But PM Meles Zenawi, who officially lives on a
miserly government salary, and whose father had famously insisted
that “he (Meles) does not even know what a 100 birr note looks like,”
not only has schooled all his three children there, but is also now
sending his eldest daughter to Britain’s most exclusive school, Oxford
University. And my first instinct was to pose to the woman sitting in
front of me, Aregash Adane, who is contesting for Meles’ parliamentary
seat in Adwa, and was briefly his adviser, what I thought would be a
witty question: Is Meles Zenawi a multi-millionaire? But most
interviews rarely go according to script, particularly the interesting
ones; and when we parted, I had not inquired about her thoughts on
Meles Zenawi’s whooping deficit between his official income and his
children’s astronomical school expenses.
But all is not lost. She had in fact provided me with a crystal clear
response, albeit indirectly, when the issue of transparency had come:
“We had nothing, and I mean literally nothing, when we captured
Addis,” she had said unblinking, sure, and intense. “But it did not
take long before some officials started living way way beyond their
means. We were on the verge of establishing a committee (in the CC of
the TPLF) with broad probing mandate just before we left the party.”
Fast forward almost ten years to 2010, and the committee has yet to
see the light of day.
The meeting in Adwa a little over a week ago was summoned in the name
of Medrek, a coalition of eight parties that pundits say is the main
challenger of the EPRDF this year, so Seye Abraha was legitimately
part of the ensemble that faced between 1000 to 1500 residents of Adwa
at city hall. I met with Aregash to talk with her about this meeting,
her thoughts about Meles Zenawi and her prospect of winning.
The plan in Adwa called for a speech by each member of the ensemble,
which consisted of Ambassador Awalom Weldu, Ethiopia’s first and only
Ambassador to Eritrea, whose younger brother, Abay Weldu, is slated to
take over the presidency of Tigray after the elections; Gebru Asrat;
Aregash and Seye; and then time for a question-and-answer session.
But the EPRDF (most probably Meles Zenawi himself, since no obscure
official in Adwa would risk a scandal in his constituency) had other
ideas. “They were about seven or eight of them,” told me Aregash, “quite young, obviously confident and, we were to be told later,
overtly backed by the authorities who were standing outside aiding and
abating them to break up the meeting.” But at least each of them had
time for short introductory speeches, quite liberally interposed by
calls for order by the young thugs. “We had to stop the meeting
prematurely, much to the consternation of the people who had come to
listen to us, to quiz us. But we had no choice. They did not want the
questions and answers session to take place. We only had time for
short introductory speeches. We were forced to stop.”
Welcome to Ethiopia’s election 2010, the reality behind the rhetoric.
But Aregash has not given up. “We will go back again,” she promised
me. “The people want their freedom.”
Aregash was a rare university graduate amongst TPLF leaders, with a
first degree in social work from what was in 1973 Haile Selassie
University, a year before the popular revolution that brought the Derg
to power. “I was a member of Abeyot (Revolution),” she said, surprising
me. And when I inquired if that was the same Abeyot that merged with
the EPRP, she nodded. “Getachew Maru et al decided on the merger.
When we objected, we were told that the decision had already been
made. Abeyot had a distinct identity, and the question of nations and
nationalities was an important part of it; something that the EPRP
frowned upon.” This was in the mid ’70s when political activism was at
its peak, and Aregash, hearing of the establishment of the TPLF, left
Addis for Tigray. But a year was to pass before the organization was
ready to accept female fighters. Once in though, she was to rise
rapidly, eventually joining the most important decision making body,
the Central Committee.
I reminded her how Redwan Hussien, an EPRDF executive member and its
star debater, had recently gone on the offensive against Gebru in a
nationally televised debate about human rights. “As to Gebru Asrat,”
had said Redwan, inducting his punch line, “didn’t you and your
friends leave the EPRDF by proclaiming ‘death to imperialism; we
should be building Socialism, our democracy is more perfect than
Clinton’s,’ who at that time was President of the US?”
She leaned forward when she answered this time, her emotion clearly
stirred. “Where in the world was he when we left? Certainly not in the
EPRDF. He is merely parroting what he has been told.” And on she went
to explain how Eritrea was at the core of the controversy. “We had
internally conceded that we had made mistakes about
Eritrea. Shabiya (the EPLF) was kidnapping, even assassinating, people
all over Ethiopia. It was manipulating the foreign currency market with
impunity. The only thing that was left was to go public with our
findings.” But the issue of Bonapartism, suddenly introduced by Meles
Zenawi, fought for center stage, eventuating in the split.” Bonapartism is a relic of 19th century Europe,” she said, contempt
visible on her face. “It has no relevance to our experience.”
So what kind of a person is Meles Zenawi? I asked for her personal
impression about her electoral opponent. She took time to respond,
taking time to think. “He leads the EPRDF, and the EPRDF insists on
winning all the time, no matter what. What the people want seems to
have no relevance.” And here suddenly props up a question in mind: “Does the EPRDF love power?” Her answer is prompt, startling me. “All
this clamor is for power. What else could it be for? There is nothing
wrong with seeking power as long as it’s sought to serve a higher
cause, as long as it’s people centered. But it’s a problem when it
becomes an end by itself, and I fear that is where the EPRDF is. That
is why we are having all these problems.”
But why should voters in Adwa choose you over Meles, I ask her. And
suddenly her face relaxes, a woman spoke to me from the heart:
“Because people know what I have been through, what I have given up
for the truth. They know that power had not corrupted me. These are
the values that appeal to people. They have seen that too many have
succumbed to the trapping of power, and they are disgusted by it. I
could defeat him given a playing field. And though my party is
seriously under funded and is allotted a very limited time on state
media, we shall prod to the end. We had overcome the impossible
before. And we could very well do it once again.”
TIDBITS:
BRIEF NEWS FROM ADDIS
PRO EPRDF COALTION’S MANDATE ROUSE CONCERN
The decision by the electoral board to recognize a coalition of pro-
ten civil organizations to observe the elections has raised eyebrows
in Addis. The ten member coalition, which includes the pro-EPRDF
Ethiopian Youth Federation, Ethiopian Women Federation, Ethiopian
Lawyers Association (not to be confused with the older and independent
Ethiopian Bar Association), Ye-Ethiopia Hidase Mahber, as well as the
toothless Ethiopian Employer’s Federation is the first to be granted
official recognition. The coalition is being criticized for allegedly
being mandated to endorse, not observe, the election, no matter what
is to happen. The electoral board, on the other hand, has sung its
praise, asserting that “its independence has been verified.”
Reports that election observers who were supposed to have been
elected by rural kebeles a few months ago have instead been arbitrarily
assigned by local officials have raised serious concerns. But how
exactly widespread the abuse is has not been established, according to
diplomats who have monitored the process.
The EU will observe this year’s election, too; but with the visible
absence of its leader of five years ago, Anna Gomez, who adamantly
insists that a free and fair election is not possible as long as
Birtukan Medeksa remains imprisoned on trumped up charges. The EU’s
high profile Anglo Saxon Ambassador in 2005, Timothy Clark, scion of a
prominent family in Britain, has been replaced with a low profile
Ambassador from continental Europe whose interest in the election has
so far been minimal.
