By Janice Winter
{www:COP17} is being hailed as “groundbreaking” as a deal was agreed after 14 days of difficult and, at times, deadlocked talks. One of the most contentious issues for Africa was the Green Climate Fund, which will go ahead despite anger at the overall failure of developed countries to commit investments. JANICE WINTER explains why this compromise is the best possible scenario.
Headlines last week declared: “Meles Zenawi cries foul over climate money pledges”. Well, that’s rich.
Leading Africa’s heads of state and government panel at the COP17 climate talks in Durban, the Ethiopian prime minister’s biggest emphasis was on the Green Climate Fund. Not only did he complain that funds pledged at Copenhagen COP15 in 2009 had failed to materialise, but also that, rather than being “new” money, much of it seems set to be recycled from existing aid budgets. He warned that such disingenuousness risked undoing the modest gains made towards the Millennium Development Goals and undermining the credibility of the entire process “in the eyes of the people of our whole continent”.
His position seemed reasonable enough: there was compelling scientific evidence that climate change will have a disproportionate impact on socio-economic development in Africa and that considerable financial investments were required from developed countries to assist Africa to adapt to the impact of climate change. But I am “of this continent” and something else risks undermining the credibility of the process in my view: that a corrupt dictator is provided with such an influential platform from which to hijack a critical cause for his own, probably illicit, interests. Coming from Meles, statements about credibility are hypocrisy at its most nauseating.
The Green Climate Fund is aiming for about $100-billion a year by 2020. The man clamouring for this considerable fund is regarded as one of the most repressive leaders on the continent. His government claims to have won a ludicrous 99.6% in the 2010 elections, jails the highest number of journalists in Africa using a law that criminalises dissent as terrorism and brutally tortures critics and opposition figures. Most crucial for this discussion, his government faces widespread, credible and sustained allegations of abusing Ethiopia’s enormous $3-billion of annual developmental aid as a tool of political repression and as a co-option mechanism to bolster his 20-year rule. Detailed and robust investigations include those by Human Rights Watch, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, and Newsnight.
According to a report to be published by Global Financial Integrity later this month, Ethiopia has lost $11.7-billion to outflows of illicit funds in the last decade. In 2009 alone, the figure was $3.26-billion, exceeding both the value of its total annual exports and the total development aid it received that year. And it is on the increase. The candid finding: “The people of Ethiopia are being bled dry. No matter how hard they try to fight their way out of absolute destitution and poverty, they will be swimming upstream against the current of illicit capital leakage.”
Yet despite these exposés and a significant deterioration in the country’s human rights situation since the brutal post-election crackdown of 2005 (in which 199 people were killed in just four days), international development aid to Ethiopia has doubled since 2005. Something as critical as the Green Climate Fund should not repeat the serious failures of developmental aid in this regard.
Meles Zenawi’s international credibility lies largely in Ethiopia’s official double-digit annual growth rates since the questionable 2005 elections and its asserted progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. As exiled Ethiopian journalist Abiye Teklemariam writes, Meles has forged an image as “a technocratic, if dictatorial, leader who had been able to crack the code of east Asia’s rise and download it into an Ethiopian hardware.”
Conveniently for Meles, no independent institutions in Ethiopia exist to check the veracity of his government’s figures, despite the credible scepticism by some international economists and substantial discrepancies in conclusions about Ethiopia’s performance and progress toward the MDGs. Indeed, the average growth rate for Meles’ entire 20-year rule (including the purported fast-paced period of the past few years) is less than 5% (below the African average of 6%) and that the country only overtook its 1975 GDP in 2006. Even if we take his spectacular recent figures at face value, which would be very generous, these are not representative of his rule. And despite these impressive, if contentious, figures, the Ethiopian economy is characterised by very high inflation, widespread unemployment, a stagnant private sector and corruption.
Before the enormous intended investments are endowed to the Green Climate Fund, far closer interrogation is needed of the ways in which this money might be spent and by whom – whether, in fact, there would be effective guarantees that the funds would be spent on projects to counteract the impacts of climate change, or would instead risk being used by undemocratic leaders such as Meles to counteract the challenges of political opposition and dissent.
The figures for the Green Climate Fund have been calculated by the African Climate Policy Centre, based in Addis Ababa. As it currently stands, African countries and institutions would be eligible for direct access to the fund. Oh, and some of these countries would also be part of the governing structures ensuring their own transparency and accountability.
Before the Green Climate Fund becomes operational and offers developing countries direct access to significant sums of money, it is vital to establish firm eligibility criteria of countries based on an independent corruption index and a strong accountability mechanism to ensure funds are spent transparently. This is necessary to prevent the situation of other aid endeavours where direct access to funding and weak accountability procedures enable corrupt and undemocratic governments to augment their rule through the politicisation of foreign funding.
If the Arab Spring has taught democratic leaders and donor nations anything, it is surely the need for far greater caution before financially assisting – and inadvertently bolstering – repressive leaders and a climate of corruption.
