Mereja Forum

[Qurunde]

(Review of Part I of Medemer)

The book titled “Medemer” and written by Ethiopian Prime Minister Dr. Abiy was launched on October 19, 2019 at a Millennium Hall in Addis Ababa (Finfinne). At a launching ceremony, the Author and Prime Minster of Ethiopia Dr. Abiy Ahmed cut a cake baked by the Government owned Hotel and Tourism Training Institute under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The ceremony was also streamed live on the Government owned Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation’s TV channel. I hope the cost of the cake and other costs of the launching ceremony were not paid from public funds because Medemer condemns “tie wearing thieves in government offices” who use public resources for their personal benefits and take bribes. I also hope that neither public resources were used for the publication and distributions of the book nor gifts were accepted under the cover of “sponsor” for these purposes because corruption is one of the red-lines of Medemer.

The proceeds from the sale of the book is said be used for the expansion of education in rural Ethiopia and I hope there are many Authors, including myself, who are willing to donate their books for such social development purposes if they get similar support, coverage, and publicity because the aim of some of the Authors is to share ideas more than getting income from the sale of their books. According to Dr. Abiy, Medemer was written to save Ethiopia from vanishing. In fact, it is not surprising to hear politicians saying they did this and that for the benefit of the people.The former Prime Minister of Ethiopia Hailemariam Dessalegn who failed to govern the country and forced to resign told us that he resigned for the benefit of Ethiopian peoples. President Evo Morales of Bolivia who was forced to resign also claimed that he resigned for the benefit of the Bolvian people.

On the launching ceremony, Dr. Abiy disclosed that he has four published books under the pen name of “DRAZ” and Medemer is his fifth published book and the first book published under his real name. Writing a book by politicians to win election or to stay in power is not a new thing. Last year, in 2018, one of Madagascar’s multi-millionaire and politician Andry Rajoelina wrote a book which has 271 pages and titled “Initiative pour l’Emergence de Madagascar” (Initiative for the Emergence of Madagascar (IEM)) in which he outlined his political and campaign programs. He used his money and IEM to win Madagascar’s 2018 Presidential electionand became the President of Madagascar in January 2019. IEM was Rajoelina’sand hisparty’s (TanoramalaGasy Vonona(TGV)or Young Malagasies Determined) vision written with the help of international and national experts to seek a concrete solution for Madagascar's development . Unlike IEM, Medemer is said to be a philosophy and written by one man for sale like any other books.

In his October 29, 2019 article written in Amharic and titled “ካለንበት ወዴት?”,Major Dawit Woldegiorgis listed some of African leaders who wrote a book and claimed that they are philosophers and teachers of political philosophy . His list includes Muammar Gaddafi of Libya who wrote a book titled “Direct Democracy”,Yahya Jammeh of Gambia who wrote a book titled “Patriotic Reorientation and Construction”, and Mobutu SeseSeko of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) who wrote a book titled “Authenticite”. These African leaders“followed” Plato’s advice in which he said the best form of government is that which is ruledby “philosopher king”; thus the kings (the rulers) should become philosophers or that philosophers should become kings (rulers).

In his Medemer book launching speech Prime Minister Dr. Abiy invited comments and critiques on the book. This makes him different from the rest of “African philosopher kings” and may be help to save Ethiopia from becoming another Libiya or another D. R. Congo. This review/comment is in response to Dr. Abiy’s invitation to offer comments and critiques. In addition, Dr. Abiy said that the contest for the next Ethiopian election will be based on the written and bounded ideas. Therefore, we need to carefully evaluate the ideas which are written and bounded and presented to us by our politicians so that we will be able to differentiate those who stand for our interest from those who try to cheat us.

Read More here: http://aigaforum.com/article2019/Book-R ... y-Abiy.htm

[tolcha]

I know politics is prostitution, and politicians are prostitutes. I don't read. I don't care if it has dead end or red end!!!

