If the opposition is NOT united and fight against Zenawi regime, the suffering of Ethiopians will be continued.

The answer is very easy: Respect, Democracy, Freedom for all with out limitation or discrimination. Every citizen is equal under the law or constitution.

The answer is very hard: implementation and egoism of the power.

God Bless Ethiopia!!!

As you have correctly stated, the current system of government was established because of the TPLF’s political agenda and its determination to consolidate power among the elites of the party. I never for a moment believed that the TPLF was implementing the plan for the good of the nation; it was a political move to take advantage of the multi-ethnic composition of the population and to be the sole power in an environment of ethnic division and squabble. But that arrangement worked in a manner that has taken the TPLF by surprise and the opposition forces with no ideas to replace it with except condemning it every chance they get. You have correctly stated that the reason that ethnic federalism did not work in the Ethiopian context because it was never given a chance to being with. The effort on the part of the TPLF was never genuine and therefore, the current impasse. And the opposition forces have to come with something concrete to give to the people a real choice in the matter. Even though ethnic federalism is condemned by the opposition, there are quite a number of positive developments that the Ethiopian people have achieved in the wake of its implementation. Let me explain.

The political system of both Haile Selassie and the Dergue was based on the domination of one ethnic group and one religion. The only difference between these two forms of rule is the emphasis they attached to who should be the dominant ruling class. In short more than three quarters of the population was not represented in one way or another in any meaningful way in the affairs of the nation. The only language that got recognition was Amharic and the sole representative religion of the nation was Orthodox Christianity during the rule of Haile Selassie with some minor modification when the Dergue assumed power. Needless to say, this provided a fertile ground for the TPLF to implement its plan and rule with the consent of the various ethnic groups pretending to champion their cause. And judging from the alliance it created with almost all the ethnic groups by hook or crook, it did manage to come this far. For a minority ethnic group “representing” less than six percent of the population, no one can doubt the political system did its charm to let the regime stay this long. And the question is what now.

Although ethnic federalism was implemented half-heartedly in the nation, the population of the nine federal regions took full advantage of the system and established a form of governance that will be difficult to do away with. For the first time, all the federal regions have given primacy to their language and are using it in schools, courts, the media, bureaucracy, etc. The population is electing their own representatives in the local, regional, as well as the federal parliaments. More or less, they have their own self-administration. And here is my simple question, what is the alternative plan that the opposition is presenting? Since we have been condemning ethnic federalism from day one, are we going to take away from the people the limited self-administration they have been enjoying and replace it with something that no one has any idea with? I am quite familiar with the counter arguments to the tune of if democratic rights are respected and if the one-man-one-vote system is fully implemented, that will take care of all the political and social problems we have at hand. In principle, I agree with that line of thought except for one minor question. In exercising their democratic rights, what if the people wanted the full implementation of ethnic federalism and to have all the power that the TPLF was afraid to give them? Some might say why would people choose ethnic federalism when they have full rights in a democratic society? All I can say to that is maybe they are distrustful of all the previous regimes and their form of governance and they believe it is in their best interest to govern themselves. This is not something that is the domain of my imagination, but I believe that is the main reason that the OLF and ONLF are in a permanent state of conflict with the regime. The Oromia region is already enjoying a limited self-rule and the same goes for Somali region, but these and all the other regions were never given the full force of self-administration and that is exactly what all of them are demanding. Are we to say to them since we all enjoy the fruits of democracy now, we should all abandon that line of thought and come together as one people?

From the discussion that we Ethiopians started since the emergence of TPLF, I am assuming that many of the opposition forces believe that it was the implementation of ethnic federalism that tore apart the fabric of our society. And if we all believe that, in a democracy, “… all members of the society (citizens) have equal access to power and … that all members (citizens) enjoy universally recognized freedoms and liberties” (Wikipedia),
shouldn’t we allow the people to exercise their freedom and choose the kind of government they desire? I am afraid the opposition forces are entertaining the idea that as soon the current regime is replaced with one that is representing the people, everything will fall into place and all the social problems will find solutions eventually. And it is my hope that we find remedies that is ailing us in so many ways; but have we thought out carefully what those remedies are?

I am not aware if the organized forces of the opposition are talking to each other, and if so, we need to hear from all sides Ginbot 7, OLF, ONLF and others what the nature of the future government of the nation will look like. If there are fundamental differences within the opposition groups, then we need to sort it before the current regime is thrown out; otherwise, I am afraid the quagmire that we are in right now will not go away with the change of government.

That is the only way we can tell who stands for the genuine emancipation of our people. Otherwise, they are up to no good and may be standing next in line to reign in terror and savagery on innocent people who have already suffered enough for more than 35 years unabated. The conference can be held here in the USA, Europe or anywhere deemed fairly convenient to everyone. And the list of those who declined the invitation should be made public on this website. Let’s go!!!!

To tackle the present global challenge, Africans are trying to come together and forge an AUG (African Union Government). They are looking at USA or EU as an example. But both can not be good examples. USA is the melting pot for all nations around the world migrating to America and learning english. EU is the Union of well developed and independent mono-national-states, all with their own respective languages good developed and used.

Africa can be neither a melting pot nor a union of well developed only mono-national-states. The nations in Africa are diverse in development and size. What is good for Africa is to build a union with autonomous national areas for all nations aka “ethnies”

Based on their size and development, some nations can forge mono-national-state like Oromia. The others, which are too small to have their own state can forge multi-national-state like SNNP of Ethiopia, with all nations having their own Province/Zone, District/Wereda or Community/Qebele as autonomous natonal areas based on their size. Relatively bigger nations like Sidama can have their own autonomous Province/Zone, nations smaller than this like Alaba can have autonomous District/Wereda and the smallest nations like Dorze can have their own Community/Qebele. Based on their geographical position, certain small nations like Agew and Harari can join the bigger neighbour nations like Amhara or Oromia, but have their own autonomy, be it as province, district or community. Such 5 tier organization (African Federation — Mono-/Multinational States — Mono-/Multinational Provinces — Mono-/Multionational Districts and Mono-/Multinational Communities) is the best way of adiministrative Organization for Africa.

In Short Ethiopian model can be used as that of African, just changing its fake status under Weyane to a very genuine one, for which OLF and the likes are struggling!!