Oduu Haaraya

JUXTAPOSING DEMOCRACY WITH THE GADA SYSTEM OF THE OROMO PEOPLE Part VI

 

 

By Odaa Hora

 

Where does Gada depart from Democracy?

In the preceding series of articles entitled JUXTAPOSING DEMOCRACY WITH THE GADA SYSTEM OF THE OROMO PEOPLE, the final part continues with:

 

7). Limitation of Office to Single Term

 

In most of the European countries, there are no direct limits of terms of services of the head of the states like in the UK, France, etc., late only in the third-hand copies of called “Democracy” in the African quasi-states. That indicates the law legitimizes the unlimited terms of serves of the winner political party leader redundantly.

 

In other words what is performed under the mask of democracy is the authorization and control of the winners, in most cases a single political party and its program and its establishments without limit. As a result, for instance, Mr. Kohl ruled Germany as a chancellor for 16 years, and the current chancellor Angela Merkel rules since 2005 just to note some among others. In the USA it is limited to two terms for an individual candidate to serve if his or her political party legitimize him or her to run for re-election.

 

Focusing in the post-quasi-flag anthem independent African states that have some of the world’s longest-serving heads of states that turned to one of the chronical diseases since the anti-colonialism movements and struggles throughout the African continents and beyond. Some of the first generations of popular sons of Africa’s freedom fighter like Patrice Lumumba, Kwame Nkrumah lived short, and the rest of them ruled for at least an average of over 20 plus years.

 

They turned from freedom fighters or rebels to one man” once they catapulted to political power through a bullet or ballot analog to the absolute “despotic monarchy style” by justifying that they brought liberations to their corresponding quasi-states territory and justified to rule till their last birth and camouflaged with “democratically elected or re-elected” with the exceptions of some finger counted leaders like the first people’s president of South African, Nelson Mandela’s who served single term.

 

The post-cold war as it was called second generations who did inherit and did not capable to learn from the past, even worse most of us enforce to change the constitutionalized laws to rule for eternity and changes them some months before the time elapses, the paranoia of the African leaders that politics in most cases turned into an addiction.

 

They propagate, redundantly and beats the old dramas. They speak from their individual grandiosity and bravery as they were in the bush or in deserts as rebels as the old “freedom fighters” to justify their unlimited terms of rules. They shamelessly construct an enemy-image and scapegoats them either from within the “quasi-state”, brushing them with coal tar or their neighboring countries as a foe to their sovereignty and territorial integrity. They become arrogant autocrats, and technocrats, irresponsible and chauvinist leaders that suffer from malignant megalomaniac confrontation of denials that destroy the very system that brought them into power.

 

They pontifices them self’s as if they are the only one, unique and unreplaceable who can protect and keep the status quo of the state in that country, otherwise the land will sink to anarchy etc. They even forget that they are human and mortal one day and dream to rule from their grave-yard.

 

The whole political jingoism beating the old drums as they were in desert or bush and relentless propaganda based on diabolic lies and fabrications indeed has only one goal and that is just to fulfill their addictions thirsty of power holding through politics and its all profits and stealing the money of the people under control once they catapulted to the political power and deploys all repressive tools to stay in power to their last breath, and as a result the African people are suffering from one corner to the other as we destined to witness by day in day out right now.

 

Let the video and audio footage from the concentration camps built by the EU (the re-colonialists) on the African soli such as in Libya, Sudan, Ethiopia, etc., and the subhuman acts, slavery in the 21st century speaks for itself that we did not get rid of it yet at least from our mind let alone from land.

 

These are the major problems of the so-called leaders of the African content who come to power often through bullets, rarely through “ballot box” since the era of “independence” from colonialism, indeed it’s a flag anthem independence and merely made debt-salves and continues to carry the burden of its colonial past. It is in fact re-colonization by another name.

 

In contrast in the Gada system, the term of services is limited to a single term of eight years by law and there is no re-election of the same person. The time and place of transition and handover ceremony (Baallii Dabarsuu) of the outgoing and the incoming Gada class and corresponding Abba Gada (the President in the western parlance) are fixed by law. Thus Abba Gada cannot even dream about re-election, let alone to stand again, which is against the law and the will of the Oromo people.

