Meles Zenawi, Switched on Ethiopia to start a bright future
- 9 May 1955 – 20 August 2012
- President of Ethiopia1991-1995
- Prime Minister 1991-2012
“Democracy is the expression of a sovereign people. To impose it from the outside is inherently undemocratic. (Meles Interview with Simon Tisdall, the Guardian 25 Jan. 2008)
Meles Zenawi passed on 20 August 2012 while recovering from a life-threatening illness. The pragmatic leader led the Tigray People’s Liberation Front and ousted the fascist military junta of Ethiopia in June 1991. Shortly after his death, the vultures rose from the ashes of hell and started the power struggle, doing what they do best. Unknown to all Tegaru, the epicentre of their target was the people of Tigray. Haile Mariam Desalegne became the prime Minister of Ethiopia. The challenges became complex and power needed an iron grip and dexterity. Haile Mariam was too slow, and the young upstarts were pushy and easily knocked him out to continue his uninterrupted prayer. Col. Abiy Ahmed Ali swindled EPRDF and started to dismantle it. Abiy and his mentor, Isaias Afeworqi of Eritrea (according to Andargachew Tsege of Genbot 7, Abiy was feeding the arch enemies of Ethiopia with classified state information) were conspiring to attack Tigray for years.
The origin and predicament of the current siege on the people of Tigray go back to the days of King Menelik. Menelik needed guns desperately while Italy was looking for a colonial foothold. Tigray was like “a hard rock in the deep blue sea’ for Menelik and Italy in the second half of the 19th century. Italys’ colonial ambition could be satisfied if Menelik’s desperate need for guns are fulfilled to capture southern young men and women to sell slaves for the Arab markets. The Remington guns which were the best of their kind were used to weaken Tigray. History is repeating itself today as well. Menelik bought 12,000 guns and Italy solved its hunt for the colonial post and bought parts of the then Tigray from Menelik. The stark similarities in the contemporary geopolitical power alignment seem to repeat the same or similar pattern. Meles was pragmatic in his approach to contemporary Ethiopian politics. Abiy Ali is more Menelik than Menelik himself. While Isaias has inherited the role of a typical solato, but also the fascist ideology as well. The siege and genocide of Tigray started with colonial intrusion and expansionism. Fano’s expansionist blessing came from Menelik. Today Menelik’s reincarnated son is arming his fano bandits to fight Tigray with the fascist Eritrean dictator for life.
The phenomenon is repeated for many decades with replicated objectives. It was designed and implemented to wither away the people of Tigray from the day Menelik became negus (king). Thereafter, Tigray was trapped to suffer deprivation of unimaginable magnitude. The Central government has always been tight on anything and everything in Tigray. The fitters were getting tighter as the psychological, economic, political, cultural, and historical remnants were run-sucked to the dry bones. Wolquit was incorporated to Amhara as a gift to Taytu during Menelik, while Raya was taken after the Weyane appraising during the reign of Haile Selassie in the 1940s.[i]
According to Prof, Asrat Woldeyes, he used to call those who cannot see beyond their nose, ሆዳም አማራ “hodam Amara”（potbelly) metaphor for greed, selfishness and self-centred) It was not accidental for the well-versed Prof. to classify his greedy countrymen as potbelly. Simply that is the only way to describe them. And they proved him right. The Amhara elites are tearing the country to pieces and they are not regrating what they are doing. Those elites who started to classify the 27 years of EPRDF’s era as a “dark era”, … where the Ethiopian society dramatically changed for good, are partly why Prof. classified the Amhara elites as “potbelly” after he died they even became even more vicious and venomous than before. They were characterised by their fellow senior Prof. as such, They have no conscience for other nations and nationalities of the Federal Republic of Ethiopia. The elites have been confusing and distorting what Ethiopia and Amhara and the vis-versa stand for. The advent of Abiy Ahmed Ali to power has brought with him all the evils of Amhara society to the forefront of politics. Assassinations of public figures such as Engineer Semyeneh onboard day in the centre of Addis Ababa, General Seare and General Gezehgne, Artist Hachalo, and many prominent members of society seemed to be targeted by the state for revenge, power, and control.
One of Meles’s greatest attributes to Ethiopian society was the construction of the Ethiopian Melinium Dam. The well-articulated policy of the Dam, the execution of the project, the dedication of the management, and the immense public contribution to the mega project were unbelievable in their scope.
The EPRDF government knowing that there was no external support for the project, had committed that the Dam should be built with public funds/bonds and contributions. Paradoxically, Tigrayans were the biggest contributors to the Dam, in comparison to how the state of Ethiopia is treating every Tigrayan in the country today.
During Meles’s reign, the economy was getting vibrant from year to year. IMF and World Bank and other institutions were registering double-digit growth. The top leaders of the EPRDF government were looking forward, while the minions like Abiy, Lema, and all the so-called disciples of change were in actuality, the fifth column, who reverted the progress dramatically to a complete halt and further slid into the abyss.
Had any person stood firm on the ground and asked the midgets what they are doing to the country, all the rats, snakes, serpents, and chameleons, would run away to their second home immediately and pretend as if nothing has happened in the last four years. The subterfuges would take a different dimension.
Meles turned on the unimaginable developmental works and kept Ethiopia moving swiftly into an era of progress. Those who intervened to take a course of history in a different direction through lies, deception, and terror have foreign backers whose national interest is inherently the deprivation of poor countries remaining poor. That was why Meles was determined to change the course of history if Ethiopia survived at all. It will be heralding the birth of new, free and forward-looking independent nations in the horn of Africa rather than waiting to serve other states’ National Interests.
Tigray shall prevail !!!
ታላቁ መለስ ዜናዊ ሲታወስ
Meles Zenawi: Accelerating Infrastructure Investments | Africa 2012