The Oromo revolution belongs to the people and its leader Jawar Mohamed not Abiy and his pro imperial Amhara

[galbeedi]

In early this year,  when I was in Addis Ababa , I had met some Oromo businessmen who were related through marriage  with one of my neighbors here in Canada. Since I was travelling light, they asked me to do a  favour and take a huge bag with full of clothes, smartphones and some electronics.

 

During our discussions about Abiy, Lema Magrassa and Jawar Mohamed, I asked them how the Oromo leaders would co exist especially,  the OLF rebels who just came from Eritrea and feel marginalized despite their armed struggle. In fact , in those days the Ethiopian air force had bombed positions held by OLf in Wallega.

 

They all agreed that at the moment they all support Abiy and his reforms. Since they were businessmen who would thrive through peace, they showed some distress and fear about the OLF rebels. They also considered the OLF leadership who were based in JIma, Wallega zone, which is  far western part of the Oromia  as outsiders who might wreck the boat.

 

Yet, looking back, when I pushed them about  the the future role of Jawar , they all repeated the same thing saying that all the current leaders including Lema, Jawar and Abiy were working for the same cause inside and outside.  While Jawar was pushing the Queero youth from outside, Abiy and Lema were working from inside , was the the typical statement  repeated by almost everyone.  It reminded  me of Somaliland where every Faarah and Cali claims to be working for the rebel cause during the military regime of Somalia. Imagine , people like Cali Waran Cade, who was the intelligence service working for Siyaad Barre until the last days,  claiming now to be working from inside for the rebel cause while real witnesses put him  right there at the office of the president  pouring coffee for siyaad Barre just days before the collapse. 

 

Any way, while Lema, the former Oromia president allowed the Oromo youth to continue their demonstrations in order to be  on the side of the people, at the end he or the TPLF were  unable to crush and kill millions of people who were looking for freedom.

 

Jawar pushed and succeeded by enforcing a crippling strike shutting down  the whole country . He had two million facebook followers  which means almost every Oromo house hold within the country. Almost all of Ethiopia's trade,  import and export  that comes from Djibouti and Kenya had to go through Oromo heartland, especially the Dire dhaba to Addis corridor were the populations is concentrated .THe strikes affected  fuel trucks, goods and industry. Furthermore, almost all of the food production of Ethiopia is cultivated by the eglaterian and hard working Oromo. The lazy Amhara who never does an honest day of work like most Somalis,  would starve without the Oromo food. In fact,even Hargeisa might feel the pinch if all those fruit and vegetable from Hawaday stop coming.  How can you control 50 million people who want break the yokes of the northern minority who doesn't even live most of the land in the south , west and east of Addis which is 70% of the population. You have more Oromo people in the 100km Addis surrounding belt and countryside than combined population of Tigray and Eritrea.

 

. Tens of thousands were arrested through emergency measures while thousands were killed by live bullets of the army.  At the end the EPRDP ruling coalition must either bring down the whole country  to stay in power and kill millions, or give way to the people's revolution led by  Jawar and the Oromo youth.

 

Yet, Rather than  give power back to the people and make a real change, the EPRDF  tried to buy time and crown one of their own. For the Amhara and Tigray highlanders, Abiy Ahmed was the perfect Oromo to keep the system running and keeping power to themselves. Certainly Abiy didn't follow their plans or disappoint by trying to change the system  from within and give the  people some freedom to express their feelings. He shaked down the TPLF,  eliminated their big business oligarchs and government run corporations which they used to loot the public purse, and eventually reduce their  influence from the federal scenes although their power is still intact  within their Tigray stronghold. Yet, the TPLF  were not the real target of the revolution for the long term.

 

 

Of course Abiy Ahmed is trying to be the leader and the prime minister of everyone regardless of their ethnic origin which is what leaders should do. His  reforms and the changes  in foreign policy with the Ethiopian neighbors including Eritrea  and Somalia, has brought him accolades around the world which eventually resulted in winning  the Nobel Peace Prize. These achievements might have led Abiy to think as the dear leader who must rule without the consent of the people.

 

Abiy must understand that having being selected by the communist style one party state of the EPRDF is not substitute for real legitimacy from the Ethiopian people. The EPRDF is undemocratic and authoritarian dictatorship tailor made for the Ethiopian highlanders and their Amhara centred Oromo. In fact four major regions of Ethiopia--Somali, Afar, Gambella and Benshaguli-Gomez --are not part of the ruling coalition , while the Amharazed and  elite dominated  Southern Nations is in the coalition.

