I also support the critical reflection of Ato Efrem Madebo and Genet Mersha regarding the embarrassing interview of DPM and FM Hailemariam Desalegn with Bahl Vickram of the ITMN. I wanted to argue that it is not just Hailemariam Desalegn, but all Woyanites and their puppets who are so embaressing when interviewed by an uncensored journalist.
We have seen Meles Zenawi, Seyoum Mesfin, etal, blabbering, lost, lying, and contradicting themselves when interviewed by BBC, Aljazeera, AFP, etc. journalists of the free media. The only advantage the TPLFites have over their puppets, like Hailemariam, is thier ability to turn their anger on the interviewer and intimidate him/her to soften the qestion or abandon asking them hard questions, because they know they will not be held accountable for how they behaved during an interview with a free and foreign media at home, just because they are Tigre. They also display some sense of confidence because they speak their mind and know the details of the domestic policy issue as they are the ones that cook policy in the their own narrow circle.
Hailemariam and the other puppets do not have that added advantage. Whne they speak they don't speak their mind as they are not free persons. They don't even clearly listen to the question, because their mind is focused on how might Meles Zenawi, Azeb mesfin, or Bereket Simon, react if he/she answer the question this or the other way. They also don't have details as EPRDFites because they are not aware of the real essence of the policy issue they are talking about as it is cooked in the TPLF circles and just brought to the EPRDF polit-bureau for the purpose of rubber stamping.
I have known Hailemariam for many years since my junior secondary years in Areka, where Hailemariam was born and brought up. We were togehter in Catholic Seminary studying for priesthood, and we were close during our university years (he was my junior by one year). He was so genious academically and did well professionally in the years he was serving in the Water Resources Commission.
His moral decline and loss of confidence started when he was recruited by Simon Mechale of the then DPPC Commissioner to become a member of the Woyane's puppet ethnic deomcratic organization for the "Wolayita People" and ascended to become the President of Arbaminch University, and soon the President of the "SNNP Regional State". The guy chose ambition over his freedom.
The trajectory and the ascendance to positions (not power, because they dont have authority in their positions) of all the TPLF puppets is similar. They chose illicit power over their freedom. So, no matter how intelligent you are, once you lose your freedom, which is at the core of your "being", your "self", then you can't be rational, coherent and persuasive.
Thus unless they reclaim thier freedom, none of the puppets nor the TPLFites themselves could escape embarrassement not only during an interview session but at wahtever they do in their daily lives.
