The persistent foreign meddling, greed of Ethiopian leaders, personal ambitions of very many Ethiopian political opposition members, and all forms of past and present idiosyncratic political structures did force Ethiopia into a spiraling cycle of instability. The politics of division and personal ambitions of individuals have set the political agenda of our time; however, in reality our system is as old as the centuries old process that has gone into the making of modern Ethiopia. This kind of process has been with us for a century. Leaders can make a profound difference in shaping the destiny of a nation and a people. In light of this, different scholars and historians advance their views to deal with the age-old scourge of war, and the betrayal and deception of the ruling elites of Ethiopia. In general, the Ethiopian situation is a picture of strife and turmoil, political instability, and social deterioration. We are in the midst of a struggle to deal with the new faces of conflict of Aids, poverty, secession and the survival of Ethiopia as a nation. It has been said those who don�t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Our understanding of the present is profoundly dependant on our understanding of our past. Thus, will help us to predict the future. What we have witnessed so far is a movement of endless complaint and a one-sided reading of Ethiopian history skewed to fit the glory of Ethiopian leaders. 

We as a people and a nation must analyze the triumph and failure of successive Ethiopian leaders, as a lesson to advance the cause of Ethiopia. Past and present leadership have taken the Ethiopian people in to the abyss of poverty and ignorance, even though highly sophisticated political system was in place to allow only the few to advance their clutch on power. As a result of that ethnic animosity and deep-seated mistrust feeds much of our involvement in today�s politics of Ethiopia. Most of us are engaged in irrelevant pseudo intellectual argot instead of offering competing visions for Ethiopia, whereas our dialogue has already come to such a ruthlessly irrational and unfair personal fight. Political expediency has triggered the authoring of flimsy articles aimed at provoking and getting emotional appeal to distract people from seeking factual answers to legitimate rational questions. Instead of coming up with prudent political and economic program some of us continued to engage our readers in a vindictive agenda of looking to gather sympathizers. Such activity is one of the great tragedies hindering our development to advance our causes in the future. We are paralyzed by our own inflated ego, and when we do move out of such inertia we engage ourselves in making lofty generalizations to outsmart fellow Ethiopians. It is a sad and unpleasant situation unfolding in front of our eyes.

In this context reading Tseggai Mebrahtu�s commentary that appeared on several Websites, signals to us that war drummers have indeed continued to resurrect from their hideouts to wage an emotional battle equipped with empty rhetoric and spiteful agenda as their arsenal. In order to sell their agenda to the public, some scholars have become masters at manipulating history to put the best spin on events that otherwise would show a truth that may not be that flattering. Many of the spins are used to mold public attitudes against Tigrians. Unfortunately many of the colorful and provocative spins are cheap and pathetic shots at Professor Tecola Hagos, the distinguished scholar and the true defender of the interest of the common man and woman of Ethiopia and the unwavering fighter for the territorial integrity of Ethiopia. Tseggai�s unprovoked bitter attack on Tecola is full of vulgarity, contradiction, and lies. Even the outrageously fraudulent shrill tone of the article and its intellectual pretenses as leverage could not advance Tseggai�s bitter attack. He should be ashamed of writing this blatantly dishonest propaganda. The article only provoked the spread of Menelik hysteria, and Tseggai�s credibility continues to erode due to the article�s lack of coherence, logic, and objectivity. Emotion is being promoted to paralyze truth. The clash of intellectual engagement in politics has a problem in Ethiopian politics. While the past is gone, however, the future is still within our grasp and we should learn from the past to insure justice and human dignity all Ethiopians; and Ethiopian territory and unity preserved. History is the reflection of our past failure and success, weakness and strength. Nevertheless, a handful of scholars attempt to twist the truth to fit their agenda continued to thwart the sacrifices and the efforts of our people and the efforts of genuine independent scholars. A marriage of convenience has given birth to many pseudo-analysts and self-made-experts who are willing to lie and distort facts. Now the time has come to take a fresh approach to defend the national interest of Ethiopia and Ethiopians. Some intellectuals are continuing to conceal their ill motive under the deceptive slogans of ethnicity to attack the Tigrean people and dedicated scholars like Professor Tecola Hagos who do not hesitate to raise an issue considered by many provocative and taboo.

