by Hundanol A. Kebede | OPride
There is an ongoing coordinated attack on the right of nations and nationalities to self-determination in Ethiopia. This campaign is led exclusively by the Amhara elite with the aim of creating delusions among the general public.
They deceptively attribute the failure and brutalities of EPRDF, Ethiopia’s ruling party, to its policy of ethnic federalism. Ethiopia adopted federal government arrangement in early 1990s on an ethno-linguistic basis in an effort to decentralize the Amhara-dominated highly centralized structures of imperial Ethiopia.
By attributing the failure of the ruling regime to ethnic federalism, the Amhara elites want to score two goals: to take back the Menelik palace and demolish self-determination of nations granted by the 1994 constitution, at least in theory. They curtly refer to this arrangement as tribal politics (ye-gosa poletika) and a linguistic based division (be kuankua kefafelun).