The Meles Administration and the Tigreans
For centuries Tigreans have played the core and leading role in preserving the culture, territory and most importantly the very existence of the nation Ethiopia. Historically, aggressions and attacks that threatened the very existence and territorial integrity of our Ethiopia have come through the northern border of the country. Thus, it is natural and understandable for Tigray and its people to claim for shouldering the economical as well as military burden more than the other parts of the country. Consequently, Tigreans, alone and along side their fellow Ethiopians, have paid heavy price in protecting the values and national interests – cultural, territorial, religious and so forth – of our beloved Ethiopia. Perhaps, this is one of the most fundamental reasons why Tigray and its people are considered by many as the cradle of the ancient and the contemporary Ethiopia.
Citing some of the note worthy historical records that have a lot to do with the Tigrean people is helpful here. Alula Aba Nega, the heroic Ethiopian recognized by insiders and outsiders alike as one of the most brilliant and respected African generals of his time, spent almost his entire life fighting in defense of his nation against invaders – although all he got from many of the then ruling elites in return to his heroic deeds was disrespect and jealousy. The gallant emperor Yohannes the fourth lost his precious life while defending the territorial integrity of his beloved nation – he felt the pain of his fellow Ethiopians, who had been forcefully converted in to Islam by the Mahdist invading army, much more than his own political pain caused by the treasonous acts of Menelik. Last but not least, the relative peace and democracy, however young and restless, that prevail in Ethiopia today have come to life owing credit to the gallant freedom fighters of TPLF ( latter EPRDF) – 95% of the sacrifices made during the struggle here were, with out the slightest dispute, paid by the Tigreans.
In short, the Tigrean people, ordinary citizens and the countless Tigrean leaders from Axumite kingdom to the contemporary Ethiopia, have contributed no less, if not more, than other Ethiopians in building and defending the nation that we adore today. In light of this, it should not be that difficult to recognize the key causes behind the exhaustion of Tigray’s natural resources and its subsequent effect on the economic status and day-to-day lives of Tigreans – one need not go beyond witnessing the bone-dry mountains of Tigray and the re-current drought caused by the climate change, which in turn is the result of centuries old war and destruction. Nonetheless, time has come when Tigreans, for the first time in their history, have started to feel embarrassed of a leader who claims to be, or is believed to be, a Tigrean. I, as a proud Tigrean Ethiopian, hate to know that there is a Tigrean leader who has been harshly criticized for being at fault for not standing, even though partially, in the best interests of Ethiopia and Ethiopians.
Many Ethiopians at this time, especially those in Diaspora, have repeatedly spitted, directly or indirectly, their hate words towards Tigreans. Most of the Ethiopians who do so are those who sincerely believe that the role of governing Ethiopia solely belongs to them ( these ones have even gone to the extent of claiming that Ethiopia has been colonized by Tigreans) – these are people addicted to seeing them selves as makers and breakers of this multi-ethnic nation. Others are merely showing their discontent with the current regime (some of these Ethiopians have even forwarded a highly contestable argument claiming that the Tigreans have significantly benefited from the current regime compared to other fellow Ethiopians) and unfortunately are unable to distinguish between a certain political group and the entire Tigrean people – ending up in hasty generalization. The point here is, for one reason or another; Tigreans have been subjected to a gross ethnic-abuse and marginalization. My memories of the 2001 and 2005 attacks on ethnic Tigreans still run fresh – I happened to personally witness the alienation of Tigreans in April 2001 when I was struggling for an academic freedom at the Addis Ababa University along side my fellow students, not to mention the code naming of Tigreans in Addis as “Filistems.” In order to understand such a complex issue, one needs to ask three essential questions
In my opinion, there can not be a living witness other than the contemporary land locked Ethiopia and the people and land of ‘Erob’ to show the malicious acts of the Meles group in defending the national territorial interests of Ethiopia. One thing I would like my readers to note here is that, I am not trying to erase the fact that Meles and his group championed to bring one of the most fundamental public rights, the “ self determination” right, into our constitution. Rather, my intension is to highlight the fact that this same leader and his group failed to stand firmly to make sure that the so-called ‘referendum’ was conducted in a fair and democratic way, so as to prevent it from badly hurting the very people and nation they lead – including the now Eritreans, then Ethiopians.
I am one of those who blame emperor Menelik for not finishing the job started by Yohannes and Alula. As bravely as he and his army fought, I believe, he could have either continued to route the already defeated and retreating Italian army right away or could have taken some time to reorganize and re-attack the enemy, rather than signing the deal that literally gave away his own people. Hailesilassie exacerbated the situation by forcefully incorporating Eritrea as one of his provinces – it is ironic why a leader would force people who decided, on their own terms, to re-join their mother land after being abandoned by their own leaders only to suffer under colonial brutality for decades. Meles and his administration lamented the betrayal by depriving Eritrean Ethiopians of their right to stay united to their motherland.