Alemayehu G. Mariam
Ethio-Corruption, Inc. (Unlimited)
“The people of Ethiopia are being bled dry. No matter how hard they try to fight their way out of absolute destitution and poverty, they will be swimming upstream against the current of illicit capital leakage”, wrote Economist Sarah Freitas who co-authored an upcoming report with Lead Economist Dev Kar of Global Financial Integrity (GFI). The GFI report entitled, “Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries over the Decade Ending 2009,” previewed in the Wall Street Journal, found that
Ethiopia, which has a per-capita GDP of just US$365, lost US$11.7 billion to illicit financial outflows between 2000 and 2009. In 2009, illicit money leaving the economy totaled US$3.26 billion, which is double the amount in each of the two previous years… In 2008, Ethiopia received US$829 million in official development assistance, but this was swamped by the massive illicit outflows. The scope of Ethiopia’s capital flight is so severe that our conservative US$3.26 billion estimate greatly exceeds the US$2 billion value of Ethiopia’s total exports in 2009.”
Two weeks ago in my commentary, “Why is Ethiopia Poor?”, I highlighted the fact that the Legatum Institute (LI), an independent non-partisan public policy group based in London, had recently ranked Ethiopia a pretty dismal 108th/110 countries on its 2011 Prosperity Index (LPI). Last year, the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHDI) Multidimensional Poverty Index 2010 (formerly annual U.N.D.P. Human Poverty Index) ranked Ethiopia as the second poorest (ahead of famine-ravaged Mali) country on the planet. According to OPHDI, the percentage of the Ethiopian population in “severe poverty” (living on less than USD$1 a day) in 2005 was 72.3%. Six million Ethiopians needed emergency food aid in 2010 and many more millions needed food aid in 2011 in what the U.N. described as the “worst drought in over half a century to hit parts of East Africa”.
The cancer of corruption is deeply embedded in the marrow of the Ethiopian body politic. The recently released Transparency International (TI) 2011 Corruption Perception Index report on Ethiopia confirms the findings of GFI and other anti-corruption international organizations. For the past decade, TI has ranked Ethiopia at the bottom of the barrel of countries ruled by the most corrupt governments. In fact, for the past ten years Ethiopia’s score on the TI index has remained virtually unchanged (TI ranks countries on a 0 (“highly corrupt”) to 10 (“very clean”) scale.
TI Corruption Index Score for Ethiopia by Year
2011 2.7
2010 2.7
2009 2.7
2008 2.6
2007 2.4
2006 2.4
2005 2.2
2004 2.3
2003 2.5
2002 3.5
In light of the 2011 GFI and TI reports, is there any doubt today why Ethiopia is the second poorest nation in the world? Is it rocket science to figure out why Ethiopians are the second poorest people on the planet? Ethiopians are poor because they have been robbed, ripped off, flimflammed, bamboozled, conned, fleeced, scammed, hosed, swindled, suckered, hoodwinked, victimized, shafted and taken to the cleaners by those clinging to power like bloodsucking ticks on an African milk cow. Is it not mindboggling that the US$3.26 billion stolen out of Ethiopia in 2009 was double the amount stolen in 2008 and 2007!?!
The Art of Bleeding Ethiopia Dry
I have long argued that the business of African dictatorships is corruption. In a November 2009 commentary entitled “Africorruption Inc.”, I wrote the following about corruption in Ethiopia:
The devastating impact of corruption on the continent’s poor becomes self-evident as political leaders and public officials siphon off resources from critical school, hospital, road and other public works and community projects to line their pockets. For instance, reports of widespread corruption in Ethiopia in the form of outright theft and embezzlement of public funds, misuse and misappropriation of state property, nepotism, bribery, abuse of public authority and position to exact corrupt payments and gain are commonplace. The anecdotal stories of corruption in Ethiopia are shocking to the conscience. Doctors are unable to treat patients at the public hospitals because medicine and supplies are diverted for private gain. Tariffs are imposed on medicine and medical supplies brought into the country for public charity. Businessmen complain that they are unable to get permits and licenses without paying huge bribes or taking officials as silent partners.
Publicly-owned assets are acquired by regime-supporters or officials through illegal transactions and fraud. Banks loan millions of dollars to front enterprises owned by regime officials or their supporters without sufficient or proper collateral. Businessmen must pay huge bribes or kickbacks to participate in public contracting and procurement. Those involved in the import/export business complain of shakedowns by corrupt customs officials. The judiciary is thoroughly corrupted through political interference and manipulation as evidenced in the various high profile political prosecutions. Ethiopians on holiday visits driving about town complain of shakedowns by police thugs on the streets. Two months ago, Ethiopia’s former president Dr. Negasso Gidada offered substantial evidence of systemic political corruption by documenting the misuse and abuse of political power for partisan electoral advantage. Last week, U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelley stated that the U.S. is investigating allegations that “$850 million in food and anti-poverty aid from the U.S. is being distributed on the basis of political favoritism by the current prime minister’s party.” [As of December 2011, over two years after the investigation was launched, the State Department has not publicly released the results of its investigation.]