Tseggai�s commentary, more so a barrage of misrepresentation and hasty conclusions without any substance, aimed at Professor Tecola�s person and his work is mind-boggling. Throughout the commentary in Part I, Tseggai seems preoccupied and obsessed with Tecola mentioning Tecola Hagos�s name over forty times, and the TPLF name forty five times. I am dismayed at the unwarranted provocation of this attack. Never seen such systematic narrow ideological ambush, and one would have expected a more informed approach to rebut Tecola�s thesis on Atse Menelik�s role, Mehale Sefaris, Aradas, Shewa supremacists and Amhara chauvinists etc. The most comprehensive analysis on such important issues was made by Tecola, who began by fighting his way out of the intellectual morass of philosophical ideas within Ethiopian intellectuals that was dominated by Marxism and Ethnicism. 

Tecola Hagos aimed only to open dialogue, resolve crises and prevent the repetition or continuation of illicit acts of past and present leaders. There is no easy solution to the problem of Ethiopia, but it must be studied as a historical account. The impact of successive Ethiopian leaders due to their actions in dealing and entering international agreements with sworn enemies of Ethiopia continued to hound us. In this regard most of our scholars failed to establish a rational argument to help us determine our course of action dealing with contemporary Ethiopian politics. We are still groping around in search of an acceptable ideology. What we see to day is that most of our scholars masked and equipped by the politics of ethnicity try to undermine every unifying attempt and progress that was taking place in Ethiopia. To say the least the present leadership with its shortcomings the role of the intellectual is vital to shape and mold the future of Ethiopian politics. Undermining every effort under the guise of scholar undermining nation building of ingenious institution will not solve our problems. The siege mentality of one Ethiopia is appealing but the recognition of the plight of Ethiopians transcend beyond our imagined unity. The feudal and Marxist oriented heritage of confusion in identity and I- know-it-all altitude lead as in lynching of steam scholars while portraying opportunist and sellout individuals as true Ethiopian patriots. Let me quote Tseggai for a good laugh, as is much evident from his many shoddy writings and malicious diatribes 

� In fact, if Tplfites were concerned Tigrayan nationalists or Ethiopians as they pretend to be, the logical thing to do for them should have been to defend Tigrayan local interest [history] and Ethiopian national interest by fighting against the invented story that Ethiopia colonized Eritrea as did courageously and patriotically such extraordinarily wise Ethiopians as Abraham Yayeh and Gebremedhin Araya.� 

What a pathetic point. I really don't know to whom he is addressing his statement, no body in his right mind, other than top TPLF party leaders, endorses the idea that Ethiopia colonized Eritrea. The problem with Tseggai is that he stretches like octopus and finds himself in strange and difficult positions. His provocative views are based only on his imagined theory and contempt of the TPLF not as a scholar in quest of truth and rational discussion. Eritrea never got her independence as Tseggais� tall-tell story due to the principle of self-determination or because of TPLF�s stand, but due to some other reason not related to what Tseggai is saying. To the contrary, irrespective of what Tseggai wants to believe, as far as Eritrea is concerned, the reason is simply as follows:

�The world community has denied Eritrean independence on the grounds that Eritrea was not a distinct nation but instead a compilation of tribes, half of which�� Christians and�were part of the Ethiopian nation... ...Eritrea is now recognized as an autonomous state by the U.N, so it is no longer has to argue for statehood by claiming that is nation deprived of its independence� � Indeed, whether or not classified as a nation Eritrea has attained its long sought after status that of state.�

The last ten years has become a trend to portray all the illness of Ethiopia as the work of the TPLF, even though there is enough blame to go around. Most of our intellectuals have failed us in not leading us, or providing us with scholarly articles to guide us in our search for meaningful coexistence. So far most of the people who are fighting to gain political power are mostly intellectuals, and the direction of their political campaign so far has been aimed at grabbing power by any means. For sure, all the sacrifice that has been paid in blood and in life to overthrow the most brutal dictatorship Ethiopia had ever endured, the Derg, is not going to be undermined by Tseggai Mebrahtu and his likes, such as Abraha Yayeh and company. Abraha Yayeh conspired with the Derg against the resistance movements against the Derg. And after the fall of the Derg, he was with Asmara�s dictator Isayas Afeworki during the Eritrean invasion for the destruction of Ethiopia. We are all familiar with the standard apologies or excuses of opportunists that end with the phrases � but my intentions were good� It is not only that people sometimes deliberately misrepresent their intentions, but that people at all times are not best or even good judges of what those intentions are. What is Tecola contribution with� Tplfites,� if the above quote is the position of the UN? It has been one monumental missed opportunity for the EPRDF government not to have aggressively pursued the interest and security of Ethiopia for coastal territories and access to the Red Sea (Assab) as Tecola and many scholars have articulated. How can that make Tecola a traitor, when Tecola is the most articulate and most vocal defender of Ethiopian territorial rights over the entire Afar Coastal territory and the territorial waters of the Red Sea.

