OLF-Mindset of Bilisummaa is Doing Good Job in the Ruling OPP of Dr. Abiy!

OLF-Mindset of Bilisummaa is Doing Good Job in the Ruling OPP of Dr. Abiy!

How good to see that the OLFites in the ruling party are doing good job and try to persuade the anti-Oromummaa hybrids in the party. Slowly but surely, Oromo nationalists moving in three directions (as rebel in OLA, as opposition in OFC and as regime in OPP) are coming together in order to liberate Oromia and Oromo from any sort of Abyssinian elites’ manipulation and repression. Amhara elites’ attempt to manipulate Dr. Abiy in their own favour seems to fail miserabily. Dr. Abiy tried to satisfy their endless interest just to earn their malicious campaign against him and his power. Now, it seems that Dr. Abiy and Amhara elites disappointed each other so that he is trying to come back completly to pro-Oromummaa camp instead of serving pro-Amharanet bloc. To finish the game, Dr. Abiy needs to promote Afaan Oromo to primary working language of the federation, replacing Amharigna. Then, all institutions (the palace, parlament, cabinet, courts, military, security, etc) will start to use Afaan Oromo primarily. It is encouraging to see Ethiopian commercial bank writing its infos firstly in Afaan Oromo, secondly in Amharigna and thirdly in english. This must be the right priority of all institutions and organizations. To do this job of promotion, the OLF mindset of bilisummaa is guiding all genuine Oromo nationalists in OFC, OLA/OLF and OPP. I am happy to see this mindset pulling these Oromo organizations towards unity of purpose. Finally, Oromo elites in OPP are liberating themselves from serving Amharanet at the cost of Oromummaa.

Interestingly, debates and discussions are still going on among Oromo communities about the necessity of unity based on Oromummaa (Oromo nationalism) for consolidating our freedom. As I have tried to show in my hitherto articles, a group of Oromo and Afaan Oromo speaking others are vehemently fighting against the move of Oromo forces towards cooperation. I have never thought that an Oromo with sound mind could be against such cooperation and unity. But, it is a reality going on in both cyber virtual world and community real world of the Oromo. In all debates, some people are trying to put the Oromo political organizations in a conflict situation against each other and even they try to paint as if this “conflict” among these organizations is irreconcilable.

As far as I am concerned, unfortunate to the real Oromo foes, the OLF is no more only structural organization, but a mindset leading almost all Oromo nationalists in a walk of life, for the name OLF is simply a carrier of Oromo’s longing and wish for freedom and democracy. That is why I dare to say that genuine Oromo patriots in the existing organizations are also carriers of this mindset, which is already programmed with the notion of freedom. I think even Oromo individuals, who are politically active in anti-Oromia unitarists (geo-federalists) are not totally free from this mindset. What do we mean by this OLF-mindset?

A mindset is a fixed mental attitude or disposition that predetermines a person’s responses to and interpretations of situations; in short, it is an inclination or a habit. It is a set of assumptions, methods or notations held by one or more people or groups of people – which are so established that they create a powerful incentive within these people or groups to continue to adopt or accept prior behaviours, choices, or tools. This phenomenon of cognitive action is also sometimes described as mental inertia, “groupthink”, or a “paradigm.” According to this definition, the OLF-mindset is a powerful incentive and a struggle for Oromo’s freedom, which could led us from the colonial situation using different strategies and tactics to our common goal – freedom. In short, OLF-mindset is freedom-mindset, which controls the conscious of genuine Oromo patriots in a walk of life. No Oromo patriot with logical and sound reasoning is free from this mindset.

Based on this “OLF-paradigm/groupthink,” we can say OPP as an organization (not necessarily Oromo patriots in it) is a bad organization for it is telling us that we are already liberated even though we are not yet fully emancipated; OFC is good for it wants to lead us to freedom in a form of Oromia’s autonomy in Ethiopian context; OLA is better for it wants to push further to secure Oromia’s independence; and of course, OLF is the best for envisioning the more lucrative and modern political union of free peoples in the region as a lasting solution in the globalized world. But it seems that it is now too early to speak about such union, we being not cooperated. Anyways, we need to support all sound-minded Oromo patriots promoting the consolidation of our freedom – those who are active in the political spectrum of the country, starting from even those Oromo patriots with OLF-mindset in the worse ADF (Abyssinian Domination Forces) — through supporting those in bad OPP — those in good OFC — in better OLA — to promoting those in the best OLF.

