By Allelign Sisay
The recent aborted assassination, orchestrated by the TPLF and their accomplices, is a rude wakening not only for the prime minister but also for all Ethiopians. The wounded TPLF leadership may try it again using a more sophisticated method. They are now in a state of frenzy and paranoia, acting like a wounded beast. All Ethiopians who support the prime minister should be on the lookout and report to the police, immediately, without any hesitation and second guessing, of any suspicious activities, plots, assassination plans, disruption, sabotage of any kind, and mutiny. Let the police ferret it out and substantiate the allegations.
Dr. Abiy and his leadership team must restructure the military and the security apparatus, top to bottom, in a lightning speed to protect his safety, guarantee democracy, speed up the change he started implementing, maintain the unity of the country and vitalize the economy. He has to selecta stonewall bodyguard around him, who are loyal, smart, eagle-eyed, agile, well trained and equipped; and who love Ethiopia and their leader, to protect him from the evil actions of TPLF.
In reality, TPLF leaders should not be threatened at all by the Prime Minister. He offered them the best deal and an easy way–out they would ever have wished for. They should embrace his good gesture and run with every wealth they amassed from the people of Ethiopia. The Ethiopian people are high-minded and forgiving, not revengeful. TPLF leaders must face the crude reality, bite the bullet, and exit with their “intact dignity.” If they think of otherwise, they are in absolute delusion of the current political condition; they are committing suicide. They are not young any longer to go back to Dedebit (retarded) and rekindle ethnic based guerrilla warfare. Some of them are cognitively senile and physically ill. Most of them are too spoiled by luxury, corruption and comfort to start a new fight.
The people of Trigay are aware of TPLF’s manipulation and greediness. They will not fall again into their diabolic trap. The youth in Tigray is progressive and mobilized for change. No youth in Tigray will fight for regression or for the statuesque. The Tigray youth, intellectuals, and freedom fighters at home and in the Diaspora, are against TPLF’s tyrant rule as the rest of their Ethiopian friends and families. Ethiopians embrace the people of Tigray, save the TPLF leaders. Tigray is the cradle of civilization, the core and pillar of Ethiopia. The Ethiopian people can distinguish the people of Trigay from the cruel and corrupt leaders of TPLF. The Ethiopian people clearly knew who benefitted from the TPLF regime; not the rank and file people or the poor farmers of Tigray. The majority the people in Tigray have been burning in the same crucible as the rest of Ethiopians.
The prime minister is campaigning with the motto of forgiveness and reconciliation; not retaliation, loathing, prison, inhuman torture, mutilation, maim, and mass killing; as the TPLF had been doing to the Amharas and Oromos since they clutched the state power. TPLF’s policy is obsolete and heartless. They adhered to the defunct colonial policy of dive-and-rule, the abhorrence of the Amharas, and the disintegration of Ethiopia. Their minds are colonized with hatred and their hands are drenched in blood. The poison of detestation TPLF saw among Ethiopians, and the current gruesome crimes they are instigating and fanning via their loyal cadres and sycophants, is demonstrated by the turmoil, killings and expulsion of Amharas and Oromos from their own country, in the western and southern regions of Ethiopia. TPLF leaders will never sleep in peace. They will suffer, for the rest of their lives, from their own guilt, flashbacks, and nightmares of the atrocities and heinous crimes they committed on the innocent people of Ethiopia.
Prime minister Abiy Ahmed is showing Ethiopians the glimmering light at the end of the tunnel. His leadership style is unique and unparalleled in our history. He is honest and transparent. Ethiopians, at home and in the Diaspora, have pledged their unequivocal support for him. We have been yearning, for years, to have this kind of leader, with a keen insight into the Ethiopian situation and a balanced judgment in his decision. Like millions of Ethiopians, he is one of the mixed sons of Oromo, Amhara, Christian, Muslim, and is fluent in the major languages spoken in Ethiopia. We all are integrated and one Ethiopia. We are woven together through marriage, culture, commerce, war and peace; and Dr. Abiy is a prototype of our oneness. He is articulate in communicating his messages to the Ethiopian parliament in particular and to the public in general. He is spiritual, sympathetic and compassionate. He visited prisoners in many countries and helped them to be released. He visited wounded citizens in hospitals, consoled them, and soothed their wounded hearts. He called and visited families whose loved ones were killed and paid his condolences. Do you imagine Meles or Mengistu doing this?
The prime minister went to different regions of Ethiopia and shared his vision and mission to the public. He gave hope to the hopeless and directions to the confused. He galvanized the whole country preaching love, forgiveness, reconciliation, unity, democracy, the rule of law and economic development. He embraces the traits of Nelson Mandela’s magnanimity, King Solomon’s wisdom, Mahatma Gandhi’s peace, and Dr. Martin Luther King’s love. In less than 100 days, this prime minister has accomplished a lot, TPLF or the DERG has never done in 44 years, and is heading on the right direction. He answered most of the questions Ethiopians have been asking for millenniums: the unconditional release of political prisoners, pardoning the freedom fighters in the Diaspora who were given death sentences in abstention, welcoming the opposition (calling them competitors) and challenging them for peaceful change of power, lifting the emergency military curfew, flourishing democracy, warning public officials to be transparent and accountable for their action or inaction, continuing economic development, fostering unity and integrality, stressing the love and respect of different regionsand ethnics, and initiating peaceful diplomacy with our neighboring countries. This prime minister is unprecedented in the history of Ethiopian leaders, and God help him finishing what he started.
The writer could be reached at sallelign@gmail.com.