[Masud]

Medemer 101 for Freshmen

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[Qurunde]

I know politics is prostitution, and politicians are prostitutes. I don't read. I don't care if it has dead end or red end!!!

Dear Tolcha,
You have all the right not to read. My interest to share doesn't create an obligation on you to read.

[Za-Ilmaknun]

I have yet to read the Medemer book but the teret-teret conjured up here by this critique is overly political and misleading: Here are some of the points :

"the Author said something is created by coming together of small things, from their accumulation and this is what is called Medemer. This is why pro-federal system groups are suspicious to the idea of Medemer. They are wary of what Prime Minister is doing and see Medemer as his plan to take the country back to the unitary system where power is accumulate at the center.

This critique is desperately trying to discredit the whole concept of medemer based on a narrative that is contrary to what is argued in the concept. How is Federalism nullified by coming together of the units of the country to promote the common objectives of the society at large?

"I wish he showed us how Medemer which advocates for coming together can address the needs of the majority where Socialism which is based on the principle of "Workers of the world unite![/b]" failed. He argues introducing Liberalism to a country with illiterate and hungry population is wrong. I wish he explained in this chapter how Medemer fits to a country with illiterate and and hungry population"

Again here comes a very simplistic understanding or intentional distortions. Workers of the world unit mantra omits other sections of the society especially in countries like ours where the working class was a very minute portion of the society. To my understanding medemer dwells on the synergistic relationships of individual forces, societal forces, culture and context to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects.

"The Author explained the benefit of building upon the achievement of the past instead of destroying what were done in the past and focusing on the clearing the debris of the past. He also repeated the explanation about the benefit of building on the achievements of the past on page 57. If that is the case, why wasting that much time and energy to destroy what were done by EPRDF, especially revising the federal structure, selling public enterprises and ongoing projects.

This critique seems to assume that a system that is designed to primarily benefit some and bankrupt the majority of the country has to be left alone for eternity. This does assume that adjusting systems and making changes to correct failures is tantamount to destroying the system in its entirety. What has been good for TPLF and marginalized others have to be perpetuated for the medemer concept to be accepatble is the underlying assessment by such phonies. Most of the public Enterprises have been sold or transferred to party business conglomerates such as EFFORT by the public enterprises privatization agency created by Meles Zenawi since the coming to power of TPLF. Why was it right when done by the dons and wrong now when the Abiy administration is doing same?

[Qurunde]

"Many Ethiopians argue the book titled “MEDEMER’ is an Amharic translation of the idea of the EPRDF’s developmental state economic INTEGRATION (Amharic, MEDEMER). Others argue, the name and the idea of the Prosperity party (Medemer Party) is plagiarized form the religious doctrine of the prosperity Gospel. Others say it is a cocktail of other books and thoughts as well.

Whether Abiy Ahmed is a philosopher or a plagiary, a reformer or a deformer, a seventh Ethiopian king or a puppet team leader, an actor of political prostitute or an actor of treason is up to the Ethiopian people to judge. But, Abiy should not excessively lament on the death or abortion of the Medemer party or prosperity party. He should have explained about his book or self-blame rather than crying on his own mistakes.

According to the Washington post newspaper in its edition titled “Prosperity Gospel”, the prosperity Gospel is dubbed as “the worst ideas of the decade”. The main reason is “You cannot serve two masters” (1 Timothy 6:10). Either you love the root of all evil or the root of all truth.

Likewise, I call the prosperity party (Medemer party) the worst deception in the history of Ethiopian politics. The team prosperity party that consists of about 4 members is dead before it is born. The nature of the prosperity party is deception, pretention, undemocratic, Unitarian system and oppressive. They have changed their party names three times in one calendar year. First, they came to power as EPRDF, and then they became Democratic Party, now they are changing to a prosperity party."

Read more here:http://www.tigraionline.com/articles/ab ... rized.html

[Qurunde]

Ze-Ilmakum,
Thank you for the nice insight/comment.

