Tecola Hagos asks Tigreans to take a stand against Meles

Prof. Tecola Hagos, former legal adviser to Meles Zenawi, has written an eye-popping article, in a form of book review, that calls on Ethiopians of Tigrean origin to take accountability for allowing Meles Zenawi to loot Ethiopia for this long [read below]. If most Tigrean intellectuals come out and a take a similar stand, the resentment many Ethiopians feel toward Tigreans would disappear. Most Tigreans, perhaps over 90% of them, are as much victims of Meles and other Ethiopians. Unfortunately, however, the Tigrean elite has been blindly supporting Meles only out of ethnic loyalty and some crumbs. — Elias Kifle

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BOOK REVIEW: Ethiopia’s Endemic Poverty that Globalization Won’t Tackle, But Ethiopians Can

By Tecola Worq Hagos

It is rare, indeed, that a captivating non-fiction socio-politico-economics book on Ethiopia appears on the market, and at a bargain price of twenty five dollars, at this age of blogging and chatting where most Ethiopians get their information. I am not exaggerating at all to state that Aklog Birara Ph.D. [hereafter “Aklog”], who recently retired after thirty years with the World Bank, has written a monumental book titled appropriately WAVES: ETHIOPIA’S ENDEMIC POVERTY THAT GLOBALIZATION WON’T TACKLE, BUT ETHIOPIANS CAN [here after “Waves”]. This is a serious book that should be read by Ethiopians and others interested to know the facts and the reasons why Ethiopia , a nation that was never colonized with a long history of independence and in that part of the World endowed with great natural resources, remained poor and starving for decades.

Aklog’s book is a work of love and compassion for a great nation and a people who have fallen on excruciatingly painful times perpetrated by violent and brutal successive Governments, the latest being the worst. The sheer size of the book, of five hundred pages, which is densely packed in small prints with very narrow margins, would require stamina and dedication to read from beginning to end. Fortunately, Aklog is a consummate writer of brilliant analysis delivered in beautifully crafted language. It is a mark of the mastery of a language where style is subordinated to content and one reads with eagerness an author without being overwhelmed with technicalities. Nevertheless, Aklog’s book is not for the faint hearted, the one who would give up after few chapters. I pride myself for being a fast reader, with the paradox the faster I read the better I retain the content of a book. Even then it took me a while to finish Aklog’s book. I could say that if the book had been formatted properly with wide margins and larger font size, it would have easily been in three volumes.

I came to know Aklog in person only recently. I realized what a great human being he is as an individual, a person with great charm and humility. I am amazed having witnessed on few occasions in conferences and/or group meetings how well he relates with ordinary mortals like me. I can understand how he was and still is a great asset for the World Bank having to deal with often cantankerous and difficult national government representatives and experts in all sorts of disciplines. One of the most attractive aspects of Waves is the narrative about Aklog’s own beginnings in rural Gondar nearby village and his transformation over the years going through high school both in Ethiopia and in the United States and ending up finishing his formal schooling with a Ph.D. at one of America ’s most prestigious institutions of higher education, the Johns Hopkins University . He has lived a full life of growing up in an Ethiopian extended family structure surrounded with nurturing parents and relations and neighbors. What makes Aklog’s book endearing to me is its unselfconsciousness and honesty.

In fact, what was striking to me, the first time I met Aklog, was his appearance with his massive head and prominent brow/forehead. I hope no one accuses me of being a student of Francis Galton, for associating such configurations with great intelligence. In Aklog’s case, I am right. I am probably younger albeit with few years from Aklog, and yet he treated me from the very beginning with undeserved respect. In fact, he should have been angry with me, for years earlier I had written a piece misidentifying his role during the time of the Derg, in a piece I wrote about Kinijit and the leadership of Hailu Shawel who had appointed Aklog as a member of Kinijit International Leadership (KIL), while Hailu was detained along with other CUD leaders after the 2005 National Election. [See Tecola W. Hagos, “Revisiting the Political Opposition: on the Conviction of CUD Leaders,” tecolahagos.com, June 22, 2007.]

