Ethiopian people are on unabated struggle for the past 25 years against the notorious Tigray fascism in our life time. The regime is notorious in many aspects, it fully utilised the the opportunity of the global politics rendered it. Particularly, it fully utilised the global terrorism chip that the world has faced after September 11, 2001. The Tigray fascists has used this opportunity to galvanised the support of United States in the name of Al-Shabaab (Militant group) in Somalia. Now the question is, is our struggle against the Tigray minority regime in Ethiopia is for Freedom and/or for Democracy?
A freedom is a political right, it mean the power or condition of acting without compulsion. Freedom has a broad range of application from total absence of restraint to merely a sense of not being unduly hampered or frustrated. While, Democracy, or democratic government, is “a system of government in which all the people of a state or polity … are involved in making decisions about its affairs, typically by voting to elect representatives to a parliament or similar assembly”, as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary. What are the bases of our struggle? Are we forging forward to get Freedom and/or democracy? What are we going to achieve after abolishing the current Tigray minority regime in Ethiopia?
Certain group argue that the bases of their struggle is for freedom. The faction of Amhara (Ethiopianists) , the Oromo, the Ogaden, the Sidama are among these groups. But the bases of their argument varies among these groups. The Amhara elites argue that, Ethiopia existence is in question under the current government, hence the priority will be to save the country first from disintegration. Because of this their struggle is for freedom to regain control from the colonial power that want to destroy their old Ethiopia. They argue,they will forge for democracy after they make sure they have a country. The priority for them are to save Ethiopia. However, the Oromo, the Sidama and the Ogaden nationalists view the matter in other aspects, they also said the bases of their struggle are for freedom and libration or their respective nations from The Abyssinian colonial power. Hence, they also fight for freedom. These groups never worry about the existence of Ethiopia as the Amhara elites think. Rather, they struggle to free their own people from extended subjugation and abuses.
No question the current minority regime totally benefited the Tigreans in every aspects, for example the Ethiopian Airlines (the current Tigreans airlines) which used be the pride of Ethiopians for long time abused its employees from other ethnic groups except the Tigreans. For example, a simple Tigray agent can take your ID and let you go without any question. Now the airline working language is Tigrigna, no more Amharic to express how far the Tigreans domination has gone on our existence. Listen the details of the witness at the end of this audio . In every government civil service, these type of operation are a commonplace. The Tigreans boldly pursuing this agenda to make other ethnic group under their subjugation and work for “Adey Tigray”.
The other moderate groups represented by all other ethnic groups argue the country needs democratic government. Hence, the bases of their struggle is to force the Tigray minority regime to pass the power to the people. MEDREK coalition (Ethiopian Federal Democratic Unity Forum) is among this group. This group accept the current establishment, the constitution and it think the Tigreans minority regime hasn’t respected the constitution and ask the people to enforce it through their struggle.
Some individuals thinks it is a danger to separate freedom from democracy. To make sure that the coming government will be democratic. It is necessary to base the struggle for freedom and democracy. What will be your position in the current struggle against the Tigray minority regime in Ethiopia? Have your say!