[By Bereket Kiros]
We have seen heads of state, prime ministers, and other officials rise and fall to power; we have observed individuals who betrayed their people and parties for personal enrichment. We have witnessed too many thugs, irresponsible, and mediocre Tegaru politicians vying for political power to keep the status quo that failed us. We are at a crossroads in the fight for today and the future of Tigray. We can navigate wisely, putting our differences aside and marching forward if we understand our enemy’s intrigues.
We must envision a far better Tigray that we could all claim as our own than the vision of those self-promoting groups. The vision of a glorious Tigray is something to behold and aspire to as a realisable future, and at times, reality seems far distant from now.
The recent political skirmish between the factions in the TPLF and the Interim Administration demonstrates the degree of the political immaturity and failures beyond repair of these leaders. The power struggle between two leaders also demonstrates the deep-seated 50-year political fault of the TPLF that maintains the political power under the hardcore Sibhat Nega and his loyal cadres led by Dr. Debretsion, who believe unhinged TPLF is theirs and want to remain in power by any means.
The most considerable outrage, however, is the issue of territorial integrity and displacement being replaced by power-hungry maniacs and the security and well-being of the Tigray people being neglected in such a tough time. Individuals and an association of Tegaru scholars will post their views on chat rooms and social media on the future political resolution of the bottleneck situation in Tigray. Today, the history of the so-called TPLF leaders resembles a chaotic Mercato market.
Nevertheless, the crude power-seeking infighting within the TPLF is illustrative of the grave malady that all politicians suffer—hunger for power as a shortcut to one’s personal material success as opposed to power to be used in the service of the people of Tigray to improve the people’s living standards and maintain peace and security.
Thus, Tigray needs selfless deeds of heroic Tegaru personalities to rehabilitate a traumatised community and not blackmailing political manipulation of ideologically diminutive men and women that we have been subjugated to follow for decades now. We do not have to fight tooth and nail to convince each other which group neglected the plight of Tegrau or corrupt leadership with no accountability. Today, Wedi Asheber (General) confirmed the deep-seated resentment against the TPLF political leaders.
The sad reality of our political situation in Tigrai, whether we are dealing with interim administration or TPLF, narrow-minded political leaders, or the politics of ideologically corrupt Diaspora émigrés of every kind, is simply a short-lived passing phenomenon. But what will carry us forward and help us survive as a people and a nation is the system of unity and our zeal for our own sovereignty.
Wedi Asheber’s brief, well-articulated, meaningful interaction needs well-deserved attention. As someone put it, if you know your enemy and know yourself, you will always win. Not all of us can explicate legal issues or politics during a crisis. Individuals with area expertise must come to Tigray’s aid in this time of uncertainty, and Wedi Ashebir’s plea seems to capture that reality. It is time to speed up our efforts and get off the political merry-go-round that promises the illusion of taking us somewhere.
It is also time to revive or build on good practices, no matter who initiated them. At times, we are too wrapped up in the past, and the last four years are full of grief, fear, and anger. “Time does not run backward.” And yet many in our community, including myself, still nurse grievances and a personal vendetta of fifty or more years of the TPLF’s repression and undemocratic absolute power. Unfortunately, removing these sentiments from our minds will leave us with little more to say.
In other words, in politics, it is possible to differentiate personal from the public and to participate in realising a common goal. We should also remind ourselves that we never cease to relate to each other, whether friends or foes, as long as we live within the same cultural-historical matrix. We live in an image-conscious world where relevance, to an extent, depends on capturing the current public mood. Our people are demanding justice and can no longer go on with a false promise.
The TPLF seems destined to fail because of the party’s incapability to produce competent, visionary, and compassionate leaders. If there had been some form of political compromise and accommodation, the Debretsion groups would never have been a part of such a future Tigray government.
The Debretsion splinter group understands this so well that it has mounted an effective public relations campaign to shift the mood. Repeating the slandering (ፀለመ), misleading (ምድንጋር) messages and lies to reinforce their illicit actions is a well-worn concept employed by communists that does not come close to the Tigray reality. Their actions are a national treason (ብሄራዊ ክሕደት) and betrayal (ጥልመት), and they must be held accountable.
So far, two distinct approaches have evolved from discussions on the structure of the future government of Tigray. Irrespective of the divergent views of such entities, I am very apprehensive about having the Debretsion group for another year, already devastated by their years of maladministration, repression, slander, corruption, human rights abuses, and treasonous activities, which will be disastrous. In short, the TPLF leadership should be totally banned from future participation in the political life of Tigray, as one may be able to work with someone other than Debretsion, Fetlework, Alem Gebrewahid, or Getachew Asefa. ይኣክል ክበሃሉ ኣለዎም::
ፍትሒ ንህዝቢ ትግራይ!
ዘልኣለማዊ ክብርን ሞገስን ንጀጋኑ ስውኣትና !!!