Observing Meles
There were songs like “ Yitayegnal Hegere Lemlem Arengwade..Be Koratu mere be silitane kedma yitayejnal!!” And Meles? We just got a debut from the ‘infamous’ Solomon Tekalijn “Wubet ke kindibu yemifesilet…Yiketil Liku Sew Ethiopian Yimrat!!” Even more, I read an article of Addis Fortune where the writer speaks of Melesism –an ‘intellectual’ parlance for Revolutionary Democracy.
There is a pattern in the political history of Ethiopia when it comes to rise to power, consolidation of power and the ultimate end of power. Let us start from ascendancy; it is a murky affair in Ethiopia.
After the death of Emperor Menelik II, a number of groups were vying to succeed the throne. Lij Iyassu was the obvious candidate. Empress Zewditu came into the picture when the fall out between Iyassu and the Shoan nobility became apparent. Teferi Mekonnen first became a regent before his coronation as the King of Kings in Ethiopia.
There was a lot of intrigue, tension, and a wide open confrontation (the infamous Segele battle is a case in point here) featured by bouts of elite fragmentation and regrouping. 1930 was a decisive year where Teferi Mekonnen was crowned as the King of Kings of Ethiopia taking charge and starting to consolidate his grip on power. The emperor had such a meticulously built persona lavished with titles; civil and martial attires decorated with medals; fleeting presence in public and religious festivals; and a commanding influence on continental and global affairs.
No wonder the coming of Derg to power is considered as the creeping coup de etat. Student demonstrations, mutinies of the armed forces, strikes of the labor unions and the Wollo famine eroded the base of the octogenarian Emperor. The Derg, an amorphous committee of officers, seized the moment first by eliminating the ruling elite of the monarch and the emperor himself. It then turned against all progressive voices calling for a civilian and elected government.
The squabble for power from within the Derg itself is legendary. It sacrificed the lives of seasoned generals like Aman Andom and Teferi Benti. It took more than four years for Mengistu to come out as the uncontested leader of the country. Mengistu became the head of PMAC; chairman of COPWE; commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Ethiopia and later, secretary general of the WPE! His portraits and effigies were all over the country. It was customary to quote from his speeches even on Sene 30 where primary school kids receive report cards. The part I liked about Mengistu was the holidays we used to get for he has to address the nation live! These were 3 to 4 hour monologues on TV and radio.
In many regards, Meles’s rise to the presidency and the premiership was written on the wall. We all knew who the leader of the rebel forces was. For so many years, however, Meles avoided the lime light. His pictures and effigies were not posted. He does not make regular visits to the regions and weredas of the country. His party, TPLF, seems to be one where key policy matters were thrashed out among many who are equals and enforced with strict party discipline that effaces the incumbent himself. Democratic centralism was an antidote to populism, the habit of making personality cults around the incumbent. Remember Clapham’s comment about Meles’s ‘monastic’ kind of lifestyle as opposed to his shining international presence?
Beginning from the TPLF split, we are witnessing a gradual build up of personality cult around Meles. After the 2005 election, Meles did a round of visits in Amhara region, in SNNPR, Tigray and Oromiyaa. The Ethiopian millennium celebrations showed us the private side of Meles where we saw him sing and dance alongside his wife-the first time I witnessed an Ethiopian head of government doing it. The Ethiopian radio and television programs give long coverage of Meles’s state visits and his roles in IGAD, NEPAD, the AU, the G7 and the climate summits.
There were two incidents where questions were ‘collected’ from around the country and Meles gave a long interview about his personal and political life. And then came the 2010 election, that Meles dubbed “Ye Democracy Feshta”. EPRDF posters were awash with pictures, statements and effigies of Meles throughout the country. And for the first time after 1991, a huge billboard with Meles Zenawi’s picture on it got posted on Meskel Square. That was exactly where the portrait of Mengistu Hailemariam was!
Leadership is about followership as well. The followers determine the kind of leaders they get. The emperor was regarded with utmost fear so much so that people would not even dare to look into his eyes. Students used to sing “ Haile Sellasie Hawariya Ye Selam Meri Balemoya!” One would think this is acceptable in feudal monarchies where the king is the sovereign unaccountable to his ‘subjects’.
