The Slippery Slope – The Prosperity Party and Its Downhill Moving Politics

Sewale Belew – sewaleb@yahoo.com

Introductory Background

In the 1970s, Emperor Haile Selassie lost the Ethiopian public’s trust and was eventually killed by his soldiers who were trained to defend against the national enemy. Similarly, Colonel Mengistu Hailemariam lost the Ethiopian public trust, and thrown outside the country. At that moment, the public silently allowed the TPLF/EPRDF/ militants to march freely into the capital, Addis Ababa, without any public protests or resistance. The last and final battle between the Derg army and the TPLF militant forces was fought on the outskirts of Gondar. After that, in places like Gojam, Wolga, Showa, Arsi, Harar, Ilibabur, Gambella, Jima, Bale, and the like, where the TPLF forces were moving around freely, there was no skirmishes or organized resistance to halt them.

In due course of time, as the ruling party, TPLF was eventually deceived not only by the reaction of the general public and the dissatisfied youth, but also by the young cadres trained by the TPLF itself. These cadres were recruited and trained to serve the TPLF/EPRDF government. Among them were the rank and file members of OPDO, ANDM, the federal army and the federal security forces who suddenly turned their guns and their disloyalty on the TPLF (on their advisers, trainers and top officials). In general, until the real revolution broke out, no one knew who among the loyalists would support the TPLF leadership. Basically, the TPLF/EPRDF/ has not only lost public trust and support, but has been openly challenged and attacked by its own cadres. Among these senior cadres trained by the TPLF/EPRDF/ are now among the topnotch government officials.

As if history repeats itself, once again, amidst the currently ongoing chaos and narrow nationalist-led violence in most corners of Ethiopia, the Prosperity Party led regime has become more and more indifferent about unlawfulness and the reign of terror conducted by ethnic led combatants within different regions. So as the Prosperity Party is dancing at the gates of hell, who will stand with the PM Abiy and his Prosperity Party in the future? Time will tell.

What are the Core Problems at Stake with the Prosperity Party executives?

By name the previous OPDO and the current Prosperity Party pretends to be different from its creator – TPLF /EPRDF/. In practice, however, the Prosperity party continues to apply the TPLF crafted divisive and tribal constitution to maintain its power base. The tribal nepotism and the corruption against the law are on the zenith. Besides, many (if not most) Prosperity Party executives in Ethiopia are said to follow the Protestant church whose brand is tainted primarily by the massive slaughter of the Orthodox Christians and Islam follower dwellings’ in the farming rural communities of Wellega, where the protestant church following population is cynically in the majority.

Yet, the Prosperity Party affiliates that brag loud about having received the Bible and the Prosperity Gospel of neoliberalism are now absurdly indifferent and silent about the mass murders and eviction operations being committed by OLF-Shene and TPLF extremists’ joint efforts aimed at destabilizing peace and order in Ethiopia. These two well-paid domestic agents are working to accomplish the destabilization aims set by foreign conspirators including Egypt and the Western world. So they are determined and devoted to carry-out this mission with utmost dedication. The claim that the Prosperity Gospel enables them to deposit millions of dollars out of thin air into the bank account of congregates is perceived as pure con artist act of the protestant pastors. These tricks of the Prosperity Gospel end up on Tiktok platforms, making the actual doctrines as a laughing stock. The ethnic Amhara people living in farming communities who were evicted from their homesteads due to ethnic cleansing committed by OLF-extremists are in temporary makeshift shelters elsewhere and yet, they are said to be in a state of despair. It is now open secret and public knowledge that the Oromo narrow nationalist army within Oromia and neighboring regions has enablers in the regional and federal levels of the Prosperity Party’s government structures.

