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Dangerous Mix: Ethnicity, Arrogance, and Absolute Domination

There is absolutely no shame in losing elections; and certainly there is no shame, in itself, in losing to the EPRDF party. In fact, in the 2010 election, the shame was not even in losing the election at all; it was in “winning” - winning in the way that the EPRDF did. In a country where there are at least 70 ethnic groups, as many languages, and more than 20 contending political parties and alliances, winning every possible regional council and national parliament seat - that is shameful. Specially, for Meles Zenawi, a man who struck out his opponents in an attempt to feel better about his shame in the 2005 election – this is the same of all shames. This sadistic behavior may have produced short-term relief for this shameless man, who claims to have introduced dualism in Ethiopia; but in the long run, the shame is only strengthened and this is exactly what happened in the 2010 election.

 

Ethiopia is a country where the Oromo people are disproportionately imprisoned for their political belief. Besides, more than two-third of Ethiopia’s rare capital punishment cases are imposed on the Oromo political dissidents.

Therefore, when the very person who quasi-judicially and extra-judicially kills the Oromos brags to have won the entire 178 parliamentary and 537 regional council seats in Oromia zone – that is even more disgraceful. Actually, it’s a political suicide for arrogant Meles himself if we in the opposition know how to pull the robe he placed around his neck. Past or present, no society in history has rewarded tyrants, and as oppressed as the Oromos are, they will never be the first. So, being the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia, why would the Oromos give their entire 178 parliamentary seats to a tiny minority regime that treats them sub-humanly? Why would the Oromos that have been fighting tyranny for the past so many years elect a tyrant who has made their life as terrifying as the biblical hell? Zenawi and his regime have no answers to these questions, and it is the lack of answer that makes their recent insulting act the most shameful act of the century. When people as a group reward oppressive behavior, they are either collectively abnormal, or they are collectively bullied. We Ethiopians and the Oromos in particular, know that the latter is true.

Meles Zenawi’s and his party’s total disregard for what the people of Ethiopia think and say about them is not only arrogant but it is utterly shameless. Today, after twenty years of numerous shameful acts, shame has already become part of the living room furniture of the TPLF party members and their glutton regional puppies. So, should we say “Shame on You Meles & company”? Well, maybe not, because shame arises from a sense of personal failure and the response of unbearable shame is violence. However, we should urge them to feel guilty of themselves, for guilt arises out of concern for others; and most importantly, with guilt, the response is a desire for atonement, to make amends, to correct a mistake, or heal a hurt.

The case of the Oromo people used as an example above is arbitrary; there are many nationalities, large and small, who like the Oromo people are excluded from political power. The most important thing to consider is that, Ethiopia today faces far greater challenges to peace and stability than ever before. One of the greater challenges of Ethiopia today is that, on top of the volatile mix of insecurity, instability, corrupt political institutions and poverty, the leaders of the country lack the political will to share power and govern the country with consensus. To secure peace, stability, and prosperity in Ethiopia, it is imperative that all Ethiopians share their country’s political power and economic resources equally. The deceptive claim of “rapid economic development” must not be a free ride to the total monopoly of power; and most importantly, we Ethiopians must understand that unequal share of political power will never take us to equal sharing of resources.

In July 1991, in one of his major speeches delivered to the then Council of the Transitional Government of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi proudly claimed that his party, the EPRDF, has reunited democracy with its true owner – the people of Ethiopia. In the same speech, he also promised to solve Ethiopia’s age old ethnic dilemma by establishing “self” and “shared” rules. The July 1991 national conference resulted in the signing of a Transitional Charter by representatives of 31 political movements, the creation of a Council of Representatives with 87 members, and the establishment of the Transitional Government of Ethiopia (TGE). The EPRDF had the largest single bloc in the Council, with 32 seats, and until its withdrawal from the TGE in June 1992, the Oromo Liberation Front was the second largest, with 12 seats. The remaining 43 seats went to the 29 parties. Obviously, the two liberation fronts [OLF &TPLF] as a block had a majority, but with a plurality voting system, any combination of votes had the potential to establish a majority in the Transitional Council.

Nineteen years and four elections later, Ethiopia’s 547-seat parliament has only one independent and one opposition party member, and 100% of the nine Regional State Council seats are controlled by the ruling party and its puppets. This is what the 17 years of struggle of the boys of Dedebit dreamed for Ethiopia, and this how Zenawi and his EPRDF party reunited democracy with its true owner.

