Prime
Minister Meles Zenawi: on the eye
of the beholder
Tedros
Abraham Tsegay, May 19, 2010
I have been following the series of debates of Ethiopia’s
political parties for the 2010 parliamentary election that is due to be held on
May 23rd with great enthusiasm and perplexity at some stage. From an
Eritrean perspective, I must admit that I was so captivated with the
achievements EPRDF’S leadership in the area of democratization and free parliamentary
election. Ethiopia has more than 92 registered political parties and I have
also evidently learnt that, Prime Minister Meles Zenewi’s leadership is standing against all odds in adhering the sovereignty of Eritrea, and he did so in an
effort to save Ethiopia from ultimate disintegration, as he has stated in his recent
interview with Ethiopian TV. http://tig.asmarino.com/
Prime Minister Meles, hailed by many of the outside world as a man, who is
successfully waging a battle to make famine and poverty history in Ethiopia.
With his extraordinary leadership skills and charisma, indeed he has been
honoured to represent Africa in the G-20 summit and climate change forum and he
has been chosen as a spokes person of the African Union by African leaders to
become a very influential leader of the continent. Yet for many Ethiopians he
is simply scrutinized as an outsider or simply as a dictator, who is
relentlessly serving the interest of Eritrea at the expenses of Ethiopia.
Despite the fact that Meles being the first Ethiopian
leader to introduce democratic institutions, free elections and freedom of
speech (though restrictions imposed occasionally), yet there are some
Ethiopians who could not be convinced to give him the credit he appropriately
deserves for his regional and national endeavours to bring peace and stability.
On the contrary they curse him for allowing the self-determination of Eritrea
that consequently paved the way for its independence and for introducing
article 39 in the country’s constitution that also allows for other provinces
for the same right. Meles in his recent interview with
ETV stressed that becoming an Ethiopian should not be enforced by the state,
but it must be merely based on the compliance of its citizens to associate
themselves as Ethiopians. J. Peter Pham, a well known academic and columnist for
the
World Defense Review recently posted regarding Meles critics ‘quite possible with the right political
will, so unhinged in their hatred for the incumbent government have so many of
Ethiopia's critics become that they have lost all sense of proportion and fail
to evaluate developments in their proper context. This lack of perspective is
regrettable in itself, but, when it has to do with a part of the world as
strategically important as the Horn of Africa, it is especially deplorable as
what is at stake is nothing less than the security of the region and the
broader interests of the international community in general and the United
States in particular.
However, the mockery is that neither many Eritreans credit
his leadership either in defending their sovereignty amid all his intense
internal power struggle challenges. Those Eritreans who hate Meles mainly site the deportation of thousands of Eritreans
from Ethiopia during the 1998 and 2000 border war and for refusing for the
implementation of the boundary commissions ruling without any precondition.
Regarding the deportation the Prime Minister has publicly expressed his regrets
in an interview he conducted with two of the mainstream Eritrean opposition
websites Asmarino.com and Awate.com. He
has used every opportunity to reach out the Eritrean masses and he even went an
extra mile by asserting that he is not ashamed of his Eritrean blood, as his
mother is from Adiqala Eritrea. One has to take a deep breath to digest Meles Zenawis real zeal and far sighted
intentions. I had some feeling of resentment for the fact that he has hindered
for the implementation of the border ruling without preconditions, nevertheless
my admiration for his wise leadership soon came in to my spotlight, when I got
the opportunity to know his rivalries with their destructive explicit agendas. As
seeing is believing I invite you to watch what Ghebru
Asrat and Siye Abraha had to say regarding the question of Eritrea in the
meeting they held with the Diaspora Ethiopians recently. http://www.vimeo.com/11122303.
I find it heart breaking when I see the irrational and
illegitimate government in Asmara, who is shamelessly waging a campaign of hate
towards the visionary and pragmatic leader of Ethiopia, thereby arming and
financing the very enemies of Eritrea the so-called Ethiopian opposition groups
within Eritrea’s soil. Who is to benefit from this senseless exclusively
misguided venture of the PFDJ junta? This shows us that how far the regime in
Asmara has went in compromising Eritrea’s sovereignty in light of the existing
political atmosphere.