A lot could be learned about a person by looking at the list of books he would read and the concepts he would question. The number of books cited by Aklog in Waves gives us a fair picture of his political inclinations, and the form of economic system he might prefer. It is in that light that I was much interested in the names of authors Aklog had read. A sample of his reading revels that Aklog seems to favor liberal-democracy on the subject of political systems and issues of individual rights, and controlled market economy on the subject of national economies. He quoted often in his book outstanding visionaries and experts in socio-economic matters and also those courageous human rights champions who dare speak to power, such as Robert Calderisi, Ha-Joon Chang, Hernando de Soto, William Easterly, Thomas Friedman, Dambisa Moyo, David Rothkope, Amartya Sen et cetera. Having admired his range and depth of reading, I find one author that Aklog cited often as objectionable and extremely annoying to me. The author Michela Wrong is the most despicable individual who hides her racist biases in the jargon of human right activist language. I hope Aklog would rub out in his future reprint or edition of his book that Neanderthal creature from his book.

The Gentle Narrative of Ethiopian Life

In Chapter One, Aklog set the tone of his book by first describing how he thinks of himself as “idealistic, principles centered, stubborn, and controversial.” [P11] Though it is very difficult for me to see myself in well defined terms, I do appreciate Aklog’s perception of himself with such degree of clarity. Knowing oneself is the beginning of wisdom as the ancients had surmised, as inscribed on the Temple of Apollo at Delphi : “γνῶθι σεαυτόν,” in translation “know thyself.” I am not talking about some superficial self knowledge, but a deep understanding of ones frailty as well as strength, and ones motives and goals.

Aklog started his Chapter One with a quotation from the greatly loved and universally respected Ethiopian author Haddis Alemayehu, from his famous and endearing book ፍቅር እስከ መቃብር [Fiqqer Eske Meqqaber]. Aklog tells us how he grew up in the rural setting of a farming village in Gondar area. We do not know exactly the name of the locality, but that does not diminish the narrative process, for his story is typical of highland Amharas from North to South and East to West. What he left unsaid though about his home area, which is atypical from the rest of the Amhara region, is the fact that he came from the home area of some of the greatest Ethiopian Emperors and also renowned great Ethiopian scholars—Debre Tabor and vicinity.

On its own, Gondar (including the city by that name) is a region of Ethiopia with fabulous history. Gondar the City itself is the home base of several illustrious Emperors and Queens including Emperor Fasiledas (1625-1660 EC), the founder of the City, Iyasu the Great (1674-1698 EC), Empress Mentwab the beautiful, et cetera. To me it is the home base of my favorite Emperor Dawit III (1708-1713 EC), a truly renaissance man who invigorated the art of “living” in his very short reign of six years with his patronage of great art works, musicians and musical compositions, and literary works. Great writers, such as Samuel Johnson (Rasselas) and L. R. R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings) either based their fabulous stories in Gondar or named their fictitious realm after Gondar . Johnson described Gondar in the very first chapter of his allegorical novel, “Rasselas” by stating that Rasselas the main character “was the fourth son of the mighty emperour, in whose dominions the Father of waters [Blue Nile] begins his course; whose bounty pours down the streams of plenty, and scatters over half the world the harvests of Egypt .” It is a fact that at the time when Johnson wrote Rasselas, the Emperors of Ethiopia were young Eyoas (1747-1761 EC) the son of Emperor Bekafa (1713-1723 EC), followed by Yohannes II (1761- 1762 EC). At that time, Ethiopia was in great turmoil, which was the time of the beginning of the Age of Warlords. But Johnson would not know about the situation. He based the story of Rasselas from reports of Portuguese missionaries, from the period of Emperor Minas, the brother of Emperor Gelawdewos, from the 1550s and 1560s, which report Johnson translated from the Portuguese.