How about Mengistu? Of course, the sheer terror he unleashed against his opponents made him feared. Yet again, there were songs like “ Yitayejnal Hegere Lemlem Arengwade..Be Koratu mere be silitane kedma yitayejnal!!” And Meles? We just got a debut from the ‘infamous’ Solomon Tekalijn “Wubet ke kindibu yemifesilet…Yiketil Liku Sew Ethiopian Yimrat!!” Even more, I read an article of Addis Fortune where the writer speaks of Melesism –an ‘intellectual’ parlance for Revolutionary Democracy. Meles is now a head of government, a party strategist, an ideologue, a political economist, a policy documents writer, senior climate change negotiator and a husband. Let me end with a question. What explains this pattern of personality cult formation in Ethiopia; them (the leaders) or us (the followers)?
Meles is the Fer°on of Ethiopia. He came to punish the people of Ethiopia and destroy all what Ethiopia has been built for quite three millenia.How could he deserve the name °leader of Ethiopia°? It is sham,national disrespect. Sew tefana meles yezihich talak hager meri tebale? Gud new!
Why is Melese where he is today? Why is TPLF scared to have free media if 99.63% voted for it? Why is TPLF scared to hear what others have to say regarding the economy if there is so much growth? Why is the TPLF trying to silence new ideas, thoughts and debate? Why is there so much human rights abuse? Why is AN in exile? …
The answer: Because TPLF is tyrannical and knows it can only rule by force propaganda and intimidation in order to loot our poor people’s money and quench their power thirst.
Our only solution: organize, organize, and organize! Unite behind political parties or civic organizations and join the fight for freedom, justice, democracy, human rights and the rule of law. We should also work closely with other likeminded organizations around the world. And yes, supporting wonderful publications like AN and other free media is part of our overall task.
A nice article. that is what we are talking about for those who think that he is a rare ‘smart’ leader.
Mengistu hailemariam was hailed by some group of the society and the same was true for Hialesilasie.
In a society like ours where ppl have not transcend the basic truggles of life, like having a good education , good paying job , etc… , the measurement of smartness is as shallow as considering the way one talkes wierdly like meles.
Listen to some of the talkes which he makes about economics , and even politics he just says what some of his “advisors” like andrias told him while they are chewing chat together or some times from old aged books and may be and may be the internet.
Generally we can put it like this it is only history that makes you a leader , espcially in societies like oures. and there are definatly a group of the society that gives you a label your mother even might not agree honestly. That is the fact with the woyane leader.
Interesting piece.China used the technique “pretend weak” so that it won’t be under the microscopic of other countries, Meles used this concept in 90s. Melese is now in power consolidation phase, Concerned Ethiopians should learn from history, devise a way to shorten this period and be prepared not to miss golden opportunities.
Dear Getachew,
What apiece you have wrote! This morning I was in a bus with my wife and we were talking about the smartness of Meles. My wife ‘who has LLM’ was telling me that the trouble we have in Ethiopia is arises from lack of competent politicians except Meles. I was arguing that the smartness of Meles is not an established fact even though his insatiable reading habit is to be admired. Just because someone reads a lot and twist words in a way that suits his purpose for a time, that does not make him intelligent. However, shrewdness is considered an intelligence for many people in Ethiopia. Last year when I went back to Ethiopia, I met a very good friend of mine, who was educated in Europe, and I was stunned when I saw on his hand a crystal key holder in which a picture of Meles with a phrase ‘Long Live’ was scripted. This friend of mine is a member of EPRDF and a high ranking official in Southern Ethiopia regional state. He is well educated, which only made me wonder why such a high caliber person subscribes to such thing. By the way, he has now won a parliament seat! Therefore, when Solomon Tekalign came up with his song this time around, I was not surprised at all.
Just to add to your point, it is very common to hear people saying if Meles is gone, who shall replace him. These people go to the extent of saying there is no one to replace him currently in Ethiopia, neither in the opposition nor in ranks of the incumbent. I was wondering if the slogan, ‘they cannot rule the county’, used by the ruling party against the opposition this time has its root in this belief harbored by many in the country or plausibly deliberated told by the ‘undergrounds’ of the incumbent who try every possible means to keep him on power. So be it. Have you thought about the leadership succession plan of the EPRDF? According to the plan, all old generation leaders will retire from the front seat during the course of the next five years, yet again the veteran leader will see through it. My suspicion is this, Meles will get rid of all old generation leaders during this period and then he will device a way of staying on power for instance by waging war on one of neighboring country or may be incite a sort of power anarchy among the new generation leaders so that he could stay on for another five years or probably he will put his wife as a chair woman of the EPRDF party, which will make her the new Meles PM but by the face of his wife. I would not say mark my words but wait and see.
