GTP or Good Totalitarian Pledge?

Berhanu Tesfaye chillalo@gmail.com

April 7, 2011

Ethiopia has launched an ambitious five year plan for growth and transformation that will aim to transform one of the poorest country in the planet and change the situation in the country in the coming five years.

I have tried to pinpoint the ambition of the government does not hold water due to institutional, structural and organizational problems prevailing in the country.

When I put my arguments why the plan is ambitious I have tried to raise my doubts from the economic point of view that is the capacity and capability human and financial resource as well the ill incorporation of assumptions in setting the gaols that mix political propaganda as a sauce for the fulfilment of the plan.

Every walk of Ethiopian is happy to see his/her country transformed to a middle income or high income country like what we have seen in the tigers triangle in the 1980s and also the BRICS now but what is the main difference in ideas is not what the TPLF led government propagate that the idea came from the party but the issues are more a question of inclusion of basic democratic rights and respect human rights in line to transform the country for once and for all.

What I saw in the new invitation for the Diasporas on Aiga forum about this plan of transformation there are five distinct natures that are proposed and I am going to see what that means and what the practical issues in the country are.

“Seize a golden opportunity to transform Ethiopia by actively taking part in the forthcoming public discussion the GTP and discuss the five you can”.
“…. Good will ambassadors and promote Ethiopia.
… Boost foreign currency reserve by sending your remittances legally.
…..Open foreign saving account in Ethiopia and get a better rate of interest.
….. Purchase EPPCOs millennium bond and get good return for it.
…. Invest in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, ICT, construction, consultancy.

In my article I will try to raise issues and discuss them thoroughly in order to open up for discussions as well sometimes when we are discussion such issues political sides can crop up and it is my opinion to go for or against an idea.

Before I discuss my ideas in detail let I raise some basic issues that I will try to answer them but others are invited to add their say on the issues for further clarification. It is how ideas are enriched.

Are not Ethiopian good will ambassadors of their country? Remittances that are sent to families in Ethiopia do not help the economy unless they are put in the safe of the government? Is it only having foreign saving account to have better interest? Why it is requested to buy EPPCOs bond for a better return? Is not investing in all sectors in the country by citizens a right that can come by invitation or allowed or restricted by Party in power?

Ethiopian those lived and living abroad are always the ambassadors of the their country in terms of introducing the country’s social, economic, cultural and political situations of the country but what is the difference is that all Ethiopians are not puppets or condoms to dictators or tyrants. What TPLF needs is that all Ethiopians living abroad should shut up their mouth , eyes and ears to the existing situation such as miscarriage of law, human rights abuse, curving freedom of expression, tortures, extra judicial killings and imprisonment of people due to their political difference. This is not an ambassadorship but it is dinning and wining with dictators or serving dictators to ostracize their own people as done before.

What is expected from TPLF is that first and foremost to respect their hand written constitution i.e. the distinction of the legislative, executive and judiciary moreover the abolition of one party military, police and security services is a prerequisite that have to be practiced. In addition to these TPLF led government have to abolish one party electoral board and reform to be a neutral group that serve the people not one party.

The other issue that has to be raised about the GTP is that any plan of action even if it is not studied in detail could be implemented in a country but what the prerequisites are what we call it trust on the coordinators, unless the people have trust on those who run the office it is unlikely to come out and say not to proposals because they fear they would be victims of foul play and they prefer to keep quite and being quite does not mean acceptance and believing to implement.

What TPLF did not learn from its predecessors is that administering the country with the same cadre lead development plan implementation that have failed for 17 years and TPLF practice the same drama with new faces. What the country need is not cadres with identification cards only but people who have the capability and ability to work and share their experiences and organize the people to trustfully participate and say also no to ideas that are not sound to them. Unless we have to put able professionals at the right places it is futile to dream.

I will conclude my ideas by bringing an example from my past. May be it will cheer some. Because it is important here how our Meles is advised with ill mind advisors among them my old college mate.

When I was in college we have to compute in sport and athletics was favoured by most of the students and there is also privilege till the tournament. What happened during our preparation was to serve the athletes special meal twice a day and my friend was first registered to run short distances and after a week practice he was the first from the last and do not have opportunity to be selected and what he told our sport teacher was I am not good at short distance but long distances are my favourite. Because the advantage to be included in the team being to have decent meal twice he trained for 10 000 meters and he was having the service till the last day of the competition because he was the only ten thousand runner. Finally he was the last from all college runners.

I brought this not to cheer you up as I said above but to show you how people try to be blinded in order to benefit what they do not deserve,