I read an article written by Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem (Political Deadlock in Ethiopia: Charting a path Forward) on your website (http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=30323). I would like to congratulate him for a well-written article especially considering the situation, that is very hard to understand exactly what is going in Ethiopia for outsiders.

I thought I should take the opportunity to share with you an open letter that I wrote to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi three weeks ago. If you think it is appropriate, feel free to post it on your website.

An Open Letter to His Excellency Prime Minister Meles Zenawi

Your Excellency,

First of all, I apologise for writing this letter in English instead of in one of the Ethiopian languages. The only reasons are that I do not have appropriate Ethiopian software and the skills to use the software, and it is much quicker to edit electronically than to write by hand.

I am an ordinary Ethiopian citizen who has never been directly involved in politics and who has never written a letter or an article to a politician or to the general public through any means of communication. However, recent events in Ethiopia make it almost impossible not to do a lot of soul searching and not to express my opinion no matter how little difference such an opinion might make.

I keep asking myself two questions again and again in the last 6 months. How could things go so terribly wrong in Ethiopia perpetually? How could the ideals (freedom, liberty, democracy, no group dominating the other, etc.) that you and so many of your comrades and other Ethiopians fought for, get relegated to minor importance while new priorities like maintaining power cause so much damage and bloodshed and assume more importance?

Despite Ethiopia’s long and colourful historic past there are not many examples we could proudly talk about of government power changing hands peacefully. No matter high level of popular support that some Ethiopian leaders (including yourself) had enjoyed at one point or another none of them could technically and legitimately claim that their power to govern stemmed from the people.

Your Excellency,

When the Emperor was overthrown in 1974, many Ethiopians hoped that the change would be for the better. The excitement and the hope very quickly turned to despair when the Derg regime turned out to be one of the most ruthless dictators that Africa has ever seen. Although I was very young during the early years of the regime, the scar left behind due to the execution of so many young Ethiopian friends and relatives primarily because they had a different political inclination will never heal and will never be forgotten.

Most Ethiopians wanted to change the situation swiftly but they were initially powerless in the face of tyranny supported by seemingly one of the most powerful armies in Africa. However, Ethiopians always rise to the occasion when their freedoms are seriously threatened. It may have taken almost two decades to get rid of the regime but the Derg leaders never got breathing space being painfully reminded of people’s dissatisfaction almost every day.

You were the leading light, the thinker, the fighter, the organiser, etc. in this mammoth struggle against tyranny. The Ethiopian people defeated the Derg and said not again to one group dominating the other, not again to nepotism, tyranny, corruption, etc. The people of Addis Ababa, as indeed the people of almost all other cities and towns in Ethiopia, went out in their thousands to welcome the EPRDF fighters who heroically liberated Ethiopia from the terror of the Derg regime. They gave food and water to the EPRDF fighters and treated them as their children, brothers and sisters. They congratulated them for their achievements against all the odds. They received them with open arms and opened their homes and their hearts. How could those same fighters and their relations now shoot the heads and the chests of the same people and their relations of Addis Ababa who treated them as their family members only 14 years ago?

I have been one of your admirers in the last 14 years. I believed, I guess as many other Ethiopians did, that you have had the intelligence, the determination and the foresight to lead the country to democracy, freedom and development. I believed that you were in such a fortunate position to have learned from the mistakes of your predecessors inside and outside Ethiopia. I have been prepared to give you the benefit of the doubt in some crucial areas (e.g. the handling of the good as well as the bad times with Eritrea) in which you have been heavily criticised by your opponents as well as within your own party.

* Please click on the link below for the rest of this letter.