By Tesfaye Habisso 11/09/2009
Until the demise of feudal monarchy in 1974, Ethiopia has long been ruled by alternating absolutist monarchical regimes that unashamedly considered themselves as ‘Elects of God’ and not accountable to their own peoples whom they considered as their servile subjects, akin to “sack of potatoes”, as Karl Marx contemptuously mentioned about French peasants in the 19th century. Consequently, a ruthless and doctrinaire Marxist regime subjugated the Ethiopian people for almost two decades, beginning in 1974 and lasting up until May 1991, when it was toppled decisively by the TPLF/EPRDF rebel movement(s). Till then, no semblance of democracy as a political culture and form of government as well as a way of life was known in the country, thus our society lacking a democratic orientation in its political culture that is said to be essential for implanting, nurturing and sustaining a well- functioning and stable democracy with all the necessary institutions and mechanisms in place.
“The democratic method” or democratic civic culture refers to the “behaviours, practices, and norms that define the ability of people to govern themselves” [Diane Ravitch]. The key question here is the extent to which a particular society has a democratic orientation or what Schumpeter (1947:294-5) calls “democratic self-control” in its political culture. The implication is that it is not easy to establish and sustain a democratic political system in a society that lacks the political culture and historical experience to nurture democratic institutions.
Even the ongoing political negotiations and debates between supporters of the incumbent party and government and those in the opposition bloc, just on the eve of the fourth national elections to take place in 2010, do not still reflect any respect for one another’s views and opinions. They are mostly negative and hateful, indicating a complete lack of understanding and consensus on a number of crucial national issues among the protagonists in the nation’s political arena even after 17 years of seemingly constructive engagement and working together in the national parliament. There is a lot of acrimony, hostility and mistrust between the opposition bloc and the ruling party and the latter’s so-called ‘allied political organizations’. Despite 2000 years of Christian teaching that admonishes a Christian to turn the right cheek when someone smites his/her left cheek, this sort of meek behaviour is seldom appreciated or acceptable and thus unthinkable among human beings, whether Christians or not, most of all, amongst ‘worldly’ politicians. As Newton’s Third Law of Motion, “every action has an opposite and equal reaction,” social behaviour is also reciprocal; you reap what you sow, so to speak. By their very nature public debates are rancorous and acrimonious.
Reflecting on ancient Athens, the philosopher James Harrington, a contemporary and follower of Hobbes, remarked that he could think of “nothing more dangerous” than “debate in a crowd.” Once you provoke negative and hateful emotions in others, you have to expect similar negative and vicious and/or vindictive reactions from the other side, sometimes double-fold and even more. But, why? Why can’t we conduct political negotiations, public debates and criticisms with utmost civility and due respect for one another’s views and positions, however divergent our differences in ideology may be, and leave the verdict to the people, if our aims are indeed to serve the people and not ourselves—to seize political power as a means to an end, the end being not to snatch power for power’s sake but to deliver sufficient and quality goods and services to our people. The ‘war of words’ and the tit-for-tat correspondence that we often observe on numerous websites and print/broadcasting media is reminiscent of the politics of the student days of the 1960s and 1970s at the then Haile Sellasie University of Addis Ababa. Nothing seems to have changed for the better after more than four decades or so; no meaningful social transformation seems to have occurred over such a long period of time amongst the political elites and social forces of the country, whether they live at home or abroad. “Can an Ethiopian change the colour of his skin?; ” Can a leopard take away its spots?”, says the Bible, Old Testament (Jeremiah 13:23; I wish it also said the same thing about our rigid character and mentality as well, because this is the most persisting malaise that has become part and parcel of our character and way of life. Sadly, we seem doggedly resistant to change and to adopt democratic values and a political culture of tolerance. And this brings us to the leadership crises resulting from politics of confrontation and hatred spilling over to the circles of intellectuals, independent scholars, community associations, churches and other NGOs in general.
