Arkebe lost because he is an EPRDF not simply because he is a Tigrean. Although most (if not all) Tigreans voted for the EPRDF without having to consider the other view, the people of Ethiopia as well as all Tigreans do not deny that the present EPRDF is stage-managed by TPLF and its building blocks who come from the Tigrean race. That means, Meles and his cohorts should not propagate the rumor that Arkebe was defeated because he was a Tigrean. It is the Tigreans who are excluding other races from participating and winning in Tigray. What racism is there more than that? Look at other regions where racism has not been a factor. Meles is propagating this rumor to silence the growing notion within the EPRDF that other member organizations, especially from the majority Oromo or Amhara should be given the chance to rescue the EPRDF. He is attempting to send a message that he was glad with the defeat of other veteran except Arkebe expressing his dissatisfaction with the rest of his defeated cohorts. That is he was saying that all except Arkebe deserved to be defeated. Their defeat also helps him to silence the newer EPRDF’s coming from the peasantry to vote for him as the prime minister for the coming five years. Hence, Arkebe could not escape the verdict of the people since the people will and had rejected the EPRDF except the people of Tigray who voted 10000% for it. If EPRDF is an Ethiopian organization, we will see the next prime minister coming from OPDO, ANDM or SEPDF. For one thing, when the opposition wins the EPRDF almost in a landslide victory wherever the observers were present, this shows that Meles is a failure both to his party as well as to the Ethiopian people. If Meles is not standing down as an intelligent person to save the EPRDF as a viable organization of the future as well as to put the other non-TPLF “member organizations” on a level field, the opposition would have a easier and demonized opponent (Meles) to fight against than a new face that would lessen the fetal failure of Meles who saw the referendum of the people. The other members of the organization are pointing fingers at non-TPLF leaders to devolve fair power sharing within the EPRDF.

Email: ewnet_zelalem@yahoo.com

City: Silver Spring, Maryland

Ewnet Zelalem:

What the hell are you doing, Mr. Shabbo? Get lost! Don't pop up uninvited. Gosh, they don't know when they dump them!

I agree with Ewunet Zelalem. Arkebe is defeated b/c he is an EPRDF not b/c he is Tigrian. There are Tigrian CUD candidates who won in this election. So it is clear now the people is worried about ideas not ethinicity."LEBAM HIZBI"

Email: belayt01@yahoo.com

City: Addis Ababa

Congratulation to Ethiopians!!

Your consistent and persistent rejection of the EPRDF has paid off. The EPRDF has shown that it is a conqueror and attempts to keep its “tagay” spirit from flickering out as a dying and hopeless candle light. Truth as water keeps its level and we have come to the point where our defiance of lies, demagoguery, favoritism, and corruption embodied in Meles Zenawi and his cohorts is doomed to diffuse in some time to come. Meles might be seen and remembered with his biltabitinet but not for his principled and inclusive leadership qualities. As he is saying, he is selling himself for the Western world. It is not surprising that he sells himself to the world as he even defines smartness or aradanet is being an Eritrean. What is not there for sell for you?

Who are you fighting now Meles? Yegna Tagay???? Neftegna, Derg, Iseppa (WPE), feudal, OLF, al itihad. I understand that you are in a different paradigm after Isayas kicked your ass and you have to go to school to learn what it is to be Ethiopian. You have caught up good in the past few years but you are still yearning for the smartness you are missing. Please we fought TPLF and EPLF not because we loved Mengistu as much as we fought the Eritrean government not because we loved you. We fought because you might release that you would be a loser thinking that being Eritrean is aradanet. Hope you would release that sooner than later. Still you have a chance and pray every morning to be true to yourself and heal your hateful heart. We are your brothers and love you because we know you are a troubled son of Ethiopia even if you still think being Eritrean is smartness. You are wrong to think that our Tigrean citizens are shortsighted for rejecting Eritrean domination. No, they are not wrong. They are proud of themselves and they prefer to be free than being subservient of another force. They also prefer to be hungry than sell themselves as you do.

