On the Betryal Instinct: Sifting Through Hailesilasie Girmaye’s Pieces
By A. Mulat August 20, 2002 

I happen to read Hailesilasie Girmaye’s poems and other articles out of some interest to literature for quite a while and I must say all of them were not bad. But there was always something that strikes me most in his pieces: his consistency and extreme care not to criticize Ato Meles. Even with his latest postings he has been observed trying hard to convince us that the prize given to the prime minister is a legitimate one. 

The theme of Ato Haileselasies’ writings in general can be summed up as one that cherishes the continuation of the failed narrow TPLF legacy. I found his pieces to be mostly isolationist that aim on emphasizing differences rather than concentrating on things that bond people together. However the writer seems to forget that it was because of the unity factor that the people of Ethiopia came to rescue their compatriots in Tigray, when the children of “Mosoluni” in Eritrea unleash their unprovoked war of aggression on innocent civilians four years a go. 

The tribalist thinking in the past has resulted in serving the interest of the enemy- “Shabia”- to the detrimental effect of our country’s interest on permanent basis. Triablist people by nature are not interested in national issues or the common good in general. They tend to give priority to kinship rather than to wisdom and noble behavior for political governance. I, for example, expected Ato Haileselasie to write on something of national importance like the issue of Assab, when the debate was raging b/n the proponents of “borrowed ports” and the rest of the Ethiopian people. There was none to this date (unless I missed one) and this largely explains what attracts the mind of the tribalist and what not. I also followed through Ato Haileselasie’s articles on “Walta” during the split in TPLF and he sounded like he was worried about the split itself rather than the issues that brought about the split. Eritrea’s parasitic relationship with Ethiopia didn’t bother him too much while this was the main point of dispute that brought about the breakup of the TPLF. 

In fact we observed when he was trying to mediate between the two groups on “Walta” and didn’t focus on the issues raised by the two groups. He neither gave credit for the dissenters for opposing and stopping Eritrian plunder (as they deserve one) and bringing national pride on the defeat of “Shabia”, nor condemned the Meles group for stopping the war prematurely and siding with Eritrea. While harboring subtle but extreme hatred to the Ethiopian society in general he just continued to hide in his poems and sophisticated diction. 

I respect Ato Hailselassie’s right in promoting the ideals he believes in but what I found a bit repulsive is when he tries to pose as concerned Ethiopian while he hates anything Ethiopian. One may walk on a fine line for some time while the heart belongs to the enemy, but it is hard to do that forever before being exposed to what one really stands for. I would like to bring one “hard fact” to the attention of Ato Haileselasie and other tribalists here. 

Our country is now a landlocked nation just for one and only one reason: he and others like him got carried away a little too far by triablist thoughts and allowed the so-called “Eritrians” to walk over them. They betrayed the people of Tigray in particular and the rest of Ethiopia in general, worshipped Shabia far too long, laid themselves on the ground in total submission to “Eritrians” (contrary to the sprit of their heroic forefathers like Alula who ruled from Asmara) and allowed Shabia to spit and urinate on them and fulfill its evil dream of making Ethiopia a land locked nation. They never questioned anything what Shabia asked them to do. They denied the existence of their ancient nation, Ethiopia, and thought school children not about Emperor Yohannes (who gave his life for Ethiopia’s sovereignty) but about the “glory” of “Shabia “and the so-called “Eritrea”. For their service to Shabia however, these souls got nothing but contempt and disrespect from “Eritrians”. 

The few Ethiopian nationalists in TPLF are either eliminated earlier by Shabia agents or are in prison now. Some uncritical supporters of TPLF still tell us that thousands of Tigrians have sacrificed themselves in the armed struggle. That may be true. But the bottom line is what was the result? Every thing boils down to a result. The net result is to make Ethiopia a landlocked nation, dependent on the willingness of its neighbors for its survival, and for the first time in its independent History. I don’t think this is something to be proud of. TPLF might claim it has represented the interest of the people of Tigray in the past. But there was no time where the people of Tigray gave their consent to TPLF for their country to be land locked. Had those young sacrificed lives from Tigray known about this final dreadful result in advance, they probably would have opted to destroy Shabia first. 

The fact is that they didn’t know they were being used by “Shabia agents” (disguised in TPLF) to promote Eritrean interest against their own country. The fact being this, one just wonders now if another round of betrayal is in the making again. While most of the Ethiopian people were apprehensive of the renewed Ethiopian nationalism after the last war with Shabia, some tribalist minds (like that of the mentioned writer) still seem to be interested in playing the race card again. No body knows to what end. This was supposed to be the time of soul searching for all Ethiopians so that a strong national unity can be built. 

To this effect the former “Deki-Alula Website” was trying hard to bridge the gap left by ethnisization of Ethiopia in the last 11 years. Predictably it is attacked by the tribalists (and perhaps with the regime’s financial support behind). Listening to the dissidents of TPLF in whatever forum shouldn’t have been a problem to cause a dispute among open-minded Ethiopians. The change in the content of the mentioned Website rather must have another reason behind.

