Aklog Birara (Dr)

Sooner or later the “Abiy Mania” that continues to grip Ethiopia will begin to fade as Ethiopia faces the intractable and hard socioeconomic reality on the ground that triggered the popular revolt. The systemic, policy, structural and institutional problems that tens of millions of Ethiopians, especially youth face daily, remain intact.

Ethiopian youth that defied the single party state and government machinery expects to win dividends from the enormous sacrifices tens of thousands made. The bread and butter issues of improved life and livelihood through employment and empowerment at home rather than abroad are real and just. The demand must be met sooner rather than later. I am not suggesting a “Marshall Plan” for Ethiopia. We should no longer rely on aid to save Ethiopia. I am suggesting a people-centered and anchored development model in place of the elite led “Revolutionary Democracy” and the elite led “developmental state” that is much more akin to trickledown economics. An empowered youth can do miracles for the country.

It is true that Ethiopia’s energetic, popular and charismatic Prime Minister has done the unthinkable. He has opened-up Ethiopia’s suffocating and debilitating political, civic and spiritual space for the first time since the popular revolution of 1974. The generation born since then must be reminded that at the time hundreds of patriots, intellectuals, political critics and opposition groups moved back to Ethiopia in droves. The anticipation then as it is now was the establishment of a just and democratic form of government that will modernize Ethiopia fast.

Sadly, the opportunity to establish such a system that will deal with the root causes of poverty and backwardness were dashed.

Forty four years later, the anticipation is high that, this time, Ethiopian society won’t and can’t afford to repeat the same mistake over and over again. I appreciate the insatiable appetite among youth and the rest in celebrating the new found breath of fresh air expressed in the streets and stadiums by welcoming those unjustly accused of crimes they never committed and those forced into exile by an indescribable one party state and government that is still largely intact. This celebration would not have been possible without Prime Minister Dr. Abiy.

Regardless of ethnic or religious or party or class affiliation, we Ethiopians agree on the primacy of a democratic form of governance in place of the one party state and government that has dominated the lives of Ethiopians for at least half a century. But, to my knowledge, we have not yet agreed on the process of how we get there. This is really where our focus should be in the coming year.

I too accept the foundational and aspirational principle of democracy, and in particular the fundamental principle of respecting and preserving the rights of each and every individual enshrined or articulated in the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

This eternal principle declares that “Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country directly or through freely chosen representatives.”

I find no single country or regime on this planet that rejects this universality. In fact, the regime that governed Ethiopia for the past three decades has argued adamantly that it too shared these principles. Yet, it defied and denied such bodies as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from sending Special Rapporteurs to investigate crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing. This should be done.

To his credit, Prime Minister Dr. Abiy opened-up Ethiopia’s suffocating and debilitating political, civic and spiritual space and encouraged each and every one within and outside the country to breathe an air of freedom for the first time in decades. This is the reason why Ethiopia is engulfed with a level of unprecedented enthusiasm, hope and aspiration that would have been unthinkable at the start of the Ethiopian New Year last time. At the time, those of us who lived in free countries debated Ethiopia’s prospect to survive.

The accolades should, however, not mask the reality that Ethiopia is still a single party state and government. Under this system, there are no checks and balances. The party, government and state operate as a seamless entity reinforcing one another. This is why the rule of law does not apply under this system. The EPRDF that Prime Minister Dr. Abiy leads commands 7 million members, many of them dependent on the party for their livelihood and influence. The party is therefore the issue.

For the following institutional recommendations to materialize, Prime Minister Dr. Abiy’s EPRDF must, among other reforms, annul the Charities and Societies Act, at minimum, reform it radically. This law restricts civil society and is a therefore a barrier to democracy. Equally, the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation should be changed in such a manner that it does not restrict fundamental rights and freedoms.

As we enter and welcome the New Ethiopia Year of 2011, I still wonder where Ethiopia is heading. I propose that Ethiopia’s New Year should be a year of National Institution Building such as the reconstitution from the ground up of a truly independent, non-partisan, capable and modern National Defense and National Security staffed by a competent and representative cadre of Ethiopians based on merit rather than ethnic or party affiliation.

