Part I
Ever since the dawn of a new era in Ethiopia in 1991, numerous significant and historical achievements have been registered in our Country in all sectors particularly in security, economic and social developments. The 1991 fundamental changes in Ethiopia have brought complete and durable peace and stability to the entire Country (save this year’s temporary security problems) making the nation at peace with itself and its neighbors. It has also brought impressive and fast socio-economic development and significantly uplifted the quality of life of millions of Ethiopians who have been living under abject poverty for ages as witnessed in the significant changes and improvements in all sectors (food security, health, education, housing, infrastructure, communications, etc.).
We extend our sincere admiration, gratitude and respect to the entire Ethiopian people, the EPRDF and especially to those true sons and daughters of Ethiopia, those gallant heroes and heroines who made these multiple victories possible with their selfless and relentless struggles and ultimate sacrifices. They struggled throughout their lives for the betterment and renaissance of Ethiopia not through empty slogans and shouting but in deeds. We have to give credit when it is due and to constructively criticize when shortcomings and mistakes are observed.
Clearly, no one can deny that Ethiopia’s peace and security have been very stable and durable (save this year’s localized incidents) for the last twenty-five years or so despite its location in the troubled and chaotic Horn of Africa region. It is also an undeniable fact that very impressive, significant and historical results have been registered in the economic and social fields to which the whole World (including IMF, WB, ADB, EU, etc.) in general and the Ethiopian people in particular have repeatedly attested. These are raw facts that only the insane and naïve folks can deny.
Contrary to preceding decades when our Country’s name was synonymous with famine, war, destitution and abject poverty, a million thanks to EPRDF, it has been many years since our Country’s name and image has been changed positively and for good and has been associated with “Socio-economic Renaissance” and “very fast economic growth” by World standard” and since it has been deservingly dubbed as “the African Lion”. In fact, according to the World Bank’s latest edition of “Global Economic Prospect”, Ethiopia is the fastest-growing economy in the World in 2017. Nevertheless, our Country is currently facing serious challenges and dangers both from within and outside basically emanating from five different sources namely:
(1) The joint destabilizing activities of Egypt and Eritrea
(2) The alliance of the domestic/Diaspora extremist Groups such as Ginbot-7, OLF, and ONLF
(3) Certain historically hostile neighboring countries
(4) The Global Neo-liberal forces in the West
(5) Certain EPRDF’s own in-house shortcomings and weaknesses.
The first challenges will be discussed in the current article Part 1 while the remaining four will be discussed in follow-on Parts.
1. The Joint Destabilizing Activities of Egypt and Eritrea:
The sinister stands and destabilizing acts of Egypt and its ally, the rogue and isolated regime of Asmara are motivated by the former’s dreams and desperate attempts to retain its age old and unfair monopolistic ownership and usage of the river Nile at the cost of other Nile basin countries particularly Ethiopia that contributes 85 % of the water but reaps almost no benefits till now. Egypt could not accept up to now that the previous status quo could not simply continue as it is unjust and unsustainable. Ethiopia’s cardinal principles are for a win-win solution based on equitable utilization of the Nile water for the benefit of all and without causing significant harm to others.
The monopolistic-minded and obsessed Egyptians leave no stone unturned to deprive these countries particularly Ethiopia from exercising their God-given rights and exploit their natural water resources for the benefit of their citizens. Instead of adhering themselves to valid international laws on trans-boundary rivers, they prefer to stick to long dead and defunct colonial treaties to which Ethiopia is not even a signatory and invest their time, energy and millions of dollars to incite our peoples (specially few Oromo’s, Amhara’s, Ethio-somalis, etc.) to turn against each other and against other ethnic groups and destabilize our Country in their desperate hope of halting the construction of our water projects especially the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. This deadly and historical enemy of our Country has been using all the legal and illegal strategies under the sun to weaken and if possible to destroy our Ethiopia for ages in order to achieve its evil objectives.
As to the rogue regime of Asmara, the genesis and prime reason for its excessive and persistent animosity and its continued meddling and mischievous adventures in the internal affairs of Ethiopia is its unattainable and already expired or failed dream of becoming the “Singapore of Africa” while in reality, it has long and rightfully secured its deserving title of “North Korea of Africa” in the global arena. Its boundless desire to benefit at the expense of Ethiopia has totally blinded it to form a dangerous alliance with Egypt, Ethiopia’s historical nemesis.
The Eritrean regime’s continued and all around destabilizing activities against our motherland using its agents is definitely playing with fire, the far reaching consequences of which could be grave and detrimental to its continuity and very survival in a not so distance future. It is long overdue for the Ethiopian Government to say loudly and clearly that patience has limitations and “enough is enough”.
The Eritrean regime should not be allowed to continue with its dangerous meddling and messing around in our country’s internal affairs with impunity. It must be forced to understand that there would be heavy costs to pay for such misadventures. I believe it is high time that our Government’s principled but failed policies of “no war no piece” and “strategic endless patience” towards the Asmara regime should end and instead, they should immediately be replaced by a new policy of effective deterrence mechanism (both diplomatic and military)so that the Eritrean regime would think twice before indulging itself in destructive meddling and mischievous adventures. To this effect, it is worth mentioning here the Government’s recently announced and expected but much delayed “new policy on Eritrea”.
The Asmara regime has been waging subversive activities against our Country by funding and using the clandestine operations of its loyal surrogates and agents namely Ginbot-7, OLF, ONLF, and certain “fifth-columnists” inside the Governments institutions and their notorious Egyptian-funded mouthpieces such as ESAT, OMN and others. They relentlessly wage psychological and media warfare against the national interests of our Country by spreading malicious and fabricated fake news and baseless rumors to deliberately create unrest and instability.
They falsely and sinisterly blame EPRDF for the age-old problems of poverty, backwardness, unemployment and even natural disasters such as drought, floods and wildfire as if they were created by EPRDF in the aim of sowing discontent particularly among the emotionally-driven youth to turn them against the Government and engage in senseless and deadly destructions of the Country’s economic establishments. They work day and night to create mistrust and divisions among the various ethnic groups by fanning and fueling certain minor internal boundary issues.
Even though certain weaknesses and shortcomings of the ruling party and the incumbent Government have definitely played a significant role in our present predicament by creating fertile grounds for these evil groups activities, the bulk of the Country’s present challenges and dangers emanate from the fact that our two prime enemies, Egypt and Eritrea, are able to cleverly exploit the Government’s internal weaknesses and shortcomings.
To this end, they have been very busy misrepresenting, fanning and fueling certain economic grievances of our people out of proportion; sowing ethnic/ religious mistrust and hatred among the people and inciting and instigating anger, bitterness and violence especially among the youth. In light of the above stated serious challenges and dangers coming from these states , I propose that the EPRDF government should, as a matter of priority and urgency, put its house in order and examine and adjust all its policies and practices towards these two states with the aim of countering the clear and present dangers currently facing our Country.