By Haile Tessema

(Paraphrasing former Minnesota senator Al Franken’s bestselling book “Rush Limbaugh is a big fat liar”)

It will take a psychic of the highest caliber to know where Jawar politically stands and what his real end goal is. It’s to be recalled that Jawar first appeared in the public arena as a young “brilliant analyst” of Ethiopian politics, and soon became the darling of Ethiopian opposition and the media in the diaspora.

Then, in the height of fame, came his infamous speech (caught on tape) that glamorized the slaughtering of non-Muslim minority Amhara Christians using ሜንጫ /machete/ which resulted in soured relations with the non-Oromo diaspora opposition. This incident paved the way for Jawar to become the political high priest / imam of Oromo uber alles.

However, with the death of PM Meles Zenawi; a sense of jubilation among the diaspora opposition and a smell of EPRDF’s eventual vulnerability, Jawar began to cozy up to Ethiopianist opposition groups, and started to loudly sing from the hymn book of democracy, equality and federalism. As a result, he was welcomed back to the fold.

Then, with the intention of catering to and attracting the support of the overall opposition diaspora, particularly Amhara, Jawar intensified his Nazi propogandist Joseph Gobbles’ type of misinformation not only against Woyane / TPLF, but also the people of Tigrai at large. Indeed, coming up with a Hagos vs. Tola political narrative, Jawar is one of the leading hatemongers to be credited with creating an image of Tigrai that is paved with gold and its people as manipulative economic oppressors.

All these, to a certain degree, could be taken as part and parcel of a propaganda battle in a time of political war. Yet, what makes Jawar’s behavior dubious is, even in the aftermath of victory, he is having difficulty leaving Woyane and Tigraians alone.

Fact is, as a student of political science, Jawar knows or ought to know that – similar to other African leaders – TPLFites had the option of holding onto power to the very end (with Mengistu’s notorious “አንድ ሰውና አንድ ጥይት እስኪቀር / until one man and one bullet remains kind of mindset).

After all, the security apparatus, soldiers, firearms, tanks and airpower command were at their fingertips. Instead, TPLF leaders caved in to the voice of the people, and ultimately relinquished power. In a healthy and progressive society, this would count for something and, if not high praise, a simple recognition of the fact would be in order.

Unfortunately, that is not the norm in the country’s backward culture of zero sum political game which Jawarism is proven to be part and parcel of. So, with a sense of victorious bravado and perhaps undying hate against Woyane and the people of Tigrai, Jawar preposterously claims to this very day that TPLF leaders were provided with a golden parachute for safe landing for which they should forever be indebted to the Jawar led movement called qeero.