RECONCILIATION IS THE LANGUAGE OF COMMUNICATIVE RATIONALITY

RECONCILIATION IS THE LANGUAGE OF
COMMUNICATIVE RATIONALITY

15 November, 2010 | By Teodros Kiros (Ph.D)

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I am for national

reconciliation. I am for

dialogue. Whatever

authority I have,

I will use it

to that end. I hope people

will support me," said, the

noble lady

from Myanmar,

Aung San Suu Kyi.

Unencumbered by

bitterness, matured by

suffering, energized by rationality in concert with practicality, and
anchored on the love of her people, this mature politician has fully
internalized the power of dialogue, and the potency of conversation
in the heat of a national crisis.

There is a lesson for us Ethiopians, a historic people who have
fought wars, tolerated famines, and must surely be willing to give
dialogue a chance to bring us together and triumph over the
corrosive effect of ethnic and counter ethnicity.

The decisive advise of Dr. Ghelawdewos must encourage us all to
enter into the deep recesses of our rational hearts and invite the
prevailing regime to come to the roundtable of dialogue and aim at
establishing a concentric circle of themes that we must address to
save our nation.

I appeal to us Ethiopian to establish forums of national reconciliation
globally and invite and encourage Ethiopians to discuss the future of
our nation. All views including the viability of armed resistance can
and must be freely discussed in the agora of the free market of ideas.

The official opposition members and the silent Ethiopian majority
ought to come to these forums and discuss anything that would
move our beloved Ethiopia forward in an atmosphere of freedom
without domination.

At the end the leaders of the opposition must invite the Prime
Minister to participate in the reconciliation movement.

The time is now. Reconciliation is long and life is short.

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Teodros Kiros Professor of Philosophy and English (Liberal
Arts) Berklee College of Music is also a Senior Editor at Ethio
Quest News. His weekly column appears here