NEWS &THE FAILED MISSION OF THE ETHIOPIAN
REGIME AT MIND CONTROL
26 March, 2011 | By Genet Mersha
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How Germany comes into the picture
I took on this issue to share my take on the news coverage of the review
undertaken by the German parliamentary Committee on Economic
Cooperation and Development of Ethio-German cooperation that took place
in mid-March. The committee’s work came against the backdrop of extensive
discussions between Ethiopia and Germany during the visit to Ethiopia by
Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Dirk Niebel’s
in the first half of January 2011.
During his four-day stay in Ethiopia, Minister Niebel visited German
supported projects in Tigrai, Dire Dawa and Harar. Unlike his colleague’s in
the delegation, Minister Dirk Niebel is reported to be satisfied with his field
visits. On the surface, it was learnt, official interactions were diplomatic and
polite, but not wholly smooth with touchy issues raised and the recipient
country’s responses dodgy, reportedly giving rise to some distrust by some
members of the delegation.
The purpose of the visit, according GIC, was to enable the donor country to
impact assessment of its financial and technical support to Ethiopia, as per the
terms of the development cooperation agreement between the two countries.
In the past three years, the two have cooperated in three priority areas: (a) a
bi-pillar sustainable economic development scheme, aiming at creating new
jobs and income generating opportunities for the fast-growing population. The
Germans have packaged this as a means by which they help gear the country
toward industrialisation. The other is support for education sector.
(b)The second one is sustainable land management. The Germans see it as
capacity building to enhance productivity; and (c) Urban development and
decentralisation, among others, Germany is to focus on 15 cities and towns
with the aim of “setting up markets, abattoirs, roads, waste disposal and
drainage systems. Funds also go towards training and advice for public
authorities and their staff.”
To achieve these objectives, in the past three years—by its estimate—
Germany has provided€96 million as its development aid to Ethiopia.
Nonetheless, there is no clear indication of how much of it is tied aid, meaning
the amount charged as overhead cost—the percentage of these funds that is
paid to German consultants and as salaries for their field staff and the import
of German goods. A study presented to Aid Conference places Germany at
fourth place in the amount it spends on overhead—especially staff costs. It is
also one country whose percentage of its aid transparency is only at the 75-
percentage level, according to Claudia R. Williamson, the author of Fixing
Failed Foreign Aid: Can Agency Practices Improve?
German funding for Ethiopia is split into two components: a package of €54
million for financial cooperation and €42 million for technical cooperation.
Financial cooperation is a strain of a rechristened direct budget support. In the
German case, ‘investments’frequently employed, for instance, in education,
infrastructure and health or agriculture. Government is implied to have the say
where to use the funds. However, a major difference as it is from direct
budget support, implementation is carried out “in close coordination with other
German or international development cooperation activities.” BMZ defines the
overall objective of the technical cooperation aid package as enabling poorer
population groups to improve their conditions.
In the coming few years, Germany is likely to play a bigger role in Ethiopia.
For this reason, it badly needs to show case Ethiopia as its success story in
Africa. In Ethiopia, the German technical cooperation office is the largest
anywhere in the developing world. The overall objective is to attain higher
market share in a region that is lauded as having bright prospects in its
economic future. This view is also shared by guidelines of the German foreign
policy www.isn.ethz.ch:
Could Germany live up to its foreign policy tenets in a balanced
manner, as indicated above?
The possibility is there, with the growing pressure for reform in Ethiopia within
the ranks of German politicians, civil society organizations and the public at
large. In August 2010, the ARD national television in its Fakt programme had
reportage on the worsening human rights violations in Ethiopia, that years of
indifference by the rest of the world has turned the country into a single party
state, at a time when the world is moving into pluralism. In that programme,
the ARD questioned why the federal government continues to throw away
public funds in support of a government that has made the country hell for its
citizens.
After watching that programme, citizen Huper Neudeck gave his testimony as
the latest addition to the list of German human right activists, fully engaged
now in lobbying the government for action. He says, “I can’t understand how
the German Federal Gov. continues to work with this regime. This should be
stopped immediately.” The ARD also agreed stating that this should be taken
up in the discussion on the German Africa policy. The sense is that the rising
tide of popular clamour for democracy and respect for fundamental human
rights in North Africa and the Middle East has added to public support.
People cite now Germany’s professed policies on human rights, as it appears
on the webpage of the federal ministry for economic cooperation and
development. It clearly states:
For now, in spite of this, the clamour by politicians and the public,Minister
Niebel’s preoccupation seems to have focussed only on the second pillar of
German interests in Africa—a market for its products. Therefore, he has
promised €115 million in the coming three years.
