By Alemayehu G. Mariam
Bored?
There has been much talk recently about the possible “retirement” of the über-boss in Ethiopia. Reuters reported that “… Meles Zenawi wants to step down after 18 years running sub-Saharan Africa’s second most populous country.” Apparently, the dictator is “bored” with the racket he has been running for the past 18 years, or at least nagging questions about when he will be calling it quits. The dictator says he needs the permission of La Famiglia, “his ruling party before he can leave.” Reuters rhetorically asked: “So when might he go? And what will happen if he does?”
According to Reuters’ guessing game, the dictator could “get permission to leave” at the party congress in September, but that is unlikely “a year before Ethiopia has its next national election due in June 2010.” He could be ousted as a result of an opposition win, but that “would be a shock. The 2005 elections ended in violence when Meles claimed victory, the opposition shouted fraud and about 200 protestors were killed by police and soldiers.” He “wins in 2010 and the opposition cries foul… But despite Ethiopia’s close relations with the West, allegations of fraud or violence would be more difficult for the international community to take a second time and the country could see its aid slashed, plunging it deeper into poverty.” The dictator’s party “wins the election, there is no violence and Meles will probably resign within two years and be replaced by a party loyalist who will continue his domestic, economic and foreign policies.” Or the dictator “serves another 5-year term and runs again.”
The dictator is dismissive of these speculations. He says he wants to relinquish power, go into retirement and “have a long good rest.”
To Chuckle or to Guffaw?
We have listened to the amusing blather about staying or leaving office for the past several years. We are never sure whether to chuckle or guffaw every time we hear it recycled through the propaganda machine: “I will resign. I will leave office at the end of my term, but only if my party allows me to. I will stay in office as long as my party demands it of me. I will leave office, but I won’t tell you when. I will leave office when I leave office. Oh! Questions about when I will leave office bore me.” Indeed, the whole affair has become a recurrent farcical comic opera. International journalists ask the dictator when he plans to leave, and he feeds them the same crock of ambiguous, opaque and enigmatic answers in his usual doublespeak and pretentious phraseology. The journalists draw up their own fanciful speculations about what he will do, and the charade goes on and on. But the climax of this bizarre jabber is always the same: “May be I will go. May be I won’t. It’s for me to know, and for the rest of you to speculate about and play guessing games.”
The Solipsistic Logic of Dictators
The question is never whether any dictator will stay or go. We know from Gandhi’s axiom that all dictators eventually go: “There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall — think of it, ALWAYS.” The question about when a tyrant will fall is solipsistic (has special meaning only to the tyrant) and reveals much about the tyrant’s egoistic self-absorption and self-indulgence with power. The tyrant’s choice of the word “boring” to dismissively respond to questions about the timing of his departure is quite curious. Boredom and anxiety are states of mind on a psychological continuum. Could it be that giving a date certain for leaving office creates in the mind of the tyrant deep angst about unclinging from power and the potential consequences that could follow?
For the critical observer, the question of when the tyrant will leave office is a rhetorical tautology (that is, the question is incapable of producing a truthful answer that can be verified or falsified). In other words, any response by the dictator to the question is unlikely to produce or convey truthful or useful information regardless of how many times it is asked. The response will always be hedged and interwoven in a fabric of deceit and absurd contingencies such as obtaining permission from the party, new leaders taking over, democracy being institutionalized and so on. Consider the following muddled and transparently evasive response:
My personal position is that I have had enough. I am arguing my case and the others are also arguing their case. I hope we will come up with some common understanding on the way forward that would not require me to resign from my party that I have fought for all my life. We are not talking about Meles only. We are talking about the old generation. The party needs to have new leadership that does not have the experience of the armed struggle…. It would be very important for everybody, particularly for the fledgling democratic institutions of this country…. The party is in the process of dialogue, and sooner or later it will make its decision, and that will be it… We have a large leadership pool, any one of whom could take the mantle… [The ethnic background of his replacement] is not a prime consideration. The party has gone beyond that…”
It is not clear from the foregoing statement why the dictator can not leave office immediately or on a date certain, or what argument he is presenting for or against leaving office. But the dictator’s uncompromising conclusory statement “I have had enough.” objectively indicates that he has reached a final and irreversible psychological state on his tenure in office. Simply stated, the dictator is completely disgusted and bored with what he is doing. He does not want to do the job anymore. But he quickly qualifies his expression of disgust by pleading to stay in power so that he “would not [be] require[d] to resign from my party that I have fought for all my life”. He feigns humility by claiming that his staying or leaving office is not about him at all. It is really about the old guards passing the baton to the new generation of leaders and so on. He hedges by implying that he can not leave office until the generational transfer of power is complete. The whole self-contradictory response reflects the solipsistic narcissism of a megalomaniacal dictator who seeks to tether not only the fate of his party to himself, but also the country’s destiny.
