Machiavellian principles as applied by Meles Zenawi

By H. Menelik

In this short article an effort is made to compare Meles Zenaw’s behaviour and actions against Machiavellian principle.I don’t know how historians will judge him, but for me undoubtedly he is the most feared than loved Ethiopian leader. Let’s have a glimpse at some of his behavior and actions.

Writing about the standard behavior a ruler should adopt in the term of his leadership, Machiavelli wrote:” a prince who wishes to maintain his power aught therefore to learn that he should not be always good, and must use that knowledge as circumstances and the exigencies of his own affairs may seem to require.”

I, for one, have never observed the good character of wedi Zenawi in the last 18 years of his rule both as leader of his party based on parochialism and tribal philosophy as opposed to democratic or modern politics or as a prime minister of Ethiopia, whose peoples are known for virtuous behaviors.

Wickedness, shrewdness and arrogance characterize his behavior. His domestic and foreign policies are rife with conspiratorial politics. Because he doesn’t have confidence and popular support, he usually resorts to hatching out and implementing back door polices as he has done in the recent secret land deal with al-Bashir of the Sudan.

In a word, Wedi Zenawi didn’t strictly apply in this case, Machiavellian principle — a ruler should sometimes be good.

Advancing a piece of advice to hated leaders like Meles, Machiavelli wrote: “There is nothing a prince aught to dread so much as his subjects’ hatred; unless indeed, it be their contempt. And both these evils may be occasioned by over liberalty. If he must choose between extremes it is better to submit to the imputation of parsimony than to make a show of liberality; since the first, though it may not be productive of honour, never gives birth to hatred and contempt.”

In the case of Meles, this character is demonstrably shown in his establishment of parastatal companies, more than 50 in number, exclusively geared to his home province, Tigrai.As a result, he is sometimes called a war lord, not a national leader, his actions Mafia-like. He is parsimonious to spend either money or resources to the other regions of Ethiopia. He never goes to the other regional towns for working visits but to Mekele, the town that he gave first priority. What about Dire dawa, Jimma, Illubabor, Debremarkos, Gambella, Nekemte and the others? It is ironical to say that these towns are forgotten by the regime of Meles Zenawi like the previous regimes which he usually condemns for partiality. Things fall apart!

The next principle looks at one of the most behaviours a ruler should adopt:” It has been sometimes asked whether it is better to be loved than feared; to which I answer, that one should wish to be both. But as that is a hard matter to accomplish, I think, if it is necessary to make a selection that is safer to be than be loved.”

Meles is feared by his comerades-in-arms, such as Seyoum Mesfin,Abbai Tsehaye who was reportedly had fallen ill and was taken to a hospital in Addis Abeba when he was purged by Meles during the division of the cc members of the TPLF in 2001. He is feared by the general public especially after the 2000 national election and the massacre of Addis Abeba. Meles not only gave order to his hench men, the Agazi snipers but also didn’t show any regret and amply demonstrated his sadistic character when he deemed the slaughter of the defenders of democratic rights as a correct deterring measure. For this he has earned the right label to be called a terrorist dictator. Ethiopia has never witnessed such a feared leader in its political history. Even Menelik the emperor who Meles tries to paint him a black colour was so beloved by his people as a mother-emeye Menelik. Neither Tewodros the other emperor who is reputed to have been temperamental and sometimes called lunatic doesn’t parallel our modern leader, wedi Zenawi. I don’t feel I am demonizing Meles but putting him in the right perspective. If there was public opinion poll in Ethiopia, Meles would have been rated as the least loved leader even by the people of Tigrai, his ethnic base. Now the people of Ethiopia live in a grip of fear, tension and uncertainty. while struggling at the same time with a “hidden hunger.”

When we go further in our reading Machiavelli’s’ The Prince, we can find the following additional advice: “There are two ways of deciding any contest: the one by laws, the other by force. The first is peculiar to men, the second to beasts; but when laws are not sufficiently powerful, it is necessary to recur to force: a prince aught therefore to understand how to use both these descriptions of arms.”

Meles usually follows the bestial nature –use of force to eliminate both real and assumed enemies. He and his party, the so-called Revolutionary Democratic Front, never entertain different ideas or dissenting views.

This and the other chacteristics of the regime have earned it the epithet brutal-a brutal regime.Indeed Meles’ regime is brutal. It caused the death of tens of thousands of people since the start of the 17-years- of the guerrilla war and the subsequent 17-years of harsh and oppressive rule. The mass murder and the dislocation caused by the regime in Oromia, Ogaden and Somalia proper are countless. In Somalia alone more than a million are displaced and this been described by UN and humanitarian agencies as the worst humanitarian crises in Africa after Darfur. Is there a more brutal regime than the current regime in Ethiopia?
Writing on the art of deceiving, Machiavelli noted: “Pope Alexander VI played during his whole life a game of deception; and not withstanding his faithless conduct well extremely well known, his artifices always proved successful. Oaths and procrastinations cost him nothing… It is not necessary, however, for a prince to posses all the good qualities. I have enumerated, but it is indispensable that he should appear to have them. I will even venture to affirm, that it is sometimes dangerous to use, though it is always useful to seem to posses them.”

The tin pot Ethiopian dictator knows very well how to sell himself as a democrat specially to foreign dignitaries. He presents himself as a liberator of the country and a trail blazer for the equality of ethnic groups in the country. But this a pure deception, a naked lie. His deception has been laid bare when foreign election observers witnessed the rigging of election votes.Did he stood for the equality of all nationalities of Ethiopia or the supremacy of his ethnic group? His actions speak louder than his words.

To conclude, virtually all the principles of Machiavelli have been put to test by Meles Zenawi in his 17-years of rule. But the period of deception seems to be over now. His divisive tactics are weaning. Now he has reached a decisive moment when the fear he has spread in the people will turn out be dispelled by a mass movement in the making.