Can you tell me about Salsay Weyane and your role in the party?
I am a foreign affairs department head with Salsay Weyane and have been so for the past four years. I’ve been there since its establishment. The main foundation of the establishment of Salsay Weyane is that Tigray does not have a strong institution that advocates for the interests of Tigray. Prior to establishing Salsay Weyane, we were in discussions for more than five years. Finally, we created a document that we believe was to the best interest of Tigray. We found out that the programs we had were absent in TPLF and Arena political parties which were the only political parties in Tigray at the time. Both these parties are class based but Salsay Weyane is a Tigraian nationalist party. We identified that Tigray does not have a class problem since there is no class confrontation. As for the individual and group rights issues social democracy addresses them equally with the values and cultures we have in Tigray, class cooperation is what describes our society better. During the EPRDF era there was and there still is high centralization of power and resource at he federal level. Some of this centralization was against the constitution imposed through party lines and unconstitutional proclamations and regulations not to mention that the constitution itself is highly centralized. So, prior to the genocidal war against Tigray, we worked for loose federation. However, after the genocidal war, we decided that Tigray can’t live within a country that committed genocide against it. So, considered the level of destruction and the alliance therewith, we now have a political program that advocates for an independent Tigray.
How did it go with the registration of Salsay Weyane at the Federal level since you advocate for the independence of Tigray?
The National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) can’t decline Article 39 of the constitution which allows to advocate for independence. But, they said that they don’t have the jurisdiction of reviewing our program if it pertains to structures and institutions of the future independent Tigray. Before the genocidal war, our certificate was to be provided. However, they prolonged it until the war. Then, they said that there is a new proclamation and we started the whole process all over again. Now, we are registered.
What are the challenges you face within Tigray and externally? How did you deal with these challenges?
Within Tigray, we have a one party, vanguard party. Before, during, and after the war, we faced a character assassination as well as systematic denial of meeting halls and media outlets. There was actually a letter circulating from the ruling party for this to happen. This was challenging because with shortage of resources, we are unable to recruit members, we can’t raise awareness, and we can’t point to policy alternatives. Further, with defamation and the culture of opposition in general pointed to as a group who are treasonous, we couldn’t mobilize resources from those who can. Add to this, the external force that is against Tigray in general and specifically to us as a nationalist party is very challenging.
Our plan is to come out as a strong institution. Our main focus is within Tigray. We release weekly press releases which is unusual in the region and the country in general. This allows us to reach out to our social base and express our political stands, perspectives, and concerns as the mainstream medias are still inaccessible for us.
We are also working on the strength of our members and the party internal structure. With more strong institutions, both internal and external challenges can be overcome for the better of Tigray. That’s what we are doing as a party.
