nazret.com Merkato Blog

Ethiopia - nazret readers weigh in on Seye Abraha and Negasso Gidada

There was much discussion about the recent development about the announcement of Negaso Gidada, Ethiopia's former president, and Seye Abrah. joining the opposition party UDJ. More than 150 comments were posted on nazret.com where many were skeptical. Below are some of the selected comments from our readers.

elcad writes

"When Negasso Gidada aka (Gedada) left the TPLF junta the excuse he gave was, “I didn’t know EPRDF/TPLF has socialist agenda”. This was after six years of being their puppet /president. With out even mentioning many areas of his short comings or to the extent crimes, this statement by itself speaks volume about this man’s incredible lack of character. When he announced his ignorance about the core ideology of Woyane’s after six years of close acquaintance, he either had to be immensely stupid and oblivious or he was a chronic deceiver had no shame for lying out of the blue. Both are indicatives about what his supporters’ have to expect from his newest gig as a member of UDJ.

Siye Abraha is simply a tribal gangster and perfect swindler who have no reservation to make his noxious move as long as it fits his own self centered ploy. Let’s see, he was the perfect Mr. Woyane through out his glorious days as a master mind for Ethiopia’s demise for losing its see access to become land locked nation with the 2nd largest population in Africa imposed on her a 6 billion dollar annual economic advantage due to the absence of its own port (Assab). During his awesome epoch as a Woyane chief, a reporter from Reuter questioned him about Ethiopia’s disadvantage for losing its port, and the colorful hoodlum responded by saying “Ethiopia was poor when it has port and Ethiopia is poor with out port. So what?” as the good Journalist from CBS (Mike Wallace) said “this is his word not mine”.

These are the two opportunists that have been called in this forum as the future political power houses of Ethiopia and hailed as saints for becoming potential contaminators of the already crippled UDJ. After toppling the coup orchestrators against his government in 2002, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela answered to a reporter who asked him if he will appoint one of his nemesis’s to a cabinet post, Chavez said a firm “no” by emphasizing “short memory is the biggest mistake in politics”. Some of the bloggers who steadfastly supports this calculated move by these two evil trailblazers are nothing but suffering from “short memory” syndrome. When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves. These include the way we think and the way we see our political leaders. I would adamantly prefer the Woyane’s to stay on power rather than facing another political disappointment. These two people have not changed or will never change. They simply made political move based on their self interest. Expecting any change out of these two is just naïve. As the old saying goes “it is hard to teach new tricks to the older dog”. Our country is bleeding partly because of the malfunction created by these two people and will be blooding for generations to come. Now, if we are trying to convince our selves the same havocs will be the solutions, I say “it is delusion at its best”.

Free writes

"Am Lovin' This, Excellent News! Both Siye and Negasso, Welcome to UDJ, The Second Child of Ethiopia's Next Prime Minister Woizerit Birtukan Mideksa!!! Also, congratulations to those who made this happen!

Laughing at Hailu Shawul's ye Teletafi badge, it is as colourful as the ugly dedebit flag. "

Challenger writes

Negasso and Siye are criminals who killed 42 of my friends in one day in AAU. They belong in Huge to stand on trial for killing Amharas in Bedeno and Areba gugu, not use me again to hap on their high horses.

I can't fathom some people are supporting this killers who chased us out of the country to use my party, Birtukan's party, to return to power. What do we gain from them? What is that special gift these killers bring with them that other Ethiopians can't bring to UDJ? How come UDJ chases people like Prof. Mesfin but invites General Siye to join it? Whose idea is this anyway? How come the same players/actors are allowed to continue their game with a different costume?

Siye made Ethiopia landlocked. Siye was the hardliner in TPLF who objected elections and Democracy in 1991. Siye was the ultra-Tigray nationalist who was subdued by Meles. He was worse than Meles in his outlook on Ethiopia and Amharas. Siye through his leadership facilitated the transfer of the public’s wealth to his ethnic group’s coffers.

Siye never rejected woyanne even after six years of incarceration by woyanne. All he wants to do is reform woyanne so as to follow his political beliefs. He never denounced ethnic-federalism or admitted that his stand on Eritrea was wrong. Many of our brothers and sisters are dying of hunger today because of the actions he took when he was in power. Today Ethiopia is paying $700 million a year for port Djibouti and unable to sufficiently import the aid food at rate that copes with the critical demand.

How come someone who never cared about Ethiopia’s national interest -- economic, geopolitical— stands out as one of the last hopes of Ethiopia? How come someone who is admittedly wrong, which means half as smart as the rest of us who were against his deadly and destructive ideology and policies, is given the chance to be part of our leadership and a de facto leader of UDJ?

It is one thing to forgive him for what he has done, but it's absolutely completely mind boggling and another thing to see him as a political asset when he is inferior to us politically and his loyalty and allegiance to the flag and the republic is suspect. It’s also another thing trying to give him another chance before those who were tortured, killed and exiled by him got a chance.

UDJ may think appeasing the enemy or working with any x-woyanne members maybe the way to go. They may think they could counter the Tigre nationalists through him and the Oromo nationalists through Negasso. In my book that is not forgiveness; that is called opportunism or give and take. I tell you these two are the wrong persons even for that kind of political calculation. And that kind of horse trading may pass for smart politics but responsibility, accountability, transparency, morality and sense of truth and honesty will be the permanent causality in our society.

This will foster lack of trust in the Democratic tradition of the country because all people like Siye need to absolve themselves from their past crimes is a mere short and cryptic apology then they can get right back at it and start where they left off. In a sense this says that you are accountable for your crimes and actions only when you have nothing to offer.

Even if it’s taken at a face value, this unholy alliance doesn’t pass the criterion set by Siye himself for a successful and lasting political unity. Alliances that never solved outstanding issues such as those mentioned by Siye in his 35 page paper and serious issues such as Siye's and Negasso's alleged involvement in past crimes such as Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity and possible legal claims that my arise against them from those incidents in the future and its effect on the political alliance are dead from the start. There are other issues as well such as Siye’s involvement in defrauding the Ethiopian people through EFFORT and how this things will be handled in the future political arrangements, just to mention a few.

That is why many say this substandard agreement has all the hallmarks of the Western diplomats in Ethiopia who are being pressured by Meles to force the Opposition to accept woyane and organize in the same way as EPRDF -- one Oromo representative, one Tigre representative, one Amahra representative, etc. UDJ is going down the road of EPRDF to defeat woyanne. UDJ is becoming woyanne to "defeat" woyanne.

The valid fear and concern of many is that UDJ has been hijacked to throw the quickly sinking woyanne a life raft. Many staunch opposition supporters thought AEUP’s Hailu was the most stupid politician to ever walk on the face of the earth, because of the recent agreement (code of conduct governing the 2010 election) he signed with Meles. But many didn't expect their own UDJ will out do him in such a short time.

That unnatural and out of the ordinary, sudden move made many reach into a conclusion. Now it's obvious what is going on. It's all about jockeying for attention and relevance. It's all about pre-positioning oneself to be a beneficiary of the recent trend in African Democracy. It's all about appearing a viable pressure group that should be considered in power-sharing arrangement with Meles Zenwi's EPRDF. There you have it. A very sad dead-end for UDJ’s and AEUP’s principled stand on Ethiopia's future.

abate writes

"I think this is a great news. These two guys are well respected in Ethiopia. EPRDF will do everything to eliminate this brave guys. I hope their unity will strength the weak opposition parties we have currently. We need like Dr. Negasso who can fight toe to toe with Meles. Dr. Negasso is well respected man in Ethiopia and around the world. Go UDJ!!! "