My few readings of Ato Siye Abreha

By Zagwe

01/14/08

I was privileged to participate in the meeting organized for Ato Siye Abreha speech in Denver USA. I was lucky also to meet him face to face and listen to what a former political and military leader to say. Since I was a witness when EPRDF entered Addis Ababa and took some of the most important political decisions regarding Ethiopian history of all times, it was a great opportunity to be.

Ato Siye obviously is a former prominent military and political leader imprisoned perhaps partly because of power struggle within EPRDF more aptly within the TPLF and corruption charges. He released from prison and got a chance to travel out of his country to explain his version of the story to Ethiopian audience. This is unprecedented event in our history. For me this is a political breakthrough, an important step in the right direction. The credit should go both to the government of Ethiopia and its political leaders and Ato Siye him self who is courageous enough to share his reflections and solid experience. By the way, Ato Siye and his likes are important figures in the present day Ethiopian politics which is undeservedly suffering from lack of visionary, experienced, representative and professional politicians who are in apposition to articulate major national interests.

After saying that by way introduction, I will focus on the rest of my few readings of Ato Siye Abreha. I consider basically Siye as a very courageous military leader in the tradition of great Ethiopian generals. However every body knows pretty well that to be a military leader does not necessarily make you to become a good civil political leader. Both of them may have something in common but they are significantly different disciplines with irreplaceable relevance for various settings.

According to my observation, Ato Siye’s understanding of international politics appears to be very limited even at times quite shallow.  He for example, perceives Ethiopia as an Island quite detached from international community of nations. For Ato Siye Eritrea is only the personalization of a war lord of the horn called Isayas Afeworki.  Ato Siye did not understand the reason why Isayas survived. That is partly because the international system and politics allows him to be so. He survived all major crises not mainly by his political wisdom and his military force. Even Siye seems to forget the fact that the point is not necessarily to win a war but to maintain what you won in the war afterwards. If Isayas was over thrown in 2000 war, does it mean that the horn become more stable than the present? Is it not possible to imagine another Somalia in Eritrea? In this regard, Ato Siye understanding of international relation and politics is even less than the understanding of the 19^th century not so “educated” Tewodros of Ethiopia. Tewodros stated the challenge facing his country at that time by saying “I am the only one in the region encircled by enemies.” That is just to say that our region has always the potential for bone of contention.

Ethiopia as a historically important entity has always to face different challenges most of which resulted from its geographical position in the region, its internal situation which is home to different religion, group of peoples and great rivers. In this context, we can not think of Eritrea simply as a small and insignificant undefined state in our region, rather the creation and instrument of regional forces and alliances striving to materialize their national interest using Eritrea for their own benefit. That argument is equally valid to the case of Somalia where Ethiopia has taken an active measure in line with its vital national interests. Ethiopia has a clearly defined stakes in what happened in Somalia. Thus Ethiopia is justified to protect its interests by all means, not to wait until that time where the others take advantage of her inaction. After all Ethiopia deserves and has the capacity to become a regional power in that part of the world. That role is also beneficial not only to Ethiopia but also to the whole region itself. To be able to maintain peace and security in that volatile region is crucial.

As all the major Ethiopian political leaders, Ato Siye suffers from simplistic and partial understanding of Ethiopian politics. In Ethiopian politics, one has to take in to account the long political history of Ethiopia, the role and relation ship between and among different groups of peoples and religions very seriously. One has to make its best effort to address issues surrounding those vital national agendas. Again it should also be stated that as all political leaders, Ato Siye has failed to distinguish clearly between the interest of a political organization which is to assume state power and the national interest which goes beyond and above that of a group interest.

In general, I found Ato Siye as great military leader having more genuine concern for his country Ethiopia but somewhat less understanding of political complexities and dynamism of Ethiopia and Ethiopian position and the manner it is expected to deal with international politics to survive and thrive.