I would have loved to see an element of civilized dialogue between Ethiopian intellectuals, but now I am afraid to say that what we have come to is driven by sheer ignorance and personal vendetta. Now the question is where does Tseggai Mebrahtu commentary/attack takes us. Never mind that wishful thinking of creating unity by demonizing Ethiopia�s great defender. Tseggai must be unmasked and fully discredited. I see in him nothing, but an opportunist masquerading as new and wonderful thinker. That is pathetic! It is sad that we find others involved or engaged in such minor issues, while people like Tecola are struggling to educate Ethiopians and Eritreans to find common and long-lasting directions that they can travel together and understand each other better. Tseggai by contrast used some of the controversies surrounding Tecola�s views to distort and lie wholesale about what Tecola had written or said for Tseggai�s own benefit as an opportunity to advance his own political career. Observe in the quoted matter, how Tseggai distorts what Tecola�s view. 

�The point however is that even if the Professor pontificates that Menelik was a 'sell-out', the great majority of Ethiopian intellectuals believe that Menelik did not have the means to continue the war and to chase Italians from Northern Ethiopia. So, which "school of thought" is right? The partisans of the "treason" thesis cite in support of their arguments that Menelik accepted money from Italians and concluded treaties ceding Ethiopian territories. The problem is that Tecola and people like him don't go further and ask the question whether King Menelik did that with the aim of harming Ethiopia or out of necessity [understood in the legal sense of the word] to save Ethiopian independence by sacrificing a part of Ethiopian territory. For theoreticians of conspiracy such as Tecola, there is no doubt that their desire to retrospectively ethnicise Ethiopian history [i.e. to reduce it into Tigray-Shewa rivalry] perhaps in a bid to justify the current statuesque and to get themselves demagogically wowed by the TPLF rank and file leads them to preach that Menelik was an enemy of Tigray because not only he 'usurped' the Solomonian throne by pitting the different houses of Tigray against each other but also he sold Ethiopian patrimony with the aim of harming Tigray.�

Tseggai has bitten off more than he can chew; his ultimate failure to explore facts and draw rational conclusion shows his weakness. Tecola�s Article is constructed and the conclusions he reached thereon are deduced from Ethiopian history and treaties entered by Menelik, after soberly evaluating and weighting every word. One cannot but see the falsity of Tseggai�s position in confusing the germs with the disease. If the treacherous action of king Menelik is justified according to Tseggai�s lame theory �save Ethiopian independence by sacrificing a part of Ethiopian territory,� knowing the fact that Eritrea has gained her independence because of the position of the UN and the circumstance of the 1991 situation, then why did he not say the same for the TPLF? Under the TPLF leadership, Ethiopia was liberated from the jaws of brutal military regime by the foot soldiers gallant sons and daughters of Ethiopia after fighting over fifteen years. Marching from North to South, East to West with the meager resources, nevertheless succeeded to free all Ethiopians from the fascistic rule of Mengistu. In order to preserve the unity of Ethiopia, TPLF�s actions dealing with Eritrea must be also dealt with in the same manner as Tseggai tried to justify Menelik�s action after the Battle of Adowa. Let us assume for argument sake, if TPLF and EPLF have decide to fight after the fall of the Military (Dinka�s) government of Ethiopia, would it have been possible to save and preserve Ethiopia? Tseggai argument doesn�t hold water at all because it is flawed reasoning. He miserably failed to sustain his argument except to blame Tigreian�s support of the TPLF and Tecola�s thesis on Menelik; blaming others in difficult situation is always easy especially in circumstances of doubtful and hazy political situations. There is no conclusion to draw from Tseggai�s article because it is so replete by distortions, inconsistencies, lies, and logical deficiencies. Tseggai�s argument is based on myth and personal dislike of Tecola, whom he had praised in a couple of articles posted in the same Websites, and now he is heaping personal insults and unfounded criticisms of his ideas. Tseggai seems to be saying in so many pages of his article one single thing, �I hate Tecola Hagos� and is asking us to hate Tecola. As a Tigrean saying goes, �I hate him, please, join me to hate him.� Such article doesn�t have any moral, political, or educational value to us, but only creates doubt about Tseggai�s own person and intentions. 