The first structural crisis emanates from a misguided and complete distrust of the current regime by some groups at home and abroad as being anti-Ethiopian and bent on tearing apart the nation along ethnic lines, thus seriously questioning the legitimacy of the ruling party and government. The government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has been, and still is, vehemently condemned by these groups as being ‘tribalistic’ and labelled as a minority Tigrean regime allegedly favouring Tigreans in particular and TPLF/EPRDF party members in general by appointing them in key government posts massively over and above others. A well known scholar and a long-time Ethiopianist Christopher Clapham has also subscribed to this line of thinking when he recently made similar remarks via the Ethiopiamedia website in an article entitled, “Comments on the Ethiopian Crisis,” where he states:
“The EPRDF has never been able to rid itself of the sense
that this is essentially a Tigray government. Though it has
selected ministers from a wide range of nationalities, the core
of the regime has always lain in the TPLF that created it….”
These are indeed harsh words for a party that has established a broad-based ethnic coalition government by co-opting political elites from the major ethno-regional communities of the country and that claims running a multi-nation federal state based solely on the FDRE Constitution and guided by the principles of equality, proportionality, equitable development, and democratic principles in all regions and among all ethnic groups throughout the country, without favouring any particular region or ethnic group. Be this as it may, let us ask ourselves some simple questions regarding the TPLF/EPRDF’s appointment policy and political practice. Firstly, does the TPLF/EPRDF government make appointments in its core basing on nationality or ethnic criteria? And, secondly, is this really an insufferable problem for us? And I will say, definitely YES! To the first question and a resounding NO! to the second one. Why?
As widely accepted practice worldwide confirms, leadership is like a family…it goes with trust. Anybody in a position of power must always put key positions into the hands of people he/she trusts, and can trust, that is, from his/her own political party and/or ethnic group. In fact if you look carefully at the governments of modern democracies they do exactly the same thing the TPLF/EPRDF government does in Ethiopia today. For instance, when President Bill Clinton of the USA came to power, most of the people occupying key posts in the Administration came from the Democratic Party and in particular from Arkansas, Bill Clinton’s birthplace. Again, when Presidents Bush (father and son) successively came to power, most persons heading key posts in the Administration came from the Republican Party and specifically from Texas, the two presidents’ home state. I hope, the incumbent president of the USA, President Barak Obama, has also filled key posts of his Administration by persons from the Democratic Party and particularly from his home state, Illinois; I don’t think he would fundamentally diverge from the heretofore tradition of presidential appointments in US America. Whatever, It just makes sense for a president or prime minister to have the people he/she both knows and trusts most come from his/her political party and in particular from his his/her home area or those he/she can trust based on his/her previous knowledge about them. Nobody was disappointed and accusatory when President John F. Kennedy appointed his own brother Robert Kennedy as Attorney General of the United States of America during his term.
Since a president or prime minister does not/cannot appoint everybody in leadership, the upper appointed people go to recruit people to work for them, again the trust kicks in a second round and another round and another round down to the lowest position of political appointment (mind you, I am not talking about the civil service area which must reflect, as far as possible, the multi-ethnic character of the federation and in fact affording utmost priority to the hitherto marginalized ethnic groups of the country, and based solely on meritocracy and not partisan party patronage, nepotism or ethnocentrism). Yes, some appointments can, and should be, made from out of the incumbent leader’s party or home state, more so in a multi-ethnic and plural society such as ours, but the core leadership always comes from the same birthplace or home area of the topmost leader. Today if I am elected a prime minister of Ethiopia or to any other senior position in government, surely, the people to assume positions of political appointment and who are assigned to work under me will come from my native area in Kambata, South-western Ethiopia, or from amongst my close friends I know and trust to do a good job. For I know and trust them and we have the same call almost, and they know other people from again their birthplaces or elsewhere who can be trusted to do a good job. The rest of Ethiopians will trickle into this Administration as recommended again by the people directly under me. I am not going to be sworn in as President or Prime Minister and look in a phone book to get a name out of the Amhara or Tigrai or Somali or Afar, etc. region for a Deputy President or Prime Minister. That will not happen for I know no one in those regions for crying out loud. And I am not going to base my critical decisions on an Ethiopian I do not know for he/she is from some other region, and I do not want to be seen as ethnocentric or ‘tribalistic’, so to speak.
