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  THE ROAD MAP TO BILISUMMAA OROMIYAA:

Perspectives of the Oromiyaa Liberation Council

Date:  
February 28, 2005
     

1. Introductory Background

The Oromiyaa Liberation Council is a political force committed to playing a pivotal role in the Oromo national liberation struggle. The level of its commitment is clearly stated in its political program. As elucidated in the program, its role in the struggle is to help set the Oromo people free from the Ethiopian colonial oppression and create a condition for ultimately establishing free and democratic Oromiyaa. To meet this objective, the OLC obviously needs to prepare itself adequately for an exceedingly cumbersome, intrinsic, and demanding national struggle ahead of it.

Although the OLC program depicts the preparedness of the organization for the struggle, policies the OLC formulates from time to time to a degree indicate to what extent the organization is up to the task it claims to undertake. As policies of a political entity are the road map that sets the organization on the right footing, developing such policies is a key indicator of the readiness of the OLC to devise basic tools that would help it to realize its objectives.

Whether it is on broader subjects or specific ones, the OLC must issue and release policy documents that clearly reveal its positions for its broad members, non-members, friends and foes alike. From time to time throughout the liberation struggle, crafting such policy documents that are well tuned with changing national and international political environments is critically important.

Without making a timely review of political environment under which it operates, without studiously analysing issues that have implications on the liberation struggle, and without debating and forging a clear understanding on such issues and developing policy initiatives, the OLC will be devoid of dynamism and reduced to just an inert organization. Therefore, it is with this understanding and conviction that this document is developed to serve as a policy document of the organization. From the OLC perspective, this policy document provides a blue print or a road map that would depict a direction that the Oromo national liberation struggle should take to successfully and expeditiously attain its goal.


2. The cause of the Oromo National Liberation Struggle

In order to clearly map out the best possible route that the struggle of Oromo national liberation should assume, it is paramount to first and foremost articulate the fundamental cause of the struggle. The cause of the struggle has been well articulated in the OLC program. However, as a backdrop or prelude to the policy we attempt to chart out, we will recapitulate here the underlying cause of the struggle.

The root cause of the struggle is the colonial subjugation of the Oromo people and the annexation of their country – Oromiyaa. At the turn of the 20th century, Abyssinians with full support of the European powers of the time fully colonized Oromiyaa. Since then the Oromo people as a nation have suffered political subjugation, economic exploitation, and cultural domination under the brutal Ethiopian colonial rulers of various strands. Like any nation stripped of freedom, the Oromo people have had to wage a liberation struggle to free themselves from the yoke of colonialism. Thus, the cause of the Oromo national liberation struggle is to de-colonize Oromiyaa by all means necessary and bestow freedom on the Oromo nation so that it joins the free community of nations that enjoy piece and prosperity.

It is on this cause of emancipation of the Oromo nation from colonial bondage and re-institution of the Oromo political and socio-economic system and the eventual re-establishment of the free and democratic Oromiyaa that the hallmark of the policy direction of the OLC is anchored. Therefore, every OLC policy initiative is geared to promoting this cause of the struggle – the cause for which many Oromo heroes and heroines have laid their lives to achieve the most cherished goal of the Oromo nation: bilisummaa fi walabummaa.

3. The Ideology of the OLC

While defining the cause of the Oromo national liberation struggle is quite imperative as it is the cornerstone of the struggle, a leading idea that progressively transforms the state of the struggle from one level to the other is also equally important. What is this leading idea that the OLC upholds? Given the nature of the struggle it is waging, the OLC subscribes to the ideology of nationalism, that is, the Oromo nationalism –Oromummaa.

The OLC strongly believes the liberation Ideology that can win the heart and mind of Oromo nationals and promote the cause of the struggle is Oromummaa. What exactly is the essence of Oromummaa? In order to galvanize the Oromo people for the struggle, the OLC has to make every effort to make this leading idea of the struggle crystal clear to the cross-section of the Oromo society. As stated earlier, Oromummaa is the ideology of nationalism of the Oromo version. We shall elaborate below what exactly this version of ideology of nationalism means.

Oromummaa is a sense of common consciousness among Oromos that is driven from common language, culture, the tradition of Gadaa democratic heritage, history, and experience of external socio-political and economic domination. While the Oromo language and culture are the hallmark of the Oromo identity, equally well the brunt of harsh Abyssinian colonial rule they have had to face for over a century is one other strand that binds them together as a people and as a nation.

These commonalities are the seedbed on which Oromummaa has been flourishing. Particularly since the early 1960s and 1970s, Oromummaa, as a leading idea of liberation, has been gathering momentum and entering a higher phase in its development continuum. The OLC believes that the sole ideological arm that sets the Oromo free is Oromummaa. As such it subscribes to it and diligently works to better promote it within the cross-section of the Oromo society.

The OLC subscribes to the ideology of Oromummaa for various reasons. First and foremost, it is convinced that the route that most developing countries in Africa and Latin America followed to de-colonize their respective countries would not suit the Oromo national liberation struggle. The majority of these countries adopted the East Bloc “socialism” or one of its derivatives as a liberation ideology. This was at a time when the world was split in two clear ideological divides, the East pursuing the socialist path the West the capitalist path. The main reason why liberation forces in colonized countries chose “socialism” was to get ideological as well as moral and material support from the East in order to set their countries free from colonial domination of the West. To any liberation force, this option was more pragmatic in light of a political expediency sought in the liberation process at the time. Today, with the collapse of the East Bloc and with the world gravitating towards one path of development (capitalist mode of production), socialism has no appeal to the Oromo society. Since 'Socialism” in essence is hardly based on democracy, Oromos who have had a rich democratic tradition, Gadaa, naturally would opt for a better system that is rooted in their tradition and that guarantees them freedom, democracy and social justice.

Second, a version of nationalism that many European nations upheld for the creation and building of their respective nations in the 19 century Europe is far outdated and incompatible with the present political landscape on which the Oromo struggle operates. Nationalist movement of most of these European nations was framed on dominance and assimilation of others by one dominant nation. In the 21st century, it is inconceivable and moreover counter productive for the Oromo nation and for that matter any other nation to build its nation at the expense or demise of others.

Therefore, the national liberation struggle that the Oromos are waging in the 21st century requires a different set of approach. This set of approach is fundamentally rooted on the Oromo Gadaa democratic heritage, Oromo moral code of maintaining the balance of natural forces, and Oromo values that all human beings are regarded equal. It evolves from shared Oromo experience, common understanding of their challenges and opportunities, commonly held vision for their nationhood, the resolve to overcome all odds together as a people for the emancipation and development of the Oromo society, and their desire to secure a peaceful place within the global community. Hence, what is spearheading the approach of the liberation struggle is an aggregate of shared values and ideas in the Oromo universe that we earlier referred to as a leading idea of the Oromo revolutionary movement- Oromummaa (falmannaan tokkummaa fi, walqqixummaadhan bilisummaa Oromootifi walabummaa Oromiyaatif godhamu Oromummaa dha).

4. Challenges of the Oromo National Liberation Struggle

In its pursuit for freedom and independence from the Ethiopian colonial bondage, the Oromo nation faces a wide array of challenges. It is apparent that without identifying and devising strategies to cope with such challenges, the liberation struggle cannot make any headway. It is therefore critically important to first pinpoint all real or potential political, military, diplomatic, and socio-economic challenges facing the Oromo national struggle.

As a force committed to the struggle, it is incumbent upon the Oromiyaa Liberation Council (OLC) to identify any such challenges standing on the way of the liberation struggle of the Oromo nation. It must take clear positions and issue policy statements on all identifiable challenges. It must assess to what extent any given challenge harms the struggle and set out appropriate tactics and strategies that effectively contain it. On every problem the struggle encounters, it has to inform and raise the awareness of the Oromo public using all possible medium of communications.

It is in this context that the OLC is presenting here what it considers challenges of the Oromo national liberation struggle. It has been attempted to provide a brief explanation on how each challenge impacts on the liberation struggle.