The conclusion, power in Ethiopia has historically been about personality cult and it continues to be so. The reasons are complex why it has been the way it was and why it continues to be so. It has to do with both our culture, which influenced the leaders, and of course the failure of leadership.
Please keep the good work,
Bekumsa
Thank you for mentioning Addis Fortune/AF.Have you noticed recent editorials by AF and Aregawi’s Reporter? Nothing new but the passion with which these people want to get rid of their conscience.By the way these two are refered to by Western deplomats in Addis as ‘objective, credible, Etc–’ papers in the country.When we all know they are The Ethiopian Herald, Walta, Ifteen and the rest in a more ‘civilized’ form. Now it seems that AF has purged itself of Lulit AmdeMariam,rather she must have dumped AF.
There is no life without conscience.LIFE MATTERS when there is conscience.May be Tamirat thinks otherwise.Surely not Lulit.
Well Dere, its a good piece,,,
I hope if you have seen the other perspectives of this idolatry with reference to other African leaders and the literatures of it,,,it would have been much better…
But your question,i think both explain them.Let’s say Bertukan becomes our Prime Minister, without any doubt she will be highly idolized than any leader ever in our politico-heir history.Thus we form a cult in this case . Similarly, her essence and probably election campaigns may force her to form her own cult. Forming a personality cult is not a sin and anything wrong but is a political strategy or a human nature.What matters is how,why and when we use it.
The whole situation of promoting Meles the person indicates that Meles has decided to go solo. All old comrades in arm will be forced to retire and it is already taking place. When they are out of power, will be extremely loyal than they have ever been before. Because, their mere survival depends on the goodwill of Meles. The new comers are simply grateful to Meles since they will be enjoying the prestiges and money they will accumulate. Meles will have long time to enjoy his “prime minister” position. His goal is to be in power until death do him apart.
@arqadeous….emmmmmmmmmmmm. You seem to be someone close.
To me, I don’t even think Meles is litsen Solomon Tekalijn’s sang. I think Solomon sang this sang thinking he can get something in fever, may be Huge Land to build Hote or some bussiness center. Solomon is a person who does not know how to follow on of his fet step after the other. Eskie ahoon Ye-Meles Wobet Ke-kendbu lay ale? Ere yager-yalehu gud belu zendro. Kenezehu Sewoch gara kooch blow mawoorat…endate new,,,,w
McMammo—
Not really and you don’t have to.
Just go to archieves of AF and read thru all under Life Matters/LM and its EDITORIALS.ONE paper TWO wave lengths. LM on SHORT WAVE/SW and EDITORIALS on FREQUENCY MODULATED/FM.
@McMammo…if you read AF you would know these things, For me, it is only Lulit that’s writing either the truth or neutral subjects. She never failed me!! So as ‘Arqaadeous’said “May be Tamirat thinks otherwise.Surely not Lulit.”
There was a time when it was forbidden to display Melles’ picture. I remember that the owners of Tigrai Hotel were told to bring down a picture they had hanged in their restaurant.
How times change! Now, we see “A wise African leader” as caption to a bigger-than-life picture of Melles at Mesqel Square. The man has gone over to the realm of despots. Derg #2 is a fitting description now.
By the way, the words of “Yitayegnal” don’t mention “qorattue Merri”. It went like this: “yitayegnal agerie – lemlem arenguade lebsa ye-idget shemma; BEQORATT LJOCHUA besltanie qedma”. It was one of those patriotic songs (like Tenesa Teramed)
Derese, great observation!!
This attempt of promoting Melese Zenawi as a rarity (a symbolic process of face saving/image building) has began right after the TPLF split. I was consciously following the trend and circumstantial evidences show that most people who are promoting him as smart/intelligent at that time were people who are ethnically close to him…including Eritreans who were mad at Siye Abrha and his co’s decision to start the Ethio-Eritrea war.
Advertising Meles as democrat, smart, and intelligent came to its full realization following the 2005 political impasse as a result of the then contested election result.