Now you failed because EPRDF failed. Alternatively, your leadership is a failure. You lost almost 250 seats in the first relatively contested election. God and you know how much you stole. I hear Eritreans are rejoicing with your victory, as you are the last straw for their hope. However, you think that justice is in your hands- you are gravely mistaken. As much as your cunningness, the people of Ethiopia have grown the same. People learn behaviors from their leaders and we seem to be outgrowing your shrewdness.

We have spat on your face, not only because you are a failure because we can’t take your lies and opportunistic hopelessness anymore. Congratulations, Ethiopians. Keep the pressure. The election was a good sign that Meles in besides the cliff. We are one and the same and Meles seems to have run out of ideas (Actually he run out of ideas when he sent his “brainy” friends of fire to prison). EPRDF is limping through since the TPLF split. In addition, we realized it was not Meles but his foes who had ideas and principles.

Meles-Time is not on your side anymore. You can do a lot to “hang on to power” but you cannot stop the time.

Adios.

Email: ewnet_zelalem@yahoo.com

City: Silver Spring, Maryland

Zelalem!-what do U mean ! by -->the people of Ethiopia as well as all Tigreans do not deny that the present EPRDF is stage-managed by TPLF and its building blocks who come from the Tigrean race!!!!

Zelalem has put alot of facts and good ideas. But mr. hair spliter is questioning un related things. If you are tigrean stand by your self don't try to put your self as representer of tigreans. We don't want any representative except our selfs. Only ran your own ideas.
TEBEKA AYNDELN

Email: belayt01@yahoo.com

City: Addis Ababa

Belay:

Who cares for Arkebe? An EPRDF functionary? You know Arkebe may have done something superficial to buy more credit to the party that is killing our country slowly. Arkebe's true colors were exposed when on the eve of elections he said the City Council has the power to crack down on 3,000 "hooligans" just in one night! The people are smart; they know to separate the wheat from the chaff, so Arkebe was chaffed. What I'm opposed to Ewnet Zelalem's opinion is how did he reach the conclusion that most Tigrians voted for "EPRDF." Where did he get this wild lie? Did not CUD and UEDF say their candidates were forced to quit the election because of intimidation?

I sincerely believe all of you have listened to this:

http://sound.quatero.net/beqagne.htm

City: NYC

Gashaw,

don't be biased! As far as I am concerned, CUD and UEDF said their candidates were forced to quit because of intimidation in Adwa, where Meles competed alone. They had candidates everywhere else in Tigray. Now, I do not have anything against Tigrayans as they are my own people, however, Tigrians in diaspora need to get over the fact that Tigrians voted overwhelmingly for TPLF and no one else! I am tired of Tigrians in diaspora giving a biased explanation on how Tigrians also face undemocratic acts by the government and they are as tired of it as other people of Ethiopia. Ok, may be true....but they had their chance to tell this government that they are tired of it, but guess what, not even a single independent won in the whole land of Tigrai! (I know some Tigrayans try to explain how Tigrians are afraid that oppositions might be racist against them, which is biased by itself. Even if that is true, why doesn't a single independent candidate win, huh?!) So, if they think they are oppressed by this government, but keep voting it back to office, then I don't blame anyone to come to conclusion that they just wanna keep their ethnic organization in office!

And don't give me the "they are afraid of intimidation and retaliation from TPLF" crap, plz! Aren't they the people with the ideology of "weyane"? Aren't they the people that don't sleep for oppression? Didn't they send their children to the jungle to free them from the oppression of the Dergue and H/Selassie? What is different now? The oppression is the same, buh ohhhh the ruling party's ethnicity belongs to them! If this isn't true, then the crap about Tigrayans facing same oppression under this government as the rest of Ethiopians is false then! Are they getting a special previledge that no one is getting? Which one is it? Enlighten me plz.

