The Brilliance and Brutality of Meles Zenawi

[Talo alle udaa]

The Brilliance and Brutality of Meles Zenawi
By Ahmed Jama
Aug 02, 2012



If the reported demise of Melez Zenawi at the ripe age of 57 is confirmed, it would be a monumental event for the countries of the horn of Africa as a whole, but particularly for Somalia and Ethiopia. Zenawi single-handedly dominated the political and security destiny of the horn for the past 20 years, and was undoubtedly a ruthless and brilliant dictator. He suppressed dissent at home and pursued a policy of dismantling, fragmenting and destroying Somalia in any way he could with the vision to eliminate the long-time threat Somalia posed to Ethiopia’s hegemony in the horn and beyond.




For hundreds of years, the people in the horn accepted Ethiopia as their big brother and deferred to it in matters of politics and security; the exception was the people of modern day Somalia, who held the repeated incursions of the Ethiopians on their land at bay, even when they had no comparable arms, resources, and friends to back them. Now, at the behest of the Super Power, or perhaps his own will, Zenawi ordered his forces to invade Somalia whenever and wherever he wants. Without any one batting an eye lid, he leveled part of our capital and killed thousands in the process, and today his un- invited occupying forces are in the Central Region, Hiiraan, Bay and Bakool. He dared to do this because he prepared the ground. He found our weakest link --which is the scourge of clannism --and exploited fully to the maximum. Therefore today, instead of finding confrontation when he invades Somalia, he finds a reception committee.

To be fair, when Zenawi seized power, he apparently had high hopes to ally his Tigre minority with the Somalis in Ethiopia and intended to maintain good relations with Somalia; but this did not work out as he hoped, as the Somalis in Ethiopia failed to present a united front. In Somalia, the situation was even worse so he decided to move on and pursue other options available. The brilliance of Zenawi shows itself in the fact that when he was on the verge of victory, he suddenly abandoned Marxism-Leninism and opened a dialogue with the US, which in turn, played a significant role in the orderly coordination of the smooth take-over of the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, by Tigre forces and surrender of forces loyal to Mengistu. In such, he avoided a blood bath, saving the capital and public institutions from destruction. In our Somali case, the combatants did not have the foresight, nor did we have friends in the international community, to bring us to our senses. One has to wonder whether Ethiopia’s 3000 to 4000 years of independent governance played a role in the different outcomes of our somewhat similar experience.

We should admit Zenawi has changed Ethiopia economically, and uplifted millions from poverty to a reasonable existence. Today, Ethiopia is one of the fastest growing economies in Africa, if not the world, and a recipient of some of the largest amount of aid from the West-- after Egypt. The country is experiencing huge foreign investments from India, China and countries in the Arabian Gulf. Zenawi cemented excellent relations with the West, especially the US, which uses him conveniently as proxy force in the horn. There is no doubt Zenawi exacted a commensurate price for this role.

It is unlikely that any one with the satanic brilliance of Zenawi will succeed him, but we cannot be complaisant, as many of his minions already in place are past experts on how to handle Somalis, unless there is a radical change in people and policies. Any serious changes would be in Somalia’s interest, so that we can begin a new respectable relationship, assert a policy of good neighborliness, non-interference in internal affairs of each other, and cooperate on matters of mutual interest. The lesson should be conveyed directly, or indirectly, that Ethiopia consists of over 70 ethnic groups and, if there is any implosion, Somalia’s experience would be merely a child’s play.

There is a myth that is widely held that Zenawi lived in Somalia during his days as a rebel leader, and that he was a frequent visitor to our capital. I am unable to subscribe to this assertion, but, on the contrary, believe that Zenawi never visited Somalia at all, prior to 2007, when Abdullahi Yousuf and Ali Geedi headed the Transitional Federal Government (TFG). His representative in Somalia was Atto Mesfin, his long-time former foreign minister. No one, to the best of my knowledge, has confirmed that Zenawi was ever present in Mogadishu publicly or clandestinely. It is, however, true that he had a Diplomatic Somali passport to facilitate his travels; that Somalia used to order arms for him, which he paid for in the majority of cases; and that arms were once landed at Berbera port and transferred to small vessels for transporting them to Port Sudan, and from there to the Tigre hills in north of Ethiopia, where the rebel Tigrean militia had its major bases.

The stark lesson we can learn from the demise of Zenawi is this: whether you call yourself a secular politician, religious leader, tribal leader, nominal head of an enclave or a warlord, when you tie your future and the fate of your country to a foreign leader, like Zenawi, one day he will be no more and you will stand alone. However, what you invest in your country and its people will be everlasting assets to your people, to you, and to your children.

Ahmed Jama
Email:Jaamac.murti@yahoo.com

[The_Patriot]

incorrect statements:
1. Meles destroyed Somalia capital.
2.Meles allievated poverty from Ethiopia
3. Ethiopia has been an independent state for 4000yrs
4. Meles disfragmented Somalia.
etc
Facts
1. The Somalia capital was already destroyed and he only blasted rubbles.
2. Ethiopians are still languishing in poverty even though they receive close to the highest foreign aid in Africa coupled with the fact that its one of African countries where the tax levy is the highest.
3. Ethiopia lost its independence Since the start of a pagan queen who demolished the real Axumite dynasty,then Axmed Gurey followed suit and with the advent of colonialism abysinia was more of primitive kingdoms fighting over dorminance.
4.The greed of Somali warlords and rivalry led them to the doorsteps of Meles each were competing with the other to get favourable treatment even after having been directly been involved in dismantling the Somali state.

[shiniile9]

Nothing brilliance about Midget Zenawi.The Somali destructed was orchestrated by Warlords and narrow minded politicians.