4.1- Challenges from international forces

The Oromo national liberation struggle faces challenges from various segments of the international community. Many of these include individual states, group of regional states, and international organizations. It is not the intention of this document to enlist all. However, it is to pin point the major ones and discuss how the policy/activity of each impacts on the Oromo national liberation struggle.

4.1.1- The US and its policy
It is apparent that the United States, of all countries in the world, has the most influence on political and economic activities of any existing nation state or any one nation striving for self-determination. Its influence has enormously escalated since the collapse of particularly the Soviet Republic and generally the communist movement through out the world. Today, as the only super power, the US has direct or indirect influence that could determine the fate of many nations, particularly developing nations and much more so nations struggling for self-determination.

It is under a shadow of such US influence that the Oromo nation is engaged in the liberation struggle. It is apparent that the US influence is framed on the some relationship that the US and successive Ethiopian regimes forged over the years. With the exception of the military regime that ruled Ethiopia from 1974 –1991 with the support of the USSR, the Ethiopian rulers maintained a cozy relationship with the US. Owing to this Ethio-American relationship, the US has given Ethiopia a political and economic leverage without which Ethiopia would have no instrument of suppression of the aspiration for self-determination of many nations and nationalities forcibly incorporated within the empire state of Ethiopia.

Without going so far back in time, examining the US policy towards or its influence on Ethiopia just since the TPLF usurped power in 1991 would give us clear indications to what extent this US policy has been presenting challenges to the Oromo national liberation struggle. As indicated earlier in this paper, the rivalry between the former Soviet Republic (USSR) and the US to secure dominance on the geopolitics of the Horn of Africa during the cold war era put Ethiopia at the epicentre of the sphere of influence of the two superpowers in the region. The USSR snatched Ethiopia from the orbit of the US influence in 1974 and drew it to the Eastern Bloc socialist camp for nearly two decades. The US, as part of its global campaign against the expansion of the USSR led communist movement, made a relentless effort to diminish the USSR political and military clouts and ultimately regain the political influence it had once enjoyed in Ethiopia. The US effort has eventually paid off: Ethiopia has returned to the armpit of the US in 1991.

The US success of gaining Ethiopia back as its client state resulted from a twin-pronged policy it formulated and implemented. It adopted a policy of constructive engagement to deal with the military junta (Dergue) that toppled the Haile Sillasie regime and began echoing communist slogans. Despite the Dergue's ideological inclination and at times aggressive posturing towards the US-led capitalist system (imperialism), the US Government had invested so much time and resource to change the Dergue stance against America from within the Dergue circle. It relentlessly pursued this policy until the Dergue was fully immersed in the socialist ideology and began looking up to the USSR as a role model.

When the US finally realized that the Dergue was at a point of no return from the ideological camp of the East, it adopted a policy of containment to derail the effort of the Dergue to spread the communist ideology within Ethiopia and in the neighbouring Horn of Africa states at large. As part of this policy, the US embarked on isolating the Dergue in the international scene through its intense diplomatic campaign. It exposed and condemned the Dergue's crimes against humanity. It called upon the international community to do the same. In the economic front, it tightened a noose on the Dergue regime. It severed all US economic aid to Ethiopia. The US withdrew all its military advisors and stopped sending armament to Ethiopia. Within Ethiopia, it aggressively searched for opposition groups that were politically and militarily challenging the Dergue and provided moral, political, financial support to those oppositions that it considered would overthrow the Dergue.

At the end, various course of events were well synchronized to end the era of the military regime. Internally, popular uprising and liberation fronts that were waging wars against it weakened the regime. Coupled with this, the influence of the international anti-communism political environment that was at its peak concluded the demise of the Dergue.

As indicated earlier, the US had significant role (both covert and overt) to finish off the Dergue. Equally well, it played a pivotal role in preparing a smooth transition of political power from the collapsing regime of Mengistu to the emerging regime of Meles Zenawi in 1991. Far more than any other time in the history of the US involvement (influential role) in Ethiopian politics, its role during and after this transition of crowning Meles and his party, TPLF, to power has presented a significant challenge to the Oromo national liberation struggle.

Despite mounting opposition from Oromo political forces, and various sectors of the Ethiopian society, the US endorsed the TPLF to take power upon the departure of Mengistu. This unilateral US endorsement was a stumbling block for the Oromo national liberation struggle and for the struggle of other oppressed peoples in the Ethiopian empire. When the US knows all too well that the TPLF hardly represents a minority ethnic group of its own (Tigrian), much less other peoples in the Ethiopian empire, and that its political ideology and practice is much like that of the Dergue, planting the TPLF on the helm of the Ethiopian political power, on no other merit but the number of guns of the TPLF guerrilla fighters, aborted an ideal opportunity that could have been captured to once for all redress the political gridlock in the Ethiopian empire. While this action of the US resulted in a serious challenge to the Oromo struggle for freedom and justice, much more so its continued political, economic, military support for the TPLF, despite its public pledge coined with a phrase 'no democracy no aid', has been instrumental in derailing a peaceful transition to an orderly political change in the empire state of Ethiopia that could have potentially resulted in the fulfillment of the Oromo aspiration for self-determination. This US policy has emboldened the TPLF to continuously muzzle any independent Oromo political expression. Therefore, the OLC in conjunctions with all Oromo political forces must critically address this challenge.

4.1.2 – West European countries and their policies
In the case of the west European countries, economic support that they provide to the regime of Meles Zenawi remains a serious challenge to all peoples in Ethiopia fighting the oppressive rule of the regime. A continued government to a government economic aid has resulted in strengthening the muscle of the regime to quash any political dissent. Although aid from these countries are presumably meant in most cases for development purposes, with no string attached to it, it has worsened and not improved the economic life of the peoples of Ethiopia. Therefore, having governments of these countries to understand the extent in which aid that they doll out to the Meles regime hurts not helps the peoples of Ethiopia is an uphill battle. This battle must be given serious considerations and dealt with appropriately with the coordinated efforts of all Oromo liberation forces.

4.1.3- International organizations
As a member of legally constituted international organizations, Ethiopia is undeservedly getting political, economic and moral support and protection from international bodies. By virtue of the fact that Ethiopia as an entity had signed international treaties should not have spared it from close scrutiny of crimes its successive rulers committed against their subjects. However, we see rulers of Ethiopia using all international covenants to mask the genesis of this empire state and the way it thrives. Various international organizations to which Ethiopia is a member inadvertently or tacitly agree to the Ethiopian state actions or fulfill its demands that are often geared to the disenfranchisement of its subject peoples: an act that is contrary to the basic tenets of international charters or contracts. This situation has remained a major stumbling block to the Oromo national liberation struggle. To highlight how some of the international organs and their policies pose serious challenges to the Oromo struggle for liberation is briefly discussed below.

a. United Nations (UN)
While the United Nations (UN) is established to protect the inalienable rights of individuals and of nations to self-determination, unfortunately we see a member state like Ethiopia not being held accountable when it violates the very rights that are enshrined in the UN Charter. The Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples – [Resolution 1514 (XV)] states that “the subjection of peoples to alien subjugation, domination and exploitation constitutes a denial of fundamental human rights, is contrary to the United Nations Charter, and is an impediment to the promotion of world peace and cooperation, and that steps should be taken to transfer, unconditionally, all powers to the Trust and Non-Self-Governing Territories so that they might enjoy complete freedom and independence,”

Despite this declaration, the Oromo nation's demand and liberation struggle for self-determination appears to lack recognition and support from this international body, the UN. What appears to be a challenge for political forces spearheading the Oromo national liberation struggle is to secure an ample opportunity to persuasively present the case of the Oromo national struggle to the UN and convince this body that:
  • Ethiopia is not a nation state but rather a colonial empire in which multiple of nations and nationalities are brought together and ruled not by their free will but by sheer force.

  • Ethiopia was one of the participants of the Berlin Conference along with major European colonial powers that entered into peaceful negotiation for and benefited from the scramble of Africa.

  • The conflict within Ethiopia is not an internal conflict or a civil war; but it is a just war of liberation and self-determination of colonized Oromo nation and unjust war of subjugation, domination, and exploitation of the Ethiopian state rulers.

  • Ethiopia's claim of 3000 years of existence as a free nation is a myth and not real.

