By Yilikal Admassu
This article minces no words, is not constrained by diplomatic niceties and doesn’t pretend to chose polite words in the interest of political correctness. It intends to call things by their proper names because that is what has been lacking. We have had too many equivocations, skirting around issues and debates that often employ the phrases: on the one hand…and on the other hand. It is high time to take the gloves off and slug it out with bare knuckles and challenge those among us who are the betrayers and take urgent action to bring the country back from the brink of disaster or be prepared to face the harsh judgment of history.
Betrayal is a coat of many colors and we have seen it come and go in different shapes and guises. Some are highlighted here to help spot the wolves in sheep’s’ clothing: Ethiopia’s betrayers. But before naming the betrayers it is appropriate to identify the Betrayed.
The Betrayed are the broad Ethiopian masses who toil long and hard, but who are condemned not to reap and enjoy the fruits of their labors. They work under extremely trying conditions to feed and enrich others. They are those who don’t obtain fair prices for their produce, travel to distant towns to pay taxes and are sometimes required to give bribes to corrupt government officials so as to cut short the time it takes to settle their taxes in order not to miss the bus that takes them home.
These masses sent us to schools so that we, their sons and daughters, would be spared the hardship they had to go through and lead a better life than theirs. These are the masses that officials of all stripes tried to dispossess the land they tilled under one pretext or another; they are the ones who have been provided fertilizers on credit and were made to repay the money they owed by selling their entire produce or risk losing their land and become beggars. These are the masses that were told their debts would be forgiven if they voted for the Woyanne, but they voted their conscience!
The Betrayers
The list of the betrayers could be a mile long, but we will address only a few. The incumbent officials are not included in this assessment as their treasonable acts are too well known to require repetition here.
1. The Educated Elite
Some among the educated elite top the list of betrayers. They were educated using taxpayers money, but owe no obligation to the taxpayer. Their preoccupation is how to survive in the system, and do better than “the joneses”. Build better houses, buy better cars, wear better clothes and send their children to elite schools. This seems to be the be-all an end-all of their existence. They will not tolerate anything that prevents the attainment of these goals. They strongly believe these goals are attainable only when the status quo is preserved. Anything that upsets the status quo is anathema to them. They tend to defend the status quo mostly in subtle ways, but when these goals are threatened they come out swinging.
There have been accounts of wives who have told their husbands in no uncertain terms not to challenge their bosses (so that they don’t lose their jobs) even when their husbands were wronged. “Arfen lijochachinin enastemir” appears to be the operative command. Contrast this with our grandmothers who took it upon themselves to prepare provisions for their husbands who had not even declared their intentions to take part in the struggle to defend their country against foreign invaders. Their husbands had no choice but to declare their decision to join the fight as if it were their own. That was how Ethiopia was built.
Distortion of History:
In the past seventeen years, history has been distorted right, left and center with impunity. Our contemporary historians took no visible stand even when rulers such as Menelik II were being vilified for attempting to unify the nation and preserve unity at any cost. Menelik is projected as a colonizer for passing on to us a fully formed country complete with a language, script and flag of its own at a time when the rest of Africa was under colonial rule. Why is it difficult for some of us to be grateful for what we have and celebrate our nationhood? What are the motivations for belittling three thousand years of greatness which even the developed world grudgingly accepts. Is Menelik’s vilification indicative of a desire to have preferred being colonized over staying free? This boggles the mind as Menelik’s detractors have no historical parallels to use as a frame of reference as there were no other African rulers at his time. Who do they compare him with or against?
Some people in Ethiopia maintain that historians, priests, reporters and azmaris have common characteristics in that all four mention the incumbent regime favorably and wait until it falls before they start to openly criticize it. Some self-styled leaders of the Oromos who conveniently forget the wide-spread intermarriage across ethnic groups have been advancing a separatist agenda to keep themselves in the only job they know and in the lifestyle they have come to enjoy. The Eritreans and the Woyannes actively engage in promoting historical inaccuracies against Ethiopia to serve their own ends. What is puzzling is that most of our historians turn their collective deaf ears to all these instead of challenging them and establishing the truth. What is holding them back – self-interest, lack of conviction or defending their country’s history will cast them in the role of enemy of the state? Is our Ethiopianess something to be ashamed of and shy away from defending? If the answer to all of the above is “no” then let’s show them convincingly how proud we are to be Ethiopians!
