Zenawi died with his phantom ‘golden race’ – By Robele Ababya

Obnoxious legacy

Change is perpetual in the entire universe and no one can prevent its happening; it is a constant occurrence in our lives whether we like it or not. The best human beings can do is to use their innate intelligence to adapt to the change. The best way for avoiding man-made catastrophic change is to actively engender and preserve a democratic environment.

Adolf Hitler exterminated six million Jews by various gruesome means and cruelty beyond imagination; he instilled the supremacy of the ‘Arian race’ in the minds of fools that believed his promise that their country shall become the supreme ruler of the world. But his life ended in disgrace leaving the highly civilized German people to contend with the imprint of racial supremacy perceived by the international community. Change came to Germany engendering an exemplary democracy and the most prosperous country in Europe. However, the good people that inherited the atrocious crimes of the Furor are still on the defensive each time someone makes a political capital out of the “Holocaust” despite their best effort to change their tarnished image.

There has been a change of guard in the brutal EPRDF party following the death of Zenawi with his phantom ‘golden race’. No rule in Ethiopia has ever declared the supremacy of his tribe except Zenawi. His gruesome legacy is alive to contend with. The task is enormous to break the master to slave relationship engendered and refined by the TPLF Stalinist regime in the last 21 years; the struggle for freedom is further made draconian by the resolve of the new PM to continue with the legacy of the late tyrant without any compromise. The arrogant tyrant who once said ጓሃፍ ጽረጉለይ is gone!

For us democrats, our consolation can however be derived from the logic that no two people will have similar vision and style of leadership in performing their duties of steering a nation through turbulent times in a rapidly changing complex world. The wishful thinking of the new PM to copycat his former boss is a pipe dream of a man most probably with no self-confidence of his own to formulate his own vision as a leader. His position as a loyal guardian of the legacy is untenable.

The ruthless TPLF party has surely been keeping as it were the ‘skeleton in the box’ of each member of its coalition entities. There is no way for the little puppet to pursue the dictate of his own conscience for he had sold it to the TPLF at the time of his joining it and partaking in its heinous crimes as an accomplice to the upper echelon of the hierarchy of the thugs holed up in Menilik II Palace in Addis Ababa.

The new PM owes his present power to the TPLF top echelon still in charge of defense and security forces. The top thugs will prepare the orders for silencing legitimate dissent and the timid puppet will approve those orders for execution; the notorious agazi security forces will be happy to carry those orders swiftly. The PM has to think about the dilemma he is in for the sake of saving his honor and that of his family, relatives and the people he is representing in the inevitably crumbling ethnic-based government. He should do so realizing that the noble cause for which our martyrs sacrificed their lives shall never be forgotten and that the TPLF/EPRDF security forces under the direct command of the late tyrant Zenawi shall be brought to justice for the heinous crimes committed.

Inevitable demise of EPRDF

The TPLF is trading in the good names of the people of Tigray and its other partners in the EPRDF criminal group are trading in the names of their ethnic groups. This is an amorphous group glued together by lust for power and greed for wealth – not by any noble revolutionary character or personality. So they are inherently morally decadent and weak to resist the universal pressure of the 21st century engendered by the quest for the respect for basic human rights.

The EPRDF is a set comprising four elements: TPLF (Tigray Peoples Liberation Front), OPDO (Oromo People’s Democratic Organization), ANDM (Amhara National Democratic Movement), and SEPDM (Southern Ethiopian People’s Democratic Movement). TPLF has liberated Tigray 21 years ago and has since become the supreme ruler of Ethiopia to date; of the three others two are ‘Democratic Movements’ and one is an Organization still under the dominant mercy of the TPLF in order to determine their future. Thus the EPRDF component parts are indeed strange bedfellows bound to split owing to multiple inner contradictions. They may contemplate transforming into a national political party, but this is unlikely given their parochial views of the past to which they are addicted and the phantom dream of TPLF bent on asserting its supremacy by maintaining the status quo. The nouveau riche in senior positions in public service and holders of monopoly … will certainly support the status quo.

There will be internal wrangling and external pressure; fighting for supremacy and lucrative positions; forming opportunistic or tactical exit alliances within their ranks as briefly discussed below:-
A simple exercise in permutation and combination will show that the set {TPLF, OPDO, APDM, SEPDM} make up six combinations of two pairs: (TPLF, OPDO), (TPLF, APDM), (TPLF, SEPDM), (OPDO, APDM), (OPDO, SEPDM), (APDM, SEPDM). Note that each element appears three times as a pair with the rest.

Now, the TPLF may decide to dump the rest and emerge as a national party or the others may decide to dumb it through a combined strength. In both scenarios the new set will be {OPDO, APDM, SEPDM} under this new circumstance.
The Council of SEPDM is already a quasi-national movement representing the southern region that can opt to forming a national political party in a united democratic Ethiopia; besides, a large Kambatta militia force travelled for seven months to the north under extremely difficult conditions and brilliantly fought the Fascist Italian aggressors in Tigray. The region has indeed a stake in a united, prosperous and democratic Ethiopia. Therefore the top leaders of TPLF have no chance to exploit the SPDM anymore.