Aklog did not say much about Gondar the city itself. I wish he had. I have a special place in my heart for Gondar . The first time I visited Gondar was with a family friend who took me to see this fabulous City of Forty Four Cathedrals and great Castles of Emperors and Empresses. Having read so many fairy tales by that tender age of twelve about castles and dragons and knights in shining armors, I had a sharpened imagination and expectations though fashioned after illustrations in books of European settings. Nevertheless, I was not at all disappointed, but thrilled with the real live Gondar Castles of my own history. I sensed that I was visiting a very historical city; my depth of understanding how great a history came much later.

There is something more to Ethiopia if one could read the subscript in Aklog’s book, for it is not narrative for narrative sake what Aklog attempted and succeeded in writing about his life growing up in rural Ethiopia . What he has succeeded in a way of establishing that Ethiopia is no pushover nation, but a country of great history and a social structure that had withstood the assaults of Centuries of highly corrosive political and economic systems.

III. Ethiopiawinet [ኢትዮጵያዊነት]

Aklog did not devote a specific chapter or sub-section to the concept of “Ethiopiawinet.” However, one can say without exaggeration, his whole book is about “Ethiopiawinet.” For example, if we consider what Aklog stated as the thesis of his book, we can easily see that Ethiopiawinet is at the center of it all. I am setting this issue by itself because in the past all those who wanted to destroy us first attacked our national ethos, our sentiments of nationhood, our sovereignty, our territorial integrity, and undermined our unity by encouraging local leaders to identify more with their ethnic group than the Empire of Ethiopia of then.

“The thesis of this book is that no amount of foreign humanitarian and development assistance will eliminate hunger, abject poverty and technological backwardness. Aid by itself will not propel the country towards a path of rapid and equitable social and economic transformation and shared prosperity. It is harnessing the resources and capacities of the Ethiopian people that can move the country forward. This requires a dedicated and highly committed and nationalistic state and governmental leadership.” [p2-3]

As we will discover reading this monumental work, Aklog’s fight is to preserve the territorial integrity and Sovereignty of Ethiopia foremost, and to do that he argues through out the book the Ethiopian Government and the people of Ethiopia have the singular responsibilities to develop the country to feed itself first.

I believe, as Aklog pointed out in so many ways, self awareness in knowing ones history and ones struggle is the core of all development. The heart warming narration of Aklog’s own life story, the route that he took to be the man he is now, all tell us the story of Ethiopia in miniature. His story is our story too. Very many Ethiopians have expressed what it means to be Ethiopian in words and in direct actions for centuries, it includes Emperors, Queens, Church leaders, Christians and Moslems, Scholars, Soldiers, Simple Folks, and even Children. The last group in the list being the Children of the Old Airport Area, Addis Ababa, who in defiance to Meles Zenawi’s ersatz remark that our flag is just “a piece of cloth,” hoisted their own Ethiopian Flag on a home mad flagpole in the middle of a traffic square and guarded it day and night. I saw that with my own eyes, and there is no measure to my pride then and now of the patriotic feeling of “Ethiopiawinet” in so young members of our community. Out of curiosity and trying to learn what motivated the children to do such a bold act, I asked a few of them, and their answer was that Ehadeg meaning EPRDF insulted the national Flag and on that they will challenge anyone. The children were mostly ten to twelve year olds.

No one should undermine the pull and power of identity. It is not without reason why Meles Zenawi and his TPLF members tried to undermine our Ethiopian identity with all kinds of processes and underhanded tools, such as the establishment of the Killel system, the requirement that individuals have to identify themselves in all official documents with their ethnic identity rather than their Ethiopian identity, the willingness to give up Ethiopian territory claiming that such territory does not belong to Ethiopia when the facts on the ground show other wise thereby reducing our size and importance and our national pride, the indoctrination within the TPLF undermining Ethiopia’s history and territorial sovereignty to this day whereby even ex-officials of the TPLF still repeat as a mantra. Our Ethiopian Identity is our best weapon against all those who want to see us destroyed.

