The Administration of Utter Destruction

 

By Golto Aila | April 19, 2008

 

Looking at individual trees often gives a distorted view or not so accurate view of the forest, hence the saying -can't see the forest because of the trees!

 

When Woyanes matched into Addis Abeba in 1991 I was resident in Britain, and watched it all on the BBC television! In the aftermath of Mengistu's rule, I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, but by their actions they their intentions clear - that is to destroy Ethiopia! What we see today is, therefore, not a surprise to me! What surprises me is the Ethiopia has just decided to take it all on the chin for nearly two decades!

 

There are many shapes and hues of government and governance, and I'll name a few obvious onces:

 

1. Government by the indigenous people

2. Government by a colonizing power

3. Government by default, or Government by accident (I made this one up)

 

Government by the indigenous people may be democratic, undemocratic, clean, corrupt, efficient or inefficient. It reflects its people's level of sophistication, education and culture, etc. Whatever its faults it does not set out to deliberately destroy its country, not to my knowledge!

 

A colonizing power governs to fulfill certain requirement for the benefit of its parent territory. Such requirements may be economic, political, national security, or combinations thereof! It usually improves the economy, self reliance, and education of the colonized so that the colony becomes profitable for both the colonizer and the colonized!

 

An administration by default is one which may not fall in either of the above categories, but may have some of their characteristics. What is not important to such an administration is the viability of the country that is governed. Its viability may in fact be detrimental to the default government! The Woyane government (if you care to call them a government), in my judgment is Ethiopian Government by default! As such its only logical function (based on its objective to LIBERATE itself from Ethiopia) is to destroy the country! Why do I say that? Well, from its inception, the goal of TPLF was to liberate itself from Ethiopia and be independent! The alliance with EPLF was a defense alliance - defense of each other against the future regime in Ethiopia! Nimble Meles, realized at the tail end of Mengistu's regime that he could benefit by joining up with others in Ethiopia and administer until it is so crippled that it will never be a threat to an Independent Tigrai and its sister Eritrea (simultaneously with this calculation, is another one which protects him should his erstwhile friend Afewerki turn against him!). The need to maintain a strangle-hold on Ethiopia and the pursuit of the crippling process became even more urgent when TPLF and EPLF fell out and engaged in the war of attrition. But how will he now manage to hold down a nation of 80 million people - most of them hostile, and at the same time hold back his erstwhile friend and now a mortal enemy to the north, without losing his grip. So here is the genious (if that's what you want to call it) of Meles in his epic struggle to stay in power and keep the dream of Independent Tigrai under the TPLF rule alive:

 

1. Divide and rule Ethiopia: The population is split into ethic camps or parcels. Each group is supposedly autonomous while in reality he maintains an iron grip on each entity. But he breathes and breeds suspicion among the different groups and monitors their activities closely.

 

2. Ration food production: People worry about democracy and individual rights, or even fight for their country when they have food in their stomachs! By rendering one of the most fertile countries with water resources enough to feed three nations, incapable of feeding itself, he managed to cripple a nation of 80 million people, a large number of them, today, depending on foreign food handouts for their survival!

 

3. Rationing Education: I have seen young, bright men and women who have gone to the 12th grade in Ethiopia, and who cannot speak English or even good Amhargna! The aim is to render Ethiopia illiterate, while Educational opportunities abound in Tigrai.

 

4. Rationing Health care: If the Woyane secret service kills someone, of course, that lost life will be marked against them, like the 193 who were shot and killed while they demonstrated peacefully in Addis Abeba nearly three years ago. But who will take Meles to the International Court of Justice for millions who died because of HIV-AIDS. All he had to do was go easy on AIDS education, obtaining medications, and counseling (I am referring to anecdotal reports for this). Remember the story about detainees in the concentration camps following arrests during the demonstrations? It was claimed that one razor blade was used to shave the heads of 10 detainees! I don't know the authenticity of that story, but if true, here is a government who is deliberately spreading a lethal disease among innocent young people. Even a hostile, invading power doesn’t do that to prisoners in its captivity.

 

5. Disenfranchisement: It has never been the intention of this administration to bring democracy into Ethiopia! For what purpose? But it was important to go through the motions, why?

• Fool the country into believing that she is tasting DEMOCRACY
• To avoid embarrassing its foreign supporters, who preach democracy throughout the world
• To continue getting foreign aids from foreign countries

They were caught by surprise when the nation that had been in a state of semi-coma suddenly woke up and voted against them, before it went back to its slumber! Of course, they had to react the way they did to retain power, because, can you imagine what would happen if democracy was established in Ethiopia and power changed hands. Here are a few things that would happen have happened:

 

• Arrest and prosecution of Meles and his collaborators in the murder of so many people
• Arrests and prosecution of many officials for corruptions and misappropriations
• Arrests and prosecution for high treason for violation of the sovereignty of the nation of Ethiopia – Dismembering the nation first to parcel out Eritrea and now Ethiopian territory to Sudan!
• End of the dream of Independent Tigrai
• Rush out of Ethiopia to seek asylum
• Most unacceptably, Isayas still in power and Meles in jail or a refugee!

So, the 2005 election was a close shave and Meles will never repeat that mistake again - for him that is suicidal! To hell with DEMOCRACY! But Meles will hold elections all the same after disqualifying all the oppositions, and then his party will win and he will call it free and fair elections - take it or leave it!

 

So the only way I see to change the political, economic, societal and moral directions in Ethiopia is by coming together, form "My Solidarity Forum of Ethiopia" and join hands in Ethiopia and all over the world and demonstrate that the determination and the drive for a democratic change in Ethiopia is alive and well!