I read with amazement Adal Isaw’s March 29, 2010 article on TPLF’s mouthpiece (Aiga Forum) where he compared the challenge America’s democracy is facing from opposition to the challenge the TPLF’s dictatorship is facing from the "extreme elements" of the Ethiopian “opposition”. The writer bluffed how the United States should learn from TPLF’s handling of opposition in Ethiopia. What an absurd comparison!
What the writer has missed is the fact that the United States is a country governed by the rule of law, where every citizen has a right for the free expression of ideas including expressing opposition to rules, regulations and policies in a peaceful manner (health care policy or any other policy for that matter). There is no way the US government will follow the advice of Adal Isaw to crack down opposition expressed by the Tea Party groups against the health care bill. There were no incidents of detentions, killings or intimidations during the Tea Party group moments launched from civilian or non-civilian security forces.
As we witnessed in the aftermath of the Tea Party events against the health care bill, there have been a number of arguments freely expressed and public debates going on in favor of and against the movement's opinion in a civil discourse in all kinds of free media.
Can the writer give me a single example of an opposition rally in the last five years where Ethiopian "opposition" groups were allowed to freely express their opinion in public demonstrations? Can he give me a single instance, in the last five years, where Ethiopian citizens were allowed to publicly demand for even their basic rights for food, water, shelter, protection, security, job, association, etc, leave alone an expression of opposition to public policy in Ethiopia?
Since the TPLF’s reign of terror in Ethiopia in the last 20 years, there were probably not more than 20 opposition public rallies in Ethiopia and in 99 percent of the cases there were mass detentions, killings or intimidations of citizens. Opposition groups and citizens have always been cornered, ridiculed and cracked down by the TPLF gangsters, with no room for genuine debate and accommodation, resulting in an extreme form of polarization and the kind of quagmire the country is in today.
In the United States, in thousands of places from small towns to big cities, thousands of public rallies are heard where citizens voice their concerns and oppositions daily, public officials are obliged to listen to these concerns and make changes in their polices and practices, other wise they are held accountable and face consequences by being voted out during the regualr free and fair elections held at all levels in the country.
TPLF’s Ethiopia is not such a place to be compared to the US. In Ethiopia, there is no rule of law, no accountability, no free and fair election, no freedom. I can’t understand why in the first place the writer chose to compare American democracy to that of Ethiopia. Ethiopia’s system is dictatorship and that of USA is democracy. They are incomparable! Any attempt to do so is just a futile intellectual exercise!! And my fellow Adal Isaw knows it deep inside his heart! But he will also be held accountable for his misinformation on D-day!!!
