The police are almost always an important source of power in society. They maintain law and order, they carry out the government’s laws, and they insure that the system remains stable. Within the police one can identify all of the different sources of power… [read more]
5 thoughts on “Disintegrating Tyrant’s Key Pillar of Support – THE POLICE”
The world we live in is a world of strong and weak people, a world of rich and poor people, and a world of healthy and sick people, and I am one of the weakest who badly need the protection of a police force every day if not every hour. I feel much secured whenever I see the presence of a police officer where I am – at my apartment, at the bank, at the shopping mall, at school, at the library, at Church, in my car, in a bus or on a plane or in a train or ship. The person appointed to rule the weak and the strong is also weaker than me: he cannot govern or rule the country without the help of the police force – a secret police force in addition to the normal police force.
Whether I am a Jew, a Christian, a Muslim, a Hindu or an atheist, I must abide by the rule of the land and respect the police by any means. If the police, flushing his/her green light follows me in his police car and tells me to stop because he thinks I have not stopped at the traffic red light, I must stop immediately and show him my driver license. When he gives me a ticket and asks me to appear in court with the ticket he gave me, I will show up in court at the appointed time, admit my traffic violation and pay the fine.
I think this is the right procedure between a normal police officer and a normal law-abiding citizen in many democratic countries.
As a Christian, I must follow the word of God that says: “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and, those who do so will bring judgment on themselves….Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience” (Romans 13:1-5; 1st Peter 2:13-17).
In the old days when the Lord God punished his people, the Israelites, he sent them to the Gentile world – to Babylon – because he was angry at them. When they were in Babylon, the Prophet Jeremiah advised them to submit to Nebuchadnezzar and to the Babylonian rule (Deuteronomy 28:64-68; Nehemiah 9:26-37; Daniel 9:4-19). It was during this time the Israelites sang their famous song, and this song is still one of the precious songs in the Ethiopia Orthodox Tewahido Church, and especially when Aleka Gebre-Kidan of Eyesus Church at Debre Tabor, Gondar, sings it; hundreds of people come to this Church to hear Aleka Gebre-Kidan sing that song. The song is: “By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, ‘sing us one of the songs of Zion! How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill. May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy” (Psalm 137:1-6). The Israelites were also subjected to the harsh rules of the Egyptians for about 400 years under the Egyptian rule (Genesis 15:12-16; Exodus 12:40-41).
To tell the truth, I don’t care about the authorities at the highest level, authorities such as the President, or the prime minister; they don’t deal with me. I don’t know them, and they don’t know me. There is a big vacuum between them and me; the only authorities that care on my daily safety are the police; therefore, I have to please the police by following their instructions.
However, a poorly paid police officer, some times, needs some extra money from me who is struggling to put a piece of bread on the table for my family. He may not serve me unless I give him some tips. This is not entirely his fault, but it is the fault of the President or the Prime Minister of the country for not paying the police a reasonable salary. Especially if I am living in a country, like Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, and other undemocratic country, unbearable woe betides me.
The police man will no more be my trusted friend, my protector from various crimes, and my advisor and my counselor. Whenever I see him, I will run away from him because he is now the secret agent of the government, not the true servant of me. He is on the street not to protect me but to pick me up and send me to jail for criticizing my government.
He has different names now: he is detective; he is a secret agent; he is undercover agent; he is a surveillance officer, he is a counter-terrorism agent, and he is a member of the intelligentsia.
During World War II, the secret Police of Nazi under the name of Gestapo destroyed many innocent Jews and other civilians, and in 1976, the secret police destroyed thousands of Argentineans during the “Dirty War.” And the same is true with the Haitian government. In Haiti, under the name “Lavaras,” the secrete police of Haiti’s President, Jean Claude Duvailer (1971-1986) terrorized and slaughtered thousands of Haitians.
The KGB, the FSB, The CIA – all these agents are secret police that have harmed many innocent people in the world by performing covert activities unknown to the ordinary citizens of each country.
For example, Mengistu Haile Mariam with his Stasi agents from East Germany, his secret police spread all over Ethiopia; in fact, the Derg was Mengistu’s secret police. Mengistu Haile Mariam had appointed a secret police, a party member by the name Nikita Khrushchev to help to supervise the killings of many Ethiopians. His secret police had also a shocking name: “The Red Terror!” Before Mengistu Haile Mariam, Emperor Haile Selassie used to have a secret police by the name Nech-Lebash or Fetino-Derash, but one cannot compare Haile Selassie’s secret police with Mengistu’s ruthless secret police.
Even today, the Prime Minster of Ethiopia has his secret police as cruel as the Adolf Hitler’s secret police – the Gustapo. Meles’ secret police, as most of us know, are called “The Death Squad,” or “The Agazi Army.” In reality, as the Derg was the secret police of Mengistu Haile Mariam, the Tegaru army, the Church led by Abba Paulos, Jezebel (Azeb), and Al Amoudi are the secret police of Meles Seitanawi (Zenawi). The same is true with Al Bashir of Sudan whose secret police have been the Janjaweed.
