By Yilma Bekele.

There is a saying in our country. የፈሩት ይደርሳል፤ የጠሉት ይወርሳል (Yeferut yedersal Ye telut yeworsal.) It means what scares you most will happen and the one you despise will inherit your wealth. So it is with our country. We never thought any one could top the Derg in brutality. The TPLF proved us wrong. We did not anticipate the little rag tag militia is capable of assuming power. We were blindsided by Herman Cohen and Mengistu. Enough about yesterday, this article is about today.

“ As a result, coffee export are significantly lower this year,” he said. “The government may be forced to take over stocks held in private warehouses and provide it to the market.” The ‘he’ is the Prime Minster and his audience is his voiceless and tooth less gang called the Parliament. Believe me he is not talking about the coffee drinking public in Ethiopia. That is not his concern. When he says ‘provide it to the market’ he is talking about selling it for Dollars, Euros or Yen.

It is like father like son situation. His mentor Mengistu, in the name of socialism confiscated all personal property. Meles enshrined it his constitution. His recent statement regarding confiscation is a reflection of his mind set that was established over thirty years ago. He is still fixated with the concept that the government knows better. He refuses to grow up and change. Stalinism and Enver Hoxha are his heroes and guiding lights.

This single statement is a mirror reflecting the logic and mentality of the minority based government. It is not a through analysis to find the root cause of the problem and come up with a lasting solution. It is typical TPLF knee jerk reaction. Always a stopgap solution for single use to be discarded until the next crisis that is always around the corner.

Let us really look into this solution threatened by the fearless leader. So his logic goes the country needs foreign currency. The government credit rating is less than junk bond, thus no one will lend us money. But we need the foreign currency to buy food, oil and pay off the interest on existing loans. Is it time to look into the polices that got us into this predicament? Well that will be too rational and smart way of looking at situations. Why revise a failed policy that is causing undue hardship when you can pull another infantile idea from your hat.

Unfortunately the first urge of the TPLF regime is to resort to illegal means. When in doubt use force and coercion, that is Woyane’s motto. But you might ask does he have the constitutional power to do that? Even if he can force the rubberstamp Parliament to pass such law, can’t the courts stop such flagrant violation of the rights of the coffee merchants? Yes he can. The parliament and the courts are nothing but a façade.

It is a highly confusing situation. The claim is Ethiopia’s economy is based on the capitalist free enterprise model. Well sort of. There is this little issue of all land belonging to the government that sort of distorts the capitalist model. Well, if you ask there is also this little item of the government owning the telecommunication industry, Internet, television, radio transmission and electricity production. What is left for the citizen you might ask? Right now most are relegated to running hotels, bars, restaurants, nightclubs and tearooms.

The question that comes to mind is can a hybrid capitalist system confiscate the property of its citizens? May be revolutionary democracy allows that. Let us look at this coffee situation closely. Let us say Ato Meles manages to ‘convince’ his Parliament to give him the authority, how does he go about doing it? Does he buy the coffee from the merchants or do they lose ownership without pay. Since the merchants paid for the coffee and are waiting for favorable time to sell it for a profit how does the government arrive at a price? If the coffee is bought with bank loans, do the merchants still owe the bank after the confiscation?

Actually we have the answers from previous encounters with Woyane’s policies. Do you remember the 2005 election? Woyane lost. What did they do? They confiscated all the ballot boxes except in Addis. Do you remember the money changing business? Woyane needed cash. They confiscated all the foreign currency in sight. They claimed growing flowers is the future. When the market dried up what did they do? They threatened the growers that leased the land that it will be resold to the next bidder. When they were cornered by the Diaspora Ethiopians, and International organizations regarding the illegal imprisonment of Kinijit leaders, journalists and civic leaders they concocted some deal using less than honorable individuals and caved in. But that was temporary, now they have Judge Bertukan in prison. Woyane confiscates property and people.

None of the above polices worked. They all backfired. Success is not measured in terms of longevity of the regime rather in terms of the quality of life of the people. The TPLF regime is obviously in power, but at what cost? The economy is deteriorating and the discontent is ascending. Sooner or later no mater what it will reach a critical point. It looks like they can see it coming but are unable and unwilling to change their behavior. It happened to Mengistu too. Ceausescu of Romania was blinded until he was silenced with a two feet rope. Just look at Bashir acting like a cornered rat. So you don’t think it could not happen to you? That is what Charles Taylor said!

Cutting of hands does not work. Confiscating people’s property and assets is not a good idea. There are no instances of this kind of illegal act working anywhere. What works is devising a policy with everyone’s participation and goodwill. What works is consultation and an open debate to arrive at a lasting and fair solution. What works is using democratic means to empower the citizen and making them partners in formulating policies.