ORTHOPROXY AND THE YIN YANG

KEY TERMS

Orthoproxy refers to “perfect practice”, and shows the essence of the belief of a group that is put to practice. Yin yang refers to a traditional Chinese concept that describes opposing but complementary forces, with the yin corresponding to the passive component that is symbolized by water, and the yang corresponding to the active component that is symbolized by fire.

INTRODUCTION

Ethiopia has been doomed to a status of a failed state since the ascent of the Woyane and its leader Mr. Meles Zenawe. Since the 15 May 2005 elections Kinijit has displayed for all to see that the politics in Ethiopia is a choice between Zenawe and Ethiopia. Zenawe aspires to become prime minister for life. Zenawe has an army and the Ethiopians do not. It appears that Zenawe may go through the motions of holding elections even in 2010 without the possibilities for him to willfully be voted out of office. Zenawe is demonstrating that democracy does not work, and the people’s votes do not count. Clearly, Ethiopians ought to liberate Ethiopia from Zenawe and his party the Woyane, the core of the EPRDF. Ethiopians ought to recognize that their liberation requires a protracted struggle. Opposition organizations ought to ready themselves for a long struggle. Longevity is better achieved when the leaders of the parties listen to their members and consider their main task as being negotiators as opposed to dictators. They ought to allow for ideas to flow from bottom up and across strata. They also ought to engage in investments instruments that would help meet some of their projects. The intelligentsia should form an alliance across parties and help sustain the strongest and viable objections to the Zenawe and his destructive Woyane. While foreign governments in the name of stability and the furtherance of their national interests might support Zenawe, Ethiopians have no one to blame but themselves for their own condition.

This report provides a brief exposition of terrorism as defined by a renowned negotiator who had dealt with terrorists with the view of showing that Meles is a terrorist. It also discusses the practices of Zenawe and of the opposition as a way of exploring how the opposition might configure itself for a more effective resistance.

ORTHOPROXY AND ORTHODOXY

The Woyane is killing Ethiopians, maiming them, and imprisoning them in the hundreds of thousands. The Woyane fought alongside the Eritrean Peoples Liberation Front and helped secure the liberation of Eritrea from Ethiopia and Ethiopian-ness. The Woyane has continued to amass wealth by pillaging the rest of Ethiopia for the purpose of liberating Tigrey from Ethiopia and Ethiopian-ness. Thus, the Orthoproxy , "the perfect practice" of the Woyane as an implementation of its Orthodoxy, ”perfect belief”, is unmistakable to any fair and objective observer of the conditions of Ethiopia in the 1990s up to the present. In contrast to the Woyane, the Tigrawe Ethiopians do not wish to liberate themselves from Ethiopia and Ethiopian-ness. As noble Ethiopians, because of our Orthodoxy ("perfect belief"), we would hate to engage in mannerisms of speech that consider the presence of different types of Tigrey much less distinguish between the types. However, recent actions have shown that, whether we like it or not, the Tigrey distinguish themselves into the Eritrean (the Tigrey of Hamasen, Akaleguzie, and Serai), the Woyane Tigrey, and the Tigrawe Ethiopian. The Eritrawe Tigrey has liberated himself from Ethiopia and Ethiopian-ness, and has called himself Eritrean. Likewise, the Woyane Tigrey wishes to liberate himself from Ethiopia and Ethiopian-ness (Getatchew Haile, 2006). Indeed, we will welcome the Eritrawe Tigrey when and if they decide to become Eritrawe Ethiopians. The same conditions pertain to the Woyane Tigrey. For too long, a confusion of the Orthoproxy of the Woyane from that of the Tigrawe Ethiopian on one hand, and a similarity of our Orthoproxy with that of the Tigrawe Ethiopian on the other hand, has not allowed us to distinguish the enemy of Ethiopia and Ethiopian-ness. And distinguishing the enemy is absolutely essential to wage an effective opposition to it. The main problem facing the opposition is its unwillingness and reluctance to accept the aims and goals of the Woyane, namely that it works to liberate itself from Ethiopia and Ethiopian-ness. The Woyane has strategically exploited this confusion. At the level and state of knowledge exhibited by some in the opposition, we should not fool ourselves into believing that the opposition groups have similar understanding of the enemy. Accordingly, there are supporters of opposition parties that are opposed to the Woyane but who are reluctant to accept that the Woyane seeks the liberation of Tigrey from Ethiopia and Ethiopian-ness. Such a mind set, resulting either from susceptibility to the Woyane stratagem or from deliberately established counter-strategy, may present opportunities for those in the non-violent movement to spend valuable time bickering on such issues among each other instead of focusing on the enemy. However, all must recognize that Zenawe, who appears to be a well-schooled terrorist, has exacerbated the conditions under which a non-violent opposition would operate.