Arkebe is not just an ordinary EPRDF member read the following.He is one of Meles' most trusted henchmen who have transformed the party to a big business enterprise...Not only that he was one of the TPLF commanders who fought to save the EPLF from defeat in Sahel.
There might have been more sympathy to the Eritrean front than they are prepared to let us in because as soon as it was threatened with extinction by the Dergue’s Red Star campaign, TPLF sent three brigades of its forces (a brigade accounting for 7000 to 10,000 soldiers) led by Arkebe Oukbay, with Samura Yenus and Abebe Teklehaymanot s is lieutenants in 1982-83 (1975 E.C) to help save it.
The former president of the Tigray regional state expounds the rationale behind this move as what may be called enlightened self – interest. “We did not want to lose EPLF for two reasons,” he says, “the first one was because that would deprive us one important player in the fight against the Dergue; and secondly, even with all the differences that we had with EPLF and with the fact that we consider it a strategic enemy, we must remember that we are both fighting against the Dergue and that we should help each other in this.” But even this bond, consecrated with blood as it was, didn’t last long. The TPLF leadership thought that this was opportune time to tell EPLF that it was ‘undemocratic’ and its’ conduct of the struggle ‘unpopular’- in the sense that it was not done by sensitizing the populace and involving it in the struggle - to its face. And Aw’alom and Gebru, who were the ones sent to fetch their fighters back to Tigray, report that this infuriated the EPLF leadership, which cut off its ties with the Tigrayan front refusing even to cooperate in the name of the anti-Dergue struggle. This was, however, not before EPLF dragged its feet in allowing Arkebe and co. to return to Tigray, which it did finally, and refusing to give up a shipment of arms sent for them. They add that it was EPLF that changed its position.
.........

