Oromia-Ethiopia: Leenco Lata – "Fundamental Precondition for Electoral Democracy Does Not Exist in Ethiopia"
Mr. Leenco Lata
Mr. Leenco Lata, the former Deputy Secretary of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and one of the founders of the OLF, was interviewed by ESAT. ESAT is a London-based satellite TV station that has so far adopted the one-language policy of the pre-1991 Ethiopian Television (ETV), the state-owned propaganda tube in Ethiopia.
Mr. Leenco Lata stressed that “the fundamental precondition for electoral democracy does not exist in Ethiopia;” the fundamental precondition is consensus on how Ethiopia should be constituted (”common understanding of the state”), i.e. the Ethiopian state must be restructured in a fashion acceptable to all stakeholders before any talk of electoral democracy.
The three-part interview is given below.
PART ONE:
PART TWO:
PART THREE:
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hamada said,
July 28, 2010 @ 6:36 pm
Dear all,
I think this is wonderful overture by Mr. Leta, who is a seasoned and veteral politician. The problem was the interviewer. He sorely lacks the intellectual and professional capability to look at things in a more rounded manner. He sounds like a partisan and sticks to his highschool histroy textbook stories throughout. You cannot risk infuriating your guest and should be polite regardless of whether you like the view or not. I say go to J-school or read if you want to stop confusing people. In your questions, wake-up and smell the coffee. These are new times with new reality.
Mr. Leta was right. There are as many histories and interpretations of history as the many groups (ethnic, religious, political, etc). Do you know that Oromos may have their own narratives as do Hararis, Somalis, Tigres, Gurages, Afars? Let’s not even scratch the surface on the history of the Sulatanates and Emirates that governed huge chunks of the current Ethiopia for a long time. Just because you are not aware or have not read those histories does not mean they don’t exist (e.g., there is plenty written in Arabic as well. You know, it’s not always the Geez that matters). These have to be acknowledged! You cannot trick your way into the old reality by looking diplomatic and acting pretty.
boona said,
July 28, 2010 @ 11:37 pm
It is sad that the so-called ESAT is once again advancing the “Amharic” only policy advocated by the Amhara elites in order to maintain their unbriddled exploitation of the human need for information. Oromos should make it clear that we will not buy, contribute to and in fact object to its mission wherever we are as it is designed to advance that cause only. The Oromo people are not a herd of mindless people to be fooled by this station. One major problem for Oromo intellectals is to articulate these crafty but mundane methods that thye children of Neftegnas are using to circumvent our desire to excercise, expand our god given right to use our own language. Each and every one should pass word around what is happening in the Amhara poltical groupings.
bobisha said,
July 31, 2010 @ 3:02 pm
obbo lencho letta put it correctly we dont have state but we have a country. but the interviewer he doesnt know about the oromo history or he dont want to acknowledge the question of the oromia. under the name of ethiopia unity as usuall the interviewer tried to show like his other colleagues the superiority of amhara.
Yoona yoonni said,
August 4, 2010 @ 2:04 pm
Obbo Lencho is perfectly putting the history of the Oromos. By the way, I srongly advise and begg Obbo Lencoo to put the Oromo hisstory in written form for the younger people of Oromos and other ethnicities. I Hope you will do it. If i n case you have done it already, I would like to get the book for my self and my people.
Nagaan,
Yoona yoonni said,
August 5, 2010 @ 5:26 am
Hi All,
I advise that Obbo Lencoo and his peer political group who share the same political idea on the issue of the Oromo give series of lectures to the younger generation on the Oromos and Ormia’s future Direction to have a replication effect.I am in favor of the thoughts of Obbo Lencoo and would like the lecture be prepapred ina video/cassettes and be disseminated world wide as a point of discussion among the Oromo youth and intelectuals. The dissemination of the cassettes should go up to the grassroot level in Oromia. This will help us to gear up our political moves in favour of our causes.
