15/08/2018 20:31 PM
Premier Abiy should draw a definitive line between what is morally and legally RIGHT and WRONG By Michael Abraha (14 Aug 2018)
TPLF/EPRDF have modernized Ethiopia. TPLF's enterprising plans to rebuild and beautify Addis Ababa, Bahir Dar, Adama, Hawasa and many other cities is one successful outcome of its endeavors. It is one proud legacy that can only be associated with the reign of TPLF just as the building of beautiful Asmara will always be attributed to Italian colonizers.
Any attempt to present alternative facts or views regarding the TPLF in this regard is utter garbage, idiotic and a hateful lie aimed at disrupting the promising stability and unity of Ethiopia.
Additionally, TPLF will for ever be remembered for paying immense sacrifices to oust the Derg, the most evil military dictatorship our continent has ever seen. Derg's Mengistu HaileMariam is said to be responsible for the death of millions of Ethiopians in political purges, intra state conflicts and man-made famines caused by agricultural mismanagement.
Any attempt to present alternative facts or views regarding the TPLF in this regard is utter garbage, idiotic and a hateful lie.
Then TPLF deserved to be stripped of their dominant state authority as a matter of dialectical truth and the incredible social dynamism operating in the country. Some TPLF members became too fat and comfortable. They abused economic rights of peasants and farmers especially in the Orono region while continuing to deny free speech and free press for their own people in Tigray.
TPLF betrayed its long held progressive, socialist ideology and consistently failed to be inclusive and share political and economic power with leaders of non-Tigrayan ethnic background. As the people demanded change, the national consensus continued to be that Dr. Abiy is the man to match the humongous challenges Ethiopia faces at the present time.
So far so good, with one avoidable exception. Premier Abiy should realize that it is absolutely impossible to please or include every one in the name of MEDEMER, honorable as the concept may be. He may not, for instance, play God and forgive and embrace Mengistu. People may pray for his soul for murdering hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians for holding opposing views. But it up to God to judge Mengistu in the afterlife, assuming we believe there is life after death.
I have in the past shaken hands with Mengistu and covered him as broadcast journalist in the late 70's and 80's. I admired his "land to the tiller" policy and implementing it. It freed millions of Ethiopian peasants and farmers, mostly Oromos, from slavery under greedy feudal lords.
Like many, I escaped Mengistu's Stalinist Red Terror executions twice as college student and journalist. Many of my best friends perished in the bloody campaign and their bodies were left on sidewalks as deterrent to others who went underground opposing the cruelty and inhumanity of the communist regime.
Dr Abiy is right that hate is wrong but standing for the truth is not hate but love. Love of country and its people is is enhanced when wrong doers and criminals and mass murderers are brought to justice in accordance with national and international laws and norms.
By Michael Abraha
(14 Aug 2018)
Ethiopia: Hailemariam Desalegn met former President Mengistu Hailemariam