 

8) Distribution of Power across Generation and Age Groups

 

The Greco–Roman mutant what we know as western democracy today what the Athenian critical thinkers and writers of that period nicknamed as “the Lazy Horses” who lived by predating on the others and do not know what work legitimizes the rule of the gerontocratic part of the society. For instance, the average age of the German cabinet is seven years older than the median of the German populations, and the chancellor is 64 years old. The current American president who is 72 years old who picked up the older cabinet than his predecessors nearly of his own ages and whereas, the national median of the American populations according to 2017 censuses is 38 years old. As Prof. Asmarom said:

In comparisons with Western democracies where the young and the elderly were historically, pushed aside and deprived of a role in political life, the autonomous self-governing age and generations groups of the Oromo are extremely effective in keeping people actively involved in the affairs of their groups during a major parts of their childhood, adulthood and old age   Power is distributed systematically across three genealogical generations and ten or more Gada classes. Sometimes other age and generations based societies are, indeed gerontocratic. But the Oromos are not.”

 

Ageing cause change in all living organisms that are the universal law of nature for the purpose. In other words, these changes occur at all level of the organism from molecular to a physical level. That indicates human beings chronologically alter biologically. Research on human brain universality found out that as we age our brain shrinks in volume, our memory declines, our reactions to stimulus to the environs and our level attention, the speed of processing information’s slows and brain circuitry start to burn out with age. As a result, the perceptibility of the facts on the ground within the society deters and leads to false strategies, dissatisfactions to the majority of the members of the society from all walks of life and that is exactly what we are destined to witness at global scale currently.

 

Most importantly, the core of the society, the adults, and the youth, who have virtually pushed aside, undermined or even discriminated and, absent in the cabinet of the conglomerates of gerontocratic parts of the society that holds power and make decisions and cling into it to rule to their last birth.

 

To note some example may shine more light on the subject. Among many others, just think about Robert Mugabe, age of 94, of Zimbabwe, Yoweri Museveni age of 74 of Uganda who ruled half of his life with iron fist and planned to rule till his last birth, and the semi-illiterates core of the TPLF gangs fascistic rules of one of the barbaric predatory empire traded with her stolen name of “Ethiopia” for the last 28 years in Africa and where their corresponding “Quasi states” socio-political and economic turmoil’s we have destined to witness are the facts on their corresponding soil. From the so-called Western democracy, the current kleptocratic President of the USA waged global soft war, like trade, based on bigotry, and chauvinism under the mantra of “America First.” The Columnist Max Boot described that “Trump is an illegitimate president whose election is tainted by fraud” published on 22 of August 2018 in Washington post.

 

9) Intergenerational Equity

 

The Greco–Roman world order mutated to what was called today as a western democracy which was based on the top-down commanding system there is no a semblance of inter-generational equity, rather a winner versus losers game. To the winners belong the political elites who hold the power and finger counted corporate enterprises and shareholders. The rest, vast majority of the populations including the adults and the youth must dance to their music. As Prof. Asmarom put it:

Western liberal democracies failed quite miserably to achieve any semblance of inter-generational equity. The youth movements and the movements of the elderly that swept across the United States and    Europe in the late1960’s and the 1970’s were attempted to correct the generational injustices that were, and still are present in the Western political system.

 

Summing up the series of articles explored under the topic entitled as JUXTAPOSING DEMOCRACY WITH THE GADA SYSTEM OF THE OROMO PEOPLE. The first part thoroughly explored the amorphousness of the term democracy utilized as baits to legitimacy to rule by the tyrannical regimes who come to power by a bullet or through ballot box focused on series of Abyssinia bandits entitled as DEMOCRACY: A PRESCRIPTION OF CYANIDE PILLI TO THE ABYSSIN-IAN EMPIRE & CONT.TPLF TYRANNY and proved that the Habesha or Abyssinia Empire, the poorest, barbaric, dependent and predatory empire that preyed on the whole south since her establishment that turned to the burden of the Oromo’s, the Sidamas, the Ogadenians and the other over 70 ethnonational, as a whole incarcerated in the Empire as we know her now.

