LETTER TO THE EDITOR

The test of a difficult time can hardly be overcome by slicing one another

I am prompted to write this letter by the recent shade of light Prof. Mesfin Woldemariam has cast himself. Unfortunate as that is, some of the reactions have also failed to see beyond the heat of the moment. What is of interest now is whether the UDJ, as it stands now, would show political maturity and take the interest of the country, instead of public squabbles over unsettled internal matters. The opportunity is here and now for the UDJ leadership to take a serious inward look once again with a view to taking appropriate and sensible measures before the election in the interest of the future of democracy in our country.

I have known Prof. Mesfin since the 1960s as my instructor of Ethiopian geography. Two decades later, I could say, I came to know him better and closely, especially after he became a frequent visitor in my adopted country of residence. Time is a healer, and growing up the best pathfinder. I forgot the negatives I was infused with during my years at the HSIU as regards him. Not that I had seen him doing anything offensive then, but I realize how much I had been guilty of the sin of conformity with the radicalized campus that labeled alternative views as bourgeois or reactionary.

Notwithstanding whatever differences between the two of us�life experiences, outlooks, interests, age and temperaments�I enjoyed the many encounters and conversations I had had with Prof. Mesfin between the 1980s and 1990s. Those many encounters and lively conversations we used to have had given me better insights into the real person he is than my years in the classroom when I was his student.

One thing I have always admired and respected about Prof. Mesfin Woldemariam is the consistency of his faith in Ethiopia, and pride in its history and traditions. I hope I am not wrong in saying he sees Ethiopia as almost his personal project, the implied charge of which had inevitably made him to see her as framework through which he saw the meaning of his own life. No matter the severity of the challenges he faced through the years, I think, he has taken the country�s suffering and humiliations as his own and his strength to change it into something better. That has been his driving force. In other words, much as he has known respect at intervals and on occasions because of that, he has experienced vilifications and rejections, perhaps to some of which his approach may have contributed. That has opened him up to being sized up by unfortunate measures, the most commonly heard being rigidity, his ideas and moldy and out of time.

Nonetheless, the professor�s strengths have been demonstrated on many occasions by his unique ability to dust off failures and find relevance for himself, which has often astounded his detractors. The evidence is that none of the many things that have happened to him has unfazed him, as his opponents have wished. For instance, during the Dergue time, he spoke of how he was charged, along with three others, into reviewing the question of the Ethio-Sudanese border. In addition, it has always surprised me how, at a moment of depressing national difficulties, he emerged out of nowhere in the early 1990s first as exponent of the Amharic language and human rights. In that context, I see how the strength of his spirit and perseverance has won him grudging respect of those who hated his guts or had already discounted him.

He got international recognition; he was invited for testimonies again and again to the houses of power in different countries to speak on the conditions of human rights in our country. In all this, one mark of his greatness has been the uncharacteristic exception he has made to his characteristic opposition to everything others supported. He joined hands with many Ethiopians and foreigners in many countries and stood at the frontline putting his life to risk as the first president of the Ethiopian Human Rights Council and exposed years of flagrant violations of fundamental human rights of the Ethiopian people and cases of many disappearances.

In the autumn of 2007, when Ethiopians in the diaspora were in turmoil on account of CUDs troubles, Prof, Mesfin was the one who took most of the flak, no less than Eng. Hailu Shawl. It was at that point I wrote the article 'Plea for common sense and decorum�. It was a personal reaction to the plenty of mud thrown at people once so much adored. I observed, �By force of history, we Ethiopians have become a generation of contrarians, adept at tearing each other apart. We have lost capacity to understand or appreciate one another�s achievements and sacrifices.� The article was an attempt to defend Prof. Mesfin�s right and of the others to speak their minds, with nobody loosing her/his right to disagree, still without throwing sands into the gearbox of civilized discourse.