Nagaan,
dhufu said,
August 18, 2010 @ 4:27 pm
what makes Oromia , a country that can produce a Nobel Laurate (Remember Professer Ejeta), a professional world known atlethes,( Abebe, Haile, Kenenisa, etc), run by a bunch of hungery northerner who doesn’t have any political, mental and longtern plan for the nation.
I can tell you for sure that we have lost a direction and never thought our history. I think Oromo history should be written in much broad way with the nationalists. I applaud Dr. Assefa, revoultionary and current based political development. I would like to get more from others. Whenever you look to you strength never compare yourself with the local but internationlly and I see many nations in the world writing thier own history and as a young person I wanted more oromo intelectual to write there own histroy
Ayele said,
August 18, 2010 @ 8:05 pm
Imagine the European Union, a union of sovereign nations with their own languages (for example, France speaking French, Spain speaking Spanish, Germany speaking German — all of these linguistically separate countries have come together to form the European Union). The European Union should serve as an example for the Ethiopian Union some are advocating. Therefore, Oromia speaking Afan Oromo, Tigray speaking Tigrigna, Amharia speaking Amharic, Somalia Region speaking Somali, etc. should come together – after having achieved their own independence (sovereignty first by the will of the people – self-determination) to form the Ethiopian Union. This view is what’s now becoming the “UNIONIST VIEW”.
In this regard, a television station bearing the name “Ethiopia”, but advocating a unitary system with one language, such as what ESAT is doing now, should be condemned as a unitary Ethiopia has failed miserably in the 20th century (i.e. since Menelik colonized nations now in Ethiopia). Assume what will happen if a hypothetical TV station for the European Union (which I call here for illustration purpose as the “European Satellite TV”) speaking only in English. Does it serve the entire Europe or just Britain? The same with ESAT, with its outdated language policy, advocating for Amhara domination in the name of Ethiopia.
The new paradigm is to understand “ETHIOPIA” as a Union of independent nations, not in the sense of what Unitarists have been killing others for in the 20th century – where all nations in Ethiopia are smelted into Amhara-Tigray (Abyssinian) view of the world (language, culture, religion, etc). Therefore, ESAT should drop its outdated Unitarist view of “ETHIOPIA”, and either include other languages or drop the word “ETHIOPIA” from its name. ETHIOPIA will soon become a UNION OF independent nations, baby!
There is no contradiction if a Frenchman criticizes the hypothetical “EUROPEAN Satellite TV (which I gave above) for speaking only in English, because a Satellite TV can not be “EUROPEAN” if it only speaks in English. It has to include such languages as French, German and others with significant population sizes in Europe. Likewise, if an Oromo criticizes “ESAT” for banning other languages in Ethiopia (i.e. only speaking in Amharic means banning other languages), then there’s no contradiction since “ETHIOPIA” needs to be taken as a Union with Afan Oromo, spoken by the largest population size, Tigrigna, Somali, and others having equal weight. Otherwise, ESAT should be named to ASAT (where A = Amhara), the same way an English-only speaking “European Satellite TV” would be named as ‘British Satellite TV’ to properly and correctly reflect what the TV station is doing, what its target population is, etc.
Again, understanding ETHIOPIA as a Union of independent nations is the new paradigm in the house. ETHIOPIA of the Amhara domination and the Tigray hegemony out, and ETHIOPIA of the Union of independent nations in!
Baayisa said,
August 19, 2010 @ 2:40 am
I suspect Obbo Lencho has responded more eloquently than we hear on here. I bet these guys have edited his response to make it seem less smart. Still he did very well responding to a hostile (one sided) journalist such as this guy. One of the tricky natures of giving an interview to a group/side that has a stance of opposing your position is something one has to balance advantages and disadvantages of it. Look, if you refuse to give interview it makes you look like that you can’t even defend your position; if you accept and interview they can edit and tilted the balance in a way that weakness your position.
I know one thing for sure that is: the Oromo and other people in the Ethiopian empire will prevail. Let me be clear, they will earn their freedom sooner or later (and this can be costly in terms of life and wealth to the people in the empire). This is NOT violating the freedom of the Abyssinians. But IT IS an intrusion to their supremacy (language, culture, religion, etc)