Seeye Abraha, Ethiopia�s National Treasure, speaks Truth to Power: An outline of Seeye�s New Thinking.

By Tedros Kiros, PhD
January 7, 2007

A pensive mind seasoned by the gallantry of war and the maturity bestowed by time sits at STARBUCKS cafe surrounded by a group of adoring friends giving him the company and comfort that he lacked while he was wallowing in an Ethiopian prison, for six hard years.  The thinker in despair, the fearless military hero who rocked the Ethio- Eritrean Terrain, sat alone, weighing it all, and speaking to time, through the language of memory.

That was Seeye Abraha, medium height, cool, with bright fierce eyes destined to see truth and compel the brave tongue to speak truth to power.

When I first met him in Cambridge, I was star struck for a long while. Unable to speak, but willing to listen to this frail body, hardened by time, I sat speechless. Suddenly the mighty soldier thinker made it easy, as words began flowing out of him with a characteristic lucidity, befitting a statesman of good breeding. 

With a measured tone, given only to gifted orators, he said, � I have known you in spirit for a long time, and even read some of your articles in the Ethiopian reporter�and I so much want to know the learned members of my country..�

Thus begun my acquaintance with Seeye, and I had the honor of spending five days with him in Washington D. C, and then attended a conference where he gave a tantalizing speech framed by thought and propelled by measured passion.

He spoke at the Hilton Hotel in Crystal city- to a civilized crowd of 2000 people.

Ladies and gentlemen, he said,

� I developed my country�s leading party, the EPRDF, the very party that I founded has now criminalized me. I was imprisoned, but thanks to my loving people, who protested and wrote on my behalf, I am now free. I will not rest, however, until all those political prisoners who are languishing in prison are released, as there are hundreds of them. The regime falsely calls them hoodlums and criminals. I call them political prisoners, indeed, they are prisoners of conscience�.

He raised his passion voice and added,

� Please do not forget these prisoners.�

Thus began the two half-hour long oration, stimulating from beginning to end.  He recounted the brutal fact that although he is formally free, the regime is keeping him under a radar screen, his house is patrolled twenty four hours a day, his moves are monitored with frightening precision, all those who meets are afterwards interrogated, his former friends, including those thousands of soldiers who secretly love the military genius, refuse to exchange a syllable with him.  His former employees were fired when they refused to testify against him when he was falsely accused of corruption.

The details of his everyday life as he described them to various individuals in the last four days reminded me of George Orwell�s, 1984, particularly Winston, the main character that the regime criminalized and kept in check through meticulous observation, and through the minute observation, sought to inhibit his movements, his dreams and his ideals.  Mr.� Seeye is also subjected to the same harsh reality. Formally free, Mr. Seeye remains the object of the gaze of power. His freedom is incomplete, and he is now determined to covert that abstract freedom into real freedom in concert with the Ethiopian people.  The speech provided Mr. Seeye�s outline of New Thinking.

Before he plunged to turn the pages of the outline of New Thinking, he asked his brother, Mr. Daniel Yohannes, a famous ex-President of US Bank- the sixth biggest Bank in the US, with a quiet and dignified demneour to stand to an admiring crowd, and thanked him for supporting his family during and after the demeaning years of imprisonment. He made a point to let the audience know that he is now penniless but chose the routes of dignity and service to country, while working with Mr. Meles Zenawi, Mr. Zenawi turned against him. Mr.Meles Zenawi and Mr. Seeye Abraha were two brilliant students at the University as well comrade in arms during the peaceful years of the tyrannical regime. 

The New Thinking refuses to say no to power, no to docility, and yes to political action disciplined by thought and fired by injustice.  We Ethiopians need New Thinking, he declared to an aroused audience.  New Thinking seeks to draw from the values of classical Ethiopian personality: respect for tradition, tenacity, resistance and cultural pride. The new politics of cynicism, he argued, must be replaced by a new politics of engagement and hope. I am very proud he declared, to seek to set new standards of political excellence with dignity and integrity, a politics that resists oppression by risking once life. Whereas the regime sought to him as an example of what might happen to those who dare to speak truth to power, he takes great pride in resisting oppressive power through reasoned courage, and setting standards of political excellence. 

Mr. Seeye says yes to life with dignity and no to prosperity with corruption.  The new politics of cynicism, which is producing youth who do not dream, and dissenters who are imprisoned for their convictions, ought to give way to a new national party, which will sculpt citizens with dreams and the right to live them.

