BY ADDISALEM MULAT
Today’s exclusive column guest goes by the name of Abate Kisho. He was the President of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region. Strictly speaking, he had passed through many ups and downs during the TPLF junta officials’ regime.
Much in the same way, he was born and raised in the former Sidama Province, Dale district, Tula Kebele, and pursued his primary education at Princess Aida School which was named after Emperor Haile Selassie’s granddaughter, and secondary education at Yirgalem General Comprehensive Secondary School.
With the passage of time, he joined Adama Teacher’s Training Center and embarked on eking out a living as a teacher. Thereafter, he obtained a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Business Administration from Netherlands and England in that order.
Having served as a teacher for seven solid years, Abate was appointed as the President of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region. However, as time progressed, under the mask of corruption and other unforeseen reasons, he was sentenced to six years in prison. Against this background, he had passed through many highs and lows.
Of late, The Ethiopian Press Agency had a short stay with Abate Kisho with the intention of familiarizing his feelings, ideas, and thoughts regarding the law enforcement operation that took place in the Tigray region and things of that nature. Speaking of which, he has touched upon a considerable amount of issues revolving around his personal and professional life. Below are excerpts:
It is to be recalled that the government of Ethiopia has accomplished the law enforcement operation that took place in the Tigray Region with flying colors and turned its face towards development activities. What do you make of it?
It is no secret that the TPLF junta officials were unremittingly taking control of the entire nation for nearly three decades. Sad as it may sound, following their evil acts, the left, right, and center of the country was unwaveringly exercising horrendous violation of human rights every once in a while. In more specific terms, in each specific case, the whole lot was unspeakable, and going down like a lead balloon. It is no hyperbole to say that every single thing all over the country was moving into uncharted territory once in a great while.
For the sake of truth, the TPLF junta officials’ ideology had been waited until the system entirely underwent decay despite the whole lot was dead and buried many times ago. More often than not, they were putting in place the ideology under the cover of the revolutionary democracy of Marxism-Leninism.
As a matter of interest, most people did not understand the fact that the TPLF junta officials’ ideology was bringing to the fore their party dominance every now and then. Amazingly enough, for the love of materializing their dreams, they managed to create an enormous amount of affiliated parties. They did not have the right to do anything as they wished bearing in mind that the TPLF junta officials had drawn a red line between the ruling party and the affiliated ones.
When push comes to shove, the TPLF junta officials themselves got cracking on breaching the Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.
To the surprise of everyone, as time slipped by, the TPLF junta officials’ organized themselves extremely well with everything required and ended up attacking the Northern Command of the Ethiopian National Defense Forces. Their intended target was taking possession of the military equipment and getting rid of the federal government by force from power. However, all their efforts went for nothing due to the heroic deeds of the Ethiopian National Defense Forces.
It is to be recalled that the TPLF junta officials were testing the patience of the government time after time asserting to have endorsed their own polling law, poling commission, and coordinating a pretense as well as illegal voting. On top of that, they were constantly sowing the seeds of hatred and stoking turmoil in the midst of the various Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples of Ethiopia every now and then.
While on the subject, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the Ethiopian National Defense Forces for accomplishing the law enforcement operation with flying colors within a short period of time without harming a single civilian even.
In the strict sense, as the TPLF junta officials were in the process of preparing themselves for a long time, I did not imagine the Ethiopian National Defense Forces would accomplish the law enforcement operation within a short period of time.
Amazingly enough, as the government of Ethiopia managed to carry out the operation in highly organized ways, the Ethiopian indomitable lions managed to accomplish the operation within a very short space of time.
Following the speedy accomplishment of the operation, quite a lot of people will reap benefits beyond a shadow of a doubt. It is abundantly clear that the people of Tigray did not benefit from the TPLF junta officials’ regime for many years.
Even though the juntas thought that the people of Tigray were by the side of them, the people of Tigray made it clear that they hate them, too.
At this particular moment, rehabilitation of demolished infrastructure has been taking place with a view to restoring service at full scale in less than no time. Everything in the region is moving in the right direction.
By the way, the TPLF officials are not the only source of predicaments. There are as well others who reside in several parts of the country and make an effort to throw cold water on the efforts of the government behind closed curtains. From my perspective, the government should go in quest of the whereabouts of potential complications root them out in the shortest possible time.