The Leadership Vacuum:
The leaders of the opposition party who won the May, 1997 elections are languishing behind bars. These leaders are Ethiopia’s best and brightest and their unfair incarceration seems to have provoked no sustained protest or the emergence of other leaders to take on their mantle. What happened to the saying: “the situation creates a leader”? Or is the situation in Ethiopia not yet ripe enough for this to happen or our collective outrage has not risen to the level where such a leader could step forward?
Nothing could be more demoralizing than to see the likes of “Lidetu ( Solomon Tekaligne, Negussie etc.) mixing freely with the public in bars, restaurants and weddings with their heads raised high and speaking loudly with an assertive air. How does a society allow this to happen? Is this tolerance or naked fear? There should be a boundary line where tolerance ends and righteous indignation starts.
2. The Promoters of Democracy : The U.S., the EU and the World Bank
Much has been said about promoting democracy in the world and standing on the side of the oppressed rather than the oppressors. The U.S. and the European Union are at the forefront of this campaign. But no promise has sounded hollower than this as it was honored more in its breach than its performance. Despite such a promise, the U.S. has repeatedly and firmly asserted that “it has no permanent friends, only permanent interests”. In other words, the above promise holds when its interests and the interests of the oppressed coincide. Where the two collide, permanent interest takes precedence over the fate of 77 million Ethiopians or 154 million Pakistanis. This contradiction is brought home vividly by America’s blind support of the embattled leaders of Ethiopia and Pakistan who the U.S. claims are its steadfast supporters in the war against terror.
The European Union is the other promoter of democracy in third world countries. Unlike the U.S., the EU stands by what it says, but does not have the means to deliver on its promise. It is a paper tiger that has no sway over its member states. We have seen the Woyanne leader being invited and feted in European capitals and rubbing shoulders with world leaders at the G-8 summit while his hand was still wet from the blood he shed in the streets of Addis Ababa. We have witnessed most member states bend over backwards to provide funds to the Woyanne government despite the atrocities it commits on its own people.
Wonder of wonders, he was even asked to deliver a speech on governance in Africa. Don’t these countries have any respect for Ethiopians at all or do they hold us in such contempt that we deserve the Woyanne leader? Or does their self-interest overshadow their sense of fairness and justice? What they seem to persistently forget is that Ethiopians have long memories.
The World Bank:
Ethiopians in the Diaspora have had repeated opportunity to bring their case to the World Bank and to dissuade the Bank from providing funds to the Woyanne government which uses the funds to perpetuate its tyrannical rule. Each time Ethiopians protested loudly to dissuade the Bank from lending to the Woyanne regime, the Bank’s determination to provide more funds by employing “creative justifications” intensified. Is the World Bank uninformed about the oppression being perpetrated in Ethiopia? No, but as the Bank’s lending policy is an extension of the U.S’s foreign policy, the Bank obeys the State Department’s bidding. Since the U.S. is the provider of the lion’s share of the Bank’s resources, it is the case of “he, who pays the piper, calls the tune”.
3. The Diaspora
1. The Leaders of “KNA” and “KIL”
What could be more gut-wrenching than to address the leaders of Knijit North America and Kinjit International among the betrayers of the broad masses of Ethiopia? We all know that the Ethiopian people chose Kinijit as the party that could liberate them from poverty, injustice and the dehumanizing degradation Woyanne inflicts on them. Despite this fact, when Woyanne threw the legitimate leaders of Kinjit behind bars, it didn’t take long for a chasm to be formed between the leaders o f KNA and KIL in the Diaspora. Both profess to fight for the release of the jailed leaders and to put back on track the democratization process in Ethiopia. They are both deeply suspicious of one another and have no qualms about one undermining the other. Their professed loyalty to the jailed Kinijit leaders is very much in doubt judged by the suspension of all political activities such as demonstrations, fund-raising activities, lobbying etc. for nearly a year while they squabbled over who should lead whom and who should have control over funds.