According to the official statement of the EPRDF, the aim of the EPRDF was to lead the national liberation struggle of the people against the fascist dictatorial Derg regime, and the fight against national oppression, exploitation that was imposed over the people of Ethiopia. To begin with, this is a very contentious claim because as its name clearly indicates, fighting for the freedom of the Ethiopian people was never the objective of the TPLF. In fact, until their 1989 decisive victory in Shiraro that eventually led them to the capture of Mekle, the TPLF leaders did not even realize that they needed a horse nicknamed “EPRDF” to carry them to the Menelik palace.

In its true sense, the EPRDF is not even a party; it’s a hodgepodge of ethnic organizations and liberation-fronts. EPRDF is a political ensemble where democracy is applied backwards, or it’s the summer-house of the TPLF gangs where decisions are made by the minority. In the EPRDF half-baked “Revolutionary Democracy” decision making process, decisions are not made by the conventional 50% + 1 vote majority; they are made by Zenawi + any number of votes. This might sound comical, but it’s not anywhere close to be comical in a country where every time the leader makes a joke it’s a law, and every time he makes a law it’s a joke.

Supposedly, or according to Zenawi, Ethiopia has a federally structured political system for the past 19 years. But federalism, at a very fundamental level, presupposes a combination of self-rule and shared-rule. This simply means that there must be division of sovereignty between the federal government (the union) and its component parts (regional states). In a federal political system, the power of the state must be divided in such a way that it guarantees the existence of a federal government where the component units meet and interact (shared-rule) while at the same time allowing regionalism to exist (self-rule).

The Ethiopian Constitution gives a great deal of power and administrative authority to regional states, but the overwhelming amount of political power in Ethiopia rests with the central government; and within the central government, power is controlled by one person. Therefore, in practice, Ethiopia is a unitary state with the mask of federalism. Official rhetoric for foreign consumption might proclaim that ethnic communities are free to exercise their right to self-determination, however, with a great deal of central control and orchestration, Ethiopia is characterized by limited autonomous decision making below the central government level.

The two charts here clearly display how the TPLF controls power in Ethiopia. By now it’s evident that TPLF is a regional party that “represents” predominantly the Tigrean nationality. What is not evident is that, how this small regional party with only 8% of the parliamentary seats within its coalition [EPRDF] controls more than 85% of the power structure in Ethiopia. The other members of EPRDF [OPDO, ANDM & SEPDF] collectively represent about 85% of the population, but with a whopping total of 477, or 92% of the EPRDF seats in the national parliament, these three giant organizations control less than 15% of the power structure in Ethiopia. By the way, 477 seats are far more than the necessary threshold to form a government in the Ethiopian electoral system. In the last 20 years, the positions of the prime minister, the foreign minister, all commanding posts of the military, the Police, and the security forces were controlled by the TPLF party members. Yes, Meles has given some cabinet positions for non-TPLF party members, but non-ethnic-Tigreans in any government position are toothless, and are closely watched by their TPLF godfathers.

This kind of unequal or lopsided power distribution is not an oversight in the constitution, or a mishap; it’s a calculated omission; and it’s how Meles and his ethnic bands designed the Ethiopian electoral system. In a plural society like Ethiopia where proportional representation is usually the norm, Meles & company intentionally instituted a first-past-the-post voting system where the Tigrean elite gets an easy majority through its Trojan horse [EPRDF] to dominate all spheres of social life, in all sections of society, and all domains with an acquired legitimacy. And, as it has clearly been noticed, in the last 20 years; the TPLF elites have charged every patriot Ethiopian who questioned this acquired legitimacy with treason and betrayal.

One of the most sensitive areas of social life in Ethiopia is the problem of cultural pluralism, which usually rears its ugly face in inter-ethnic relations. A vicious ethnic dictator in power, and with over 70 ethnic groups in an area of 1.1million sq km, Ethiopia’s ethnic problems are readily identifiable, apparent, and real. The TPLF architects of Ethiopia’s post Mengistu constitution leaned towards ethnic-centered political approach rather than national integrative approach that could have cemented the nation’s unity. In another words, faced with the dilemma of sustaining Ethiopian unity amid the pressure of ethnic fragmentation, the TPLF sought to further divide the Ethiopian society along ethnic lines, rather than ensuring ethnic equality and create a sense of national oneness.

Ever since the TPLF minority regime took power in Ethiopia, the country’s major cause of instability and ethnic conflict has been the regime’s use of psychological warfare to implant fear and insecurity in the hearts and minds of the Ethiopian people. For example, the regime has continuously used the word “Neftegna” as a tool to instill fear, bring memories of past traumas, and to magnify past ethnic anxieties to further polarize the society. This kind of classic divide and rule polices have produced toxic brew of distrust and suspicion that lead to a horrible blood-shed in Bedeno, Arbagugu, Benishangul, Anuak, Awassa, Gedeo, Guji and Anguwak.