  • Ethiopia of today emerged through Abyssinian rulers anachronistic colonial conquest of the Oromo and other nations neighboring Abyssinia – the conquest that resulted following extermination of over 5 million Oromos and plunder and expropriation of the resource and property of the Oromo people.

  • Ethiopia that came into existence through such a classical colonial ploy named itself a nation (empire) and crafted its first constitution in 1931 and appeared on the world stage as a legitimate and actually a champion of freedom.

  • Ethiopia, unlike the world and particularly the black Africans perception that it epitomizes freedom, has a baggage of tainted political history that symbolize slavery and serfdom.

  • The Oromo nation is struggling for its inalienable rights to free itself from the most obscured colonial rule of Abyssinians.
Not only opportunity to access the organization and present the Oromo case that remains a challenge but also lack of response on the part of the UN to repeated calls of Oromo liberation forces and the Oromo people to address the flagrant human rights violation that the Ethiopian rulers perpetrate on Oromos.

b. African Union (AU)
It is not inconceivable to presuppose that Africans and particularly a continental organization such as the AU would understand better the Oromo predicament since fellow Africans share a common experience of the brunt of colonialism. However, it is unfortunate that the Oromo nation and its struggle is barley known to the cross-section of the peoples of the continent. This is attributed to a myriad of factors. Some of which include that:

  • Africans know and understand European colonizers and colonial system and hardly comprehend and believe the existence of 'black colonizers–the Abyssinians' on African soil.

  • The Abyssinians masked all nations they colonized under the name Ethiopia, and so the Oromo nation has remained obscured.

  • The Ethiopian rulers, using the continental forum and through relentlessly diplomatic campaign, has disseminated distorted 'history of Ethiopia' to African communities – the history that embellishes Ethiopia as a champion of freedom and beacon of hope for all nations of Africa that had been struggling in the 50s and 60s to free themselves from European colonialism, when in fact they are European collaborators and the perpetrators of the worst form of colonial system that the international community barley knows and understands.

  • As one of the founders of the forerunner organization of the AU, the Organization of African Unity (OAU), the Haile Sillasie regime shrewdly used the OAU to further legalize Ethiopia as a nation state entity and as such to be accepted and its 'territorial integrity' to be defended by the Charter of the organization that his government actively tailored to better suit the Ethiopian state interest- the interest of totally denying the right and better yet the existence of any claim of any national group for self-determination within the Ethiopian empire.
Therefore, the fact that the Oromo nation and its history have been kept in the dark and an organization such as the AU has barely understood the Oromo predicament remain significant challenges for the Oromo national liberation struggle to be visible and earn the sympathy of fellow Africans.

C. International financial institutions
Previous regimes of Ethiopia and the current TPLF-led one would have not stayed in power for long had it not been for generous financial flow to the Ethiopian state coffers from mainly two international financial institutions: The World Bank (WB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF). For as long as Ethiopia has been a member of these two institutions, all Ethiopian governments (with the exception of the Mengistu regime) have been receiving loans from IMF and the WB. By all account no other previous governments received as much loan and debt relief packages from these institutions as the present TPLF-led government did. According to the WB, Ethiopia is now one of the largest beneficiaries of what it refers to as 'concessionary lending program'. Forging a very close partnership with the TPLF regime, it claims to run nearly 22 projects with a budget of 1.9 billion US dollars. The IMF on its part is providing the government with loan that covers any shortfalls in the balance of payment of the country and budgetary requirement for any structural adjustment that it recommends that the government implements. Ethiopia that is usually on a life-support, would not have survived if the WB, IMF, and other international donor organizations had not breathed to it the air of life by way of injecting substantial loans and aid to the purse of its rulers.

There is no doubt that the financial support of the WB and IMF is intended to improve the socio-economic development of the peoples of Ethiopia. However, given the past trends and experience, the support of these two bodies has not brought about a significant difference in the social and economic life of the Oromo and other peoples of Ethiopia.

Our challenge, specifically the challenge of all political forces in the camp of the Oromo national liberation struggle, is to persuade the two financial institutions and other donor organizations that financing Ethiopia through the TPLF government is morally and legally unjustifiable for mainly the following reasons:
  • On the ground of legality, the present government does not (and should not be considered to) represent the Oromo people to receive any loan or aid on their behalf. Despite futile efforts of the TPLF regime to appear a legitimate government representing the Oromo, the Oromo people unequivocally reject its claim and state that no colonial ruler represents its subject and so on this fundamental ground the TPLF (a colonizer) cannot be a voice for the Oromo nation (a subject).

  • Economically, there is no hard evidence that suggests that the Oromo people are better off as a result of loans and aid that flow to the treasury of the TPLF-Government of Ethiopia. Ethiopia has been receiving aid and loans from the two institutions since it became their member in 1945. However, the economic life of the Oromo people has no improvement. If any, per capita income of the Oromo people has plummeted over the years to the worst level in the world -$ 100.00US.

  • Governments of Ethiopia are notoriously known in fiscal mismanagement. In this respect, by all accounts, the present TPLF regime is worse than any of its predecessors. There is no budget transparency and proper budget execution and its government generally lacks accountability on both economic and political fronts. It has a very limited statistical capacity to provide all and accurate information that the WB and IMF may require to approve loans. And there is no doubt that it borrows from theses institutions on the basis of erroneous information. In the absence of close monitoring and control by an independent and a very objective body, loans received for development projects are expropriated in areas that the TPLF-regime deems it necessary.

  • Loans or aid given for specific development projects are reallocated to its state security and defence budget. As a result, the Oromo people strongly feel that funds channelled to the TPLF coffer from the two institutions do not help but rather harm them as the government bolsters its arm with such external funding and quash the resistance of the Oromo against its rule of tyranny.

4.2- Challenges from Ethiopian forces

The Oromo national liberation struggle faces very stiff challenges from various political forces and ethnic groups within Ethiopia. Some are actively working to undermine or totally obliterate the Oromo liberation struggle. Others, although passively, stand on the way of the struggle. Below the major ones are identified, and to what extent each poses challenges to the Oromo struggle is briefly discussed.

4.2.1- The TPLF-led Government of Ethiopia
The TPLF-led Government of Ethiopia is the primary enemy of the Oromo national liberation struggle. As such, it presents significant challenges to the Oromo struggle for freedom in various ways.

a. Politically
As a body that runs the Ethiopian state politics, the TPLF is spearheading political campaigns of silencing any political expression or voice of the Oromo people for freedom in many ways. For example:
  • It does not recognize that the Oromo question is a colonial question. It dubbed the Oromo liberation struggle as a narrow nationalist movement. Portraying itself as a democratic political force, it is deluding some Oromo nationals and the international community that it is addressing what it refers to as “the Oromo national oppression” through its token federal arrangement. Hence, it is twisting the Oromo question of decolonisation of Oromiyaa.

  • It is employing a classical colonial policy of divide and conquer. Creating a proxy Oromo political organization that runs TPLF crafted political program and denying any political space for independent Oromo political organizations, it is aggressively attempting to strangulate the Oromo national struggle.

  • By spreading malicious propaganda and rallying other ethnic groups in the Ethiopian empire against the genuine Oromo struggle for liberation, the Ethiopian regime is continuously campaigning to isolate the Oromo national struggle by depriving it political sympathy and support from ethnic groups surrounding Oromos who share similar colonial subjugation.

  • It works to contain the Oromo struggle through political machination and never has the intention or the will to genuinely resolve the Oromo question.

  • It is partitioning and delineating Oromo territories to neighbouring peoples to instigate ethnic conflicts between Oromos and their neighbouring peoples who have been living together peacefully for centuries.
b. Economically
As part of its effort to suppress the Oromo national struggle, the TPLF has launched both covert and overt campaign of economic war on the Oromo people. With conviction that the aspiration of the Oromo people for self-determination would quell with growing impoverishment of the Oromo society, it has made one of its prime aims to deprive every sector of the Oromo society economic opportunities. For example:
  • Upon usurping power in 1991, the TPLF virtually retained the Oromo resource under the state control. Economic activities tied to the land, manufacturing and mining industries, transportation; both residential and commercial urban dwellings etc. have remained to be exclusively run directly or indirectly under the monopoly of the state.

