The Ethiopian prime minister Meles Zenawi died of undisclosed disease recently and western and other leaders have been paying him tribute ever since. Does he deserve it? Was he a statesman? I personally do not think that he deserves it and he never became a statesman of his time. He came to power in Ethiopia in 1991 thanks to the help of the Eritrean people liberation front which had an interest in overthrowing the brutal military rule of Mengisu Hailemarian whose dictatorship left the people of Eritrea and Ethiopia in total destruction and misery. Meles launched war against Eritrea in 1998 backed by the USA and others and deported over 100 000 Eritreans from Ethiopia.
Some Ethiopians who accuse him of allowing Eritrea to become an own country, are ignorant or ill-adviced because the Eritreans liberated their own nation without the help of anybody after 30 years of bitter struggle. 21 years in power is pretty long time. Is Ethiopia a better place now than 1991? I do not know as I have never been in that country for over 20 years but reality speaks its own language.The majority of the 90 millions still live in deep-rooted poverty and seem to have given up on their government. Ethiopia is divided on the bases of ethnicity in the name of “being a federal state” which only has meant more division and tension in the country.
Meles did of course a good job in being the messenger of the west by invading neighbouring countries like Eritrea and Somalia where the Ethiopian army was defeated and humiliated by the people of the respective countries. One could therefore ask why all the cry and crocodile tears around his natural death as it seems to me unless he is poisoned by the CIA or so?
His death is not even a news here in Eritrea at all which I think shows the wisdom of the Eritrean leadership in not choosing to capitalize on an individual´s fate. I am though dead sure that the Ethiopian media would have made a big noise if something had happened to the Eritrean leadership. How come these differences among two nations just miles away from each other? History, geography and culture may explain some issues but not everything. The bottom line is though that Ethiopians are scared of revolution. Ethiopians like all sorts of balls: football, basketball, volleyball e.t.c. but let the white men kick their balls whereas Eritreans like bicycle and let white folks rumble in the jungle :-).
Democracy and development has never been Meles´s agenda. The Ethiopians have an opportunity to do something for themselves now but I am afraid that they will squander it. The monopoly of power in the hands of TPLF will continue even if the Amharas, Oromos and the southern people and others shall try to voice their concerns.
The incoming/acting prime minister Hailemariam Dessalegn is not anymore an acting one but named as a vice prime minister by the state media in Ethiopia. Vice to a dead man or his own shadow? What does it tell us about the power struggle within the ruling party EPRDF which calls itself as a revoutionary democracy? What does it really mean? I am not optimistic about the future of Ethiopia as the Balkanization of the country seems inevitable which might be in the interest of all negibouring countries as the American hegemony would lose its biggest “ally” and the region might seek and grab its own destiny by itself.Equal rights and justice is the only solution.
Happy 2005!
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