Orthodox believers and Muslims living in Wollega and other Oromia parts, as well as people living in the rest of Ethiopia, are seeing the true color of this racist Oromo group’s intents and hidden agendas; especially that of the Pentecostal Protestants, and the influence of Western Christianity. Protestant followers who preach to turn the other cheek when your first cheek is struck are now indifferent to the carnage and mass killing happening within Oromia region. It has been observed that these Protestant Christians, who were primarily peaceful and God-loving, are no longer peace-loving. Instead, they have aligned themselves with the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) terrorist groups. Now they are accused of being a part of Christianity that does not care about the killing of children and innocent people. In fact, the Pentecostal Protestant church and faith is being destroyed by some money mongering pastors. The image of falsehood and deception spoken in the name of God greatly changed the orthodoxy of Bible teaching. This trend, especially the trend followed by a few Pentecostal pastors, and their wrongly preached approach, is becoming difficult to stop.

PM Abby himself seems to be associated with spiritual enlightenment, freedom from suffering, desire and selflessness. It somehow helps the reality on the ground. But at a time when the country is undergoing genocide organized by tribal extremists, he puts himself on the positive side by building palaces, gardens, resorts, cities and highways. Currently, the rise and fall of the TPLF has proven one thing. A good example of this is the collapse of the TPLF regime in 2018. In other words, the people of Ethiopia are saving their energy, waiting for the right moment when a revolution will explode like a volcano.

As the political tensions continue to rise in due course of time, Prime Minister Abiy has also begun to realize that he too is on the verge of losing public support especially among Tigray, Amhara, Gurage, Orthodox believers, the majority of people living in the Oromia region and the residents of Addis Ababa. Recently, he has gone to the extent of labelling the Amhara opposition activists as “Amhara-Shene” simply to legitimize his claim that OLF-Shene and TPLF are not the only opposition groups opposed to his government stand.(1) Just as PM Meles Zenawi legitimized the corruption done by the TPLF/EPRDF government officials during his premiership, as action taken by business smart individuals, so also PM Abiy legitimized the currently ongoing corruption among his regime’s rank and file officials by asking them to be smart enough and opt to invest the stolen millions on introducing the implementation of industries instead, so that opportunities for employment and productivity can increase in future (2).

Until the TPLF stayed on power, the TPLF-military generals used to sell smuggled goods (such as tiers imported without paying duty) brought in official military vehicles. Actually, these TPLF-generals and other high ranking government officials were looting commercial banks, development banks and other financial institutions throughout TPLF’s stay on power. In fact, TPLF was constantly creating economic corruption by using illicit trading as a major source of collecting funds for its military might. As the trading environment was distorted, most TPLF generals and other high officials took large amounts of loans (without meeting the required criteria and conditions). Hand-picked individuals were employed by their illegal chain and created relationships with other individuals who benefited from illegal trade. Meanwhile, citizens who were doing business legally were denied loans and pressured not to improve their business.

The economic exploitation of the TPLF by secretly storing illicit goods for further trade on illegal markets was one aspect, in which, it mercilessly opened the market for dangerous exploitation that enabled it to determine the national price and control the trade line as a whole. For this task, TPLF deployed its own people in the tax payment system and promoted it, by taxing heavily those businessmen doing business legally, forcing them out of the market, and instead, allowing TPLF’s own organized illicit marketers and their supporters to trade and live freely; while harming the country’s economy without paying any taxes.

On the other hand, in all commercial border points (checkpoints) of the country, by assigning only TPLF-members who have returned from the army, and by having them control the checkpoints, by allowing entities working together with the TPLF-task group’s illegal trade and smuggling to import and export goods without paying excise taxes. Tragically, citizens who were working in the legal business chain were deliberately put out of competition by TPLF insiders, who would make them go out and go bankrupt. Particularly, TPLF’s military generals used to sell smuggled goods such as rubber that were imported without paying duty, by publically loading goods on military vehicles and transporting to market-places. This was a trade venture in contraband, in which senior military officers and senior TPLF-politicians were jointly involved.

Overall, it can be observed that the Prosperity Party is lying on a bed of nails, relying on the “us and them” view of moving toward ethnically divided Ethiopia. Sad enough, Ethiopia is being led down the road to Armageddon. But before Ethiopia advances far into Armageddon, is it possible to bring about a change beyond this situation? Yes, the Prosperity Party must overcome collective ethnic consciousness, armed struggle and the constant blaming of the Amhara. The episodes that have been shown so far confirm the surprising and mysterious acts of violence in Oromia, especially in the Wellega and Benishangul regions, which were sparked by the power struggle between the OLF and the Prosperity Party.