At the same time, his visit has also exposed to the world what has so far been
wrong in the Ethiopian political environment, to which Germany can no longer
afford to close its eyes. For parliamentarians from the different political parties
and civil society organizations, the focus is not the self serving future German
strategy in Africa, but also the here and now, whether German funding should
continue to bankroll repression and human sufferings. The Ethiopian regime’s
consistent denials of any such charges have failed to allay the fears and
concerns of Ethiopia’s friends on behalf of Ethiopians, whose voices have
been muzzled.
After what he saw first hand at the field level, Minister Derik Niebel on 18
January could not skip the need to serve cautionary notice, underlying which
are his misgivings about those issues. After all, he had heard first hand from
Mr Hoppe, his parliamentary colleague and the deputy chairman of the
economic cooperation committee, when he was up front with Prime Minister
Meles Zenawi, raising all the thorny issues. Not surprisingly the prime minister
dismissed the charges as concoction of his opponents, only to earn the distrust
of the visiting delegates. Mr Niebel was compelled to sideswipe the issues in
generalities, in an unwilling attempt to find common ground with his colleague.
He was quoted by GIC stating, "It is also very important [for Ethiopia] to
strengthen civil society and to create more scope for the private sector.
Ethiopia must ensure that all citizens enjoy access to government services, free
from discrimination."
This to some degree ties with the questions Mr Thilo Hoppe raised with the
prime minister (VOA interview, 22 March). These included the issues of
discriminatory treatment of citizens, as practiced by the ruling party in respect
of education and training opportunities to bolster his party, even with German
funding. The other is displacement of citizens on account of land grabbing by
foreign investors
.
Sadly, some of the displaced by farm grabbing are not only those regime
claims it is trying to help them change their primitive way of life. But it has also
affected those that were already resettled in Gambella years ago after
escaping the famine affected parts of Ethiopia and are used to farming. There
is no better evidence to show clearly the extent to which our citizens have
been mistreated and humiliated than selling of our country block by block to
foreign investors, as the Guardian’s John Vidal’s (www.guardian.co.uk/global-
development) video and the heart rending tragedy shown on You Tube (www.
youtube.com/watch?v=AmGN6eQ01A0&feature) have established.
That is why Mr Hoppe’s statement was quoted predicting the looming danger
in Ethiopia: “The thundering voices that now refuse their continued deprivation
of democracy and violation of their human rights is not limited to the Arab
world only. This condition is also simmering in Ethiopia” (unofficial translation).
The donor matrix
When a donor gives aid, there are always strings attached, as we saw it above.
Especially when the opposition is weak, as fragmented as it is in Ethiopia, the
donor community emphasizes the peace and stability angle for the Horn of
Africa. Such consistent responses by diplomacy have also bothered the
respected European political scientist Dominique Moisi, the author of The
Geopolitics of Emotion. He examined the issue in the context of why
diplomacy failed to foresee or handle the popular revolutions in Tunisia and
Egypt, once it erupted. He attributes this to the fallibility of the autopilot
response, of which he observed:
What is wrong with the media in Ethiopia today?
This piece is not aimed at criticizing the journalists per se, accusing them of
lack professionalism or integrity. Even if they all were graduates of famous and
internationally recognized schools of journalism, the situation would not be any
different under the policies of the present regime. The evil lies within the
architects and their policies that work against the country and its citizens. This
is because the current leaders are only concerned with them dying in power
and ensuring dynastic control, instead of power becoming an expression of the
will of the people.
In thinking of the media as an institution, one would naturally expect the media
in Ethiopia to serve the public interest—to inform, educate and facilitate the
participation of citizens in the affairs of the nation. Unfortunately, even by the
standards of Sub-Saharan Africa, the Ethiopian media is designed to be
typically Orwellian in deeds and character. It is good at praising the leaders,
even when they are wrong, spill blood and wallow in corruption, covering up
their misdeeds and unjust actions. They bedevil with falsehoods those
opposed to the regime and hound those that do not support it. What then is
national about it?
Today, Ethiopia today finds itself at the end of the second decade, since the
media has altogether betrayed the nation and the people’s aspiration for
democracy under the leadership of the TPLF and a government that has
become the antithesis of democracy. I am not implying here that before the
TPLF-led EPRDF Ethiopia had free press or was democratic. At least, its
two predecessor governments committed whatever injustices and violations of
human rights, wars and murders, unlike the present regime, without the
pretentions of being democratic or trying to fool everyone, especially
foreigners, that they are hospitable to pluralism of ideas and organizations.
Why then should the country become a single party state?
