By Muluken
Meles, the leader that worked and died for the people, gave all his life, ate up all his life while working for the better of the people. The biggest success of Meles in line with the country’s regional hegemony of diplomacy and peace process has made the country one of the most influential in regional and international politics.
The pre-1991 Ethiopia was known by its political cannibalism and absolutism. The then nation’s nationalities and peoples of the country were not allowed the right to use and develop their cultures and customs. In those days people were marginalized for being member of a certain social group. It was the time where by people were equal but some were more equal.
The liberationist movement Meles and his compatriot waged for more than 17 years has given an end to the long lasting political exclusion in Ethiopia. Their victory has remarkably shown the transition of the country from authoritarianism to the democratic one.
In addition to respect for the rights and equality of citizens of the country, the country’s political transformation is one of the ultimate works of the premier. Every time political pluralism and electoral politics of the country is raised, Meles and his efforts are equally raised. He has strived to bring about inclusive politics unlike the predecessor regimes of the Derg and the emperor.
Thank to Meles Zenawi, today’s Ethiopia is internationally known for economic advancement than the rampant poverty and human degradation as it once had been. The developmental activity of the country has changed the image to the level where it is now. In this regard, the premier’s effort is what no body denies. Meles has played key role in designing the country’s developmental policies. His economic diplomacy has attracted a number of foreign investors increasing the country’s FDI inflow beyond what one imagines.
Currently, Ethiopia is one of the very few investment destinations in the region. Today a number of foreign firms are actively investing in the country. The success of Meles in the economic diplomacy and tasks related to it has changed the lives of Millions of Ethiopians. The fast investment growth in the country has created a number of jobs for millions of the people.
His legacy has changed the lives of the farmer to the level where they could feed themselves and produce surplus. The Meles legacy is beyond what one imagines for the lives of the pastoralist community as well. The once forgotten pastoralists of the country have now been resettled. They do not serve as living heritage for the European tourists. They, more over, will not be used as a research material for the sociological studies. Meles is every where in the country. The peasant remembers him as a peasant, the soldiers as a soldier, the civil servant, as a civil servant. Meles was everyone, Meles was the people. He has done a lot to change the lives of the people. He gave an end to political cannibalism and sparkled a new light to the country’s politics.
The Meles legacy is not abstract to see. He is seen in the face of the people. He is commemorated in the hearts of the once forgotten nations, nationalities and peoples of Ethiopia. Meles is a leader beyond one imagines. He has transformed the political, economic and social realities of the country from what once was seen as rock bottom to the level where it is now.
The new Ethiopia is the legacy of Meles. The new Ethiopia where children grow up in peace, the youth go to schools and elders die in dignity. Meles never die and all the developments underway never retired. Some few people have the privilege of living the lives of a lot of people and die in dignity. Such people are the chosen ones because they are born for purpose and pass away doing their best.
“Meles is not a single person” that was what one person said who was crying while the body of the premier arrived at Addis Ababa International Airport. True, though may be, Meles was not one person. Nor he was the leader of Ethiopia and representative of its people alone but the people of Africa and the third world as well.
“Meles was not just as leader but the leader beyond a leader” was what another lady on the arrival of the body said. Meles was a freedom fighter, liberationist, and nation’s right activist. Meles was more than one person, for he was the soul and brain of the country; the spirit and the flush of his people and more over, the nation builder of the most fragmented hearts. He lived all his lives for the better of the 80+ million people of Ethiopia and the rest of Africa at large.
That’s why his death remarks one of the great loses of all time. The lose is worse for it is the lose of millions if not billions. Very few people like Meles dedicate their lives for their people. Only few, of course, had so far dedicated all their ages and their efforts for the change of the majority of their poverty stricken people. Meles, being one of the very few, had eaten up all his life for the country’s political and economic transformation.
Meles was too busy even to look for his private life. He was really good leader, however, he couldn’t be the father and the husband that had given all the necessary time for his family. The reason is clear, of course, the 80+ million Ethiopians were his family to give all his time for. Meles has a lot of story to be told. He was in deed a man of great honor that spent all of his time for the better of his people. He was born like an ordinary kid and raised like any rural Ethiopian kid playing with the soil and stone.
He went to school with his relatives and attended until he dedicated all his life for his country. He was high achiever in his education; nevertheless, as his private deeds were second, he made his country and his people top priority. He left his medical school for the sake of the people and succeeded in abolishing the tyrant regime and continued abolishing the age old friend of the country-Poverty.
His best works are those that changed the lives of the peasant and the urban society, which will be remembered forever. Meles is not one person. He is not in one area or mind. Rather, he is everywhere, with everyone’s mind. In the Horn of Africa where ruling a country is as fatal as dancing on the heads of the snake, the wise man, Meles Zenawi, has succeeded leading the region’s biggest country Ethiopia. His success was backed by his diplomatic strength and the unique idiosyncratic value. Among the huge success of Meles as a leader of the country, his diplomatic achievement to the peace and stability of Africa at regional and sub-regional levels is what the whole nation of the continent remembers.
