By James M.

The dictators of our time live by preaching dogmas such as religious fundamentalism and fanaticism, revolutionary democracy etc interwoven with practiced kleptocracy (rampant greed & corruption), misinformation, deceptions, intimidation, scare mongering, repression, extra-judicial killings etc.

Religious fundamentalism, for example, is a fertile ground for some dictators as it is for Al-Qaida. Dictators like Meles Zenawi however come to power having as their cause (illegitimate) liberation of a single ethnic group, but then pave their way to the peak of political power using all known techniques and methods that other evil dictators have been using around the world.

There are plenty of experiences to coach; such as the methods used by J Stalin-Former Soviet Union, Mao and Hu Jintao-Communist Party of China, Milosevic — Former Yugoslavia, Rwanda’s genocide, Omar al-Bashir-Sudan, Kim Jong-il-North Korea, Than Shwe-Burma, Robert Mugabe-Zimbabwe, Ahmedin Ahmadinejad-Iran etc.

History has recorded that thousands and millions of innocent people have been killed by self-imposed ruthless dictators in order to stay in the front seat of power forever. Behind the façade of their power they hide their evil acts by using ethnic differences, deceptions and all other means.

In our time, we also witness the role information technology and media has been playing (as if it is God-given gift from heaven for their manipulations), enormously helping those dictators to pursue their objectives; to misinform, fabricate, lie, intimidate, demoralize and harass the innocent population that they rule, making them helpless creatures.

With the run-up to the Election 2010 in Ethiopia, Meles negotiated a lion-share of the radio and TV air time to dominate and defeat his “enemy” (the opposition parties). Those of us who watched the pre-recorded and so called “national election debates”, have wondered how on earth radio and TV air time was distributed on the basis of current number of seats in parliament that parties hold, while the election is for a future parliament. It begs questions as to what has been the logic behind the saga and why the debates has to be held in the caged studios of the TPLF/government owned Ethiopian Television and Radio? Why free speech and freedom of expression of ideas have been harnessed, censored, controlled etc in this way? Why TPLF needed to enact laws to restrict the media? Why the debates have been full of fear and uncertainty? Where does this type of model exist in the world in the 21st Century? Why people (the electorate), I would rather call them “enslaved voters”, are deprived of knowing the truth about TPLF/EPRDF candidates’ crimes? Why the army commander has to come out with warning to name and shame and also implicate Seye’s presentation at the debates? In all these, the Ethiopian Television and Radio Organization has been the weapon that Meles needed to have absolute monopoly on, control and kill voices of the opposition groups as he wished. Meles has also showed on the ETV his predecessor’s (Mengistu’s) crimes to refresh the memories of the enslaved voters, likening the opposition groups with Mengistu. If I may ask, is this not a criminal act that Meles has committed using the ETV, the only TV channel in the country?

So many ‘questions’ so few ‘answers’ – Absolutism!

Mr Zenawi is “crafty”, “intelligent”, “clever” and determined “statesman” (borrowing Aigaforum’s words), of course, ruthless dictator who has been doing his homework to choke up any dissent that has been on his way to shake up his absolute power . His cadres and the well-connected are the blood arteries that help him keep going. So far, he indeed has been doing his job by copying the examples of other dictators, his counterparts.

The Chinese are on his side too, to do business as usual, mindless about Zenawi’s atrocities and human rights abuses. Even if the Americans are hesitant to give him aid money and so should he care? He has, of course, the bidding card in his pocket that “he is an ally against war on terror.”

The Chinese has jammed the VOA and also the DW radio frequencies for him and if the Chinese expertise is not sufficient enough, then Zenawi can also turn to the Iranian scientists and buy Satcomms jamming equipment re-vitalizing and diverting the AID money on his will? Does he care if 26 million people are in need of food in the country, so long as he can rule over the living destitute Ethiopians that have nowhere to go? Of course, they can leave the country to apply for asylum; they can be his slaves by joining his party and then vote for him or be sold to the Middle East rich guys and earn him dollar money for his coffers.

The most crucial weapon for him to appear that he is a powerful political ruler, as so many of his cronies might think, is that he is in full control of the media and national communication infrastructure. One might say how about the Army too? No doubt that he controls everything absolutely! Zenawi owns the Ethiopian Telecom, the Ethiopian Radio and Television, the national papers etc whose tasks are merely to intimidate and harass the population. These institutions are instruments of repression and are forced to be turned into:

• echo chambers of the regime,
• distortion and deception centers,
• propaganda and agitating machinery for the Zenawi party,
• megaphone of political exaggerations of the TPLF,
• centers for opinionated information.

Furthermore, the staff of these institutions is compelled to practice rhetorical journalism and disseminating redundant information to cover-up for government misdeeds and atrocities. Birtukan Mideksa’s arrest is a classical example where the Justice Ministry on the ETV has read the announcement of her re-arrest quoting that “she had given an interview to the foreign media regarding her pardon”[4], whereas Birtukan hadn’t done so in Sweden, on this topic, just had answered a question from a curious audience regarding the issue. The ETV type of worst journalism is a well documented fact by many and so citing other examples of wide scale fabrications would become beyond my blurb.

