Cud: bad news to minorities

The CUD has been irresponsibly inciting the youth in Addis Ababa to get rid of the government, which they normally call the “Woyanes” to mean the government of the Tigriyans. I wonder how a party that is ambitious to govern a country be so racist and divisive and openly preach hatred against a whole ethnic community? The CUD leaders have been saying to their followers How come a minority tribe rule a majority?" Instead of capitalising on good governance and talk of freedom and equality among big and small nationalities alike they have chosen the most dangerous means to gain power. This shows that they do not have meaningful agenda and policies to win an election. It should be obvious that any party that is ambitious to win an election should be more democratic than the current government and accord more freedom and rights to all peoples of the country irrespective of ethnicity and belief. Instead the CUDs propaganda has been on unreachable promises including the re-annexation of Eritrea, re-demarcation of the countries' national and regional boundaries, denial of the economic and political gains made since the downfall of the military junta etc. The CUD has this clearly demonstrated that it is a bad news to the peoples of smaller nationalities and religious minorities.

The CUD and its supporters utterly dismiss any political and economic gains made under the current government. The CUD and its members would never like to acknowledge any progress made with regards to poverty reduction, reconstruction and rebuilding, expansion of higher and lower education as well as medical services etc. The reality is that less and less people have become aid dependent and the number of starving to death is not comparable to the hundreds of thousands that died under previous regimes. To the surprise of the honest people Ethiopia the CUD regrets success achieved under the current government. A visiting friend told me that he commented to a friend of him (naturally a CUD member) that the ring road and the new Hi- tec airport terminal in Addis are good signs of economic recovery for the country. The reply he got was that" yes, but these were built by the “Woyane government”. As if is those people were not Ethiopians, but some kind of colonialists. As if the “Woyabes” had not died in their thousands for the freedom of the whole nation and equality of the nationalities. As if they had not worked hard to reduce an imaginable levels of poverty and backwardness inherited from bad governments of the past. As if they did not die to maintain the sovereignty of the country as well as law and order of the country. As if they did not make Ethiopia strong and respected in the world both militarily and culturally.

The pre-election propaganda of the CUD was futile and moreover extremely dangerous. The pre-election rhetoric of the CUD was ominous and wished the elections to fail one way or another. The PM who observed the dangerous trend of the three-month old CUD rightly described its leaders and supporters as Interhamwes in reference to the genocide perpetrators in Rwanda. Despite negative campaign of the CUD, the elections went well beyond anyone's wild expectations. National and international observers informed the world that they did not witness any major irregularities and declared them to be fair.

However the CUD continue to cry foul and made baseless claims of irregularities that never happened at any of the polling stations in the country. When they won all the seats in Addis they assumed they have done the same elsewhere in the country and blamed their loss on the government. But the government accepted the loss in Addis with grace and re-affirmed they would respect the decision and will of the Addis people and a few towns outside the capital where the CUD and other opposition parties had won. It is clear that not many know the existence of the CUD party in the countryside. For the people of the towns and cities the party was non-existent three months prior to the elections. The CUD should be thankful to the rights of speech and today’s technology, they were known to the population in towns in a short period of time. If they were genuine how can they expect to win where they are hardly known? The government on the other hand enjoys a huge support in the countryside and gets full support of the minorities.

The CUD redoubled its foul cry and embarked on futile activities of inciting and agitating the youth. Its leaders ordered its supporters to stand against the rules of law and order. They declared on the media their readiness for a revolution/a coup d’etat to seize power through a revolt of disgruntled businessmen and taxi drivers in Addis and other major towns. On many occasions their leaders reiterated readiness to create an environment of lawless to grab power. In fact they had planned a plot similar to that of Georgia and the Ukraine. The government's firm stand on lawlessness and instability was necessary when it happened on 8th of June. The loss of life is highly regrettable but we should remind ourselves that the country would have had dire consequences if the situations were unchecked. Deducting from their propaganda speech before and after the elections these arrogant leaders and supporters of the CUD party would have turned real Interhamwes. By creating this incident, the CUD, which had also plotted to discredit the government in the event of failure to grab power through the planned violence considered this sad event a success. Now their supporters are engaged in a campaign of discrediting the government around the world. There is no western MP they have not written to stop aid that sustains the life of the poor in the country while Live Aid and NGOs all over the world are pressurizing rich nations to make poverty history in Ethiopia and the rest of Africa. The CUD and its supporters are urging powerful countries to put an embargo against their country. It does not seem to concern them whether fellow Ethiopians live in peace and aspire for a better life as long as they are not in power. That is shameful and does not go well with a party that aspires to form a government.

It is clear that unlike under the current government, minorities under a CUD government will return to dismal governance as during the days of the Derg and before it. It is clear that ethnic and religious minorities all over the country have supported and re-elected the current government that accorded their rights. They would never give up on these rights and neither should the government handover power to unknown and dangerous elements like the CUD. The sacrifice paid to reach this far is too much to throw away to narrow minded and selfish parties and individuals who care least about the country. Therefore the government must see that democracy prevails and the rights of all nationalities and individuals are fully exercised. To give away power at this stage would be unwise and the blood of those sacrificed to bring positive change for their people and country would be all but in vain.

It must be clear to the CUD and its members that no single nationality will ever assume supremacy over any other. The road of democracy, equality and respect is the only way forward for the country. Those who think otherwise and claim without shame that individuals from minority nationalities cannot become prime ministers or leaders of the church etc. should not have a place in the history of the country. They should know that what it all is to have a democratic party with a capable leader at its centre to support and push through the right policies for peacefully co-existence of the nationalities and prosperity of the peoples. For me and for millions of genuine Ethiopians Meles Zenawi and his party have are providing these policies. The PM has proved to be an intelligent leader the country has ever seen. Because of these right policies the country has been recovering and nationalities have co-existed more peacefully than ever before. His critics claim that he has divided Ethiopia along the lines of ethnicity although there has been no significant problem as a direct result of this policy. The PM believes the unity of the country depends on the recognition of equality amongst nationalities with respect to developing their language, culture and region and this idea is to be commended.