He declared that his freedom is not complete.  He said, �I am formally free but concretely unfree. But I am committed to convert this freedom into a real one, with you Ethiopians. Together we can forge a new Ethiopia from the mosaic of its ethnicities and nationalities.�  Furthermore, he said, the New National party should use ethnicity positively.  He advised that Ethnicity should not divide the Ethiopian nation. . When propelled by a clean heart, ethnicity can unite us.   Central to that unity is the idea of a united Ethiopia composed of individuals with rights, the rights to dream, to dissent and to speak truth to power.

The regime preaches that it is democratic, republican and federalist. The regime is not any of these. The idea of federalism is used not to check power by power by dividing power into the legislative, executive and judicial branches, in the great spirit of the American founding fathers.  Rather, the executive branch dominates the other two branches inorder to centralize power into its bosom, and thus obliterates the inner core of democracy, and plants the seeds of tyranny.

Furthermore, the contemporary regime is increasingly becoming tyrannical and its citizens are gradually becoming docile. For Mr. Seeye, docility is contributing to contemporary Ethiopia�s political malaise. He contended however that a new political landscape could dawn if the following conditions are met.

Ethiopians must reject the politics of division and cleanse their hearts and begin afresh and learn new political virtues of listening to one another with respect and vigilance. Respect, vigilance, listening attentively must be practiced as new habits. A reasoned dialogue free of domination must address differences and visions.

That Ethiopians should busily participate in the civic spheres and develop organizing structures where abstract freedom could become real freedom that controls the excesses of the highly centralized state, which governs by intimidating and controlling political space through the instrument of a sham federalism.

Tolerance is the ultimate medium through which we learn how to live with our differences, and mechachal (Tolerance) must be the goal of dialogue. We should learn the difficult art of learning from others by listening attentively and respectfully. Intolerance is precisely what is destructively contributing to our disunity and to the benefit of those who are governing us by dividing us.

The new national party is a party of unity through tolerance.   He said, � A divided house is useless.� The crowd broke into laughter, when he said, � I am sure you are in utter disbelief that these words of peace are coming from a military leader used to settling differences through the gun. But you must believe that I can also settle differences through reasoned dialogue�, and that is how the military genius spoke as a potential statesman, and a seasoned politician.

The crowd loved the change.  He told them further that he is a changed man, a man who will continue to learn from his mistakes. As he put, � I will never say I will not make mistakes. I have participated in mistaken decisions that the party that I founded made. I will make mistakes again and continue to grow from them� This new tone appeared to be unusual to an Ethiopian audience, who has never heard a notable leader admitting mistake and willing to correct them every time mistakes are made. This too is a brilliant feature of the new party of the future.   He assured the crowd that his stance on Eritrea separates the duty of respecting the Eritrean people from the oppressive regime that must be changed by force if necessary. He contended that the war against Eriritrea, which he commanded masterfully was aborted half way, but the regime in power stood on his way. Had he been permitted to finish the job, Ethiopia and Eritrea could have been spared of two oppressors, two poverties, and new wars He was prevented from finishing the job militarily by removing the oppressor, and the job was half done, and Ethiopians are now paying the price; similarly he firmly denounced the regime for its involvement in Somalia as a political suicide.  He is committed to the combat of terrorism by other means, short of an entrenched stay, which is endangering Ethiopian lives. He cried in his heart when he saw dead Ethiopian bodied being dragged on the streets of Somalia.  Mr. Seeye, reiterated that the ultimate solution to the Eritrean question is a lasting blend of firmness and diplomacy, aiming at ending the poverty of the people of these two nations.  He called this solution a win-win situation as opposed to a zero- sum game.

The speech turned toward an articulation of his goal, which he ably summarized into the following points.

(1) He will continue struggling for the release of all political prisoners, including his brother, Assefa Abraha.

(2) He will appeal to the regime to change its ways and revise its national agenda by opening the public sphere and encouraging dissent and allowing contestations and debates with a formidable national party.

(3) That his politics of forgiveness allows working with the prevailing regime, including its leader for the sake of national unity.  He harbors no bitterness, and is willing to work with all those leaders who love the Ethiopian people.

(4) The party of the future should use the idea of ethnicity positively as a source national strength and not the death of the Ethiopian nation through the venom of using ethnicity destructively.  He ended the speech by stressing that engaging the regime on any level is like walking on a sharp blade, but that he is prepared to die for a noble cause and that the new politics of excellence demands courage mixed with strategic thinking.  He advised the Ethiopian Diaspora to use its freedom and use the media and pressure the regime to change its ways by developing a new strategy of putting a united front organized under a national party.  This vision cannot take place if Ethiopians are divided and boxed in ethnic group busily fighting one another, he said.  He further advised that Ethiopians must use their classical virtue of tenacity to resist and fight oppression.