We have to repeat these explanations again and again to neutralize cadres of our foes who still pray day and night their mantra to “show” how different and incompatible these organizations are. They want us think in a “parallel framework” as if the goals of these organizations are contradictory and exclusive to each other. I have tried to explain how wrong this way of thinking is in one of my articles (http://gadaa.com/oduu/?p=2523). The cunning foxes are doing this intentionally, whereas some of the misguided Oromo follow their pattern of thinking without knowing the effect of this way of thinking on our struggle. Actually, according to the “series framework,” the goals of all mentioned Oromo organizations are complementary, not contradictory. Putting their goals one after another and trying to achieve them one after another is like a journey, which I have tried to depict in one of my earlier articles (http://gadaa.com/oduu/?p=688). According to this metaphor, we can keep our hitherto victories by supporting the OLF-mindset moving in the genuine Oromo patriots of bad OPP (symbolized as a life in Djibouti under oppression); then we all can move together to good OFC’s goal (a move to Diredhawa); from there further to better OLA’s goal (further move to Adama); and at last, to the best OLF’s goal (a move to Finfinne).

I thought these two metaphors (“parallel framework” of thinking vs. “series framework” of thinking, and the liberation journey from Djibouti to Finfinne) are such simple so that all Oromo patriots would have understood them and stopped quarreling on the “conflict” topics, such us “kaayyoo-ganama (original goal) of OLF” vs. “Ethiopian democratization of OPP & OFC.” I know our foes never want to understand this for it kills their intention, but I wonder why genuine Oromo should fall into this trap. Our foes are so cunning for they are precisely doing their job of destroying Oromo movement, while our friends following their pattern of thinking are the misguided ones for they have not comprehended the damage they are doing on the cause, which they actually want to promote. Obbo Abdii Boruu classified in one of his articles those who are now opposing unity of Oromummaa for freedom into four:

– the “cunning foes,” who exactly know what they do and who can see how their actions damage Oromo cause;

– the traumatized Oromo patriots, who do support Oromo cause, but act just based on bitterness, grudge, resentment or hatred they do have against certain Oromo individuals or against Oromo organizations, which they do oppose because of their hitherto negative experience, even though they know the damaging effect of their action on Oromo cause;

– the “misguided friends,” who don’t know the impact of their action on Oromo cause;

– some smart Oromo patriots, who do think that the current move of Oromo organizations to cooperation has caused a discord among members of each org and who just want to have another alternative way leading to a more effective and lasting unity of Oromummaa for freedom. They are those who are telling “tokkummaa tokkummaa diigu hin barbaadnu” (we do not want unity dismantling unity). The question to be raised here is, why should they oppose one unity in order to save another form of unity? Can’t those who don’t want a re-united OLF be part of OPP and try their version of unity without fighting against unity of the OLF?

We have become aware of the fact that Habesha cadres do use the approach of producing and propagating conflicts, divisions and schisms among Oromo patriots intentionally, for instance, by polarizing in the schisms like:

– pro Ethiopian democratization nationals Vs. pro Oromian decolonization patriots;
– Duad’s OLF Vs. Abiy’s OPP;
– Phenxee Oromo Vs. Waaqeffataa Oromo Vs. Muslim Oromo Vs. Orthodox Oromo;
– Wollaggaa Oromo Vs. Arsi Oromo Vs. Harar Oromo Vs. Shoa Oromo;
– failed OLF leaders Vs. poor followers;
– Oromo “progressive” new generation Vs. Oromo “reactionary” old generation, etc.

They also seem to try the following two “new schisms”: OLF Vs. OLA (pro-Dawud Vs. pro-Marro), or ABO Vs. WBO — advocating for WBO, which they say should be independent from ABO. We will see how long they will be successful in dividing Oromo using these “new schisms” and how far we fall into their trap.

I hope all Oromo patriots from all the above mentioned organizations will agree and act in tandem as I have described in the article (http://gadaa.com/oduu/?p=788) to struggle for both Oromian liberty taking into consideration the liberties and unities of the region at the following levels:

– attain and maintain our national liberty and unity with Finfinne (our heart) being the capital, center and core of all unities at the level of Oromia, Ethiopia, the Horn and Africa.