Deceit, chicanery, paralogy and sophistry are the hallmarks of Meles Zenawi’s regime in Ethiopia. The cunning dictator has been able to shroud his corrupt empire by pursuing a propaganda policy of mass distraction and by staging one farcical political theatre after another. Zenawi has successfully distracted public attention from rampant corruption by
Making wild allegations of terrorism against his critics, persecuting and prosecuting his opponents and by jailing and exiling independent journalists (a couple of weeks ago, Zenawi shuttered Awramba Times);
Proclaiming a bogus Growth and Transformation Plan that will “double economic growth by an annual average of 14.9 percent” by 2015;
Selling Ethiopia’s most fertile land for pennies above the table and for millions under the table;
Panhandling the international community for famine and humanitarian aid and misusing that aid for political purposes;
Taking massive loans from international banks without any significant accountability on how it is spent;
Trying to shame and intimidate Western bankers and donors by hectoring them of the evils of “neoliberalism”;
Proclaiming the construction of an imaginary hydroelectric dam over the River Nile;
Sending troops to occupy Somalia and threatening war with other neighboring countries;
Vilifying international human rights groups, election observers and officials of multilateral organizations who disagree with him;
Dispatching swarms of officials to panhandle the Ethiopian Diaspora for nickels and dimes to buy dam bonds;
Systematically extracting foreign remittances sent by Diaspora Ethiopians;
Staging political theatre by a toothless anti-corruption agency to hoodwink complicit Western donors and loaners.
Etc., etc.
The Economics of Corruption
The Economist Magazine in its November 7, 2006 editorial described “the Ethiopian government as one of the most economically illiterate in the modern world.” In 2009 at a high level meeting of Western donor policy makers in Berlin where, a German diplomat suggested that Ethiopia’s economic woes could be traced to “Meles’ poor understanding of economics”. They are all wrong!
No one knows corruption, the economics of kleptocracy, better than Zenawi. The facts of Zenawi’s corruptonomics are plain for all to see: The economy is in the stranglehold of businesses owned or dominated by Zenawi family members, cronies, supporters or hangers-on. According to the World Bank, business enterprises affiliated with Zenawi’s regime control “freight transport, construction, pharmaceutical, and cement firms receive lucrative foreign aid contracts and highly favorable terms on loans from government banks.” Dataprovided by Zenawi’s regime showed that by the end of the 2009 fiscal year, Ethiopia’s outstanding debt stock was pegged at a crushing USD$5.2 billion. The USD$11.7 billion stolen over the past decade could easily retire that debt. Ethiopia is Africa’s largest recipient of foreign aid at nearly $USD4 billion in 2009, and the second largest foreign aid recipient in the world after Afghanistan.
Is There a Way to Stop Ethiopia from Bleeding?
The international community “naively” believes that corruption in Ethiopia and the rest of Africa could be controlled and significantly reduced by anti-corruption programs. The U.N. Convention Against Corruption (2003)requires signatories to “develop and implement or maintain effective, coordinated anti-corruption policies that promote the participation of society and reflect the principles of the rule of law, proper management of public affairs and public property, integrity, transparency and accountability.” Ethiopia signed the U.N. Convention in 2003. The Africa Union Convention on Preventing and Combatting Corruption (2003) established a regime to empower African countries to “prevent, detect, punish and eradicate corruption and related offences in the public and private sectors.” The Convention prescribes that “in order to combat corruption and related offences in the public service, State Parties” shall “require public officials to declare their assets at the time of assumption of office during and after their term of office in the public service.” Ethiopia signed the AU Convention in 2004. Neither of these Conventions has even made a dent in controlling the metastasizing corruption in Ethiopia.
Zenawi knows the power of corruption. He has effectively used corruption allegations to neutralize and eliminate his political opponents. He used his “Federal Ethics and Anticorruption Commission” to railroad his comrade-in-arms and former defense minister, Seeye Abraha, to jail for six years on unsubstantiated allegations of corruption. When then-Judge Birtukan Midekssa, and later Ethiopia’s first female political party leader and long suffering political prisoner, released Seeye for lack of evidence, Zenawi rammed legislation through his rubberstamp parliament to deny Seeye bail and keep him in pretrial detention. He later fired Judge Birtukan. In 2008, Zenawi’s anticorruption commission reported that “USD$16 million dollars” worth of gold bars simply walked out of the bank in broad daylight. A number of culprits were fingered for the inside bank job, but no one was ever prosecuted. In February 2011, Zenawi publicly stated that 10,000 tons of coffee earmarked for exports had simply vanished from the warehouses. He called a meeting of commodities traders and in a videotaped statement told them he will forgive them because “we all have our hands in the disappearance of the coffee”. He warned them that if anyone should steal coffee in the future, he will “cut off their hands”.
For years, I have documented and railed against corruption in Ethiopia. In December 2008, three years to the month, in a weekly commentary entitled, “The Bleeping Business of Corruption in Ethiopia”, I wrote:
The fact of the matter is that the culture of corruption is the modus operandi in the Ethiopian body politics. Former president Dr. Negasso Gidada clearly understood that when he declared in 2001 that ‘corruption has riddled state enterprises to the core,’ adding that the government would show ‘an iron fist against corruption and graft as the illicit practices had now become endemic’. In 2007 when Ethiopia’s auditor general, Lema Aregaw, reported that Birr 600 million of state funds were missing from the regional coffers, Zenawi fired Lema and publicly defended the regional administrations’ ‘right to burn money.’…. Ironically, in 2003, Ethiopia signed the U.N. Convention Against Corruption; and a couple of months ago, a conference on institutions, culture, and corruption was hosted jointly in Addis Ababa by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa.