Ethiopiawinet is both a philosophy and a way of life, and to a few a religious experience. Americans have their “America Dream” where they weave a unifying matrix. In Ethiopia we have something much older and not just a dream. Ethiopiawinet is expressed and daily affirmed in the way we live. Ethiopiawinet does not mean having a single culture, or a single religion and a single God, or speaking a single language, et cetera. We have a wonderful expression about Ethiopiawinet from the Former President of Ethiopia Dr. Negasso Gidada, who stated at a conference in Washington DC that Ethiopia resembles a wreath of flowers, each bloom distinct and identifiable but interconnected with other blooms bringing in such beauty and wholeness as part of a wreath. We read similar sentiment in Aklog’s writing. “I identified and defended the policy need to agree on Ethiopia ’s multi-ethnic based centrality while ensuring political pluralism, genuine decentralization and the unfettered freedom of each nationality group to enjoy its own languages, cultural heritage and benefits from its natural and human resources endowments.” [p491] The extreme form of such ethnic aggregation is not the desirable form, what is desirable is the one formulated to work under the umbrella of Ethiopian unity, territorial integrity and political plurality.

IV. Articulation of Ethiopia ’s Problems

Aklog spent considerable time and energy in Chapter Three after having laid out his own life experience and the setting of our recent history in Chapters One and Two. He identified what he designated as “national policy mistakes” of the executives of the ruling-party i.e., Meles Zenawi and his Government. I see in those articulations not only “mistakes” but also deliberate acts of destruction of a great nation by a malicious hateful individual. Aklog considered the many stupendous problems facing our Ethiopia as a result of anti-democracy collective leadership. I see the problem differently in that all of the problems identified by Aklog are the brain-child of Meles Zenawi—the manipulative and vicious work of a single man. There is no doubt in my mind looking at the mountain of evidence that it is the hateful activities of a single individual who used at every stage his own political Party and the people and wealth of Ethiopia to serve his only agenda of unfettered greed for power no matter the price. Let me list first the five problems identified by Aklog before I suggest my evaluation of those problems.

1. The willful and deliberate turnover of Ethiopia ’s access to the Port of Assab to the Eritrean Government. The support and advocacy of Eritrea secession from Ethiopia . [p76ff]
2. The legalization and institutionalization of an ethnic-state, ethnic-politics, and ethnic federalism. [79ff]
3. The legitimization of party-owned, supported and endowed enterprises and non-profit organizations. [80ff]
4. The bogus claims by the ruling-party of the creation of institutional foundation for democracy, the rule of law, human rights, equality of nationalities, a free market economy, respect of civil liberties and human rights, administrative efficiency, and rapid socio-economic development.[89ff]
5. The leasing and/or selling of millions of hectares of fertile arable land to foreign investors. [92ff]

No doubt the five items that Aklog identified are extremely serious problems facing Ethiopia ; however, they are not the only ones. Nevertheless, Aklog developed to the full each of the problems he identified as mistakes of policy, in several chapters including Chapter Five that pointedly deals with well reasoned critique of “ethnic federalism” that is the main them of the Government of Meles Zeanwi and resulting in his most destructive political program.

In fact, I have identified additional two problems no less devastating than the five well articulated problems, which are elaborated and explained quite well by Aklog. I would include poor education system and population explosion as real threats to the very existence of Ethiopia . Aklog did discuss the problems of poor education and the growth of the population of Ethiopia in Chapter Five and elsewhere. He saw the problem as an obstacle that can be overcome through governmental and public participation. He even suggested population growth as some kind of an asset that could be used to promote economic development.