In the strictest sense, as there are followers who would like to put the decayed ideology into effect all over the country, the government should be able to move heaven and earth with a view to getting rid of them from the face of the country once and for all.
Which parts of the country should be given due emphasis as far as you are concerned?
I have the nerve to say, the problem exists in every nook and cranny of the country. All without exception are victims of the old system. I would venture to say, during the TPLF regime, apart from suffering from the lack of rule of law, and passing through many tribulations and other heartrending inhuman and evil acts, most people residing in every corner of the country had been displaced and wounded.
As the TPLF officials’ ‘viruses’ are in the length and breadth of the country, every Tom, Dick, and Harry had been harmed once in a great while.
In the same fashion, the government of Ethiopia should be able to check higher-ranking government officials provided that they seem to face difficulty in putting on the new system and casting off the old one.
What is your reflection on the TPLF junta officials’ conspiracies?
As everyone knows EPRDF was composed of four political parties namely Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF), Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM), the Oromo Peoples Democratic Organization (OPDO), and the Southern Ethiopia Peoples Democratic Movement (SEPDM). Among them, the influential one was merely the Tigray People Liberation Front. To the surprise of everyone, they were persistently boasting about creating the affiliated parties.
Aside from acknowledging the ruling party, the affiliated ones were simply standing by the side of the TPLF junta officials. They were serving as the ears and the eyes of them. At that very moment, the power of authority was derived from the TPLF officials.
In the same way, all the regional states of the country were under the supervision and leadership of the TPLF junta officials. The affiliated parties were not given the green light to get off the track and do whatever they sought after as they wished. Regardless of the fact that the electoral system exists, they did not take part in the election of the country.
The Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People’s Region, the Oromia region, Amhara regional state were under the supervision of the TPLF junta officials. They had no right to do anything as they wished. To cut a long story short, the length and breadth of the country were under the supervision of the TPLF juntas officials.
During the regime of TPLF junta officials, representatives were sent to the various regions of the country from the Tigray region. Differently, it was not allowed to send representatives from other parts of the country to the Tigray region.
As the president of the Southern Nation’s Nationalities and Peoples Regions, I should have been judged following the legal system of the region.
Pessimistically, they threw me into prison on the grounds that I turned down to stand by the side of Meles Zenawi. They arrested me without lifting the immunity from prosecution and arrest. At that point in time, the court and the judge were under the control of TPLF junta officials.
Be that as it may, during the court hearing, I told the judge the fact that they threw me into prison without lifting my immunity from prosecution and arrest. This time, the judge asked the police why he did so.
What surprised me most was the response of the policeman. He said, “I have heard the lifting of his immunity on the news.” The judge would have stopped them. However, as he took an order from the Arat kilo palace, he did not hesitate to put it into effect according to the order of higher-ranking officials. As the judge was a political appointee, he gave priority to his party’s mission.
Some people say that there are still some displeased segments of the junta members hiding in various parts of the country. What is your take on this?
I would say, the TPLF junta officials’ regime was over and done with in the year 2000. Even though renewal of ideology came to pass over and over again, the sought after goal was not achieved as expected. To the dismay of the TPLF junta officials, everything ended up missing the envisioned target in the shortest possible time. As their intention was staying in power by hook or crook making the most of the country’s security and defense, they turned out to be tyrants more than ever before.
In point of fact, no matter how hard they tried their efforts managed to bear fruits merely until Meles Zenawi departed this life. However, as time went by, the whole thing embarked on getting out of their hands.
For the sake of truth, the major actor of the ideology was Melese Zenawi. I really appreciate his reading capacity and understanding things almost immediately. However, after his passing away, giving training for cadres was in full swing. The pieces of training were offered by Abay Tsehaye and Bereket Simon.
As Melese Zenawi went the way of all flesh with the key of the ideology, they did not seem to have understood the nitty-gritty of the system. As time progressed, violations of human rights and robbery embarked on deteriorating in the length and breadth of the country.
However, in the fullness of time, the regime shuffled off this mortal coil. After what went down, they headed straight to Mekele and hid in the city. In the true sense, this did not mean that the game was over. As the TPLF junta officials had made the entire structure by themselves, there were quite a lot of people who could stand by the side of them.
They had a huge amount of influence over the general public. At that specific point, the number of robbers on a national scale went on snowballing time and time again. Surprisingly, those who had collected assets were brought into play a wide spectrum of techniques for the sake of prolonging their
The Ethiopian Herald January 5/2021