The danger we have in Ethiopia today is the lack of a well-functioning democratic political order, good governance, an accountable leadership and an effective, efficient, and ethical bureaucracy, further exacerbated by lack of stringent rules and regulations, and deficiency in upholding the rule of law. We need to create a permanent system in Ethiopia so that those elected and appointed Ethiopian officials must be screened through and function from in a transparent manner based on merit. Our leaders must have a right to choose everybody and any people they want to serve with but we have a right to select a system how they lead us. Let me explain. If we have a system in Ethiopia where a law states that corruption is a crime that law must affect me as person from, say Tigrai or Amhara or Oromia or Kambata, etc., as it affects a brother or a son of a president or prime minister. For we are all Ethiopians. That law must be permanent, so governments will come and governments will go but that system must stay; it must be there. So in essence, the leadership of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi will come to power through fair, free and credible elections and many key positions of power at the federal level will be held by the TPLF/EPRDF party cadres or erstwhile supporters but they will be guided by a law which states that corruption is a crime. Tomorrow, Abadula Gemeda or Girma Birru may come to the topmost leadership instead of Meles Zenawi, and many Oromos and OPDO/EPRDF cadres or supporters will be appointed to key positions of power, and the system will tell them that corruption is a crime and they will strictly abide by that system. And, so on and so forth. And in all those examples, anyone who gets arrested for corruption faces the same system for punishment. It does not matter whether you are from Tigrai or Amhara or Oromia, SNNP, Somali, Afar or Gambella, etc., ; a son of the president or prime minister, or a non-Ethiopian for that matter. The law remains the law; everyone equal before the law.
We have two areas that must be addressed immediately in our country. We need to create a permanent and transparent civil service system and an impartial, independent and credible electoral system; the latter will undoubtedly do away with most of the recurring problems and importunities that are attendant to all periodic and snap elections in our country so far and minimize the usual lamentations of opposition political parties in the nation’s political arena. Secondly, we as Ethiopians need to demand that our leaders respect the Constitution and all those created systems and laws in accordance with the supreme law of the land. If the son or relative or friend/financier of a president or prime minister becomes corrupt we must demand his arrest. And note I used a term ‘demand’, not ask.
The federal administration of Ethiopia is in Addis Abeba, there is no debate on that, and we are going to get all kinds of people to lead our nation. Leaders will come from all parts of Ethiopia and they will come with all sorts of people to work with them in the powerful positions. We have absolutely no control about that but we can decide how they should lead us. What kind of leadership do we want from our leaders? Let us get the answer to this important question and then use that answer to build the system that must be followed by all of them. It really frustrates me so much whenever I talk to an Ethiopian and he/she tells me how the TPLF/EPRDF, or simply ‘woyane/ehadeg’, monopolizes all key positions of power: prime minister, ministers, army commanders, security chiefs, diplomatic posts, etc. And I respond: Good for them; they are after all Ethiopians and so are entitled to the right of leadership in our nation. They did/have/ not come from Mars. They are not foreign occupiers. They are in fact more Ethiopians than some of us from the South, Southwest, or Southeast who were forcibly incorporated by Emperor Menelik II to the Abyssinian empire around the end of the 19th century. It sometimes astonishes me tremendously when some Abyssinians/Amharas consider their close cousins, the Tigreans, as ‘foreign occupiers’ usurping their rightful place in Menelik’s Palace in Arat Kilo.
If Prime Minister Meles Zenawi is comfortable with those who serve under him as political appointees why should anybody care? But what I want to know is very simple: Are they elected through fair, free and credible elections in the first place? Again, can a TPLF/EPRDF cadre or official be corrupt and the system picks him/her up from Addis Abeba and takes him/ her to Kerchiele or Qaliti prison? Do the courts of law in Ethiopia treat this TPLF/EPRDF member or official the same way as they treat another citizen from elsewhere or they tend to close one eye and he/she walks away scot-free? If the latter ever happens, mark my words, it will be multiplied a thousand-fold in terms of utmost animosity and demonic hatred not only for the top leader but for the entire ethnic group from which the leader hails, however much that may sound unreasonable. This must be avoided at all costs and the necessary legal and similar other institutional safeguards must be put in place, as such malpractices will surely result in mass discontent and instability, and even chaos.
Creating an effective and workable democratic system in Ethiopia is a war all of us as Ethiopians can, and should, win but a northerner prime minister appointing northerners to key posts of power and employing security guards for his/her own personal security? Do not even think about it for it will happen every day of your lifetime even if an Amhara or an Oromo or any other ethnic leader replaces Prime Minister Zenawi in the future.
