Merion on March 23, 2013 responded to my last article as; “I think you express your self well through your article. Your sloppy substance to explain Afwerki’s sloppiness is the very explanation of yourself. Your understanding on the quality of leadership to be quantify through the number of the population of a country is absurd. What matters most is the kind of challenges, both internal and external you face, the kind of resources in kind and value you have, and regional and international attitudes to the very being of a country. If you talk all this consideration in to account you will find Ethiopea muladministered with the all advantages it has ecompering to Eritrea and you will understand how sloppy you are to judge a man who led a country to independence against all odds.”

“Merion,

You are dead wrong when you assume that it is Isayas who has the credit for leading the country to independence!! Our Martyrs, our Sunkulan and our Fighters together with the Eritrean people fought, paid a high price and won the day for independence of Eritrea. To give the credit to this unkind man is not reading history correctly as it is abundantly coming out today.

Isayas emulates personalities who had easy rides to absolute power and is focussed only on the grip of absolute power, period. Had he been a benevolent ‘dictator’, making sure that this small hard-working country, Eritrea, was as achievement-oriented as it was during the struggle and was in the forefront in education, development and better standard of living, may be one could have closed an eye (or even two) on his obsessive clinging to power and refusal to implement the Constitution and rule of law. It is just that he is a FAILURE, period. It seems that by depriving the people of a better lifestyle, a higher education and sound economic development, he can best control them because they would focus in the search of basic needs (bread, electricity, medicines,) and they cannot harness the necessary collective energy to drag him and his cronies down on their knees like the dogs they are who have betrayed the trust and love of the people BIG TIME!!”

A good discussion was going on between the very articulate Zebib and at least three people in the other side of the fence when someone called Berhe posted the following response:

“Belay Nega….

Zebib is known as Free Eri at EYSC FB page and his real name is Semere Habtemariam. He lives in Texas and he got extreme hatred against Akeleguzay..you can see his post on tthat page…I hope I will meet this crook one day.”

Brother or sister Merion certainly thinks the president is intelligent. I do agree to some extent at least when it comes to organizing things. I am one of the best defenders of the president for what he accomplished and one of his opposers on the merit of his disastrous role in our society. I think I have balanced the two notions very well in my book to feel comfortable about my neutrality on the subject matter.

In this reaction, I completely uphold the right of Marion to have a different opinion from mine on the president’s intelligence and also positively accommodate his opinion on my poor intelligence.

 Our difference probably will stay intact but our harmony should not be disturbed by our subjective views on something. Meron’s statement  was a subjective opinion well written not to pollute the objectivity of the issue at hand.

 His/her starting of the statement by the expression “I think” makes Marion a civilized person who knows how to differentiate subjectivity from objectivity. For the sake of consistency though, Meron should at least positively accommodate my subjective opinion of the president’s poor intelligence without accepting it. At the end of it my “Afwerki to me is a very sloppy individual who cannot manage a society fewer in number than the population of Addis” was a subjective opinion challenged by Meron’s subjective opinion in “I think you express your self well through your article. Your sloppy substance to explain Afwerki’s sloppiness is the very explanation of yourself above statement.” Therefore, we were equally valid on our subjective views on a someone‘s intelligence.

 Further, I believe I can challenge Meron’s “…you will understand how sloppy you are to judge a man who led a country to independence against all odds”  by reminding him/her that the statement was as good judgmental on me as mine was on the president. This coincidence should harmonize both of us as having been judgmental at opposite but equal level of significance as ordinary human beings.

Berhe’s comment on Zebib was uncalled for and extremely destructive to say the least. There is no way Berhe could identify a person’s gender or identity from this type of communication and therefore the act was deception and a tragedy for itself. Berhe must be civilized to first understand the concept of ciber-media as one that gives people the opportunity to use any name they want for privacy purposes and that we are not afraid any longer from people that are destroying our nation and we sure will stop them at the end of this struggle.

You need to challenge Zebib logic for logic if you are a person of integrity but this certainly tells Berhe was incapable of doing this in this scenario. This person had no intellectual substance to challenge the vibrant Zebib on what was being discussed in the forum. As a result this person went on sneaking the divisive poison (elimination by character assassination) that has no place in civility and in our situation any more. Berhe is a good example as to how Afwerkists are indoctrinated to demoralize other Eritreans even by means of “street tactic” the SAWA Psychologist DESBELE was teaching the Diaspora kids in training  (see Yemane’s THE YPFDJ CULT- part I). The act angered Zebib a bit of course and I am sorry for that but I know Zebib is up for a cause and a cheap shot like that of Berhe’s will never deter her from her spiritual mission in Eritrea. As she said it again and again she is here to defend the defenseless and I glorify her participation in this forum with maximum respect and want to tell here in this opportunity that she is very important to the resistance that will eventually get rid of the dictator and the Afwerkist mind set from our society.

Theory

The Weyanes have been the permanent excuse of Afweki’s  and Afwerkists’ failure in almost every category of civil governance and social life. According to them, the Weyane conspiracy against the Eritrean sovereignty is the most immediate danger to our society that must be dealt with at priority level of the Ethio-Eritrean stalemate. I will present the first of my two articles dealing with this issue as compact as possible and finally give my opinion on the rational validity of Afwerki’s Weyane theory for his terrible leadership performance.

Until the crisis of 2001, the handful of leaders of the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the dominant force in the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) in power since 1991, worked in a remarkably collective way.

