(By Ethio-Zagol)
I would like to be remembered as someone who got Ethiopia off to a good track, a democratic one, one ... where Ethiopia's proverbial poverty begins to be tackled in an effective way. I'd like to be remembered as someone who started the process
Those were the words of Meles Zenawi in the embarrasing Al Jazeera interview. Meles came really close to acheive that legacy before the May 2005 elections. In the end, Meles the calculative power-monger won over Meles the rational and he turned the country into graveyard and torture chamber. He is now threatening to share the legacy of Mengistu Hailemariam.I still think that there are enough Ethiopians who are willing to forgive him(not forget though) if he takes Ethiopia into a different path. He can start with:
-Opening the political space...Let the right to free speech, demonstration and assemby be respected
-Releasing all political prisoners and start political dialogue which will lead to reconcillation
-Stop persecuting social justice and democracy activists
-Allow more freedom for civil society
-Admit past mistakes and wrongs, including the politically motivated killings of thousands of Ethiopians
-Call free and fair elections
The ball is in your court Mr. Zenawi.
6 comments:
"What so ever you sow that also you reap" teaches the scripture.
Meles is in the crossroad. He can share the fate of either Mengistu Hailemariam or Mengistu Neway. It is upto him to choose.
You can't be happy and sorrow at the same time. You can't be remebered for good so long as you incarcerated the elected mayer Brehanu, personalities like Dr Yacob, Prof Mesfin, Ms Birtukan and otrhers.
EZ,
All the requests in point form you presented cannot be done in Ethiopia while TPLF and Meles "Monster" Zenawi are in power. Because, if they do what you wrote, then that will mean to asking them to be accountable and that is NOT possible. For starters they come to power expecting to be rejected by True-Ethiopians and they never even expected to last ten years let alone all these years. You are asking Meles "Monster" Zenawi and his TPLF to give up all the money she has been stealing, that is NOT going to happen. We can only remove them by force and replace the TPLF regime by the AFD to serve the Ethiopian people interest. Meles has essentially has been serving the Americans to committ crimes in the Horn. Now that Democrats are in the house there is going to be tight assistance to TPLF. Recently he went to Brusseles to ask for $400,000,000 and instead of receiving the funds he went to claim he lost a young MP. The money has been withheld since the rigged national election in May 2005 up untill TPLF is gone. The funds continue to be saved in the account for Real-Ethiopians. Believe it or not EU said they will accumulate all the money and give it Ethiopia when a proper and democratic government comes along, I bet by the time TPLF is removed our money in the EU account will reach $500,000,000.
Hi EZ,
I agree with you. I thought regardless of what he did to Tigrian children during the struggle and what happened in the past 12 years around Ethiopia he was almost to be named one of African great democratic leader. If you see any of the African country did not allowed an election like Ethiopia. And the election would have been a great achievement for him and a great opportunity to be nominated for international leadership even to be united nation general. You know what they say it is always true. Unless you are a free person you can not let other people free. Freedom is not a wish it is a practice. You have to exercise freedom your self to free other people. He has been leaving with inferiority complex and fear for so many years. And he has been aggressively trying to overcome his fear by controlling the power by all means during the 17 years struggle. This is clearly proven for the past 30 years even recently what he did to Sey Abraham is a good example. In stead of resolving the conflict with discussion and dialog he put him in the jail. He took action first fearing that he will come after him. People who control power by their own means always do not easily give power because of their fear. They think who ever comes to take the power will come after them. They do not think they will live happily after they transfer power to others.
Right you are EZ! It is never too late. As the saying goes 'charity begins at home.' Rather than seeking blindly the approval of the US and other Western leaders who will never fail to call him a dictator, Meles would have been embraced with forgiveness by his own people, his own blood.
This might seem asking too much,but what it takes is to sense how far people can go to forgive even the unforgivable for little concessions that might be granted in terms of rule of law and democracy, especially by one of the African leaders who know naught but killing and/or watching their own people die of hunger, of avoidable diseases such as malaria and of ethnic cleansing.
Shame on you Meles and all African leaders if you still are willing to be remembered as dictators in and outside and for crimes against humanity, still seek to appease the Western world which cares the least for you and your people except its own sustained interests.
I think its too late for Ethiopians to forgive, many have died and many have suffered beyond recovery. I think the time for forgiveness has long passed. Eprdf/TPLF has to go and we need to get serious and fix our problem.
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