Mereja Forum

[info]

During the 2005 election, TPLF/EPRDF used to sell "democracy" as its commodity to get votes. It claimed to be the one that brought democracy and freedom of the press etc., constantly comparing itself to Derg. After the 2005 election, it totally abandoned democracy as its selling commodity and started to sell "development/ልማት" as its main commodity, portraying itself as "developmental state/ልማታዊ መንግስት". To justify the new found commodity, it started huge investments in infrastructure while accumulating huge debt until the country became almost bankrupt when the grace time for the debt was over and the country ended up paying debt almost $1 billion a year.

After TPLF is now confined in Mekele, it seems it has now found a new selling commodity called "security". When one watches/listens almost all medias from Tigray, they all are focused to the same narrative of selling this commodity. The narrative goes like this: "Ethiopia is unstable and not secure. Tigray on the other hand is a beckon of security due to TPLF's ability to implement rule of law". The same narrative is also coming from the TPLF conference. "Ethiopia is in chaos, there is no rule of law, only TPLF can guarantee security and peace".

It seems to me that TPLF has decide to stick to this narrative since the democracy and developmental commodity are very hard to sell in Tigray. It looks like TPLF is about to close the few signs of democratic opening in Tigray, clearly warning oppositions like Arena. It looks like TPLF has no interest to sell the democracy commodity and is heading to a fully authoritarian rule. It also knows that selling the developmental commodity will be very hard in the near future in Tigray, since this narrative is dependant on foreign debt which Tigray is not going to get.

So, it seems TPLF is sticking to selling the new found commodity, security. But this is dangerous because this can only work as long as Ethiopia is destabilized and Tigray is seen stable compared to the rest of Ethiopia. For this to happen permanently, TPLF must do everything to keep the country from becoming stable. It has to try to destabilize the country by financing chaos and terrorist activities. This is where this narrative becomes dangerous, especially after the Ethiopian state apparatus start functioning normally. This can lead to an open confrontation forcing the federal government to declare TPLF a terrorist organization even leading to imposing international sanctions against TPLF and its leaders. It seems to me, that TPLF is drugging Tigray into isolation to keep its power in Tigray for the coming years. Economic and other sanctions against TPLF/Tigray from both the federal gov and international community may be the result of its short sighted and dangerous policy. In any way the people of Tigray will be facing economic hardship and isolation in the coming years, if TPLF stays on course.

I hope, I am wrong!

[Weyane.is.dead]

The government needs to stop shying about. It should tell Ethiopians how weyanes are destabilizing Ethiopia. Tayee dendea writes about it on his Facebook profile. They have proof the addis bombing was the work of tplf. Weyanes are head on accusing the federal government of being illegitimate why cant the federal government do the same. Declare tplf as a terrorist organisation. It will be easier for the federal government as it has the backing of all neighbouring countries and the US. Abiy can reign on mekele without firing a single bullet. Just declare tplf as a terrorist organisation, give the federal budget to the new tigrayan democratic party. If tplf is dumb enough to attack then hell will rain on them from all directions.