The fact of the matter is that absolute power corrupts absolutely. Zenawi has absolute power in Ethiopia. Pleading for transparency and issuing moral exhortations against corruption will have no effect on the behavior of Zenawi or any of the other African dictators. Indeed, to plead the virtues of accountability, transparency and good governance with Zenawi and Co., is like preaching Scripture to a gathering of heathens. It means nothing to them. They are unfazed by moral hectoring or appeals to conscience. They sneer and jeer at those who rail and vociferate against corruption. Preaching to the corrupt, to put it simply, is an exercise in total futility!
In my November 7 commentary “To Catch Africa’s Biggest Thieves Hiding in America!”, I discussed the importance of initiating and cooperating with the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) in civil forfeiture actions to seize corruptly obtained cash, personal or real property of any person or entity that can be traced to “specified unlawful activity”. These civil court actions extend to foreign offenses involving extortion, money laundering, or the misappropriation, theft or embezzlement of public funds by or for the benefit of a public official of a foreign government. (18 U.S. C. sections 981 (a) (1) (c); 1956; 1957.) The U.S. has recently filed action to seize personal and real property of Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, the 43-year old son of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea.
Carefully review and analysis of GFI and TI data sources reveals that public assets and funds stolen from many African countries, including Ethiopia, are often hidden in banks located in the U.S. and Europe, although the clever African dictators are now diversifying by taking advantage of financial havens in countries experiencing rapid growth and industrialization. Much of the corruption activity centers around money laundering (that is, illegal or dirty money is put through a complex cycle of financial transactions or washed and is transformed into legitimate or clean money).
The basic idea in money laundering is to minimize the chances of detection of stolen public assets and funds by breaking the direct link between the kleptocrats or “corruptocrats” and their collaborators by disguising the true ownership. Using financial consultants, shell companies (bogus companies that exist to simply create the appearance of legitimate transactions through fake invoices and balance sheets), fraudulent official documentation, wire transactions, and “smurfing” techniques (breaking up large amounts of money into smaller, less-suspicious amounts in the names of multiple persons) etc., those who have stolen public assets and funds try to sever or camouflage their loot from its illegal source by placing it in international financial institutions. The aim in money laundering is at least twofold: 1) gain anonymity and hide the audit trail in case of a criminal investigation, and 2) plough the “clean money” into the legitimate economy by buying homes, investing in legitimate businesses, starting businesses and so on.
If the problem of corruption is to be addressed effectively in Ethiopia and the rest of Africa, it is not going to be at the fountainhead of the corruption itself but in the ocean where the river of corruption terminally flows. As one cannot expect the fox to safeguard the henhouse, one cannot similarly expect Africa’s dictators and corruptocrats and their collaborators to safeguard public assets and funds. A big part of the answer to the question of corruption lies in the Laundromats of financial institutions where the dirty money is washed. That’s why I believe it is the civic and moral duty of every Ethiopian and African to help the U.S. Justice Department catch Africa’s biggest thieves hiding in America. It is very easy to do, and do it anonymously. Individuals with information about possible proceeds of foreign corruption in the United States, or funds laundered through institutions in the United States, should contact Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations (ICE HIS) toll free at 866-347-2423 or send email to: [email protected]. If calling from outside of the U.S., the number is: 802-872-6199
BLOW THE WHISTLE ON AFRICA’S BIGGEST THIEVES HIDING IN AMERICA!!!
Previous commentaries by the author are available at:
www.huffingtonpost.com/alemayehu-g-mariam/
and
http://open.salon.com/blog/almariam/
Ethiopians Can Indeed Unite if they Choose, Six (a) of Six
Aklog Birara, PhD
The road ahead calls for sea changes in mindset
I should like to set the framework for the set of specific suggestions promised in Part Five (b) of Six. Unity does not occur by chance. It takes commitment, hard work, a sense of belonging; and cooperation from each of us. We cannot hate the ‘other’ and expect unity. The core principle in a multiethnic society is that one cannot possibly love one’s country without recognizing, accepting and welcoming the interests of others as part of the whole. The missing link in advancing national unity and cohesion is finding common ground and moving from rhetoric to action. What do I mean by that? I will be specific and give this a human dimension.
A child in the Afar, Somali or Gambella area should have the same rights and privileges of access to economic, social and political opportunities as a child in the so-called Tigray, Amhara or Oromia Region.
Good governance enables each to succeed. Discriminatory and tribal governance offers special privileges to its ethnic group disproportionately and steals from every Ethiopian child. It thus invites disaster for itself and its beneficiaries in the long-run. It cannot advance equity or unity. On the contrary, it makes everyone vulnerable and insecure. Ethiopians who wish to reverse this disaster that comes from political and economic capture by narrow ethnic-based elite no longer need additional material evidence.
