(Samuel Gebru, Nazret.com). Ethiopia’s Prime Minister was recently in Washington, D.C. as part of his participation in the annual summit of the Group of Eight (G8).

Mr. Meles Zenawi was speaking at an agricultural forum moderated by the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Dr. Rajiv Shah. During the session, Mr. Meles was asked to elaborate on the priorities of Ethiopia and Africa when it came to agriculture and aid commitments by donor countries (see video). As the Prime Minister was answering the question, Ethiopian American Mr. Abebe Gellaw disrupted the forum by yelling at the Prime Minister to free the jailed Mr. Eskinder Nega and boastfully declared that Ethiopians need freedom not food (see video).

Even while Mr. Abebe was yelling, Mr. Meles kept on talking over him (see video). Dr. Shah of USAID essentially told Mr. Abebe to shut up and called security on him (see video). The Ethiopian Prime Minister continued answering the question posed by Dr. Shah.

I know Mr. Abebe and was extensively quoted in a critical article he wrote on the Endowment Fund for the Rehabilitation of Tigray (EFFORT).

Although I agree with Mr. Abebe that Ethiopia needs a free and functioning private press and political environment, his actions were in all respects immature, insane and quite unprofessional. Professional journalists—which Mr. Abebe claims to be—would know that their job is to professionally report the news without jumping up and disrupting events and meetings. Forget protocol and the fact that this was a high-level panel—Mr. Abebe’s actions served no purpose. If his goal was to embarrass the Prime Minister of Ethiopia then he terribly failed.

Again, if you see the actual video, while Mr. Meles looked shocked, he continued to talk over Mr. Abebe and when that proved difficult, he waited and let Mr. Abebe have his moment. If Mr. Abebe actually wanted to embarrass the Prime Minister, he would have waited and used his press credentials as an opportunity to ask hard questions on freedom and democracy that could have challenged Mr. Meles and his policies. However, the Prime Minister was not embarrassed—and keep in mind, he got what we wanted: a renewal of G8 commitment to food security in Africa through the opening of a new fund of $3 Billion.

Time and again, Ethiopian Americans miserably fail to seize the opportunity to challenge senior Ethiopian government officials. Many senior Ethiopian government officials visit North America and Europe frequently on what I essentially call propaganda tours. That being said, a reasonable person should be able to attend these meetings and ask hard questions that challenge the Ethiopian government’s policies. Instead of that, many in our diaspora community choose to protest and disrupt meetings. This serves no purpose beyond giving the ruling party more reason not to trust or cooperate with the diaspora.

I am truthfully not surprised by the actions of Abebe Gellaw. I just hope that Ethiopian Americans understand that there is another and much better way of challenging senior Ethiopian government officials who visit the United States.