PM Meles’s famous argument calls for setting the Qaliti prisoners free

Hamma Dhuma

Feb 1, 2006

PM Meles Zenawi’s famous argument for not going to war with the Sha’abia regime back in 1998 and now is “eyandandiwa ye-selam qen kemanim belay egna lelimatachin enifeligatalen”. His commitment to development has never been as clear enough as now. His leadership is delivering something tangible that only his diehard enemies, or to use Dagmawi’s phrase the functionally illiterate, can afford to ignore. The country has the potential to do more. Domestic and global conditions dictate that the solutions that will lead us to further development as a nation should be sought outside the traditional thinking of punishing. I will not indulge on the innocence or crime of the Qaliti prisoners as it will be beyond my capacity. But I will argue for creating a mechanism of setting them free from the perspective of global conditions and domestic realities.

Global conditions

The dynamics of global and regional politics is changing by the day. The political velocity (both speed and direction) of countries that directly or indirectly affect us demands a corresponding match from our side. From Djibouti to Sudan and Egypt their mechanism and game is changing so fast that any time and resource spent in dealing with prolonged domestic political unrest will decouple us from synchronizing. During the recent discussion on possible agreement on the utilization of the Nile water, it is devastating to see that Egypt is demanding the inclusion of one strange clause that requests a given country (Ethiopia for example) to get a consent of other countries (in this case Egypt) regarding its domestic projects prior to going ahead with them. An even stranger clause is the one that considers each and every drop of rain on the basin (Ethiopian part) as part of the Nile water. Both of these clauses are meant to control the speed and scope of Ethiopia’s future development. The Ethiopian government should continue in its negotiations in this regard not to give in to such ridiculous propositions. With the hope of destabilizing Ethiopia it is clear from the now famous UN’s monitoring report that Egypt, Iran, Libya, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Djibouti were all involved in propping up the ousted ICU in Somalia with Sha’abia serving as conduit.

Thanks to our brave compatriots of the Ethiopian Defence Force this has now been put behind. The lesson from this war however is that the country should gear up for a very high economic growth that will improve the livelihood of all Ethiopians at the level of households and put the country as an economic regional powerhouse. This will simplify realizing national readiness in defending itself in face of any kind of war.

Domestic realities

Everybody in Ethiopia is doing its share to the development of our country. The private sector’s demonstrable capacity is seen through its ever increasing investment in different sectors. Releasing the Qaliti prisoners using appropriate mechanisms is consistent with the PMMZ advocacy of “eyandandiwa ye-selam qen”, as doing so will:

1. Pave  the way for continued democratization of the country
2. Enable to dedicate political and economic resources to more development
3. Facilitate the involvement of more people and energy in developing our country
4. Shatter the evil wills and plans of enemies of the nation that capitalize on our  political differences as ways of amplifying animosity among Ethiopians
5. Silence the minority vocal Diaspora that always has hard time differentiating between national interest and self interest

I henceforth call for PMMZ to seek a way to set the prisoners free and continue with our fight against poverty and other ills of the country.