What is the purpose of writing?

In democratic societies, there is such a thing as "public opinion". It is measured constantly through opininon polls, but also through demonstrations, petitions, conferences, editorials, and most importantly - through free and fair elections. By communicating their thoughts (through writing for example) citizen's in democratic societies can participate in shaping public opinion. Public opinion in turn, is an important to a government of the people, by the people and for the people.

In Ethiopia, with its government-controlled public media and highly repressed private media, there is no such thing as "public opinion." The public is prevented from engaging in most useful forms of communication. Even if public opinion existed, the TPLF/EPRDF is a vanguardist organization, hence, it does not accept that public opinion has any significant role to play in governance. Thus any common person writing on Ethiopian issues cannot hope to have any influence on what the government of Ethiopia does.

So what is the point of writing anything?

Standing up for the truth

"Fastenko was the most cheerful person in the cell, even though in view of his age, he was the only one who could not count on surviving and returning to freedom. Flinging an arm around my shoulders, he would say:

To stand up for the truth is nothing! For truth you have to sit in jail!

Aleksander Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008) The Gulag Archipelago

Citizen's can use freedom of expression to bring to light information and evidence that an oppressive state is trying to suppress. This "standing up for the truth" would mean something in Ethiopia. It would eventually lead to "sitting in jail", but it would be a meaningful sacrifice.

But for a person living outside of TPLF/EPRDF control to denounce the TPLF/EPRDF and to write articles to expose the pathetic propaganda of the Ethiopian government is nothing. Few people pay attention to Ethiopian government propaganda. Even TPLF supporters complain about it.

So what use is it to spend time and effort on this? The case of Birtukan is a case of governmental abuse of power. It is a blatant political use of the law to keep an unpopular government in power. This is widely known and accepted already.

Similar questions were asked in Czechoslovakia, in 1977, when a group of 'dissidents' wrote a declaration (Charter 77) that asked the state to respect the constitution and respect the international human rights pacts it had signed.

The constitution is violated, the international pacts are ignored… we've known all that for a long time - have you just discovered this? Who are you talking to? To the very same regime that shamelessly dishonours all these things? What are you going to do about it? Sign and distribute more appeals, and protests that expose more wrongs, more abuses of power, more economic, political, and ideological duplicity? Don't be ridiculous: you can't seriously believe that this will move anyone, that the conscience of the regime will be aroused.

Miroslav Kusy Chartism and Real Socialism

In answering the above, the Charter 77 dissidents published an inspiring set of articles, led by Vaclav Havel's "The Power of the Powerless." These insightful articles focusing on the idea of "living within the truth." These ideas inspired the Polish Solidarity movement and were a factor in the downfall of Communism. Charter 77 in turn, was inspired by Aleksander Solzhenitsyn's truth about the Soviet Union's massive gulags. That truth shocked western communist parties into abandoning their close affiliation with the Soviet Union.

What would have happened if 'The Gulag Archipelago' had been translated into Amharic and sold in Addis Abeba along with all the other Marxist-Leninist literature that captivated the student generation of the 1970s? Would Senaye Likke, Berhanemeskel Redda, Haile Fida, Meles Zenawi et al., have been so obsessed with Marxism-Leninism if they had known the truth about the Soviet Union and Mao's China?

Yes we already know about the TPLF/EPRDF. But Birtukan Mideksa's imprisonment demonstrates truth in a way that directly engages our conscience. And it is that conscience that makes us restless. We can't sit quietly. From Birtukan's prison cell comes some force that reaches out and touches us. What is it? Something spiritual? Metaphysical? Moral strength? Human dignity?

Even the supporters of the TPLF/EPRDF have to deal with this moral force. They have a way of dealing with it - legal formalism - but that is also another topic that Birtukan Mideksa's imprisonment challenges us to explore.

Writing about these topics in itself has value if only for the writer himself. But thanks to the internet, we now have a much greater opportunity to engage others in dialogue and communication. So even if we are not inside Ethiopia at the moment, we can help spread this "active" truth. It is an "active" truth because there is a person there who openly decided to "live the truth" and defend her human dignity.

THE PUBLIC SPHERE: Ethiopians, like all human beings, have a thirst for dialogue, for discussion, for exchange of ideas. This is the main way that we get to know and understand ourselves and our society. This "public sphere" is a critical part of a healthy and functioning society (and is a central part of political theorist Jurgen Habermas' writings).

So who can we engage in this "public sphere." A few audiences could be:

• Open-minded TPLF/EPRDF opponents
• 
  Open-minded TPLF/EPRDF supporters
• 
  Multilateral institutions that provide one-third of TPLF/EPRDF's budget (WB, IMF, USAID, EU etc.)
• 
  International NGOs and civil society
• 
  The press in democratic countries
• 
  Parliaments in democratic countries that give aid to Ethiopia

[Because of government vanguardism, Leninism, and the absence of 'public opinion' in Ethiopia, the above list includes actors such as foreign press, and foreign parliaments, and it's a shame that Ethiopians have to talk to these foreign entities in order to advance peaceful change within Ethiopia.]

An important consideration in writing about Birtukan Mideksa, is to keep the ideals she represents in mind - truth, justice, non-violence, and human dignity. Thus this writing should strive to be truthful, just, non-violent, and to affirm the human dignity of all readers, including the TPLF/EPRDF supporters, and even the jailers - Meles and the TPLF/EPRDF leadership.

By analogy to Vaclav Havel's peceptive essay The Power of the Powerless (highly recommended) we can say that yes, Birtukan is in prison, but the Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi is also unfree. He is enslaved by the need to live within a lie . Birtukan is holding up a mirror showing him (and the world) who he is.

Thus the value of writing about Birtukan Mideksa is that it enriches all of us by forcing us to live within the truth . To confront and organize our thoughts. To justify our action or lack of action.

Future articles will further explore the inspiring articles in The Power of the Powerless, discuss Constitutionalism - the cause that Birtukan Mideksa has defined as worth going to prison for, truth, human dignity and morality in politics, non-violence, legality and political theories of justice, and a whole host of other topics are a gift of Birtukan's uplifiting sacrifice - her insistence on human dignity and living within the truth.