  • It is evicting farming communities from their rightful land at will and makes room for emerging corporations run by its party 'economic wing'. It leases the rest to foreign corporations and generates a substantial cash flow that enriches the TPLF treasury – the money that its party has exclusive right to use.

  • The TPLF levies heavy taxation on Oromo peasants in order to force them to abandon farming. Controlling the price of farm products and supplying farm inputs at exorbitant price, it exploits subsistence farmers and creates a poverty ridden rural mass.

  • Under the pretext of privatization, the Meles government auctions off state controlled public properties (manufacturing and mining industries) at sweet deals to Tigray Development Corporations run by its party economic branch. These corporations enjoy state favoured status and run businesses without any regulation so that they would have competitive edge to dominate the market and exploit the Oromo and other peoples in Ethiopia.

  • It systematically prevents the emergence of middle class Oromo businessmen. By overtaxing the Oromo entrepreneurs and under taxing their favoured Tigraian counterparts it denies the Oromos a level plain competition in the market. Through its bureaucratic red tape it discourages Oromos who aspire to start new businesses.

  • To make room for its favoured ethnic group and political cronies, the TPLF regime of Ethiopia directly attacks economically successful Oromo professionals and entrepreneurs and forces them to exile.
Therefore, aside from the TPLF greed to amass the wealth of the empire in the hands of its party and its cronies, it makes every effort to prevent the Oromo people from having access to the economic pie of their own country as it suspects any economically well off Oromo could potentially support the Oromo national struggle financially.

c. Militarily
  • Since it considers the Oromo national struggle as a major challenge to its power, the TPLF is using its full military might to deal with organizations heading the Oromo resistance. What it calls national defence force is organized, financed, equipped well and deployed against the Oromo resistance and not as such against any major threat from external enemy.

  • Establishing state security apparatus, it is hunting down and imprisoning, torturing, and extra-judicially murdering Oromo political activists.

  • Forcibly conscripting the Oromo youth and deploying them to its war of aggression against neighbouring countries, the TPLF is making them cannon fodders since it considers the Oromo youth its future potential enemies.
d. Socially
  • The Meles regime is sabotaging the development of educational institutions in Oromiyaa and their smooth operation in order to stunt the growth of the Oromo human capital (intellectuals and professionals) that would lead the Oromo struggle.

  • By starving health institutions financially and deliberately stifling the development of health care centres, the TPLF is denying the Oromo society access to health service and creating the Oromo society that is mentally and physically debilitated. As a result, millions are exposed to communicable disease such as HIV.

  • It is denying the Oromo people, particularly the ones that do not concur and work along its political line, the opportunity to work and live peacefully in order to create hopelessness in the Oromo society. By so doing, it is detracting the Oromo people from focusing on addressing their real political predicaments and seeking earthly solutions. By trying to get them de-politicized and become religious zealots through the work of its 'religious venues', it is attempting to blindfold the Oromo people to differ their day-to-day political, social, and economic problems to Almighty for heavenly solutions.

  • The TPLF is implementing resettlements of armed neftenyas extensively (a project that outraged the entire world) in the Oromo heartland.

  • It is turning major Oromo cities into 'charter cities' for the sole purpose of separating rural from urban dwellers and prohibiting Oromo language from developing and being extensively used as an official medium of education and business in Oromiyaa.

  • It is uprooting Oromos from their localities and resettling them in inhabitable environment where they are exposed to malaria and other tropical diseases.
e. Diplomatically
  • At regional level, the Meles regime puts diplomatic pressure on the neighbouring states of the Horn of Africa not to support the genuine struggle of the Oromo people and harbour political dissidents or refugees.

  • At continental level, it uses the stage of the African Unity at every opportune moment and advances its agenda of territorial integrity and suppresses any Oromo political expression that somehow makes its way to the organization so that the Oromo national struggle would have no sympathy and support from fellow Africans.

  • Internationally, while portraying itself as a sole state in Africa tolerating pluralistic society and practicing democratic governance and market driven economy, the TPLF regime uses every opportunity to mar the image of the Oromo people and its struggle. It presents the Oromo as a nation that creates political instability in the Horn of Africa. It labels the Oromo struggle as a terrorist movement in order to be considered partner in stamping out 'international terrorism' and garner international moral and financial support. Its diplomatic offices through out the world is guarding against the Oromo issue receiving any attention around any government circles, particularly around governments of western countries. It spends millions of dollars for lobbying agencies who promote its image and interest in the face of big western powers like the US and UK.
4.2.2- The Amahara-led Abyssinian political forces
The Amahara-led Abyssinian political forces are many and all are striving to regain political power that they lost to the current Tigarian-led government of Ethiopia. They all share more or less the same political position vis-à-vis the Oromo national liberation struggle. Although they are not currently posing any direct military threat to the Oromo struggle, politically they are presenting a considerable challenge.

In their desperate effort to bring back the 'old order', the Amahara-led forces are politically attacking the Oromo nation and its struggle from two directions:
  • Infiltrating within the TPLF-led government, some Amahara forces have been working behind the scene and twisting the arm of Wayane to reverse every political gains that they think the Oromo people have secured.

  • Others make outrageous political campaign against the Oromo freedom movement. Just as in the bygone days when they were in power, they still don't recognize the existence of the Oromo as a people and as a nation much less the question of self-determination that the Oromo people raise.

  • In collaboration with Tigrean cadres they engage in terrorist activities by organizing terrorist organizations such as “Gala Gaday” and “Hagar Fiqir” and assassinating Oromo nationals within Oromiyaa and in neighbouring countries.
4.2.3- Reformist Ethiopian political forces
Reformist Ethiopian political forces are forces that to a degree admit that the Ethiopian traditional politics got to a dead-end and that it needs some kind of a revamp. These forces could be grouped into two major camps depending on propositions they make to address the Ethiopian political crisis. Proponents of federalism/confederation belong to one group and proponents of economically liberalized unitary state belong to another.

a. Proponents of federalism/confederation
Proponents of federalism/confederation recognize that there is a serious political problem facing the empire and they see disintegration of the empire and political power slipping away from the hands of the traditional Ethiopian power brokers. They advocate that there has to be some political accommodations for all dissenting voices. They prescribe that some kind of federal arrangement would save it from further disintegration. They argue federation that is not necessarily formed along ethnic line but that guarantees devolution of power from the centre to the periphery would help contain the political challenge that Ethiopia encounters today. The campaign of this group on this platform within the Oromo society appears to influence some Oromos and draw them away from involving in and contributing to the Oromo national liberation struggle. In this respect, they present a challenge to our struggle.

b. Proponents of unitary state
Proponents of the unitary state claim that the answer to political crisis in Ethiopia is not federalism but democratic governance and economic liberalization. They say that under unitary state as in the pre-1991 Ethiopia, unlike the present so called Ethiopian federalism which potentially balkanizing Ethiopia along ethnic lines, the fundamental political challenges gripping the empire could be tackled; provided that the state respects all democratic values and practices and provide equal economic opportunities to all Ethiopians. Again there are some Oromo nationals who share this view and refrain from joining and building the Oromo nationalist camp.

4.2.4- Other colonized nations within Ethiopian Empire
The Oromo nation considers other colonized nations within Ethiopian empire as its natural allies for its struggle for freedom. As they all share with Oromos similar experience of Abyssinian colonial rule, it is natural for the Oromo nation to expect political support for its liberation struggle from these nations and visa versa. Although some do support our struggle, there are still many who have deep suspicion about the motives of the Oromo liberation struggle, and therefore they have reservations to provide it any support. There are others who ally with Abyssinian regimes and vehemently oppose the Oromo struggle.