On paper, the Ethiopian constitution generously grants power for the regional states and ensures power sharing at the center. However, in practice, principles and strategies for ethno regional power sharing are non-existent. Ethnic equality and power sharing are very important that when they are ignored, they can trigger ethnic displeasure. Such displeasures could particularly be compelling in the Ethiopian situation because of the enormous power and resources at the disposal of the TPLF regime, and the regime’s propensity to use the state apparatus to promote the interest of its ethnic base. A good point in case is that, in the 2010 election, the TPLF elites have used their power virtually at will to return themselves to power and to punish the opposition.

Our country has been contaminated by TPLF’s wicked political ideology of revolutionary democracy where the masses watch when hand-picked elites make decision. We have heard lies after lies of a regime that boasts to have solved Ethiopia’s long standing ethnic problems by building a fake federal structure and a representative parliamentary system. In reality, what we saw in the last 15 years is, 547 members of parliament offering worship-style bowing for a man who designed a system of clientelism and ethnic dictatorship in Ethiopia. We saw “representatives” of the Ethiopian people laughing and clapping their hands when a tyrant told them- this is none of your business. This is national shame as bad as it gets.

The fundamentals of democracy entail that elected representatives act in their constituent’s interest as a ruling body and make independent choices for constituents within the rules and boundaries of the constitution. Besides, for accommodation, power sharing, and for a true sense of equality to be there, Ethiopia needs a paradigm shift in which democracy needs to be not just representative, but participatory and inclusive. This ought to be the direction towards which Ethiopia and Ethiopian federalism should be moving.

Ethiopia’s plurality and cultural diversity by itself is not the root of its ethnic tension and democratic instability. Ethnic polarization, repression, relentless competition for resources, and continuous power struggles are the root causes of political and social problems in Ethiopia. The future of democracy in Ethiopia, and may be the future of Ethiopia itself, should not be left to the dirty hands of the TPLF leaders who have always been driven by the quest to personal enrichment and ethnic advantage over any commitment to the constitution they wrote, to the democratic process, or for the very survival of Ethiopia itself. No regime in the long history of Ethiopia has accomplished so much for so few in the name of democracy.

The Ethiopian opposition must be able to undo TPLF’s ethno-patrimonial lines of political organization by re-channeling Ethiopian politics along institutional lines. But, this historic responsibility requires a resilient, united, and focused opposition that has the resolve to stand above politics and egoism. The call for unity is more than 40 years old, and it’s already a cliché by now; but, we have no option than making a call for unity again and again. And, the Ethiopian opposition has no other option, but to unite; for our victory comes more from unity than individual strength.

Our real power to eternally seal the source that produces dictators in Ethiopia lies in the fact that most people share our dream of a better Ethiopia. The only way to realize this enormous potential power is by openly declaring our vision and our goals for this generation of Ethiopians, so that we may build a movement to achieve our objectives. We in the opposition must believe that the best strategy is to build a movement that includes all stakeholders for a quick and nice democratic revolution. Our movement should openly challenge the political goal and the divide and rule policy of the TPLF regime. We should aim not just to overthrow the TPLF regime, but to fundamentally re-shape our society on the principles of freedom, equality, and democracy.

In every region of Ethiopia, community, farm land, and workplace, there are already struggles in which people are resisting bigotry, nepotism, and arrogance on their own way. We must be able to relate the specific issues in these struggles to the larger conflict in Ethiopia between the freedom seeking people of Ethiopia and the hegemony of the TPLF regime, and pursue our struggle in ways that strengthen the understanding and confidence of everyone involved that we can change mother Ethiopia for good. The besieged people of Ethiopia are calling on us; are we determined to answer the call? If yes, so help us God! Amen!!!

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The writer can be reached at ebini23@yahoo.com

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Audio
DW Interview with Ato Yaicob, Ato Seye and Dr. Birhanu
Chapter 10 - From Dictatorship to Democracy
Chapter 9 - From Dictatorship to Democracy
Chapter 8 - From Dictatorship to Democracy
Chapter 7 - From Dictatorship to Democracy
Chapter 6 - From Dictatorship to Democracy
Chapter 5 - From Dictatorship to Democracy
Chapter 4 - From Dictatorship to Democracy
Chapter 3 - From Dictatorship to Democracy
Chapter 2 - From Dictatorship to Democracy

Thoughtful Quotes