nation with a state of emergency. Just like the Oromo region was out of their control, their fear is that under Abiy, the whole country might be out of their control. He has lately been a target of attack by some state affiliated media.

Abiy Ahmed as a person has somehow got everybody’s support. The people’s and the Opposition’s optimism accompanied by foreign moral support. This all depends on him. If he will bring the political leadership under his control, that will be the first step. Given the support he has from the Amharas, yes he can do that with some time but he must be willing to take the risks. The prime minister’s seat is now a hot seat. Its never like the one Hailemariam sat on. He got to fight the deep state stairing him. The deep state is a group of rebel veterans of the Tigre liberation front who are determined to hang on power at any cost with their monopoly of the military and the security apparatus. Abiy did not vote for their state of emergency and he’s openly their enemy.

Actually the majority of the armed forces come from the Amhara and Oromo ethnic communities. The military has shown full obedience to the political leadership in the past. In 2016, after Hailemariam Desalegn declared he had ordered the military to take action in the north against Amhara protesters, the military killed hundreds in Bahir dar and Gondar. Its true Hailemariam himself was ordered to do that by the deep state but still the military acted in accordance with his words. The hope of some observers is that the majority of the military might follow Abiy Ahmed if he fully controls the political leadership of the country.

Controlling the political leadership also alienates the reactionary forces with in the regime. They will only hang on the military and the security. Ethiopia is a huge country with 100+ million population. Its truly hard to control it with only military power. But nobody knows how new Prime minister feels about these sensitive issues. The deep state has much more experience in calculating political steps than him. Does he have the courage to take on them? Does he have the wisdom to outsmart them? Is he brave enough to make life harder for himself? Because without these key issues, he will not be ruling in anyway. The deep state is my way or no way. They can go as far as a coup to stop him from taking the nation out of their control. They don’t want to see a rebel Ethiopia as is the Oromo.

Nobody knows if he had made any deals behind the scenes to get the job. Only the days will tell that. His first speech to the parliament was a darling to populist views but not brave enough to single out why the country is suffering from ages old brutality, authoritarianism and corruption. He never talked about democratic reform, restructuring of electoral system, releasing political prisoners, repealing the designation of the opposition as terrorist groups. Several questions remain unanswered regarding his position.

Still thousands are behind bars including top figures like Andargachew Tsiege. Officers from his own Oromo region have been arrested in recent weeks. More interestingly Abiy joined EPRDF as a young boy, spent nearly two decades inside the authoritarian system. He was a military officer with a rank of lieutenant colonel. He had actively worked in the security system. He never said nothing about his political ideology. But as a long time EPRDF member, may be he’s still a fan of revolutionary democracy ( modern day Marxist Leninist authoritarianism). His rhetoric is attractive and unifying unlike his predecessors but still lacks the substance issues facing this big country.

Nobody really knows what is on his mind. It is really confusing. Talking about unity is good but doing practical things to promote unity is a different thing. He reportedly speaks the Tigre language. He can travel to Tigray and impress the Tigre youth. He possibly help them see light that there is life without TPLF’s monopoly. The man has everything at his disposal, but we still do not know what he plans to do. Its just him. This confusion has caused hopes as it might end anywhere. He may make himself one of the greatest politicians ever born to help heal Ethiopia from the messes of authoritarianism. Or he may make a deal with the status-quo and rule with words, enjoying the luxury of being a prime minister. We live by hope. We hope he will be the earlier. And God help him.

Betemariam Hailu is an Ethiopian journalist and media personality. His works have appeared on several media including the BBC. He can be reached on Twitter @betehailu

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Daniel Mumbere

Ethiopia’s parliament swore in Abiy Ahmed as prime minister on Monday with a mandate to implement democratic reforms aimed partly at defusing ethnic tensions in the Oromiya province from which the former army lieutenant general hails.

The ruling coalition picked Abiy last week to replace Hailemariam Desalegn who quit to clear the way for reforms

Addressing a parliament session attended by 478 members of parliament, the new prime minister gave an impassioned speech on the need for unity and reform in the Eastern Africa nation.