Tseggai�s grasp of Ethiopian history is also another very serious problem with his article. He seems to be writing from inspiration rather than having read or researched his assertions. One of the most obvious one, I have quoted here below.

�Although defaming Menelik, the second black king who defeated European colonialists and therefore the pride of the black race (with the exception, of course, of EPLF and TPLF) and a fortiori the pride of Ethiopians is a futile attempt at nullifying Ethiopian national pride and history, I believe that the most important issue for Ethiopia today is not and cannot be what Menelik, who by the admission even of European historians was, together with Germany�s Bismarck, the most diplomatically intelligent man of the 19th century, did to defend Ethiopian independence in her very difficult relationship with European colonialists.� 

Let me state here plainly and clearly that Tseggai either has problems understanding what he is writing or he simply does not care checking his facts. The undisputed fact of the Ucchale Treaty for example shows that Menelik was no Bismarck at all. While Bismarck was loyal to his Germany adding territory as its domain, Menelik was engaged in selling out Ethiopian territory to Ethiopia�s enemies. Here in the words of respected and World renowned historian the undisputed facts, something that are testified to by many other historians: Professor Sven Rubenson wrote in his very important book,
�The Survival of Ethiopian Independence,� Pp 384-85: 
�The death of Yohannis finally presented Minilik with the opportunity for which he had been waiting for almost 25 years. He had been a reluctant vassal, and his contribution in defense of Ethiopia�s territory and independence had so far marginal: In the very last year of Yohannes�s reign, however Minilik came perilously close to allying himself with Ethiopia�s potentially most dangerous enemy, Now he needed the Italians more than they needed him. He wanted the promise rifles and more if possible. ��He was certainly aware that he would be requested to pay in terms future territorial concessions as well, if he succeeded to hold his own and eventual replace Yohannis as Emperor. It was in this situation the treaty of Wichale was conceived in Rome in August-September 1888. In the draft treaty, these concessions were defined by a line starting Anifilla on the cost, passing by and including in the Italian colony the village of Halay, Hebo, Akrur, Asmara, and Seazega and, after having followed the Anseba a short distance, running in a straight line east to west so that Bogos and most of other districts once held by Egyptians would go to Italy.� 

Menelik�s seal and signature on such Treaties stands as a testimony to his selfish scarifies of Ethiopian territory [Eritrea] as the single most reason as the source of our present predicament, a historical backlash. It is no longer impossible for Ethiopian educators to close their eyes to the fact Menelik conspired with the Italians for 5000 rifles with Antonelli to stay neutral in the war against Italians and Mahdist. When Menelik had been ordered by Yohannes to take position in the field against Mahdists after their retreat from Tana, Menelik agreed to act only as a peacemaker between Yohannes and Mahdists. 

It is clear thus that Ethiopia still faces very serious problems. The crazy political structure of Ethiopia since Atse Menelik has been edified as the symbol, and personal glory of certain group of people, and the greed of a few more, while the majority of the population lives in die-hard situation. It is the combination of these conflicting traits of personality and attitude about our past and present leaders of Ethiopia that is polarizing our understanding of Ethiopian politics. The rights that we have achieved shall not be washed away by old myths of nation building. Let me anchor facts from the slippery road of optimism of Tseggai� s thesis that to parrot and advocate the detrimental and treacherous policies of the past as if they were conventional wisdom or fact is totally foolish. But Tseggai with his supporters are otherwise engaged in creating their own version of history. It is but a dangerous illusion. As evidenced by his many shoddy publications and spiteful diatribes. Certain elite scholars used to write glorifying kings of their choosing without supportive document, but genuine scholars like Tecola try to rectify distortions of facts, demystifying myth, and rescue Ethiopian history for the benefit of all of us and all generations. We must encourage and support his thankless toil. 

Bereket Kiros
September 2004