These narrow elites have become enormously affluent by capturing the state and its institutions to advance and protect their interests. The governing party designs and shapes public policies, laws, rules and regulations to its narrow advantage. It selects who wins and who loses systematically. Parliament, political parties, the executive branch, security, police, defense, the judiciary and ministries all operate in tandem at the exclusion of the vast majority. It bars civil society from influencing policies and investments. For growth to be meaningful, it must be accompanied by public policies that reduce poverty, eliminate hunger, reduce inequality, raise individual incomes and raise individual capabilities to enhance wellbeing. What does the current system do?
The TPLF/EPRDF developmental state’s growth and eventual fair distribution of individual incomes and capabilities after–hundreds of thousands of children and females have perished; thousands have immigrated; and billions of American dollars stolen and taken out of the country illegally will not help the vast majority. By definition, it is discriminatory and inequitable.
The December 5, 2011 Financial Integrity and Economic Development press release says it all. “Illicit outflow (that I had highlighted in Waves last year,” from Ethiopia “nearly doubled in 2009 to US$3.26 billion” from 2008. This “African nation lost US$11.7 billion in illegal capital flight from 2000 to 2009” alone. How did this happen? It happened through “corruption, kickbacks, bribery and trade mispricing.” Remember that Ethiopia is one of the “hungriest, unhealthiest and un-freest” countries in the world, with GDP per capita of US$365. What is really lost? And why should we care?
What are lost are scarce resources that should go to education, health, sanitation, factories, agriculture, private sector development, infrastructure, youth employment and so on. The illicit outflow in 2009 exceeds all export earnings of US$2 billion and net Official Development Assistance of US$829 million combined. This is what led to the conclusion by the co-leader of the investigation, Sarah Freitas, that “The people of Ethiopia are being bled dry.” You dry resources; you deny opportunities to this and the coming generation of Ethiopians. The system is so corrupt that only direct participation and engagement by the vast majority of the Ethiopian people will reverse this morally bankrupt downward spiral for decades to come. Civic engagement is thus urgent and a matter of survival.
The country and its resources must be shared fairly, equitably and justly. This is why, for unity to take deep roots,” humanity is more powerful than ethnicity.” Unity without justice and equity is only a wish. Those of us in the Diaspora should ask simple questions and answer them ourselves. Why are Ethiopians forced to immigrate in droves? Why so much corruption and illicit outflow? There are two principal causes: poverty and repression.
In my view, the destiny of any Ethiopian should not be forced immigration because of lack of opportunities at home and because of government repression, period. No one should accept this verdict of the TPLF/EPRDF core as an acceptable and normal fate. The leadership and its supporters demean, brutalize and character assassinate each of us–even abroad–for a strategic reason: they are the lead beneficiaries of an oppressive system that steals billions. They like the way things are. Look at Burma and how long it took for the Burmese to gain a modicum of freedom that compelled the Obama administration to send Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Burma for the first time in half a century. It is freedom. It is common Burmese people and their political and civic leaders who did it; and no one else. Activists were jailed, murdered and forced to leave their homeland for decades.
By the same token, Ethiopians and people of Ethiopian origin must reject imprisonment and forced immigration as a fate and challenge the system that causes it. They must be bold enough to say that no child should go hungry and no one who advocates social justice should be arrested and jailed or forced to leave his/her country. Getting upset and reacting only when a relative is hungry or arrested does not advance unity. This is why empathy for and sustained support to those who fight for social justice and civil liberties, and for unity that embraces diversity in Ethiopia is critical. This is why it would make enormous sense to set aside differences and focus on commonalities. Those differences can be ironed out in public space once democratic change becomes real.
For the person who wrote a rejoinder to my series instead of the usual insult and innuendo that is typical of the TPLF and its kind (to which I am used), I say that Ethiopia must belong to all of Ethiopians. We must be courageous enough to say that plunder, illicit outflow, discrimination, corruption, and repression is not the way to advance national unity, sustainable and equitable development that will put a brake on forced immigration. Sustained, coordinated and unified peaceful resistance is the key. What do I suggest?
The best strategy to save this and the coming generation for every Ethiopian child in the country is to do the unthinkable: to accept one another; to listen to one another; to cooperate and collaborate with one another; to work with one another as citizens. How hard is this to do if we are open and willing? There is another reason why cooperation is vital. The strongest guarantee for peace, stability, security and unity for all ethnic and religious groups in Ethiopia– that has many traditional enemies that wish to keep it divided, poor and weak–is internal unity and sustainable and equitable development. Every Ethiopian child deserves a chance to succeed within his/her country. No government can afford to leave any child or group out, as is the case with the TPLF/EPRDF ethnic policy.
What can the Diaspora do?
