[By Bereket Kiros]
“If you want God to laugh at your jokes, tell Him your life plans.” Consider this cynical sneer as a profound statement, the effort of a rather pitifully fragile life form, humanity. I realise that most Tegaru in the Global Diaspora or back home are in agony, more fearful than ever, about the fate of Tigrai. Thus, my first duty is to ease the pain of my fellow Tegaru and reassure them, as far as I can, that my criticism of the TPLF leadership and its surrogates limited people and was not meant in any way to create fault lines, adding to existing divisions. We must keep in mind, though, that the turmoil we experienced may further intensify in 2024 because of the continuing TPLF leadership crisis and the challenges posed to famine and security.
The question is: what must be done to change the dynamics in the hope of solving some of these crises? Given the crisis in leadership, the hour calls for new visionary and courageous leaders who recognise that their people’s future security and prosperity still rest on the only viable option: honesty. We need scholars who heal our wounds and give us hope as a people and a nation, not people who insert wedges of disharmony and animosity, tearing us apart. Denying such facts will not help us move from the present political bottleneck to meaningful engagement with each other in order to further develop the democratic aspirations of all Tegaru.
Nevertheless, let us not be deluded by the painted surface glorification or rationalisation of the activities of GSTS, who sounds more and more like a paid piper than an objective intellectual in pursuit of a high-quality analytical body of work. There can be no excuse for the activities of the special forces and the barbaric individual acts of some of the members of the TPLF forces who inflicted such indefensible violence against TDF veterans. It is not without reason why I have repeatedly said that most of our political players are unsophisticated provincials, amateurs, and downright childish and do not seem to know how to be politicians. How could we be expected to be led by individuals who could not even overcome such pettiness?
First, let GSTS acknowledge and condemn the tragic consequences of the TPLF’s use of excessive force to silence injured TDF veterans when they marched to grieve about unmet demands. This pattern of violently suppressing public protests has continued, including during the protest on the extensive theft and corrupt management of humanitarian aid, which was diverted and sold in the market. GSTS has yet to voice its condemnation. We all love and want to keep whole generations united, but GSTS miserably failed to articulate the political and economic problems facing us all and pointed out the main reasons why we, as a people, failed repeatedly to bring about meaningful political and economic changes in Tigrai.
The hypocrisy of GSTS can be summarised as follows:
- It falsely pretends to represent the diaspora.
- As a member of TIRA/TPLF, instead of an independent and impartial organisation with scholars, it has acted contrary to the majority wishes of the Diaspora, e.g., the Veterans Demonstration.
- It has remained silent after the theft and misappropriation of aid.
- It pacifies its voice so that TPLF is viewed in a good light.
- It enables the TPLF’s corrupt system.
- It has chosen not to criticise the TPLF, which exposed the people of Tigray to famine and genocide.
- It was silent during the critical 60-day meetings behind closed doors of a power struggle by those seeking to remain in their power.
Some in the Diaspora community have challenged the GSTS representatives’ self-authority: should we make distinctions between moral and ethical intellectual standards and excellence? I wondered, just to satisfy my intellectual curiosity, about their intent to lead after their silence to condemn the theft of grain and the sale of genocidaires-destroyed vehicles and tanks.
The deformity and corruption caused by TPLF leaders and their supporters in our psyche lives on in the children and grandchildren of those first victims. Perhaps above all, at a time when mutual confidence-building is more crucial than ever, can the GSTS shift from reacting to criticism and take robust steps towards the kind of openness they claim they really want to facilitate? A few simple steps might convince critics of their intention: I applaud GSTS’s attempts; however, I questioned their partiality as they are members of the current leadership to stop the unfortunate dehumanising efforts of the use of brutal forces on peaceful demonstrators and ignored the famine fighting for power. Moreover, in the hope of expanding the discussion, as some of you already know, members of the GSTS have been rambling on social media, trying to lure the Tigrai Diaspora community so that they would “lead” when they are part of the problem in the administration holding key positions.
- Ensure that GSTS is independent, impartial, and professional.
- To devise a code of conduct designed to put an end to harassment, protest, and corruption.
- Appoint a committee of experts on constitutional law to consider the status of the rule of law; no one should be above the law (including officials).
- Use of special forces to intimidate and arrest TDF veterans and the public without applicable constitutional order.
- Attended ways of building consensus rather than infighting.
- Express themselves honestly and courageously without recourse to anonymity.
Some of the Diaspora members are reluctant to join this group, who call themselves scholars of Tigray. It seems that many members of the Tigrai Diaspora community have numerous problems and issues with the leadership of GSTS impartiality. As you can imagine, the Diaspora possesses various forms of capital, e.g., investment, intellectual (professional, technical, and entrepreneurial skills and expertise), social (trust, values, and relationships), and political (lobbying, advocacy), which could be positively mobilised for the development of Tigrai. There are thousands of Tegaru who appreciate being recognised in a far more meaningful manner as forming the constitutive part of Tigrai than ever before and who are not part of the GSTS.
Do GSTS have the moral grounds to challenge the authorities if the government fails to honour the explicit or implicit promises? The answer is no. In their press release, they claim to be free from politics and religion; I do not see a shred of evidence of their impartiality. Concurrently, they claim the purpose of the press release is to create an atmosphere of honest discussion on the current and past political and social debacle of the Pretoria agreement. Furthermore, GSTS underlines three categories.
- What are the root causes of our problems that led us to this genocidal war?
- What led to the Tigrai genocide and humanitarian crisis?
- Then how do we solve the shortcomings of the corrupt TPLF leadership?
Let us think about the exposure we have to living in democratic countries. What is needed is a fresh perspective and honest dialogue for the future of our Tigrai. How does our diaspora community entrust us with improving their lives when we are imposing our communist and rigid political perspectives in this unfortunate genocidal time? Such action only comes as a desperate act and takes a detour from the principle of unionism to uplift the destitute people of Tigrai.
We, as Tigraians, must not throw poisoned darts from the shadowy corners of narrow politics and personal interests; that is harmful to the people of Tigray. What is needed is honesty in our discourse. GSTS shadowy past needs to be scrutinised to see how they involve championing the advocacy campaign to lead. The remedy to heal our Tigrai will take several generations to skill the workforce. I am sure such generalisations may need careful consideration not to mislead and sideline so many well-intentioned patriotic Tegaru. We should not be misled to use such infantile discourse and think we can bring our community under one roof. Our fight for Tigrai is simply our way of living the righteous life. Fighting for the rights and dignity of the most incredible people with the most wonderful history must be a great privilege for us. Tigrai must not be blinded by a few opportunists or self-serving monsters that dressed and camouflaged under GSTS as true defenders of Tigrai.
There is no time to wallow over the mistake we have made, but let this be a lesson to all and a time to mobilise all to save our community from the jaws of ignorance and narrow political beliefs under the scholar’s name. I hope you have a clear picture; therefore, there can be no excuse to support or sympathise with such two-faced opportunists any longer. This is a call to fight fire with fire and to stand for Tigrai. All of my effort may be designated as a journey “beyond self-serving” because the whole aim of my writings has one single goal: put the interests of the people first over Aweragism, clannish network grouping, and narrow political and economic interests.