And it is clearly what is happening in the daily lives of many nations around the world today. If you had gone to Canada a few years ago you could have noticed that most of the powerful people in Ottawa were all French from Quebec, coming along with Premier Bourassa, himself a Quebecan, freely elected by the people of Canada. Did Canadians complain about that? NO! But they would have complained bitterly if Bourassa’s son was corrupt and not picked up by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). Finally, the problem in Ethiopia today is that it is a nation without an effective and efficient governance system to keep some of those overzealous people from the TPLF/EPRDF in order, especially some of those from the police and security forces who hasten to first kick or imprison, or even shoot, and ask questions later.
The second crisis arises out of our misguided mentality of fretting to start everything anew or from the scratch and our inability to deal with the past leaders. We have been told and retold that the problem of our country lies in our past leaders. Emperor Haile Sellasie I, Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam and their erstwhile supporters have often been demonised. Till now they and/or their children have never had the opportunity to extricate themselves and their forebears. Even if they could, we have already ‘crucified’ them. We have virtually distanced ourselves from them, denied a world-renowned statesman and one of the founding fathers of the OAU Emperor Haile Sellasie a dignified public burial ceremony and even left his sons and daughters lead degrading life in exile abroad. The names of the previous leaders get dragged into every criminal affair and every economic failure, the sole purpose of which is to humiliate and make them part of the problem. This has been done in such a way that whenever their names are brought into context it actually has the effect of reducing the burden of the current regime/leaders and their henchmen to account for their own questionable activities. As most of us who lived in Ethiopia during the Derg era were well aware, gross human rights violations took place with disturbing regularity in Ethiopia throughout the 17 years of that brutal regime. The Derg in collaboration with its cadres unleashed a reign of terror, mass murder, torture and killings. “ It was said that between 100 and 150 people were being killed every night in the capital Addis Abeba during the “Red Terror” purges of the late 1970s. Victims’ bodies were left lying on the streets and relatives were forced to pay for the bullets that caused the death of their loved ones. Mengistu’s security forces tortured political prisoners, dipping bodies in hot oil, raping and inserting bottles and heated metals in bodies of female prisoners.” Violations however have not, of course, been a monopoly of state officials and their functionaries. Widespread atrocities were also perpetrated as much by various political organizations and armed rebel groups fighting against the military regime (‘Derg’) as by the security forces, the police, the cadres and the so-called ‘revolutionary guards’ of the junta. While human rights violations due to factional skirmishes and killings amongst political organizations and rebel movements were rampant throughout the country. Today, everyone likes to say, “Mengistu did this”, and the “Derg did that.” But the truth is Mengistu and the Derg alone did very little. Mengistu was a world class tyrant and the Derg was a blood-thirsty brutal regime, yes, but the evil done and the atrocities perpetrated by the Derg regime, from the “Bermuda” secret detention and torture chambers to the “Red Terror” barbarous killings were all done by Ethiopian citizens who were afraid to question if what they were told by their government and their superiors inside political organizations was the truth or not, and who, because they did not want to admit to themselves that they were afraid to question the government and their masters, refused to see the truth behind that hollow and bankrupt slogan of “revolutionary Ethiopia or death!,” did not have the moral courage to stand up against the mass killings and tortures perpetrated upon their fellow Ethiopians—sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers, etc.—now simple statistics and framed in black at every home, and followed Mengistu and his junta into absolute national disaster because of their subservience to tyranny. For instance, could the barbarous and sadistic Hawzien massacres have taken place if those airforce pilots ordered to bomb those innocent citizens at the Hawzien marketplace have refused to obey their masters’ orders? No!
The vexed question that arises now is this: Are we the current rulers and their henchmen as well as supporters answerable and accountable for our part in the corruption scandals that surface from time to time, and for the human rights violations that are perpetrated with disturbing regularity upon our people today? Is the rule of law upheld and respected throughout our country? Do we admit our wrongdoings or misdeeds in public and apologize publicly for these follies? Do we bring to justice all those who perpetrate human rights violations and who compromise our constitutional rights and freedoms? Do we the ordinary citizens have the moral courage to criticise our government when it infringes our basic human rights and fundamental freedoms? Do we have the gut to stand up for our rights and say no to any superiors’ orders that undermine the human rights, political and civil liberties of our people? These questions have to be answered in the affirmative if we want to shape a better future for ourselves and our children, and stop blaming the ‘dead’.