OLF-Shene and the local government officials who secretly support OLF’s mission, vision and purpose of taking over power have opened fire on innocent Amhara people and caused millions of dollars in damage to the country and to the Amhara communities, leaving almost 50,000 Amhara families without any means of daily life. While the criminals and their hidden intentions are a mystery to the law enforcement agencies, the Amhara community will not be fooled by the ethnic-based liberal political entrepreneurship that is being conducted intentionally by confusing and convincing (persuading) the people with this political entrepreneurship strategic plan and practical activities on the ground. The main aims of the ethnic-based Prosperity Party have been consistently opposed by the citizens of Ethiopia because the violence against the Amhara communities in Oromia and Benshangul is still actively being committed. persistently At the same time, the OLF-Shene narrow nationalist groups and the Prosperity Party regime have openly entered into skirmishes that have resulted in mass shootings and massacres of innocent citizens in Ethiopia.

I fear that war remains the logical terminus of the Prosperity Party-authorities’ collective human consciousness. Indeed, war is sacred, indicating the hell the country has been in the process of wreaking Amhara communities in the country. Providing lip-service the Prosperity Party-executives throw a bit of Gospel into their cold war on evil stating: “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

Such abusive exploitation of religion to bless ethnic violence covered the reality of the war’s hideous destructiveness with a sacred sheen. But perhaps even worse than the Prosperity Party’s and OLF-Shene’s wars’ pseudo-sacredness is their normalcy and cold-bloodedness to the atrocities against the Amhara is their sense of vengeance. These cruel operations are conducted with indifference and costing the nation millions of dollars’ budget that the Prosperity Party’s-administration tosses at the Parliament every year without any fail or default. And the total monetary costs push-up, over and again yearly, bestowing for instance, the military arsenal, ready to deliver destruction on command. To date, short of Armageddon, TPLF and OLF combatants are armed terrorists, equipped themselves with hate-spewing agents, ready and passionately willing to kill any other ethnic group members within Oromia Region and its vicinities. These two combatants consider particularly the Amhara as the main enemy to be squashed or evicted. So they hunt and kill them not only in rural areas or in smaller rural towns, but also those traveling on public transport along the main highways leading toward Addis Ababa, the capital city.

Are we able to realize what they mean when we hear preaching about ethically and morally loaded Biblical terms like: “Understand, love, heal . . . and the like? Do we ever provide the necessary time space and a budget to implement these thoughts into the minds of the youth? Not good enough as the situation on the ground exhibits. Instead, the main mission of TPLF, OLF Shene and all other ethnically narrow nationalist activists and those of Ethiopia’s cruel foreign enemies is to spread hate, terror, shed innocent blood, create fear, disrupt progressive activities, destroy local infrastructure/ and food crops, and eventually leave Ethiopia in endless turmoil and chaotic situations with the aim to bringing Ethiopia to its knee and forcing the nation to surrender to its main foreign and domestically organized destructive agendas on hold , with the plan to rob it of its natural resources. At the end of the day, only the enemy will benefit from the internal violence and destruction that is happening in Ethiopia. Mainly Egypt, Westerners and internal enemies who compete for power, will dominate Ethiopia by creating such a destructive mission. Otherwise, they attempt to assign a loyal government of their desire and choice upon the shoulders of the Ethiopian people.

Therefore, if the government wants to sustain its stay on power, then it is time for the Prosperity Party officials to pay attention to the issues of ethnically-directed mass-massacre against the Amhara communities. Rather than roving around and busying themselves with cutting the opening rivulets at various events, government officials should prioritize to preserve the national peace and orderliness as well as prevent innocent human necks from being cut by domestic terrorists who are bent on creating havoc and mayhem in rural communities. Amidst the ongoing mayhems, the reality on the ground proves that the Prosperity Party officials still continue to plausibly play unlimited roles and exert their “confuse and convince” strategic entrepreneurial influence upon the Ethiopian society by intentionally throwing provocative political terms periodically and steering yet additional confusion and chaos in the country.

