Addis Ababa University – The Last Frontier under Attack

 

By Eshetu Tekabe

December 13. 2002

 

It is another week of a cutthroat struggle between Meles Zenawi and Addis Ababa University, the country's traditional breeding ground for political dissent against successive repressive regimes. "Will the university cave in, and abandon its role as the glimmer of hope for enslaved millions of Ethiopians?" is a question lingering in the minds of Ethiopians who learned three university officials have submitted letters of resignation, than succumb to a scheme designed to drive a wedge between the student body and the teaching staff.

The measures taken by the officials, all distinguished university scholars, represent the ultimate defiance one could take in the face of a mercenary rule that is struggling to put on a cloak of legitimacy. Their resistance is an outright rejection to falling into the traps of 'gimgema', a lethal weapon Meles and his hirelings have been using to bring the entire society under their control, and consolidate their grip on power.

The hirelings know the demise of Meles Zenawi means their own demise. They should be smart to look not like errand boys of a mercenary regime, and they are trying to be one. They are talking to resolve the crisis through 'dialogue' - a method the notorious cadres use when the goings get tough, buy time, and return back to strike where it hurts most. We may read news reports any time, telling us "government and university officials resolve crisis or reach agreement." But for anyone who is already used to the "intrigue pattern" of Meles Zenawi, the future developments stand crystal clear: a government offensive on the civil society is in the making. Now Meles knows who constitutes the crop of university defiance. It is easy to weed out the 'unwanted,' and leave the university crippled. A slow death is around the corner, where the 'rebelling' scholars would be hunted down without the fanfare of media attention and public scrutiny, and the entire university, the last frontier of resistance against mercenary rule, would be swept away under the forces of evil.

The ploy blossomed like this: the regime saw the Addis Ababa Univeristy as a conscious, strong body that would reject the 'gimgema' policy, and other colleges would follow suit in support of the Addis Ababa University. So the best option the cadres planned was to approach the weaker colleges first, and advance toward the Sidist Killo Campus for a final assault. The scheme was, "if other colleges accept the government policy, why not the university?" But thanks to the united and patriotic measures of the presidents of the university, Sidist Killo thrashed the plan of the Mafiosi controlling the country today. Danger is hanging in the air, though.

In the face of such danger, all colleges in the country, both students and faculty members, must stand united in purpose, declare solidarity with the Addis Ababa University, vote for freedom over slavery, and foil the threats of Tefera Walewa, who warned that the "university was the last barrack of the Derg military regime, and should be demolished." Cadres use threats, and the word "Derg" is carefully used to instill fear into the minds of our scholars. The danger facing the university is a danger facing the country. It concerns every one of us, though opposition parties, they themselves under constant threat, could play a pivotal role by shifting their role from being passive onlookers to being the engine of political activism to rescue a dying nation.

Take a look at the following:

a) Meles Zenawi's propaganda minister, Netsanet Asfaw, is conducting a 'gimgema' at the Ethiopian News Agency, a state-owned, second-to-walta largest employer of reporters in the country. In other words, the gimgema at ENA is being conducted to fire 'unwanted journalists', and instill fear in the remaining staff members. The Ethiopian News Agency is being groomed to become another propaganda school that would join Walta, Radio Fana, and other tools of repression and disinformation active in the business of weakening the unity of the Ethiopian people.

b) A conference to "bridge the gap between the opposition parties and the government" is being hosted by the East African Forum, whose president is Andreas Eshete, the same cadre who was humiliated as an errand boy of the mercenary regime during the war of words on the university campus.

Such gimgema marathoning is tantamount to taking the battle to the university instead of the university taking the battle to Meles Zenawi and his cohorts to force their resignation through national uprisings akin to the 1974's. Gimgema is a method the rogue use to thwart the university from going on the offensive into taking a defensive position confined to implementing the regime's assignment - TEHADSO.(Watch out the cadres are trying to shift the blame to Nature by legitimizing famine as part and parcel of Ethiopian history, and a phenomenon that would live with the country in the future!).

In the meantime, the measures taken by the Oromo National Congress and the All Ethiopian Unity Party in discarding the cosmetic Sheraton Conference, where the hated regime tries to manipulate the mind of the diplomatic community in Addis by looking 'opposition-friendly,' is praise worthy. Now it is time to build a bridge of national resistance between them and our university scholars and students throughout the country. Any loose connection would only help the killer regime, which looks like to have run out of time.