OFDM & OPC condemnation of TPLF in Ethiopia only benefits TPLF

Blogger/ Oromummaa

Two of the techniques many African dictators employ to stay in power these days are signing up for the "War on Terror" and playing pseudo-democrats. Those dictators who master in both these techniques are most likely to stay in power longer and Ethiopia is an important case in point, with Zenawi playing the game near flawlessly so far. His TPLF regime has become the most important American ally in this African region, which translates to more economic aid, military assistance and political covers. With the obvious exception of Egypt, TPLF's Ethiopia gets the most military, technical aid in Africa from America, which mostly helps the regime to defeat the various rebels inside Ethiopia like the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) & OLF. In return, the TPLF regime promises to serve the daily interests of America's "war on terror" by sending thousands of troops inside more unstable neighbors.

While America is the sidekick for TPLF to succeed in this first trick, the TPLF's sidekick to succeed in its second ploy are the so-called opposition parties in Ethiopia: namely Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement (OFDM), Oromo Peoples Congress (OPC) and United Ethiopian Democratic Front (UEDF).

In order for the TPLF ruling party to appear like it has even a small degree of democratic credentials (atleast compared to the rival regime in Eritrea), it has used one of the TWO available ways, either allow a free & fair election without massacing people OR give useless parliament seats to a bunch of opposition groups.

Obviously and naturally, the minority TPLF can not allow a free election without intimidating and massacring people before eventually rigging the votes. The 2005 election when 200 people were massacred is a good example of this. Rigging the election was not enough that year since the TPLF continued by changing the constitution overnight and increased the percentage of seats needed for the opposition to present any agenda inside parliament. This overnight move by TPLF basically made those leftover opposition party seats useless by the morning. Today, the opposition parties in Ethiopia have as much say in parliament as much as the Somali "Prime Minister" has authority in southern Somalia. Which is none.

Thus, the only path to success for the TPLF ruling party has been to make those useless opposition party seats sound as LOUD as possible for the ears of the international community. And this is where loud outbursts and anti-TPLF condemnations of "opposition" parties like Bulcha Demeksa's OFDM and Marara Gudina's OPC opposition parties fit in.

Everytime the OFDM, UEDF and OPC opposition parties condemn Meles Zenawi's TPLF ruling party, the TPLF gets another point, another benefit. For the outside world, It appears like the TPLF is opening up space and giving dissident voices the freedom of expression while it actually is closing up more and more. The louder these "opposition" parties become the more democratic TPLF appears in the international community and the more Westerner powers are willing to forget the crimes done by the regime. What better way to appear democratic while being even more autocratic!! No wonder: more Western assistance keeps flowing to the TPLF regime, more World Bank (WB) finances and Western silence of human right abuses in Ethiopia.

Today, the TPLF regime is using innocent Oromo opposition parties like OFDM and OPC and they don't even know it. Meles Zenawi sends them to meet diplomats and Western officials while he appoints his media outlets like Reporter to publish every anti-Meles statements the OFDM and OPC leaders talk. Just recently, TPLF's media quickly published a report titled "Parties blast intelligence service, federal police" and described how the OFDM and OPC opposition parties in Ethiopia are "blasting" the TPLF regime with anger and intensity. http://en.ethiopianreporter.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=317&Itemid=1  Similarly, the TPLF allows several opposition leaders to give their inputs in articles for the international media. All of these tricks are done to improve the damaged reputation of the TPLF because it knows that it can never and would never allow a free election or any concrete challenges to its grip on power.

Such TPLF techniques have tricked even members of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) recently. Many famous and former OLF leaders like Leenco Lata and Abbabiya Abba Jobir have forgotten the meaning of Oromummaa and they have abandoned Oromo people shamelessly. The recent report by the TPLF's walta media about their glorification of the regime in Ethiopia shows how deep some former OLF leaders have betrayed their own people. Many Oromos around the world are asking why respected OLF leaders are betraying us by praising the TPLF dictatorship. Abbabiya Abba Jobir, who was said to be one of the OLF representatives for the Alliance for Freedom and Democracy (AFD), should have used his several years of experience in the struggle to identify TPLF's deceptive maneuvers. Instead, he has joined the others in unknowingly serving the tyrannical regime in Ethiopia, much like the OFDM and OPC are doing. The only solution for the opposition parties to fix this mess is by ending their participation in TPLF's fake parliament, which (by all measurements) they have achieved nothing inside it in 3 years (for OFDM) and in 8 years (for OPC/UEDF). Watching many Oromos go to prison daily and knowing how powerless they are as "parliamentarians," how long will they serve the TPLF dictatorship?

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