By Martha B

It was with great interest I read the commentaries about Minister Girma Biru. Thanks for those sincere and frank Ethiopians. George Bernard Shaw once lamented: “The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who do not have it.” I thought I might complement a few words that have been in my heart for so long. I heartily believe that our live begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter. We must never let the Ethiopians forget.

Particularly, the mention of Mogess who was working with us when I was at MEDAC has made me weep, brought me to tears, and even brought a sob from my throat. Mogess, three others and myself were so close we used to get together once in a month for social gathering outside our Ministry. In fact, Mogess was suffering from a gastric ulcer but that was not the cause of his death. Minister Girma put the last nail in Mogess’ coffin by blocking his choice of work at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I remember his last days, we tried our level best to comfort him, but he was beyond consoling and died in his younger age. Friends, if we do not hear the quiet voices of the dead, who were completely our peers in daily life, in perception, intelligence, and family concerns, until tragedy intervened, then their fate will become ours with the inevitability of one season turning to the next.

A Protestant priest, Rev. Martin Niemoller, was saying of Nazi’s Gestapo during the holocaust, “first they came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up, because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me.” People like Girma Biru could always be a source of every grief unless we stop them. I think we don’t have the luxury to weep again and again. Speak up and act now!

I’m not a politician professionally but I always wonder how a person could have three or more opposite personalities in his lifetime. Some one here in Atlanta told me that Girma Biru was one of the ring leaders of Ethiopian People Revolutionary Party (EPRP), and again he was a member of Ethiopian Workers’ Party (EWP), the ideological wing of the Derg regime, again now he is one of the movers and shakers inside the Ethiopian People Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). I was trying to visualize these three political parties. To my surprise, all of them are diametrically opposite. They don’t have a single common view regarding any political issue, I was told.

I even further visualize three Ethiopians (they were famous in their own right): Dr. Tesfaye Debesay, Lt. Colonel Mengistu Hailemariam and Ato Meles Zenawi. Take a good look at these gentlemen and imagine them in one small room with out arms. Do you think they even ever shake hands let alone smiling at each other? Can you possibly imagine their ideological differences and the way how they try to solve them? Only one big answer: by force! Luckily, there is only one individual who can chair the meeting between these three gentlemen and bring everything to order. Guess who he is. Nobody but Girma Biru!
As Denekew boldly wrote, Girma Biru was never a man with a sure purpose, rather he was a 'hail fellow well met friend'; a man of no principle; going with the flow, and a man without a true sense of his worth before the might of God. At best, he was a jellyfish floating with the fashion. I strongly believe that our world, wherever we are, is a very small area where a man must rule himself. How could he possibly manage to take off part of himself? Isn't every thing involved in this decision (body, mind, family, position, etc.)? That part of him that is impregnable. It is that particular self that need to decide at what point a man must stand firm. It was written, “Let no man deceive himself.”

Mr. Girma Birru, please tell us where will be your next sanctuary: Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) or United Ethiopian Democratic Forces (UEDF)? I wish you good luck!

Martha T

source dekialula