I am fully aware that those of us within the opposition camp agree on one thing and one thing only. That is, we oppose the TPLF/EPRDF. This is not enough. Do we agree on the alternatives going forward except on generalities? I am not convinced we do. Those of us who lived through the Imperial and Socialist Military Dictatorship should know. We opposed; we helped depose. Where did we end up? Ethiopia lost its entire sea cost and became land-locked for the first time in its long history. This is the reason for my thesis that there is yet no shared understanding of the problem among opposition groups. This leads me directly to my first suggestion to the Diaspora community that, in large measure, enjoys freedom. This community has no excuse not to appreciate, promote and nurture life beyond ethnicity and parochialism. In other words, it has no reason not to cooperate across ethnic, religious, professional, gender and demographic lines. Yet, behaviors and actions counter cooperation and collaboration. Narrow mindedness reduces the effectiveness of the community in advancing social justice and freedom back home. It undermines social cohesion as Ethiopians, and deters human potential. It makes us less credible globally.
It goes without saying that as individuals and families, Ethiopians and people of Ethiopian origin are highly successful. In my own extended family, I counted six medical doctors and two PhDs in one event alone. We can build on our successes and advance social justice; and leave a legacy for this and the coming generation.
This success is not the same thing as community and country social capital formation and mindset. We are largely aliens to one another, if we diagnose how we relate to one another as people from different language and religious groups. We go to the extent of establishing different churches within the same religious group; and seem to be proud of it. We tend to exclude. This kind of division is exactly what the TPLF/EPRDF strategists want us to do. We do it for them for free, at a cost to the country. We play political theatrics on the country and its hungry and poor population and do not even acknowledge it.
Division that undermines cooperation is selfish. We can do the division debate once the country is free from repression and oppression. I am not convinced we can afford such luxury now. We need to pull together and advance the democratization cause first and provide sustained and coordinated support to those who struggle for peaceful democratic transformation within the country as the Burmese are doing. It goes without saying that support should be based on clarity of alternatives.
Within the above context, below are a set of twelve suggestions for all Ethiopians in general and political and civic groups in the Diaspora in particular. All are action and results oriented.
1. Let us stop demonizing and name-calling one another:
All opponents of the TPLF/EPRDF agree that its governance must go. I am not convinced that they recognize that their own divisions are agreeing are among the lead causes of why it survives. They spend as much time demonizing, demeaning and undermining one another as they do condemning the governing party. The first priority is therefore to look at one self in the mirror and stop insulting, undermining and badmouthing one another. I suggest strongly that we stop this disastrous behavior and practice now. It only helps the governing party. We should listen to one another; work with one another; and focus on the bigger picture of saving the country and supporting its diverse population. The struggle for Ethiopia’s future is not in the Diaspora. It is in Ethiopia. Singular focus on Ethiopia and all of the Ethiopian people strengthens mutual trust and confidence; and contributes to national unity.
There are numerous practical things activists and others in the Diaspora can do. Websites and radio stations can collaborate with one another; civic groups can pull their talent and financial resources and advance the common cause; political groups can set their feuds aside and move in the same direction, urging their supporters to do the same. The rest will follow; and those who struggle back home and the Ethiopian people will have confidence in the Diaspora. TPLF/EPRDF’s agents and paid detractors will have no place to go. They can no longer divide us. It is our division that offers them space to operate abroad as they do at home. Each of us can say no to badmouthing, character assassinations and undermining within the opposition camp if we are willing and daring. Say no to division now and you will see a dramatic shift both abroad and at home.
2. Let us leave a legacy and support the home front:
All Ethiopian activists who struggle for national unity of a diverse population, inclusive social justice and the rule of law–and suffer as a consequence–deserve our undivided attention, financial, moral, technical, diplomatic and intellectual support. If we stop demeaning one another and cooperate in these and other areas, we can leverage our resources and make a huge difference in advancing a peaceful democratic transition. Is it not conceivable for as few as 200,000 members of the Diaspora to contribute just one American dollar per month and channel it to those who advance the democratization process peacefully? It is then that they can influence vision and direction. This will help build capacity and capability.
3. Let us debunk ethnic antagonism:
Priority number one in my book is to debunk the TPLF/EPRDF alien philosophy and debilitating (incapacitating) strategy of irreconcilable differences among Ethiopia’s 80 nationality groups. Ethnic-based political formation, and organization works against national cohesion, optimal economic performance and sustainable and equitable development. Among other things, it deters capital and labor mobility and raises the cost of doing business. It nurtures elite based corruption and nepotism. It undermines national unity and keeps the country in constant suspense. It serves political elites at the cost of constituents. Ethnic-based thinking, political formation and economic mismanagement, civil conflict and wars are among the most devastating episodes in African history: Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo illustrate the human and economic costs. Yugoslavia fractured into tiny states.
In light of these and more, let us start with what each one of us can do; instead of blaming the regime for all our ills. That the regime is corrupt and repressive is well documented. It is what we each can do that is not. We each can take baby steps and reach-out to one another as Ethiopians and agree to disagree in a civil manner. We can stop demonizing other ethnic groups including Tigrean nationals. Why would we, for instance, suspect those who reject TPLF governance? There is evidence to suggest that some of us in the Diaspora who oppose the regime manifest such behaviors. We can stop the toxic like transmission of information to our children and urge them to accept one another as people of Ethiopian origin (humans and individual citizens). We can tell them that we speak different languages and dialects but have something much stronger in common: we hail from one country, Ethiopia, and we are all Ethiopians. We want to save Ethiopia. How hard is this to do?
