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 ETHIOPIA FACTS ABOUT TPLF TPLF IN BRIEF |
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• Political Program Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) ideology is based on the paradigm of ‘revolutionary democracy’. The concept of this ideology is based on a hybrid of ‘African style Nazism’, Leninism (Stalinism), Maoism, and Enver Hoxa’s Albanian Communism. In the words of Aregawi Berhe, a one time chairman of the Front, “The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) at its inception, was grounded in an ethno-nationalist consciousness generated by the cumulative grievances of Tigrayans against successive central governments of Ethiopia. An association of Tigrayan elites, the urban-based Tigrayan National Organization (TNO), prepared the groundwork for the formation of the TPLF. The TPLF, for its part, utilized class and ethno-nationalist ideologies to mobilize Tigrayans until it ousted the Mengistu government in 1991. For instance in an interview given by the Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, he himself has claimed that he feels proud to emanate from “the people of Tigray who have been tasted by fire like gold. While he mentions the remaining citizens of Ethiopia mere “cherke" - which literally means as weak as a piece of cloth. After taking power in May 1991 TPLF tried to make some cover up of its original ideology by claiming that it has accepted western democracy. However as Kostas Loukeris observed: “TPLF/EPRDF, during the period of its transformation from a regional revolutionary movement into a country-wide power holder, also managed to adapt its political vocabulary to the fashionable lingo of democracy and free-markets. At the same time though it never abandoned either its organizational structure of a Marxist-Leninist party or its fundamentally anti-imperialist orientation and state-led economic practice. The ownership of land, according to the Article 40 of the constitution is government-owned. Article 40 : The Right to Property • Vision TPLF has a vision of creating an independent Tigray Republic that is separate from Ethiopia right from its inception in 1975. Though TPLF tried to play down its original claim when it gained strength, TPLF never abandoned this vision as it is engraved it in no other document than the Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. Article 39 of this document states that: Article 39: Rights of Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Based on this article of the Constitution and the official stand of TPLF about the history of Ethiopia, which TPLF claims to be 100 years, it is imperative to look into what number of nations, nationalities and peoples will emerge in this period. Considering 100 years to encompass three consecutive generations, taking only two nations/nationalities/peoples as a sample, and a taking a person’s genealogy from both a father and a mother, let us project how many separate entities will emerge. Based on TPLF’s pure-race policy and applying the principles of combinatorics, after the first 30 years 3 separate entities will emerge, after 60 years 15 separate entities will emerge, by the 90th year 105 distinct nations/nationalities/peoples will emerge. When such numerical calculations are applied to more realistic figures about the different nations/nationalities/peoples in Ethiopia it gives hitherto unseen figures. According to different studies there are about 80 to 90 nations/nationalities/peoples in Ethiopia. So considering that a person’s genealogy is the person’s heritage and right that cannot be denied, the exact number of nations/nationalities/peoples will be a minimum of 3160 after a single generation (30 years), and after 60 years it will be 4 991 220, and after 90 years it will emerge to be more than twelve billion (12 456 136 048 590) - actually an incredible figure. So the idea of self determination based on the concept of TPLF’s pure-race policy will have to encompass all these realities. If somebody was born from an Oromo mother and a Tigriyan father no body can deny this person to have a separate identity from both his mother’s side and his father’s side. In addition the delineation of the federal states is said to be based on language as a milestone. There are more than 80 languages spoken in Ethiopia today, but there are only 9 federal states. • Leadership The leadership of TPLF is composed entirely of Tigriyans, mostly from the town and locality of Adwa. Current members of the Polit Bureau are: Mr. Meles Zenawi, Chairman
• Track Record TPLF has tried to create a collation with parties that have been created by itself during the armed struggle. This umbrella organization is known as the Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) that was established in 1987. Members of the front are: the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the Amhara Nation Democratic Movement (ANDM), the Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO), and the Southern Ethiopia People’s Democratic Movement (SEPDM). The chairman of EPRDF is no other than Mr. Meles Zenawi himself. TPLF policy towards political plurality in Ethiopia is characterized by deception, creating fictitious opposition parties on opposition parties that pose real challenge for TPLF, and divisive approaches in handling conflicts with political opponents of any kind.
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TPLF in Brief
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