Although there are substantial cooperations and mutual understandings among the liberation forces of Sidama, Ogadenia and Oromiyaa, the Oromo struggle is not enjoying as much political support as expected from forces struggling for other colonized nations. Lack of political support from the latter group could be attributed to many reasons. However, one main reason is that the Oromo liberation forces have not adequately addressed the concern shared and expressed regarding the Oromo struggle among such forces. There is an obvious failure on the part of Oromo political forces to issue policy documents that clearly state the kind of political and economic relationship that the Oromo nation, post-liberation, would like to have with all neighbouring nations surrounding Oromiyaa. This remains a cause for their concern and reservation towards the Oromo liberation struggle.

Politically, they need to know and be assured of what alternative arrangement the emergence of liberated Oromiyaa could bring for them that is any different from the one under Ethiopia. They need to see a clear proposal on various political arrangements that best suit their individual interests. They need to be engaged in discussion that lead to a better mutual understanding that a liberated Oromiyaa would set in motion the decolonisation of all the rest of colonized nations in Ethiopia and usher a new era of peaceful coexistence with all its neighbouring nations on a level plain political landscape.

Economically, as some neighbouring nations depend to a degree on the resource of Oromiyaa, they strongly feel that the liberation of Oromiyaa would deprive them economic opportunities that otherwise be available to them. Again this concern must be dispelled by a clear economic policy that Oromo liberation forces draw that unequivocally assures all these nationalities that Oromiyaa would not practice protectionism but rather make fair economic interactions with its neighbours that benefit all involved.

While failure on the part of Oromo liberation forces to make a clear political position statement and a concrete policy direction on the future political and economic relationships between the Oromo and neighbouring nations is a cause for the Oromo struggle to lack a considerable support from these nations, the Abyssinian regimes have played a much more significant roles in creating political chasm between Oromos and their neighbouring nations. This is more discernable under the present TPLF-led Ethiopian regime. Pursuing its divide and conquer policy, the TPLF works relentlessly to rally all minority nations against the Oromo people. It spreads malicious propaganda against the Oromo liberation struggle. It presents to these nations a grim political picture that the liberation of Oromiyaa means their demise – that is, they would have no chance to determine their own political and economic destiny upon liberation of Oromiyaa. It creates tension and animosity between various minority nations and the Oromo people by redrawing their territorial boundaries, and thus inciting land claim wars for the sole purpose of preventing the emergence of any unity or political solidarity between them. Therefore, this remains a challenge of our liberation struggle.

4.2.5- National minorities within Oromia
Oromiyaa is home or birthplace for many national minorities, people of various ethnic backgrounds. By virtue of being non-Oromos and the uncertainty of what their rights would be within liberated Oromiyaa they generally oppose the Oromo liberation struggle. More often than not, they ally with Abyssinian regimes and stand against the liberation of Oromiyaa.

National minorities could remain a considerable challenge to the Oromo liberation struggle, unless the Oromo liberation forces attend to the following:
  • They must state in their programs or issue policy statements that clearly address social, political and economic issues respecting national minorities in liberated Oromiyaa; that they must guarantee that national minorities like anyone who calls Oromiyaa home, irrespective of ethnicity, would be given equal citizenship rights and everything else that goes with it.

  • They must counter every propaganda campaign of Abyssinian rulers, the present TPLF regime in particular, that drives wedge between the Oromo people and other ethnic groups in Oromiyaa.

  • They must practically demonstrate to national minorities that the Oromo struggle is about individual freedom and democracy and that not only during post-liberation era but also during the liberation struggle they would enjoy fair treatment as long as Oromiyaa is their choice and do not ally with the enemy camp.

4.3- Internal Challenges

While external challenges stifle the Oromo national liberation struggle in a profound way, internal challenges from within the Oromo liberation forces and the Oromo society at large contribute to its sluggish movement. A liberation movement that does not critically diagnose its internal shortcomings on a regular basis is doomed to failure. Therefore, from time to time, all forces that play some role in the Oromo liberation struggle must assess themselves how well they conduct the struggle and pay attention to the political heartbeat of their society in order to determine and employ the best strategy that could lead the liberation struggle to a success. It is in this light, what are considered major internal challenges are briefly discussed below.

4.3-1. Challenges from within the Oromo liberation forces
Today there are at least five Oromo liberation forces that claim to operate in the theatre of the Oromo liberation struggle: namely, the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), Islamic Front for the Liberation of Oromo (IFLO), United Oromo Peoples Liberation Front (UOPLF), Oromo peoples Liberation Front (OPLF), and Oromiyaa Liberation Council (OLC). Obviously, these forces have not emerged all at the same time. It is during different epoch of the struggle and due to or under different circumstances that they all have evolved. Obviously the struggle never necessitated the formation of all the forces. Had that been the case the multiplicity of these forces would have imparted a significant impetus to the struggle. In all likelihood one or two of them could have led the struggle adequately. However, the creation of all these forces is driven by a host of challenges that the struggle had run into over the last 30 years. These challenges remain bottlenecks for the Oromo national liberation struggle as they still manifest themselves within the camp of the Oromo liberation forces. Indicating the most critical challenges, a brief discussion on how and to what degree each impacts on the Oromo struggle is presented below.

a. Perceived/real ideological difference
As discussed elsewhere in this paper, a national liberation struggle that has no clear ideology is like a navigator with no compass or radar. It is destined to fail to reach its intended goal simply because it cannot get or maintain on board revolutionary followers who aimlessly participate in the struggle. For this simple reason, the question of ideological clarity has surfaced within the struggle in order to set in motion and maintain the course of the Oromo liberation struggle in the right direction.

At some point during the course of the struggle, the Oromo national liberation struggle sustained a significant setback because either a perceived or a real ideological difference crept up within the ranks of the Oromo nationalists. As this issue has been left unattended to in a timely and appropriate fashion, it became a cause for factional groups to emerge and subsequently create their respective organizations.

To this date the issue of ideological difference amongst some Oromo national liberation forces is a subject of informal discussion among followers of these forces. It is being perceived and presented to the general Oromo public that it is this ideological divide that is primarily shackling the Oromo national liberation struggle. Going by anecdotal evidence, it appears that this claim has some validity. Many who come through as genuine Oromo nationalists and could potentially contribute immensely to the movement have misgivings about the direction of the struggle and consequently find themselves on the sideline. This situation has significantly stunted the organizational development of our liberation forces.

Whether it is a perception or real or whether there are other underling issues manifesting themselves differently (as ideological issue), the Oromo national liberation is haemorrhaging in a profound way because all liberation forces have failed to address this very issue and provide the struggle a clearly and unambiguously defined direction. Therefore, the issue remains to be a monumental challenge to the Oromo national liberation struggle.

b. Organizational challenges
Organizational challenges that are crippling the Oromo national struggle are many. They are both inter and intra organizational ones. At individual organization level, most Oromo political forces are not adequately built. Equally, much remains to be done in developing a strong network of the Oromo liberation organizations. Since organizations are tools meant to achieve certain set goals, they must be shaped or fashioned in such a way that they would serve their purposes. While their proper devising to suit the need of the Oromo struggle is the cornerstone in organizational formation and development, it is very critical to assess, unravel, and tackle challenges that organizations run into on a regular basis so that their functional capacity would be maintained or enhanced. It is for this purpose that we discussed below major deficiencies of organizations of the Oromo liberation forces.

For ease of discussion, we ventured to put the liberation forces into two broad categories depending on attributes/behaviours of their respective organizations. Namely:
  • Forces lacking basic organizational attributes: there are forces formed in a more traditional way and with far less developed political program and constitution. In the political environment of the 21st century, it is very difficult to operate productively without such basic documents that reveal the essence of an organization- what it stands for and what governs it. Let alone to form organizational alliance with others and function properly, organizations that lack such basic attributes would find it very difficult to run their own internal organizational affairs. They are ill- formed and functionally incapacitated.

  • Forces lacking some proper organizational behaviour: these are forces that have basic skeletal characters of an organization but lack to display fundamental organizational behaviours in their day-to-day activities. The most salient behaviour/functions that these organizations lack include:
    • The drive to achieve results:

      More often they have no realistic work plan and no targets set to accomplish organizational task on a timely fashion.

    • Organizational discipline:

      When it is well understood what discipline means to an organization, most fail to institute and religiously follow organizational discipline that protects the interest of the organization and foster work ethics within the organization.