 

If Abiy thinks he can rule Ethiopia without elected mandate from the people he is mistaken. The Oromo revolution wasn't fought for one man to be a dictator through purges while  consolidating power slowly at the expense of the Oromo revolutionary . In fact, the EPRDF , with its history human right abuse  should not be even ruling Ethiopia after the Oromo revolution. The Oromo people and we the Somalis, Afar, Gambela,  and others would not accept a crypto Amhara prime minister who is working hard to resurrect the awful legacy of the old Ethiopian imperial time.

 

 Didn't he see the monuments inside Oromia depicting women's  breast being cut by Menelik?. Did he forget the 500 year oppression of Oromo by the Amhara led empire ?. While millions are displaced and need for housing is dire in Ethiopia, he  spent $170 million dollars to renovate and make museum for the  old dwellings of Amhra  despotic kings which has nothing to do with the new Ethiopia of today.

 

Furthermore, he never got the message of decolonization that was going on inside Ethiopia and Oromia region in particular. Major towns  with imperial or Amhara names were changed by Oromo. Nazret became Adama, Addis Ababa became Finfinne, Dabra Zayt just 50 km from Addis, became   Bishutu and many more. The 50 million Oromo want their language to be the second or first official language of Ethiopia. In fact, their Latin alphabet which was created in Mogadishu with help of Somalis is much easier than the backward Amharic which  is difficult to to use for modern science which kept Ethiopia out of the modern technologies.  Go check youtube archives of famed Somali singers from Radio Mogadishu singing Afaan Oromo and other programings that led the way. In fact, the first ever Afaan Oromo broadcasting Radio were set up by the  Somali state. This are what the Oromo are fighting for.

 

Abiy implemented  and changed the nationwide school system by forcing regions to start Anmaric language in grade one rather than the current system that allows children being taught with their native tongue until grade  five and many more pro Amharic initiatives to resurrect the old order. 

 

We  Somalis should follow the footsteps of these Oromo and erase the Amhara legacy in our  region. Unfortunately we got a facebook president who admires the Amhara way of life. He increased the Amharic  language programming at the regional Television, in Jigjiga and he even further and said he wants the Unitarian system promoted by Amhara.  We need anti colonial leadership that would stand up to anhara and prepare the people of the Somali region for the eventual self determination. As some young guy here s in SOL alluded,  we only rise up for our tribes than our national spirit.

 

Why would Nelson Mandela and the ANC would allow a white minority to keep the power after he was freed from jail after almost 30 years. The Amhara and the Ahmarized Oromo never understood that the reason people fought wasn't about preserving Ethiopia or keeping the Amhara legacy in order for Oromo leader to be just another leader. Abiy should know neither Noble Prize nor the half measured reforms will make him legitimate unless he allows fair and free election. He should know that this was a Zulu like once in a century revolution that must change Ethiopia.

 

There is no mistake about it that the leader of the revolution is Jawar Mohamed. He  is the leader  in waiting who will finally take his place in the revolution he led. If Abiy think he can arrest Jawar like a common opposition that could be dragged to the old jail  like those before him , he is mistaken.  Jawar should  wage g his campaign peacefully  and take certain measures to eventually replace Abiy Ahmed. Among them :

 

First, The EPRDF coalition can not rule as a legitimate party after 30 years of abuse. During the soviet union, new leaders were elected by the politburo when things got bad or tough challenges arise in order to keep the power.  The Oromo revolution wasn't only about removing the TPLF .

The TPLF,  due to their history,  small number of population and geographic location,  were never the real power brokers of  Ethiopia or those committed  of preserving the legacy of Amhara centric imperial culture. One major achievement  that the TPLF should be praised for is the dismantling of  the Amhara system that ruled Ethiopia for 500 years. There could  never have been an Oromia state or power without Meles pouring billions to the coffers of the Oromia region and building universities and strong Oromo centric public service.The duminitive genius Meles had disbanded and dismantled Ethiopia before he even went to his grave. All what we see now is probably the hungry  hyenas fighting for a dead horse.  The real threat is and always has been the Amhara who were placed among every region by the king and the Derg to rule and oppress others.  In Ethiopia public service people meant Amhara and even those who joined the system became Amhara regardless of their ethnic org ion.

 

Second, after the revolution , a national unity government comprised from EPRDF and the opposition must be established to lead the country until the election. If Abiy want to keep and lead the discredited EPRDF , let him keep it and be challenged during the election. Imagine Huseen Kulmiye Afrax being crowned as the leader of USC after the collapse of Siyaad Barre and being  praised  for his heroic reforms?

 

Third, opposition figures like Jawar should form their own political parties and be allowed to express their agenda to the people. This is God given right that can not be infringed by anyone. THe  Amhara media who were opposing Abiy to the last man until few days ago had finally came to the other side and are demanding Abiy to crush Jawar by depicting him as mobster and anti peace . I advice Jawar to let the Amhara join and keep  Abiy and contest  the election as  their man. I have no doubt that  if this rock star prime minister  keeps flirting with that gang, he will soon be run out of town  and settle in Sweden or worse Asmara. The leader of the Oromo region Shimelis  Addisa said that those actions against Jawar should be investigated and the government must guarantee the safety of those who came from exile. 

