Tedla Asfaw
Engineer Gizachew Shiferaw on last Sunday meeting (Sept. 16) in Arlington, Virginia confirmed for those who were there and most of us who listened the radio clip from VOA Amharic Service posted on the kinijitehtiopia.com web site that Kinijit has no leader but collective leadership the statement we heard several times from Andargatchew Tsige of the KIL while Engineer Gizachew and other Kinijit officials were in the Kaliti prison.
In the Western world we are living which Engineer Gizachew and most of us emulate, leaders shine in their party and will be picked to lead and there is nothing wrong about it and from our own experience there is a saying "Teketele Alekahene" and we also know that this leader is accountable to the people who voted for him in a democracy and will be a disaster in dictatorhip.
The campaign for May 2005 derailed election, individual candidates run on the platform of Kinijit and many got the peoples vote including Lidetu Ayalew which used it to make living as parliamentarian and we should not doubt that Ato Lidetu's appeal as a candidate was enhanced by running on Kinijit's ticket and we should not also doubt his personal appeal to voters.Charisma and trustworthiness was considered by the voters and some got large vote for their party which shows their popularity.
A party like Kinijit which accepts the supremacy of the voters mentioned several times on Dr. Birhanu's speech should practice it too by accepting the popular leader as a party leader and ignoring it equals to dictating the people in the name of collective leadership.
This leader will only be sidelined or fired from his position by the popular demand not by very few elected party members. Kinijit supporters in Ethiopia can not do this because they are not allowed to organize peacefully because TPLF has not forgotten May 8, 2005. This lack of freedom should not be exploited by few elected Kinijit officials to deny the people their charismatic leader.
We should not forget the people power that came supporting Kinijit on May 8, 2005 (Miazia 30) in Addis Ababa, Dr Birhanu described on his book "Ye Nestanet Gohe Sikede" that this was organized by ordinary people independently to bring change. If the Ethiopian people had a right to protest the current crisis in the Kinijit leadership would have never been averted.
Kinijit has a leader we know and the current so called collective leadership might work here in the Diaspora KIL circles but the millions who supported Kinijit back home are disappointed and ready to show their anger when the time comes.