Tainted with such frightening names, the police, especially those who work under dictatorial governments, have lost their good names – the protectors of the people. They are rather the protectors of a few wealthy individuals and powerful leaders. If this is the case, the young as well as the old will always try to avoid them and run away from them until the runners are caught by the police and send away to jail.
Hey pals! You don’t seem to understand the situation in Ethiopia. The police and the so called Agazie or the federal police are hired entirely from one ethnic group. Currently, there is no national army or police in Ethiopia. Even in the army and the air force 98% of the top ranking officers are predominantly from one ethnic group. If there is a revolt or peaceful demonstration, the police together with the army will unleash an attack against the people just like what they did six years ago. They will not blink their eyes to commit massacre.
Whenever minorities hold power, it is very very hard to thwart power from their hands. We have seen what happened when the minority clan took power in Somalia during Ex President Ziad Barrie. We have seen what is happening in Rwanda after the minority ethnic party lead by the Tusies held power. The condition in Bahrain, Syria, Yemen, former Iraq, and former South Africa are similar to the current Ethiopian situation. So, what is the solution?
Danny,you just spell your personl fear and doubt in the two paragraph you wrote,without assesing the strength and incetive of Ethiopian masses.Our for fathers confronted one of the ruthless Europian enmy tha was armed to the teeth.In1935,the enemy unleashed ,internationlly prohibited lethal amunition,mustard gas over our people.The Ethiopian resistance sustain heavey casualities as they move on the foot slops to ambush armerd tanks.As the time goes they change they realized confrontation with well armed Europian army may nott be the best warfare.So they change their warfare style-they pretended they melt away to the jungle,but only to surface unaweres to ambush the enemy.Thy fight the national resistance war for five years in the end their persistence paid off.What can we do “when there is a will there is a way”.
The first thing to have a unified resistance Oropmos,Amharas and the rest of Ethiopians have to be united.Second,what is the ratio of weyane army to that of Ethiopian citizens,you do the maths.We can fight weyane succesfully through a coordinated urban and rural guerrilla warfare.However,we must conunt the coast;every Ethiopian has to pay willingly the sacrifice.Take heart my friend,know this weyane has no exit strategy.At first it may appear its army might stick to the end.When it is pressed from allsides there will definitely be a crack within it.It is a must,because in the end each individual will be forced to make decission on person by person bases.
It is really disgusting when you see the president of Ethiopia Meles Zenawi starving his own people with hunger while his brother just bought a nursing company in New York City, USA. If you go to WWW NURSINGHOMES dot CO, not dot com (NURSINGHOMES dot CO) you will see the his brother’s nursing homes business. It is really sad.
I’m sorry to read and hear the so called Ethiopian Diaspora trying to prove they love Ethiopia than any body else. They were denouncing the Feudal regime of H Sillasie then followed by Durg, and now they call the present government Woyane.
Lets us ask ourselves first: How many people leave their so called “beloved country” due to political operations of the government of the time?
We all know that the true political immigrant number is not even more than 100 per year. As we all know almost all tens of thousands of so called immigrants are flooding to better life in surrounding Arab countries and around the world. Most of these people are graduate of universities. They studied in schools and up to universities free of charge with TAX payers money. The tax paid by 95% bare feet or people that can’t afford a pair of shoes.
I watched a documentary on BBC about graduates from medical school in Ethiopia most of them run to USA the moment they finish their education. The authorities tried to stop these run away graduates by delaying giving degrees at least until they finish 2 years service or placement in Ethiopia, for poor tax payers who paid for their free education in the first place. The funny thing about this is that, the same run away fortune hunters are trying to preach us about luck of democracy, human right or wrong, blah, blah, blah in Ethiopia. What do you expect when educated people run away to hunt for fortune in other countries?
Radio stations like VOA & others have to pour benzine on fire in order to prolong their journalistic careers in USA & where ever they are. The most astonishing thing I read about Ethiopian Diaspora was that to see them protesting the building of dams on the basis of environmental issues. The rest of the world was using the natural resources in the world for so long while Ethiopians are the world laughing stock famine stricken and a play ground and job creation for international charities. International charities don’t want to help or show people in third world how to eradicate poverty. What they are doing is to prolong their undisrupted employment and income to themselves. The western governments if they want they can change Ethiopia in to heaven in less than 10 years but they enjoy to show to their electorate that look we in the west are so fortunate and people in black Africa is dropping like leaf and begging for food on yearly bases even they can not build dams and irrigate their land. They depend on rain from sky like pre-historic humans.
Hello Diaspora! Wake up and smell the coffee. Feudal countries in S E Asia were promoted from Feudalism to present state within less than 40 years. If you really love your destitute country & its people called Ethiopian; then stop moaning instead return home or invest in your country Ethiopian.
Gabitto Diaspora!