“A country’s population growth could be either a risk or an asset depending on the performance of the economy. Some foreign experts believe that Ethiopia ’s explosive population growth is ‘the elephant in the room’ that keeps the country poor and its people hungry. I disagree with this thesis and have shown why population size is not a curse.” [p392]

I disagree strongly with that type of association of numbers with development or wealth, for its biblical connotation of unchecked multiplication. I see great social and economic problem in unchecked reproduction as an inherent problem of underdevelopment, disfranchisement, and the setting or prelude to devastating human rights violations. Overpopulation in the case of Ethiopia represents to me a society losing its control on the sexuality of its citizens. A traditional society, which had perfected taboos, mores, and rituals controlling the sexuality of its community members, is literally at the mercy of the devastating effect of modernity and the rise of urban centers. Population explosion is a symptom of loose sexual mores, taboos, and ritual control. In other words, population explosion is a symptom of far deeper problems of a society because of the loss of fundamentals due to the drastic introduction of modernity without the complexity that had it working for Western societies effectively. The modernity of traditional societies overnight results only in vulgarity and the deformity of the indigenous culture.

One must look at the Ethiopian people themselves not just the leadership in order to read correctly why Ethiopia is underdeveloped and in perpetual shortage of food. In fact, I believe none of the five problems identified by Aklog would be seriously devastating and threatening if Ethiopia had an improved education system and drastic population control. These two problems are insurmountable with out proper paradigm shift. To some extent, Aklog did fall into the same trap of piling all the problems of Ethiopia on the rulers of Ethiopia, such is the trap that is often overlooked by many Ethiopian scholars critical of the rulers of Ethiopia from earlier period including the current Ethiopian Government headed by Meles Zenawi. Meles Zenawi may well be the symptom of a very sick society rather than being the cause of it.

As a generalized solution to all the problems facing Ethiopia , Aklog offered a fourteen-point solution in his final Chapter, Chapter Ten. Those solutions are dependant on the general framework of the type of state governmental structure Aklog is suggesting—political plurality. Aklog seems to be convinced that form of “plurality” [Aklog did not discuss what the word means or elaborate the concept it embodies] will advance the “socioeconomic and political development suited to the 21st century, they owe it to the country and their constituents that they move from tribalism multi-nationalism and a pluralist political culture that will accommodate competing interests.” [p211] That may be a very difficult undertaking, for the task of functioning as a state with such necessarily two diametrically opposed and forcefully different and antagonistic systems or approaches may be insurmountable. To hold together an ever fracturing Ethiopia from within, an Ethiopia victimized by a leader actively pursuing such goals since 1991, would be impossible to check and control in promoting unity (sovereignty and territorial integrity).

On that score, I have a fundamental disagreement with Aklog, for I treat the concept of “nations, nationalities and peoples” within a state as pure creation of the élites of the Ethiopian society in the 1960s and 1970s and not reflective of the interests nor sentiments of the Ethiopian population from whatever ethnic enclaves. May be the exception could be Eritrea due to its sixty years under the yoke of a colonial master and his imposition of some divisive structures on the local population. For me, the only force that has its base in the sentiments of the Ethiopian population is the idea of being an Ethiopian. The ethnic identification that people had used in all of our history was simply done as means of social identity and not as a “nationalist identity.” What ever rational we bring into the debate, or what ever label we put on it, any form of political structure that is based on nationality or ethnic identity will not be any different than the present Killel system that is destroying Ethiopian unity.

In a way, either Aklog is making subtle differences or is contradicting himself, for he had argued vehemently that the 1995 Constitutional Articles 2 and 8 undermine the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ethiopia, because such articles claim that such prerogatives reside in “the nations, nationalities and peoples” thereby marginalizing the fact of the “State of Ethiopia.” [p236] The phrase “the nations, nationalities and peoples” thus found in the Ethiopian Constitution is a legacy from the writings of immature and juvenile diatribe of badly educated and socially disfranchised and radicalized students of Haile Selassie I University of the 1970s. It is the ersatz voice of Meles Zenawi forcing himself through the 1995 Constitution on the People of Ethiopia his narrow and ignoramus ideas on the history of Ethiopia and the process of nation building. Aklog may have to rethink and clarify his stand on such sensitive issues. His book does not give clear guidance on the conflicting ideas of pluralist political culture against the challenge of inherent fragmentations of Ethiopia due to ethnic politics.