 

Most profoundly since the mid-19th-century analog to the European colonizers of the African continent. The Habeshas also known as Abyssinians by foreigners; the offspring’s of divers, invaders who settled and lived isolated for centuries between the burning shores of the red sea in the east and the high mountain ranges in the horn of Africa that is often impassable, supported with massive Europeans rifles and ammunition, military experts and intelligence e.t.c., and established to serve as a marionette for the resourceless and greedy European colonizers in African continent, and maintained its status quo of predatory settler-colonial relations against the whole south from Habesha-proper to the contemporary fascistic regime of TPLFs clad and with garb of The Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) treaded for the last solid 28 years to the very date.

 

Independent of time and place of their origin, the Habesha settler colonialists moved with the premise of wipe out the entire indigenous people from their ancestral soil, and overtook their land, declared as terra nullius, justified the ownership, exploited their resources limitlessly, and shipped back to their birthplace and enriched themselves.

 

The second part thoroughly explored the premise in which the settler-colonists, moved with the premise of wipe out the entire indigenous people from their ancestral soil, and overtook their land, declared as terra nullius, justified the ownership, exploited their resources limitlessly, and shipped back to their birthplace and enriched themselves. As a result, the alien of the north, the Habesahs committed Democides. They chopped Men’s arms and legs and Women’s burst, killed by a hanging, forced proselytizing, eviction of indigenous people from their ancestor soil; repudiated the indigenous history and culture, attempted to erase the memories and the knowledge of the indigenous people’s identity, and come to the point to consider them as the people without history and culture.

 

They institutionalized long-term policies of enslavement, incarcerations, forced assimilation of Habeshaizations or Amharaizations through barbaric acts. By crossing the red-lines, cursing the physical appearances of the entire southern people, renaming and shaming, segregating the cultural values of the colonized and occupied people. By deviling the native language, ethics, morals, norms, taboos, religious, spiritual, imaginational, emotional desires, worldview etc, of the indigenous people they committed cultural genocides on the Gadaa-Siiqqee System, mentally and spiritually: the backbones of Oroommuumma (Oromoness) that holds true to the very date.

 

The third part of the article began with where the homegrown, natured, developed and evolved into full-fledged services of the Gada system of the Oromo people that depart from the so-called Western democracy. It explored the inclusiveness of the Gada system for all citizen from all walks of life, from birth to death providing corresponding activities and responsibilities according to their nature and biological age groups of classes. In contrast, what was called democracy of the west and its fake copies in the Africa continent such as the so-called Quasi-Ethiopian-State is a System of Exclusion of at least half its populations.

 

The article underscored that Gada has been and is sterile from conceiving, birth, growth, development and nurturing of tyranny since time immemorial. Tyranny is a dead-born child in the Gada system, whereas the so-called western democracy is an open door for nurturing, an incubation box for tyranny as history teaches us repeatedly.

 

It is indeed a legalized and institutionalized system, an opened door and even a license of tyrants, dictatorship, power abuser; liars and most painstaking racists political despots know for granted in human history once sat tall in the saddle of political power and control the whole in one hand, and deploy all tools and committed crimes against humanity.

 

The fourth part of the article is thoroughly explored in the Gada system of the Oromo’s the law stands above all men in theory and practices while the opposite is true in the Western democracy. No human as a group or an induvial is above the law. All men are subject to it equally, independent of entitlements. The Aba Gada (The President in the western parlance) himself; or Hadhaa Siigqee (the First Lady) is subject in case they violated it to the same law and the same punishments as all its citizens.

 

In a western democracy, one can find it written on papers, but in practice, the system empowers the President to have the power to sign an executive order singularly, controls the intelligence information’s, sole control over the defense apparatus. The law explicitly assigned the president, the power to sign or veto legislation, mess-ups international laws, and affairs, stifling bureaucracy and mount the bully pulpit, singularly owes sufficient stature to dismiss ministers who could not suit him or her, etc. In other words, the entitled person or groups in a so-called western democracy the constitution and his legislation by itself empowers dictatorship and power abuses that has been self-evident. Thus, no wonders they are even above the International law.

 

One of the most tragic comprehensive stupidity of the human species and those westerners who claim as Democrats treatment the culprits, tyrants who committed crimes against humanity as protections as their own client. The profit-geared super-powers are in fact the major hurdles for the implementations of the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) laws and justice through deploying the term they called it vetoing, a misnomer by itself, where injustice and dictatorships take hold.