The division between the leaders of KNA and KIL was a welcome respite for Woyanne which afforded it the opportunity to regroup and attack the opposition with a vengeance. The recently announced charges by the courts can be directly attributed to the inactions of the feuding factions. Had they set aside their squabbling and concentrated their efforts on intensifying the struggle, Woyanne would not have dared to take the actions it took. With support from Ana Gomes, Donald Payne and Chris Smith, the leaders in the Diaspora could have dramatically altered the political dynamic.
3.2 Leaders of Ethiopian Churches in the Diaspora
As a direct reflection of the political reality in Ethiopia, there is division among the church leaders in the Washington area between those opposed to Abune Paulos and those supporting Woyanne. The perplexing thing is that even those among the congregation opposed to Abune Paulos worship at the church headed by his appointee and contribute money generously. It is widely rumored that some church leaders have developed a taste for the finer things in life and are not ashamed to flaunt it. Those giving donations to the church do not call the church leaders to account for the money collected. Do the contributors assume that it is up to God to conduct an audit?
3. The Diaspora at Large
The Diaspora is a murky brew; an amalgam of Ethiopians from various backgrounds and with differing loyalties. Some are in favor of political change in Ethiopia and actively participate in political activities, and there are those who would like to see change in Ethiopia but are not sure how that change could be brought about; a small active group supports the EPDRF, and there are others who prefer to stay away from politics and are content with making money and living a life better than the one they left behind back home.
One can safely conclude that the Diaspora is an amorphous body that could be pulled in different directions by different interest groups for their purposes. On the other hand, the Diaspora is the life-blood of the various political organizations that are jostling for leadership positions. The financial donations the Diaspora makes provide the resources that drive the activities of the various political organizations. The Diaspora is not fully aware of the pivotal role it plays in shaping the political struggle. It hasn’t so far used its clout and called the various political parties to account.
Ethiopians in the Diaspora can be divided into elites and non-elites and the following are some of the characteristics they exhibit:
The Elites in the Diaspora
Some among the educated elites in the Diaspora have not been shy to take the following stands:
o They worry that there is no group that is prepared to take over the leadership from the Woyanne and therefore would prefer to wait
o There are some who feel that living under colonial rule would have been better than living in abject poverty and would support if white South African farmers were to come to Ethiopia (even with their security forces) and produce enough food to feed the populace. This argument assumes that starvation in Ethiopia is the work of lazy farmers in stead of bad governance
o There are some who feel that the jailed leaders were tactless in that they should have agreed to take their seats in parliament and fight from within to bring about change. Don’t they know the nature of the enemy?
o There are those who attack every article that calls fro unity and preserving Ethiopianess and try to divert the issue and put the writers of such article on the defensive
The Non-elites in the Diaspora
Some in the Diaspora who left Ethiopia during the Derg’s regime hold the following opinions:
o That they are the only ones who could speak authoritatively on oppression and sacrifice and all others should defer to them. They strongly feel that crossing the border to the Sudan or Kenya and making it to safety in the U.S. and other places affords them enough credentials entitles them to the right to voice their opinion on how to bring change in Ethiopia
o They feel that those who had worked under previous regimes are tainted and therefore should be excluded from the political process. They have no respect for age or profession and seem to be emboldened by the fact that no one challenges them when they express their opinions
4. Conclusion
Enough points have been raised to spark nation-wide and Diaspora-wide discussions and come to a conclusion about what course of action to take. The discussions should culminate in actions that should be taken with firm determination and implemented with a sense of urgency. There is no time for hair-splitting and equivocation. We have had enough of that. What is needed is action.
The decisions that emanate from the discussions should be bold and no-nonsense. They should examine the full spectrum of options including the role of diplomacy and armed struggle. After all armed struggle could be justified in the same way as surgery is to remove malignant tumors.
It is strongly suggested that Ethiopians in the Diaspora and back home organize study groups, digest the points raised and embark on courses of actions that bring us closer to our goals.
No worthy daughter or son tolerates seeing a crying mother; so let’s achieve a rejoicing Ethiopia rather than the one crying betrayed by her own children!