[Khalid Ali]

Patriot it depends what you consider Ethiopia yes they were removed from southern Arabia but the aksumite empire continued to exist in the highlands of Ethiopia and Eritrea even during the solomonic dynasty of Abesynia only the Imam interrupted and destroyed their crown church but that was a short period of time. the re instated their dynasty with the help of the portugees and the Eritrean medra bahri sultanate and continued their Abesynian Empire for another 4 centuries than the italians came the first Abeseniyan italian war the Ethiopians defeated the italians because they outnumbered the italians at the battle of adwa in the late 19 century. the Second world war the Ethiopians were out gunned and were defeated by the italians losing their independence and sovereignty but only for six years. the Ethiopians allied with the English than defeated the Italians and Emperor haille sellesie got his Kingdom back at the Imperial house of Menelik in adiss ababa He re installed his monarchy and ruled Ethiopia till 1974. After he was removed the derg took over and ruled the country till 1991 and than after 1991 the TPLF junta took over and rules it till today.

Also the Ethiopians helped destroy Somalia by armig the warlords against each other than invading Somalia supporting a puppet regime in xamar. they played a huge role in the destruction of Somalia we cannot deny that its not just the warlords in the 1990s.

[HermitINHargeisa]

He truly was a political genius who understood hutu mentalty and came up with a solution every southie politician is shitted of him

[AgentOfChaos]

Excuse me? Did you say brilliance of Meles Zenawi?

[Khalid Ali]

melez zenawi is unpatriotic Ethiopian but he is not dumb he created losts of new things he stood his ground on the dam issue between him and Egypt.
He Invaded Eritrea and annexed their territory
He invaded Somalia 2 times defeating the ICU
And his second invasion is now removing shabaab from hiiraan bay bakool parts of gedo and parts of galguduud.
of all the rebel movements only the ONLF is still fighting
The rest he has fully under his control the oromos the Amaras
He annexed new land northern gonder for his tigrayan tribe former amara land
The TFG govt in Somalia is dependent on his troops
He hosted a peace conference for south sudan and sudan with some success so far

But he is unpatriotic Ethiopian he is selling Ethiopian lands to indians and pakis
Meles has no limits the TPLF junta he knows he is near his end sick almost dead he was the TPLF there wont be a tplf after him
So he made his tribe Kings in Ethiopia but they are the most hated Ethnic group in Ethiopia
He created Ethnic federalism which weakened Ethiopia allot
Guys u think Meles is dumb he is not dumb he just made some very bad choices while ruling Ethiopia.

[The_Patriot]

How did Federalism weaken Ethiopia? It just weakened Amhara ethnic group who were exploiting centralism @ the expense of other erhnic groups.
Imagine at its peek amhara students from Addis who had recently graduated were given ghost roles like being Interpreters in the Somali regions. It was milking the system at all costs.
Zenawi is patriotic to Ethiopia, patriotism does not mean sucking up to Amharas. Amharas beleive Haile Selasie was a patriot while the coward infact ran away to England when Italians invaded and came back when British, South African forces kicked the Italians out. He returned to embezzle the national coffers and led to the starvation countrywide followed by uprisings.
Khalid reading too much Ethiopian Review and Nazret is not good for you because it is a one biased forums.

[Khalid Ali]

Patriot you are first comparing two different times if Emperor haille selllesie didnt flee to England they italians would've captured him and humilated him that would be a bigger blow to the monarchy so he left there was no other option it was either get caught and get hanged by the italians. He came back stronger with the help of the english and re installed his monarchy and even annexing Erirea as part of Ethiopia under his monarchy. As for ethnic federalism it will lead to more division between the various ethnicties in Ethiopia so if i was an Ethiopian nationalist i would be against that even up to secession as the tplf wanted in the 70s. it might be a more decentalized form of governance compared to the previous govts of Ethiopia but it sure now is a ticking time bomb.
I see things very different than how Ethiopians see it because Ethiopians have different aspirations each and every ethnic group Meles did his goods but he did his bad two and we cannot deny that he made some huge mistakes Ethiopia is weaker under him than ever Ethiopia is so weak now the country is with out a leader for how long now?

[The_Patriot]

Did you just copy and paste from Nazret? There is no excuse of Haile Selasie to escape. Ethiopia is avast country the niga was supposed to bear jungle life to boost the morality of those that were fighting agaisnt Italians. So stop comparing him to an egg.

[Khalid Ali]

Patriot i have never been to nazaret well unless they reported something about Somaliland and that was like in 2010

Well do you want the king of the country to be caught it was obvious that the italians out gunned the Ethiopians they had less riffles than the italians the Italians attacked Ethiopia from two sides from Somalia and from Eritrea both of their colonies the Emperor had no choice but to leave the country. but the Emperor came back with a plan and came back stronger the English helped him Italy violated Ethiopias sovereignty prior to the second world war the italians and the Abesynians had good diplomatic state relations. This was violated by the italians and its no shame for the Emperor to be allied to the brits and the Americans to help gain back his monarchy it was a short lived invasion for only six years. it can be compared to the American iraqi invasion.if the Emperor stayed he would've been caught and humuliated like sadam that would've been ten times worse. The last Emperor of Africa caught by the italians hiding in a cave taaasa ceeb noqon lahayd waleh.

[sav12600]

typical somali mentality, There is nothing brilliant about that midget matter fact he's nothing, 90% of his countries land and recources are owned and controlled by fat arabs that treat his people like doormats

you dumb f*cks should be happy that somalia happens to share border with hippies like this who can barley manage to even feed themselves let alone have ambitions to dominate somalia.

do want to know who wants to control the horn of africa? its simple just take a look at the people that control the economics of those nations.