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Commentary
Lidetu Ayalew: A Nightmare to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi
By Martha Tesfaye
June 29, 2005

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Ato Lidetu Ayalew is one of those very able and relatively far-sighted opposition leaders in Ethiopia. He is a democratically elected opposition parliamentarian who defeated Minster of Education W/ro Genet Zewde in the election with a landslide. He is also one of the top and very popular CUD officials, the General Secretary of the United Ethiopian Democratic Party & a Spokesperson for Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD). He has passed through a serious of hardships due to his political outlook for the last 10 years and recently EPRDF's brutal security henchmen illegally surrounded him in his office, thereafter at his residence & put him under house arrest for nearly 40 hours without food.

Furthermore, his Ethiopian passport was taken away from him too, so that he was not able to address the Ethiopian community and raise funds for the democratic and peaceful struggle that was recently scheduled in London, England for 12 June 2005, other European and North American cities too.

In general, he has proved himself as a seasoned politician and has become a nightmare to TPLF leaders, particularly to Ato Meles Zenawi.

However, the question is why resigning now as CUD Spokesperson? Whatever a persuasive argument is advanced for his resignation, it is not at all timely. Ato Lidetu, you could be a chairperson of CUD let alone its spokesperson while having a different position than that of the majority of council members. Your resignation at this crucial moment is a failure. The Ethiopian people would like to see CUD as a strong opposition party and responsibility for anything should rest in all of the council members’ shoulders as one. Many considered CUD for Ethiopia as a guardian angel.

I don't have to tell you that the struggle for creating a democratic society in Ethiopia bound to be a painful, if not impossible, transition, and it could come at the cost of your patience and perseverance.

Ato Lidetu, it was you who had openly unmasked the true face of the current regime, introduced the beauty and humor of political debate for the public, the first to fight the current regime almost alone, have continuously tried to alert Ethiopians that the current Ethiopian regime's policies and practices are potentially dangerous to the unity and democracy in the country. You always based your argument on figures and facts, not on fictions and heresies. That is why your name is permanently printed in the minds of TPLF leaders and cadres as scary and nightmare. Ato Meles and his henchmen prefer four thousands opposition leaders than one Lidetu. This is the fact every Ethiopians long understood and proud to have you. My heartiest congratulations!

No one can effectively represent your party as its spokesperson as you did. We need your words, we need your leadership, and we need your active presence. Don't step back, never and ever! No turning back! We all know you could convince all the 15 council members of the CUD sooner or later while still retaining your position as your party's spokesperson. Please Ato Lidetu. We Ethiopians clearly understand your position and know that the TPLF/EPRDF government starts its deadly game,

· First by blocking peoples' constitutional right for demonstration;
· Then by executing more than 40 unarmed civilians in day light;
· Then shooting a promising young parliamentary-elected UEDF member (Arsi Negele);
· Untimely and unethical transfer of Oromia's capital back to Addis;
· Putting thousands of people in jail because of their political outlook;
· And finally irresponsible changing of accountability of key bureaus of the Addis Ababa City Administration to the Federal Government.

We all know that the National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) has continuously proved itself as EPRDF affiliate. Recently, it decided that those critical election results that show the defeat of top EPRDF henchmen such as Ato Bereket in Bugna and Ato Junedin in Iteya is worth investigation. What a shameful decision! Even EPRDF representatives in both cases had confirmed their defeat with their signatures.

The Federal Judiciary has also proved itself of EPRDF affiliate. The recent two cases against Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's ban on demonstration and against NEBE's provisional election results showed the Judiciary's tragedy. We aren't ignorant of the fact that it is for this kind of critical time that lawyers like Ato Kemal Bedri and Ato Menbertsehay were first handpicked by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

But still we insist your active participation as CUD spokesperson. The majority of Ethiopians are behind you now and tomorrow.

Don't fail us!

God bless you!