V. The Role of TPLF/EPRDF

No one man or political organization had devastated Ethiopia as much as Meles Zenawi and his political organization the TPLF/EPRDF have done in the last eighteen years. I am not writing here about the suffering of millions of Ethiopians whose human rights and political rights are abused or violated daily, but about much more serious processes of the destruction of the very fiber of Ethiopia as a nation. Aklog did give us ample evidence and analysis to reach that conclusion. In fact, the great contribution of Aklog to us is his meticulous documentation of the several ways implemented by the current Government eroding the unity and cohesiveness of Ethiopia as a political, economic, and cultural entity.

Once upon a time there was arguably some redeeming value in the TPLF, but since 1992 it had atrophied until it was completely corrupted and gutted by 1999 and Meles Zenawi became the dictator doing what ever pleased him to do. Most of the Western nations had turned a blind eye to the atrocities and the gross human rights violations by Meles Zenawi and his psychopathic enforcers. Meles Zenawi is a truly depraved man with psychopathic personality. It is beyond imagination how a short boy with an extended belly and bulging eyes from a rustic poor environment could get to the pinnacle of power and acquire such fabulous wealth. Meles Zenawi’s success is not a testament to his abilities, but a sad commentary on our deficiencies. As a people, since the time of the destructive romp of Gragn Mohammed for thirteen years, we have failed for centuries from consistently and successively developing responsible and mature leadership. What had happened in our history is sporadic and unpredictable leadership, which at times inspiring and at other debouched and destructive.

For a long time, I had accused indiscriminately anyone criticizing Meles Zenawi based on his ethnic background. For me then to identify Meles Zenawi’s destructive leadership by his ethnic background only, without substantial evidence of his narrow ethnic affinity, would be totally wrong. When I criticized Menilik II, I based my criticism on facts (supported by incontrovertible evidence of international treaties, signed letters addressed to foreign government leaders often hostile to the interest of Ethiopia) that his activities were geared to promote the interest of a particular area. However, compared to the types of the anti-Ethiopia activities of Meles Zenawi and his Government, such as the signing if the Algiers Agreement, the half-hearted representation of Ethiopia’s interest at the hearings of the Boundary Commission, the declaration of the acceptance of a corrupt decision of the Commission, the fracturing of the nation by ethnic segregation, the looting of the wealth of the nation by TPLF controlled entities et cetera, with that of Menilik’s very few questionable treaties, the destruction caused by Meles Zenawi is humongous. Now, considering the many anti-Ethiopia and ruthless disfranchisement of Ethiopians, I believe Meles Zenawi is the worst leader Ethiopia had ever seen in its long history. Even Menilik II, whom I had criticized because of his signing of a few international treaties and conventions that adversely affected the vital national interest of Ethiopia , is an honorable man and patriotic in his own way to the nth degree compared to Meles Zenawi.

Aklog is rightly indignant due to Meles Zenawi and his TPLF organization’s lack of zeal to defend Ethiopian territorial integrity and its sovereignty. In no uncertain terms Aklog stated, “Until the TPLF took power, the tradition of defending Ethiopia ’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and interest had never been compromised or bounded by ethnic-affiliation or origin.” [p158] This is absolutely true, that Ethiopia ’s territorial integrity had never been so vulnerable and opened up for negotiation as much as Meles Zenawi had tried to do. What makes Meles Zenawi so much anti-Ethiopia may have to do with his family and his upbringing in a family of Bandas who worked for the Italian occupying Army during the Italian aggression of Ethiopia in 1935 to 1941. Aklog has also provided us with a table listing the names of military commanders. It is a highly ethnicized military, where nearly all of the Commanders are Tigrayans. [p382ff] It is impossible to explain to people why so many are from a particular ethnic group. Such military is very weak, for Ethiopians through out our history had fought enemies with an army composed from several ethnic groups. Even the earliest record of Ezana, from before the time of the Christ, stated that one of his well respected wing of cavalry were Bejas from North Ethiopia, present day Eritrea.