Finally, the struggle for democracy, human rights and the rule of law and market economy is bound to take a long time before it takes root and bear fruits, as these ‘values’ are still the hardest thing to import and to modify. We can learn new techniques or acquire new knowledge, but it is notoriously difficult to adopt a behaviour that is based on values that are foreign to one’s society. Societies’ fundamental values evolve gradually, and the introduction of new values is always faced by traditional reflexive reactions. Furthermore, this struggle should not be conceived only in terms of a struggle over the distribution of wealth, power and private accumulation but also the creation of commonwealth to enlarge the ‘national cake’ that we may share equitably by mobilizing all sections of the population beyond ethnic, religious, political, etc. divides in order to improve the living standards and the well-being of the majority of the population. Above all, the struggle for political power must not be taken as an end by itself but as a means to an end, the end being the welfare and betterment of the whole society by designing correct, feasible and people-centred political, economic and social policies and programmes, and implementing them efficiently and effectively. All in all, let us be cognizant of the stark reality in Ethiopia today: Our prime enemies are abject poverty, diseases, massive unemployment, lack of good governance, the absence of a robust rule of law and democracy, and, currently, hunger and famine among many millions of our people in many parts of the country. As I have asserted several times before, we have no other enemies than these and let us not fret to create more enemies for ourselves, real or imagined. Regimes and political parties come and go; they are transient. The Ethiopian state and its peoples, I hope, will always be there. Let us endeavour for a better future of our country and its peoples. Let us all struggle in unison to alleviate these perennial scourges of humanity in Ethiopia. And if we sincerely love our people and our country, can we prove our words with deeds by mobilizing foreign direct investment (FDI), promoting and encouraging domestic entrepreneurship, and fully participating as individuals and groups in all socio-economic development projects and activities, and in laying down a solid foundation for our children and the future generations? Those of us in the Diaspora, can we learn from the Chinese, the Jews, the Indians, the Koreans, the Taiwanese, the Armenians, etc. and commit ourselves to transferring not only part of our hard-earned income to our poor families at home but also much needed technology, professional skills, technical assistance and managerial know-how to our homeland and try to impact positively and constructively irrespective of the prevailing political system, and however unpalatable it may be for you? Can’t we learn from these Asians on ways and means of impacting the politics and economics of our country by positively contributing to the welfare and growth of our nation in any way and every way possible? Why only bicker on the politics of state power, akin to dogs ferociously fighting over pieces of thrown out bones? Why pursue a ‘cut-throat competition’ over an ever-shrinking ‘national cake’ instead of jointly toiling toward increasing the commonwealth at first? Who else would come and change the backward political, social and economic situation of the country if those highly skilled and educated and/or affluent sons and daughters of ours in the Diaspora choose to lead comfortable lives in the Western world and don’t venture to come and educate/train their own illiterate or uneducated fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, cousins or nieces so that the latter could be better equipped to face the challenges of this world and to effectively shape their own future and destiny? Why won’t our sons and daughters in the Diaspora who are materially and skill-wise better off than most of us here at home come and invest in their poor homeland and develop their backward polity instead of sending us unabatedly their ‘messages of hate, acrimony and hostility’ via various websites, e-mail addresses, radio channels, etc. that would tear us apart and lead us all into utter national disaster and catastrophe? Why ally with our country’s declared enemies to destabilize our national security and stability? What to gain in the end, fellow countrywomen and countrymen? Let us pause just for a moment and reflect on whatever we have been doing so far, whether our actions have been, wittingly or unwittingly, harming or helping our country and nation that we left a decade or two decades ago in search of greener pastures abroad. Whatever the case, can we prove our much-talked about Ethiopian patriotism that we often trumpet of being bequeathed to us from our forebears by transcending or going beyond our political, ethnic, religious and other differences to reach out to each other as fellow citizens and in peace, and jointly and amicably work towards the betterment of our people and the development of our country? Right or Wrong Our Country First; If Right, Let Us Rejoice; If Wrong, Let Us Endeavour to Right It! There is no other path to our ‘salvation’. For God and Our Country!