“Today is a historic day. We bear witness to a peaceful transfer of power. Today our situation presents us with opportunities and threats. Today we are in the midst of uncertain times,” Abiye said in a speech to parliament.

In his first address to the nation, Abiy gave a glimpse of what his government will address including:

• Dr. Abiy Ahmed says the government should respect the rule of law, but it is also its responsibility to maintain the rule of law.

• He expressed his readiness to negotiate with the Eritrean government, to solve the differences between the two states as part of his plan to stabilize the horn of Africa region.

• Abiy promised to crackdown on rampant corruption in Ethiopia.

• Says his government will prioritise improving the quality of education by adopting sound policies.

• Pledged to create job opportunities for the youth, create more young entrepreneurs and business owners.

• Called on exiled Ethiopians to return home.

• Apologised to civilian victims of the state crackdown and security forces killed in the recent protests.

• Extended an olive branch to opposition parties, saying they will henceforth be viewed as ‘competitors not opponents’.

‘‘Their members and supporters are not enemies but our brothers and sisters who hold different political beliefs and viewpoints.’‘

The prime minister also paid a moving tribute to his mother and wife, a gesture local media said is rare for Ethiopian politicians.

The ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) has been in power since 1991, when it took over from the Derg military regime.

Ethnic, youth tensions

But the protests and unrest in Oromiya have posed the biggest ever threat to its continued rule.

Oromiya, which surrounds the capital Addis Ababa, has been rocked by violence since 2015.

This is fuelled largely by a sense among young members of the Oromo ethnic group, which makes up roughly a third of Ethiopia’s 100 million population, that they are politically and economically marginalised.

Abiy’s Oromo heritage appears to be a calculated attempt to soothe tensions in his home region.

Human rights groups say that security forces have killed hundreds of people in violence.

Tens of thousands were also jailed. But in the run-up to Haliemariam’s resignation last month, more than 6,000 prisoners had been freed as the government struggled to calm discontent. It is unclear how many remain in jail.

Ethiopia, which is Africa’s second most populous nation and also has had the continent’s fastest growing economy over the past decade, has been under a state of emergency since Feb. 16, the day after Hailemariam resigned.

The post Abiy, 42, took the oath of office in a ceremony at the House of People’s Representatives in Addis Ababa. appeared first on Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

South African anti-apartheid activist Winnie Madikizela-Mandela died peacefully on Monday following a long illness, a family spokesman said.

“She died after a long illness, for which she had been in and out of hospital since the start of the year,” Victor Dlamini said in a statement.

“She succumbed peacefully in the early hours of Monday afternoon surrounded by her family and loved ones.”

In January, she was admitted to hospital with a kidney infection and exhaustion.

In October, Madikizela-Mandela underwent a procedure on her knee.

Dlamini said details of the memorial and funeral services would be released once these had been finalised.

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By Messay Kebede

Simply put, the question besieging the mind of every Ethiopian is whether meaningful changes are about to occur in Ethiopia following the dramatic election of Dr. Abiy Ahmed as Ethiopia’s Prime Minister. Under normal circumstances, the officially announced and often debated political agenda of the candidate to the position of prime minister determines the expectations of people. In the case of Ethiopia, however, a candidate committed to a reformist agenda––forcefully confirmed in his inaugural speech––was elected to premiership by a ruling party coalition that recently “approved” the imposition of a state of emergency. The state of emergency gives absolute power to the military apparatus with the express purpose of safeguarding the status quo by suppressing the ongoing popular demand for change. Hence the legitimate question of knowing whether the new Prime Minister can initiate serious reforms under a government and a ruling party coalition so openly opposed to change.

Both Dr. Abiy and Lemma Megersa, the two prominent leaders of the reformist wing within the OPDEO, have publicly and repeatedly stated their reformist vision and have raised high expectations among a great majority of Ethiopian peoples. A key element of their vision is the restoration of the purpose of government that was long lost to the leaders of the TPLF, namely, that government is supposed to serve equally all the peoples of a country, not one particular ethnic group at the expense of other ethnic groups. One applauds their vision, but also one wonders how they competed for the position of prime minster while knowing perfectly the immense obstacles that the TPLF would inevitably oppose to the implementation of their vision. After all, the TPLF is the major and deciding force within the coalition. I am all the more perplexed by their decision to contend for the position as they run the danger of losing their reformist reputation each time the TPLF will block, as it surely will, any serious proposal for change. Look what happens when, like the outgoing Prime Minister, you have only the title but not the power.

