All of us can be Part of the Solution

by Abebe Kassa, April 05,2013

To sell Ethiopian agricultural lands to foreign investors, the weyane regime continued with increasing vigor its policy of forced eviction of ethiopians from their own land. The number of evicted people and their sufferings are growing. As Ethiopians hearing the news from different medias the anger is flowing from everywhere. Often news about atrocities committed by the weyane regime ends up being a week or some weeks long concern. It has to be be changed at some point. The anger has to be transformed in to meaningful action. The regime has to feel these atrocities will have consequences.

The recurrent questions among Ethiopians when we hear this kind of atrocities commited by the weyane regime is: what can we do to stop this from happening again? what is the solution? The questions often followed by demand for opposition forces to unite and make formidable force to challenge the regime. Since 2005 the call is not bearing fruit as we wanted it. In 2005 election Kinjit and Hibret did that in Ethiopia when opportunity arised and shaken the regime to its core. Ofcourse many people yearn to see that being repeated to bring back vitality to the struggle.

Currently the opposition being fragmented and weyane controlling almost all the resources and institutions in Ethiopia might appear for some weyane is invincible. Gene sharp who wrote extensively on resistance against dictatorship pointed out that the perception of dictators invulnerability against powerlessness feelings by the opposition makes effective resistance unlikely. The wrong perceptions impede effort. In Ethiopian struggle one factor that is oppositions working together can alter that power equation significantly. Many are demanding it too. We know even the news that oppositions are working together will rattle the weyane camp. The challenge is how to achieve that.

We can’t leave the responsibility only for political parties and civic organizations leaders to unite the opposition force and bring the desired change we want. I believe the way is those of us who wants regime change in Ethiopia to involve in the struggle actively. We can be member or supporter of a political party or civic organization. Political parties and civic organizations are not in short supply and most of us can get the choice of our own. No waiting game while we can be part of those who make it happen. We can play part in shaping the struggle. we can not continue to be bystanders till the unity we demand arrives. We can search the solutions while working in the organizations framework. We might start participating in different organizations however as the struggle goes its course and with time we might meet at some point like tributaries merge together to form a river. Intra-organizations negotiations and discussions will bring the ways to cooperate and work together. This way we can accelerate the disintegration of weyane regime. If we involve and contribute what we can in the effort to bring oppositions to work together, we will dismantle the weyane regime for good and lay the foundation of democratic Ethiopia.

To act is to involve in the struggle.

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