The so called Human Right Watch, the political wing of the state department.
W. Yilma
October 28, 2010
I read the HRW report entitled “Development without freedom”. This report is not different what has been posted before by this organization. As usual the report is purely political, advancing the policy of the US politicians. My comments don’t focus on the HRW report, but rather on the interview given by Leslie Lefkow, a senior researcher and Horn of Africa team Leader at HRW”. The interview was hosted by CBC producer Jennifer Clibbon.
First, I do not know what kind of research Leslie is conducting regarding human right issue in Eastern African states. In general, the interview which she gave, lack maturity and professional decency. Simply her interview exposed her how poor she is about the issue she is engaging. She said that she or her agents has secretly conducted a “survey” of 200 sample size which as I understood represented 200 people. In any standard, 200 sample size could not give any scientific result, and not good enough to make an inference in any subject. Leave alone to call it a “scientific survey” it is hard to call it a preliminary survey. Beside this, no one knows what methodology she or her agents has applied to conduct the survey, the survey which she called “a scientific research”.
Any survey depends on, how you prepared the questionnaire, sampling methods, your sample size, and spatial distribution of the interviewee, how you contact or approaches the target groups, and last what is your goal and how you analyze to make a scientific inferences, without any biased preconceived notions. Understanding the HRW behavior and motives, it seems that the survey was designed deliberately to get the intended information. The survey is not representative and nobody knows how it was conducted. They deliberately choose purposively selected sampling methods with well organized leading question. This approach is a fiasco, often used in political pooling to get the information the interviewer wish to hear or to wrongly misleading the public. It is a coordinated and well designed political motive to distort world attention, and to impair the ongoing developmental activity. That is the intention of the HRW. The HRW is now become one of the front runner in Ethiopian politics.
No one has denied that there are problems in fully implementing democracy in Ethiopia. There are many issues that need to be addressed. The justice systems need to be free from government official’s interferences; bureaucracy and maladministration practices by government officials, especially in the lower level of public offices need to stop or abate. There could be also some problems in aid distribution. However, it is hard to believe that the government is using aid as a weapon to suppress opposition supporters. It is unacceptable in our culture to deny aid to the needy. Understanding our country situation, we can’t solve these kinds of problems overnight. It needs multi dimensional approaches, not only from the government, but also from all sectors of the societies, including from the opposition camps. It needs a mental work to change the perception of our people, including the government officials. Government officials are the product of our societies. We do not want imported human agents to tell us what to do in our business. Falling in love with the opposition blindly could not bring democracy to the Ethiopian people. Any foreign agents should understand this. We Ethiopian do not have dark history of siding with foreigners. Ethiopia is ours, not theirs. We need their cooperation and positive advice, but we aggressively should oppose their interventionist agendas.
Democracy is a challenge, even for those countries practicing it for centuries. We Ethiopian should know democracy is the only option we have to maintain our unity. I believe much need to be done from the government side to implement democratic system in Ethiopia. Let’s work together by easing our political differences. It is we who show a green light to foreigners to interfere in our internal affairs. It is not, and it has never been our history to let foreigners to interfere in our internal politics. This generation have a dual responsibilities to stand up and to keep alive his ancestors noble history.
Long live Ethiopia
