Beekaa Namoo
Two-person Convention Organizers recently authored and distributed a bulletin that calls for “Convening An Oromo Leadership Convention”. We later found that the whole idea was baked, fried and sautéed, and cooked by two individuals, one, the managing director of OMN, Jawar Mahammed and second, Esekiel Gabissa , professor at Kettering University. Not a single Oromo political organization was consulted for this grandiose, pompous, and ambitious rendezvous.
According to the organizing committee composed of two Trojan horses, the Convention will be a gathering to have as broad a representation as possible. Delegates will receive the documents ahead of the gathering. At the Convention, they will consider the documents, debate, provide recommendations, amend and take decisions. All delegates will have enough time to deliver remarks to contribute to shaping the yaa’ii’s final deliberations and resolutions.
In other words, two individuals, one, whose job description is to run an Oromia media, and another, a professor of one small private university took the responsibility upon themselves for calling a convention, selecting who should participate, drafting a document (charter), running the convention, deciding on the final document that determines the destiny of future Oromia. As far as we know, these two individuals do not belong to any publicly known Oromo political organizations. Some, including the OLF, that have been around for close to half a century were ignored. Rumor has it that none of the Oromo political organizations were officially consulted or conferred with even for a little courtesy. Nevertheless, the public was told that they were welcome to participate if they so wish!
What is really going on here? Have the Oromo become a bunch of herds of sheep that two cunning sheepherders tend, herd, feed, and guard herds of sheep. Do these two individuals really think they are so clever and the Oromo multitude so idiotic, stupid, foolish, absurd, ridiculously reckless bunch of flock of herds of sheep and will convene and debate and deliver to shaping the two sheepherders’ yaa’ii’ final deliberations and resolutions?
If that happens, and heaven knows it might, considering the numbers of herd of sheep of following that are around, that day will forever be remembered as the day the Oromia Charter drafted by two wolves in sheep’s clothing was adopted and signed. The ratification process for the charter will start and end the same day at the convention or a little later and Oromia will transition from a regional state now ruled by TPLF/OPDO to the rule of the new sovereign Robin Hood, and his new lieutenant. The multitude of sheep will bow in recognition of the arrival of the new supreme power, whereby the lady sheep will ululate in high pitch and sing a song of praise to the new prince of thieves.
This reminds me of the image of young calf running, jumping up and down unhindered after feeding on mommy milk and filling its tummy and thinking He is the Greatest. What a fool, what a farce, what an embarrassment to Oromo! How disgusting and delusional are some people? Is this a case of malignant narcissism, a psychological syndrome comprising an extreme mix of narcissism, antisocial personality disorder, aggression, and sadism which Herbert Rosenfeld described as “a disturbing form of narcissistic personality where grandiosity is built around aggression and the destructive aspects of the self becomes idealized”. Or a case of infantile young man disillusioned by the attention paid for by star-struck young women sheltered, lonely in closed rooms watching the talking head on OMN and UTube? I don’t really know the answer, but I can say this with certainty—that this kind of behavior should not be tolerated by Oromo political organizations, political elites, particularly Oromo nationalist activists, if we all want free Oromia.
Oromos can’t expect to develop any sort of credibility from our friends or foe if we allow such bizarre behavior to go on unpunished. The world is watching us, our enemies are telling the world that Oromos are not ready to govern themselves. That some within us do not even follow the elementary general principles, procedures, and responsibilities and the elementary procedure on who has the mandate to call a convention of this magnitude is not so good a telltale story. The credible political groups that will initiate the call; all the representatives of the nations’ stakeholders that must be included; political thinkers, and experts, that must be invited, and under what conditions?
Even more troubling is the fact that few (about 11) literate individuals wrote an appeal letter to the two self obsessed disgruntled individuals asking for consideration to bla-bla-bla, as if the two con artists are entitled to call to draft real Charter for Oromia. Just because, a herd of thousand recruited and trained dummies jump up and down with every word spoken these con artists does not mean that we have to join the herd of dummies for the world is not led and managed by herd of dummies. This convention should be scrapped or a full scale battle should be waged on the perpetrators of such scandalous activities. This action by two individuals is aimed at sabotaging and short-cutting the ongoing Oromo struggle for freedom. The entire background of the initiatives behind the call to convention should be thoroughly investigated, and the financiers of the convention should be identified. All concerned and ignored Oromo political organizations should issue statement regarding this convention.
Oromo convention is necessary, and even timely. It must be an all inclusive, all Oromo political groups of the different ideologies must be invited and be fairly represented. Representatives of all political groups must be included as organizers of such convention and Oromo intellectuals with specific skills relevant to such conventions should be carefully recruited and included in the organizing committee. Draft document should be prepared in consultation with all stakeholders. We can produce such document and unite our divided political groups under one umbrella.
Hopefully, civility, moral and ethical standards, and Oromo safuu will guide us in the future when we engage in the larger Oromo issues of serious magnitude. The good news is that, we are just working on how to create a nation that is free, democratic and civil, and to get to that stage, we do not have to reinvent the wheels, for many before us have already done that with many trials and errors, and we do not even have to repeat their past errors if we handle issues wisely.
