Qerro Media Service - QMS's Post

Chris means well, but he didn't get it right--and perhaps misinformed!
============
I know Congressman Chris Smith means well for Ethiopia but he must have been misled about some facts in the build up to the hearing yesterday.

One can overlook his remarks about Abiy being 'reform-minded' (because of the media hype regarding this). But there are some inaccuracies that, having gotten into his statement, not only mar his neutrality but inflame the conflict even further.

1. A case in point is his reference to Jawar Mohammed (and OLF) as separatists who pose a challenge to Abiy's vision for Ethiopia.

First of all, Jawar is not separatist. He has never advanced a separatist agenda in his long career as an Oromo activist and/or political analyst and commentator of Ethiopian politics.

The Oromo Federalist Congress, the party Jawar is a member of, is the most centrist party in Ethiopia todate. In fact, Dr Merera Gudina, the founder of OFC (originally ONC, later united with Bulcha Demeksa's OFDM to form OFC) started party politics by expressing his scepticism about the self-determination clause in the constitition and by distancing himself from OLF which, because of its insistence on selfdetermination rights of the Oromo, was then viewed as a separatist party.

To lump Jawar to OLF and to claim that he is separatist is to mischaracterize both Jawar and his party, i.e., the OFC.

2. Also, considering the fact that no party in Ethiopia today is demanding more than what the constitution guarantees under Art 39, it is inappropriate to refer to OLF as separatist just because OLF advances the fulfilment of self-determination rights of nations--the same right recognized in the Ethiopian constitution. To demand rights under the constitution is only to affirm and reinforce the constitution. It is not seeking separatism, or otherwise challenging Abiy's vision (if at all he has any) of Ethiopia.

To refer to OLF and Jawar as separatists, without substantiating the claim with evidence, is to fall into the trap of the ethio-Amhara elite's relentless insinuations and incrimination of all Oromo parties and personalities as such.

In conflating Jawar (and his OFC) with OLF, Congressman Smith committed a mistake about the facts. In claiming that both are separatists challenging Abiy, he made an error of judgement both about Jawar (or his OFC) and OLF. In doing this, he re-enacted, unwittingly, the ethio-Amhara elite's discursive act of demonizing the Oromo for no reason (other than oromophobia).

3. Congressman Smith also says that the Federalist constitution "fuels conflicts, encourages separatism and ethnic cleansing, and exacerbates existing ethnic and tensions." In saying that, Congressman Smith erred again. A cursory reading of the constitution suggests tge exact contrary. In deed, the constitution's recognition of multinational federalism as a framework of enjoying equality, dignity-in-identity, and self-determination was a guarantee for a "lasting peace," justice, deep pluralism, and radical tolerance. On this point, like on the above two, Congressman Smith must have been influenced by the agitations of the Ethiopianist elite who deride the federal system because it's against privileges of the few and supremacist ideologies of the ethio-Amhara elites.

I think he will do well in the future to try and hear the other side of the story as he continues to advance the cause of peace, justice, and human rights in Ethiopia and the horn.
By: via Qerro Media Service - QMS