Mr. Meles Zenawi made his appearance before the Parliament on Thursday, October 20, 2011. Mr. Zenawi’s political group, the TPLF, controls the Parliament with 99.6% of the seats, i.e. 1 seat is allotted to the opposition. Thus, the Parliament sessions appear to have the settings of party informational meetings – devoid of debates.

The Prime Minister’s latest speech was especially designed to instill fear of the state in the public, but with one disastrous mistake: the plots for the speech seemed to have been taken from one of those Scary Movie parody/spoof films, first made by the Wayans (In the 2-hour speech, Mr. Zenawi hides behind the couch, under the rug and behind the curtain to scare the public, in a more convincing way, of the wrath he’d unleash if peoples seek freedom and democracy.)

His brand of justice, "guilty before evidences are collected and trials are conducted,” is mentioned again and again to make individuals become fearful of the state. Those categorically labelled as "guilty of terroristcriminal activities before evidences are collected and trials are conducted” include: journalists, civil servants and businesspeople opposing his economic policies, and opposition politicians and their sympathizers. Pretty much everyone in town is "guilty” of some sort ofterrorist criminal activity – they’re just roaming around because of the mercifulness of the Prime Minister.

The word "terrorist” is especially mentioned several times by the Prime Minister to send an electrocuting current of fear in the public. It’s to be noted that many independent non-governmental organizations, such as the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the Human Rights Watch (HRW), have accused the Prime Minister of using the "terrorist” label to target his political opponents.

Fear appears to be the only commodity dispensed by the government of Meles Zenawi. Without such fear, it will be no more.

Here’s the full 2-hour speech of the Prime Minister (or watch the movie clip above to sum it up in less than a minute.)

Part One:

Part Two: