BY ALMARIAM
PART TWO
The T-TPLF has used negotiations as a strategy to: divide and make a separate peace with Oromos, Amharas and other ethnic groups to keep itself in power; wage a war of attrition against their opposition; neutralize and delegitimize their opposition and publicly make them their lackeys; stall for time until they can cook up new tricks; hoodwink the donors and loaners because the word “negotiation” perks up their ears; blunt legislative efforts in the U.S. House and Senate aimed at sanctioning them; bring the international community and opinion to their side.
Clean up their international image and put on a kinder and gentler face and conceal their blood-soaked hands in a white glove.Remain in power for one more day, one more week; one more month, one more year.
And NOW, to weasel their way out of criminal prosecution for treason, crimes against humanity, war crimes and a host of other charges.
The T-TPLF does not believe in a non-zero-sum, win-win games in negotiations. They must win 100 percent of the time. They sneer at good faith bargaining, negotiation, compromise and conciliation.
Negotiation for the T-TPLF is about one-upmanship. It is about hoodwinking and crushing their adversaries. The real problem with the T-TPLF is that they negotiate with zero-think mindset.
They see anyone else winning in any matter small or big (political or economic) as a devastating loss to them. They have a mindset of losers with a deeply ingrained conviction in their collective psyche that political opponents committed to democratic principles are mortal enemies, not merely political competitors.
T-TPLF’s 11 doctrines of negotiations
Negotiate without negotiating. For the T-TPLF, negotiations are essentially elaborate public relations games. That means window dressing negotiations and going through the motions of negotiations. The T-TPLF’s cardinal negotiation tactic is: Negotiate without negotiating and bargain without bargaining. In other words, pretend to be negotiating and bargaining but in the end take everything and give nothing.
NEVER engage in real negotiations, only make-believe ones. For the T-TPLF, negotiation is a game of attrition and a process of wearing down the opponent and frustrating them to walk away. Then T-TPLF will blame the breakdown of negotiations on them.
Negotiations should be used to bait and trap. The T-TPLF’s history of negotiations shows that it likes to use a prolonged process of enticing, delaying and stringing along the opposition until the moment the trap is sprung on them. The T-TPLF uses negotiations as one would bait a mouse with cheese into the trap. The T-TPLF will make all sorts of cheesy promises, commitments, assurances, etc., to attract the opposition to the “negotiating table” only to slam shut the trap on them in the end.
Throw crumbs at the opposition and watch them fight like dogs. In negotiations, the T-TPLF will use ethnic politics, sectarianism, regionalism, etc. to divide and conquer their opposition. The TPLF will throw crumbs to the various ethnic opposition leaders and them fight and tear each other up. It is like the master throwing a bone to a bunch of hungry dogs.
Negotiations are weapons of mass public distraction and confusion. By talking “negotiations”, the T-TPLF hopes to create an atmosphere of hope and optimism of a negotiated settlement of disputes. They use negotiations to hoodwink the people into believing that this time it is for real and will make the hard choices and make things right. The people’s hopes are always dashed.
Negotiations are for suckers (fools). The T-TPLF slicksters believe they can outsmart, outmaneuver, out-trick and out-finesse their opposition any day of the week. They believe they are invincible. They think of their opposition as a bunch of cowards, fools and idiots. Susan Rice captured the essential attitude of the T-TPLF leaders in her eulogy of Meles in 2012 when she said Meles “liked to call” his opposition “fools or idiots”. The T-TPLF guys believe that they are negotiating with fools and idiots when they sit down with the opposition.
Negotiation is a competitive blood sport. For the T-TPLF, that means take the easy way first to bring pressure on the opposition to negotiate a deal. If the “opposition” wants to play hardball, offer them rewards, money, jobs, business opportunities. If that does not work, threaten or slam them in jail for violating the “anti-terrorism law”. Alternatively, torture and kill them.
The purpose of negotiation is to cut down your opponent, not to cut a deal. That is the essence of the T-TPLF’s zero-sum game. The late Zenawi once said of the opposition, “We will crush them with our full force; they will all vegetate like Birtukan (Midekssa) in jail forever.” The T-TPLF will crush anyone who is foolish enough to sit down and negotiate with them.
In negotiations, use them and lose them. The T-TPLF will use and lose their opposition as soon as they feel assured the opposition has served their purposes and their grip on power is not threatened.
Always, always negotiate from a position of strength and victory is assured. For the past 27 years, the T-TPLF has been able to do that because controlled and owned everything: the political process, the economy, the civil service and the military.
What is there for the Ethiopian government to negotiate with the T-TPLF now?
Knowing the history of TPLF “negotiations”, what is there for the Ethiopian Government to negotiate at the hour 11:59?
The T-TPLF now wants to negotiate for one and only one purpose: Cut a deal that will absolve them of all the crimes against humanity and war crimes they have committed since they came to power in 1991.
The T-TPLF is militarily defeated. They are losing battles on all fronts. Ethiopian Defense Forces are tracking and droning them.
T-TPLF’s Special Forces and dragooned militia and child soldiers are fleeing the battle space. Their commanders are surrendering to ENDF by the hundreds.