Be that as it may, there is no denying that the election of Abiy represents a great opportunity for peaceful change in Ethiopia. What is more, it offers the most chance of cementing the growing solidarity between the Amhara and Oromo, which solidarity is the best guarantee for the continued unity of the country. In light of the importance of the event, let us then make sure that we raise the right question. Accordingly, instead of asking whether Abiy can be successful while operating in a situation defined by the hegemony of the TPLF, let us try to determine under what conditions he can effectively prevail. The answer to the first question is a given: it is a flat no. Either Abiy will end up by being co-opted, like the departing Prime Minister, or he will be marginalized and powerless until he is blamed for all the failures and finally removed in disgrace subsequent to the loss of support, even among his own constituents.

Only when the question is changed in the suggested way can we break the trap laid by the TPLF. Indeed, what else is the aim of allowing the election of a reformist leader by a regime opposed to reform but to discredit said leader? True, because of the popular unrest, especially in Oromia, the TPLF was forced to make some concessions. The election of Abiy is clearly an attempt to appease the protests in Oromia by picking as Prime Minister a promising leader from that region. But since the TPLF has no intention of allowing serious reforms, the election of an Oromo Prime Minister puts Oromo protesters in the difficult position of going against a government led by one of their own. This difficulty is the pause that the TPLF needs to buy time to strengthen its weakened position. Moreover, the continuation of protests in Amhara region runs the risk of being viewed as antithetical to an Oromo Prime Minister, with the consequence that it will undermine the solidarity of the two peoples. There is nothing that the TPLF needs more to perpetuate its hegemonic rule over Ethiopia than a confrontation between the Oromo and the Amhara.

It springs to mind that the change of the question amounts to one thing, to wit, empowering Abiy. And there is only one way to bring about this result: the continuation, better still, the strengthening of the popular protests in all the regions of Ethiopia, including Oromia. Only thus can Abiy have the leverage that he needs to impose changes on a regime dominated by the reluctance of the TPLF, the most urgent change being the lifting of the state of emergency. The continuation of the popular uprisings will convince the TPLF that the only way to retain some form of power and, most importantly, to preserve some of the acquired interests, is by allowing Abiy to implement the demands of the people. Short of accepting this condition, the TPLF places itself in a situation of zero-sum game, obvious as it is that the unanswered demands will lead, sooner than later, to its downfall with the likely outcome of the beginning of a civil war.

In other words, the selfish interest of the TPLF advises it not to stand in the way of reform under pain of losing everything by giving people no other choice than violent uprisings. However, if the protests come to an end because of promised reforms, not only no real change will occur, but also the TPLF will secure the necessary time to refurbish itself. Unless people strike while the iron is hot, getting rid of the TPLF will come at a much higher human and material cost, whose end-game could well be civil war and secessions.

The writer, Professor Messay Kebede, may be reached at mkebede1@udayton.edu

The post The Question Is Not whether There Is Change, but how to Empower the New Prime Minister appeared first on Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

VENUE: Positivity Hall, 4^th Floor:  159 Nana Sita Street, Tshwane University of Technology Pretoria, South Africa

Date & Time: March 1^st, 2018 from 2.00 – 6.00 PM

Program Director:  Prof. Mammo Muchie, SARChI- Innovation Studies

Registration: 13:30- 13:45

“Ethiopia has need of no one. She stretches out her hands to God” — Emperor Menelik, February, 1897

“There was never a time when united that Ethiopians lost to an enemy; it is non-existent in history”–Emperor Menilek II, 1909

“Those who are strong, support us with your strength. Those who are weak, support us with your prayers” — Emperor Menelik

“I am a woman. I do not like war. But I would rather die than accepting your deal”– Etige Taitu Bitul, Wife of Menelik II

“Although it had been conquered dozens of times, Ethiopia was the birthplace of African nationalism.” —Nelson Mandela