In that article, I stated, "A few months ago, the elderly Prof. Mesfin was vilified left and right for speaking his mind in his maverick forthrightness. He was dethroned instantly from the pedestal that his selfless sacrifices and struggles against past and present injustices have earned him. He has never been anybody�s favourite; that has never been his cup of tea. Several decades ago, he stood against feudalism in his own way, with language and perspective unspiced with Marxist-Leninist lingo. He was defiant against junta socialism and its do nothing policies against poverty in the 1970s and 1980s. The �migr� community came to its senses and embraced him in the 1990s when he opposed gallantly elitist ethnicism and championed the cause of human rights against the present regime."

What enabled me to take that position is not entirely my sense of certainty about the propriety of the views or positions of the professor at the time, but a reasonably good understanding of his persona. Such is my understanding, among others, that if Prof. Mesfin becomes a government leader, he would shock his cabinet by behaving as the opposition. I thought, perhaps the best position for him would have been the one usually flatterers and careerists occupy and give leaders the counsel they like to hear, instead of both sides of the issue, which inevitably invites censure and temporary squeeze to them, but not to him.

Of course, I recognize that life is the premier author of imperfections. It offers often also not only opportunities but also countless mishaps. The truism is that personal strengths attend us, as human beings, when the attainment of objectives is based on grounds of principles and pragmatism, aware that opportunities are rare, glories even more limited and the public stage cynically addictive. Longevity deprives the actor a sense of how and when to recognize the right time to leave. Were we taught persistence is a virtue? However, life and experience show otherwise. At an advanced age, personal failings and frailties get easily exaggerated imperviousness becoming the manifest symptoms. That is also among the reasons why second term politicians are rarely popular in democracies, let alone those on a permanent hold.

Lately the actions of the man I respect have reminded me of the words of the famous economist Paul Samuelson. He emphasized that, in a changing world, the risks are too many, especially as �customs may be so unyielding that societies become extinct defending their traditions.� Ethiopian pride comes to mind, cherished as it is. However, I mean no disrespect in saying I turned into the Doubting Thomas the day Prof. Mesfin pushed further into political activism as his latest vocation. For all I understand, his well-recognized trademark has been opposing whatever everyone supports, the type of which he has unwisely demonstrated now. It seems his frailty�not in the least in the physical sense�has become more evident now than anytime before.

While this is not meant an endorsement of UDJ, it is good that their leaders are getting together to find solution to the problems confronting them. Perhaps they realize that they cannot afford to disappoint the people once again. That is why they need to come up with sensible actions to advance the goal of democracy for Ethiopia, human security and freedoms.

In the meantime, diaspora judgement or attacks against individuals should be tempered until the course of action the UDJ takes is known. Meantime and beyond, the best motto is �reason before passion�, the famous phrase employed by the iconic Pierre Trudeau, the fifteenth prime minister of Canada, as he inspired that country to aim higher, while he put together participatory democracy into practice with the Charter of Rights in place and preserved Canada�s unity.

In recent weeks, there have been too many unhelpful accusations and criticisms against individuals for the actions they took. Many of the comments only reflected the pains of old wounds, instead of considered reflections about our country�s political reality of the moment.

What is not recognized is that our country�s current situation has become trickier now than everyone would like to admit. The ruling party is using even the diaspora itself to fan systematically defamation one by one against the very leaders of the junior parties in the alliance, despite the smiles and stately feasting of the signatories in the national palace.

The mission at hand for the ruling party members is to work as hard and to the extent possible to limit to the minimum the number of seats of especially AEDUP and then EDP could win in the election. At the moment, Medrek is not their issue. Far and behind, it has to overcome first the hurdle of its legal status. Only then, it has to see how it could get out of the imbroglio it has created for itself by refusing to make its mark on the code of conduct, which parliament approved this week. The choices for Medrek are becoming narrower with every passing day.

The regime realizes that the combined majority in parliament of opposition parties poses serious danger to its long-term designs, even if it becomes the overall winner of the election. It cannot stand even the distant smell of parliamentary democracy.

Therefore, it is time for every citizen to look for Diogenes' Lantern to see the way clearly and understand the whole situation better, instead of shredding one another. There is every need to be careful when and where to spit. We have entered the season of gusty winds that usually blow in every direction.

Genet Mersha

December 1, 2009