So we remain with (OPDO, APDM) and ask where will they go? The reasonable answer is for them to recognize that they were targets of TPLF for political extinction in the same manner that Fascist Mussolini did; their only best option is to apologize to the Ethiopian people, come home as prodigal sons and daughters and join the struggle for freedom, liberty and dignity.

Speech by the new PM at the UN General Assembly

The unimpressive maiden speech of the PM consist of 1832 words of which 608 were devoted to exaltation of his former boss; 639 to regional security; 360 to sustainable development; 72 to diplomatic courtesy; and 146 to conclusion in which he gave precedence to growth over respect to human rights in my opinion because he said: “There is no greater human rights violation than attempts to put obstacles to the success of this ongoing transformation of Africa which would have enormous salutary implications for hundreds of millions of Africans”.

In his speech, the PM lied by stating that in its entire history Ethiopia had never seen a rapid economic and Growth Transformation recorded in the last ten years in a row. The fact is however is that the IMF had slashed the claimed double-digit GDP growth by one half to a single digit and a forecast of 6.5% for 2012/13 and beyond; he lied because the truth is that Ethiopia’s economy was on the verge of takeoff before 1974 as acclaimed by distinguished economists; the country was credit worthy internationally; food prices were considerably cheaper. He purposely covered up the fact that rampant corruption and abject poverty are excruciatingly biting the masses in Ethiopia while few Tigre warlords are basking in an oasis of luxury.

In any case Ethiopia’s GDP growth, on a slim economic base for that matter, does not explain improvement in the quality of life of citizens; that was why the former President of France, Nicolai Sarkozy, appointed a group of scholars led by the Nobel Prize Laureate to conduct a study by including more indicators to GDP for measuring fair distribution of wealth.

Relationship with Egypt

The Nile Accord of 1993 titled “Framework for General Co-operation between the Arab Republic of Egypt and Ethiopia” was signed on the 1st of July 1993 by Hosni Mubarak representing Egypt and Meles Zenawi representing Ethiopia in his capacity as President of Transitional Government during which there was no national parliament and Zenawi behaved as an invader. The text of the Accord was made “in two originals in the Arabic and English languages, both texts being equally authentic.” There goes the mother of all insults for neither of the two languages is an official language of Ethiopia. I had at the time of commenting on the Accord stated that it is much too much lopsided in favor of Egypt. The point of raising this issue at this time is to underscore Zenawi’s contempt for the Ethiopia sovereignty right from the beginning of his ascendancy to power.

In my article titled “Nile and other rivers as key to new policy after TPLF demise”, dated 22 April 2011, I wrote: “Pursuit of good neighborly relations respecting mutual interests would be in the best interest of regional harmony and development as well as in the avoidance of regional wars/armed clashes thus substantial saving of resources that would otherwise be spent on military weapons. And I then went on to state that “Democratic Egypt and Ethiopia will play key roles in stabilizing the region and promoting development thus becoming formidable political forces to contend with; will be partners in the development of the Nile Basin – a key factor of regional policy to avoid war.” I reaffirm my belief again provided Egypt stays the course to becoming a democratic state acceptable to all of its citizens. In all cases Ethiopia must remain strong.

Ignoring propitious moments for change is perilous

The first paper that I wrote during the Imperial regime appeared on the Ethiopian Herald in the aftermath of the 1974 Revolution. I pleaded with His Majesty to allow free press and facilitate the emergence of political pluralism. My plea was unheeded. I saw Lidj Indalkachew Mekonnen at his residence at his initiative and advised him to revive the land to the tiller Imperial Decree that was already in place and reform his cabinet with progressive individuals. It did not work for he chose a retrogressive path of maintaining the aristocratic values. I advised Mengistu in person to return to the barracks living politics to the civilians; he went berserk and put me in his blacklist. I now advise the TPLF top leaders and the men and women in uniform above the rank of major to resign in order to facilitate peaceful change or face the calamitous fate of their predecessors.

Conclusion

The blasphemous tyrant Zenawi has died with his phantom dream of a son of the ‘golden race’; the sworn atheist was laid to rest at the St. Trinity Cathedral in Addis Ababa reserved for eminent patriots and heroes. It is a welcome change that he is bodily gone for good – wherever his body that was never seen lying in state was actually buried; but his atrocious legacy remains.

This is the moment that the opposition including the youth should emulate the insuperable example of top patriot Abichu and his heroic compatriots Haptom, Tesfatsion, Gashu, and Worku – as well as the heroic militia army from Kambatta – that bravely fought the Italian Fascist invaders; opposition democratic forces should do likewise in unison to break the backbone of the racist TPLF leadership.

LONG LIVE ETHIOPIA!!!
Release all political prisoners including Andualem Aragie, Eskinder Nega, and Reyot Alemu et al
rababya@gmail.com