BY DEJEN RAS & YINAGER BEWUKETU
The WEST is biased when it comes to its dealing with TPLF, a group labeled as terrorist by the Ethiopian parliament in May 2021. The question is, why does the WEST support the group? Why is not the WEST supporting the Prosperity Party (PP), elected by the majority to govern the country for the next 5 years? Is not it wise and more reasonable to stand with the will of the majority, and a party representing more than 100 million people rather than an entity that fights for division, selfishness and threatens to dismantle Ethiopia? The answer could be simple. It might not be as complicated as many think. Three possible reasons are provided as follows:
1. Poor judgment or Ignorance. Usually, we speak of the WEST as the most civilized part of the world with highly informed citizens of the world. That may be the case. Being the forerunner in contemporary knowledge, understanding, and wisdom has granted the WEST the benefit of the doubt that they can discern and judge some situations in the world better than others, and they interfere in almost every aspect of the developing world.
Their involvement is however influenced by poor judgment or ignorance. At times it lacks boundaries which give the impression that they consider small and underdeveloped sovereign states as their banana republics. A case in point to showcase the validity of this claim is the recent visit of the USAID director, SP to the HOA, particularly in relation to her visit to Ethiopia. Some of the statements she made in the days ahead were unhealthy, inflammatory, degrading. Of course, the director had a productive meeting with the appropriate higher officials as access to food aid is the main agenda. But she ignored the fact that she cannot interfere in matters that are pertinent to the sovereignty of the country.
In general, there is a growing pattern that the WEST is suffering from negligence or ignorance in its engagement across the world. The WEST is not humble either to learn from its past mistakes that lead some countries in Africa and the Middle East to become failed states. This makes them “to look like fools in the eyes of the rest of the world,” according to the words of one of the analysts at MSNBC. They do not have deeper contextual knowledge of matters around the world.
They made grave mistakes in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and Libya to mention just a few. These countries are in worse situations than they were before the WEST’s interference by violating the country’s sovereignty. One may say, their intelligence provided them biased information and the WEST’s leaders like G. Bush, T. Blair, B. Obama, and others made mistakes. That also might be true. But the decision made after the intelligence report is based on poor
judgment and ignorance of the facts on the ground and sovereignty of the countries. The WEST might not have worried so much about their strategic interests, but their actions certainly incurred huge costs on taxpayers, cost the WEST to lose their credibility and trustworthiness, and above all damaged the livelihoods of millions of people in those countries where their sovereignty was violated by the WEST. The paradox is the WEST did not learn from past mistakes and is still occupied interfering in the internal affairs of sovereign countries. The world society has become more complex, and many players are interfering in problems that are mostly local in nature. Unless one has not made a good judgment, the knowledge and understanding one has on some local matter can be superficial as well.
This might be one of the reasons for the WEST’s failure of rectifying the lies of TPLF, lobbyists, and its sympathizers in the western world. These TPLF liars are present in the corridors of the upper echelons of the WEST. They know the codes of the WEST. They use that to manipulate the negligent or ignorant western leaders, celebrities, media people, and organization leaders.
When these liars cry FAMINE, GENOCIDE, WOMEN ABUSE, CHEMICAL WEAPON, and so on, they did not go deep and understand the truth. They fall preyto it. In the past, TPLF has built the narrative that Ethiopia is going to disintegrate. The westerners believed it and bought the devilish idea of terrorist TPLF.
The WEST did not try to get a deeper understanding of the context. The psychological, historical, and social fabrics that created the Ethiopian people cannot be easily broken. However, for the past 30 years, TPLF implemented the ethnic fault line to break this bond. Nevertheless, Ethiopians from every corner have come to their senses after tolerating TPLF for over 25 years, and now they are fighting to demolish TPLF for their own survival and the country’s sovereignty. TPLF has misled the WEST time and time again. It is time for the westerners to face the truth, discard TPLF and choose a legitimate and strategic partner, the Ethiopian People!
2. Shared interest or Partner-in-Crime. Another reason why the WEST does not stand against TPLF is that they may have shared interests or at times it might also be that they are partners-in-crime. The dictionary definition of a partner in crime is a person who regularly helps someone else to plan a crime. So, what if the WEST, especially the upper echelon of the western world, was in bed with TPLF for a long time? In that case, even the terrorist organization TPLF can have leverage on the WEST.