    • The commitment to follow through in thickness or in thinness:

      It is obvious that Oromo liberation forces are operating under difficult circumstances. However, unless they are committed to carrying out tasks at hand, without being deterred by some trying circumstances they may face, they would not achieve desired results. Such high degree of commitment appears to be a challenge for many.

    • Accountability:

      To avoid anarchy and maintain stability and promote growth and development, organizations must be accountable for all that goes right or wrong. With respect of most Oromo political forces, organizational accountability at its highest desired level is lacking.

    • Effective communication:

      While it is obvious that communication is very crucial, the effectiveness of communication within and between organizations of most Oromo political organizations is at a very rudimentary level.

    • Building organizational capital:

      Most Oromo liberation forces make a very limited effort of going out of their way to recruit, train, and retain human power and in the process build organizational capital.

    • Performance evaluation:

      Many Oromo liberation forces make very little, if any, critical assessment of their performances regularly to evaluate their strength and weakness.

    • Democratic practices:

      Deficiencies of upholding and practicing democratic values and principles run across most Oromo political forces.

    • Organizational value or culture that draws members:

      Most Oromo organizations are not striving to create unique cultural environment or value system that appeals to people and draw them to their respective organizations.

    • Learning best organizational practices:

    Organizations improve their performances through learning best practices from others with good track record of achievement. Oromo organizations do not seem to make considerable efforts of emulating good practices from each other or from other non-Oromo organizations.
Therefore, lack or deficiencies of the above organizational behaviours stunt the Oromo liberation forces and diminish the efficacy of their respective organizations.

c. Leadership challenges
In the course of the national liberation struggle, Oromo leaders with numerous qualities have emerged over the years. However, a leadership with all the necessary attributes that the struggle desperately needs has not yet fully evolved. Today, much of the national debate within the Oromo society is focused on the issue of leadership. To a certain extent, it is also a subject of debate around the circle of many Oromo liberation forces. Generally, there is an understanding that runs through our society and most liberation forces that the leadership challenge of the Oromo struggle is the result of deficiencies of two major components required from effective leaders. These components are:
  • Attributes (personal character, behaviour and knowledge)- leaders of the Oromo struggle general exhibit weaknesses in the following key attributes that define effective leadership:

    • Leaders who can set a clear direction for the struggle: those with the ability to assess political dynamics within the Oromo movement and evaluate external factors that impact on our struggle and articulate tangible vision and strategy and turn the vision into concrete action.

    • Leaders who can mobilize individual commitment: those who strive to fully engage the heart and mind of the Oromo people to fully partake in the national movement. Leaders who share power and sincerely recognize and value individual contributions and help these individual Oromos to see and feel how their contributions draw closer the goal of the Oromo national liberation struggle –bilisummaa.

    • Leaders who can engender organizational capability: those who have the ability to harness individual commitment of Oromos and build organizational capability; that is, those who build organizational infrastructure, design and implement efficient human capital utilization system, and translate the purpose of an organization into process that results in positive changes.

    • Leaders who demonstrate suitable personal characters: those whose followers trust, relate to, feel confidence in; those who are honest, fair-minded and supportive and free from ego drive; those who inspire and empower their followers; those who have in-depth and broad acquired knowledge and educate their followers by sharing them their knowledge.

  • Leaders building leaders- in order to give the Oromo national struggle a guaranteed continuity and the assurance to attain its goal, leaders of the Oromo struggle hardly make any effort to create future leaders. Revolutionary gains that the leaders of today score would erode away unless others are cultivated to fill their shoes to further score better results for the national movement.
It is apparent that forces within the camp of the Oromo liberation struggle find it very difficult to create a conducive political arena for the emergence of result-driven leaders who have the above desired attributes. Therefore, they are confronted with a challenge of providing effective leadership for the struggle.

d. Parochialism/Regionalism
Some manifestation of parochialism or regionalism is being felt within the camp of the liberation movement. Unfortunately, such a manifestation is hurting the national struggle and thus blurring the focus on Oromummaa (Oromo nationalism).

To set the record straight, parochialism or regionalism is not manifested within the general Oromo public. The following groups mainly fans it.
  • The enemy camp: the TPLF regime and its cohorts use the card of regionalism to create a political chasm between Oromo liberation forces and also to dilute the ever more solid Oromummaa within our society.

  • The disgruntled “Oromo nationalists”: these are elements in the Oromo liberation forces who attempt to get to the helm of political power in an organization but cannot make it through a set of procedures and democratic process and use regionalism to cut corners. They are nationalists in daylight but regionalists at night lurking in the dark to rally around them their 'regional constituencies' (Olaa, ganda, balbala, gosa, laga, etc.) for using them as a ladder to power. For all intents and purposes, some are leading what appears to be not national but more of regional organizations.

Unless such a tendency is nipped in the bud and dealt with appropriately, it would remain a serious challenge for the Oromo liberation struggle.

e. Religious extremism
As in regionalism, religious fanaticism is not prevalent or has no root within the ordinary members of the Oromo society. Both Christian or Islam extremism manifested within some circles of the Oromo society are injected in the fabric of the society by external forces. These forces are using both religions as a means to perpetuate the annexation of the Oromo nation. The current TPLF-regime of Ethiopia is a prime force that encourages in every way possible tendencies of religious fanaticism to spread and send a deep root in our society. As indicated earlier, its objective is to undermine the Oromo nationalism. For this purpose, it is helping the spread of the two religious fanaticisms as follows:
  • It is financing and deploying its cadres disguised as devotees of Christian faith (of various denominations) to spread 'Christian teaching' to pacify Oromo nationalism particularly among the Oromo youth.

  • It is using Islam as a double-edged tool. On one hand it is giving a green light to fanatic forces to spread extremist version of Islam in Oromiyaa in order to get Oromo nationalism diluted and tainted with such religious tendencies. On the other hand it comes through as if it does not tolerate such religious manifestations and often use it as a pretext to crackdown on Oromo nationalists by linking them with organizations of religious zealots or terrorists.
Therefore, Oromos who inadvertently get in such traps of the TPLF not only withdraw from the Oromo movement but they challenge the whole endeavour of the movement as futile earthly and not heavenly pursuit. Not only to the liberation struggle, these forces adulterate institutions of genuine Oromo followers of both Christian and Islam faith and pose serious challenges for free development of such institutions.

4.3.2- Challenges from within the Oromo society
Within the Oromo society whether or not induced by the colonizing force, there are a number of factors that present themselves as challenges to the national struggle. However, the most notable ones include the following:
  • High illiteracy rate: The fact that the majority of the Oromo population is functionally illiterate gives some ground for the enemy forces to manipulate this sector of our society. Also, to a degree, it exacts substantial efforts of liberation forces to educate, organize, and deploy them to participate in the national movement.

  • Organizational inexperience: Although it is mainly the colonizers to blame for the organizational inexperience of the Oromo people of different facets of life, the fact that the Oromos lack some dynamism in getting organized in political, economic, and social arena to protect their collective interest is a hindrance to expeditiously and effectively organize them for the struggle.

  • Agrarian society: The fact that the vast majority of the Oromo society is agrarian and not industrial and urbanized has quite an implication in mobilizing effective and revolutionary organized force for the movement.

5. Opportunities of the Oromo liberation struggle

While the Oromo national liberation struggle has its myriad of challenges as discussed earlier, it has also considerable opportunities when we look at the positive side of the ledger of the struggle. Over the years, the national struggle has scored significant achievements that, if exploited properly and on a timely fashion, would further render the struggle with ample opportunities that give it a quantum leap. Some of these gains include:
  • The growing consciousness of the Oromo people: In the history of our liberation struggle, the Oromo people have never been as conscious as they are today. As a people they clearly know and understand that they are subjects of Abyssinian colonial force; that it is only through bitter struggle that they can regain their freedom; that their collective interests are protected only through collective efforts as an organized force.

  • The growing level of Oromo nationalism: Oromo nationalism is at its all time high. The sentiment of Oromummaa and the burning desire and effort to liberate Oromiyaa is on the rise.

