Ethiopian Review Editorial

Many of the top Leaders of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy Party (Kinijit) are now out of jail and back to leading their party. Some senior members including Ato Kifle Tigneh are still in jail. It is a relief that the leaders are out of jail alive.

Back in the saddle, Kinijit leaders face monumental challenges. When they came out after 21 months in jail they found that many of the party’s young activists in the country are either dead, in jail, exiled or have joined rebel forces. Those who took over the leadership left the party in tatters. Some of those who assumed the leadership role not only grossly mismanaged and failed to lead the party, but had also embezzled and wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars from Kinijit’s account. Woyanne continues to play its dirty game to make sure that Kinijit is weak or dead. At the same time, some of those who stole and squandered Kinijit’s resources are now actively working to divide the top leadership by trying to turn the chairman against the other members. Their aim is to cover up their crimes, since a weak and divided Kinijit will not be able to make inquiries into their corruption.

It will require careful planning, skill, and a great deal of effort to revive Kinijit and make it a viable party. To achieve that, the top leaders who make up the 20-member executive committee must stay united. The Kinijit support groups around the world who labored hard for the past two years to keep the struggle going must stay firm in promoting democratic culture in the party against any tendency to promote particular individuals over the collective leadership.

Ethiopian Review, after consulting with several Kinijit supporters and well-wishers, recommends the following steps:

1) Reconvene the 60-member Kinijit Central Council without any delay and restructure the 20-member executive committee. Replace the absent members in both bodies.

2) Include in the executive committee and central council some of the Kinijit International Leadership (K.I.L.) members who have proven themselves to be honest, hard working and abiding by Kinijit’s democratic principles. This will help ensure the continuity of the leadership in case of another crack down by the Woyanne dictatorship.

3) Establish an inquiry commission to investigate the reported mismanagement, corruption and waste by the former chairman of the K.I.L. and his group of friends.

4) Promote democratic culture in the Kinijit Diaspora organization, including Kinijit North America, Europe and Africa. Do not appoint leaders for them any more. Allow them to elect their own leaders as the Kinijit North America did last November. This will help prevent mismanagement, corruption, nepotism and factionalism.

5) Appoint a permanent representative to represent Kinijit in the Alliance for Freedom and Democracy (AFD). Since this is a critical responsibility, the person who would be representing Kinijit in the AFD should be a highly skilled politician.

6) Through the AFD, help create a shadow government that will give the people of Ethiopia an alternative to rally around. This will also help hasten the ultimate down fall of the Woyanne dictatorship and ensure that there will not be chaos in the post-Woyanne era. Woyanne will attempt to ignite religious and ethnic conflicts — as it has been doing so far — in order to stay in power. AFD will play a critical role in preventing that.

7) Do not enter the rubber-stamp parliament. Instead, demand a new election in which AFD will participate as a ‘freedom bloc’.

8 ) Bilateral talks with Woyanne must be avoided. All negotiations must be handled through the AFD.

9) To force the Woyanne dictatorship to accept a new election, utilize all methods of struggle — including general strikes and civil disobedience.

10) In light of the concerted effort by anti-Kinijit forces to divide the party’s leadership, all major decisions of the top leadership must be agreed upon by at least the top three leaders — the chair, the vice chair and the secretary general — and when possible, by the majority of the 20-member executive committee.

11) The Kinijit executive committee needs to send a clear message to the so-called “Kinijit International Council” that it should NOT have been created in the first place, and must dissolve itself right away. This message must be sent out before the Kinijit high-level delegation comes to North America.

12) When the Kinijit high-level delegation comes to North America, its tour must be organized by the Washington DC chapter of Kinijit in collaboration with the North America committee. For the past two years, after reorganizing itself and democratically electing its officials, it had successfully rallied Ethiopians in the Washington DC Metro area, while the likes of Shaleqa Yoseph Yazew, the former chairman of K.I.L. and the North America committee, had used Kinijit as their personal cash cow, at the same time doing NOTHING to lead the organization.

Finally a message to Dr Taye Woldesemayat: For most of your admirers you have turned out to be perhaps the greatest source of disappointment and frustration since Lidetu in the anti-Woyanne struggle. First, you were engaged in an unfair criticism of the jailed leaders, going as far as proudly proclaiming at a public meeting that you did not vote for Kinijit in the 2005 elections. What made your criticism unfair was that the jailed leaders were not in a position to defend themselves. Then you came out strongly against the AFD, which is created with the help and strong participation of Kinijit. And now you have abandoned the Ethiopian Teachers Association and jumped in the middle of the Kinijit Diaspora intraparty struggle on the side of the rogue and corrupt elements. In doing so, overnight you have transformed yourself from a respected union/civic leader into an opportunist politician — or as we said previously “tiliku dabo lit hone.” Knowingly or unknowingly, what you are doing now is hurting Kinijit, and more so your own credibility.