Page 95 - Fighting Against the Injustice of the State and Globalization

Fighting Against the Injustice of the State and Globalization
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parliamentary system of government” and blames the opposition political organizations
for the Ethiopian political problem:“By refusing to engage in an electoral contest the op-
position is,with intention,denying legitimacy to the EPRDF-led regime and preventing
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the consolidation of democracy.”
In an attempt to delegitimize the Oromo struggle for
democracy and self-determination, Joireman also argues,“The Oromo have been given
their own region to administer and, theoretically, the right of self-determination up to,
and including,secession through the 1995 constitution.The OLF has refused to renounce
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violence and therefore cannot legally be recognised as a political party.”
These scholars
take at face value the Tigrayan-led regime’s assertion that it is committed to national self-
determination and democracy.Consequently,they conclude that any group opposing the
regime is against democracy and self-determination.This position is irresponsible.These
scholars naively or intentionally promote the ideological discourse of the Tigrayan-led
regime and its international supporters and blame the victims for the crises of the
Ethiopian empire.These statist intellectuals cannot see beyond the discourse of the rulers
and,in effect,legitimize human rights violations and state terrorism in the name of dem-
ocracy and self-determination.Any state policy must be evaluated not only for what it
proclaims on paper but for what it practices on the ground. Responsible scholars must at
the very least examine the evidence beyond claims of the state.
The development of the Oromo national movement has prevented the new colonial
ruling class from establishing ideological and political hegemony over the empire. States
that fail to establish ideological hegemony and political order are unstable and insecure.
Hence, they engage in state terrorism. 231 The main assumption of such regimes is that
they can control populations by destroying their leaders and culture of resistance.The
Meles regime accepts state violence against Oromos and others as a legitimate means of
establishing political stability in order to control Oromo territories and to exploit
Oromo economic resources. State terrorism is associated with the issues of control of
territory and resources and the construction of political and ideological domination. 232
Since there has been no Ethiopia without Oromia,the Tigrayan elites are determined to
violently destroy the Oromo national movement.What Annamarie Oliverio expresses
about state terrorism in general captures the essence of Ethiopian state terrorism:
First, the state reinforces the use of violence as a viable, effective, mitigating factor for
managing conflict; second, such a view is reinforced by culturally constructed and so-
cially organized processes, expressed through symbolic forms, and related in complex
ways to present social interests.Within increasing economic and environmental global-
ization . . . and the resurgence of nationalities within territorial boundaries, the discourse
of terrorism, as a practice of statecraft, is crucial to the construction of political bound-
aries.As such, terrorism is invoked in the art of statecraft when multiple, often conflict-
ing versions of the past are produced and, at particular historical moment, become sites
of intense struggle. 233
After controlling Oromos and their country, Oromia, for almost one century, the
Habasha elites are being challenged by an organized Oromo national movement.The
Meles regime, with the support of the West, carries out state terrorism against Oro-
mos because Oromos are in the process of radically redefining the relationship be-
tween Oromos and Ethiopians (particularly Amharas and Tigrayans), which is to
ideologically, culturally, and intellectually challenge Ethiopian cultural and ideolog-
ical hegemony.