A NON-VIOLENT MOVEMENT AND THE KINIJIT

A coalition of opposition political parties that are opposed to ethnic-centered governance and regionalism organized themselves into a non-violent coalition party that insists in the application of the rule of law and the principle of one-person-one-vote democracy, and called itself Kinjit (CUDP- Coalition for Unity and Democracy Party). The Kinijit is opposed to the ethnic-centered governance of the Woyane and its coalition (EPRDF), which has divided Ethiopians to weaken them. The Kinijit captured the imagination of Ethiopians, who elected the Kinijit to offices by an overwhelming majority on 15 May 2005. Mr. Zenawe, the leader of the Woyane, who is also the commander in chief of the armed forces of his regime, rejected the votes, imprisoned thousands of Kinijit party members and supporters, killed and maimed hundreds and placed the leaders of the Kinijit party in jail by accusing them of trumped up charges. In a dramatic display of disrespect of the votes of Ethiopians, though Zenawe had admitted that his party had lost the elections in Addis Ababa to Kinijit by a landslide, he did not permit the winning party to administer the city. Instead, he placed in jail the elected mayor and city councilors of Addis Ababa, encouraged elected members of Kinijit, who were not jailed, to separate themselves from the incarcerate leaders. After causing division among his opponents, he declared all opponent groupings unworthy of being administrators, and on 10 May 2006 appointed a so-called caretaker municipality authority, with his security forces serving as policemen of the city. Zenawe who, through murder and imprisonment of opponents had effectively demonstrated that opposition to him is not welcome, has artfully worked to divide the opposition by initially providing favors to a group among them only to proclaim later that all are worthless opposition entities. Zenawe’s effort at dividing a party is not limited to the Kinijit. Zenawe had effectively succeeded in causing the division of Hebert, and the subdivision of the ONC, a member of the Hebert. After the unfortunate division and subdivision of parties and or coalition of parties that is instigated and supported by Zenawe, he subsequently regards all those divided entities as not worthy of his attention. The result is that opposition groupings will be engaged in incrementing each other and bickering among each other as Zenawe works on yet other ways of weakening them and Ethiopia. With such recurrent circumstance the supporters of opposition parties ought to be configured in ways that will effectively counter the actions of Zenawe and reactions of leaders of the opposition parties. Often supporters of a party have difficulties in seeing outside the box and examining their position in space and at the ambient time. To circumvent this problem, we had created the establishment of the Ethiopian National Congress (ENC) as the house of supporters of all pan-Ethiopia opposition entities. Unfortunately we found out that the leadership was taken over by members and sympathizers of one of the opposition parties. Until the ENC leadership is rectified, and the organization becomes the house of supporters of all pan-Ethiopian opposition parties, we who respect the vote Ethiopians cast on 15 May 2005 require another modality. In short, the Kinijit party ought to be supported. However, while Kinijit might be the yin, it certainly does not satisfy the complementary yang necessary to liberate Ethiopia from the terror unleashed against Ethiopians by Zenawe.

TERRORISM AMD THE WOYANE TIGREY AS TERROIST

Below I quote work from pages 303-304 by Herbb Cohn’s 2003 book entitled,”Negotiate This”. To show where explanatory footnotes that indicate how that particular observation on terrorism made by Cohn applied to the Woyane Tigrey terrorists I have added the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 and entered themin brackets.

