Civil Servants in Oromia Forced to Become Members of the OPDO.

Firehiwot Guluma Tezera

TPLF is forcing Oromo civil servants to become member of the Oromo Peoples’ Democratic Organization, (OPDO). The Oromo civil servants are now facing a choice between becoming member of the organization they hate to be associated with, and immerse their hands into the dirty work of OPDO, which is arresting, torturing, and killing innocent Oromo’s, or lose their jobs. Living under difficult economic situation, job loss is a very serious matter which is considered a suicide in the empire, and, therefore, the Oromo civil servants will have to think twice before saying “no” to the warning of the Wayyaanee authorities and endangering their life and their families.

Contrary to its “democratic” naming, the so called OPDO is an undemocratic “organization” created by the Tigrai Peoples’ Liberation Front (TPLF), from the war prisoners of the former military junta, Mengistu Haile Mariam in the jungles of Tigrai. It is a pseudo organization completely controlled by ruling party the TPLF. The TPLF regime uses this organization to arrest, harass, torture, and kill innocent Oromo’s who do not support their tyrannical rule. Moreover, the OPDO is used by the TPLF leaders as a tool to abuse their political power and exploit the entire economy of Oromia for their personal account and build their home base of Tigrai regional state.

Over the years the TPLF regime has been abusing its political power to put every sector of the Oromo society under its control by denying them their natural right. For instance the TPLF regime is notoriously known for:

* using food aid for its political purpose by denying the donated food to those farmers who do not support and/or who are not members of OPDO,

* using the distribution of fertilizer for its political purpose by denying fertilizer to those farmers who do not support their political agenda,

* using job entrance criteria for its political purpose those who graduated from universities, colleges, and other educational and training institutions, to show their OPDO membership before they are employed.

* using business license for political purpose by denying the businessmen the right to renew their business license and by over taxing them, and above all,

* using its state apparatus such as police, judiciary, prosecutors, security personnel with plain clothes, and even the army, to unlawfully arrest, torture, convict, intimidate, and harass innocent Oromo’s who are not willing to support their anti-Oromo agenda.

Those Oromo’s who fill out the OPDO membership form are not only obliged to do their dirty work, but also forced to study the book prepared by the Wayyaanees, named “Addis Ra’iyi” meaning “New Vision” apparently explaining the “vision” of Wayyaanes, which is erasing Oromoness and the

Oromo identity and replacing it by the newly invented “TPLF-Ethiopian” identity, by coming to a meeting every two weeks. Oromo civil servants are now forced to become OPDO member and study the material, which amounts to a trash, or lose their job.

It is a well-established fact that the Wayyaanee regime, since it assumed power in 1991, have been attempting to indoctrinate the Oromo civil servants non-stop but their dirty politics has been rejected not only by the Oromo’s but also by the entire population in the empire including the Amharas.

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