History Vs Reality History Vs Reality

A dark violet glorious plaque, embroidered by golden drapes all round, and a woman in white clothing seated on a stool is seen milking a cow symbolising that the school was like a mother. I am talking about the core emblem and ensign of the former Teferi Mekonnen School (TMS) which has turned 90 almost to the day last week. Emperor Haile Selassie I had opened this school while he was still regent to the throne and had its name “Teferi Mekonnen School” engraved in the masonry on the main gate of the cosy building, a glimpse of which brings home old memories in the minds of the “boys of Teferi Mekonnen” (a renowned song the boy scouts chant around camp fires.)

Although I was a bit fatigued after long hours of medical treatment, the weather was so irresistible that I went out and about to enjoy walking and sunbathing at an outdoor café when I bumped into a fellow-Ethiopian. I took time to chat with him and renew our acquaintance.

I had known him as my senior school mate at the TMS and my lecturer of “Political Thoughts” a two credit-hours course at the Addis Abeba University College. Many know him as one of the prominent young political figures who had been outside the country and returned home in response to the motherland’s call, only to find himself behind bars for a dozen and half years. Your guess is right. He was Abera Yemane-ab who keeps himself busy studying the French language which he abandoned when he left the TMS.

As a member of the alumni committee elected for the Golden Jubilee Anniversary, we had approached the-then Minister of Education, Genet Zewdie, to request her to allow the unveiling of the bust and restoration of the former name of the school. We tried to convince her that history should be kept as it is and that for all of us who had gone there it had been a window through the little window of knowledge. Some of us had joined the boy scouts troop where we learnt how to cook, to set up tents, dig bores and drain ditches.

Making public speeches and conducting inter-class debates were some of the features of the school curriculum in those days. Some prominent student orators and eloquent speakers still stick in my memory box. These outstanding students proved their worth later in their academic lives and their names are well known. People like Tilahun Gizaw; Berhanemeskele Reda, Mekennen Bishaw, Assefa Chabo and Mesfin Habtu were only a few among many which I prefer not to name, lest I divert from the current political debates at hand.

I happen to be privileged in following up the current highly contested political debate going on in Great Britain. The British media presents not only the issues that matter most to the people currently and in the coming years, but also respects the democratic rights of the voters by assessing the opinion polls right after each debate.

You can see that the media is a free power by itself standing for the rights of the voting population and not siding with the ruling party. In fact, all the debating parties are in effect responding to the challenging questions of the free journalists.

I have also followed a few of the debates of the Ethiopian contest for seats. A wave of anger runs down my spine when the media, which is operating by the taxpayer’s money, seems to openly serve the whims and desires of the ruling party despite all the bylaws stipulated in the rules of the game.

An example would be the invisible camera focusing on the interviewee who is led to blame the Semayawi Party and hold it accountable for nothing else than being the party highly favoured by youth.

In fact some of the debating members of the ruling party seem to have been preparing for the last four years to pound on quantitative assessments which they have been repeating over and over again like some monotonous television commercials and blaming the party [Semayawi] for not telling its alternatives. Although impunity is observed, the ruling party does not seem to insulate itself from the pressure of the demands of the youth as evidenced by the recent impulsive opposition despite the brutal beatings. No matter how much effort is exerted on the part of the ruling party to keep that particular party outdoors, the result seems to be promoting the party indirectly,

Times have changed. All the ups and downs the country has been experiencing so far seem, according to some analysts, to have resulted in an oligarchy of the “nouveau riche”. Uneven development staggered here and there polarising the society around the privileged few who seem to consider corruption and deliberate inflation of price quotations the norm, has become the rule rather than the exception.

Some cynics claim that although the modern form of party politics and the concept of democracy may be foreign to us the traditional Geda or Moute system was here. Education seems to be the topic that has put the ruling party under fire from the opposition. This was apparently because of the fact that while there has been quite an increase in the number of schools, the party has continued to practice a strategy of eliminating intellectuals from the scene. Evidence of its chasing away scholars right from the start can not be covered up.


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