Amsal Woreta
Even though I agree with the author’s characterization of the Prosperity Party (PP) as a deeply flawed, authoritarian, and ethnocentric ruling party, I think the article stops one step short of the most important question: why has Ethiopia been trapped in a cycle of conflict, regardless of which group holds power?
Simply blaming PP, or even EPRDF before it, is not enough. PP is not an accident; it is a product and continuation of a deeper structural and ideological crisis that started long before Abiy Ahmed.
For me, at least four missing layers need to be highlighted:
1. The constitutional and institutional framework itself is conflict-producing.
Since 1991, Ethiopia has been organized around ethnic ownership of territory rather than equal citizenship. This logic— “this region belongs to this group”—combined with asymmetric federalism, competing histories, and politicized identities, makes violent conflict almost inevitable. Any party that operates within this framework, whether EPRDF or PP, ends up reproducing the same cycle: mobilize one identity, exclude another, then rule through fear.
2. The ideology of ethnonationalism has replaced a unifying civic vision.
The article criticizes PP, but it does not fully confront the ideology that underpins both EPRDF’s ethnic federalism and PP’s “Oromummaa-first” politics. If political legitimacy is built on ethnic entitlement instead of shared citizenship, every group will feel either under siege or entitled to dominance. That is a formula for endless war.
3. A culture of impunity and selective justice keeps reopening old wounds.
No regime—Derg, EPRDF, or PP—has been willing to honestly confront past atrocities, including those against the Amhara and other communities. Each new government promises change but protects its own perpetrators and selectively prosecutes others. When victims never see truth, justice, or acknowledgment, rage does not disappear; it simply waits for the next cycle.
4. The failure of political and intellectual elites to offer a credible alternative.
The article focuses on the ruling party but says little about the opposition and intellectual class. For three decades, much of the elite has either benefited from the system, adapted to it, or opposed it only from within the same ethnic logic. Very few have consistently pushed for a citizenship-based federation, equal protection of all communities, and independent institutions as a non-negotiable foundation.
So yes, PP deserves the strong criticism it gets. But if we stop there, we risk personalizing a structural problem.
Ethiopia is stuck in a cycle of conflict not only because PP is bad, but because:
· The ethnic federal order rewards division,
· The state is captured by competing identity projects instead of a shared civic project, and
· There has been no serious, enforceable transition to a citizenship-based, accountable system.
Until we name these root causes and design a way out—constitutional, institutional, and cultural—changing parties or leaders will simply produce another version of the same tragedy.
That, in my view, is the big gap in the article.”
Editor’s Note : Views in the article do not necessarily reflect the views of borkena.com
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