Democracy or Apex predator?
Democracy or Apex predator?
Long before its inception, long before it was 12, it was made of 11 men, but soon enough, it killed more than it could recruit. The puzzle was not a game at all, it was life and death. The design was born in the cursed land that has more years of war than peace, and more martyred slogans than love songs.
This land is our beloved motherland, Tigray!
It doesn’t seem possible and honestly speaking quite hard to imagine Tegaru’s lifetime struggle without thinking about all the heartache and heartbreak of our people. The motherland can’t accommodate the two big brains with quasi-similar ideologies without its people going for each other’s jugular vein. It created Meles Zenawi and Berhane Meskel Reda, two iconic figures, who changed the entire nation’s politics & lived a few miles apart, nonetheless, they could not see eye to eye. As if hate between two brothers was not enough, they wiped each other until no one was left. Their followers delivered the destruction they were thought to bring about and just like that the big brains and young blood of Tigray were reduced to ashes! So, can we say democracy and dialogue were not meant for Tigray?
If a round table discussion is chosen to mediate differences, when the exchange of ideas should lead to flourishing concepts of civilization, ideologies that were supposed to bond people; in Tigray however; it was a surprise party with one group went into the meeting with guns blazing, determined not to let anyone wake up from their sleep. The unsuspecting side became victims of their own innocence, and sadly, they had to face their demise in their sleep. Their true crime trusts!
Once again let me ask if this is a democracy or an Apex predator ambushing a prey.
When democracy is delivered, if it is purposefully used to identify who is who and what their ideology entails. Or if its true intention is to weed out and cast out unwanted ideas; free-thinking as we speak will find no place in the process and an attempt to exercise our birthright can be our worst enemy. If forming our opinion and beliefs of any sort, such politics or religion could also be our archfoe, who, with a different conviction, when they say one-line for everyone, by defaults will be the only one out of the line, an outlier and who knows, the one to succumb to the Darwinian Demon. They came up with the name Mesmer Eyu Hailina! They are not God, who created the line, surely, they are the first to violate it if they don’t deliver democracy. The rest all will be the prey.
So, if the war between EDU and TPLF had not killed enough Tegaru if annihilating TLF was not considered a betrayal, we had the ultimate and wholesale slaughter of Tegaru during the war between EPRP and TPLF. Uncalled off, but filled with regression and ego-driven rage toward each other.
The pogrom and bloodletting sentiment, non-remitting destruction made us look immune to any death, unfortunately getting used to the cycle of violence became the new normal. And just like that the war will continue, anytime a new ideology, out of the line (Mesmer) arises. In the land of Apex predators, everyone else goes into submission. Everybody is a prey.
The true detrimental part is the perception of the leadership of TPLF about Tegaru. We are inconsequential. By the time our youth reach puberty, when they spring to life, they are asked to pay the debt in blood. Ideas can change, and people and leaders may change, but always, there is a life to sacrifice and blood to be spilled. So long we don’t run out of the precious and sprightly juveniles, to TPLF life goes on! They call us heroes when they want us and they abandon us when there is no enemy. Our land is a land of predators, they prey on us emotionally, and at times they even rob our future. Indeed, Apex predators.
Now what? We lost more than a million people, mathematically speaking 1 person per household of 6 is without a child. There is nothing we can do to proportionally amend the loss of our mothers, we can’t undo the stigma of rape, but the least we can do is to provide democracy, freedom, free speech, and the right to exist without any imposition.
There was no empire in the history of mankind that avoided its final exit without democracy, there is no power without free will and there is no prosperity without fair representations. The road to democracy is the minutest requirement for Tigray’s leadership to be in the picture. Rest, God forgive us, we have work to do, a roadmap for our future and upcoming generations. If we are not the true heirs of the entitlement, all the lives of TDF were spilled in vain.
Tigray Mearey, my heart is aching for you!
By Zanta.