Lidetu Ayalew- A Shining Politician

By S M

It was 1985 and the vast majority of Wollo Region, as was then known, was freshly occupied by EPRDF forces in the earlier of a series of guerrilla attacks that eventually ended up toppling the military regime of Mengistu Hailemariam in 1991. And as is the custom with each conquest, the victorious forces would launch their oratorical campaigns with a view to instilling their ideological beliefs to the surrounding people.

 New experiences as they were, such events could not have failed to arouse the inquisitive instincts of an obscure little boy who just then joined secondary school.  And so it was that Lidetu Ayalew, then in his early twenties, was first introduced in a serious interest and discourse of political affairs and would consequently be immersed in an unending contemplation of the fate of this ancient and patriotic land we are proud to call Ethiopia.

“Those experiences clearly developed in me an earnest wish to devote a considerable part of my energy to the prevalence of peaceful, democratic and prosperous state of affairs in my homeland and to my fellow citizens,” he says.

 First impressions are most often misleading and unpredictable as the saying goes and little things grow up.  The little boy who developed a passion for political matters as recently as ten to fifteen years ago and who has since then continued to immerse his whole self in the vortex of politics has now evolved into an influential and founding member of a major opposition political party. This man, now also in his early 30s, is Lidetu Ayalew, the General Secretary of the Ethiopian's Democratic Party, - one of the few opposition political parties reputed to have the highest number of sympathizers in the nation as a whole.

 The history of Lidetu Ayalew started in 1969 in the historical town of Lasta, Lalibela, also now known as Bugna woreda. He was one of four children of Ato Ayalew Tamiru, an uneducated but a highly popular and successful businessman engaged in the textile business.

 Speaking of his father, Lidetu finds it hard to conceal the intensity of his filial affection. He notes with pride that though uneducated and living in the midst of a traditional farming community, his father was, ‘very far ahead of his time’ in both manner and deed from everyone around him. His father, for example, had an unusual interest in following modern developments at the national and international levels- a most unlikely behaviour to be observed in a subsistence farming community. It was thus customary that his father spent hours listening to the radio and any other device he lays his hand upon. ‘These qualities and notably the quest for knowledge and adventure has made my father a prominent and perhaps even the richest private person in the locality. As an example Lidetu mentions the fact that his father was the first person ever to install the first modern flour mill in the area.

 Those natural qualities that have made a great impact to the reputation of his father had their corresponding, positive impact on the dutiful son. “I always feel that I am the only one in the family that has wholly inherited the noble qualities of my father,” he says adding that his interest in modern ideas and practices are exact copies of the intellectual qualities of his natural father.

As a prominent member of the leadership of a major opposition party, Lidetu is known by the general public as the loquacious orator who can speak volumes of intelligent ideas on almost any major political or economic subject under discussion. In a debate made between various political parties, including the ruling party, and broadcast throughout the national television prior to last year’s national elections and which were won by the later, Lidetu no doubt made a huge impression with the general public as the able young politician with great potentials for the future.

But added to his rhetorical skills, Lidetu says that he also has a gift for writing. “In fact and contrary to public expectations’’, he discloses, “my real talent lies in my ability to express myself well in writing.” The history of Lidetu’s writing experiences skills have their beginning with his experiences while in High school in Lalibela, where , he adds, the schools did not have libraries at all. While at school, he admits, he had not participated in any major political activity. His fancy, however, lay with football and another extraordinary enterprise-writing imaginative poems and short stories.

This writer did not have the chance to read any of the poems and short stories. But it was clear from the author’s explanation that most of them dealt with contemporary social phenomena and the daily lives of the poor farming communities of the area as were observed by an aspiring young man. Conspicuous among the themes is the draught that occurred in 1983/84 and which claimed immense lives. That incident is also the theme of a ‘historical novel’ which Lidetu began writing a long time ago and which has not been completed. “I expect to finish and have it published any time in the future but for now I am busy on other matters.”