I had listened many people who were saying “Meles was ready to step down but, those hard core EPRDFists were the one who were arguing with him and were rigid” I heard many people confidently speaking that Melese is the smart leader and there is none from EPRDF circle that replaces him…or points at opposition leaders and support their claim. This kind of assertion by itself is problematic. As to my little knowledge, keeping intelligent people off their circle is a typical dictators’ behavior. So, Meles has been deliberately avoiding those Ethiopians who could have shown more intelligence and those who could have challenged him openly. Unfortunately, Ethiopia is a politically locked country where freedom of expression is banned. As a result, Meles has self appointed himself as an intelligent political philosopher or developmental economic theorist. If his supporters could get available critique on his ideas of developmental states would have sees the flaws of his arguments. Unfortunately, those people in Ethiopia couldn’t access available scholarly written materials.
When one looks at the movement of marketing Meles as the messiah, is one a strategy that is evident as a tool that has been used by oppressors’ uses to tactically create a pseudo threat and make their subordinates totally dependent on them. This kind of behavior is also observable at interpersonal relationship. A dictator person wants to make you feel that the world will be dark, if he/she is not around. That is a typical oppression tactic.
If Meles is a true development oriented leader, as the upper poster claims, he could have adopt and created an empowering environment rather than using all his might to oppress Ethiopians.
I think the split of CUD has been a good omen for Meles Zenawi. The opposition’s weakness has been his strength; and he feeds on the weaknesses of the opposition rather than who is or who is not around him in his party’s inner circle.
Cult of personality is everywhere including in the most developed countries. Obama has been admired by many people before he even did anything. His picture is everywhere. So if Meles’s picture is posted wherever, it least surprises me. In any case, that should not be of concern in real discussions. Leaders should be judged on their achievements and it is here that Meles stands out from all past ‘stupid’ leaders whose achievements can only be reduced to maintaining independence (however important). Meles, however, is both maintaining Ethiopia’s independence and at the same time developing the economy for all groups including the marginalized ones. I am sure he is working to make the government institutions strong to the extent that Ethiopia’s stability does not depend on individuals.
Dear Evaluator,
Unless you are blind fold by your party loyalty or other factors (ethnicity, joint business with EPRDF cadres, or benefiting from the existing system in one or another way i.e. the privileged group) Meles is not maintaining Ethiopia’s independence and is not working to bring sustainable development in the country.
Few months ago, he was begging the westerners to increase AID money. If you are honest and really are an evaluator, look at how those who hold office abuses the AID money for their personal bennefit. Just to give you an example, visit the back of the Aviation compound and observe EPRDF officials’ buildings which are now rented to many foreign diplomats. There is no system established to account those who are taking money from the starved Ethiopians. The majority of Ethiopians are not benefiting from the EPRDF claimed development. Only the privileged group.
Incredibly, the IMF had released a report a month ago and they predict that Sub Saharan African could only grow at 6% while, your favorite Meles claims a double digit growth. Moreover,Ethiopia is still ranked 171st out of 177 countries according to the World Human development Index that measures long and healthy life, access to knowledge, and a decent standard of living. Ethiopia has been on the same ranking for the last five years or so ..go to UNDP cite and read World Development Reports.
In addition, your assertion that “meles is also building institutions no to depend on individuals” is not true. If you want to build institutions that can function independent of individuals, assign appropriate leadership based on individual merit not by “who they are”. Competence and skills are important to build institutions. In a situation where EPRDF cadres without the know how of doing business and leadership capacity that are vital to enhance team spirit, you would only get poor quality of work, in effective, and inefficient ways of doing business. Which adversely affect the country significantly.
Use your brain and try to be loyal to your “helina”.
Dear “evaluator”
I was in Ethiopia last year,I earn a salary which only few Ethiopians earn and I know how hard life was,I couldn’t buy your cheap propoganda that the economy is growing, where is the effect? are non-tigre and non-eprdf economic growth blind ? theres is economic growth when the purchasing power of the majority increase, our purchasing power is going south(down), where did the government get the fund to build roads(if that is what you call economic growth)? is it funded locally? it AID money and donors gave in the name of Ethiopia and the government has a responsibility, roads ain’t favor of the government to citizens. before writing this kind of comment, think of the lives of millions who earn 500-800birr, I don’t know how they manage to eat.