We can always listen and ask questions in a civilized manner, agree on whatever we can agree and reject what needs to be rejected . That is the essence of Democracy-tolerating to each others views ( I believe). It also is not necessarily bad for unity if the dissidents sometimes address provincial forums in “Tigrina” (when they are asked to do so) and national forums in “Amharic”. Both languages are Ethiopian heritage derived from one language family- “Geez” and the change is largely cosmetic. Let’s not also forget that the Tigrian Diaspora was one of the dissident’s constituencies in the past (although it was largely used to promote Eritrian interest) and the dissidents have a lot of explanation to do as to what went wrong in the past.  They must explain as to how Ethiopia ended up being ruled by few “Eritrians thugs” in Addis Ababa now. They must explain as to why Ethiopia became a port-less country, and why they did nothing about it on time. They must explain as to why Eritrea was allowed to plunder Ethiopian resources at will for well over 8 years, and the list goes on. 

Language should not be a disuniting factor at any given time. What matters is the message, and the message shouldn’t be to divide Ethiopians on ethnic lines, as was the case in the past. The message shouldn’t be to preach hatred of one ethnic group against the other, as was the case in the past. The message shouldn’t be to glorify “Shabia’s Eritrea” and belittle the History of the only black independent ancient nation on Earth- Ethiopia. The message shouldn’t be based on village mentality, as was the case in the past. It needs to be about showing genuine regret of the past betrayal of a nation and the lessons to be learnt. It needs to be about building Ethiopian unity again and future strategies in restoring our natural Sea-outlet-Asseb. It needs to be about discussing issues on healthy type of regional-federalism that fosters the free flow of capital and labor in the country, ensure Ethiopia’s various nations and nationalities to use their own preferred language locally and develop their culture, while using one commonly agreed home grown language as a national language (importing the “English Alphabet” as a national language could only be a national disgrace to a country which has its own “Alphabets” for centuries. We will be loosing our identity and uniqueness in the History of Black people. The “Saba Alpahabet” is our common heritage used by all Ethiopian languages for writing and reading purposes, be it in Guragina, Oromigna, Amarigna, Tigringna, etc etc, and it is a precious gift from our forefathers who have fallen heroically in defending it from foreign invaders for centuries. 

Those who want to use any “foreign Alphabet “ in any of the Ethiopian languages are people of law-steam and unpatriotic souls who disgrace their fallen forefathers in the anti-Colonialism History of Ethiopia, and they are mostly “FERENG AMLAKIS !). My problem thus is not any Ethiopian language used for communication. It is only the message. If I get the chance to meet the dissidents of TPLF, I would like to remind them that using ethnic organizations as a ladder to political power has proven to be destructive, divisive and dangerous in the past and there is no need to revive it again. I want them to see a little farther than Tigray and analyze what ethnic politics has done for the country as a whole. I want them to see how many Ethiopian people have been killed in ethnic strife in the south during the last 11 years as a direct result of introducing ethnic politics, and whether they care about those Ethiopian lives or not? I want to observe whether they understand the ethnic and geographic complexities of the Ethiopian society and the associated problems and dangers in creating ethnic enclaves. I want to listen to their views and future strategies about restoring Ethiopia’s natural Sea out let (Asseb), which they foolishly gave away to “Shabia” in 1991. I want to observe whether they have understood that what works in Tigray doesn’t necessarily work for the rest of Ethiopia. I want to see whether they have realized the negative role they played in stifling the growth of Democracy and the Rule of Law in Ethiopia. 

In general I want to see whether these people have genuine regrets about the damage they inflicted to our country, particularly in making her a landlocked nation, and whether they do understand why the Ethiopian people feel very bitter about it. While I give them some credit in stopping Eritria’s parasitic relationship with Ethiopia and deflating the false “Shabia” ego forever (against Ato Melese’s wish), I believe that the dissidents can only be of any help as long as they tell and teach people about the dangers of organizing political parties on tribal lines again, and the advantages of multi-national political parties in bringing peace and stability to the country. While this is my personal view about the dissidents of TPLF, I suspect there is much more reason for promoting the tribalist agenda again. My guess is that it may have some thing to do with the work of the regime to play the race card once again and try to stay in power. 

All the features and the messages on the mentioned Website, including Ato Hailselasie’s recent championing of Mr. Meles, do not suggest otherwise (the infamous constitution of the country and links to secessionist websites are now also included). We may see more of this over time and one shouldn’t be surprised if we see some overlapping of work between “Walta” and the hijacked “Deki-Alula” in the near future. In the past, it was the work of few Shabia agents (disguised in TPLF) that turned TPLF in to the full service of Shabia and it may be now again the work of some ethnicists that is trying to isolate the people of Tigray from the rest of Ethiopia again. It is a matter of time for the likes of Ato Hailessilase to jump to Ato Meles’s camp in the open once they got the reward they are waiting for (perhaps an Ambassadorial post somewhere else, shall we say!). What they need to do is just write a few more flattering articles for Ato Meles and that will do the job. The betrayal instinct of these souls seems to be up and in the beating again, but true Ethiopians should never fall to the trap of the tribalists and conspire against their own country again. You fool me once, you are to be blamed, but you fool me twice, I am to be blamed”- so goes the saying.

Back to main page!