To observe that from the media’s functions in Ethiopia, I invite readers to see
that in what is conveyed to the people, for instance, about the visit by the
German delegation we discussed above. At best, what all of them tried to do,
as can be see hereunder, is to suppress any critical remarks or questions.
They exaggerate the positives and add their praises, as if there have never
been any contentious issues. The following would give answer to the above
question as to what is wrong with the Ethiopian media and all sources of
information in the country.
(a) The Ethiopian foreign ministry (A Week in the Horn, 14,1.2011)
“…The bilateral meetings dwelt at length on ways and means of consolidating
current Ethio-German relations. While expressing deep gratitude and appreciation
to Germany's development partnership, which is seen as exemplary, the Ethiopian
side called on Germany to strengthen its development assistance, especially in view
of the tremendous development tasks envisioned in the new Growth and
Transformation Plan (GTP)…Following his discussions and what he described as
successful visits to project sites, the Minister expressed his own satisfaction and
that of his government over the current state of Ethio-Germany’s economic
partnership. He made it clear there would be further German commitments to
assist Ethiopia’s economic development in the future, in addition to the sum of
115 million Euros earmarked for Ethiopia under the 2008-2011 development
program.“
(b) Ministry of finance webpage, 11 January
“The Minister [Sufian] remarked that Ethiopia has managed to expand education,
health, and infrastructures among others. According to the Minister, this was made
possible because Ethiopia has been using all the assistance drawn from
development partners in a very effective ways. The Minister also noted that if the
country manages the current economic development with the assistance from
development partners particularly from Germany, Ethiopia will achieve most of
the MDGs. H.E. Mr. Dirk Niebel, on his part, remarked that it will be important
to focus on small and medium scale enterprises so that they could play an
important role in the efforts of the country to eradicate poverty. Mr. Dirk also
emphasized the need for the active participation of private sectors and civil
societies in the sense that they contribute for the country’s economic development.
Ato Sufian noted that the Ethiopian Government is well aware the fact that
without the correlation of the government, the private sector and the civil society,
no economic development will be gained and the government is working to this
effect.”
(c) Ministry of agriculture about land grabbing (quoted on UN-IRIN)
Minister of agriculture: “I know [this] is a very controversial and hot issue at
the global level. As far as Ethiopia is concerned, we don’t see it as a threat
because it is smallholder agriculture, which is the driving engine of the
agricultural development in this country.”
Gambela village resident speaking to UN-IRIN:“We were told by government
that we should preserve the forest and trees, because they give us rain. Now
the Indians are burning and bulldozing the forest in broad daylight.”
Esayas Kebede of Investor Support Services of the ministry of agri: “Only a
very small portion of the forest is burnt…There might be investors who are
cutting forests. We will follow them and take appropriate actions. Previously
we have taken some measures on those investors who have damaged the
environment in some way…We don’t simply give land for investment. We
have conducted appropriate studies and the company [Karuturi] has also
conducted an environment impact assessment (EIA). So such allegations
[about evictions] are far from the truth.”
(d) Ethiopian New Agency—ENA 14 Jan.
“German delegation lauds Ethiopia's efforts to increase number of women MPs. It
also quoted from a German embassy press release, “The Ethiopian government
makes great endeavours to reach their millennium development goals and has
made impressive progress.”
(d) Walta Information Centre Addis Ababa, January 12 (WIC)
“Prime Minister Meles Zenawi held talks on Tuesday with a German
parliamentary delegation led by the country’s Minister for Economic Cooperation
and Development, Dirk Niebel. Meles on the occasion briefed the delegation on
on-going development activities in various sectors in Ethiopia including in
environmental protection, food security and resettlement. He called on Germany to
strengthen its development assistance to Ethiopia. Niebel on his part his part
expressed admiration to Ethiopia’s food security strategy. He also lauded Ethiopia’
s development policy, which promotes the expansion of green energy projects.”
What should we learn?
Clearly, this is a firm indication of rule by fear. It has resulted incomplete
suppression of freedom of speech, as applicable to individual citizens and
professionals, such as government officials, journalists and teachers, against
which the notoriety of the totalitarian system of governance is known. This has
pervaded society with all its manifestations
.
I lamented about this situation in Ethiopia the day the Supreme Court of the
United States adopted by 8 to 1 its decision on 2 March, upholding the right
and freedom of speech of protesters. It was one bold stoke by which the
Supreme Court countered challenges to democracy on a very sensitive issue
involving picketing at military funerals. What makes this bold and unique is that
it comes at a time the country fights one major war with many fronts and dead
soldiers are coming back home in body bags, having fallen defending United
States’ interests.
The case for the Court’s judgement arose from one brought against a protest
at the funeral of Marine Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder, who died in Iraq.