The Indian Ocean Newsletter, 19.10.96, reported the following.
" Five years in power, and Tigray People's Liberation Front, hard-core of the ruling EPRDF in Addis Ababa, has put in place a whole web of trading companies which guarantee the Front an economic monopoly in Tigre Region. Several of the firms have stretched their tentacles as far as the capital and other regions. Using funds accumulated during the long fight against the former regime of ex-President Mengistu Haile Mariam or through financing received via official NGOs such as Tigray Development Association, a new class of Tigrean businessman has sprung up and is getting ready to make the most of the spate of privatizations in Ethiopia, by way of joint ventures with either local investors or foreign firms. The Tigrean new capitalists are former military or political bosses of TPLF recently swung over to the joys of trading. It's the case with top officials of Endowment Fund of Rehabilitation of Tigray (EFORT), a holding group which includes companies such as Mesfin Industrial Engineering (named after a now-dead TPLF
veteran), Beruh Chemicals, Mesebo Building Materials, Trans Ethiopia, Hiwot Agricultural Mechanization, and Almeda Textile. EFORT's CEO is ex-defence minister Seye Abraha (whose family is also present on the staff of Fitsumzeab As****m's media company The Monitor plc), its head of services is TPLF former chairman Sebhat Nega, and the heads of the mining and construction sectors are Thewodros Hagos and Arkebe Ekubay Mitiku.
Berhan Building Construction Enterprise (with Bereket Mzengiya as chairman), Meskerem Investment (which set up Africa Insurance with two other Tigrean companies) and Shala Advertising Enterprise (headed by Assefa Mamo, who was EPRDF information centre coordinator) are also close to the reins of power. Thanks to such proximity, companies like Selam Bus Line (where TDA is the principal shareholder) and Sur Construction Ltd have extended their sectorial activity throughout Ethiopia.
The new business ententes sometimes take on the appearance of a spider's web: Ethio Rental House Ltd was set up by TDA, Sur Construction, Mesebo Building Materials, and Mesfin Industrial Engineering, whilst Mesfin joined Tesfa Livestock Development to establish a veterinary products company. There are others. Under Ethiopia's privatization programme, Mega-Net Corporation took over the publishing firm Kuraz at the end of 1995 and owns several companies in the printing, press, and audiovisual sector including Mega Studio Enterprise (founded thanks to installations recovered from Admas Production, which used to come under the central committee of the former government party). Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's wife Azeb, better known as Lemlem, who was responsible for audiovisual operations during the fight against Mengistu, is believed to hold an important post in Mega-Net although her name does not appear among the list of shareholders. The Sofcam group can also run before the wind after taking over Coca-Cola's plants in Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa for US$ 10 million in partnership with Eritrean businessman Bereket (Mobil Ethiopia's general manager). Sofcam was set up in 1993 by Munir Duri (the son of ex-planning and economic development minister Mohamed Duri, now Ethiopia's permanent representative to the United Nations in New York), Alula Araya Grebu (an old TPLF loyalist), Negussie Haile Abera and Hussein Abdella Kassim (Hussein and his brother Wisam are relatives of a woman reported to have close relations with Tamrat Layne, the present defence minister and deputy prime minister)."
.........By 1996, the TPLF not only caught up but also actually surpassed the EPLF in structuring and managing the business of pillaging and fleecing Ethiopia for tribal gain. The Board of Directors of EFFORT, chaired by Mr. Seye Abraha (currently detained under charges of corruption), had five major branches, headed by top lieutenants of TPLF. These were Industry (Abadi Zemo), Mining (Tedros Hagos), Finance and Trade (Sebhat Nega), Construction and Transport (Arkebe Equbay) and Agriculture (Tsegaye Taemyallew). It then organized the numerous businesses set up earlier by TPLF under the above categories. Other trusted cadres were also placed in managerial positions and in branch boards. Accordingly, a glance at twenty high profile TPLF businesses within the EFFORT umbrella shows how party hierarchy and business management and control are intertwined. Businesses so established include Wegagen Bank, Almeda Textile Management, Mesfin Engineering, Africa Insurance, Sur Construction, Hiwot Agricultural Mechanization, Selam Bus Line, Addis Pharmaceutical, Mega Media, Dilet Brewery, Dedebit Credit and Savings with capital outlays amounting from as high as $180 million birr (Almeida Textiles) to as low as $1 million birr (Selam Bus Line) headquartered in Mekele or in Addis Ababa. The total paid-up capital is said to be over a billion birr at the time of its being set up. The controlling shareholder of these countrywide businesses with a minimum of 51% of the shares is EFFORT. In fact, in the view of Amha Yilma commenting in the Amharic edition of the Reporter, Sep. 1993 (Eth. Cal
.........
EFFORT is involved in every one of the country's economic sectors: agriculture (Hiwot Mechanized Agriculture), industry (Almeda Textiles Manufacturing SC., Mesfin Industrial Engineering SC.), import-export (Guna Trading House), transport (Trans-Ethiopia SC.), insurance (Africa Insurance SC.), mining (Meskerem Investment SC.), communications (Mega-Net Corporation), banking (Wegagen Bank). EFFORT is divided into several sectors directed by members of the TPLF Central Committee, like Abadi Zemo for industrial activities, Arkebe Oqubay Mitiku for construction and transportation, and Tewodros Hagos for mining.
.......
There might have been more sympathy to the Eritrean front than they are prepared to let us in because as soon as it was threatened with extinction by the Dergue’s Red Star campaign, TPLF sent three brigades of its forces (a brigade accounting for 7000 to 10,000 soldiers) led by Arkebe Oukbay, with Samura Yenus and Abebe Teklehaymanot s is lieutenants in 1982-83 (1975 E.C) to help save it.
The former president of the Tigray regional state expounds the rationale behind this move as what may be called enlightened self – interest. “We did not want to lose EPLF for two reasons,” he says, “the first one was because that would deprive us one important player in the fight against the Dergue; and secondly, even with all the differences that we had with EPLF and with the fact that we consider it a strategic enemy, we must remember that we are both fighting against the Dergue and that we should help each other in this.” But even this bond, consecrated with blood as it was, didn’t last long. The TPLF leadership thought that this was opportune time to tell EPLF that it was ‘undemocratic’ and its’ conduct of the struggle ‘unpopular’- in the sense that it was not done by sensitizing the populace and involving it in the struggle - to its face. And Aw’alom and Gebru, who were the ones sent to fetch their fighters back to Tigray, report that this infuriated the EPLF leadership, which cut off its ties with the Tigrayan front refusing even to cooperate in the name of the anti-Dergue struggle. This was, however, not before EPLF dragged its feet in allowing Arkebe and co. to return to Tigray, which it did finally, and refusing to give up a shipment of arms sent for them. They add that it was EPLF that changed its position.