  • The unity of the Oromo people is ever more solid: Irrespective of a sinister work of the TPLF and Ethiopian forces to balkanize our people along regional and religious lines, the Oromos are much more unified as a people.

  • Oromo liberation forces have forged unity of purpose: Although the unity of purpose is not fully actualized in practical terms, a promising stride is being made in the right direction and that there is a clear unanimity among all forces in loudly echoing the need for unity.

6. Strategies that surmount challenges of the struggle and the prospect for liberation and freedom – 'The Road Map'

We have attempted to outline above major challenges that the Oromo national liberation struggle is entangled with. For the containment of these challenges, appropriate policy directions and strategies that the OLC considers are discussed below.

6.1- Vision and mission of the OLC

For a successful achievement of the goal of the Oromo national liberation struggle, the OLC has two intertwined visions. The first one is the actualization of the unity of purpose of the Oromo liberation forces. The second one is the enhancement of the organizational capacity and efficacy of the liberation forces.

With respect to the vision of unity of purpose, the OLC has made tremendous sacrifices to translate it into a resounding action. The mission of actualizing the vision was quite daunting. It meant a relentless effort on the part of the OLC to engage all liberation forces to buy into or share the vision. As a result, today, all liberation forces are echoing the need for the unity of purpose as a cornerstone or foundation for the success of the liberation struggle. Some spirit of cooperation is also being exhibited among the forces to translate the vision into action.

With the progress of unity of forces on the right direction, the OLC and other Oromo forces must focus on the vision of developing organizational capacity and efficacy. Without having all forces to embrace this vision and launching a mission on organizational capacity building, the Oromo national liberation struggle is destined to encounter a major setback sooner than later. Therefore, upholding the vision and launching the mission of revitalizing organizations of all liberation forces to suit the needs of the struggle is the most critical element that addresses the challenge of this phase of our struggle.

6.2- Policy/strategic guidelines for putting the camp of the Oromo national liberation struggle in order [internal campaign]

First and foremost, the struggle of the Oromo liberation forces can make any significant dent on the enemy forces (TPLF and its cohorts) only if the camp of the Oromo national liberation struggle is put in order. This would require a two-phase approach. Using the platform of the United Liberation Forces of Oromiyaa (ULFO), the forces need to deal with a lot of issues that are internally bleeding profusely the liberation struggle. They must buy into and implement a policy of constructive engagement. Should they have a burning desire to make any difference in the struggle, they must shade off the old approach to the struggle (the status quo - working in a secluded camp) and engage each other constructively for the good of the struggle and the nation.

Secondly, with real or perceived political difference or petty issues between the forces out of their way, they need to focus on translating the vision of building organization capacity of the liberation camp into resounding action. As indicated earlier, without making a major paradigm shift in the way organizations are constituted and function, without committing time and resources on this mission, without involving every nationalist Oromo soul to actively participate in this endeavour of bolstering the organizational arm of the Oromo national liberation struggle, it would be a futile attempt on the part of the liberation forces to win the enemy that has a considerable international backing.

6.2.1- Phase 1 of Internal Campaign: constructive engagement
Be it on a bilateral or multilateral basis or by involving all Oromo liberation forces, the process of constructive engagement must set in motion among the forces to winnow out, discuss, and get resolutions for all thorny issues preventing organizational consolidation of the liberation camp. Among many issues the following need immediate attention:
  • Ideological issue: What has ripped apart nationalist forces is the issue of “ideological difference”. This claim of ideological difference has been the cause for the creation of factions. This issue is so much fanned within the liberation camp as the most problematic one severely shackling the progress of the national struggle. It is therefore quite imperative for liberation forces that very strongly feel this difference to engage each other in:

    • Discussion involving two or more forces:

      To iron out any difference pertaining to ideology, the Oromo political forces must give it a serious thought to come together and discuss the issue. Such discussion/debate must yield a clear understanding of ideological differences, if any. Or it must give a clear indication whether the ideological difference is just a cover and there are other underlying issues that are causes for faction ridden Oromo political organizations.

    • Public discussion forums:

      To clear the air of confusion, suspicion, mistrust, misgivings, etc., that the general Oromo public has regarding the ideological leaning of some liberation forces, the Oromo political organizations must consider organizing forums for the public to fully and actively participate in the discussion/debate and learn where each liberation force stands on the issue. Forums must be organized in such a way that discourse will take place on the issue with the intent of addressing our national problem with great civility and forging a clear and preferably common understanding and conviction on the path our national struggle should assume. Giving the public a chance to have a say on the ideological issue and educating and guiding them on the most fitting ideological line of the Oromo national struggle would consolidate the political capital of the liberation endeavour.

  • Parochialism/regionalism: Any manifestation of regionalism in an organization that professes to be a nationalist one is a recipe for disaster for the organization in question and the camp of the national movement at large. Even at the perception level, it is exacting a heavy toll on the national struggle. It is becoming a cause for genuine nationalists to distance themselves from the sphere of the movement. Therefore, all forces must engage each other and the public in discussion on the implication of such a manifestation. It must also be combated through educating the rank and file of each organization and the public.

  • Religious Extremism: Oromummaa, which is a secular ideology, is a driving force behind the Oromo national struggle. The Oromo culture of tolerance, acceptance and accommodation provides political and religious freedom. Oromo political forces must understand that faith and religion is an individual affair and that our struggle for freedom is a national affair. As well, Oromo political forces must be aware of global trends regarding the spread of extremist international religious movements that can impact our struggle. In particular, our enemies would have an opportunity to sow a seed of discord and disharmony among us in order to weaken our unity and resolve for bilisummaa. Therefore, Oromo liberation forces must understand the complication that such tendencies could bring to the arena of our struggle and that they must confront the issue and nip it in the bud.

  • The attitude of resignation/ withdrawal: One of the most notable issues that the camp of the liberation movement must deal with very aggressively is the attitudinal swing of liberation forces and individual nationalist Oromos. In the process of any revolutionary struggle there are highs and lows. Showing their glaring presence during gains of the struggle or withdrawing or resigning from the sphere of struggle when it encounters setbacks and loses momentum appears to be typical characteristics of some liberation forces as organizations and also some nationalist Oromos as individuals. Such an attitude must change. Perseverance in every endeavour of the national struggle is required from each, as an organization or as an individual. Succumbing to tactical loss of the struggle must be dealt with. Hopelessness, blame and counter blame must not blur our focus. The erosion of the human capital through withdrawal or resignation must be curbed.
6.2.2- Phase 2 of Internal Campaign – Organizational capacity building
As indicated earlier, the progress of the Oromo national liberation struggle is so much hampered mainly because of its limited organizational capacity and efficiency. In order to give the struggle the necessary impetus, all liberation forces must engage in the mission of organizational capacity building. Just as in the case of the campaign for the unity of the liberation forces, the mission of revamping the organizational capacity of the liberation struggle must commence immediately. In this respect, be it as an individual organization or collectively, the following measures must be considered in the process of capacity building.
  • Self-assessment: Each organization must self-assess itself and evaluate its deficiencies as an organization.

  • Correcting deficiencies: Each organization must strive to correct any deficiencies or fill any voids within it self. Where and when this is not possible on its own, it must seek help from other forces in the liberation camp. All forces must also lend their hands to an Oromo organization that endeavours to develop and pitch in its fair share towards the national struggle. A symbiotic relation such as this must be nurtured within the liberation camp. The effort of any one of the organizations must not be seen as a competition. It must be rather seen as a complement to the national struggle.

  • Establishing working relationship. As a confidence building measure, the Oromo liberation forces must begin developing and working on common projects.

  • Merging organizations: The liberation forces must create conditions for merger of two or more organizations. They must consider a gradually merger of organizations that forged better understanding and working relationships.

  • Allocating resources for organization capacity building: As a group, the Oromo liberation forces must allocate resources for building the capacity of their individual organizations and as well as their umbrella organization- ULFO. They must use such a resource to create and provide education and information sharing sessions on the subject of building organization and enhancing efficiency.

  • Promoting democratic practices: They must cultivate intra and inter organizational democratic values and practices that can draw the human capital (resource), the pillar of organizations, to the struggle.

