Few disillusioned Diasporas may keep on shouting while the country will keep on moving forward

By Yohannes Gebresellasie (Ph.d) Canada

There are few people in any society who are bestowed with hate, whimsicality and fickleness. That type of lunatic behavior was demonstrated by one Diaspora madcap during the Ethiopian PM’s visit to the USA the other day. It is not worthy mentioning what that individual barked in front of the Ethiopian PM because his preposterous and ludicrous words towards a very respected and admired leader of a great nation and great people can not and does not represent the views of a large majority innocent and peace loving Ethiopian Diasporas or the Ethiopian public at large. On the contrary, a great majority of the Ethiopian Diasporas and the Ethiopian public at large possess a great respect, admiration and love to the person who has spent his whole life serving his country and his people.  His services to his people, his country, the whole region, the continent of Africa and even the world at large is well acknowledged, admired and respected by renowned world leaders such as the leader this individual resides. Further, the Ethiopia PM is highly admired by world class intellectuals of high caliber, leaders from across the continent of Africa and most importantly by Ethiopians: the people he dedicated his whole life to their service.

Generally, Ethiopian Diasporas must advocate peace, love, friendship, health and prosperity. That is exactly what Ethiopia needs from them. Further, Ethiopian Diasporas must be a source of knowledge and must advocate stability and prosperity in our era of 21st century and not be a source of embarrassment, disaster and violence.  Very few disillusioned Diasporas have made it their daily duty to provoke violence, anarchy and lawlessness from their sanctuary in North America and Europe. Whereas they enjoy peace, democratic rights and stability within their Diaspora sanctuary, these sources of violence and destruction are trying to poison innocent Diasporas with their lunatic and biased provocations and transfer poisonous messages back home using modern information technology techniques.

Airing poisonous comments, insults and bulgur words is not different from waging war on an individual, group or a society especially when it is targeted towards a respected leader that represents millions of people. This is exactly what that individual tried to do during the Ethiopia PM’s visit.  Instead of addressing his concerns if in fact he had any, in a civilized and in a traditional Ethiopian behavior,  he chose to insult and defame our nation’s leader in a manner uncharacteristically Ethiopian and most importantly in a manner simply bizarre and indeed lunatic.  His crazy and foolish comment in front of those respected audiences holds no merit what so ever; therefore, it may be summarized as simply personal, emotional, harsh, illegal and simply regrettable.

Rights and responsibilities go hand in hand; therefore, in order to protect citizens’ rights, violent and illegal activities such as that of the individual’s act in front of a respected leader of a great nation  must not be tolerated; therefore, those who commit crime against innocent citizens must be accountable for their acts and must face justice and their case must be treated under the law of the land. The individual is on record doing what he did and that is not only a shame and embarrassment to our nation and our people but also a crime.

The individual may have tried to advance his sinister agenda by confusing innocent Diasporas especially the uninformed part of the Diaspora population in order to create tension and unrest amongst them; however, what that individual did not comprehend is that, legally, ignorance is not excuse; it has consequences. Ignorance of law can not be an excuse for violating the rule of law and the constitution of the land. Initiating violence and disrupting peace and development is a crime under any law.  Therefore, the consequence of which is that those who commit crime through the cover of ignorance will be accountable for their catastrophic mistakes and be punished under the law. It is because of the above notion that the individuals or groups must always comprehend and strictly follow the rule of law in performing their responsibility or in doing their activities because anything outside the legal framework can have detrimental consequences.

Few disillusioned Diasporas such as the individual in question have tried to confuse uninformed Diasporas by saying among others: that democracy is going backwards in Ethiopia, the government is turning more and more to dictatorship and that there are no human rights that opposition parties are under arrest simply for political reasons etc. The reality however is that Ethiopia has continued to embark on what it firmly believes i.e. on democratization, good governance, on poverty alleviation and on sustainable development because these are again a mater of survival and not a matter of choice to the public at large. Therefore, the country will continue to advance following the right trend. Therefore, the Diaspora community should not be misled by few self serving hard core individuals or groups whose intensions are to bring back the old archaic and dictatorial system. The Ethiopian people suffered enormously under the former brutal military regime for a very long time and do not have the intention to go back to that old system any more because they have had enough. There is no turning back on those hard fought values and norms. No one should have any doubt on that and most importantly, no one must be misled by few Diaspora propagandists. It is important therefore that the Diaspora community builds confidence on the economic and democratic process flourishing in Ethiopia and continues their cooperation and collaboration in order to further reinforce peace, stability and good governance in the country. Our Embassies must do a better job in mobilizing, informing and reaching towards the Diaspora community within their assignment. Thus far, except very few, our Embassies have not been able to perform to their highest capacity in that regard and that is also regrettable.