BY FITSUM GETACHEW
There is an old dictum which says that whenever an unpleasant event takes place, there could be something that outweighs the negative incident into a positive one and helps you forget the initial incident. It is usually identified as ‘a blessing in disguise.’
Ethiopia has been dominated for three decades by a force that has always stoked division, hate, pessimism and distrust among Ethiopians on account of their most natural composition, their traditional values and conception of their very existence.
This TPLF dominated political ideology or conception of the country, this frame of mind, created a new and unknown country. It has always tried to undo all that was accumulated across generations of bonds and interactions between all those communities that lived on the land called Ethiopia.
The new narrative that these people who came from the rural areas, generated and brought to the attention of the people of Ethiopia, was based clearly on several denials of the reality. But these were facts common knowledge to all.
As they considered themselves ‘victors’ in the struggle against the then military government which was hated and despised by the way it run the country, these forces took full advantage of the emotions in which the people of Ethiopia were found.
Since May 1991, a new ideology and a new way of conceiving and understanding Ethiopia was introduced. Every effort was exerted as a matter of policy and ideology that there does not exist a country that is called Ethiopia or has been a recent creation of the most recent monarchs and that everything they did was negative.
They said that the only power that can rectify things is the TPLF dominated EPRDF. Such ideology filled the skies of Ethiopia and many who were not well aware of the history of the country, namely the younger generation, bought this narrative despite the opposition of the older generation of Ethiopians who clearly saw the incompatibilities of this philosophy with the tangible reality and the true history of the country. However, they could do little except to cry as much as they could but were overwhelmed by the slogans and literature fabricated by this formidable force.
TPLF practically rewrote the history of the country and later on even tried to erase all the records that referred to the true facet of the country. This massive mission seemed to succeed as long as TPLF and its cohorts were holders of the power. They monopolized even the higher learning institutions and introduced new curricula that would undermine the existence of Ethiopia by publishing books that seconded their narrative.
It is well known that truth of course can and does always stand the test of time. It may be overshadowed by momentary episodes or get buried for a while. But it never gets lost for good because it finally emerges victorious.
Ethiopia is not a country that was fabricated or invented by TPLF nor can its existence depend in any way on the existence or not of such a party. This was among the favored narratives of this party. They have always argued trying to make Ethiopians prisoners or hostages of the existence or not of this party!
The events of the past weeks have shown clearly how TPLF does not enjoy the popular basis it has always sustained it does. In fact, people have come out to declare that the party never even bothered about their well-being. This has been the consistent and true nature of TPLF all across the years as we have been told by those who were among the initiators of this party.
The conditions under which this party was initially founded may have been the rejection of oppression and the craving for justice and equality, these forces say. However, eventually, the methods of conscription of membership were cruel, and thousands of executions were conducted against those who tried to resist their ideology or policies.
The price of opposition was death or disappearance because there are reports of thousands whose whereabouts were never found once they were taken away by force from their families just because they did not support the party.
In the end, when they had all the power they needed, when they became sole administrators, they failed their own supporters who helped them attain success! It is a well-known and admitted fact that the party was controlled and managed by a few families who were networked among themselves and carried out systematic abuse of power, violations of basic human rights and all-out corruption throughout the country.
They controlled the economy illegally, putting out of the market so many legitimate businesspersons; they controlled the security and were continuously incarcerating or eliminating all forms of opposition politicians, journalists and civil society members including labour union leaders.
And they controlled the entire defence apparatus. The kind of federal system they were advocating was real only in name, and all regional states were controlled from the TPLF headquarters in Addis receiving guidelines and executing their orders. All this was clearly stated by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed when he outlined to parliament the challenges he had to face during the past three years.
After twenty-seven years, the movement of opposition that began in several areas in Oromia regional state and around Addis Ababa and then spread to the north in the Amhara regional state created the premises for the demise of the TPLF dominated government.
When finally TPLF understood that they could not control the government, the clique that had called all the tunes for almost three decades retreated to Mekelle from where it nurtured the hope of one day returning to Addis as winners!
They thus continued with their destabilizing and discrediting moves against the reformist government and finally when things were getting harder than they thought and that their powers even in the regional state were getting eroded, they embarked up on the most tragic of mistakes they could make. And that is attack on the Northern Command of the Ethiopian Defence Forces!
That was the last drop that broke the vase and the Ethiopian government had no choice but to go after them. Today, as we speak right now, the officers of the Ethiopian defence forces are telling us that most of the military campaign has ended with a clear defeat for the TPLF clique. Whatever pronouncements and pledges are made, they are the words of a desperate group struggling to avoid annihilation!
The propaganda that they would fight along with the solidarity of the people of Tigray has proved to be a figment of their imagination, and nothing more! The Federal Government of Ethiopia has given them ‘the last chance to give up arms and surrender peacefully’ and respond to their deeds in front of a court of law, or face annihilation if they continue to resist arrest, the officers vow!
TPLF committed the most inexcusable of errors and its gamble has not been as they calculated or hoped, also because the people of the regional state is more intelligent than what they think and have understood the real nature of the leadership of a party notorious for its criminal activities at the expense of even the population for whom they had been arguing to have been struggling. Police investigation reports have revealed these facts!
Today, the people of Tigray will be the ones who must be overjoyed by the undoing of such an undemocratic and oppressive group and have finally the opportunity to choose their own administrators in a free atmosphere for the first time in almost fifty years!
Today, the air that they and other compatriots in the country breathe will be one of freedom and relief. Finally, there will be better opportunities to create and strengthen democratic institutions and be a nation of freedom and justice. People are now invited to seize this blessing in disguise, the downfall of TPLF albeit with a high cost.
The ushering of a new era is most welcome even if the process must not have been so costly (in terms of human losses and destruction of so much precious property) for a country such as ours still struggling to develop and change the lives of its citizens.
As we celebrate our diversity on the Nations and Nationalities Day for the fifteenth time, this time around the celebration will really dawn a new day brighter than ever before because it will not be done with the domination of one-party over-all others!
The Ethiopian Herald December 10/2020