Members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, appeared near
his funeral ceremony bearing signs “America is Doomed” and “God Hates
Fags.”The father of the deceased was hurt and sued the church, anguished by
the denial to his son of honourable burial. For that matter it is reported that
Mathew Snyder was not homosexual.
Even then, the Court decided in favour of the right of the church to free
speech.In delivering the Court’s opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts stated:
The Court also acknowledged, “Westboro’s choice added to Mr Snyder’s
already incalculable grief.” In contrast, compare this with the political
dispensation in Ethiopia, where speech on public issues destroys a human
being. Judge Birtukan Mideksa is the young mother and lawyer, the first
female Ethiopian opposition leader who was given life imprisonment on two
different occasions for her peaceful political views—even though moderate
and well informed. In comparison, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has said so
many hurtful things to the nation’s history and the sacrifices of our fathers.
When Judge Birtukan Mideksa was in imprison and even before his court
pronounced itself on her case, the prime minister had time and again cast her
as the enemy of Ethiopia—obviously not concerned that his court would
decide otherwise, but to turn public opinion against her. Mr Meles’s case
against her was her allegedly tarnishing his regime’s image, i.e., portraying it as
a liar.
One would assume that a self-confident power, as the prime minister often
likes to project his regime, hold, could be magnanimous in the tradition of
statesmanship expected of a leader. Unfortunately, this was not meant to be in
practice in Ethiopia. She was, thus, handed life imprisonment in solitary
confinement on account of the speech she gave to the Ethiopian community in
Sweden in 2008. Alone and in darkness, she was violated physically and
emotionally. Even in times of serious illnesses, she was denied of medical
assistance and visitors except her five-year old daughter accompanied by her
80 year-old grandmother.
Judge Birtukan Mideksa remained in such a condition until the May 2010
election was over. The prime minister and his party won, by their count,with
99.6 percent electoral victory, following which she was released. By the time,
she came out from prison,she was a shadow of her old self, her spirit broken
by the cruelty she was subjected to. Recently she resigned from the
presidency of the largest opposition party in the country and has now decided
to move to the United States initially to ensure her wellbeing.
The past two decades have shown that this is the condition Ethiopians have
been living through and are expected to build democracy. This is the kind of
treatment Ato Meles Zenawi and his party have reserved to any formal and
informal opposition to their power—the very factor that for now has cowered
Ethiopians into submission in the face of the worst forms of deprivations of
their human dignity. That much is clear, still more and more people are being
thrown into his dungeons, most of them tortured.
In the Snyder case, the United States Supreme Court was not preoccupied
with the ego of the US Administration, or how the entire government would
feel by such judgement, or the image this may convey to some about the
country. The Court had only three criteria for its decision, i.e., whether: (a)
‘the overall thrust and dominant theme of the demonstration spoke to broad
public issues’; (b) the attack against Mathew Snyder was motivated by
personal vendetta; and, (c) the demonstration was held in public street to
avoid causing IIED (intentional infliction of emotional distress) to the mourners.
What role did the media play? The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the
Press and 21 news organizations filed brief to the Supreme Court, supporting
the church. That document is contained in www.americanbar.org brief
09_10_09_751. In its editorial of 2 March, The New York Times wrote:
REGIME AT MIND CONTROL
26 March, 2011 | By Genet Mersha
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How Germany comes into the picture
I took on this issue to share my take on the news coverage of the review
undertaken by the German parliamentary Committee on Economic
Cooperation and Development of Ethio-German cooperation that took place
in mid-March. The committee’s work came against the backdrop of extensive
discussions between Ethiopia and Germany during the visit to Ethiopia by
Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Dirk Niebel’s
in the first half of January 2011.
- Mr Niebel was accompanied by a 40-
member delegation. Among others, it
included parliamentarian Thilo Hoppe,
deputy chairman of the above-
mentioned committee, who also
happened to be actively involved at
the forefront of the above-mentioned
review, stressing the need for serious
engagement in Berlin using respect for
human rights as a criterion. Also
included in the delegation were other
parliamentarians, business community
members and representatives of civil
During his four-day stay in Ethiopia, Minister Niebel visited German
supported projects in Tigrai, Dire Dawa and Harar. Unlike his colleague’s in
the delegation, Minister Dirk Niebel is reported to be satisfied with his field
visits. On the surface, it was learnt, official interactions were diplomatic and
polite, but not wholly smooth with touchy issues raised and the recipient
country’s responses dodgy, reportedly giving rise to some distrust by some
members of the delegation.
The purpose of the visit, according GIC, was to enable the donor country to
impact assessment of its financial and technical support to Ethiopia, as per the
terms of the development cooperation agreement between the two countries.
