As Medemer Book launched across the country ceremoniously, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed seized the opportunity to respond to allegations, from TPLF, that Ethiopia’s ruling coalition is finalizing process for unity to demolish the Federal system.
borkena
October 19,2019
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s Medemer book is officially launched on Saturday morning in Addis Ababa at the Millenium Hall. The book was also launched across 30 other cities in Ethiopia, according to a report by state media Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC).
The ceremony was made like a sort of an informal national holiday. Senior government officials across the country have attended the launch in their respective cities and towns. Borkena was unable to verify if the same event was organized in Tigray region in North Ethiopia.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed attended the ceremony in Addis Ababa. He said “Medemer” is his fifth book. But the first four books were published in a pen name which he alluded to, implicitly, to the repression under the domination of Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) which ended soon after he assumed the prime minister’s office.
It is published in three languages: Amharic, English and Afan Oromo (his mother tongue). One million copies of his book are published in China, seemingly for free. It is priced 300 Ethiopian birr which is the equivalent of about $13.40 Canadian dollars. The entire income from the book is to be spent in building schools in rural Ethiopia, according to reports by Ethiopian state media.
His book is meant to be an ideology that his government will follow. He described it as a homegrown idea but did not claim that his book is complete in itself. He rather pleaded to the crowd packed at the Millenium Hall not to criticize him before reading it and also to make his book complete by filling in any gaps it may have.
He made a speech during the ceremony in Addis Ababa and he seized the moment to butcher his political opponents, without naming names, although it was clear to the audience that the reference was to TPLF leaders, for issuing a statement against projected unity within the ruling coalition. Much of his speech on this matter is essentially the same with the statement that the ruling coalition issued on Friday in response to a statement by TPLF.
He pulled corrupt stories of these political entities, seemingly to clear the allegations so that people in their ethnic support base have the opportunity to hear the other side of the story, to demonstrate how hypocrite and careless they are as far as the situation of people is concerned. “While you are sipping your whiskey, remember that there are millions who do not have a drinking water,” was part of his message to those who he described them as living in a hotel month to month while they have meager income from their government employment. He also mentioned that some of them own a number of buildings secretly in the capital.
Watch his speech (in Amharic)
Video : embedded from EBC YouTube channel
Cover photo : screenshot from video
Join the conversation. Like borkena on Facebook and get Ethiopian News updates regularly. As well, you may get Ethiopia News by following us on twitter @zborkena
The post Medemer book: Abiy Ahmed speech during his book launch in Addis Ababa appeared first on Borkena Ethiopian News.