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Woyanne's Motive behind Its Latest "False Flag"

Minutes after the final result of the American presidential election was known, the entire world, without being deterred by differences in time, jointly witnessed the occurrence of one of the rarest moments in history. A historic moment during which people from all corners of the world  suddenly found themselves as belonging to one family, chanting, weeping and dancing together over one common event. This mood of elation was spontaneously induced not only due to the historic victory of the Democratic Party nominee Barak Obama but also at what appeared as the reinstatement of America's image as a champion of democracy in the world.

In today's world of ours and especially in our part of the continent, it is an open secret that elections are fast becoming synonym with killing rampage, beatings and incarceration of innocent civilians, vote rigging, and squabbles over election outcomes and so on and so forth.  Given the prevalence of such a scenario, the outpouring of sympathies from all corners of the world over the outcome of American presidential election might not have occurred without sufficient reason.

In view of the foregoing, we would say that, in as much as the victory of President-elect Barak Obama had been the prime cause of our celebrations, so was the gracious concession speech made by the losing Presidential candidate- Senator John McCain. 

Though we say that people of the world have come together in celebrating this common event, it does not mean that there were not isolated places where joining this very celebration had been equated to committing a serious crime. One such weird place is Ethiopia under Woyanne's rule, where hitting the streets in celebration was made to look like voluntarily putting oneself in front of the firing squad.

 For those of us who had closely been following this development, Woyane's last minute repressive measures did not come as a big surprise. During the count down to the final election date, Woyanne with the support of some foreign missions organized a highly orchestrated public speech forum the main theme of which had been to tone down our expectations from the American presidential election in general and from that of possible Obama victory in particular. The timing and the message they tried to convey in stead enraged the public and gave an additional impetus towards making preparations for the grand rally that is commensurate with Ethiopia's standing as a center of African Union and Economic Commission for Africa.

That was exactly the time when Woyanne started to panic. It feared that opposition political forces may use the event as an opportune moment to boost the morale of what it thought was a subdued and downhearted public. It did not realize that at about the same time, the excitement of most of the people especially the youth segment of the population had already reached fever pitch at what they too thought was an impending victory for the candidate they so much revere. 

Just five days remaining towards the final election date, Woyanne started to implement a massive crack down on citizens having Oromo origin under the usual pretext of having uncovered a newly hatched plot to carry out a "terrorist" attack. Subsequent to this despicable allegation, it jumped into its main goal of instilling fear amidst people by issuing a series of security alerts through various government agencies. It deployed armored vehicles on the streets of the capital evoking the bleak memory of the post -election massacre it heartlessly carried out three years ago.

Thus, without being required to declare a "State of Emergency", it did manage to deny us our right to express ourselves even on such issues as joining the world in celebrating the outcome of American presidential election.

Woyane did not limit itself to this measure but proceeded to fire all the ammunitions it had stacked for this particular purpose. On the very date the result was known, it posted on its website (aigaforum.com) a sort of an ultimatum it prepared under the title "Significance of President Obama for Ethiopia and the World". This statement, which actually was prepared in government position statement format, was posted under the pseudo Oromo name. The whole purpose of posting it in that manner was presumably, to be able to insert a phrase that it thought would somehow link the origin of the President-elect with that of the crack down it was carrying out at the time. The inserted phrase goes as ‘It is not because of Obama's paternal heritage and my Oromo descent just like many Oromos in northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia".

Journalists usually use a code word "false flag" to denote a gambit where one holds others responsible for the very act performed by oneself secretly. Woyanne's latest crack down on citizens having Oromo origin, when viewed in light of its objective of suppressing Obama victory rally, it is nothing but a "false flag". But when seen in view of what it is trying to insinuate based on the origin of the President-elect, it must be starting to learn another advanced technique. This is truly a classic example for a charlatan leadership. Apart from its symbolic significance, trying to link the origin of the President-elect of the United States of America with any sort of internal political situation of Ethiopia or for that matter even of Kenya, is not only going way over the line but is also an utter failure at a proper grasp of one's own true size.

Until very recently, Woyanne and its affiliated think-tank groups had been trying to depict a just Oromo cause for attaining a genuine self rule in Ethiopia as being a destabilizing factor to the neighboring countries simply because there may be some communities speaking the same language on the other side of the border. In this regard, their incessant effort to inject the venomous concept of "Greater Oromia" to the political landscape of Oromo national movement, by blindly aping the chicaneries of the colonial era,  had successfully been thwarted. Oromo Studies Association was one of the forums on which such a concept encountered a mortal blow. We hope that the keen interest shown by few academicians to crawl around cross-border communities also is nothing but academic.

Of course, we can not say that they were not successful in all of their attempts in this regard. Very recently, to our biggest surprise, we came to learn the establishment of an association so named as "Minneapolis-based Oromo people of East Africa and Ethiopia". Apart from their interest of promoting people to people relations, we are not sure whether or not the founders of this association have properly pondered over the full extent of their actions. Whether they like it or not, such entity, by its very existence, can never escape from serving Woyanne as a fodder in its vicious activity of sowing discord between Oromo political forces and neighboring countries.

What makes Woyanne to behave in such a rabid manner just in the wake of American Presidential election is primarily to be traced to its own internal making. We advocate for the establishment and strengthening of strategic partnership with the United States of America. We strongly believe that such a relation is in the best interest of both countries. Whereas Woyanne's policy towards the United States of America is to pretend as an ally on global war on terror primarily to use that relation to undermine the democratization process in our country. That is why we say that the current rabid behavior of Woyanne only reflects how deep it hooked itself into the partisan politics of another country and not in any way related to the situation on the ground.

One major parameter in which the strength of the strategic partnership is measured is by the degree to which that relation is made to be less responsive to the periodic elections in both countries. As we are today, let alone major elections, we seem to have been dragged to the stage where we even sneeze at mid-term elections. Had Woyanne pursued a policy that concurs with us on this point, it would have spared itself from freaking out at the outcome of the election of another country like it is manifesting at present. In matters pertaining to the relation between our country and that of the United States of America, it can never be expressed as precise and as concise as it was expressed by Senator Russ Feingold, Chairman of the Senate Affairs Sub-Committee on Africa, who characterized it as "short-sighted and narrow" and "it ignored poor governance and human rights concern in Ethiopia.' That is the crux of the problem and that is what needs to be changed.

Finally, due to the prevalence of the gross violations of human rights in our country, we were not able to join the rest of the world in openly expressing our feelings at the historic victory of President -elect Barak Obama. For the coming few weeks until the inauguration date, we may not expect changes that will allow us do things differently. But one thing we hope to achieve is: to establish a strategic partnership with the USA so that not a single party in Ethiopia may panic anymore by the outcome of the presidential election in the USA in the future.

 November 2008

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