Meles Zenawi

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi

Meles Zenawi (Legesse Zenawi Asres) (born May 8, 1955) is Prime Minister of Ethiopia. Born in Adwa in Tigray Province, he was appointed to the office of Prime Minister on August 22, 1995, after his governing party swept parliamentary elections that were boycotted by the opposition. He had previously been transitional president of Ethiopia, from May 28, 1991 until August 22 1995. Meles Zenawi is married to Azeb Mesfin, who is now a member of parliament and chair of its Social Affairs Committee. She also controls Mega Enterprises, a multi-million dollar conglomerate founded in 1991.

Meles Zenawi came to power after being one of the triumvirate[1] - Seeye Abraha, its military leader, Tamrat Layne and himself - who had led the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) in a 17-year war against the government of Mengistu Haile Mariam that ended in May, 1991 with an EPRDF victory. The three of them had led the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which was the core party that formed the EPRDF. Like the Derg, which had been actively supported by Moscow, the TPLF was Marxist, its core being the Marxist-Leninist League of Tigray which advocated emulating Marxist Albania, but it was not Soviet-backed. However, following its victorious march into Addis Ababa, the EPRDF moved to adopt social democracy, with pro-Western economic policies, under the pragmatic leadership of Meles Zenawi.

Meles installed a political system in Ethiopia based on ethnic federalism, replacing the centralised rule that began to take form under Emperor Tewodros II in 1855, and was continued under his successors. However, the basing of his government on ethnic lines has been deemed by many to be divisive and a deterrent to democracy. Meles has introduced a constitution that grants the right of any ethnic group to secede from the country. This is stipulated in Article 39 of the constitution. This has been a constant source of argument between two schools of thought in Ethiopian politics. Meles claims Article 39 to be the cornerstone of peace and democracy, labeling those who challenge this idea as extremists, anti-democratic and anti-peace elements. He claims this article to be the only way to keep the peace in this war-ravaged and poverty-stricken country. His opponents in the Ethiopian diaspora maintain that it is a Soviet-style Marxist novelty that endangers the unity of the ancient but ethnically diverse Ethiopian state. They point to instances of ethnocentric favoritism in appoinments to high positions in federal and local government, in business practices, and in the way development funds are spent in favor of the Prime Minister's native Tigray at the expense of the rest of Ethiopia.

Another source of contention about his politics is his land tenure system. The constitution the Government of Ethiopia has implemented prevents anyone from owning land. The government owns all land and may grant its use through long term leasing. The reasoning the government gives is that poor farmers will sell their lands during hardship and will be left with no land.

While he was criticized in the wake of the May Ethiopian election, his supporters generally praise him highly for bringing a relatively transparent government. They maintain that he deserves much of the credit for changing the oppressive governmental institutions of the formerly Communist country, and for introducing multi-party democracy. People close to the prime minister say that he is one of the most well-read intellectuals of Africa, and among the most forward-looking leaders Ethiopia has ever had. But in a country of such diversity, it is very difficult for any leader to be accepted by all in equal degrees. Because the prime minister was the leader of a liberation front that militarily defeated the former Kremlin-supported government of Mengistu, it is to be expected that those belonging to, or benefitting from the defeated government, might carry a grudge against the prime minister.

The run-up to the elections of May 2005 were a period of transparency, and even the Prime Minister's opponents began to give him credit for opening up the government press to dissenting voices . The opposition was permitted to campaign more than before, and was able to better make it's views known to the people. Representatives of the opposition and the government publicly and peacefully debated their views. While international observers generally applauded the conduct of the elections themselves, the aftermath was not what many had hoped for. Although it was apparent that the two major opposition coalitions had swept to victory in most urban areas outside of Tigray Region, and had gained significant seats in rural areas as well, the government quickly declared victory, imposed a ban on all public demonstrations for 30 days, and suspended the announcemnt of results. The opposition then charged that the government went about systematically altering results in rural areas where no international monitors could observe them and began a widespread intimidation campaign against politicians of the two leading opposition coalitions. A call for peaceful protest and the attempt at a general strike in protest to these measures resulted in 27 deaths and thousands of arrests between June and November of 2005.

In November, 2005 following the widespread civil unrest throughout Ethiopia, the government of Meles Zenawi arrested the leaders of the political opposition, newspaper editors, labor union leaders and thousands of students and other protesters. The leaders were rightfully charged with treason and genocide.

References

• ^ Article about the Norwegian government's embarrassment in Aftenposten (in Norwegian).
• ^ Chapter about Ethiopia from Amnesty International's worldwide report for 2005 on the status of human rights.
• "Yara Prize to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi". Yara Corporation. Retrieved August 24. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• "Profile of Meles Zenawi". BBC. Retrieved August 28. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• "Letter to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, expressing concern for freedom of press". Human Rights Watch. Retrieved August 28. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• "The Dark Side of Ethiopia's 'Green Revolution'". Human Rights Watch. Retrieved September 13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• For a more sympathetic view see Joseph Stiglitz Globalization and its Discontents ISBN 0-713-99664-1 Chapter 2 Broken Promises - Ethiopia and the Struggle between Power Politics and Poverty.

External links

• Good governance gone bad (New York Times Editorial)
• Ethiopian police shoot protesters (BBC News)
• A darling of the West turns nasty (Economist)
• Lenin, Meles, Peasants, and Famine