By H. Menelik
In this short article an effort is made to compare Meles Zenaw’s behaviour and actions against Machiavellian principle.I don’t know how historians will judge him, but for me undoubtedly he is the most feared than loved Ethiopian leader. Let’s have a glimpse at some of his behavior and actions.
Writing about the standard behavior a ruler should adopt in the term of his leadership, Machiavelli wrote:” a prince who wishes to maintain his power aught therefore to learn that he should not be always good, and must use that knowledge as circumstances and the exigencies of his own affairs may seem to require.”
I, for one, have never observed the good character of wedi Zenawi in the last 18 years of his rule both as leader of his party based on parochialism and tribal philosophy as opposed to democratic or modern politics or as a prime minister of Ethiopia, whose peoples are known for virtuous behaviors.
Wickedness, shrewdness and arrogance characterize his behavior. His domestic and foreign policies are rife with conspiratorial politics. Because he doesn’t have confidence and popular support, he usually resorts to hatching out and implementing back door polices as he has done in the recent secret land deal with al-Bashir of the Sudan.
In a word, Wedi Zenawi didn’t strictly apply in this case, Machiavellian principle — a ruler should sometimes be good.
Advancing a piece of advice to hated leaders like Meles, Machiavelli wrote: “There is nothing a prince aught to dread so much as his subjects’ hatred; unless indeed, it be their contempt. And both these evils may be occasioned by over liberalty. If he must choose between extremes it is better to submit to the imputation of parsimony than to make a show of liberality; since the first, though it may not be productive of honour, never gives birth to hatred and contempt.”
In the case of Meles, this character is demonstrably shown in his establishment of parastatal companies, more than 50 in number, exclusively geared to his home province, Tigrai.As a result, he is sometimes called a war lord, not a national leader, his actions Mafia-like. He is parsimonious to spend either money or resources to the other regions of Ethiopia. He never goes to the other regional towns for working visits but to Mekele, the town that he gave first priority. What about Dire dawa, Jimma, Illubabor, Debremarkos, Gambella, Nekemte and the others? It is ironical to say that these towns are forgotten by the regime of Meles Zenawi like the previous regimes which he usually condemns for partiality. Things fall apart!
The next principle looks at one of the most behaviours a ruler should adopt:” It has been sometimes asked whether it is better to be loved than feared; to which I answer, that one should wish to be both. But as that is a hard matter to accomplish, I think, if it is necessary to make a selection that is safer to be than be loved.”
Meles is feared by his comerades-in-arms, such as Seyoum Mesfin,Abbai Tsehaye who was reportedly had fallen ill and was taken to a hospital in Addis Abeba when he was purged by Meles during the division of the cc members of the TPLF in 2001. He is feared by the general public especially after the 2000 national election and the massacre of Addis Abeba. Meles not only gave order to his hench men, the Agazi snipers but also didn’t show any regret and amply demonstrated his sadistic character when he deemed the slaughter of the defenders of democratic rights as a correct deterring measure. For this he has earned the right label to be called a terrorist dictator. Ethiopia has never witnessed such a feared leader in its political history. Even Menelik the emperor who Meles tries to paint him a black colour was so beloved by his people as a mother-emeye Menelik. Neither Tewodros the other emperor who is reputed to have been temperamental and sometimes called lunatic doesn’t parallel our modern leader, wedi Zenawi. I don’t feel I am demonizing Meles but putting him in the right perspective. If there was public opinion poll in Ethiopia, Meles would have been rated as the least loved leader even by the people of Tigrai, his ethnic base. Now the people of Ethiopia live in a grip of fear, tension and uncertainty. while struggling at the same time with a “hidden hunger.”
When we go further in our reading Machiavelli’s’ The Prince, we can find the following additional advice: “There are two ways of deciding any contest: the one by laws, the other by force. The first is peculiar to men, the second to beasts; but when laws are not sufficiently powerful, it is necessary to recur to force: a prince aught therefore to understand how to use both these descriptions of arms.”
