#Tribute, #MelesZenawi, #Anniversary A hysterical mood of remembrance has gripped the country once again, in connection with the one year anniversary of the death of Meles Zenawi, a strong man who ruled the country for a cool 21 years. I am not going to comment on the extravagant manner in which the remembrance is being held, I will rather take this opportunity to briefly reflect on the legacy of the strong man. Meles Zenawi was a man that affected me in many ways than one. I lived a large portion of my life under his rule and I was impacted, for better or worse, by the policies that his government experimented with at different times. I lived through Meles Zenawi’s policy experimentations and this lived experience gives me a great vantage point to offer an informed testimony about Meles and his policies. Here is how I personally remember the late Meles Zenawi. 1. Meles as Unpatriotic Meles has always been, to use Jawar’s expression, an Eritrean-first, a Tigrean-second and never an Ethiopian in spirit. He worked tirelessly to undermine the historically defined Ethiopia. He denied the long, historical root of the country, and from that position, worked non-stop to weaken and undermine everything that he thinks represents Ethiopia, everything from its flag to its sovereign territories to its access to the sea. On the latter point, Meles Zenawi will probably go down in history as the first leader who willingly gave away his country’s access to the sea to another country. 2. Meles as a Killer The police and security forces that Meles Zenawi set up were responsible for the killing of thousands of Ethiopians. He presided over a senseless war with Eritrea which claimed the lives of over 70,000 Ethiopians. By his own admission to BBC’s Stephen Sacker, he personally ordered his police forces to gun down over 200 peaceful protesters in Addis Ababa, following the 2005 disputed national election. A couple of years later, he sent the army to Somalia to fight “terrorism” on America’s behalf. In that ferocious war which lasted for more than two years, numerous Ethiopian lives were lost. When asked by an opposition parliament member to disclose the number of causalities, he jokingly replied “I don’t think it is important for the parliament to know”. 3. Meles as an Authoritarian Meles has always been an authoritarian. Individuals who are believed to be threats to his rule were dealt with violently. Some were killed, some were thrown in jail, and some were forced into exile. The intimidation was so relentless that the peaceful political movement in the country was all but silenced. It started to show some signs of revival only recently with some policy relaxations introduced by the post-Meles regime. In addition, Meles disfranchised all independent institutions in the country including the free press, human right organizations, professional associations, and religious institutions. He then converted them into puppets that obediently serve his will. Simply put, Meles ruled over that country as if it was his personal property. 4. Meles as an Economic Manager I am a bit sympathetic to Meles the economic manager. He oversaw an economy that continually expanded for the second half of his, two decade long, reign. The economic growth, spurred by massive government spending, was broad based and benefited large sections of society. But with the impressive economic growth comes, rampant inflation, widespread corruption and massive inequality between the rich and the poor. The economic growth also facilitated the emergence of a greedy economic class that exploits the poor to unfairly enrich itself. So even on the economic front, which is, arguably, the strongest side of Meles Zenawi’s rule, his legacy is quite mixed.
Posted on: Thu, 22 Aug 2013 15:13:10 +0000
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