In the past three years, the two have cooperated in three priority areas: (a) a
bi-pillar sustainable economic development scheme, aiming at creating new
jobs and income generating opportunities for the fast-growing population. The
Germans have packaged this as a means by which they help gear the country
toward industrialisation. The other is support for education sector.
(b)The second one is sustainable land management. The Germans see it as
capacity building to enhance productivity; and (c) Urban development and
decentralisation, among others, Germany is to focus on 15 cities and towns
with the aim of “setting up markets, abattoirs, roads, waste disposal and
drainage systems. Funds also go towards training and advice for public
authorities and their staff.”
To achieve these objectives, in the past three years—by its estimate—
Germany has provided€96 million as its development aid to Ethiopia.
Nonetheless, there is no clear indication of how much of it is tied aid, meaning
the amount charged as overhead cost—the percentage of these funds that is
paid to German consultants and as salaries for their field staff and the import
of German goods. A study presented to Aid Conference places Germany at
fourth place in the amount it spends on overhead—especially staff costs. It is
also one country whose percentage of its aid transparency is only at the 75-
percentage level, according to Claudia R. Williamson, the author of Fixing
Failed Foreign Aid: Can Agency Practices Improve?
German funding for Ethiopia is split into two components: a package of €54
million for financial cooperation and €42 million for technical cooperation.
Financial cooperation is a strain of a rechristened direct budget support. In the
German case, ‘investments’frequently employed, for instance, in education,
infrastructure and health or agriculture. Government is implied to have the say
where to use the funds. However, a major difference as it is from direct
budget support, implementation is carried out “in close coordination with other
German or international development cooperation activities.” BMZ defines the
overall objective of the technical cooperation aid package as enabling poorer
population groups to improve their conditions.
In the coming few years, Germany is likely to play a bigger role in Ethiopia.
For this reason, it badly needs to show case Ethiopia as its success story in
Africa. In Ethiopia, the German technical cooperation office is the largest
anywhere in the developing world. The overall objective is to attain higher
market share in a region that is lauded as having bright prospects in its
economic future. This view is also shared by guidelines of the German foreign
policy www.isn.ethz.ch:
- "German foreign policy is oriented to global values: respect for
human rights, democracy, the rule of law, peaceful resolution of
conflicts/international jurisdiction.
- As a major export nation we are dependent on a secure, functioning
system of world trade. This presupposes peace, security and
stability. Environmental and climate protection is a priority because
we want to ensure that this world remains a good place for future
generations too. We need equal partners who are confident but also
tolerant: that's why we promote education and the willingness of civil
societies to engage in dialogue, and that's why we seek to establish
conditions in which prosperity can be created and fairly distributed.
We are securing our energy supply by helping to open doors for
German companies in Africa as well.”
Could Germany live up to its foreign policy tenets in a balanced
manner, as indicated above?
The possibility is there, with the growing pressure for reform in Ethiopia within
the ranks of German politicians, civil society organizations and the public at
large. In August 2010, the ARD national television in its Fakt programme had
reportage on the worsening human rights violations in Ethiopia, that years of
indifference by the rest of the world has turned the country into a single party
state, at a time when the world is moving into pluralism. In that programme,
the ARD questioned why the federal government continues to throw away
public funds in support of a government that has made the country hell for its
citizens.
After watching that programme, citizen Huper Neudeck gave his testimony as
the latest addition to the list of German human right activists, fully engaged
now in lobbying the government for action. He says, “I can’t understand how
the German Federal Gov. continues to work with this regime. This should be
stopped immediately.” The ARD also agreed stating that this should be taken
up in the discussion on the German Africa policy. The sense is that the rising
tide of popular clamour for democracy and respect for fundamental human
rights in North Africa and the Middle East has added to public support.
People cite now Germany’s professed policies on human rights, as it appears
on the webpage of the federal ministry for economic cooperation and
development. It clearly states:
- Human rights remain a problematic issue. There are regular reports
of arbitrary arrests for example. The judicial system is overstretched
and not sufficiently robust to guarantee legal security. This not only
deters potential foreign investors, but also prevents numerous local
entrepreneurs from realising their business ideas. Despite a
constitutional ban on discrimination, women’s rights in Ethiopia are
not consistently upheld. In addition, press and civil society freedoms
have recently been curtailed. For example, restrictive laws have
been adopted with regard to the media and the work of non-
governmental organisations. Obstacles placed in the way of
opposition parties also suggest that the government is using every
available means to shore up its hold on power. There are frequent
incidents of unrest in Ethiopia, caused by militant liberation
movements, which the government regards as terrorist organisations.