It should be a year dedicated to the establishment of an independent and non-partisan election Board, judiciary and other critical institutions. It should be a year dedicated to the establishment of a free, independent and competitive press, civil society and a diverse group of professional societies.

It should be a year of disallowing political parties from owning businesses or bidding for contracts. The Ethiopian private sector should be encouraged and empowered to thrive.

The Year 2011 should also be a year that addresses and deals with the perennial issue of chronic youth unemployment and underemployment, de

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By Prof. Messay Kebede

Ethiopians have obviously a manifest difficulty in understanding rationally both the rise of Dr. Abiy Ahmed to premiership and his implementation of far-reaching changes. Here is a man who comes from the ranks of the coalition of political parties known as the EPRDF and whose defining feature is that it is filled mostly with members who, on top of being incompetent and greedy, are also toxic to Ethiopian unity. This political amalgam ruled Ethiopia for 27 years, mainly thanks to its dominant party, the TPLF. The latter used the other parties as junior partners to assert its political and economic hegemony over the whole country by means of an oppressive system of government coupled with a cynical policy of divide and rule.

Understandably, Ethiopians are at a loss to comprehend how from this self-serving and incompetent ensemble could emerge high-minded and humanitarian social reformers of the caliber of Abiy and Lemma Megersa. So perplexed are Ethiopians that many of them now increasingly see Abiy as a prophet, a God-sent messiah to save Ethiopia from the abyss of civil wars and disintegration. Echoing this sentiment and seeing the high intensity of his wide popularity, Western media outlets do not hesitate to speak of Ethiopians as being gripped by “Abiymania.”

One should admit that everything conspires to push Ethiopians in the direction of messianism. The rise of Abiy causes first disbelief and then the sense of an extraordinary occurrence precisely because he emerged from a rotten party crippled by all sorts of infirmities and horrific misdeeds. Had a robust reformist leader risen from the ranks of the opposition, nothing would have been out of the ordinary. People would simply recognize what they had expected. That a savior came from a ruling party on the verge of a free fall is what is disconcerted and difficult to analyze in rational terms.

And to crown it all, while the rise of an opposition leader to power would have inevitably caused resistance and violent responses on the part of the outgoing ruling elite, the fact that the reform movement came from inside the ruling party gave the changes a legal and peaceful turn. Some such outcome looks like an arranged, planned occurrence denoting a divine intervention. In vain does one struggle to find a historical parallel: whether we think of Mandela or Gandhi, all came from parties opposing existing regimes, not from the party in power and, what is more, from a detested and disabled party.

Doubtless, this Ethiopian infatuation with Abiy has a positive side. To the extent that it gives confidence to Ethiopians and mobilizes their energy, it facilitates the implementation of reforms. Nothing is more promising than to see a people lifted by a sudden enthusiasm after decades of demoralization and hopelessness. In a sense, this popular excitement reminds the time when the imperial regime came to an end in 1974 amid promises of a bright and socialist future. Moreover, this uplifting enthusiasm discourages and weakens all those who oppose the reforms, whatever their reasons may be. In seeing the fervor that Abiy generates, enemies of reforms are forced to think twice before attempting to reverse them, as such an attempt will unleash a flood of protests with unpredictable consequences.

Let it be added that the depiction of Abiy in messianic terms should not come as a surprise, as it is but the manner many Ethiopians revert to the resources of their traditional culture in the face of unexpected events. Indeed, one of the basic tenets of the culture is the deep belief, as stipulated in the founding book of Ethiopian polity, namely, the Kibre Negest, that Ethiopia is God’s favored nation, a belief upheld by the biblical injunction that “Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God.” Ethiopia’s long and tumultuous history is replete with divine interventions in the form of saviors to protect it from adversities, mostly set off by powerful would-be invaders (to know more about Ethiopia’s messianic understanding of its history, refer to my book, Survival and Modernization: Ethiopia’s Enigmatic Present).

