by Kaleab Tessema
Let it be known that I never personally met or spoke with Meles, nor did I have the ability to read his mind. What I will say, just like everyone else, I can perceive the character of the man through his actions—the actions of a divider of people, murderer of the innocent, and thief of a nation’s potential.
Thus, after the death of Meles an undisclosed illness, some people were speculating that the Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF) would take the opportunity to abandon their fascist form of government and intractable “divide and rule” policies. Not only to end this cruel policy, the TPLF became worse than their late capricious prime minister. The TPLF hid Meles’ death from the people for about a month while his political party the Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF) schemed and plotted to continue his legacy of oppression. Right now, they are brutally beating and harassing the people who disagree with their policies. While Andargachew Tsige was interrogated briefly by the regime’s security apparatus on Woyanne owned TV, we heard people being tortured in the background. The victims were screaming in excruciating pain. It is unprecedented that a government dare to show a shocking and a disturbed voice to the public.
Funny enough, the Woyanne groups are uneducated who do not care about people; they just perpetuate their own interests to buy more time to run the country for another twenty two years by preaching and adulating their late prime minister’s policies. Of course, Hailemariam Desalegne outcries about Meles’ greatness and a visionary leader, that brought a sustainable democracy which embraces all ethnicities in the country. it is quite clear that Meles was the one who picked Hailemariam as his deputy prime minister and if Hailemariam idolizes his late boss, no one would be surprised. In addition to that, Meles knew that Hailemariam is too much to divulge his repugnancy towards Amhara ethnic group which made him very loyal and closer friend to Meles.
I have been scrupulously watching the regime and its supporters on how they disseminate invidious discrimination of propaganda about Amhara by calling ‘NEFTEGNA’ to create an ethnic cleansing with other ethnics in order to stay in power which is dangerously wrong. There is no doubt that Meles and his party had a deep hatred towards Amhara. Even after Meles died, the so-called ruling political coalition, EPRDF junta government, each and everyone has anti-Amhara sentiment. I still do remember when Shabia and Woyanne were in the bush, their core principle of the slogan was first to break the back bone of Amhara. Of course, no one deny that Amaras have been suffered since the TPLF gripped the power.
Sadly enough, the TPLF brutal killing of innocent Amharas peasants in the southern part of the country was not enough; the TPLF tried to inject some sort of sterilizer into Amhara women that would make them unable to conceive. Further, a few years ago a report given to Woyanne parliament about the disappearance of 2.4 million Amharas in the census conducted was an evidence. The TPLF tried any means necessary to reduce the number of Amhara population. These diabolic actions on Amharas, it is not new, it is already in the record.
It is fact that Today’s TPLF and its surrogates control vast areas of wealth in Ethiopia. Of course, whether like it or not, many Tigryans are beneficiary more than any one of the Ethiopian ethnic group under the TPLF rule. For no reason, Amharas have been made the main target of vilification, and demonization by TPLF for the last twenty-two years. I know some of the TPLF’s sympathizers will not agree with the facts that I reveal about the TPLF ethnic junta is doing to the innocent Amharas in the south. At this point of time, the Woyanne propaganda on Amhara they created racial antipathy between other ethnic groups is not a lasting, it is a transient.
What are the Meles’ Legacies?
Since Meles’ passing, the TPLF have had a hard time to replace their late prime minister. The TPLF tried to look for a person whose ethnic origin is Tigryan or Eritrean who has a tendency to prevaricate about Ethiopian history, but they might think they would excoriate for the replacing their own ethnicity, and then the TPLF, after assiduously thinking, artfully and systematically appointed Hailemariam Desalegne as prime minister of Ethiopia whose ethnicity is from Welayita to divert the attention of the people. Funny enough, Hailemariam is a vulnerable prime minister who is not a decision maker where under surveillance of the TPLF. Every one knows in Ethiopia that Hailemariam is a puppet prime minister who takes an order from the TPLF cabal.
Having said that, Meles was a ferocious and a perfidious person who mortified the nation and its people in the eyes of the world in the twenty first century. Let us not forget that, Meles was the one who made Ethiopia landlocked and ninety million people left without port. He also publicly said that “Ethiopian’s history is only 100 years old, and its flag is a piece of rag.” At one time, I was surprised by his flippant remarks about Tewoderos and Menilik that he was comparing himself claiming that Ethiopians for the first time got a peace under his rule. Surprisingly enough, a despicable and a traitor person comparing himself to those great men and a true sons of Ethiopia who protected Ethiopians from foreign invaders is a bluffing and a gimmick. Anyway, that was his usual prating.
Going back to my point, the regime is worshiping of the late dictator to persuade his policy whose actions were anti-Ethiopian that put the country on a dangerous path of the division along ethnic and language line based federalism. At the matter of fact, Meles was a one-man rule who had an absolute power and spun the Woyane for the last twenty one years. Now the regime tries to preach personal cult of a tyrant leader by bemusing the true dictatorial legacy of Meles.
Meles was a capable of dissimulation to stay in power by creating an idea where most people agree with it, like ‘Renaissance Dam’, to divert the issues and muzzling the political dissents. When Meles wants to detain the people who disagree with his policies, he blackmails by creating false documents that involves with terror activities, and when he gets a big criticism from the people, he immediately changes his mind to release those who falsely put in prison. Then after brutally tortured and demeaned, the prisoners were required to sign a letter of apology to Meles Zenawi with preconditions.
Now, the Meles’ legacy is the word of God for Woyanne, which is not working well as worked well for him. Since Meles died, mass killings and incarceration have doubled in the country. As the result, these criminal acts made Ethiopians more united inside and outside against the TPLF than before. For example, recently in Washington D.C., the brave and courageous young people occupied the Woyanne Embassy and brought down the provocative TPLF flag, then hoisted the true colors of the Ethiopian flag. Thus, the dubious policies being made by Meles that put the present brutal regime into a deeper political quagmire. Arresting and torturing the people will not bring any solution for TPLF; rather, it aggravates civil strife and instability in the country.
Finally, I call on opposition forces to stand up and be a voice for defenseless people who have been physically and verbally assaulted by the brutal regime in Ethiopia. It is about time to put aside their differences and to work together at this critical time, otherwise, the TPLF continues to repress the people and dismember the country. I do not have a moral authority to tell the opposition what to do, but I would like to share my humble opinion to the opposition forces that unity is paramount in order to remove the Tigryan ruling oligarchy.