 

Finally, Jawar and others should remind Abiy that unless he wins an election, he is not the  legitimate leader of  a country, but a selected prime minister of outdated party called EPRDF.   The cowardice act of the security people to sneak in the middle of the night and try to eliminate Jawar Mohamed had exposed the treachery of the Abiy government and his Amhara  coalition.. AS we speak ,The death toll hit almost 70, yet the little man is hiding and saying nothing. The pro independence Somalis including the ONLF and others must prepare for anything including declaring independence. We will never allow an Amhara centric old order to rule gain the Somali nomads who should be the first to gain in any freedom.

 

In our side, no one is rooting for the collapse of Ethiopia which is very dangerous for the region, but the fact remains that the  last empire of the world should have been disbanded in 1974, 1991 or 1945 after the second world war. The Amhara would either allow the likes of Jawar Mohamed to rule or it will be the new Yugoslavia of the horn , or worse another Rwnada. 

 

[Old_Observer]

Jawars reminder to the Oromo now comes home to roast.

1. Its very easy to start a revolution, the most difficult part is to build the new system to replace the old

2. We should not continue on momentum since on the move its easy to be hijacked.

It means he did not practice what he preached.

 

What broke the camels back is that Jawar proposed that the Oromo and Tigray get together just like the 90s even sending mediators. Tigray has completely cut off and doing normal development work in their kilil. Now the Afar are starting t do the same.

I hope Cagjar stops the face book none sense and get to work, building dams, digging wells, settling some nomads, there is just too many of them, build clinics, schools and very important keep the security forces, TV, Media.all Somali.

 

[Old_Observer]

5 hours ago, galbeedi said:

 

 

Abiy implemented  and changed the nationwide school system by forcing regions to start Anmaric language in grade one rather than the current system that allows children being taught with their native tongue until grade  five and many more pro Amharic initiatives to resurrect the old order.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That is when you know the Oromo have been taken to the cleaners. Used as a horse and when not needed now they will be split.

Education was responsibility of Kilils until grade 12.

Abiy used one article that says by middle school the student should be able to work in his mother tongue and Amxaric.

The Oromo should have stood firm on federalism and the constitution that allows them Addis Ababa and also control of Education.

 

 

 

[galbeedi]

1 minute ago, Old_Observer said:

The Oromo should have stood firm on federalism and the constitution that allows them Addis Ababa and also control of Education.

The is some of the mistakes. Yet, if the Oromo do not confront Abiy now their revolution will be dead just like the Egypt where Sisi hijacked.They should think beyond Abiy and dismantle the old empire. It has to be a new Ethiopia and the only way is to slay the old one.

[Old_Observer]

8 minutes ago, galbeedi said:

The is some of the mistakes. Yet, if the Oromo do not confront Abiy now their revolution will be dead just like the Egypt where Sisi hijacked.They should think beyond Abiy and dismantle the old empire. It has to be a new Ethiopia and the only way is to slay the old one.

My friend, lets call a spade a spade.

Do you think Ethiopians were after Illey for all the "crimes" posted on face book? NO

They were after Illey, since regardless of his connections with TPLF, he worked really hard to maintain Somali in all fields from education to Radio to TV to security forces..etc.

How do I know?

Ethiopian government have not accused Illey of any crime against any Somali in Kililka.

They only brought two cases. Separation and the disturbance which they false flagged.

 

First victim was Kililka.

But I guess, some for clan, some for sub clan, some bought or decieved by Amxara in name of Oromo...Now as they say "the baby has been thrown with the b water"

Before you worry about the Oromo rescuing their revolution, the Somali need to rescue autonomy. Somali autonomy is more at risk than Oromo confused revolution.

 

[galbeedi]

30 minutes ago, Old_Observer said:

Before you worry about the Oromo rescuing their revolution, the Somali need to rescue autonomy. Somali autonomy is more at risk than Oromo confused revolution.

 

OO, that is a good point. If Illey were here Amhara wouldn't raising their head here in the Somali KIlil. To bad , If Illey measured his abuse of his own people  , the people would be with him today. 

While Ethiopia is debating about federal system and regional autonomy the Somali Kilil is quite. No one is even paying  attention for what we want. I worry about Oromo because if they are defeated by the empire our chances of being free will be even slim. Who ever comes as a leader is serving Addis and himself.

Here the ONLF chairman calling for unity and name change. Some  people I talked to told me the admiral to be a national figure who is nor tribal despite his clans rebels.

 

[Dahireeto]

I am with Old Observer. Somali region may become real casualty after all of this.