Lidetu did not have the chance to pass the 12th grade matriculation examination when he completed high school. Instead, his father’s idea at the time was to involve in the taxi trade. So Lidetu got his driver’s licence and engaged himself in the taxi business only to be exhausted with it in almost no time. “This was not to be the preoccupation of a man whose instincts for writing and other intellectual pursuits couldn’t be easily quenched,” he says.

The natural alternative was to leave the business as a whole and try out other engagements including several stints to work in private and non governmental organizations. But these too couldn’t satisfy the young man with their small pays and other related shortcomings. His worried father later got him licence to engage in import export trade and soon Lidetu was busy making huge amounts of money by importing used cars from Dubai and selling them here. Still though, the young man’s passions for poilitics and writing could not be easily extinguished.

Lidetu’s active interest and later involvement in politics began with the change of government in Addis in 1991. True to his earlier instincts, he began writing articles to the press (using pen names) and especially to the weekly ‘sewoch min yilalu’ roughly translated as (people’s forum) program on Ethiopian Television and presented his views on a variety of issues. Soon after he began to seriously contemplate on how he may contribute towards the strengthening of the prevailing opposition political parties. “At first I thought of helping them by granting them money because I was at that time very rich. Remember I was one of the first few people who owned the then fashionable and costly ‘pagero’ car in the metropolis,” he says in a rather bashful tone.

But then he began attending political conferences organized by opposition political parties, notably the All Amhara People’s Movement (AAPO) and contributed scores of articles to ‘ANDNET’ newspaper, the party’s organ. His contributions to the activities of AAPO were so impressive, at least in the eyes of the then AAPO chairman, the late professor Asrat Weldeyes, that he was soon made chairman of the youth association under the AAPO.

But Lidetu is a man possessed. His stay with the AAPO and another political party named the Council for Alternative Forces for Peace and Democracy in Ethiopia was not wholly satisfying. In fact, he says, he was disillusioned with some of their core programs and their manner of operations that he just decided to distance from them and start his own political party. “I wanted a party that endeavors to give priority to safeguarding the will of the people and the national interest and one that struggles for national unity,” he says.

Consequently he collected some 70 – 120 young people (none of whom happened to have attended higher education) and undertook a long time of research and lobbying and successfully founded the now famous Ethiopian's Democratic Party on October 20, 1992. The climax of this effort occurred when the party members called a national conference soon after and which enabled them to get access to the media and introduce their programs to the general public, hence winning support. This also had the added advantage of attracting prominent personalities to become members of the party. Today the party boasts more than 45 senior members with qualifications of B.A degree and above. Some of the senior members are highly acclaimed professionals of huge national standing. Lidetu himself is at present attending extension programs at the Addis Ababa University for a degree in History.

Objectives stipulated in the program of the EDP include, bringing about peace and democracy in Ethiopia, safeguarding the equality of the Ethiopian people and sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ethiopia, establishing an economic system based on a free market policy, amending, through the will of the people, articles included in the present constitution and that are considered detrimental to the unity and development of the country and, last but not least, making peaceful, legal and diplomatic efforts to protect Ethiopia’s right of territorial access to the sea.

Asked as to how he measures the progress of the Ethiopians Democratic Party over the past 10 years and now, Lidetu says that it is ‘blooming’ and quickly adds, “despite all the intimidation and personal sacrifices borne by our members.” He was imprisoned more than four times, he says. Still young, brave and highly intelligent, Lidetu may be someone to watch for in the often unpredictable course of events in this country.

"THROUGHOUT HISTORY, IT HAS BEEN THE INACTION OF THOSE WHO COULD HAVE ACTED, THE INDIFFERENCE OF THOSE WHO SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER, THE SILENCE OF THE VOICE OF JUSTICE WHEN IT MATTERED MOST THAT HAS MADE IT POSSIBBSLE FOR EVIL TO TRIUMPH."