In my view Eritrea
might never get a like minded leader in Adis Ababa’s Arat Kilo, once Meles party is
out of power any time in the future. But a time could come where we could no
longer take his stands and deeds for granted. We can longer ignore the facts on
the ground; he is sheltering tens of thousands of Eritrean refugees, where they
find the most safe haven. He has also received hundreds
of Eritrean refugees that were originally meant to be deported back from Egypt
to Eritrea. And there are rumours the Israeli government is planning to do the
same.
Prime Minister Meles, in the past nineteen years, has thought Ethiopians
one big lesson, a lesson many still tend to forget, by distancing himself from
the thorny issue of Eritrean sovereignty (from an Ethiopian perspective), being
a leader of a landlocked country he has managed to escort Ethiopia in the path
of sound economic development, where it is registering 11 and 12% of economic
growth in this economically troubling times. Leaving Eritrea alone is in the best interest
of Ethiopia, his message to fellow Ethiopians is simple: never allow for
history to be repeated, his ancestors had played with fire for quit long time
and that is more than enough.
Indeed, as there is no
perfect human being neither does a perfect leadership exists. Even the Lord Jesus
Christ had many enemies, when he spread the message of peace and forgiveness to
the world. Don’t get me wrong I am not comparing Meles
with the Lord Jesus, but I want to bring into the light that he is an ordinary
human being, who makes mistakes but he is not positioned this time around to
repeat his ancestor’s mistake. There is a proverb ‘’one thing that we have
learnt from history is that we never learn from history.’’ It seems that Meles is taking the lessons of history seriously and
hopefully he would not live to repeat them hereafter.
As Eritreans I feel that it is a high time to raise some serious
questions, who is the real enemy of the Eritrean people and threat to Eritrea’s
national security? Out of the six major political parties that are contesting
in the election, with the exception of the EPRDF (the ruling party) the rest
have an implicit or explicit agenda for the partly or wholly re-unification of
Eritrea with its arch-foe Ethiopia, if they get the chance to sit in power. From
a legal point of view one could easily find this rhetoric as a nonsense and
dirty political game at work, with no tangible outcome in the end. But, as
Eritreans we have every reason to be anxious as we are living in an anarchic
world, hence, it is a high time to take the necessary precautions to avoid
repercussions.
From the Leaders of Arena party amazingly this party’s main
base of support is in Tigray, its leader is former disciple
of Meles Zenawi: Ghebru. Former president Negasso, and former defense
minister, Siye Abraha, also
joined the Unity for Democracy and Justice, or UDJ. It is
considered the main party to emerge from the breakup of the
Coalition for Unity and Democracy, or CUD,
that won nearly 200
parliamentary seats in the disputed 2005 elections. These
politicians are having a sleepless night in turning every stone to cling back
in power by even seeking a coalition with divergent parties. Three of them publicly denounced the sovereignty
of Eritrea, and assert that the Eritrean people should have been presented with
other alternatives other than merely confining his choices on unity or independence.
They even went on to the extent of illegitimating Eritrea’s independence; for
the reason that it was approved by the then transitional government of
Ethiopia, who was not authorized to give the green light for the right of self-determination
to the Eritrean people. The question that needs to be addressed is that how far
the Ethiopian public buys these outdated and polarizing arguments? And if Meles Zenawi’s leadership is to
be defeated in the upcoming elections, presumably he would stay in power, is
the illegitimate Eritrean government or the people of Eritrea ready to face up
to the challenge again? It is a high
time for us to seek the genuine answers and strengthen our fight for the rule
of law and democracy to flourish in our motherland. Since one country’s
sovereignty can only be well defended, when its citizens are given the
sovereign rights themselves beforehand.
The writer can be reached at tedros10@yahoo.com