The Afaan Oromoo Global Coordinating Committee (AGCC) is proud to announce that it is about to finalize its unprecedented and the most successful global campaign to petition the BBC to start BBC Afaan Oromoo Radio Program where more than 37,000 people participated, and the decision to transition to the next major task---making Afaan Oromoo additional federal working language in Ethiopia. The AGCC would like to take this opportunity to thank and congratulates all who were part of this very successful historic and landmark global campaign that mobilized and engaged Afaan Oromoo speakers and their supporters in 75 countries around the World.
The AGCC is set to conclude the BBC Afaan Oromoo petition drive on Sunday, November 1, 2015, and calls upon all those who did not yet sign the petition to do so and be part of this historic process. The AGCC will update the public on the subsequent measures of submitting the petition to the BBC leadership and the United Kingdom Government, and follow-up strategies.
The AGCC would also like to inform, with great determination, all Afaan Oromoo speakers, the Ethiopian people, friends of Afaan Oromoo speakers and Ethiopia’s global partners that we are in the process of finalizing all the necessary preparation and organizational framework to start with earnest the campaign to make Afaan Oromoo the federal working language on equal footing with Amharic.
This Project, to make Afaan Oromoo the federal working language, is aimed to end the over a century old monolingual language policy that permanently excluded, marginalized, dis-empowered and economically deprived Afaan Oromoo speakers by hindering their access to the government services, resources, information, opportunities as well as governmental, economic, media, religious, social and cultural institutions of the country at all levels. Ending this monolingual policy is simply meeting the bare minimum rights of Afaan Oromoo speaking citizens to be able to use their own language in dealing with and in participating in the working of their own government of their own country.
Furthermore, failure to end this exclusionary and discriminatory monolingual policy also threatens the peaceful coexistence of various nations and nationalities since this policy has completely left out close to half of the total population of Ethiopia out of all Ethiopian development agendas and all organized institutions in the country at all levels. Given the imminent threat of this monolingual policy on the national security and its continued undermining of the development and progress of the people, we believe the agenda of making Afaan Oromoo an additional federal working language should be the top priority of the federal government and all other concerned parties in Ethiopia.
The urgency of changing course by repealing this monolingual policy could not be over emphasized. The victims of this exclusionary and discriminatory policy are overwhelmingly young Afaan Oromoo speakers, below the age of 30 years old, which constitutes over 74% of the total population. This vast majority young population cannot wait any longer than the past 25 years to realize their future and prospect in Ethiopia.
This historic task of making Afaan Oromoo the working language of the federal government requires the determination, continued participation and mobilization of the Oromoo people and their supporters in the long haul. In order to help mobilize and galvanize the almost unanimous support this issue commands across Ethiopia, we are in the process of finalizing the preparation and organizational framework that will enable us to mobilize the professional expertise, the financial resources, the enthusiasm, the firm commitment and the goodwill of all of our people and supporters across Ethiopia and the world.
We will make public our vision, mission, objectives and strategies in the near future. In the meantime, we call upon all Afaan Oromoo speakers, supporters, and all concerned parties in Ethiopia, the Diaspora, and Ethiopia’s global partners to support and participate in the ongoing dialogue as well as engage the Ethiopian government to repeal this abhorrent discriminatory and exclusionary monolingual policy that should haven’t been there in the first place.
Stay tuned!
Source: https://m.facebook.com/girmaabbaacabsaa/posts/10206923230652034
No comments:
Post a Comment