Off Political Taboos and Woos
by Teklu Abate
The regime in Ethiopia and the opposition in the Diaspora and at home appear to live in totally different ‘worlds’. Each is a typical alien to the other. The governing party sees the opposition as powerless, incompetent, disorganized, delusional, visionless, and remnants of the past regime. The opposition, on the other hand, tend to characterize the reign of the current regime as a complete failure. Metaphorically speaking, the gap between the opposition and the regime is, with no exaggeration, as deep and long as the Great East African rift valley which dissects Ethiopia into two. This political rift must be one of the major obstacles that stands on our way to genuine or adequate democracy.
The regime in Ethiopia and the opposition in the Diaspora and at home appear to live in totally different ‘worlds’. Each is a typical alien to the other. The governing party sees the opposition as powerless, incompetent, disorganized, delusional, visionless, and remnants of the past regime. The opposition, on the other hand, tend to characterize the reign of the current regime as a complete failure. Metaphorically speaking, the gap between the opposition and the regime is, with no exaggeration, as deep and long as the Great East African rift valley which dissects Ethiopia into two. This political rift must be one of the major obstacles that stands on our way to genuine or adequate democracy.
In his papers entitled “Breaking Political Barriers and Political Taboos” and “Better to Light a Candle than Curse the Darkness» (both published in different times at EthioMedia), Professor Tecola Hagos (henceforth Tecola, just for simplicity) makes
a passionate call to all interested to enter into some sort of
discourse on several seminal issues related to Ethiopian politics. The
themes raised are comprehensive, significant, and timely. The overall
message of the papers that the opposition/Diaspora and the regime in
power should enter into discourse seems theoretically intelligible and
appealing to everybody concerned about politics in Ethiopia.