But the dictator’s definitive statement invites further query: He has “had enough” of what exactly? Massive violations of human rights? Kangaroo court justice? Systemic corruption? Lies? Perhaps, he has had enough of THE TRUTH!?
All of this farcical talk about leaving office does have a not-so-hidden strategic purpose. It is intended as a trial balloon to divert attention from the already-won 2010 election. The dictator hopes to fool, confuse and confound the opposition and international donors by titillating them with the possibility of his leaving office. We will predict that the dictator and his gang will be shoveling loads of propaganda between now and the already-won election of 2010 in a futile effort to distract public attention and convince donors that they are the only viable democratic alternative.
We should refrain from playing a guessing game of who will replace the dictator. We know for a fact that replacing Tweedledee with Tweedledum from another ethnic group (or replacing the old guard from the days of the armed struggle with a newer generation of their clones) will not amount to a hill of beans. The problems that have been festering in Ethiopia for the past two decades can not be cured by the departure of a bored, jaded, dispirited and weary dictator, or by his replacement clone. The problems are structural and viral in the system of dictatorial mis-governance over the past 18 years. Let’s be crystal clear: The dictator’s “retirement”, “resignation” or whatever nonsense he is talking about will not mean the beginning of the rule of law and it will not mean the end of massive human rights violations. His retirement will not end arbitrary arrests and imprisonments; the independent media will not function freely because he goes; the bantustans of ethnic federalism he created to divide and rule will not vanish immediately, and corruption will not stop. There is only one way to bring about fundamental change: Replace the one-man, one-party dictatorship with a genuine multiparty system.
No Rest for the Wicked!
There is not a single instance in the history of modern dictatorships where dictators voluntarily packed up and left power one fine morning. Dictators are to power as bloodsucking ticks are to a cow. Neither can survive without its life-giving force. There are many reasons why dictators will not leave power voluntarily. In Ethiopia, the reason is that the dictators will never outplay themselves at their own zero sum game. For them leaving power means losing everything. EVERYTHING! It means being held accountable for their monstrous crimes; losing their privileged positions in society; giving up their ill- gotten gains and the absolute power they wielded for nearly two decades.
Old dictators never fade away; they just cling to power like bloodsucking tics on a cow, until they inevitably fall. Sometimes they do run, but they can never hide. As for a “long good rest,” it is written in the Book of Isaiah (57:20, 21), that “the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.”
10 thoughts on “No rest for the wicked!”
My goodness. Professor Al must have an x-ray vision into the psychology of the dictator. It is as if he were able to by pass all that useless ugly tissue of the dictator and play with the two brain cells that occupy the cranium of the megalomaniac dictator.
I don’t have enough words to express my admiration for Professor Alemayehu. What a mind-blowing analysis.
I only wish that Meles and his gang read the article — not that they will change their old ways but let them be aware that they can’t continue hoodwinking the Ethiopian people and the rest of the world forever with their lies.
Also I verymuch hope that the State Department, the White House, the US Congress and 10 Downing Street get copies of this wonderful article.