“So lofty was the status of Ethiopia in the African diaspora that it sometimes was synonymous with Africa itself”—Raymond Jonas

“Ethiopia was one of the few nation-states under African control. Many people of African ancestry embraced it as evidence of the black capacity for self-rule” –Asante

“Adwa Victory made Africa a victor, not a victim” —Former President Dr. Thabo Mbeki

“Better to continue learning our history to know ourselves to make a positive difference to the Africana world’s bright future” — Mammo Muchie

“Ethiopia has a unique distinction in the universe for empowering those that were disempowered, for humanising those that were dehumanised, spiritualising those that were denied their right to worship God and inspiring and strengthening those oppressed to resist oppression” —Mammo Muchie

Relevant educational Links on great Adwa Victory

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=624BaD6wKIQ&t=1197s
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GOzVsBwBJ0
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcnKvrTKzOw
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAbBjdjFTZc
5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=botuSzu17F0

The post Public Seminar on 122nd Adwa’s Great African Victory appeared first on Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

By ROSEMARY FEITELBERG 

The 64-year-old designer died of uterine cancer, according to a company spokeswoman.

After rejecting the over-the-top wedding gown options of the high-rolling Eighties, Aberra decided to design her own wedding dress in 1985. The following year she built from that experience and started her namesake business, specializing in custom-designed wedding dresses. She landed her first wholesale account with Kleinfeld by trekking to Brooklyn, where the store was then located, to show her collection to Hedda Kleinfeld Schachter.

At that time, Aberra was cutting wedding gowns at her kitchen table and Kleinfeld, according to Mara Urshel, co-owner of Kleinfeld. “She really was a trendsetter in the business. She was the first one who really introduced very classic lines, beautiful clothes and getting away from all the old traditions of lace, beads and everything that really wasn’t modern anymore. She really created the modern wedding dress. Unfortunately, she didn’t have the money to promote it at the time that she did it. And a lot of other people kind of did the same thing later on.

“But she stayed true to her course. You could always tell an Amsale,” Urshel said.

Aberra’s husband Clarence O’Neill Brown, who serves as chief executive officer, said, “Amsale was not only an inspiration to the company, but someone who inspired and impacted everyone around her with her strength, kindness and humility. Working side-by-side, we spent 360 degrees of our life together, and I know only too well both her creative genius and her infinite goodness. Words cannot express the personal loss that we feel, but we are comforted by the avalanche of support we’ve received and the commitment of our team to carry on Amsale’s legacy.”

Mark Ingram, owner of Mark Ingram Atelier, described Aberra as “the inventor of the modern wedding dress. She was doing strapless, plain and sheer allusion necklines and sleeves before anybody in the late Eighties.” Before opening his East 55th Street boutique, Ingram worked for the designer for four years, heading up wholesale for bridal in the late Nineties. Sitting next to the designer in the company’s offices, he observed that she always started her designs with the shape of the skirt, which was always very simple. Aberra also made a point of limiting dresses to one or two fabrics, and maybe adding one embroidered trim or detail.

“It was minimalism in the Nineties which did not exist [in bridal.] We were competing against Arnold Scaasi and the House of Diamond — some big people who were doing some crazy stuff. Amsale was the lone ranger of clean, classic dresses,” Ingram said.

“She was rebelling against the 1980s trend of ‘Dynasty’ and all this horrible big shoulder stuff. She designed her own wedding dress because she couldn’t find what she wanted in the marketplace. That was the start of her business. She wanted clean and simple and that’s what she did,” he added.

Over the years, the designer’s creations were featured in such films as “Something Borrowed,” “The Hangover” and “27 Dresses” and TV shows including “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Brothers and Sisters.” She also suited up an array of celebrities for their red carpet appearances and editorial shoots including Heidi Klum, Gayle King, Vivica Fox, Bethenny Frankel and Salma Hayek

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Beloved Bridal Designer Amsale Aberra Dies at 64

APRIL 2, 2018 1:30 PM

by EMILY FARRA

Amsale Aberra

Amsale Aberra, founder and creative director of the bridal and ready-to-wear line Amsale, has passed away at the age of 64. Born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, she moved to Vermont for college, then went to New York, where she earned her degree in fashion design at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Soon after, she was shopping for her own wedding dress and found a gap in the market for simple, understated, timeless gowns—it was 1985 and frills and sparkles were de rigueur. Aberra launched Amsale as a custom bridal business out of her apartment, and it quickly grew into one of the industry’s most recognized brands. Kleinfeld was her first wholesaler in 1991, and in the years since the Amsale label expanded to include evening gowns, cocktail dresses, and bridesmaid dresses.

