Mereja.Forum

Currently Ethiopia is in a loosing situation. The battle to realize ethnic equality has been lost to Amhara tribalists. But the struggle still continues.

The equality of all Ethnic groups can be realized only through democracy. There is no need for Ethnic groups to have their own government. there is no need to have "'killils" or territories for each tribe or a group of tribes. Ethiopia should be divided into provinces (counties) or "Kifle hager" and should be subordinated to a central government that works according to a Constitution to be drawn.

For the sake of plurality, the state should be multilingual, which helps limit the Amhara from abusing non-amharas. I suggest Amharic and Geez to be the working languages to start with. As the Oromos are using Latin script, it would be difficult to use Oromo or Somali as a working language. We have to make some sacrifices.

Imagine Ethiopia having 40 provinces and being administered by a central government like France, UK, Sweden, Italy and many other countries. Important to make sure that the constitution defend all Ethnic groups to be treated equally. Development projects should be distributed in all provinces, depending on the resources available in the area.

The current internal administration division of Ethiopia is irrational as it did not consider historical facts. It should be demolished and replaced with a provincial system where 30-49 administrative units are organized.

The first sensible comment from Ethioredsea. My only reservation is the working language. Oromiffa and Amharic should be the working languages, but each administrative region will chose its teaching language based on the population mix in its region. This is just my suggestion, not an edict written on stone. By the way, Oromiffa uded to be written in Geez alphabet before 27 years ago. In fact the first computer Geez font was developed by an oromo doctor in USA. He fought hard and long to keep Oromiffa font to continue using Geez font but lost the battle because the Oromo elites thought it was a font of colonization. One wonders how Latin font is less colonizer than Geez font.

We need to negotiate with the Oromos. Oromos could use Geez alphabet as it is a black or African great achievement, which is also an Oromo achievement as Oromos are black or African.

We need to treat every ethnic group as Ethiopian, which is not happening even under TPLF because TPLF is still a product of the Abysinnian "conquer and dominate"' attitude. TPLF has done a lot. But it is a one-sided approach and a simple one. The ethnic issues are multidimensional. Recognizing an Ethnic group as equal to all human beings in the world is not enough. Territories should be defined according to history and relation to the territory. TPLF took the easiest and simplest way, where it called all land where the Oromo or the Somali were living as Oromo land, even though they were in the minority as in Shoa or recently migrated to the area. For example, Harar province is Amhara as well as Oromo or Somali. But it under Somali region.

What we need to do is to make sure every one is treated as a citizen of Ethiopia. In this the Oromo will be ready to learn Geez and to write in Geez alphabet. I am not against amhara ( Tigrayans are not in general), but we should limit amhara culture and language to be used only in areas where Amharic is spoken as a majority like in Gondar, Shoa or Gojamme. Using Amharic or Tigrigna or Oromo should not be forced on the population. We should be willing to use this or that language. By the way, the Amhara are a very friendly people. We should encourage the Amhara to take the responsibility of uniting Ethiopia by offering every ethnic group equal opportunities. This can be done by law and by constitution, that bind every one of us to respect and stand for all citizens of Ethiopia.