The treasonous allegations against Meles and his administration would not have been true if Meles and his crew did not allow the so-called ‘referendum’ to be administered by EPLF- I believe the Shabias took control of the process from A to Z. literally, I mean literally! The Eritrean Ethiopians were given two choices to vote for, “FREEDOM or SLAVERY.” Besides, many of the Eritrean Ethiopians were threatened by members of EPLF that they had to vote and vote ‘FREEDOM’ otherwise they would never see their family members in Eritrea. Which means, the destination of Eritrea had already been determined way before the so-called ‘referendum’ was conducted. All these happened under the full watch of the Meles administration, so what is not to be blamed for?! Adding fuel to the fire, the Meles team even worked day-in-day-out to ensure the quick recognition, by the international community, of the cessation of one of its province – only to portray Ethiopia as the only country in the world to enthusiastically pursue the successful cessation of one of its people.
As if this was not enough, the Meles team did not only ignore the issue of claiming our own legal port of Assab, but also actively campaigned to denounce and attack those who raised the legitimate right, advocated for and came up with plausible logical arguments. Now, as a leader, to be ignorant of such an issue with a critical national interest at the heart of it, is a crime by it self; to denounce citizens who raise the idea and come up with legal supporting evidences, is unforgivable crime – its like a crime on top of crime on top of crime!
Some pro-Meles fellows argue that whatever Meles and his team did in relation with Eritrea – including giving away our port Assab and even signing the Alger’s agreement, which basically gave the upper hand to Eritrea when it was supposed to be the other way round, as recently as 1998 – had to be done for the sake of ‘Melikam Gurbitina’ and lasting peace. But you know what?! That has not happened either. It is like what the British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlin, did to the Czechoslovakians during the world war two to appease Hitler and to achieve lasting peace – only for the latter to invade Czechoslovakia.
Therefore, the answer for the first question would be, in my view, a big YES. Bear in mind here, however, that this does not, in any way, means that Meles and his administration have not contributed to all the visible positive changes that we see in Ethiopia today. But, that is a very distinctive issue and should not be mixed with the topic under discussion here.
Now, are there Tigreans who really share this same view on Meles and his administration? Yes there are. The likes of my self are Tigreans who do not identify themselves with any of the Ethiopian political organizations but maintain this very same view. Of course, there are bona fide supporters of Meles and his administration who also share the same belief on, or at least do not refute, the issue explained above. The same goes for the opposition political parties’ supporters, but with greater emphasis.
One final question here is, can the wrong-doings of Meles and his administration be taken as reasons to hold the majority of Tigreans accountable for the evil things that happened to Ethiopia and its people?
To answer such a question, we need to ask couple of more questions related to the above question - questions that will lead us to the final answer. What is the nature of relationship that exists between Meles, members of his administration and the Tigreans? What possible implication does this relationship have on the decisions made or to be made by the Meles administration, concerning national interests? And what does this mean to the rest of non-Tigrean Ethiopians?
In my view, the basic elements that create the link between Meles and his administration are; the fact that Meles is an ethnic Tigrean and an elected parliamentarian representing the Adwa constituency, he is the chairman of the sole political party that represents the Tigrean people – TPLF- and some members of his administration are ethnic Tigreans. The implication of this relationship is that Meles and the other Tigrean members of his administration, those elected to represent a constituency in the state of Tigray, have the responsibility to advance the interests of those Tigreans whom they represent in the Ethiopian parliament. In this case, Meles’s and couple of Tigrean parliamentarians’ votes may not be so much as to significantly affect a major decision concerning a national interest –representatives from the other constituencies in the country hold much more votes than Meles and his group combined.
However, it must not also be forgotten that Meles is an elected chairman of the umbrella party EPRDF, Ethiopian ruling party for the last fifteen or so years. His chairmanship of the ruling party is the direct reason behind him being the leader of Ethiopia. Thus, once a person becomes the leader of a nation, for one reason or another, then that person represents the people of the entire nation and by the virtue of his position, he/she accepts the responsibility of working towards achieving the common interests of those citizens of the nation that he/she leads. In other words, a national leader – while carrying out his/her duty representing the nation – does not necessarily and directly represent a specific group of people and his/her decision concerning national issue may not be directly affected by the interests of the constituency that he/she represents. Thus, it is evident that the Tigrean people, who represented him, have no significant role in his decision as a national leader.
Therefore, since the Tigreans, be it those who elected Meles and the other Tigreans in his administration to represent them in the parliament or even those members of TPLF who elected him as a chairman, did not advance or advocate those decisions made by him and his administration, which resulted in hurting the country’s national interest. Thus we can conclude that the wrong doings of Meles and his team members can not be valid and legitimate reasons for other non-Tigrean Ethiopians to accuse and hate the Tigreans.
Se-Arom K.
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