Meles usually follows the bestial nature –use of force to eliminate both real and assumed enemies. He and his party, the so-called Revolutionary Democratic Front, never entertain different ideas or dissenting views.
This and the other chacteristics of the regime have earned it the epithet brutal-a brutal regime.Indeed Meles’ regime is brutal. It caused the death of tens of thousands of people since the start of the 17-years- of the guerrilla war and the subsequent 17-years of harsh and oppressive rule. The mass murder and the dislocation caused by the regime in Oromia, Ogaden and Somalia proper are countless. In Somalia alone more than a million are displaced and this been described by UN and humanitarian agencies as the worst humanitarian crises in Africa after Darfur. Is there a more brutal regime than the current regime in Ethiopia?
Writing on the art of deceiving, Machiavelli noted: “Pope Alexander VI played during his whole life a game of deception; and not withstanding his faithless conduct well extremely well known, his artifices always proved successful. Oaths and procrastinations cost him nothing… It is not necessary, however, for a prince to posses all the good qualities. I have enumerated, but it is indispensable that he should appear to have them. I will even venture to affirm, that it is sometimes dangerous to use, though it is always useful to seem to posses them.”
The tin pot Ethiopian dictator knows very well how to sell himself as a democrat specially to foreign dignitaries. He presents himself as a liberator of the country and a trail blazer for the equality of ethnic groups in the country. But this a pure deception, a naked lie. His deception has been laid bare when foreign election observers witnessed the rigging of election votes.Did he stood for the equality of all nationalities of Ethiopia or the supremacy of his ethnic group? His actions speak louder than his words.
To conclude, virtually all the principles of Machiavelli have been put to test by Meles Zenawi in his 17-years of rule. But the period of deception seems to be over now. His divisive tactics are weaning. Now he has reached a decisive moment when the fear he has spread in the people will turn out be dispelled by a mass movement in the making.
10 thoughts on “Machiavellian principles as applied by Meles Zenawi”
Majorities of Ethiopians leave as prisoners brutalized by Melese and his parasitic group, therefore,
the Ethiopian people must continue to struggle to break out of prison in all fronts.
First and first to Elias and associaltes: the owner of Ethiomedia.com had tried to intimidate you several times in his weyane financed website and he finally revealed his true colors: THE OTHER WEYANE SYMPATHIZER FROM DIASPORA AFTER AIGA. Secondly, what would the Ethiopian people say or do had they known the true color of Meles and his stooges; did they really know how much these thugs endangered and destroyed this historical nation beyond any ones belief; Ethiopia had encountered more enemies under these thuggish leadership in the last 17 years than the 3000+ of its existense and weyanes are responsible for all these crimes and they must pay before they escape to their hide outs; if there is any! Peace and prosperity to our region and the almighty god will make the weyanes thugs pay for their heinouce crime that they have committed against the people of Ethiopia/region as the western puppets. Dr. Frazer skirt is not big enough to protect these culprits for such acts and peace will rein ones they are buried below the ground.
Not to take away the miseries and disdainful hardship many ethnic group have been on the receiving end of the various Ethiopian regimes, it is amazing, to me, how many Ethiopian political pundits ignore the pain and suffering the Eritrean people went through under the hands of Emperor Haile Selassie, Mengistu Haile Mariam and of course the little midget of Tigrai! Not that, it would reverse the untold atrocities Eritrean villagers and town dwellers alike received from various Ethiopian rulers, but it shows how many Ethiopians still want to look the other way and prefer to continue living in denial when it comes to the physical and psychological wounds the Eritrean people have suffered. It makes you wonder, can any Eritrean authorities trust the Ethiopian intellectuals if we ever are to work together and attempt to resolve any and all grievances that we may have had against each other although it simply doesn’t hold water to accuse Eritreans of anything for they have done nothing to Ethiopia and Ethiopians short of demanding their rightful independence! I have a feeling many Ethiopians do not want to accept the reality that Eritrea is an independent sovereign country or as we say in Tigrigna “aytewaHTelomn”! It is sad. It is very sad for the Ethiopians are really squandering a golden opportunity to work with the Eritreans for mutual benefit. Short of that, I am of the opinion that there was nothing to be gained by not accepting the facts on the ground. I just feel sorry for the Ethiopian people, in general, who wanted nothing less than peaceful existence with their neighbor Eritrea!