Initially, between the 1980s and 2016, TPLF/EPRDF executives were hand-picked, groomed and recruited by its leadership executives. These officers were basically tasked as TPLF’s security agents whose loyalty was tested and proven by their enthusiasm to carry out the TPLF’s main missions to combat any and all opposition forces within and outside Ethiopia. Currently, the atrocities committed against the poor Amhara dwellings, the turmoil in several rural communities and towns and the overall inhuman banditry activities the happen throughout Ethiopia and the surroundings of Addis Ababa, the capital city, evolve around the bloodthirsty monstrous, heartless, diabolical, TPLF and OLF narrow nationalist feuds and that of the current clandestine operations of the Prosperity Party executives and their deputies.

The current Prosperity Party officials were actually baptized in the long past by TPLF itself, trained and assigned to purposely commit inept and ethnocentric administration structure throughout Ethiopia. A case proving this is the current regime’s deceptive defense to continue carrying out the TPLF-coined and implemented constitution further. For instance, the recent ethnic-led actions taken by the National Bank of Ethiopia to ethnically rationalize employment procedures regardless of qualification; and the recent uttering by the Mayor of Addis Ababa office and that of the Addis Ababa schools Administration, forcing schools and students to adopt ethnic-led national anthems to which the Addis Ababa residents resisted to accept are cases worth mentioning here. With the ongoing ethnic-based atrocities strategically planned and implemented consistently to confuse and convince the public to adhere to the regime’s clandestine intents and to the soft and sour-sweet-spoken satanic officials’ political stand have done grave harm to the Ethiopian society at large and to the Amhara communities in particular. So, since the reign of TPLF and now under the Prosperity Party regime’s ethnic-led governance, death has widely reigned and human life became defiled! (ሞት ነገሰ፤ ህይወት ረከሰ!)

Especially, during the TPLF leaderships in the past, INSA officers had practiced in the most agonizing torturing methods like: removing limbs, cutting fingers and genitalia, holding bottles filled with water on a ball, pulling nails with pliers, electrocution, placing body on hot iron surfaces, showering victims with simmering oil, and sodomizing detainees held in the detention centers.

With TPLF’s direct order, and currently under this Prosperity Party’s command, the Amhara voices had been silenced, and all state owned media outlets have been engaged in suffocating and controlling the truth about what is happenings in the country. Under the mask of “Ethiopia! Ethiopia! uproar” the Prosperity Party has been introducing its politically geared entrepreneurial political strategy while at the same time party officials collectively remain totally silent when atrocities are committed by OLF- and TPLF insurgents in several parts of Ethiopia.

Just as it was happening during the TPLF-regime, when it was on power, so also the current state owned media is spreading malice and hateful propaganda against the Amhara population by branding it as Amhara shene (Or the fifth columnist Amhara Extremists). Besides, many citizens exposing the injustice against the Amhara people have been regularly and repeatedly hunted and thrown into jail by the order of the Prosperity Party’s intelligence Institution officials illegally. To date, the same repressive rules of TPLF are perpetuated by creating premeditated chaos, confusion and attempts for convincing the public erroneously. Far beyond the past four years, the Amhara communities remain fully subjected to a slow and painful path of total annihilation. For half a century now, the burden that the Amhara communities have been burdened are becoming heavy and cumbersome. The suffocation and subjugation system employed by the regime has been so severely agonizing and excessively harsh to bear. The Amhara publics’ collective emotion has been traumatized by frustration and furiousness.

The ongoing unlawful actions against the Amhara population are too violently unfolding and unforgiving. Today, in every Amhara household, there is a sense of loss and grief, which is greatly overwhelming. It is so horrific and very heavy to bear. The rural Amhara communities everywhere in the country and especially in the central, northern, southern, and western regions of Ethiopia have never had peaceful day or night in their livelihoods. Every morning, people in most rural communities’ wake-up filled with sadness and sorrow, fearing for the safety of their children and their own family members.