Following the removal of the military dictator, the main task the premier had to carry was repairing the foreign relation of the country that the Derg dismantled. In its 17 years of iron rule, the derg regime has nose dived the country’s foreign relation. The regime, being the proxy of the eastern block in the cold war, deprived the country of its old privilege and national pride. Recurrent drought, famine, civil war and huge human right violation have put Ethiopia to the back of the world diplomacy and foreign relations.
Rebuilding the country’s foreign relation was the main task Meles carried immediately after the formation of the Transitional Government of Ethiopia. In doing so, Meles succeeded in reincarnating the country’s dismantled foreign relations. It was in his time that Ethiopia’s foreign relation was diversified and a lot of embassies opened oversea. As a result of his effort,Ethiopia is now the nerve center of African politics and economics. More over Addis Ababa houses a lot of embassies and international organizations.
Meles pioneered the transformation of the old OAU into the AU. He was one of the leading architects of the transformation of the continental organization. Until his death, Meles had served as the driving force of the continent unification and economic integration. Africa remembers its hero and savior in all the best possible ways. Everything in Africa, is better said, the work of Meles and few renascent leaders of his time like Tabo Mbeki, Mandela, Olesegu Obasanjo, Abdulahi Wade and John Kuffor.
At the sub continental level, Ethiopia has been playing active role in peace and stability. At the first years of the 1990s where Ethiopia was at the transitional phase from the Derg to the democratic governance, the Horn of Africa had been one of the most volatile regions of the world. The peace and order of the region was violated to the level where the continental politics was at risk.
In those difficult days of the region, Meles` foreign affairs were great savior for Africa in general and Rwanda and Burundi in particular. For those two micro states of the central Africa, when the rest of the world gave its back, Meles` Ethiopia was their only hope. His government’s peace keeping mission in those two countries gave an end to the worst genocide and ethnic cleansing in the history of the continent. Meles didn’t stop with the success in Rwanda and Burundi. His continental diplomacy and everlasting lust for continental peace and order continued as Ethiopia sent peace keeping missions to Liberia, Sieraleon, Dharfur, Abiyee, and else where in Africa.
In the most fragile state of the Horn, Somalia, Meles had been the mediator, negotiator and arbitrator of peace among the clan conflict and fundamental driven conflicts of the country. His foreign policy directives to Somalia were intended to rebuild the collapsed state. In doing so, Meles succeeded in rebuilding the nation. He supported diplomatically, the weak state of Somalia so that it will not be safe heaven to global terrorism and fundamentalism.
Meles has also been one of the pacifiers of the North-South Sudan conflict. The two decades war in the neighboring Sudan has made a death toll of hundreds of thousands of lives. Following the Nairobi peace treaty in between the two Sudanese in 2004, Meles has worked with the two on the peaceful implementation of the Comprehensive Framework of Agreement (CFA).
As the CFA came to an end peacefully and South Sudan gains its independence, Meles served as the leading mediator during the intermittent conflicts the two Sudanese got into shortly after the referendum. In those days Meles managed to create the room of thinking for the two in Addis. More over, Meles` Ethiopia has managed balanced trade, political and social contact with the two.
For the continent Africa, Meles had been representative of the 54 countries in several socio-economic and political issues. Meles has represented African people in the great global conferences like the G8, G22, World Economic Forum, World Social Forum, Climatic Summits, Food and Agricultural meetings and a lot more.
Meles had been negotiating on behalf of the people of Africa on how equitable wealth is distributed at the global level. He addressed Africa’s poverty and misery to the rest of the world. He prescribed several indigenous mechanisms by which human suffering and poverty in Africa comes to an end. Being with very few visionary leaders, the premier had been working to alleviate rampant poverty, prone conflicts and civil strife from the continent.
As he was the leading player in the continental economic strategy, NEPAD, Meles had worked a lot in creating economic ties among the countries of Africa. In the economic diplomacy of Africa, Meles had strived a lot on how to integrate the continent in the world system with its comparative advantage. He had always been working to remove Africa’s marginalization in the world economy and end the exploitation of the content with unfavorable trade contact with the rich countries.
It’s a huge lose for the people of Africa in general and of Ethiopia in specific that the giant diplomatic architect and peace builder is dead. Meles` death is, perhaps, one of the saddest days for Africa and the third world in general. Meles is remembered in its great diplomatic success in the last two decades. By the effort of the premier, Ethiopia is now the diplomatic center of the continent. Several global conferences and regional summits prefer Ethiopia to any other place in the region. More importantly, thanks for the most precious leader, Ethiopia has gained a lot of economic gains and retained its lost privilege and national proud. Ethiopians not only remembers the icon but also will realize his vision of developing the country. Africa never forgets the giant diplomat it lost. More over, the people of the third world commemorate the representative it lost in agony.