Yonas Biru, PhD
Lidetu has been in Ethiopian politics for over three decades. Jawar’s political ንክኪ is a tad shorter. In total, he has a quarter of a century worth political stripes under his belt. However, for the first 10 years, he existed in the shadows. It was in 2010 his stars started to appear on the radar screen. Both are advocates of non-violent movements. It is time to ask why their non-violent doctrine has not succeeded?
We must first ask: What are the foundational organizing principles and operational mechanisms of non-violent movements? Let us consult Mahatma Ghandi, Dr. Martin Luther King, and Badshah Khan (nonviolent soldier of Islam), the three most iconic leader of the non-violent doctrine. All three were spiritual leaders. None of them had interest in taking the levers of political power.
The foundational bedrock of Gandhi’s nonviolent movement was truth. He saw truth as a guide to the end and nonviolence as the means to achieve the truth. Dr. King’s guiding principle was “the Christian doctrine of love” and the means to achieve his goal was Ghandhi’s “method of nonviolence.” Khan followed the path of “Islamic pacifism” and “non-violence.”
Jawar, who uses the Anole statue as a propaganda tool, has sacrificed truth, love and pacifism on the altars of Oromummaa. His Qeerroo movement was based on the Asafa Jalata genre of Oromummaa that weaponizes hate and uses violence as instruments of political warfare and exploitation. See my articles “Oromummaa is a Low-Grade Nazification Movement” and “the Oromummaa Politics is Weaponized with Lies and Soaked in Blood.” I understand that, of recent, Jawar has distanced himself from the Asafa Jalata Oromummaa camp. Many others have ditched Asafa Jalata.
The honesty and integrity of a non-violence apostle is not measured by his perfection, but by his willingness to own his sins followed by actions that show contrition, repentance and redemption. That is why Gandhi said “I seek to be redeemed from sin itself. Until I have attained that end, I shall be content to be restless.” Jawar has refused to acknowledge his past sins, much less to show willingness to repent and redeem himself.
The other important problem is his thirst for power. Up until 2018, Jawar was marketing himself as an activist with no interest in political office. In fact, that was the stroke of genius that allowed him to unite the Oromo liberation movement and become its leader. That changed in 2018 when he declared himself co-prime minster and in 2019 when he registered himself as a political candidate.
Recently Moges Teshome of Buffet of Ideas asked him if his political second-coming involves a desire to become the prime minister of Ethiopia. Rather than answering the question, he talked crap about a hypothetical scarf on a proverbial head. Non-violence is a moral movement, not a political movement in the traditional sense. Non-violence advocates are governed by their honesty and forthrightness. They do not spin. Nor do they obfuscate. Most importantly, they do not lie. Jawar, spins and obfuscates. Even worse, he lies on matters large and small.
Yesterday, I was discussing Jawar’s failure as a self-anointed and self-marketed non-violence advocate. A friend who is an admirer of Lidetu lit a eureka moment in my mind. He said Lidetu could have been the Gandhi or Martin Luther King of Ethiopia had he not pursued elective office. Lidetu does not lie, spin or obfuscate. He is always forthright in his positions. At no time has he advocated violence. His problem is he seeks office, my friend continued.
He is a political leader in the traditional sense rather than being a moral and spiritual leader, my friend stressed. In the most part, his detractors and critics target him because of his political positions. In the 2005, political crisis, right or wrong, he was part of the power conflict. This, my friend said, undermined him as a moral leader to be an apostle for a non-violent movement. I agree.
” Lidetu does not lie, spin or obfuscate. He is always forthright in his positions. At no time has he advocated violence. His problem is he seeks office, my friend continued.” is total nonsense. Lidetu is a well-known opportunist who is capable of dishonest and despicable actions. People like Dr. Yonas can still be deceived.
He is reported by his former colleagues in መአሕድ to have connived with the Security who reportedly paid him 1500 Birr per month to incriminate Prof. Asrat Woldeyes when he was President of መአሕድ፤ ; he sabotaged the unification effort of his party with መአአድ in preparation for the elections in 2005 in spite of the commendable effort of some leaders in the Diaspora who had promised to raise a large sum to support the election of the unified party, and he he announced to the media that the unification failed because መአአድ wanted to “swallow” his party – the fabricated announcement designed to convince the Diaspora to give the planned entire sum to him to build another tourist hotel.
He joined Kinijit because of pressure from Professor Mesfin W/Mariam who had had earlier helped him by convincing many senior AAU staff to join ኢዴፓ, including Dr. Admasu Gebeyehu who became the President of the party and the Vice-Presidents. All that was done to create the perception that ኢዴፓ was a party of the educated elite. However, everything was controlled by Secretary General Lidetu, including the failed unification project with መአአድ in spite of the unity commitment of Dr. Admasu and the Vice-Presidents.
In kinijit, he was always fighting to outdo Berhanu who also played games like attending the Executive Committee of Kinijit during the day and sharing whatever he had to share with Bereket Simon in the evening. Both Berhanu and Lidetu finally ended up in destroying Kinijit.
A week before election day in 2005, the Executive Committee sat down the evaluate its campaign performance: Ato Hailu Shawel predicted that Kinijit will get well over 300 parliamentary seats, which was realistic under normal conditions, but Lidetu noted that was wishful thinking since 130 is a more likely outcome which proved to be true after several election boxes were stolen or their contents replaced, and thousands barred forcefully from going to voting stations in rural areas.
Lidetu was no active campaigner in the countryside, remained in the cities to keep up with his contacts, knew what went on in voting stations in the countryside, and he must have had knowledge of advance plans by EPRDF. Indeed, with the dishonesty he has skillfully cultivated over the years, Lidetu can be far worse than Meles or Mengistu, and Ethiopians know it.