Healers or Enablers? The case of Ethiopian doctors in exile

By Anonymous

Some Ethiopian doctors in exile are said to be planning to invest in Ethiopia. In preparation, they have had meetings with the Woyane deputy prime minister, and ambassador Girma Biru among other officials. They wish to build a referral hospital in Addis Ababa. According to the feasibility study, the project aims as clients at the rich who would otherwise travel abroad for medical care, foreigners in the country and patients from the Middle East. Many argue that the project won’t do anything significant for the poor and accuse of such doctors as enablers of an undemocratic regime which oppresses the people of Ethiopia.

I was recently listening to the National Public Radio (NPR) when a physician from Burma said: “I will not go back to Burma because the military government now says I can come.” The physician used to own a clinic in Burma, which was closed and confiscated by the Burmis government. He managed to escape and went to exile. He continued to fight for freedom and democracy in Burma. Recently, there is news that Burma is showing progress towards democracy. Free and fair elections took place and Aung San Suu Kyi is now elected with an overwhelming support from the people. This is a progress though there are still political prisoners. The Burmis government is now telling people in exile to come home. The Burmis physician said: “I will not go back to Burma because the government says so but I will go when I see it right because it is my country.”

In the case of Ethiopia, there has been exodus of citizens since TPLF took power. Countless citizens have been unjustly killed, tortured, imprisoned, displaced from their lands and are denied jobs if they were not members of the the ruling party. The educated was not exempt. Several university professors were summarily dismissed. Professor Asrat Woldeyes was killed by the government because of unjust imprisonment and denial of proper medical care until it was too late. As a result of the continued injustices at the hands of the Woyanne regime, Ethiopian professionals are leaving their country en mass. According to one report, 46% of Ethiopians would like to leave their country. The mass exodus of Ethiopian physicians has been devastating to the country. It is reported that there are more Ethiopian doctors in the US than the whole of Ethiopia. This is a huge loss to the poor nation.

It will not be easy to blame the Ethiopian doctors for leaving their country in search of freedom and better life. I say so because where there is a divisive system as the Woyanne which favors one ethnic group over the other, values party affiliation over skills, and systematically suppresses dissenting voices, it is natural that people would want to free themselves from such mess.

Most of the Ethiopian doctors are here in the US based on political asylum for fear of persecution by the Woyanne regime. That same regime is still in power and it has not changed its manner of rule. Key government and economic positions are held by Woyannes and their affiliates. People are being thrown to prison just because they expressed their views. And guess what, the parliament is completely by controlled by one party, except for one sit. It is currently in the news that about 78,000 Amharas have been displaced from southern Ethiopia in an effort by the regime to create Amhara free area. So, we have not seen even the kind of change happening in Burma that the Burmis doctor did not see as adequate for him to engage in business with the Burmis dictators.

A contrast is to be drawn between the Burmis doctor and some of the Ethiopian doctors in exile. The former seems to have a principled stand that until freedom reigns and justice prevails, going back and doing business with dictators is unthinkable. On the other hand, some of our doctors seem to have chosen to present themselves to servitude in doing business with a dictatorship. This is so while prominent entrepreneurs like Dr Fisseha Eshetu, a physician and founder of Unity University, have left the country concluding that it is practically impossible to independently conduct business under the ravenous TPLF junta.

These doctors seem to be oblivious to the suffering of their people at the hands of the Woyanne. They seem to have forgotten that most of them came to the west and requested asylum on the bases that the same Woyanne made it impossible for them to live in their country. Now that they are economically capable of investing, thanks to the US, they seem to have forgotten the plight of their people who are subjected to Woyanne’s oppression. Some of the physicians are obviously supporters of the current regime, but the majority may have been victims of their guilt feeling that they have to give back to their country. Some may have seen a business opportunity. They are bamboozled into joining a club of people who say that ‘governments will come and go’ so it is find to work with the regime no matter what it does. I have news for them: as long as they enable the Woyanne by doing business with it, the system of minority exploiting the majority is here to stay.

Doctors, let’s be honest and be true to ourselves. Are you not investing primarily to make money? How do you think the poor will benefit from a hospital erected in Addis Ababa where the plan is to charge several thousands of birr per visit? Is it not the reality that your primary clients are the rich, the expatriates, and possibly people coming from the Middle East, etc? These people are and will continue to be capable of seeking treatment anywhere in the world. But to say that you guys are investing to pay back to your people who paid for your education is utterly dishonest.

Some of the doctors are politically astute in their support of the Woyanne regime that is benefiting their minority group. For those Ethiopian physicians who honestly think they are investing to help Ethiopia, please do your homework first as you may regret later. Although your investments may be well intentioned or for the purpose of making profits, there are a potential risks that you will eventually succumb to.

As planned, the doctors will be able to raise only a portion of the investment. In the current reality of minority group controlled Ethiopia, it will be imperative that Azeb Mesfin and other high powered Woyannes will be part of the business.

Then, you are effectively doing business with the woyanne which will control your investment from the inside.

In so doing, you are benefiting the very group (Woyanne) that most of you accuse it of doing you injustices that forced you to into exile, and a group which is making the country hell for most people.

According to the bylaw of the project, the investing physicians will have to spend two weeks per year in proposed hospital. For those physicians who may have a differing political view from that of the Woyanne, it will be impossible to express their views freely or risk their business or possibly be imprisoned like many if they choose otherwise.

Then, the Woyanne regime will have achieved its goal of Diaspora investment policy , i.e., weakening the opposition by keeping people silent for fear of their business being endangered no matter what a cruel injustice the very people the doctors claim to help are subjected to.

My dear Ethiopian physicians, do you really follow the political situation in your country, Ethiopia? Do you really appreciate the cries of so many million people? Are you aware that journalist Eskindir Nega, who used to live in the US but left for Ethiopia hopping that he will make a difference, is now languishing in prison possibly facing death for the only crime of expressing his views? Many more Oromos, Amharas, Somalis, etc are currently languishing in prison. Are you aware that the Anuaks were massacred by the Woyanne, and now they are being displaced and their land, Gambella, is being given away to Indian and Arab “investors” for dirt cheap prices?

I hope you have seen in the internet when the Indian Karituri representative told the British journalist: “they gave it to us, we took it; we didn’t even see the land when we agree,” as he expressed his surprise about how cheaply they got a huge land in Gambella. Are you aware that Ethiopian land has been given away to Sudan by the Woyanne? Are you aware that the Amharas are currently being deliberately displaced from the southern Ethiopia because of the ethnic policy the Woyane espouses? Are you aware that our sisters are being trafficked to Arab countries? Do you know that Yenesew Gebre, a 29 year old teacher in southern Ethiopia burnt himself to death protesting the injustice perpetrated by the Woyane regime?

Dear physicians, if you are aware of the above and other myriads of national disasters inflicted by the Woyanne, do you think you should do business with this regime?

If you think you are not deliberately doing business with the regime, the reality is you are. You are indeed enabling the regime to further perpetrate crimes against our country. If you think you will do what you plan to do and hope things will get better, I tell you that your effort is synonymous to treating a hookworm infection with a blood transfusion. Though, a blood transfusion may be necessary for severe anemia due to a hookworm infection, you are guaranteed to require more blood transfusions in the future unless you treat that hookworm infection with a drug that cures it. You choose! You can choose to be a change agent like the Burmis doctor or become an enabler of a parasitic regime in doing business with it and keeping silent. You choose!