Mekelle፡Telaviv, Nairobi, Pretoria, London, (Tigray Herald)
From Legacy to Recovery: A Call for Institutional Renewal in Tigray
By Getachew
The TPLF was once known for its moral foundation, choosing people over power, internal responsibility over external blame, and fostering leaders who made deliberate, courageous, and ethical choices, even at the cost of their lives. These values laid the foundation for a revolutionary movement that prioritized ethics, sacrifice, and collective progress over personal gain. But at some point, that moral clarity began to erode.
When and why, did this shift occur?
How did a movement born from the struggle of the many become vulnerable to the moral bankruptcy we see today, where fear, silence, and survivalism dominate public life, while a few benefit from patronage, repression, and unaccountable rule? How did it turn into an extractive system that enriches strongmen and charismatic personalities at the expense of millions of Tegaru?
Everyone of us have witnessed the painful contrast during the siege and after Pretoria Agreement till today:
While more than two million Tegaru suffer in IDP camps or refugee settlements, stripped of shelter, food, education, and dignity, the entire Tegaru including the thousands of Dedicated members of TPLF and Cadres in general paying the cost. The two main TPLF factions, led by Debretsion Gebremichael and Getachew Reda, have lost nothing.
They continue to operate from luxurious 5-star hotels, with full access to transportation, security, medical care, and political insulation with extravagant life, completely disconnected from the daily suffering of the people they claim to represent.
The cost to Tegaru has been devastating:
• A shattered region
• Millions displaced
• Youth left disillusioned and hopeless,Families of the deceased and disable TDF members suffer most
• Institutions hollowed out
• Development stalled
Now, more than ever, Tigray’s recovery must not depend on strongmen, or image-driven charismatic saviors. What Tigray needs is the rebuilding of durable institutions, transparent, inclusive, and accountable systems that serve the people, not power. Stay out from serving regional power monger dictators be it from within, or from Ethiopia or from Eritrea.
So the central question is this:
How can Tegaru return to a path of recovery and sustainable development rooted in strong, people-centered institutions, not personalities?
It begins with:
• Honest reflection focusses on people first over power, inclusiveness over exclusion
• Collective responsibility for better to all
• And a shared commitment to institutional reform
Let us learn from our own history. Let us build institutions that will outlast individuals, restore dignity, and secure prosperity for generations to come.
This is how we honor the legacy, and reclaim the future, of Tigray.
Sustainable Development depends not on strongmen and charismatic leaders, but on Durable Institions.