For now, in spite of this, the clamour by politicians and the public,Minister
Niebel’s preoccupation seems to have focussed only on the second pillar of
German interests in Africa—a market for its products. Therefore, he has
promised €115 million in the coming three years.
At the same time, his visit has also exposed to the world what has so far been
wrong in the Ethiopian political environment, to which Germany can no longer
afford to close its eyes. For parliamentarians from the different political parties
and civil society organizations, the focus is not the self serving future German
strategy in Africa, but also the here and now, whether German funding should
continue to bankroll repression and human sufferings. The Ethiopian regime’s
consistent denials of any such charges have failed to allay the fears and
concerns of Ethiopia’s friends on behalf of Ethiopians, whose voices have
been muzzled.
After what he saw first hand at the field level, Minister Derik Niebel on 18
January could not skip the need to serve cautionary notice, underlying which
are his misgivings about those issues. After all, he had heard first hand from
Mr Hoppe, his parliamentary colleague and the deputy chairman of the
economic cooperation committee, when he was up front with Prime Minister
Meles Zenawi, raising all the thorny issues. Not surprisingly the prime minister
dismissed the charges as concoction of his opponents, only to earn the distrust
of the visiting delegates. Mr Niebel was compelled to sideswipe the issues in
generalities, in an unwilling attempt to find common ground with his colleague.
He was quoted by GIC stating, "It is also very important [for Ethiopia] to
strengthen civil society and to create more scope for the private sector.
Ethiopia must ensure that all citizens enjoy access to government services, free
from discrimination."
This to some degree ties with the questions Mr Thilo Hoppe raised with the
prime minister (VOA interview, 22 March). These included the issues of
discriminatory treatment of citizens, as practiced by the ruling party in respect
of education and training opportunities to bolster his party, even with German
funding. The other is displacement of citizens on account of land grabbing by
foreign investors
.
Sadly, some of the displaced by farm grabbing are not only those regime
claims it is trying to help them change their primitive way of life. But it has also
affected those that were already resettled in Gambella years ago after
escaping the famine affected parts of Ethiopia and are used to farming. There
is no better evidence to show clearly the extent to which our citizens have
been mistreated and humiliated than selling of our country block by block to
foreign investors, as the Guardian’s John Vidal’s (www.guardian.co.uk/global-
development) video and the heart rending tragedy shown on You Tube (www.
youtube.com/watch?v=AmGN6eQ01A0&feature) have established.
That is why Mr Hoppe’s statement was quoted predicting the looming danger
in Ethiopia: “The thundering voices that now refuse their continued deprivation
of democracy and violation of their human rights is not limited to the Arab
world only. This condition is also simmering in Ethiopia” (unofficial translation).
The donor matrix
When a donor gives aid, there are always strings attached, as we saw it above.
Especially when the opposition is weak, as fragmented as it is in Ethiopia, the
donor community emphasizes the peace and stability angle for the Horn of
Africa. Such consistent responses by diplomacy have also bothered the
respected European political scientist Dominique Moisi, the author of The
Geopolitics of Emotion. He examined the issue in the context of why
diplomacy failed to foresee or handle the popular revolutions in Tunisia and
Egypt, once it erupted. He attributes this to the fallibility of the autopilot
response, of which he observed:
- Why do revolutions so often take professional diplomats by surprise? Is
there something in their DNA that makes them prefer the status quo so
much that, more often than not, they are taken aback by rapid changes,
neither foreseeing them nor knowing how to respond once they begin? ...
Revolutionary ruptures upset diplomats’ familiar habits, both in terms of
their personal contacts and, more importantly, in terms of their thinking. A
fast-forward thrust into the unknown can be exhilarating, but it is also
deeply frightening. In the name of “realism,” diplomats and foreign-policy
strategists are naturally conservative.
(Blind, Project Syndicate, 28Source: The Diplomacy of the February 2011)
What is wrong with the media in Ethiopia today?
This piece is not aimed at criticizing the journalists per se, accusing them of
lack professionalism or integrity. Even if they all were graduates of famous and
internationally recognized schools of journalism, the situation would not be any
different under the policies of the present regime. The evil lies within the
architects and their policies that work against the country and its citizens. This
is because the current leaders are only concerned with them dying in power
and ensuring dynastic control, instead of power becoming an expression of the
will of the people.
In thinking of the media as an institution, one would naturally expect the media
in Ethiopia to serve the public interest—to inform, educate and facilitate the
participation of citizens in the affairs of the nation. Unfortunately, even by the
standards of Sub-Saharan Africa, the Ethiopian media is designed to be
typically Orwellian in deeds and character. It is good at praising the leaders,
even when they are wrong, spill blood and wallow in corruption, covering up
their misdeeds and unjust actions. They bedevil with falsehoods those
opposed to the regime and hound those that do not support it. What then is
national about it?