  • Developing a meticulous plan: In order to create a capable organization (s) that suit (s) the Oromo national struggle, the liberation forces must study and put together a master plan. This plan must be implemented, reviewed, improvised as deemed necessary.

6.3- Policy/strategy of engaging the enemy in multitude of fronts [external campaign]

When the Oromo liberation forces resolve their internal challenges and put the camp of the freedom movement in order, build their organizations to appropriate capacities, and formulate clear policies or develop strategies for the containment of external challenges, the day of liberation of Oromiyaa will be much sooner. With this conviction, policies that the liberation forces should consider adopting and strategies they should develop to counter or tackle challenges the Oromo national liberation struggle faces at various fronts from external enemies are briefly presented below.

6.3-1. On political front
  • As a matter of political program or as a policy each Oromo liberation force must be able to indicate clearly the objective of the struggle. Not only individually but all forces must collectively state unambiguously the ultimate goal of the struggle. They must not flip flop or shy away from firmly stating that the national struggle is to free Oromiyaa from Ethiopian colonialism. Making this crystal clear for friends and foes would help as a basis to formulate a sound policy for the struggle.

  • The political struggle of the Oromo liberation forces is to fight the political injustice imposed upon the Oromo nation by the TPLF-regime and other Abyssinian forces. The Oromo struggle is for freedom and justice and as such it is a just struggle. The TPLF and its cohorts that endeavour to mask this reality through its propaganda machine must be combated.

  • The international community, particularly western countries that work with and provide political support to the TPLF-regime, must be made aware of the nature of the Oromo national struggle. The Oromo liberation forces must set the record straight that the national struggle, unlike the TPLF allegation, is not to create regional political instability and disrupt piece in the Horn region. It must be made clear to them through all venues that the self-determination that the Oromo nation struggles for actually brings piece and stability in the region.

  • The neighbouring Horn of African states must not be swayed by the propaganda of Ethiopian state that the liberation of Oromiyaa would bring chaos to the region. They must be assured that liberated Oromiyaa would have a policy of good neighbourliness that promotes the atmosphere of peaceful coexistence.

  • Nations neighbouring Oromiyaa must be guaranteed that Oromiyaa would enter into a political arrangement that meets the interest of all nations that is much better and democratic than what Ethiopia offers. Also national minorities must be guaranteed full citizenship right.

  • The Oromo liberation forces as a group must have an open door policy for negotiation and peaceful settlement of the national questions but not short of independence of Oromiyaa. As a solid entity with a defined goal, they must not shy away from politically engaging reformist political forces within Ethiopia in order to advance the cause of the Oromo movement. In every opportunity, they must assert to them that the freedom of the Oromo nation would set in motion the emergence of a much better political order within and beyond the Ethiopian empire and that it must not be feared but supported.

  • The Oromo liberation forces must collectively have a policy in place to politically deal with Oromo nationals working in the enemy camp. Such a policy must be one that does not ostracize these nationals and leave them to end up serving the enemy forces for forever.
6.3-2. On economic front
  • The policy of the TPLF-regime that is reducing the Oromo and other oppressed peoples to a grinding poverty must be exposed to peoples of Ethiopia and its international backers.

  • All Oromo liberation forces must consider issuing collectively a detailed economic policy document that clearly spells out that a liberated Oromiyaa would pursue a liberalized economy that doesn't constrain any sector of the Oromo national economy and put at economic disadvantage other peoples in the region who depend on or have close link with the economy of Oromiyya. Such policy document must dislodge all myths that a liberated and independent Oromiyaa means a disaster or lose of livelihood for all peoples in the region who have economic ties with Oromiyaa. It must indicate that a liberated Oromiyaa would create a condition where better economic opportunities for all peoples in the region prevail.

  • The TPLF-regime is hurting the Oromo national liberation struggle because it has all the economic resources of Oromiyaa and the Ethiopian state all by itself to command and control and to use such resources to quash the freedom movement of the Oromo people and other oppressed nations. To counter such a state, the Oromo liberation forces must in unison work to mobilize the human and economic resources of Oromiyaa.

  • As resource mobilization can be effected through viable and strong organization, the Oromo liberation forces must urgently act on building their organizational capacity and begin tapping into financial and human resource of Oromos in Oromiyaa and the Diaspora, civic, community, professional, religious Oromo organizations.
6.3-3. On defence
  • The Oromo liberation forces must make it clear to the international community that the Oromo nation is a peaceful nation and not a violent one. It must be stated that it is the Abyssinian colonial rulers who perpetrate violence on the Oromo nation. The nation is in the pursuit of defending its inalienable rights in all it can. In this defence posture, the world need to and ought to support the victim and not the colonizer – the TPLF-led Ethiopian regime.

  • The Oromo liberation forces must cease conducting a fragmented arm struggle. They must expedite the process of building and launching one Oromo National Liberation Army (ONLA). We have heard laud and clear that the message of the TPLF-regime over the last 12 years is that it can rule the Oromo people by traumatizing and terrorizing them. It has displayed no interest to resolve the Oromo issue peacefully. In light of this, the Oromo people desperately need a defender and a force that protect them and free them from the barbaric rule of Ethiopian regimes. That force must be a force of national statue – ONLA.
6.3-4. On diplomatic front
The diplomatic front is an area where the Ethiopian colonialists have had advantage over the Oromo nation since the day of annexation of Oromiyaa. This is the venue they have been using to relegate the existence of the Oromo nation from the world scene, to silence the voice of the Oromo people. The Oromo liberation forces must in one voice knock at every door of all key political movers and shakers, particularly western leaders to expose and undo the sinister actions of the TPLF-regime and its lackeys.

6.3-5. On academic front
In the area of academia, the enemy forces have been campaigning to defame our culture and history through literature. The camp of Oromo liberation forces must engage and counter them at all academic corners. We commend the Oromo Studies Association (OSA) in being at the forefront in re-writing the distorted history of our people and introducing our culture, language and democratic heritage to the world academic stages. However, as an academic association and as a highly educated pool that our society count on for direction and wisdom, much more is expected from OSA both in academic arena and in addressing the challenges of the national liberation struggle. All Oromo liberation forces must also contribute their fair share in this front.

7. The commitment of OLC

The Oromo Liberation Council, as stated in its program, is committed to playing a considerable role in the Oromo national liberation struggle. Aside from directly involving in the struggle, it would also take upon itself the responsibility of playing a catalytic role within the camp of the liberation struggle. It would go extra mile to constructively engage all forces to focus and work towards enhancing the unity of purpose of the liberation forces. It would make a relentless effort to push the agenda of organizational capacity building. To give our struggle a solid foundation, it would, in collaboration with other forces, mobilize the Oromo mind that can chart out concrete course of actions for consolidating unity and building organizational capacity. It would remain the voice of reason and contribute all what it can to the enhancement of our struggle. It so doing, it would expect and demand from other liberation forces and civic, community, professional, and religious Oromo organizations to pitch in their fair share to the struggle.

8. Summary

The road to liberation of Oromiyaa would be clearer and less tortuous if all liberation forces have a clear goal for the national struggle. While this is what basically the struggle is anchored on, the liberation forces also need to overcome their internal challenges and put the camp of the liberation movement in order. With internal challenges wisely and patiently handled and organizational consolidation is well achieved, they can undoubtedly lead the struggle to a successful end.

The TPLF-regime and its backers have an edge over the Oromo national liberation forces in two areas: resource and organization. They have much more resource and better organized. In order to counter the TPLF in all fronts, the forces in the camp of the Oromo national liberation movement must obviously get better organized and mobilize the human, material, and financial resources that the struggle critically needs.

The opportunity of liberating Oromiyaa from the Ethiopian colonial conquest has come and gone at several moments in our history. We lost the opportunity merely because we were ill prepared organizationally. Another opportunity could come sooner or later. Unless we put our acts together as a people chances are that we could again stumble. In summary, we must see no other choice but forge a spirit of enhanced national cooperation and equip the Oromo national struggle with effective organization that gives birth to effective leadership that in turn leads the nation to successfully attain its cherished goal: bilisummaa.

:: The Oromo Liberation Council (OLC) ::

 
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