The devastating suppression and Stalinist form of penetration and destruction of the Opposition political groups after the fiasco of the 2005 national election is well discussed by Aklog. Aklog believes that the Ethiopian public has deep philosophical disagreement or disengagement with the TPLF/EPRDF run Government of Ethiopia and predicted that they will be in opposition across ethnic lines against the ruling party, TPLF/ EPRDF. [p232-245] One reason I tagged Aklog as an optimist is due to his faith in the ordinary people of Ethiopia . Especially, after the dismal sheepish behavior of Ethiopian voters in the 2010 National Election, I am convinced that this generation of Ethiopians is very different than previous generations, and as such the current Ethiopian public in general is an opportunist ready to betray friends if there is some monetary gain or if there is a turn of events that it might join if safe. There are only handfuls of principled Ethiopians back home or abroad at this crucial time. I wish I could see the same Silver-lining of hope that Aklog seems to see around the dark-gloomy cloud of political and economic disaster hovering over Ethiopia .

The raping and looting of Ethiopia by Meles Zenawi and his TPLF Party organization is exhaustively documented and analyzed by Aklog in Chapters Six and Seven. These Chapters are exceptional in that Aklog in over seventy pages has compiled and analyzed first the merging of ethnicity with economic structures showing the monopoly of the Ethiopian economy by the TPLF using non-profit entities, such as EFFORT to acquire and control vast areas of commerce, agro-industries, and export trades. Here is one source of objective look how far the TPLF pretending to be a national political organization looted the wealth of a nation for the benefit of the very few individuals. It will be very difficult to explain such a corrupt structure to the people of Ethiopia claiming that all is done in their best interest.

“Ever since he abandoned his communist principles a long time ago, Meles Zenawi has been looking for a new ideological frame of reference. A few years ago he was a supporter of ‘revolutionary democracy’ in whose name he imprisoned his rivals in the EPRDF governing coalition. Now he has just found a new credo. Feeling that ‘liberal capitalism’ was of no use to his country, the Ethiopian Prime Minister stated that he was opting for what he called the ‘developmental state’ as had been expounded in South Africa . He also stated that the path to development adopted by China was the best. Full circle, so to speak!” [The Indian Ocean Newsletter, January 21, 2009.]

With much closer examination, and by allowing also sufficient time for the dust to settle down, it is now much clearer to me that Meles Zenawi would not have stayed in power for so long devastating Ethiopia and looting its wealth and planting the seed of the disintegration of Ethiopia across ethnic lines without the help or acquiescence of most of the people of Tigray. From now on the onus of proof is on Tigrayans to establish their loyalty to the rest of Ethiopia . The rest of the people of Ethiopia have given them for the last twenty years a chance to show their true allegiance, to make a clear choice between localized and narrow selfish interest or the unifying all embracing Ethiopian concern and firm commitment to the Motherland, and they have not been forthcoming.

The Development State and its Discontents

The “development state” is not something new, but an old fallout from the communist-socialist mold adopted as fallback position in the aftermath of the devastation and collapse of the Soviet Union in 1986. It is true that it is after the 2005 Ethiopia ’s national election fiasco that Meles hammered at the concept of development state. The preliminary draft of Meles Zenawi’s change of policy was stated in advance extract he presented at a development forum organized by Initiative for Policy Dialogue in 2006. There were extracts from his book manuscript African Development: Dead Ends and New Beginnings (Preliminary Draft)and one such extract stated.