[Qurunde]

"የኢትዮጵያ ፖለቲካዊና ማኅበራዊ ቀውስ መፍታት የሚቻለው በመደመር ፍልስፍናዊ አስተሳሰብ ሳይሆን የጋራ ግብ አልያም የዓላማ አንድነት ሲኖር ነው። የተለያዩ የፖለቲካ ፓርቲዎችን ‹‹በመጨፍለቅ›› የሚመጣ ሀገራዊ ለውጥና አንድነት የለም። በኢትዮጵያ ውስጥ አሁን ያለው አንኳር ጥያቄ የማንነት እና የራስን እድል በራስ የመወሰን ሆኖ ሳለ፣ ኢህአደግ የተያያዘው የውህዴት ወይም የመደመር ፖለቲካዊ ፍልስፍና ተግባራዊ የሚሆንበት መንገድ ፈጽሞ የለም። ምክንያቱም፣ ሕዝባዊ ድጋፍ የለውምና ነው!

የኢትዮጵያ እንድነት ሊኖር የሚችለው በሕዝቦቿ ፍቃድ እንጂ አንድም በመለኮታዊ ፍቃድ፣ ሁለትም የተለያዩ የፖለቲካ አመለካከት ያላቸውን ፓርቲዎችን በግድ/በስምምነት አንድ ላይ በ‹‹መጨፍለቅ›› አይደለም። ‹‹ሀገራዊ መተማመን እና መግባባት የሚኖረው አንድ ቋንቋ፣ ባህል እና ሃይማኖት ያለው አንድ ወጥ የሆነ ሕዝብ መፍጠር ሲቻል ነው›› የሚል ግልብ ፍልስፍናዊ አስተሳሰብ ለኢትዮጵያ ሕልውና በጣም አደገኛ ነው። በኢትዮጵያ ፖለቲካዊ ፍልስፍና ታሪክ ውስጥ ለማንነት ፖለቲካ ስር መስደድና መስፋፋት አሐዳዊ-ሥርዓት ዋነኛ ምክንያት መሆኑ እየታወቀ፣ ኢህአደግ ምን ዓይነት ‹‹አንድነት›› ወይም ‹‹ውህዴት›› እንደሚፈልግ ግልጽ አይደለም።

ኢትዮጵያዊ_ብሔርተኝነት በብሔር ማንነት ላይ የተመሠረተ እንጂ ከሕዝቡ ታሪካዊ አድማስ (historical horizon) ተነጥሎ ያለ/የሚኖር ነገር አይደለም። ‹‹ኢትዮጵያዊነት ረቅቅ ነው!›› የሚሉ ግለሰቦች የሰው ልጅ ሕልውና (ontological characterstics of human existence) ምን መሆኑን ያልተገነዘቡና በምዕራቡ ‹‹ዓለም›› ፍልስፍናዊ አስተሳሰብ ምክንያት ለህልና ባርነት የተዳረጉ ማንነት-አልቦ ሰዎች ናቸው። በመጀመሪያ፣ የብሔር ማንነት ጽንሰ-ሐሳብ የደም ትስስር ያላቸውን ሰዎች አያመለክትም። ይልቅስ ብሔርተኝነት በረዥም ዘመናት በኢትዮጵያ ሕዝቦች የእርስ በርስ ግንኙነት ሂደት ውስጥ የተፈጠረ ታሪካዊና ማህበራዊ ክስተት ነው። ስለዚህ፣ ከታሪክና ከባህል ነጥለን መገንዘብ የሚንችለው ኢትዮጵያዊ ማንነት ፈጽሞ ሊኖር አይችልም።"

Read more here: http://ayyaantuu.org/%e1%8b%a8%e1%88%98 ... s-reducti/

[Damte]

አርብ ታትሞ እና ተመርቆ በእሁድ እለት በህዝብ የተቃጠለው ብቸኛ መጽሃፍ "መደመር"።