Today, Ethiopia today finds itself at the end of the second decade, since the
media has altogether betrayed the nation and the people’s aspiration for
democracy under the leadership of the TPLF and a government that has
become the antithesis of democracy. I am not implying here that before the
TPLF-led EPRDF Ethiopia had free press or was democratic. At least, its
two predecessor governments committed whatever injustices and violations of
human rights, wars and murders, unlike the present regime, without the
pretentions of being democratic or trying to fool everyone, especially
foreigners, that they are hospitable to pluralism of ideas and organizations.
Why then should the country become a single party state?
To observe that from the media’s functions in Ethiopia, I invite readers to see
that in what is conveyed to the people, for instance, about the visit by the
German delegation we discussed above. At best, what all of them tried to do,
as can be see hereunder, is to suppress any critical remarks or questions.
They exaggerate the positives and add their praises, as if there have never
been any contentious issues. The following would give answer to the above
question as to what is wrong with the Ethiopian media and all sources of
information in the country.
(a) The Ethiopian foreign ministry (A Week in the Horn, 14,1.2011)
“…The bilateral meetings dwelt at length on ways and means of consolidating
current Ethio-German relations. While expressing deep gratitude and appreciation
to Germany's development partnership, which is seen as exemplary, the Ethiopian
side called on Germany to strengthen its development assistance, especially in view
of the tremendous development tasks envisioned in the new Growth and
Transformation Plan (GTP)…Following his discussions and what he described as
successful visits to project sites, the Minister expressed his own satisfaction and
that of his government over the current state of Ethio-Germany’s economic
partnership. He made it clear there would be further German commitments to
assist Ethiopia’s economic development in the future, in addition to the sum of
115 million Euros earmarked for Ethiopia under the 2008-2011 development
program.“
(b) Ministry of finance webpage, 11 January
“The Minister [Sufian] remarked that Ethiopia has managed to expand education,
health, and infrastructures among others. According to the Minister, this was made
possible because Ethiopia has been using all the assistance drawn from
development partners in a very effective ways. The Minister also noted that if the
country manages the current economic development with the assistance from
development partners particularly from Germany, Ethiopia will achieve most of
the MDGs. H.E. Mr. Dirk Niebel, on his part, remarked that it will be important
to focus on small and medium scale enterprises so that they could play an
important role in the efforts of the country to eradicate poverty. Mr. Dirk also
emphasized the need for the active participation of private sectors and civil
societies in the sense that they contribute for the country’s economic development.
Ato Sufian noted that the Ethiopian Government is well aware the fact that
without the correlation of the government, the private sector and the civil society,
no economic development will be gained and the government is working to this
effect.”
(c) Ministry of agriculture about land grabbing (quoted on UN-IRIN)
Minister of agriculture: “I know [this] is a very controversial and hot issue at
the global level. As far as Ethiopia is concerned, we don’t see it as a threat
because it is smallholder agriculture, which is the driving engine of the
agricultural development in this country.”
Gambela village resident speaking to UN-IRIN:“We were told by government
that we should preserve the forest and trees, because they give us rain. Now
the Indians are burning and bulldozing the forest in broad daylight.”
Esayas Kebede of Investor Support Services of the ministry of agri: “Only a
very small portion of the forest is burnt…There might be investors who are
cutting forests. We will follow them and take appropriate actions. Previously
we have taken some measures on those investors who have damaged the
environment in some way…We don’t simply give land for investment. We
have conducted appropriate studies and the company [Karuturi] has also
conducted an environment impact assessment (EIA). So such allegations
[about evictions] are far from the truth.”
(d) Ethiopian New Agency—ENA 14 Jan.
“German delegation lauds Ethiopia's efforts to increase number of women MPs. It
also quoted from a German embassy press release, “The Ethiopian government
makes great endeavours to reach their millennium development goals and has
made impressive progress.”
(d) Walta Information Centre Addis Ababa, January 12 (WIC)
“Prime Minister Meles Zenawi held talks on Tuesday with a German
parliamentary delegation led by the country’s Minister for Economic Cooperation
and Development, Dirk Niebel. Meles on the occasion briefed the delegation on
on-going development activities in various sectors in Ethiopia including in
environmental protection, food security and resettlement. He called on Germany to
strengthen its development assistance to Ethiopia. Niebel on his part his part
expressed admiration to Ethiopia’s food security strategy. He also lauded Ethiopia’
s development policy, which promotes the expansion of green energy projects.”
