Throughout
history, so many rulers have risen and fallen from the pinnacles of power. Among
a long list of rulers that have cruelly risen to eventually fall in the pits of
history for causing unimaginable misery, bloodshed, destruction and massive
displacement only within the last six decades, Meles and his predecessor easily
join their peers like Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Pol Pot, Mobutu, Milosevic or
Idi Amin.
It is
rare to find leaders that offer themselves as sacrificial lambs in defiance of
injustice and in defence of freedom. Our history has indeed been graced with
leaders that have contributed so much flesh and blood to unify Ethiopia and fend
off external invaders to preserve the independence and territorial integrity of
this tragic country. Nonetheless, Ethiopian history had never been blessed with
leaders like Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr., Mandela or Aung San Suu Kyi until
very recently.
Dictators like Meles
undoubtedly believe that they are born to rule, brutalize, dictate, control, define and
redefine the destiny of their victims. It defies logic how people who have
mobilized so many good-intentioned children of peasants and fought extremely
bloody and destructive wars in the name of equality and liberty have become
freedom’s worst enemies. Contrary to what narcissists like Meles may believe,
“Leaders are made, they are not born,” as Vince Lombardi once said. “They are
made by hard effort, which is the price all of us must pay to achieve any goal
that is worthwhile.”
Birtukan Mideksa is the
only leader known in the entire history of Ethiopia that has risen to defy
tyranny without raising arms or advocating violence in a rare show of character
and grace. In a poem she penned while languishing in Kaliti jail and read it
aloud after her release, the visionary young lawyer openly broke bad news that
the future does not belong to the dictator. Birtukan reminded him that the
future belongs to our children who must live not like slaves in bondage but in
liberty as free people. She defiantly offered her bosom for his bullets.
This is the kind of leader
Ethiopians have been waiting for. She has never committed a crime. Unlike the
woman beater dictator, who has condemned her to life imprisonment while he
enjoys the lap of luxury in the imperial palace sucking the blood of poor
Ethiopians, she has never been out to rob, kill or maim fellow citizens. In
stead, she has conscientiously chosen to rise up against a regime drenched with
blood and offered herself for the ultimate sacrifice so that her fellow citizens
held hostage in their own country will eventually live as free people. She is a
rare inspiration to millions who have been faced with mounting despair as almost
all the false Mandelas have fallen one after another. At a time when some
self-anointed leaders are calling Ethiopians to surrender and break asunder, she
emerged as the real symbol of Ethiopia’s epic resistance against a regime whose
ideologies seem to have been copied from the books of fascism and Apartheid.
Birtukan could have easily
avoided her current predicament by simply succumbing to the threats of the
dictators. She could have appeared on TV and fulfil the despot’s vain desire by
heaping praise on him as the almighty, gracious, merciful, magnanimous and
visionary ruler as he had expected her to do. She could have said that her
inalienable rights and freedom were not God-given but derived from his fake
pardon and forgiveness for the grave crimes that no one but he and his cronies
have committed with arrogance and impunity. Defying his expectations and hurting
his feelings, she preferred to suffer the consequences of telling the truth in
stead of validating and dignifying a fake pardon, which never was without the
crimes that she never committed.
Separated from her little
daughter and elderly mother, the heroine freedom fighter has not only posed a
challenge to the Ethiopian people, who have yet to unite to finish the rough
march to freedom, but also to civilized nations who have preferred to turn blind
eyes and collude to Byzantine tyranny in stead of living up to their true
creeds.
As Martin Luther King Jr.
once said: “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the
silence of our friends.” King’s words still echoes from the jails of Ethiopia as
leaders of the free world who have been preaching about liberty and making
promises to support the struggle against tyranny anywhere in the world have
preferred to befriend a brutal tyrant. They wine and dine with the dictator
messing up our homeland. They say he is a strategic ally that helps to fight
terrorism while they know full well that he is terrorizing and brutalizing the
poor people of Ethiopia.
While we join others to
celebrate Birtukan as person of the year, we should also recognize the fact that
she is an exceptional woman who will go into history as the freedom supernova of
our generation. Like a supernova, she is a rare phenomenon, an explosion of a
star that emits vast amount of energy.
Ethiopians, in and outside
of country, need to support this woman of extraordinary courage and leadership
that has given hope at a time of despair, courage at a time of fear, unity at a
time of divisive bickering and vision at a time of myopia that has brought down
those who have failed to live up to their own promises. Our destructive
politics, which is dominated by cynicism and self-mutilation, will certainly
change when leaders clearly know what they stand for.
Those who have been
consumed with self-destruction and bickering even within her party in stead of
unifying against the rise of Stalinism and Apartheid in our homeland should
remember a woman, who has chosen to suffer in harsh jails than kneeling down to
despotism. They ought to remember her words: “Indeed, living behind bars is
painful. I have felt pained, when hearing about the struggle of my fellow
country men; for being forced to experience it all vicariously, for being near
but far away from the terrain of the fight.” Her comrade-in-arms should take
inspiration from her and set their differences aside to finish the rough march
to freedom that they have chosen her to lead. If they fail to live up to their
own sermons, history will harshly judge them.
Election without the woman
who has already won the hearts and minds of Ethiopia can undoubtedly be elected to lead Ethiopia into a new era of deliverance
and freedom is unacceptable, unfair and illegal. Why will the people of Ethiopia
endorse the tyranny of those who are wilfully abusing, torturing and killing
them with arrogance and impunity? Why do tyrants need an election to please
donors and strategic allies rather than having a semblance of respect to their
victims?
Let freedom be a rallying cry
and the single most unifying cause against oppression, injustice, discrimination
and exploitation.
The Burmese pro-democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi once said: “It
is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who
wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.”
Ethiopia’s Aung San Suu Kyi is fearless, courageous and unyielding.
Shackled in the dictator’s
harsh and cold jail, Birtukan has challenged us all. “I am ready for sacrifice.
How about you?” It is a question that will resonate throughout Ethiopia’s
darkest seasons under tyranny. With humility, she has disarmed so many and have
proven that a single woman can make a huge difference. Birtukan symbolizes the
fact that tyranny and liberty are always irreconcilable.
Tyranny should not be
obeyed. It should be defied and rejected. In the end, the tyrants who have been
abusing the poor people of Ethiopia will be held accountable. History is a
witness to this inevitable fact as freedom eventually prevails over
dictatorship. Let all freedom loving Ethiopians draw resolve and energy from
Birtukan Mideka, who is undoubtedly, Ethiopia’s freedom supernova that
symbolizes our jailed aspiration for freedom and dignity in our own country. She
is the one who has proven herself to be worthy of being called a leader as all
the false prophets and Mandelas have disappeared into oblivion.