In the early days of the law enforcement action against terrorist TPLF, PM Abiy Ahmed set three preconditions for negotiations:
1) Release all hostages including federal troops, abducted citizens and other illegally held prisoners.
2) Turn over all weapons and implements of war stolen from the Northern Command.
3) Turn over terrorist leadership on the “Most Wanted” list, and other high-level criminals are fugitives from justice.
Like Reda said, negotiation with the Ethiopian Government is a “sick joke.”
Only a Faustian bargain to be gained in a T-TPLF negotiation
My views on negotiations and bargaining with T-TPLF are well known. In my 2009 commentary, “Loan Sharking Ethiopia’s Future!”, I warned, “Don’t make a pact with the TPLF devil!” I expounded on that theme in my August 2016 commentary, “Ethiopia: Beyond the Politics of Hate”.
I cautioned, “It is unfair to condemn the ordinary people of Tigray for the sins and transgressions of the TPLF Devils.” The T-TPLF is willing, able and ready to make a Faustian deal with anyone, at any time and in any place!
Goethe’s Dr. Faust made a pact with the Devil, exchanging his soul for wealth, success, worldly pleasures and power. The T-TPLF will also promise and deliver wealth, success, worldly pleasures and power to anyone, regardless of ethnicity, nationality, religion, etc., who is prepared to sell his soul.
Now, it is the T-TPLF is outta luck, ammunition, troops and options.
Now, the T-TPLF must face the music for its decades-old crime spree. I knew how it would all end for the TPLF; with prophetic precision.
In my February 3, 2013 commentary, “They Shall Inherit the Wind”, I wrote:
Scripture teaches that “He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind: and the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart.” Meles and his worshippers have profoundly troubled the Ethiopian house and they shall inherit the wind! It is written, “The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein forever.”
In my December 27, 2015, commentary, “The “End of the Story” for the T-TPLF in Ethiopia?”, I reflected on the final chapter to be written on the T-TPLF.
I was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi. “Remember that all through history, there have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they seem invincible. But in the end, they always fall, always.”
The T-TPLF tyrants and murderers have fallen. And they can’t get up! I read T.S. Eliot’s poem, “The Hollow Men”, as I thought about the end of the T-TPLF.
Eliot’s poem is about the inhabitants of a desolate underworld populated by empty and defeated people facing horrors of war of their own making. Just like the TPLF.
Eliot said the world of “hollow men” and “stuffed men” ends “not with a bang but a whimper”. So it has for the terrorist TPLF bleating, “Negotiations, Ceasefire, Peace talks, please somebody, help!”
T-TPLF, I told you so. But you would not listen to me. TPLF, you troubled the Ethiopia House and now you shall inherit the wind. TPLF, you will never, never be in a position to trouble the Ethiopia House.
Sure, you can cut a deal with the Devil or shake the devil off!
My advice to anyone who is even thinking about negotiations: “The devil is in the TPLF details…”
As I argued in my 2009 commentary, for the TPLF, negotiation means playing a “zero-sum game”. They win all the time, everybody else loses every time. They have one and only one negotiating strategy. “Might makes right. My way or the highway, jail or death!”
The T-TPLF will negotiate in earnest only and only if they are guaranteed they will remain the only dominant political, economic and military force in Ethiopia. It is true one does not negotiate with the Devil. One conducts exorcism to get rid of the Devil.
I make one exception. One can still negotiate with the TPLF Dedebit Devils if they Disarm, Demobilize and Demilitarize! The alternative is an exorcism for DDDDDevisl. Run, Devil, run. Ddddddddddd But you can’t hide!
I am reminded of a poignant remark by Teddy Roosevelt in a speech (a worthwhile read) he gave on Labor Day in 1903:
The death-knell of the republic had rung as soon as the active power became lodged in the hands of those who sought, not to do justice to all citizens, rich and poor alike, but to stand for one special class and for its interests as opposed to the interests of others.
The death-knell of the Democratic Party in Congress and the White House, which inflicted great injustice on Ethiopia by shamelessly siding with terrorist TPLF, shall ring on November 8, 2022.
November is to remember! On November 4, 2020, the terrorist TPLF attacked the Ethiopian Northern Command and unleashed unspeakable death and destruction. In the end, they failed.
November 8, 2022 is just over two weeks away. What will happen on November 8, 2022? I believe congressional democRATs will suffer defeat unprecedented in American history. At least, that is my fervent hope and desire.
So, Ethiopian American voters, “Remember, remember the 8th of November!” Drive democRATs and the democraTICK party outta Congress day.
In the lyrics of my doggerel song lyrics for the TPLF:
T-TPLF, the end is nearIt is simple and clearYou have a choice to surrenderOr go six feet under!En route to HELL.
Negotiate with the T-TPLF Devil? Hell, I’ll be signing’ and dancing’ in the streets… “Shake the devil off!
Shake the Devil off Ethiopia! Shake, rattle and roll the TPLF devil off Ethiopia! Can I get a witness?
An excellent summary of my commentaries on T-TPLF negotiation strategies and tactics has been prepared by FetaDaily, forward clip to 7min. 56 seconds. I invite my readers to read the full commentaries here and here.
Editor’s Note: The views entertained in this article do not necessarily reflect the stance of The Ethiopian Herald
The Ethiopian Herald October 26/2022
