The point is Meles Zenawi has deliberate policies of national failure, like holding the country hostage to consciously crafted and promulgated “laws.” A case in point is how Mr. Zenawi still insists state-ownership of land is good for the starving millions. He has been in power for nearly 18 years – a long period to pick up a lesson that public ownership of land is not working in the country. But that is not the case here.
Mr. Zenawi deprives the Ethiopia farmer of the right to own a plot of land. Others say why he does so is because of his lingering Marxist (Revolutionary Democracy) ideology.
At a closer look, however, Mr. Meles Zenawi is neither Marxist nor capitalist-oriented. He deploys all mechanisms he thinks would help him subjugage Ethiopians to his rule that we have no doubt is meant for “life,” unless halted by human or divine intervention.
When TPLF rebels he brainwashed as “Marxist-Leninists” were cursing “imperialism” in the hills of northern Ethiopia, Mr. Zenawi was sharing military secrets with former US President Jimmy Carter, a man supposedly the “boss of imperialism” and hence worth avoiding if Meles Zenawi were true to his teachings as founder of the fake “Marxist Leninist League of Tigrai” (MLLT). Meles used the Marxist ideology not because it had an appeal for him but he wanted to create a loyal army out of TPLF that is bound by the “iron discipline” of Marxism. He succeeded, and built a loyal army that fought and destroyed its own country without hesitation.
One sticker comes to mind: “If they make you believe absurdities, they will make you commit atrocities.” How apt! Meles made TPLF rebel leaders (and later government officials) believe in absurdities, like Eritrea is the colony of Ethiopia, like “Assab belongs to Eritrea,” like “being landlocked is no big deal because a port has become a commodity in the 21st century that anyone can buy like a table salt.” He made them believe absurdities and commit atrocities like the Gambella genocide and the 2005 Addis Ababa killings.
Years after they were purged, TPLF officials were reflecting Marxist ideas in their writings, signifying how much Mr Zenawi was effective in turning them into political zombies that he abused Ethiopia a million times in front of their eyes, and damn, they never got it!
All said, ‘Marxism’ is one weapon in the arsenal of Mr. Zenawi. “Market economy” is another weapon in the arsenal of Mr. Zenawi. Pitting Christians against Moslem brothers is another weapon in the arsenal of Mr. Zenawi. Fomenting an environment of fear, hate and ethnic animosity is another lethal weapon in the arsenal of Mr. Zenawi. Working to get Tigrians ostracized by the rest of their own compatriots is one weapon in the arsenal of Mr. Zenawi. The artocities being committed in Ogaden, Oromia and other parts of Ethiopia are timebombs being buried from the arsenal of Mr. Zenawi. Maintaining war-like conditions with Somalia or Eritrea is one weapon in the arsenal of Mr. Zenawi. Recycling drought and famine – and thereby humiliate Ethiopians as citizens of a beggar nation – is one weapon in the huge arsenal of Mr. Zenawi. Creating food aid dependency among Ethiopians is another deadly weapon in the arsenal of Mr. Zenawi.
His rule would be eternal, unless we take the first step and recognize that Mr. Zenawi is too criminal-minded to be reformed (do we really need an evidence here?), hence foster a nationwide movement to rescue Ethiopia. This calls for the unity of Ethiopians left and right.