The first major conflict within the TPLF leadership occurred in 2001 after the late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi won the war over the 1998-2000 with Eritrea. High caliber TPLF officials like Kinfe Gebremedhin and Hailu Gebremeskel were eliminated in controversial politically motivated plots while the Gebru Asrat clique was thrown out of TPLF and former Defense Minister Seeye Abraha was jailed for six years on charges of corruption.

The most passive elements of TPLF leaders including Abay Tsehaye, Berhane Gebrekirstos and Seyoum Mesfin staying ineffective in the political dynamics, there was no such force called TPLF in the real sense of the word since 2001 when Meles emerged as the undisputed boss of the front and Ethiopia at large making Sebhat Nega (TPLF) and Bereket Simon (EPRP) the most powerful individuals in his regime.

After recovering from the internal crisis of the TPLF, Meles went on distributing power out of the Tigreans and bringing people like Hailemariam Dessalegn to the main political stage by appointing him as the foreign minister and the deputy prime minister of Ethiopia. Ethiopia had the first non-Tigrean foreign minister since Meles took power when Seyoum Mesfin (19 years in duty) was disqualified from the post. In the going, Meles continued breaking out of his closest circle of almost all Tigrayan advisers. One of the most obvious activity in this regard happened when Bereket Simone (said to be a non TPLF member and 100% Eritrean by blood) became the best public relations advisor to Meles on top of his assignment as the Ethiopian Information Minister. I do believe that this event among few others substantially neutralized Sebhat Nega from being the closest politician to Meles, further significantly alienating the veteran TPLF official from the TPLF itself and the Ethiopian political life in general.

 The military wing of the TPLF was then integrated into and represented within the all-inclusive Ethiopian army under a central command of the Ethiopian government. General Samora, a qualified veteran soldier of the TPLF and an ally of Meles runs it as the Chief of Staff under the complete authority of the government.

Meles appointed 37 new Generals into the military on September 12, 2012  including at least 23 from Tigray  in what appears to have been a tendency to ensure the Tigreans would not dominate the political power structure of the country while looking after their security issue in case of a potential turmoil that may arise in the future because of the unification process of the Tigrean mentality from the old secessionist psychological-setup focused on liberating the nation of Tigrai from Ethiopia.

TPLF ‘s current leadership no longer has the intellectual capacity or a charismatic character to dominate national political issues as it had had in the past two decades before the death of Meles.

It has  been weakened by divisions: between hardliners in favor of their historic dominance and moderates who focus on Ethiopinization at large; between Tigreans in Tigray and in Diaspora and the mentality gap between the older and the younger generations in the society, etc.

Meles left behind an unresolved internal contradiction between the political losers of the 20001 shakeup including Seeye Abraha and Gebru Asrat who are still very popular with rank-and-file members of the Front and the Sebhat Nega who used to be the closest man of Meles throughout the internal friction of the front. Although Seeye and Gebru may try to save the TPLF from extinction, chances are it is too late to fix it to its original form.

And finally, there is the powerful Azeb Mesfin (Meles’s wife) who knows a lot of secrets and well understands the strengths and weaknesses of all the players. As a politician who has supporters amongst the cadres of the Front, Azeb has close ties with the security services that used to protect her husband as their primary role in the society.

“Azeb Mesfin, has recently become deputy head of the Endowment Fund for the Rehabilitation of Tigray (EFFORT), which owns several multimillion-dollar companies. She will serve under Abadi Zemu, the chief executive officer (CEO) of EFFORT, replacing Sebhat Nega, the most senior leader of the TPLF. It looks like she has won the fight against Sebhat Nega in so far as controlling all Woyanne’s assets. “Not only was Azeb elected to the Federal Parliament in 2005 by a constituency in Welkait, she is also a chairperson of its Standing Committee on Social Affairs. She was also elected as a member of the Central Committee of the TPLF, a place she first got four years ago.

Sebhat Nega, as the former TPLF chairman largely seen as the God Father of Meles Zenawi, was humiliated at an EPRDF congress when Azeb poured all nasty words on him, and led to his dismissal.”

A few other important names may include Arkebe Enquay and a rising star Debretsion Gebremichael a young college educated and a senior figure in the security services. A man called Abay Wolde is also around in the top list of the front according to my research.

“Unlike the 2001 conflict between Meles and the dissidents that he later wiped out of the political scene of the country, the current conflict is not about the national interests of Ethiopia nor about democracy or human rights but rather about power and survival” says an analyst.

On the other hand;

In post-Meles Ethiopia, Sebaht Nega openly blamed Meles for “killing TPLF,” and began to talk to former TPLF officials privately that they need to regroup and restore their lost power, fame and fortune. Sebhat was now trying to give the [losers of 2001 internal scuffle] a new lease on life.”

The question is if he can do it or not. I do not think this is possible because the Seeye and Gebru cliques and his clique consider each other as enemies because Sebhat was the designer of Meles’s effective elimination of the two individuals and their followers from the TPLF to begin with. Desperate Sebhat Nega claims to have the support of aging TPLF members Seyoum Mesfin, Abay Tsehaye and others along the TPLF rank and file but these individuals are known to have been passive elements that swing with the flow.

While Azeb has the support of all those Meles confidantes like Bereket Simon and Gen. Samora Yonus to help her dominate whatever the issues may be in between, the other TPLF elements are simply trying to be counted in, in this final struggle for survival.

“In the mean time Abai Woldu has opened a third front of power struggle. To put things in perspective, the power rivalry is among three groups: Azeb Mesfin/Bereket Simon vs Abai Woldu vs Sebhat Nega.”

See you in my follow up article.