Almost all Tigrayans ardently believe that Meles was a great leader. But was he? A mere 10 years after his death, Tigray has descended to become arguably one of the most (if not the most) miserable place on earth where 80-90% of its people survive on donated food aid.
While one can accept that looting Ethiopia at the beginning was necessary to jump-start Tigray, Meles lacked the vision to realize that such dependency was fatal in the long run. Instead of leading Tigray to be self-reliant, his long-term design depended on continued looting of Ethiopia. It never occurred to him that a tiny minority could not go on indefinitely to exploit a growing and restless population, that increasingly harsh and coercive measures to maintain Tigrayan supremacy would inevitably delegitimize Tigrayan rule and lead to the ouster of the TPLF from power. By making Tigray totally dependent on the rest of Ethiopia, he ensured its rapid decline once Tigrayan hegemony ended in Ethiopia.
Another fatal lack of vision was the inability to see that corrupting the system for short-term gain would be devastating to Tigrayans. Instead of learning hard work and self-reliance, Tigrayans developed very destructive habits of trying to succeed by nefarious methods. Creating instant Tigrayan millionaires may have seemed to him a smart way of dominating Ethiopia's economy, but a prudent leader would have foreseen that once the TPLF was ousted from power, most of the ill-gained wealth would disappear. That exploited people would resent their exploitation did not seem to penetrate Meles' consciousness. And resentment breeds hatred.
One of the most crucial actions of a society is the way it raises its young and the values that it ingrains in them. Meles does not seem to have had any awareness of this. No parent who cares about his children would raise them the way the TPLF raised the next generation. Those who are today under 40, have been brain-washed to believe that Tigrayans are an exceptional people, that the TPLF is an invincible force that shook mountains, when in reality, it ascended into power on the coat-tails of Shaebia. Tigrayans have been damaged beyond repair. The 500,000 Tegaru who perished in that last 2 years did so because they were totally indocrinated with a false sense of invincibility. They were led into the killing fields not by leaders who shook mountains but by self-aggrandizing and incompetent Generals who have no clue about what war is all about.
Yet another fatal lack of vision that Meles exhibited was Tigrayan relationship with the other minority ethnic groups. There was a great of lip-service to nations and nationalities but minorities like Afar, Somali, Gambella, Beni Shangul were treated like dirt. A great leader, specially one who comes from a tiny minority, builds alliances. Meles didn't. His overriding plan seems to have been to keep everyone subservient to Tigray. Today, Tigrayans have no allies in the minorities. On the contrary, the Afar, Somalis and Southerners despise the TPLF.
One of Meles' greatest failures was the enmity he created with Eritreans. His infamous quip about the colour of Eritrean eyes will be remembered for a long time. It may have seemed to him that a break with Eritrea would gain him the support of Ethiopians, but as events have proven, that was a vision-less and misguided outlook. The current situation of Tigrayan siege is a direct result of his break with Eritrea. Tigray will suffer for a long-time because Eritreans will never ever again trust Tigrayans and will always make sure that they are not a threat. Meles had many opportunities to correct that strategic blunder. He could have accepted the EEBC ruling in 2002. Failing that, he could have attempted reconciliation when he knew that he was dying. He didn't, and Tigryans are paying for that.
It is obvious from the discussion above that Meles was never a strategic thinker, that he was perennially driven by short-term considerations. Every action he took, every statement he made, every policy he espoused reveals his total lack of vision.