The Ethiopian Diaspora is a model in some areas and a disaster in others. As individuals and families, we excel. We are almost all educated and owe this education and individual and family success to Ethiopian society, especially the poor. With a tiny exception, a majority of us in the Diaspora who enjoy freedom are cynical and are detached from the agonies of the people we left behind. Political actors are among the causes of this detachment and cynicism. Those who can afford to travel to the country as the ‘new tourists’ return and report the glitz they see as development. They do not engage themselves in a conversation with unemployed youth, beggars in the streets, the homeless next to the Sheraton, the farmer outside Addis Ababa whose land is too small to support a family, the small business person whose shop was just demolished to make room for a high rise owned by a member of the new elite. Some are not conscious of the fact that the mansion they build as a retirement home may contribute to escalating prices. Someone put this paradox of a Diaspora that is detached from the agonizing reality of the Ethiopian people not too long ago thus. “It is a great day in paradise in hell,” so to speak. All these and more are within our control to change. It takes will and determination. We can stop being part of the problem.
2. Let us embrace Ethiopia’s diversity as a national asset.
The premium I place on national unity of thinking as Ethiopians over ethnic-political and economic formation should not be interpreted as a proposal for homogeneity or the supremacy of one ethnic group over others. What I have in mind is the principle and value that my compatriot, Obang Metho lives by: “Humanity over ethnicity.” Ethiopia’s diversity is one of its greatest strengths. Those of us who believe in national unity must recognize, defend, preserve, strengthen and promote the institutionalization of genuine diversity of the unique cultural heritage, identity and interests of each and every nationality group in the country.
If we wish for the country to be strong and prosperous and for all Ethiopians to move out of hunger and poverty, we must safeguard the economic, cultural, social and political interests of all ethnic groups; and make a compelling case of the ultimate benefits of national cohesion over ethnic-fragmentation. Each of us can build on the positive traditions of the country’s diverse culture.
Here is the good news that debunks “irreconcilability of nationality groups.” Ordinary Ethiopians are not inimical to one another. If they were the country would have experienced social turmoil by now. Those who are hungry will go house to house and rob their neighbors. Those angry with repression would go out and kill or murder members of the governing party and ethnic elites who benefit from their misery. Those whose lands are given out to foreigners would go out and destroy large commercial farms and make the lives of the new landlords untenable and so on. Their refrain comes from a strong culture of peaceful coexistence; despite the seeds of animosity the regime tries to sow. I find no substantial evidence of major ethnic hatred or conflict among the country’s mosaic. It is ethnic elites who form ethnic based parties that cause mutual suspicion, mistrust and antagonism. It serves their narrow interests.
The governing party and allied ethnic-elites fuel ethnic and religious conflicts as part of its strategy of ‘divide and rule.’ Throughout Ethiopia’s long and proud history, different ethnic and religious groups have co-existed side by side peacefully for thousands of years; and will in the future. What they need is good, participatory and inclusive governance. Opposition parties, civic groups and individuals who love the country and its diverse population must resolve not to contribute or be party to ethnic-based political organization, leadership and attitudes. They can build on their commonalties.
The Diaspora can and should play a constructive role by promoting multiethnic and religious harmony. Weddings, holiday celebrations, graduation ceremonies, religious services and other social events can bridge relations; promote mutual confidence and trust; break taboos that come from our individual and group ignorance and so on. Those of us who live in the most diverse country (USA) on this planet but cannot even acknowledge and celebrate events with one another as Ethiopians and as people of Ethiopian origin. How difficult is it for us to sit together and to talk to one another in the same event whether we are Afar, Annuak, Somali, Oromo, Tigrean, Amhara or any other? I do not believe that Prime Minister Meles’ government can dictate to us how we behave toward one another; how we can embrace our diversity while contributing to our collective and individual identity as Ethiopians who speak different languages but belong to the same geopolitical space that is Ethiopia. It is our own choice to include or to exclude. Inclusion is fundamental to sustainable and equitable development. The Diaspora can and should take the higher road of social capital formation beyond ethnic, religious, gender, professional and demographic affiliation. I genuinely believe that such change in mindset will contribute to meaningful national unity; while retaining diversity. It will undermine the regime.
4. Let us be courageous enough to defend national unity.
National unity contributes to national cohesion and is the cornerstone for sustainable and equitable development. It is a matter of survival in a hostile world of competing national and group interests. In my view, national cohesion whose institutional foundation is human freedom and political pluralism is critical for durable peace, stability, sustainable and equitable development and prosperity. A new, promising, all inclusive, just and fair and forward looking society will open up enormous possibilities for everyone, especially for the country’s bulging young generation.
The party in power will not advance sustainable and equitable development. Its model works against national unity and cohesion. This is the reason why I suggest that only national leaning political and civic formation, organization and leadership would pose a challenge to the TPLF formulae of ethnic divide and conquer and establish the foundation for national unity that is based on genuine freedom for each member.