What should we learn?
Clearly, this is a firm indication of rule by fear. It has resulted incomplete
suppression of freedom of speech, as applicable to individual citizens and
professionals, such as government officials, journalists and teachers, against
which the notoriety of the totalitarian system of governance is known. This has
pervaded society with all its manifestations
.
I lamented about this situation in Ethiopia the day the Supreme Court of the
United States adopted by 8 to 1 its decision on 2 March, upholding the right
and freedom of speech of protesters. It was one bold stoke by which the
Supreme Court countered challenges to democracy on a very sensitive issue
involving picketing at military funerals. What makes this bold and unique is that
it comes at a time the country fights one major war with many fronts and dead
soldiers are coming back home in body bags, having fallen defending United
States’ interests.
The case for the Court’s judgement arose from one brought against a protest
at the funeral of Marine Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder, who died in Iraq.
Members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, appeared near
his funeral ceremony bearing signs “America is Doomed” and “God Hates
Fags.”The father of the deceased was hurt and sued the church, anguished by
the denial to his son of honourable burial. For that matter it is reported that
Mathew Snyder was not homosexual.
Even then, the Court decided in favour of the right of the church to free
speech.In delivering the Court’s opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts stated:
- Speech is powerful. It can stir people to action, move them to tears of both
joy and sorrow, and—as it did here—inflict great pain. On the facts before
us, we cannot react to that pain by punishing the speaker. As a Nation we
have chosen a different course—to protect even hurtful speech on public
issues to ensure that we do not stifle public debate. That choice requires
that we shield Westboro from tort liability for its picketing in this case.”
The Court also acknowledged, “Westboro’s choice added to Mr Snyder’s
already incalculable grief.” In contrast, compare this with the political
dispensation in Ethiopia, where speech on public issues destroys a human
being. Judge Birtukan Mideksa is the young mother and lawyer, the first
female Ethiopian opposition leader who was given life imprisonment on two
different occasions for her peaceful political views—even though moderate
and well informed. In comparison, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has said so
many hurtful things to the nation’s history and the sacrifices of our fathers.
When Judge Birtukan Mideksa was in imprison and even before his court
pronounced itself on her case, the prime minister had time and again cast her
as the enemy of Ethiopia—obviously not concerned that his court would
decide otherwise, but to turn public opinion against her. Mr Meles’s case
against her was her allegedly tarnishing his regime’s image, i.e., portraying it as
a liar.
One would assume that a self-confident power, as the prime minister often
likes to project his regime, hold, could be magnanimous in the tradition of
statesmanship expected of a leader. Unfortunately, this was not meant to be in
practice in Ethiopia. She was, thus, handed life imprisonment in solitary
confinement on account of the speech she gave to the Ethiopian community in
Sweden in 2008. Alone and in darkness, she was violated physically and
emotionally. Even in times of serious illnesses, she was denied of medical
assistance and visitors except her five-year old daughter accompanied by her
80 year-old grandmother.
Judge Birtukan Mideksa remained in such a condition until the May 2010
election was over. The prime minister and his party won, by their count,with
99.6 percent electoral victory, following which she was released. By the time,
she came out from prison,she was a shadow of her old self, her spirit broken
by the cruelty she was subjected to. Recently she resigned from the
presidency of the largest opposition party in the country and has now decided
to move to the United States initially to ensure her wellbeing.
The past two decades have shown that this is the condition Ethiopians have
been living through and are expected to build democracy. This is the kind of
treatment Ato Meles Zenawi and his party have reserved to any formal and
informal opposition to their power—the very factor that for now has cowered
Ethiopians into submission in the face of the worst forms of deprivations of
their human dignity. That much is clear, still more and more people are being
thrown into his dungeons, most of them tortured.
In the Snyder case, the United States Supreme Court was not preoccupied
with the ego of the US Administration, or how the entire government would
feel by such judgement, or the image this may convey to some about the
country. The Court had only three criteria for its decision, i.e., whether: (a)
‘the overall thrust and dominant theme of the demonstration spoke to broad
public issues’; (b) the attack against Mathew Snyder was motivated by
personal vendetta; and, (c) the demonstration was held in public street to
avoid causing IIED (intentional infliction of emotional distress) to the mourners.
What role did the media play? The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the
Press and 21 news organizations filed brief to the Supreme Court, supporting
the church. That document is contained in www.americanbar.org brief
09_10_09_751. In its editorial of 2 March, The New York Times wrote:
- In a narrow ruling in the sense of applying law to one set of facts, the
Supreme Court has provided an admirable reminder of how broad the
protection of free speech is under the Constitution’s First Amendment,
including hurtful and hateful speech.
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