A Divided House May Invite often Unwanted Meddlers!
NES agrees with the saying that a divided house will not stand for long. The reason is because meddlers and spoilers often come in and make it harder for those who are breaking their house to mend and re-erect it.
Unfortunately time and time again, a house divided very often tempts misfortune and opens itself to self-inviting meddlers who do not care lives are shattered, families are disrupted and opportunities to do bigger things for people, country and nation are ruined. We see with CUDP now going through a difficult teething organisational problem where it can either re-emerge revitalised or not! CUDP will be revitalised if the CUDP leaders and members are able to create procedures and rules for handling inter-organisational and inter-personal differences by creating mechanisms to resolve conflict, increase trust and social capital. The key for organisational success is building strong basis for social capital and trust.
On the positive side, CUDP leaders continue to stress the problems are not difficult and they can be resolved. This is a hopeful sign they can handle the problem in the end. The real achievement is not in running into problems and challenges. Life is full of such traps. The real achievement is to know how to get out of the traps. All efforts to succeed in refusing to misperceive the problems and prescribe unwanted and disorganising solutions are most welcome. We encourage CUDP leaders to go beyond the current problems and see the overall strategy of creating a credible democratic opposition that can take on effectively EPDRF and its allies and any other parties and beat them with democracy.
At present it appears so many self-inviting forces try to increase the mistrust rather than engaging to decrease and help clear up the real and imagined problems confronting the CUDP delegates especially those travelling in the USA. There are of course many who also comment with sincere interest in promoting the democratic renaissance in our country. Very often the voice of sanity and reason are drowned with the noise and agitation of those who inflame rather than de-flame the misunderstandings between the various stakeholders in the current schism.
Unity Remains Paramount to accelerate the Broad National democratic Movement and Renaissance
NES calls on all those who enjoy fanning the flame of distrust and sow discord to refrain from doing so. We would like to encourage all those involved Enginerr Hailu, Dr. Berhanu and Dr. Taye Woldesamaiyat to learn to unite in order to strengthen a democratic opposition capable of effecting change and transition without exposing the people to the risk of violence and conflict. We would like to remind them that it was the unity of the various parties and coming as CUDP that got the democratic movement to traverse and overcome many hurdles.NES believes it was the remarkable ability of Engineer Hailu and Dr. Berhanu and others to unite and work together that helped brought the notable achievements of the broad democratic movement. NES believes that once again the unity of Engineer Hailu and Dr. Berhanu, and now Dr. Taye and others is critically important to make sure that increased and much more notable successive achievements in deepening and broadening of the democratic movement would be scored ever more and more!. Those who aspire to lead this broad national democratic movement must show great humility and must always go miles and miles to listen and tolerate debate different views. They must always be good at uniting and not insist if not my way, go to the highway. That was the kind of politics that creates dictators not democratic governance. It is from such arrogant politics that Ethiopia must come out for good… It is either with us or you are with the enemy will not work anymore provided the democratic movement grows and engulfs the whole nation…
My way or the highways or either with us or if not with us you are with the enemy is too crude and simple and does not allow legitimate debate, controversy and learning by fighting and conversation in a tolerant and friendly atmosphere. Any division over nonantagonistic contradictions and failure to contain problems and conflicts that Prof. Mesfin described as conflicts of style and form and not substance is to invite misfortune and derail the emergence of the most potent democratic energy displayed by millions of ordinary people across the vast depth of our beautiful country… continued on next page