Neither the previous TPLF/EPRDF regime, nor the current Prosperity Party administration have paid any tangible attention for protecting the Ethiopian citizens’ peace and orderliness – especially those of the poor Amhara communities and households settled within the Oromia region. Despite the fact that the Amhara population’s tolerance against the constant chaos and sincere respect for the law, aspirations for peace, unity and love for Ethiopia as a solidified country, the continuous provocations committed against the poor Amhara farming communities still continue unabated with high elevation and organized atrocious attempts. As legitimate citizens of Ethiopia, the Amhara people’s tolerance and willingness to abide to the national law is totally ignored and taken as a sign of fear, trauma and frustration. In the process, millions of Amhara lives have disappeared, and millions more were displaced from their habitation sites.

Right now, the Amhara population must learn from their past and present mistakes and choose the uncomfortable alternatives available to them in order to save their human dignity and worthiness by raising arms and fighting back the TPLF /EPRDF/ extended tribally organized current government on all fronts for the sake of maintaining justice and lawfulness by equal force. By standing up and fighting back the enemy, they have nothing to lose but their chains. Weather one likes it or not, the inevitability of death and destruction are always hovering over everyone’s head in every corners of Ethiopia. The only alternative that remains at hand for the young Amhara youth is to put down their books momentarily and to pick up the gun and fight back with the enemy on equal footing. Then and only then can the Amhara communities stop the ongoing organized campaign of narrow nationalist terrors of havoc. Ultimately, the Amhara population must stop the ceaseless hum and Weil which won’t be a solution to their prevailing chaotic living conditions. If the Amhara people don’t stop the ongoing dehumanization and genocidal actions, the terror projected in clandestine against its mere existence will persist indefinitely until the Amhara is weakened, destroyed completely, or till the ‘demise’ of the whole Amara population. This is the naked fact that our enemies have designed for the Amhara community.

So, what the Amhara people haven’t been able to overcome thus far will eventually overcome them to their mere survival. The choice is for the Amhara population, and they have to stand up and act. The cost of doing nothing so far has affected negatively. It is so naive to ask permission about one’s own aggressor to grant the Amhara its defense for them. How can the Amhara population keep on asking a regime that has already shown its indifferent attitude to save their lives? How can the already targeted Amhara population who is taken as a scapegoat for ethnic-led bigotry and ethnic cleansing missions plead for defending law and order?

The Amhara community should reconvene all what TPLF, OLF, and now the Prosperity Party’s regime have persistently done so far for over three decades. Since he saddled to power in 2018, PM Abiy Ahmed in person and his Prosperity Party as well, have chosen not to utter words about the killings and eviction actions against the Amhara ethnic group without meanness. In fact, as of his recent public speech, PM Abiy has displayed sadistic, and sardonic mixes of mockery with intentions to annihilate the Amhara community by labelling the Amhara peaceful opposition activists as the “Amhara-Shene”. This to me is a sign of mockery to legitimize his claim that OLF-Shene and TPLF are not the only opposition groups opposed to his government’s stand. In reality there is no so called Amhara Shene group. (1)

Actually, what takes the Amhara community so long to react for its rights?

The genocidal attacks and evictions against the Amhara people lingered dogmatically over half a century now. Failure of the Amhara community to get properly organize and precisely address the conditions under which it subsists its daily livelihoods and act upon the ongoing genocidal attacks and evictions imposed on its communities need to be properly addressed and analyzed. One has to examine the subjective impacts of the atrocities committed against innocent citizens of the Amhara ethnic origin thus far; as well as the current ethnic-based socio-political developments in the country, and the future consequences affecting the fate of the Amhara population in particular.

