June 13, 2015 | By Geresu Tufa | Source:- Face book post
It is becoming norm to see one individual/group of Oromos blackmailing the ''other'' specially in the diasporas to meet various shortsighted ends. Most of these personality are often ashamed of their true self and often hide under certain pen name on social media. I don't know if this kind of cynical and vicious personality who is not even courageous enough to write with their real name worth any attention and response from any self respecting soul. But, I felt that someone have to speak against the ugly truths in our community. Therefore, I will try to cover the underlying assumptions and misconceptions so that some of us may rethink where the victimhood mindset and internal prejudices among various Oromo groups built over the last two decades are leading us.
Recently, I have been following character assassination targeting Desu Tefera and many other Oromo philanthropists. I remember the same person(Oromo Press) was labeling several of our friends as treasonous on the same media(Oromo Press) two years ago. His personal communication was once leaked to public in which he was indiscriminately bashing Oromos from particular region. Such kind of accusation by association, conflation or invoking preexisting prejudice within some circle against ''other'' without making appropriate verification about the facts or trying to understand the context within which the allegation happened has been around over the last two decades. There were even cases when lives were claimed because of such kind unfounded allegation. The fact that someone happened to be on photo with someone does not necessarily show that one is the agent of the other. Unless we assumed TPLF is a stupid organization, the work of espionage and intelligence cannot be done by putting the "spy" infront of TV screen or by letting him sit on the same row with public figure of the regime.
Of course for some of us who had been victim of the same mentality of false allegation, understanding this kind of mentality is not difficult. There are different factors that contribute to this kind of hasty generalization in our political culture.
The first problem is that, among some of our political circle, there is subliminal/unconscious mindset that assume Oromos as gullible or credulous group who can easily and automatically be deceived and used against his/her own people the moment he/she shaked hand with enemy and/or alien even when the later is less smarter than our own. According to this hidden assumption Oromos can only be trusted when they are in total disconnection with “others”. This invisible thinking is very dangerous which we need to fight.
The second mindset at the core of some of our political culture which never get sufficient attention because of political correctness is the assumption that Oromos from some particular origin/region are less trustworthy or vulnerable to deception than the others. Since this one is also already embedded stereotype in some of our circles, it is very easy to black label someone and does not require much effort to prove it. Simply invoking undercurrent of the existing prejudice in those circles amount to evidence. Accordingly , some Oromos need to work extra job to be equally trusted with others. I am sure, speaking in public this kind of tendency might discomfort some of our compatriot. However, we have to admit this kind of inconvenient truth and deal with it if we really want to have vibrant community, visionary and inclusive political groups.
The last but not the least is that, there are political circle who habituated harboring sinister individuals as tactic often to use them for character assassination against some individuals or groups for various reasons. Consequently those kind of alarmist can easily cast doubt and cynicism among our communities without presenting a shred of evidence whatsoever. There are also the so called organizations who are known to harbor such kind of sinisters in order to wage a war of character assassination on the other groups, individuals or organizations as well.
As result of this terrible political culture, several bright and independent minded sons and daughters of Oromo are/were either pushed aside or disengaged from every activity which in effect led to paralysis of our communities. Even though it is again and again proved that harboring such kind of people is a dangerous business that brought about the paralysis of some organization, it seems that these kind of sinisters still have caves from where they took refuge and can spread seed of suspicion.
What is equally worth noting is that there are also some people out there who listen and take it seriously without making their own verification. What should be known, in the mean time is that - I am not saying we should not guard our movement and activities from infiltrators. However alarmists who exaggerate things and label other groups or individuals without serious verification would equally damage our cause if not treated as early as possible.
One of the allegations that has been raised in that junk article was incriminating Amharic speaking Oromos. Hearing or reading allegations from the so called Oromo right defenders who put the blame on the victims( those who had no opportunity to learn their language because of the very oppression we are fighting against) is hypocritical at best and idiocy at worst. As much as an English speaking Oromo has the right to engage in Oromo political business , so does Amharic speaking Oromos. It should be noted that Amharic speaking Oromo are the largest group among non-Oromo speaking Oromos. A politics which intend to marginalize this large community or exclude this significant resources from ongoing Oromo struggle is the highest kind of insanity. While we are speaking and struggling against any form of discrimination, tolerating these kind of tendency and trend, seriously undermine the moral foundation of our struggle. Every Oromo has inalienable right to go to any Oromo stage and express in any language he/she can speak without any feeling of guilt. We need proper and rigorous internal debate to overcome this kind of crippling spirit and victimhood mindset.
Galatooma!
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