Though not admitted directly by any of his opponents, some such turn of events is nevertheless in the logic of accusing Meles of dictatorship. Meles becomes a dictator as soon as he wants to rule without the TPLF, the sole guarantee of Tigrean hegemony. The split and the expulsion of leading members are presumed dangerous to the extent that division weakens the TPLF, but most of all, undermines the ethnic solidarity, and hence ethnic politics itself. The alliance of Meles and his group with other ethnic groups against founding members of the TPLF may sound the death knell of ethnic alignments. No better illustration of the fragility of ethnic associations could be found than the display of factions and deep frictions within the most ethnic-minded organization.
Nobody can rule Ethiopia for long on the basis of ethnic agenda.
Recently, the socialist agenda, by the very fact it transcends regionalism, was evoked to justify power appropriation. This fact of Ethiopia is, it seems to me, what Meles and his group have understood and yet refuse to admit. On the other hand, to the perceived need of including pro-Ethiopian principles into the ethnic agenda, the dissenting group opposes the Eritrean issue by presenting Meles as an agent of Eritrea. In so doing, it does no more than confirm the need to buttress the ethnic scheme by a Pan-Ethiopian ideology and political system. However, partly because both factions remain entangled in the mire of ethnic discourses and partly because they lack the courage to admit the untenability of their former beliefs, we see them wishing the same thing in a confused, misleading and, for that matter, confrontational language.