Those of us in the Diaspora who enjoy freedom can and should reject narrow self-interest, elite power grab, egos and hidden agendas wherever they emanate. Success can only come from cooperation and collaboration and not from brutal rivalry. There are no substitutes to cooperation across ethnic, religious, gender, demographic and professional lines. If one rejects fragmentation, it goes without saying that cooperation–while embracing Ethiopia’s diversity–is critical if we wish to preserve the national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and long-term interests of the country and its population. If we all do this, Ethiopians will overcome poverty and hunger.
Here is the first step that we can take. Let us try to imagine that genuine cooperation and collaboration among political and civic groups and the rest will go a long way in understanding the problem we are trying to fix and in arriving at probable solutions. This will not happen if we do not trust one another; if we do not listen to one another; if we do not talk to one another as ‘adults’ with wisdom. Suppose we all agree that national unity is essential for sustainable and equitable development; and to change the current system. Suppose we endorse a vision of a democratic, just, fair, equitable and inclusive and rule of law based Ethiopia.
What would it take to get there? How do we get there without reaching out and talking to one another? The preoccupation with “Only my vision, my program and my party” will lead us nowhere. Independent thinkers and civil society groups and others in the Diaspora can and must insist that political and civic groups–at least in the Diaspora– must break this silo mentality of “my way or the highway” if they wish to be relevant to those who struggle daily in Ethiopia.
I have had the privilege of listening to and conversing with a new generation of Ethiopians, who possess courage and stamina; who believe in advancing the democratization process regardless of the human cost. It is this new generation that is willing to sacrifice; collaborate among one another; learn from and work with their elders that should give all of us hope. This leads me to the question of relevance opposition groups within the Diaspora.
I suggest that, if they wish to contribute as catalysts to the democratization process–that should be anchored within Ethiopia among Ethiopians–political and civic groups and individuals in the Diaspora should dare to be bold and advocate Ethiopian national unity and identity, always embracing diversity and the rights of all citizens. They should all be comfortable with the notion of one country with a diverse population; and one destiny. They must have the courage, wisdom, perseverance, patriotism and discipline to reject nationality or tribe based political formation, as Ghana has done in its constitution. They must have the courage to apply moral and material pressure on all political parties and civil society organizations such that they recognize the notion that the TPLF/EPRDF formula leads only to a dead end in which no one, except the governing party wins. Unity comes when the rights, social and economic interests of every citizen are recognized and protected under the law.
To be continued.
By Elias Kifle
Meles Zenawi regime’s propaganda chief Bereket Simon released a 4-part documentary video this week that accuses journalists and opposition politicians of plotting to carry out terrorist acts (One only needs to read what the U.S. Gov’t says about who is the real terrorist – click here).
The star witness of Bereket’s fictitious docudrama is popular actor and member of the opposition UDJ Party. The video shows Artiste Debebe talking about various plots and the discussions he had with me and Dr Berhanu Nega. I cannot speak for Dr Berhanu, but none of what Debebe said about me is true. It’s a total fabrication. After hearing what Debebe had to say, I was convinced that he must have been tortured or some thing real bad had happened to him to say all the things he said, because no such conversation had taken place.
Yesterday, members of the Ethiopian Review Intelligence Unity in Addis Ababa sent me a report confirming what I had suspected. According to the report, Meles Zenawi’s deputy head of security, Esayas Woldegiorgis, gave a script to Debebe Eshetu to study and repeat in front of cameras every thing in the script in a convincing way or else his grand children and other members of his family will be sodomized with a bottle. This information is according to a close member of Debebe Eshetu’s family. Debebe has complied and understandably so. I’d do the same thing if I were in his position. There is no heroism in unnecessarily subjecting one’s grand children and other helpless family members to torture and sodomy by Woyanne hyenas. The people of Ethiopia understand that any thing that comes out of Bereket Simon’s lie factory is a lie. Only gullible individuals believe the Woyanne propaganda. Debebe Eshetu remains an Ethiopian hero in my view.
Torturing and sodomizing political prisoners is not a new practice for the Woyanne junta. Various international human rights organizations, and recently Wikileaks, have documented the horrific tortures inside Ethiopian prisons. Among the journalists who have recently been arrested, Woubshet Taye, for example, has been beaten up to the point of losing his hearing, according to his wife.
Sodomizing opponents, which is foreign to Ethiopian culture, is a method that Meles brought from his country Yemen. Victims of sodomy are extremely traumatized and that they are too ashamed to tell even those closest to them. In recent past, at least two prominent opposition politicians I know of who had been subjected to sodomy. I will not mention their names to keep their privacy. But in time, they themselves may be willing to talk about it in public so that the perpetrators face justice.
Those of you who doubt Woyanne’s {www:bestiality}, listen below one of the many messages that is left on my voice mail by Woyanne goons.
[podcast]http://www.ethiopianreview.com/audio/death-threats-against-elias-kifle-jan2009.mp3[/podcast]
For such crimes alone — not to mention the genocide in Ogaden and Gambella — Meles, Bereket and gang must be brought to the International Criminal Court.