Thank you Professor.
Another home run Dr. Al. It really does not matter whether he leaves or not. What the Country needs is to be led by someone/Party that is elected by the People.
We shouldn’t waste our time talking about whether meles is goint to step down or not, instead we should focus and work hard in unison to bring the weyane tyrrany to an end.
As always, Professor Alemayehu’s article is outstanding and shades light to the Woyanne criminal family and its murderous blood-thirsty thuggish leader, Legesse Zenawi. It is indeed a very encouraging time in the US – Africa relations. Despite the despot, Zenawi’s sharing of stage with leaders of the democratic world, it is only obvious his deceit, lie and crime has become a talking point and his days are numbered. As President Obama put it in his speech in the Ghanian Parliament – directed to the child killer, Meles Zenawi, the next criminal who will be dragged to the Hague along with his his other Tigre thugs, as follows:
“Make no mistake: history is on the side of these brave Africans, and not with those who use coups or change Constitutions to stay in power. Africa doesn’t need strongmen, it needs strong institutions.”
Obama furthered his speech as:
“As we provide this support, I have directed my Administration to give greater attention to corruption in our Human Rights report. We have a responsibility to support those who act responsibly and to isolate those who don’t, and that is exactly what America will do.”
“Governments that respect the will of their own people are more prosperous, more stable, and more successful than governments that do not.
This is about more than holding elections – it’s also about what happens between them. Repression takes many forms, and too many nations are plagued by problems that condemn their people to poverty. No country is going to create wealth if its leaders exploit the economy to enrich themselves, or police can be bought off by drug traffickers. No business wants to invest in a place where the government skims 20 percent off the top, or the head of the Port Authority is corrupt. No person wants to live in a society where the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery. That is not democracy, that is tyranny!”
Terrorist Meles will never quit unless he is forced by the united struggle of the Ethiopian people. He is just talking for the sake of talk and to answer the question about quitting by foreign journalists and make some headline first page news for the foreign journalists. He has never discussed the issue of resignation either in Amharic or Tigrigna. When he was first ever asked about the issue in Amharic, he responded by saying he is bored of discussing about it and evaded the question. Mind you, this was the first ever question on the issue in Amharic. How can he get bored talking about it in Amharic to the Ethiopian people when it was the first ever question in Amharic? For those who have the illusion that terrorist Meles might finally quit, the above evidence that he has never spoken about it either in Amharic or Tigrigna, in and of itself, is a prove beyond any reasonable doubt that terrorist Meles has no intention, none whatsoever, of quitting terrorizing the Ethiopian people. Thank You Porf. Al for putting things in perspective.
Sema
The analysis of professor Alemayehu is definite,original and to our nation’s strugle against brutality and distruction .cnsequently I also share fully the idea of Sema/6/,that the only way to force down brutal dictators needs united efort by our toilling nation.
Meles’s diplomatic skill brought foreign investors that has opened employment opportunities to many Ethiopians. The respect we have for those investors is great. However, I could not believe my eyes when I saw him on TV a foreign investor campaigning for the ruling coalition at a sport function in 2005. I want to hear from the investor if he really did that believing on what he was campaigning for. Even on legal grounds it was not proper for a top foreign investor to campaign in a sport function and where people with different political views are present.”
An article called “Who Do You Trust?” written by a Foreign observer I read at: http://www.capitalethiopia.com/archive/2009/July/week1/society.htm. You can find it under “Doing Business in Ethiopia” menu bar. I believe the writer point of view is from his experience doing business with Ethiopians living in Addis.
My English writing skill is not perfect but it will not stop me from expressing my opinion. So here I write.
I take this article as someone else is speaking my mind!! As an Ethiopian it makes me ashamed and heart broken. Our people’s selfishness ingrained in their blood that they don’t feel any guilt when they take advantage of everyone including their own family, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, cousins, friends and their customers. A while back there was an article by a Japanese guy saying Ethiopians IQ level is less than the average IQ of other people in the world. A lot of the so called highly educated Ethiopian wrote back in defending themselves. But I think he is telling the truth.