They lack of accountability, confession, and the penalty is the practice. o the very date. The culprits, the genociders like Omar al Bashir, the genoicder of Darfurian in Sudan, the TPLF-EPREDF fascists who committed democides in Oromia, Ogaden, Gambella, Benishangul, Gumuz among others since they gripped the political power in 1991 and ruled with an iron fist and military commands. The irony of it that they are all still running free. Some still cling to power and protected by their regime in power and their collaborate like the AU. Others who found heaven on this planet and further protected by the regime outside in the country where they fled like the military junta signified as the father of the red-terror, Mengistu Haile Mariam in Harare, Zimbabwe.

The article also explored in Gada System of the Oromo people strict demarcation, duties, and responsibility between religious activities, administrative activities, and corresponding leadership. In spiritual, ritual, religious activities, the corresponding Qalluu, the most knowledgeable ones on the subject take the responsibility to lead all procedures and ceremonies, such as in occasion of celebrations of Muuda (Anointment), Eeba (Blessing) ceremonies, etc.

 

In cases of the Oromo political affair, the Gummi (the Counsel) assembly and its corresponding qualified Abba Gada (the president) takes the leading position and management of the tasks in concerns. More importantly, they both works in concert, mutual respects, peace, love with each each other and responsibility according to the position they owed accomplishment its duties accordingly guided by the principle and the laws of the Gada in the Oromo society by fertilizing and harmonizing with each other for the general wellbeing of their society and their environ.

 

The challenging questions in western democracies are to ferret out the truth of the differences between what is called politics and what they call it a religion without their naming’s in real. At least, for the last two and half millennium since the mythology of Asia Minor, known as the Middle East often disseminated by sword via Europe and beyond her immigrated families via seas and oceans.

 

Since then history teaches religion and politics have been two faces of the same coin even worse religion was used as means, the motif and justifications to commit one of the gruesome acts crime in the history of humanity turned the shareholder with politics that the world suffers from it to the very date. Here is where it lost to play the authentic roles of the psycho-spiritual, moral, ethical and social norms of guides of human invention and civilizations what the Oromo’s call Amanttii “Religion.” As a result, we even find a number of states and political parts operating by attesting religious names to themselves today.

 

Aristotle reminds as by saying, The worst form of inequality is to make unequal things equal. Currently, more than ever we destined to witness the African content is suffering from the implementations of the copies of the strange term “democracy” as a legacy of colonial inheritance and dependence that we did not get rid of it yet.

 

We the so-called educated unfortunately turned to the burden of our society. We consider ourselves “civilized” when we often redundantly say “democracy, democracy” as a silver bullet, because that is the recipe, what the Americans, or the Europeans etc., prescribed for us and what we have heard, read and we further die hard to implant its copy and enforces on our society as silver bullet to our solutions which is in fact, impossible without thinking about it for a minute. We do not even think that the most inhuman acts, atrocities, mega killings, crime in this world were and still are committed and is committing under the masks of the term democracy and that holds true right now in global scale in its worse form.

 

Furthermore we neglect, ignore the very basic foundations of humanity systems of administrations like Gadaa and–Siiqqee System of the Oromo people in our villages and our nation from time immemorial which is full-fledged and served for peace, tranquility, humanity and living in hormone with his neighbors and universe as a whole that cannot be compared with the amorphous term called western democracy that possess contradictory behaviors of an anomaly culture of denials, hypocrisy, nepotism, fabrications used to erect false edifices that must maintain at all costs till they caught red-handed.

 

Today we do have voluminous of books research article written what is/was committed under the mask democracy of Athens –Greek origin and its Greco-Roman extensions what was is known as Western democracy today such By Michael Mana entitled: The Dark Side of Democracy: Explaining Ethnic Cleansing. Genocide and Fascism: the Eliminatory Drive in Fascist Europe By Aristotle Kallis. The Age of genocide: conceptual and institutional implications by Petter J. Stoett. Democide: Nazi Genocide and Mass Murder by R. J. Rummel. Death by Government by R. J. Rummel, among many others.