– together with Finfinne, attain and maintain our national liberty and unity in a form of freedom and integration at the level of Oromia (our body) unconditionally.

– after securing Oromia’s liberty and unity, we do have no problem with an Ethiopian union (inner clothing like T-shirt), which we can put on or take off based on our political will and our necessity.

– the Horn union based and build on independent and united Oromia will be just advantageous for Ethiopia in particular, and for the Horn region (middle clothing like a coat) in general.

– African federation with Finfinne as its capital or with Oromia as a center of African politics is simply a glory for Oromia (like an overcoat).

With these all levels of unity and liberty as different levels of OLF-mindset’s goal, Oromo patriots’ vision can be a modern innovation of Oromo liberation struggle to be implemented by all stakeholders. Here, we should make no compromise on Oromian liberty and unity, but we can be open for the liberty and unity at the other three bigger levels (Ethiopian union as a collection of free peoples with liberty, the Horn liberty and union as well as African liberty and union). We hope our colonizers (Abyssinian ruling class or both the descendants of the Amhara feudalste and the Tigrai hegemonists) also learn to accept and respect this vision as their own lasting and long term goal. Hopefully, the mass of both Amharia and Tigrai in due time will struggle for self-determination of their own nations in order to then forge the lasting advantageous union of free peoples in the Horn.

Having such a clear vision and mission for Oromia in particular, and for our union, be it with the name (clothing) Ethiopia or the Horn, in general, our OLF-mindset can lead the Oromo struggle smartly at four levels (at OPP level to keep our hitherto victory, at OFC level to achieve Oromia’s autonomy in Ethiopian context, at OLA level to attain and maintain Oromia’s independence, and at OLF level to foster union of free peoples in the region one after another). Still crying about the “mistake” done in 1992 and trying to demonize Oromo patriots, who are “responsible” for the “mistake” is not constructive, if not destructive. Our foes want that we do this blame game contineously. They want us not to respect the general rule of law, which says “every one is innocent till proven guilty.” They do criminalize our patriotic leaders without any proof. We should ignore such manipulation, but look and move forward by learning from the past, we should not paralyze the struggle by dwelling on the past.

The cadres of our foes try a lot of manipulations, besides trying to make us dwell on the past. They want to hinder any sort of financial support to the OLF; they try to hinder any sort of unity or alliance against their fascistic rule, such as Tegaru-Tegaru unity, Tegaru-Oromo alliance (alliance of all Ethiopian forces) and Oromo-Oromo unity like the current move to re-unify the OLF; they curse specially the leaders of the liberation movement; they want to hinder any possible public uprising against Biltsigina; they want the opposition to boycott elections rather than to make them face the possible uprising after rigging, etc. I think now is the right time for Oromo patriots to be ready for a possible upcoming of all-inclusive peaceful struggle against Biltsigina’s tyranny) and to intensify it being led by the OLF-mindset of freedom. If necessary, we can have also alliance with Amhara forces as far as they do accept and respect the existence and emancipation of Oromia, be it within or without a union. Specially, this alliance is the nightmare, which the Biltsigina foxes try to hinder by any means possible.

That is why I can see the logic of foes/foxes when they make an uninterrupted campaign against Tegaru unity, against alliance between Ethiopian forces, including Tegaru forces and Oromo fronts, as well as when they vehemently struggle against a possible unity of Oromo fronts. But simply put, I do see no logic and reason for the opposition from certain genuine Oromo patriots against unity of Oromummaa for freedom and democracy, including being against the re-unification of the OLF. Yet despite such opposition, be it from foes or friends, it is encouraging to see the overwhelming support for the unity from different Oromo communities. I just say good job to our activists like Jawar, may Waaqa bless them and I wish them success in their programs, which they have already planned in order to promote this unity of Oromo patriots. Similar to these Oromo activists, let’s all other Oromo learn to be led by the OLF-mindset, despite the efforts of our foes to divide us, if we want to keep our hitherto victory together with the genuine Oromo patriots in OPP, to move together with the patriots in OFC to the next step, to push further with the patriots in OLA and then to come to the lasting solution with patriots in the OLF.

Galatooma