I have been involved in Ethiopian politics since my high school years a long, long time ago. Throughout this period, everything I have done was motivated by nothing else other than a burning desire to defend the fundamental interests of Ethiopia and to improve the lot of the common citizen.
I view myself as an unabashed Ethiopian nationalist and for this I offer no apologies. It is this spirit that moved me to join the recent debate among Ethiopians concerning the question whether it is wise or advisable to cooperate with Isaias Aferwerki and his regime with a view to bringing about political change in Ethiopia.
The immediate impetus for this debate is an article bearing the name of Major Dawit W/Giorgis (Ethiomedia, June 29, 2009). It came on the heels of another article of similar import written by Tagai Neamin Zeleke. I know both of these authors personally and I have no doubt that the views they expressed in these articles are guided by the love of country and a desire to see Ethiopians freed from the clutches of Meles Zenawi’s ethnocentric dictatorship. These are two of the most dedicated, hard working, energetic, and patriotic people I have come to know through the years.
If readers find that I am touching on many points in this one piece and that it is a bit lengthy, I beg their pardon and ask for their understanding, for no single issue can be seen in isolation. As we all know, our problems are complex and interconnected. I hope readers will read the whole piece before jumping in to conclusion or before giving their own interpretations based on one thing or another. I ask for their indulgence.
Let me state what is clearly not in dispute. Being an ethnic liberation front, and undemocratic to its core to boot, the Tigrai Liberation Front (TPLF), has no title to rule Ethiopia. If the notion of popular sovereignty and representative government has any meaning at all, the TPLF is bereft of any democratic legitimacy and can never qualify as the national government of Ethiopia. Therefore, we all agree that the regime of Meles Zenawi has to go.
Such a fate awaits any other ethnic liberation movement that seeks to impose itself on the Ethiopian people through connivance and the use of nefarious means and divisive tactics. Ethnic based ideas and politics are by definition too narrowly drawn to be compatible with country wide politics. Nor can such a movement ever hope to win the trust of other ethnic groups simply because it has already defined itself as being as separate and distinct from the rest of the country’s population. Once a group goes down this road, it is only a short step before it views other groups through the prism of “we”