 

It turned out that the Athenians for themselves called Democracy, the rule of “the Lazy Horses” who lived by predating on the others, do not know what work means, and self-legitimized to live as a prey on the mass of the population of the state in concern which holds true today turned a “license to kill” independent of the path regimes come to grip the political power and consolidate in their own hand. That being the historically recorded facts we known for granted at least in the last centuries and its continuations and what is committed under the mask of “democracy” in various regions of the world.

 

Nevertheless, we often hear from some us attesting the adjective, real to democracy e what we need is “real democracy” without naming one example or even be able to define it if at all it has existed and come to the conclusion and enforce our people perhaps to adopt if it fits to us. In fact we attest the adjective to it in attempt to qualify the third hand imported system that was proved unqualified since it was found in human history in the last two and half millennium and served the so-called finger counted political elites, the kleptocrats, but not the mass of its citizen The fact a political system was defined briefly as the set of formal legal institutions that constitute a “government” or a “state.” It is a set of detailed methods, procedures and routines created to carry out a specific activity, perform a duty, or solve a problem in an organized form in order to achieve the goal of the system.

Once it misses its goal it will be dropped out of our mind, and there is no need to attest an adjective to attest to the unqualified system to qualify it.

 

Thus it is crucial for those of us who are /were exposed to those so-called “foreign education” and installed strange terms in our mind and die-hard on the so-called “democracy” urgently need to update our software. Just think for a minute about it and where the founders of it the Greeks are today and what is /was committed under its masks in human history. Once, we found out the answer I hope one may come to the point to stop advertising the third hand  imported strange term to our people, who owes a home born unique Gadaa-Siiqqee system that has no comparison as a whole in the human civilizations as the system the severed its people with peace, tranquility, harmony with mother nature and neighbors of zero tolerance to tyranny, power abusers, diabolic liars and looters.

 

In other words the paradigm shift we must be ready to learn from our people, elders, Abbaa Gadaa’s Haadha Siiqqee’s etc., from all knowledgeable people in our country, villages instead of trying to teach what we have read and heard during our academic training. The fact is we are trained to be a loyal servant to that particular system and terra, the software installed in our brain.

 

In contrast we have never heard late alone to learn our own identity, cultural, society, worldview and political affairs born, grown, developed and full-fledged Gad System at home that served our nation for time immemorial before going through cultural genocides for over centuries by the alien of the north, the Habesha’s, who still dream to continue it. Nevertheless, whatever vilifications, wars of wipeout instigated and waged the Gada system revived, rejuvenated, and today arrived to the point to give its service to our great Nation in width and depth in Oromia entirely, as Martial De Salviac said in his book: AN ANCIENT GREAT AFRICAN NATION:THE OROMO that won the French Academic prize in 1901 in Paris.

 

Aristotle reminds us: “The worst form of inequality is to make unequal things equal.” We must avoid confusing our people and the others, while we are self’s confused as a consequence of our training and come to translate Democracy (the rule of lazy-horse or kleptocrats) and say it means the Gada or Gada means democracy. In fact, it is not by any standard, late alone to calibrate it to equal.

 

Self-care is how you take your power back.” Lalah Delia

 

Kan Hanqate Waaqni Itti Ya Guutu!!!

 

Naga’aa fi Fayaan kan keesan, Galatnii kan Waaqaa ya ta’uu !!!

 

Visit https.//oromolands.blogspot.com

 

Injifatnoon kan Ummata Oromooti!!!!!!

 

References

 

Asmarom Legesse  Oromo Democracy an Indigenous African Political System. The Red Sea Press, Asmara, 2000.

 

Asmarom Legesse  Three approaches to the study of African society. The Free Press, New York, 1973

 

Dirribii Demesse  Ilaacha Oromoo. Finfinne, 2000

 

Michael Mana  The Dark Side of Democracy: Explaining Ethnic Cleansing. Cambridge University Press, 2005.

 

Aristotle Kallis  Genocide and Fascism: the Eliminatory Drive in Fascist Europe Routledge; Reprint edition, 2011.

 

Petter J. Stoett The Age of genocide: conceptual and institutional implications. 1995, https://doi.org/10.1177/002070209505000306

 

Rummel R. J. Death by Government: Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1900 1st Edition, Kindle Edition, 2018.

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