By Bereket Kidane,
The year 2016 is shaping up to be an excellent year for Eritrea. Things are not looking so good for the ethnic apartheid regime in Ethiopia, however. If Weyane was a stock, I would short the heck out of it right now because it is about to crash. I would do that trade over and over again.
I have always thought that Weyane’s ethnic federalism or bantustanization is to Ethiopia what the toxic subprime mortgage industry was to America’s economy. The toxic subprime mortgage industry crashed in 2008 and nearly brought down America’s economy. It takes time for cynical, toxic ploys to blow-up but they always do blow-up in the end. There is always a day of reckoning. That day of reckoning could very well be in 2016 for Weyane. We are seeing things begin to unravel for TPLF.
The recent mass uprising in Oromia can be seen as a canary in a coal mine. The speed and ferocity with which it engulfed Weyane in a chaos it couldn’t control was breathtaking. The brutal response, the killings of protesters, the clampdown and torture are meant to delay the eventual outcome. The crisis has been brewing for many years and may be finally reaching its crescendo. In fact, when Weyane eventually leaves power, that is likely how it’s going to happen. A mass uprising following years of grievances by the Ethiopian people against the Weyane government.
Weyane’s bantustanization was packaged as ethnic federalism just as America’s bad debt and subprime loans given out by predatory banks to people who couldn’t afford them were packaged as mortgage-backed securities and sold to an unsuspecting public. Both were corrupt and fraudulent to the core.
In the case of the subprime mortgage industry, the American taxpayer was there to bail out the predatory banks and pick-up the pieces. When the predatory and corrupt Weyane regime leaves power following a mass uprising, who will be there for Ethiopia to pick-up the pieces? Mengistu cut and ran when events overtook him. He simply fled to his villa in Zimbabwe. Will Weyane officials do the same and flee to their Swiss Bank accounts and live comfortably off the wealth they have accumulated and stashed in Western banks?
There is an opportunity for the United States to step-in now and ease Weyane out of power before things blow-up completely. A tiny minority that barely registers at 5 percent of the population can not continually rule the nation by brutally oppressing and brutalizing 95 percent of the population or laughably announcing to the world that it has won 100 percent of the vote. It is unsustainable.
Ethnic federalism or bantustanization was a ploy, however toxic it may be, that Weyane employed to divide-and-conquer the Ethiopian people and gain enough time to transfer Ethiopia’s wealth to the point of making a Greater Tigray that includes parts carved out of Eritrea, a viable independent nation. That dream has died a not-so peaceful death. But the toxicity that TPLF introduced to the Ethiopian nation is likely to have long-term consequences and may even permanently destroys the country.
TPLF has raped, brutalized, bamboozled and defrauded the Ethiopian nation without a crisis of conscience. It has gotten away with it so far but it will eventually be disciplined by logic and blow-up in a spectacular fashion.
The day of reckoning is coming soon.