The way forward

In order to stop the tribal-regime and win the half a century dehumanization campaign conducted against the Amhara population and its communities, first, as an exposed people the Amhara community must declare a total war against its number one enemy BEADEN, (ብአዴን), an affiliate group with the Prosperity Party, and that collaborates with any and all types of heinous actions committed by the current regime in power. However, if the Amhara population doesn’t follow this recommendation, slowly and gradually it will invite its own inevitable demise once and forever. Such suggestions have been floating in the Ethiopian political stages for many years ever since the PM Meles Zenawi’s TPLF/EPRDF regime was still in power from 1990 onwards.

So, it is time that the Amhara population considers plans to forge a united Amhara front for its struggle. It should come up with a shared vision to overcome the unsettled problems and challenges facing the community. It has to consider how to shape its destiny as a population with dignity and pride. Unless the systemic meddling of foreign powers and their domestically stimulating ethnic led narrow nationalists in Ethiopia are quashed the ongoing turmoil and the ravaging ethnic-led conflicts in several parts of Ethiopia will impact further divisions and destruction to the mere existence of the country.

The Prosperity Party executives’ persisting contentment of choosing silence about the Amhara killings and evictions and the Party’s continued camaraderie to TPLF-leadership circle and embracing the divisive Orommuma ideology of the OLF-combatant forces, has now costed thousands of innocent Amhara peoples’ communities and their cultural livelihoods, limbs, legs and precious lives. It seems, instead of working to halt the chaos and bring peace and freedom of citizens’ movement and living status in areas of their choices, PM Abiy Ahmed and his Prosperity Party are relentlessly working towards their set goals of worsening the tension in the country by picking political parameters periodically and arousing continuously public unrest among citizens. For as long as PM Abiy Ahmed’s and his Prosperity Party officials’ rhetoric continue opposing against the Amhara people for every conceivable social and political problems, the political situation in Ethiopia will further escalate to intensified ethnic conflicts. That means, with this opposition intent set by the Prosperity Party in progress, the Amhara community’s as well as those of the other ethnic groups’ quest for peace, harmony, and for collective security throughout Ethiopia will never be accomplished. In reality the Prosperity Party is simply change of name of TPLF/EPRDF on the surface, but conducting the same divide and rule tactics surgically implanted among ethnic groups in Ethiopia. That means, the current regime is an extension of the TPLF/EPRDF regime.

As political tensions and chaos worsens by each day, the end to tolerance and silence by the majority of the Ethiopian public is immediate. The silent majority of the Amhara people are becoming more and more triggered to wagging the war of Armageddon with their vanguard God at the front, against the evil empires who support and fund the proxy terrorists and savage pagans run by the monstrous enemies of Ethiopia. Certainly, the malicious power of all the domestic and foreign enemies will be defeated once and forever. Upon victory, it won’t be remembered and I rely on the new radical twinkling of the Amhara youth that Ethiopia will emerge with its symbol of Green, Yellow and Red flag, covering the skies of the earth once and forever, declaring the rhythm of victory and peace. Then, and only then, there will be peace and no more war nor cry among citizens of Ethiopia.

In the true sense of it, Ethiopian citizenship, equality, harmony, and live will shine and settle forever among Ethiopia’s diversified folk. Let this noble idea reach decent silent majority peoples of Ethiopia and the global human community at large, and to those conscientious world leaders and sensible individuals, who usually pay attention to the Weil of the ongoing Amhara people’s genocidal verdict, which is declared upon them by their domestically organized enemies.

Reference Notes:

(1) የአማራ ሸኔ ይፈጠር እና የአማራ ሸኔ አለ፤ ለየቅል ነው፡፡ ሂሳብን በዚህ ዓይነት መልኩ ኃላፊነት የሚሰማው መንግስት አያወራርድም – ሲና ዘ ሙሴ: – December 24, 2022. Source: https://amharic.zehabesha.com/archives/178408.

(2) ከጠ/ምኒስትር ከዐብይ አህመድ: ለሌቦቻቸው የቀረበ ጥሪ!! (አሥራደው ከፈረንሳይ) – December 25, 2022. Source: https://amharic.zehabesha.com/archives/178452.

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