Since its establishment in 1973, the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) has been leading a multifaceted struggle against tyranny, oppression and prejudice unleashed against the Oromo people by Ethiopian imperial state. Through its pragmatic political program and dedication of its members, the organization has not just won the hearts and minds of the Oromo people; it has also fundamentally changed the socio-political landscape of the Eastern African region. Through out these long years of struggle, OLF has gone through several crisis triggered by internal and external factors. Most of the internal factors that precipitated the crisis have been caused by continuous "factionalization" of the leadership that hampered a smooth and decisive march towards achieving its stated objectives.
In these writers' views, currently, as it happened in the past, the OLF is facing some serious challenges that are shaking the confidence of the Oromo people as well as the international community that awaits to see a better change in the region. This challenge, this writer believes, primarily resulted from "inactive" or "dormant" conditions of the organization and its inability to score palpable political and military gains. This dormancy and lack of practical action has sent a chilling effect among the Oromo populace while it has led the international community to undermine OLF's commitment to its stated goals.
The increasing awareness of the international community regarding the oppression of the Oromo people has offered OLF a great opportunity to score diplomatic and political victory. OLF has to a limited extent exploited this opportunity, but its advance in the battle front is significantly reduced. . Being a politico-military organization, a meaningful military activity is crucial not only to weaken the enemy that chose war but also to boost the moral of its supporters. Thus far, the OLF has miserably failed to live up to the expectation of its supporters and foreign observers . For the past several years the military activities of the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) has been diminishing to the level where some critics question even its existence. Although this writer has tangible evidence as to the presence of a viable OLA that can be mobilized at any time, its inactivity has negative effect on the Oromo movement. The puzzling dormancy at the battle front in the face of a viable army is the major point of criticism that the OLF leadership has not responded to. As a result, OLF is currently facing mounting internal and external challenges.
Internal Challenges
Internally the OLF has been challenged by factions that have broken away from it at different times. Almost all the new factions wind up adapting a nearly identical political agenda. While the cause of the split is mainly internal power struggle, the broken away factions recount all the leadership failures of the organization including the times they were a part of it. Some points they present as a cause for their break away include the alleged disbanding of the OLA, completely forgetting that these faction where at different levels of the political and military leadership at that time. Nevertheless, although these factions are not getting much acceptance from the public, they are spreading pessimistic and discouraging spirit within the Oromo society. The rise of pessimism among the Oromo population, specifically those who live the diasporas is evident from reduced participation in Oromo affairs including community meetings, political participation, etc. This tendency will gradually affect OLF's ability to rely on its Diaspora base for much needed financial support. Therefore, military victory in the field and change of the current status quo will bring back optimism to the people and discourage the factions from waging senseless propaganda.
External Challenges
The external challenges that the OLF is facing comes from two directions. First, lack of military action has led some international organizations to consider OLF as an ineffective organization that is waging "protracted" war against the Ethiopian regime. They do not see the OLF as posing any imminent threat to the regime, nor do they value it as an alternative force to reckon. Therefore, several countries have chosen to support the regime in power as long as it advances their national interest, even it is at the cost of exacerbating human rights violations and corruptions. As stated above, because of the immense effort the OLF and civic organizations, most international organizations and agencies do understand the justified cause of the Oromo people. However they turn blind eye and support the regime, because they see the Oromo movement, when it comes to real challenge, as weak and uncoordinated.
The second external challenge comes from the enemy camp, namely the TPLF regime and its surrogates. The lack of military activity in Oromia has led some people to lose hope. Hence, such people have been joining the surrogate OPDO organization. Similarly, lack of such military activity has led these servants of the enemy to increase their attack on the defenseless Oromo people. In addition, the above mentioned growth of pessimism among the Oromos in the Diasporas has led the enemy to attempt to infiltrate the Diaspora in the name of investment opportunity in Oromia. Although the regime and its surrogates have failed to achieve their goals, this development has revealed some troubling situations within out community. Few years back, it was a shame to be affiliated with Woyane, but today we are seeing some individuals boasting about their OPDO membership while attempting to demoralize Oromo nationalists. More troubling is the new development that some well recognized Oromo "nationalists" have been lured by this "investment" shenanigan. Therefore, the OLF must act in a timely manner to change the current pessimistic environment or face even worse situations.
Some Possible Solutions
As discussed above, lack of military activity and battle victory has immensely contributed to the development of pessimism which is bringing several challenges to the organization. To change these situations, the organization needs to implement necessary structural, tactical and code-of-conduct reforms within the organization. Structurally, the front needs to develop new model of command set up within its civil and military departments. In this regard, it is important the organization brings new faces to the leadership. There is a laud call from OLF supporters, if there are ears willing to listen, for new leadership that will reshape the organization and revive the hope in our society. The current leadership deserves appreciation for their dedication in leading the organization through one of the most unstable times in the history of OLF. However it's about time they give ways for new persons with fresh perspectives in order to take the organization another step forward. Leaders with a long tenure within the Executive Committee and National Assembly must prepare themselves to relinquish their position . The Oromo nation is deeply indebted to them for their life time commitment to liberate our nation from the yoke of oppression- now they should take the pass on the torch to younger leaders to take the struggle to fruition.
Members and leaders of the organization also need to go through fundamental change in their code of conduct. The long established norms and customs of the organization need to be reevaluated to see if they fit to the current socio-political realities. The common complaints are that OLF members have continued to conduct business using a rather outdated model. For instance, their aggressive attitude towards each other as well as their tendency to silence their critiques must be stopped. The organization and its agents must be willing to tolerate and listen to even unpopular voices, because while some criticisms could be unsubstantiated and not constructive, not all of them are harmful.
In addition, the OLF needs to reflect the diversity of the Oromo people; regional, religious, gender and age representations in all positions from local to national level must not be neglected. For instance, when over half of our population is women and two-third is youth, it's unacceptable and inefficient for the organization to have an all-old-men leadership. Diversifying the leadership structure to represent all segments of the Oromo population would help to defuse some of the current regional tension, and to deny regionalists their recruiting ground.
Conclusion
Thus, OLF must intensify its armed struggle, which is the only solution to defeat the enemy and regain back the pride of our nation. The OLF leadership must stop acting as if they are already leading a freed nation; they must be reminded that they are leading an armed struggle against the worst tyrant in the world. So far its political program permits, any method of struggle must be pursued regardless of what America or any other Western nation would say. Our need for more allies and friends should not be at the cost of prolonging the agony of our people. OLF is the hope of the Oromo nation, and we take pride by its presence, but our national pride has been injured by its lack of action. Siddise Abbamagal**The writer is a public policy student living the USA. She can be reached at sabagalo@gmail.com
Source:http://www.oduu.com/news/index.php?news_id=1462
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