I am no longer observing every depot that came along; I am more interested more observing us who attract depot of the worst kind.
I am beginning to understand our society better as time goes by observing the people around me, what we do and why we do it, not the depot like Meles. As all humans we are visual and emotional, but what makes us different is we are intellectually lazy, hate complex issues and making hard decisions thus we form our opinion and do thing by rumors not facts. Who ever feed our vision or emotion with a sharp mouth rules us, and Melse happen to be one of them. He understood what ticks us and knows we won’t challenge him without in depth knowledge of the issue; he provided us what he wanted since we do not know what is good for us we bought it until to late…noting more and here we are.
I reached a conclusion; our poverty, lack of progress and backwardness originated from our intellectual laziness with low expectation of ourselves in believing we do not deserve better, thus do not understand human relation and our own interest.
For example, how do one explain grown-ups retreat in their ethnic cages just because depots who came from no where in a snap of a finger decided to tell us we belong in nine ethnic regions plus a tiny ‘country’ of their own liking for us to buy it without much protest? Sadly, we even drew imaginary enclaves in the free world we live in as Diaspora too just because…
The problem is with-in us not with the depots that walked right-in because we are too lazy to understand who we are and what we want. The fact we are looking for excuse why reinforces our laziness, hard to believe but true.
Dear all!
I think we should pay attention to what Teshome just commented!
While it is easy to blame the leaders for all their shortcomings..we have to be able to look at ourselves! What kind of moral expectations do we have from the leaders? Why do we conssecrate power and prostrate before power holders? Is therea division of labor between us the citizens and them? We never discuss these issues thoroughly.. Remember for instance how Lidetu became very popular so much so that he was nicknamed ” mandela!!” Why were so sentimental about him? Has he done anything comparable to Mandela? I doubt it.. And now look how extremely hateful and critical the same people are about Lidetu calling him “Kidetu” ..Its like “Hosana” today and ” crucify him!!” three days later…fikrachinim tichitachinim lik (limit) yalew aymselim? Let us reflect on our society. Estih land gize rasachinin( meaning our culture and society) enifetish!!
BTW look at how even our language loves to shift blame.. we usually say ” ber getchejn” “dingai metajn” ” gunfan yazejn” ..The truth is the door never walks to come and hit us..nor does a stone come and stumble us..we catch cold, it does not catch us…why do we find it easy to blame others only??
Food for thought
Galatooma!
our leaders are the product of the past systems and they are from the society, they didn’t come from Mars. our culture has both good and bad things, it even encourage corruption (sishom yalebla siwerd yekochewale…). however I defer to agree on your take in our culture, I’m from engineering background, but it’s easy to understand that culture is so complex that it is difficult to correlate failure and success of a nation to its culture. under development of china few decades ago was attributed to its conficus culture, now some even give credit to the same culture(without forgetting cultural revolution). We have to avoid bad part of our culture and use the good ones to our advantage.
When a group feels it isn’t represented,it’s discriminated, it desperatly look for source of pride and hope without thorough analysis.
In the opposition camp we have to support leaders in a reasonable manner, so that they won’t corrupt their power, at the same time we have to be cautious not to fall in the trap of woyane, they fabricate lies about opposition leaders. A leader should never be worshipped whoever s/he is.
It was actually an interesting look. This is the behaviour of dictators. Their fall also would be the same
“Monastic life” People think this is like hibernating where you sleep to the point of death and revive but it is different. It is a good thing to know that the times spent in struggle, where ever it may be to be, considered as a monastic life. It is very important to analysis the ultimatum and the solitary life .if we go further deep into the focus of monastic life in Christianity– the focus is theosis and for Buddhism it is Zen. For “political struggle monastism “the focus is on enduring bitterness which would result from watching somebody die to being brutally tortured to many other reasons. I am not an expert on this but I have read that this will affect the brain and mind resulting in psychopathic behavior which is usually misinterpreted as strong personality. Such people who has passed through repeated abuse and torturing will eventually lose their compassion and feelings so all they know about these is on the text book ,in other words these are just learnt behavior and will never use that part of their brain that deals with emotions and feelings .Without further a due I would like to say this would be a part to consider for further studies on our “Freedom fighter” and their lives before and after the struggle.