Have the West Started to See the Copycat?

It is this long-time process of Zenawi’s ruthless and bizarre behavior that the West have started to see as the alarm bells go off all over their Mind set and now they are starting in earnest to criticize his atrocities, however very late. The Human Rights Watch, Amnesty Intl, State Department, the White House, the Crises Group, the UK Foreign Office, Diplomats, the BBC, Reuters, the Economist, etc have woken up to do their fair share of disclosing, condemning the atrocities and of course are also “concerned” about the process of “Election” 2010 in Ethiopia, that was “marred by intimidation and absence of level playing field.” [EU EOM, Report, May 23, 2010]

It is worth to bring to the attention of any normally thinking person that Meles is a copycat. His cadres have been studying the Chinese model of development/dictatorship (Revolutionary-China, coupled with few hints of Western democracy) and jamming tricks, and now they are concatenating the Iranian model of jamming radio frequency spectrum in the air.

In May, 2009, The Islamic Republic of Iran jammed the frequencies of the global broadcasters [1] – the BBC, Deutsche Welle (DW) and Voice of America (VoA). Though Iran is both a member of the United Nations and a member of also the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), that did not hinder them from scattering the frequencies of those Trio that provide balanced world-wide news services.

Iran’s action went against the ITU’s constitution, i.e. Article 45 — “Harmful Interference” — states clearly that, among other things:

the Member States recognize the necessity of taking all practicable steps to prevent the operation of electrical apparatus and installations of all kinds from causing harmful interference to the radio services…” [ITU – Chapter VII Special Provisions for Radio]

Though the big broadcasters begged Iran to lift its provocative jamming actions, Ahmadinejad’s government refused to co-operate. Reasons? The Western Democracy is “disseminating a “destabilizing propaganda using their broadcasting agencies” (paraphrased). This is the phrase used also by Zenawi, boldly, in response to a Western journalist who asked him a question regarding the jamming of the VOA Amharic service.

Paris-based Eutelsat is now “unable to conduct normal and licensed satellite operations that enable it to deliver these services in Iran using its Hotbird satellite.”[1]

So what is Zenawi’s fault if the Western Democracy (Liberal Democracy) is hesitant to act and punish Iran? As a dictator, what makes him different if he employs the AID money (at least Iran has oil) to jam the VOA and then the satellite TV launched by the like-minded Ethiopians, calling it (ESAT)? One could also ask, is it really “the ESAT” that means FIRE in Amharic that disturbs Zenawi’s mind, for what we know he uses his own one to punish the people anyway.

The Ethiopian Satellite Television (ESAT), apparently, has as its objective providing balanced views and giving the Ethiopians an alternative channel to the information media as opposed to a single state-owned media, which Meles could have even supported. Isn’t he a “statesman” meant to lead the African nations and “negotiate” on behalf of Africa for fairness at World stage? So, shall we now conclude with certainty that he is rather an evil clown that teaches the children bad things? Is ESAT going to be a threat to Meles, and his ministers the likes of Bereket Simon (Communication Minister), Shimeles Kemal (Government Spoke’s Person), Abadula/Minase (President of Oromia State) etc? The answer as obvious as it might be is a resounding yes!!

Did We Get the Message?

In summary, it is obvious that in addition to other methods employed, Meles has used the media to pre-determine the election 2010 in Ethiopia. The Chinese have blocked all websites that carry any criticism to the dictator’s rule, using firewalls and Internet filtering tools. He has tormented, and terrorized the Addis Neger paper editors forcing them to flee the country. Forced the Awramba times paper’s editor to resign in fear of prosecution.

Using the boxing metaphor, the election has been conducted in an environment where the oppositions groups with their hands tied up behind their backs, their legs fastened together, their eyes be folded; while dictator Meles with all his body free got his punches, and has knocked the opposition groups out of the ring. It then only remained him to come out for a press conference later, to announce that oppositions must learn from him for the next round of election, but now they must accept his victory… else they have to be prepared to face the consequences. Profesor Merera and Dr Beyene of MEDREK (the most outspoken critics of his rule) are on his target we have heard, and they must have received his warnings by now. Acting in such a way, Meles has nicely mirrored his predecessor, Mengistu Haile-Mariam. Mengistu also had won an election in a landslide victory! The only difference is that they lived in different times.

The eccentric Zenawi (certainly clown and eccentric) once more has raped election in the home front. His next move has been a fast strike at Observers (EU EOM), NGOs, civil society institutions, oppositions and their supporters and also the free media that includes the big players. So, the Dictator works by example (Iran this time), whatever the cost may be: BLOCK…BLOCK, JAM Baby JAM!!! JAM VOA, JAM DW, JAM ESAT!!!

(The author can be reached at: [email protected])