Before she passed, Aberra had already chosen a successor: Margo Lafontaine, recently the senior studio director at Vera Wang. Lafontaine will oversee Amsale’s extensive bridal and ready-to-wear design teams. Aberra is survived by her daughter, musician Rachel Brown, and her husband, Amsale CEO Neil Brown, who said in a statement: “Amsale was not only an inspiration to the company, but someone who inspired and impacted everyone around her with her strength, kindness, and humility. Working side by side, we spent 360 degrees of our life together, and I know only too well both her creative genius and her infinite goodness. Words cannot express the personal loss that we feel, but we are comforted by the avalanche of support we’ve received and the commitment of our team to carry on Amsale’s legacy.”

Amsale’s Spring 2019 bridal show is scheduled for next Friday, April 13. Per Aberra’s request, the show will take place as planned.

A dress from Amsale’s Fall 2018 bridal collection.

Photo: Courtesy of Amsale

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She speaks about the current situation in Ethiopia & she calls all Ethiopian’s community all over the world to be united.
To help the Ethiopians find a democratic form of government. Their support in a way for democracy and human rights there.

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It is safe to say that April 2, 2018 will go down in the history of Ethiopia as a day where for the first time executive power transferred peacefully from one hand to another. Never mind that it was within the ruling party but many take the new sheriff in town as a product of popular uprising. In the current state of affaires where TPLF/EPRDF successfully managed to incapacitate the opposition, Dr Abiy is the best that the country can hope for. It was that rare occasion in decades a nation seemed to be united, at least for a day.

The newly elected Ethiopian Prime Minister Dr Abiy Ahmed didn’t disappoint either. He made such a remarkable speech that it was one of the most conciliatory ever heard from that podium, a place where victors have been overplaying their bragging rights to the extent of invincibility. The new PM was unequivocal in mentioning the country by name, as opposed to his predecessors who preferred “people of our country.” The apology for the loss of life of young activists and protesters his party used to dub “criminal thugs” and “terrorists” is timely and attests to his magnanimity.

Not only was there a call for opposition parties but the PM made clear his intentions to make amends with Eritrea. The tribute to his late mother and the new first lady, Zenash Tayachew, was so personal that it reminds all politics, at the end of the day, is about the dreams and aspirations of individuals. He rightfully called it “unprecedented” for that chamber.

While the outgoing PM Hailemariam Desalegn can not shake off his image as the most inconsequential, if not the weakest, leader ever, he can be remembered for presiding over a well orchestrated transition. Hailemariam along with former first lady Roman Tesfaye, showed around the PM office in what seems to be straight out of the White House playbook minus the planes to whisk away the exes.

Two awkward moments in that otherwise well orchestrated procession were: the life size picture of the embodiment of authoritarianism lurking from the background; and the judge who presided over the swearing in is infamous for his politically charged rulings.

While the close ups were not as generous to show us who was in attendance, apart from the obvious members of parliament, religious leaders and members of the diplomatic community, Abinet Gebremeskel and former minister Haile Asegede probably were sitting for the ghosts of Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi somewhere from Saudi prisons.

Finally, after different kind of narrations on the biography of the Prime Minister now there seems to be a consensus and the party’s spokesperson Shiferaw Shigute has read all the details. While they tried their best to get all the pieces together and construct a bio, still somewhere something doesn’t seem to add up. It is highly unlikely a boy from Jimma would join TPLF/EPRDF when he is barely 15.  However the 42 year old will not be judged by those minor details. While anticipations are building up, he shouldn’t be expected to perform miracles. Leaving aside the fairy tales of “double digit” economic growth or making the country a middle income one in the next couple years, protecting the lives of civilians should be the first step in the arduous task looming ahead.

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