Mr McMammo,
AF volume 11 No 527
So you see—- Lulit OUT Aiga forum IN /by way of the likes of Habisso/.
H’ve you any thing to say Mr mmmmmmmmm alter ego?
Kim Meles Jong Il Zenawi
Mahlet
The personal and psychological aspect of politics and politicians in Ethiopia has never been discussed. It is a huge gap! Imagining the dead bodies, trauma, sorrow and blood shed by ‘liberators’ on their way to power.. You would wonder if they are the same naive, idealist people with compassion and passion for a just cause that went into the jungle!! The truth is you would never cross the same river twice..while one commits an act of violence..violence acts on him/her too..perception to pain, sorrow, violence would be numb!Losing the soul to gain the ‘world’ as Christ would call it.
Commendable observation!
What explains this pattern of personality cult formation in Ethiopia; them (the leaders) or us (the followers)?
I am adding this as an additional argument on the points mentioned by Mr. Teshome regarding our personality as a society (and of course the points raised by the writer Derese as a response.) It is believed that systematic baptism of the public by those who are capable mainly so as to give a life-support to their own insecurity, which often comes from staying too long in a given position and not knowing what will happen if they leave that position, plays a decisive role in persuading followers on a formation of a particular personality cult. Followers or rather victims of such complicated systems can go as far as persuading themselves that their lives become nothing without that very person whose personality they unknowingly worshiped.
However, this doesn’t immune such followers from taking the blame on tolerating the formation of such personality cult. After all, part of them are the ones writing those lyrics and the others producing the song. In fact, in some circumstances, followers can be equally charged as guilty as the leaders. A simple example; look at the political legacy of Helmut Kohl, the former chancellor of the biggest economy in Europe. The people of Germany oversaw a twisted formation of his own personality cult in the 16 years of reign between 1982 and 1998. Who believes a late 80s and 90s leader of Germany lets himself stay in power for 16 years? Making himself be the longest serving leader next to Otto von Bismark? And who believes the people of Germany lets him stay that long? It was only when his personality cult gave him the guts to declare he was ‘the government’ that the Germans said enough was enough and they have said it successfully!! So, unless followers know when to say enough, leaders don’t get enough of power, the most cherished thing a man can ever get and for that to happen, societal traits mentioned by Mr. Tashome has to give way to the way of life in the 21st century.
It is everywhere
do not u notice Obama
his pictures,t-shirts,pens etc,
It is everywhere
do not u notice Obama
his pictures on streets,t-shirts,pens etc,
It seems a bit late but I wanted to say my piece on this interesting topic (thanks Derese for introducing a series of topics which apparently generated lots of discussion).
I am not at all surprised by the growing personality cult of Meles. In fact I am surprised that it too this long to reach this point. The two main reasons for this in my opinion are our feudal heritage and our subscription to the communist ideology of the 60s. This left us with a process of creating political persona around individuals and taking to the highest possible extent. We all remember that some people actually believed that the sun might not shine if the emperor died. While we may feel that this level of naivety is no more around but we have sustained the belief we inherited from this kind of thinking. On the other hand in the 60s more or less all opposition factions subscribed to communism which of course is build around a so called central committee which is essentially dictatorship of a single individual. Stalin, Kim Il Sung and Chawchesku were the extreme examples of this system. In our case Mengistu was said to be the ONLY son of Ethiopia who can lead the country to communism.
In 1991 when woyane came to power the political landscape was such that it was impossible to create this kind of dictatorship around one person. I even remember that at one time Meles and the now fallen Tamrat Layne sitting on the same level and on identical chairs in Meskel Square. Now this is a clear symobolism of the political structure. In short Meles was ‘primus inter pares’ or first among equals. The break with this tradition came when first Tamrat Layne was deposed and second and more importantly TPLF broke in to two factions. That was when Meles affirmed his position as a sole dictator. This was further consolidated during the 2005 elections when he was presented as the saviour of Tigray. In summary Meles is just continuing his feudal political traditions (inherited from his father of course) albeit with modern communist inputs. It is not so simple to see now but I am certain that when historians write history say in fifty or a hundred years time they will not fail to recognize that modern day Ethiopia is a continuation of its feudal past despite the adaption of communist ideology and the attempt to introduce ‘revolutionary democracy’ as a new system.