That means if they do not support them, they will surface some of the secrets in the past. For example, there are rumors that the fight against terrorism has involved many wrong steps: dismantling communities, wasting the taxpayer’s money, buying weapons from highly influential companies, or even for the sake of distributing weapons and other dangerous materials, and so on.
Ethiopians do not forget the well-intended Bob Geldof concert money turned to the hands of the then rebel fighters to overthrow the military Derg government in the old days. The people who were involved have told the story themselves.
Another crucial aspect that the dying TPLF needs to survive is the so-called humanitarian corridor via the Welkait to Sudan. They are trying to create it by involving their partners or those who have shared interests. On April 28, 2021, New York Times reported that, during her confirmation, S. P. plans to use USAID to combat China’s influence in regions like Africa. In the current context, it means, she may be trying to use TPLF to create an agent government in Ethiopia. The so-called humanitarian corridor also comes at the expense of the indigenous people of Wolkait.
It is just enough for the people of Wolkait to heal from the mass killing, displacement, abuse, loss of their land, and eradication of their identity, ALL made by TPLF for the last 30 years. After all, Wolkait was illegally annexed to the Tigray region in 1984 by TPLF before the creation of the current constitution. Ethiopians will not allow the very enemies of Ethiopia to get their footsteps through the so-called corridor for TPLF to destroy the country. This is the context the western people and others should know very well. This will not be possible. Even the late leader of the TPLF, Meles, has said that. It is futile for TPLF to try that.
Imagine around 2 million people in Tigray living under the safety net program for decades under the TPLF rule. This needs a high level of engagement between high-level leaders to keep flowing such support. TPLF makes its own people totally dependent on FOOD-AID, to survive, and the aid organizations use this opportunity to keep the money flowing from donors. That may be one of the main bilateral reasons for the TPLF and corrupted aid organizations and people to embezzle aid money and get rich. እከክልኝልከክልህእንደሚባለው [quid pro quo]! Hence a partner-in-crime. And if you are a partner-in-crime, you try everything to cover the misdeeds and you do not dare to expose your partner.
3. Power of Money or Lobby Politics.
As one politician said, TPLF has stolen over 32 Billion dollars and moved the money in the western world. This may be the tip of the iceberg. TPLF and its sympathizers who benefited from the system for three decades are highly rich in the western world.
Now they can buy any journalist, politician, leader of an international organization, and celebrity. As mentioned above, when these people come out on media and open their mouths and present the narratives of TPLF, we the rest of 100 million people watch them with wonder, how the lobbyists are working behind the doors to feed those who utter words without understanding the real context. Listening to some politicians talking about the talking points of the terrorist TPLF is an eye-opening experience for us Ethiopians. And we ask ourselves as to the extent to which these people have fallen prey to TPLF.
When the westerners talk about the displacement of people, they will mention 45, 000 or 60, 000 people from Tigray to Sudan and ignore the tenfold displacement from other regions. When they talk about Genocide, they talk about the 90 dead people in Aksum, ignoring more than tenfold massacred in Mai Kadra alone, not far from Aksum. They even ignore the Child soldiers TPLF involved in the present bloody expansionist war towards the south from their “so-called” territory. They even glorify their mobilization of massive people in the war, ignoring the deaths of thousands of these people who were forced to fight without proper training. Now they are crying foul by collecting bodies of their deceased soldiers from the war fronts, and bodies of civilians they killed to shift the blame on the government. Time will show us when the western media and the WEST will once again fall prey to the TPLF malicious acts. It is just to wait and see. The WEST may reveal itself how prone they are to the manipulations of the TPLF.
Conclusion
There may be many more reasons why the westerns are biased in their communication and engagement towards TPLF, against the majority of Ethiopians, and the PP, the elected party in Ethiopia. We have raised three main reasons why the WEST is siding with TPLF and its manipulations. At some point in time, the facts outweigh TPLF’s malicious acts and that is what matters for Ethiopia and Ethiopians!
We recommend to the WEST to open their eyes and put effort into understanding the truth. This is morally and principally important for WEST and best for the positioning of the WEST in the world. It is also the best value for the WEST’s taxpayers’ money. Their hard-earned money should not be abused by a few corrupted people who are ill-informed and have the poor judgment of the facts on the ground. It is best for the people of the developing world, like Ethiopia, the African horn, and the world at large.
Editor’s Note: The views entertained in this article do not necessarily reflect the stance of The Ethiopian Herald
The Ethiopian Herald August 8/2021