If Ethiopian people have high IQ level of Brain Power,
• Ethiopian natural recourses could have been fully used to produce enough crops to feed its people, to export to foreign countries and get money. That is every soil, plants, stones, rocks, rivers, lakes, domestic animals, herbs, spices could be used to eradicate poverty from Ethiopia.
• Every western technology given in Schools, Collage and Universities should have been used to produce solution to poverty and a better standard of living for the country,
• Ethio Doctors and Scientists would have identified and acknowledged approximately 95% of Ethio people function bellow average mental ability and create brain booster vitamins and feed them so that bright mind people will be produced.
• at least some honesty and trustworthiness in Ethio people would be found
• less evil thinkers and doers that hurt their family, friends and Ethiopian society. Such are the past and present government leaders. They are not leaders, they are people’s life and country destroyers who low IQ.
If Ethiopian people have high IQ level of Brain Power, there wouldn’t
• be making 90% of mistakes in the job they do and in the decision they make all the time which results failure and lose of country’s economy every single day.
• be a bunch of balloon heads who only know to worship jeans, hair colour, shoes, purse, lipsticks, vehicle and other neon light materials.
• Be too many Ethio people with empty pride who think they are above all human beings because they have natural beauty and because of the cloth they buy and wear to look like American Hollywood successful and talented singers, dancers.
• Be too many copy cat singers and dancers instead there would be scientists, inventors, movers and shakers by now
If Ethiopian people have high IQ level of Brain Power, there would be less
• Fighting and destroying each other in churches, communities, individual and government establishments
• promiscuity, cheating on husband or wife, girlfriend/boyfriend calling themselves Arada
• dumb people who depend and expect others to take care of them but learn the basics of taking care of their own life by any means
People with High IQ level of Brain will use every single education he or she had learned to the highest degree level of accuracy; he or she will have a vision for simple or hard problems and so creates or invents solutions. He or she will have the ability to recognize what works and what does not work, to look beyond temporary gain and so Ethiopia could have achieved the standard of living seen in developed countries. Our people, from poor to rich, uneducated to educated; in educated sense from high school – College/University–Certificate – PHD it does not make any difference that they all have bad society and country damaging character. It is obvious that we see incapability and incompetence from low level workers to the leaders of country.
That is why regardless of many Doctors, Engineers, Managers, Business Administrators, Electricians etc. in our country, most are incapable of solving hunger problems and poverty. The recent power shortage in our country is evidence of how our so called leaders and educated people brain is less capable of finding a solution for this problem. Instead, they blame foreign country for not giving them money and they just sit and watch the country’s economy and citizen’s business income destroyed.
The only thing they are undoubtedly capable of is focusing on achieving material position and money by any means they can. They do this by the art of lies, harm and hurting their own people mentally, physically and emotionally, systematically cheating and stealing from the people. They have no feeling of guilt even when they cheat, lie and taking advantage of their own blood. All they care about is money and shiny worldly material.
In the “Who Do You Trust” article, the writer says there are people who you can trust but hard to find them. He is right. There are extremely low number of Ethiopian people with high IQ level who are capable of doing the job they are educated about as well as other tasks and who are honest. However, we don’t know about them and can not find them because they are very small in number. It is sad, to see even majority of youth in Ethiopia focus only on materials position rather than focusing on and working on how to reach high level of achievements for their future. But again it is what they are seeing around them that is lies, empty pride, cheating, cloth, shoes etc.
I do believe the Ethiopian people need to be thought about morality and humanity. There is a strong need to teach and if possible to force our people to stop being dishonest, liars, cheaters, robbers and cruelest for personal gain. The Ethiopian people’s mentality requires a drastic change of thinking and doing things. That is they need to learn to care and support each other in order to help their country and themselves.
There, I let it out.
Admin, how long will take one’s post to show up in this forum??
Thanks