These dangerous times, which could lead to undesired results, must give to the politics of engagement and hope cemented on principled resistance.  He announced his plan to continue speaking truth to power by risking his life, if need be.  He appealed to learned Ethiopians and Eriritreans to forge new unity and solve their problems through reasoned dialogue, the centerpiece of his New Thinking.

After the speech was over with a standing crowd, attention was then turned to attend sixteen questions by engaged citizens.

The questions demanded answers to concerns revolving around  (1) asking forgiveness (2) The mistakes of TPLF (3) Peaceful struggle (4) the question of the rights of nationalities  (5) Supporting EPRDF (6) Federalism (7) Algiers Agreement  (8) Languages (9) The Tigreans  (10) The rule of Law  (11) Eritrea (12) Non- violent struggle (13) The Eritrean question and peaceful solutions (14) National party  (15) New democracy or a repeat of the same (16) Individuals and nationalities. He addressed them fully.

Most of the questions were addressed by the speech but I will highlight brief responses to answered questions and longer answers to newer ones.

(1) I have made mistakes, and I may make mistakes again. I made these mistakes as an          Ethiopian, which is his own measured way of apologizing to the nation.

(2)    Tigray is part of Ethiopia and that the pains of Tigreans ought to be looked at the pains of Ethiopians, and that the new politics of engagement should expand our horizons and not limit them. We must begin to suffer with any nationality of the Ethiopian nation. Their pains and triumphs belong to us all. We must learn the arduous task of empathy and compassion.

(3)     The question of peaceful solution, foreign to most of us, has not been fully studied. We must study this method carefully and use it as a tactic of resisting oppression and minimizing human death through violent struggle.

(4)     The respect of ethnicities is not racist; it is a nuanced way of respecting Ethiopians as members of different language groups and ways of living. Individuals did not choose to be born to ethnicities, but once they are so born, then we must respect their ways. Tolerance of differences is the answer to the question of ethnic rights.  Ultimately, there is no Ethiopian who is not blended with the Oromos who are spread across the spread of the nation, and that this fact demands our respect.  Thus the demand of the Oromos is not propelled by racism but ground on the fact that we are blended with the Oromo people.

(5)     Supporting or not supporting EPRDF is an expression of a political right, and not a matter of victimization by the propaganda of the party.

(6)     Federalism as used by the current regime is a tool of controlling political space by dividing Ethiopia into ethnic spheres. Indeed, this particular use is manifestly a destructive use of ethnicity as an instrument of division that contributes to the centralization of power in the hands of the powers to be.

(7)      I have taken a firm stance against the Algiers agreement as a grave mistake. 

(8)     Yes, EPRDF has divided the nation by using ethnicity destructively. Whether or not the Oromos should speak Latin will be discussed in the future by the Ethiopian people under the atmosphere of freedom and via reasoned dialogue, free of domination.

(9)     Tigreans are Ethiopians too. They should not be attacked for their ethnicity. Nor should Tigreans be denuded of their right to support other groups, other than TPLF. They are individuals first and members of ethnic groups second. Not all Tigreans are supporters of the existing regime by virtue of their being Tigrean, They have the right to choose Kinijit as the party of their hearts.

(10) The rule of law is a sham at the moment. The very laws that the regime crafted are the same that the regime is violating.  The idea of respect for the rule of law has to penetrate our national consciousness. We yet have to create a society governed by law.

       (11) I had no intention of taking over the Eritrean nation. The strategy on the behalf of both the Ethiopian and Eritrean people was to topple an oppressive regime that is disturbing the peace, and negotiating a reasoned solution impossible.

(12)      Hawzen was a tragedy for all Ethiopians.

(13)      Yes. The Eritrean question can be solved by a reasoned dialogue, which would benefit all parties. Both nations can gain from a peaceful solution that would allow Ethiopian to use the sea outlets and Eritrea to acquire a trading partner, a market for its goods.  These arrangement and mutually beneficial.

(14)       There are Ethiopians willing and capable of building a new national party out of the mosaic of its rich ethnicities and nationalities.

(15)       The new democracy will have to blend the best features of what we have built and an insertion of the totally new that united Ethiopians can forge.

(16)        The rights of the individual and the rights of nationalities are part of a single democracy and we are lacking in both, and when we can, we must satisfy both conditions.

These are highly condensed versions of full answers to excellent questions asked by a critically engaged and peacefully inclined audience, which gave the brilliant thinker its undivided attention, and thus ended a remarkable conference on a beautiful night in Crystal city, Virginia, on January 5, 2008.