“Terrorism is a staged act of violence against innocent people designed to gain maximum media coverage in order to produce shock and dread in the viewing public. This widespread fear is intended to put pressure on the authorities to grant the wishes of these barbarians. [1]

In sum the public is supposed to blame themselves (”why do they hate us? – What have we been doing wrong? – What are the root causes of their anger and frustration?). Regrettably, for decades and even now, there are some who have been susceptible to this stratagem.

Terrorism, then, is asymmetrical warfare in the service of a cause: [2]The relatively powerless deliberately commit atrocities against civilian attempting to extort concessions from a much more powerful government. [3] Instead of using time, information, and power to affect behavior, they employ the maiming and mayhem of noncombatants to get what they want. [4]

Precisely, it's the willful choice of civilians as targets [to harm] for political purposes [that distinguishes terrorists from other combatants]. Thus, when I heard someone say on television that George Washington was a “terrorist freedom fighter” without being challenged, I was incensed and appalled. Indeed, Che Guevara and Fidel Castro, who are not among my favorites, never stooped to acts of terrorism.” [5]

The piece by Cohn is intended to describe terrorists that affected the USA. Remarkably what the Woyane Tigrey do in Ethiopia is identical to what Herbb Cohn describes as terrorism. Unfortunately, the USA government provides monetary aid, military training and diplomatic cover to the Woyane Tigrey who terrorize Ethiopia.

Footnotes:

1. The Woyane Tigrey perused terrorist acts against the authorities of Ethiopia and continue their terrorism after they became the ruling party.

2. The asymmetry existed until the Woyane ascended to power.

3. The Woayane Tigrey succeeded in arranging a meeting, initially under the auspices of President Carter, and later under the auspices of the USA government in the 1990 London conference to hold discussions with the Derg Government.

4. The Woyane Tigrey terrorists continue to employ the maiming and mayhem of noncombatants to get what they want.

5. It appears that Meles was trained and schooled in terrorism and how to win as a terrorist before he overtook the leadership of the Woyane Tigrey.

CONFIGURING THE SUPPORTERS OF THE OPPOSITION PARTIES INTO AN EFFECTIVE BODY THAT WOULD RESIST AND REMOVE THE TERRORISM BY ZENAWE

Kinijit and it vision and activities must continue to implement their efforts as a non-violent movement. Other opposition parties should be allowed to operate as they see fit. To the extent that Zenawe owns the military apparatus and did not surrender to the wishes of Ethiopians that were expressed in the votes of 2005, it is extremely important to wage an armed struggle with the view of establish centers to which the Ethiopian military will flock. However, Kinijit and its party members cannot condone an armed struggle. Yet, if Kinijit is a yin there is a definite need for a yang to complement its efforts. The supporters of the yin and the yang will help both parties that would liberate Ethiopia. This necessity of the yang is apparent particularly when Kinijit has not organized and implemented civic disobedience activities since Zenawe had dismantled its organizations and had incarcerated its leaders and thousands of its supporters. The yin and yang is not intended to describe conditions between Kinijit and other parties that also pursue a non-violent movement by using slightly different tactics. The yin and yang described here is between all parties that ascribe to a non-violent movement (the yin) and those that pursue armed struggle (the yang). The main issue to recognize is that, while card carrying party members of Kiniijt (the yin) do not support armed struggle as their means of struggle and card carrying party members of armed struggle efforts (the yang) forcible forms of struggle, supporters who are not card carrying members of either movement ought to be able support both the yin and the yang, and the party members of the yin and yang ought not to antagonize each other or their supporters. The yin (kinijit party) leaders established their credentials by their actions in Ethiopia. Their supporters requested them to be assertive in their demands for democratic rights, and the leaders were placed in jail because they enunciated the now famous eight-point principles. The yang leaders have yet to assert themselves on the ground in Ethiopia. However, the terrorism exerted by Zenawe has amply prepared the ground for the inevitable emergence of a strong yang leader.

Reference

Getatchew Haile http://www.kinijit.org/static/member_upload/GH_040306.pdf

To be continued

HG, 17 May 2006.