The starvation that isn’t according to Meles.
Here is some haunting and disturbing photos of what is going on in our beloved home Ethiopia, from boston global.
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/06/ethiopia_in_food_crisis_once_m.html
Matti,
The comments on the Ethiomedia about ER are absolutly correct and that ER has been promoting Woyane/TPLF rather than reporting the facts. ER needs to it self in the mirror and come back on the right track. ER deserved what all has been said in the Ethiomedia.
I hope ER will learn from this; aleziya, chew lerasih sitil taft, alezya dingay new biler yiworewuruhal.
People may ask after reading your article, how does this keep happening under the watchful eye of the world? Well,
US and UK govts come to anyone’s mind. It is like they signed a lease to do what ever they want with everything Ethiopia .They keep a blind eye because they have no other option, they have invested too much on TPLF. TPLF is every thing they want in any government. Brutal goverment pretend to be democratic. They pretend to believe his BS excuse for inflation and famine.More importantly, the existence of US policy solely rely on Meles. if there is no TPLF, there will be no functioning US policy in the Horn. Ethiopia is the only friend they got. Eritrea(the foe),SUDAN and Somalia”terrorists”, so they are left with Djibouti.They,Djibouti, are being polished for possible war with Eritrea. So Eritrea is critical to them. The will leave any stone unturned to get to Eritea. My point is they are working day and night to get Eritrea down. It is a critical time for both countries. We cant let TPLF buy more time and get a hold of total power. Now we have options, that is power.
This is my first read of the ER. I am Somali and I bear no ill will towards Ethiopia. I had Ethiopian friends, visted Ethiopia and know about Ethiopian history.
I know no one has stoked hate between Somali people be they in Mogadishu or the Ogaden and Ethiopia than Zenawi. I have litte doubt though that like many tyrants who sought glory in in their vain aggrandisement,Zenawi will come to a sticky end.Ethiopian soldiers are killed daily in the vast reaches of the Somali desert, while their commander, a General Gabre enriches himself on loot from the displaced people of Mogadihsu. Zenawi has created extreme feelings that never existed before amongst Somali people everywher, save a few warlords like Abdullahi Yusuf. The Ethiopian army is the butt of Amin Amer’s cartoons, with a repuation for venting their anger at hapless women and kids after every drubbing by the resistance fighters. Forget the defeat of what Zenawi calls, Jehadists. It is Zenawi’s fascist project to create a sattelite state that may come to haunt him. Alas, it may also consume the lives of many innecents.
Now is not the time to entertain by bringing erelevant essues like what ethiomedia and others are doing.Meles is playing in our weakness.Lets move forward.Lets save our people.
Dear H. Minilik,
You said it right!
As a matter of fact, Meles Zenawi used to read Machiavellian books starting day one of his guerrilla struggle in Shire of Tigray. He had the books about Machiavellian philosophy at his guerilla base in Hagereselam in Temben. Whenever he faces problems and challenges from any corner, either from Derge or his own forces, he refers his Machiavellian books to challenge all those who question his leadership. The conspiracy against Aregawi Berhe and Gidey Zerazion and later Hayelom Araya, Mulualem and Kinfe G/Medhin as well as Siye Abraha, Tewolde W/ Mariam, Alemseged Gebre Amlak. Aregash, Gebru Asrat and the rest of all purged TPLF leadership are the result of his strong applications of Machiavellian Philosophy. He still uses the Machiavellian books at his palace in Arat Killo against any force that challenges his leadership. They are always at his disposal and he still puts them under his pillow even when he sleeps at night for quick referral.
No body fear meles,but everybody hate meles,his class mate he knocked him down with one slap,not even a fist,but when it come to Agazi those r nomads and savages,they know only 3 things,Eat,Shit.and pull z trigger.