By Gemechu Tussa ([email protected])
Introduction
The paradox in Ethiopia has persisted since the coming of the Prosperity Party led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to power. Ethiopia has become a country that has been entertaining civil war, ethnic conflicts, drought, corruption, nepotism, and other evils. Instead of considering the real situation in the country the party continued pronouncing about prosperity. The objective of this piece is to show how the leading party in Ethiopia has been confusing the people through paradoxical statements and agendas.
The Paradox
The executive committee of that party has conducted its meeting the past two days, 16 and 17 March 2023. In their statement that began with the paragraph, “Ethiopia is on the bridge to cross a great milestone. In this regard some struggle to get it back off the bridge. Others struggle to break the bridge so that the country would immerse in the cliff. And the real children of the country keep struggling to help the county moving forward and jump the bridge shortly. Prosperity has chosen the third”.
The first paradox could be read here. The past five years were the worst time for Ethiopians in their political, economic and social history forget struggling to build prosperous Ethiopia. The only grain of truth in this truth is the fact that the country is on a cracked bridged unable to pass over it but struggling to fall to the bridge. But it is the Prosperity Party that placed the country in this position. There is an old adage that goes like “a whip flogs and screams itself” that is what the leaders of Ethiopia have been doing. While all the political chaos in the country occurred due to the mismanagement of the incumbent government itself, it is attempting to shift responsibilities of the failure to an unidentified body describing them as those who struggle to retard it or those who struggle to break the bridge. The second paradox is while the country is in a severe economic crisis and failed to feed its people and more than 12 million of its citizens fall under dire situation due to the drought in the country, the leaders talk about prosperity. Whom do our leaders refer to when they are talking about prosperity? Is it prosperity refer to themselves and their family and the people in their own circles or the people dying of hunger? Obviously, this is either insulting or misleading the people.
The communique of the party also emphasized on points it described as challenges. The debts that history carries, the inability of the people to manage freedom. Corruption and the rising the cost of living are some among other challenges.
These is also paradoxical. What is the impact of our history to current problems? According to the writer of this peace, our history could rather help us to unite for prosperity but the major reason for the failure of moving forward is the violation of the constitution and flourishing of illicitly in the country. The government simply began eroding the articles in the constitution that led to other groups to follow as a result illegality thrived through the country. The other shameless point in the statement is “the mismanagement of freedom”. Unless the ruling party is attempting to convey its message in a satirical way, it is public secret that Ethiopians get no space for free movement, free speech, free press and free running political differences in the past five years. The war in northern Ethiopia and in most parts of Oromia was caused due to the narrow political freedom in the country.
The other point is the rising cost of living which the ruling party attempted to shift the reasons to other factors. However, the major reason for the skyrocketing of living standard in the country has emanated from the political decay. Imagine how much we spent on the civil war in the country.
The drones, the heavy modern machine guns, the artilleries and the millions of soldiers, payments to the Eritrean government for its participation in the country’s internal affairs all added have already impacted the economy which was at its infant stage while the Prime Minister and his colleagues took power. If we consider the drought that occurred in the country in 2016, the then government managed to withstand it for it had developed its capacities but now the government is not in a position to stabilize the market and to help people dying of drought.
The leaders do not realize that they are the products of the past rather they stick as prisoners of the past. They have been agitating the people particularly the youth to feel separate, to discard commonness and to hate others made them prisoners of loneliness and narrowness. World history shows us that a lot of countries solve their internal challenges through peaceful dialogue, through inclusive discussion and full participation of all the people. They never solved their problems debts through fighting, conflict and division unlike our government that has been crazy of that notion.
The point is the fact that it is not the people who failed to use of the freedom it got but the government that deprived the people of their rights for freedom. No one witness that there is freedom in Ethiopia but there is an extreme fear that leads most politicians to be “yes men” although have hate to the superficial regime in the country. But the ruling party stated that there is inability of managing freedom, a freedom that doesn’t exist on the ground. How many journalists were arrested for their journalistic activities in the past five years? How many civilians were detained and killed for their identity? How many politicians were imprisoned in those years. In this regard to speak a spade a spade, the past five years were the worst years for Ethiopians in their history.
The statement also emphasized that “the Ethiopian economy has become one of the three major economies in sub-Saharan Africa”. Look! How can we believe this government with lots fabrics that the people currently know the economy of the country failed to shoulder its people? Those who had hopes in the past three decades lost their hope, those who managed to move from place to place to trading also failed to do that that due to insecurity, the tourism sector has crippled for there is no peace in the country. All tourist sites in Tigray, Ormoia, and part of Amhara and Southern parts of the country are closed for almost tow years. Other economic activities were almost collapsed, the construction sector has terminated due lack of inputs like iron and cement for shortage of forex.
The incumbent government is the worst of all rules in the country for it doesn’t lives up to its words. It talks the people about prosperity but on the ground, there is poverty. It portrays about peace but on the ground, there is conflict, insecurity and instability. It propagates on unison but on the ground there is hate and split.
It is better for the government to look inward instead of shifting responsibilities as all the evils in the country have emanated from the political decay the ruling party. Unless leaders of the Prosperity Party and the government allow all political parties including those armed ones to come to an inclusive dialogue, all what they propagate is simply for political consumption just to mislead the people. All the evils including burning human beings alive, massacre, mass imprisonments and torture have executed regularly in the past five years unseen worldwide. Therefore, there major problem is political and leadership decay, the belief of maintaining power through gun mouth.
We, Ethiopians, remembered the military Junta that ruled the country for about 17 years. However, the current government, by no means, can’t be compared with the Derg regime. In fact, there was civil war between the government and the Tigray rebels who later managed to bring together other groups from the Amhara people. However, the Derg regime, unlike the incumbent government, never invited any foreign country to eliminate the rebels. The military regime didn’t alienate members of one ethnic group from the national defense force of the country, neither did it murdered, arrest and tortured them in mass. The military rule didn’t also arrest people in mass unlike what the Abiy rule has been doing. Therefore, even if Derg was a butcher, the current government is by far the worst one. As all the evils emanated from the leading party itself, the remedy should come from these groups.
Conclusion The Ethiopian government need to look inward and learn from its past grave mistakes. It should erase the notion of maintaining power through the help of gun mouth and rather look for a means for durable political solution in the country. This group should adjust itself and open a political space for an inclusive political dialogue putting aside the tit-for-tat. It is crucial and mandatory at this point of time for the government to be ready for true reconciliation with all groups in the country and open its doors for lasting peace instead of misleading the population with paradoxical statements every time.