In that book I argue that one of the reasons for the exceptional long survival of Ethiopian polity is the messianization of its history. Unfortunately, it is also true that messianization is little compatible with the requirements of modernization. I am not saying that Ethiopians should turn their back on messianization; rather, they should understand its frictions with modernity and redefine it in such a way that it supports the modernization effort instead of opposing it. Evidently, I have in mind Ethiopia’s propensity to produce promising leaders that turn autocratic, if not frankly dictatorial. What else is the common denominator between Haile Selassie, Mengistu Haile Mariam, and Meles Zenawi but the obsession with absolute power, an obsession that ruined the establishment of even a modicum of democratic and open society?

Granted that Abiy’s willingness to reform Ethiopian society and enhance its unity is indisputably serious and far-reaching, the fact remains that messianization carries the great danger of leading to a personality cult that can easily jeopardize everything. No matter the moral integrity of the person, messianization institutes unaccountable power and, as is often said, “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” It is imperative that Ethiopians come up with a secular explanation before their inability to comprehend rationally drives them to surrender their right to criticize and demand accountability. In justifying power by instances that are, by definition, beyond their control, Ethiopians do no more than succumb to irrationality, the end result of which is the inability to work toward a system of power that is accountable to the citizens.

How, then, is one to understand rationally Abiy’s rise to premiership and his forceful will to reform and promote national unity. The best approach is the one that tries to connect Abiy’s personal qualities in terms of moral rectitude and visionary leadership to the events and opportunities generated by social movements. The idea is that the encounter between the social movements and the personal qualities of the leader explains the change that is taking place. When it comes to the role of “great men” in history, two theories usually compete. The one maintains that the exceptional charisma, vision, and determination of individuals seduce and move societies. The other, for instance the Marxist theory, counter-argues by claiming that great individuals are just products of social struggles. People follow such individuals because they embody what they deeply want.

The problem with the Marxist approach is that it explains everything except why we still speak of “great” individuals: unless the individual imparts to social movements a direction that they could not otherwise adopt, the qualification of “great” seems overrated, to say the least. As to the first kind of explanation, its obvious weakness is its inability to give a rational account: a mysterious force seems to be the reason why the leader has such a mobilizing impact on the people. The explanation overlooks that the extraordinary qualities of the individual would have remained unnoticed or ineffective without the opportunities offered by the social movements.

In the case of Abiy, his rise is certainly unthinkable without the social protests and struggles waged by the people––with many paying with their lives––in Oromo, Amhara, and other regions of Ethiopia. These heroic struggles had two major effects. (1) They showed the inability of the regime to deal with the serious problems that the country is facing, many of these problems being caused by the use of dictatorial methods to serve narrow interests. This inability, in turn, prepared the ground for the surge of recalcitrant groups within the ruling party. (2) While the need for reforms increasingly became obvious for most members of the ruling party, the thinking of the dominant partner within the coalition, the TPLF, was just to patch up some aspects of the system so as to get rid of glaring defects, such as corruption and mismanagement. This misreckoning of the extent of frustration in the country at large and in the party coalition by the dominant partner springs from the refusal to accept any assessment of the situation that would undermine its hegemonic position within the ruling party. This refusal led to a misperception of the boiling rebellion in the coalition, with the consequence that the TPLF lowered its guard and allowed the election of a new prime minister believing that whoever is elected would just be another puppet in the manner of the outgoing prime minister. This oversight caused by overconfidence created the opportunity for the unexpected to sneak in, so to speak.

Though it is true to say that most members of the coalition in a position of leadership understood the need for some changes, what differentiates Abiy and his followers within the OPDO is the clear perception that the derailment of the coalition toward the use of dictatorial methods to uphold narrow interests has its root in the undermining of national unity. The system is not working as it is supposed to work because it does not operate in the framework of a unified whole. Once the cementing sentiment and the socio-political bonds of national unity are weakened in favor of a mere collection of nations, what else can keep together this assemblage but the hegemonic position of one of its units? In effect, when the TPLF’s decided to adopt a policy designed to undermine national unity, just for the purpose of countering “Amhara dominance” in the generation of Ethiopian nationhood, it created a situation where the ethnic units, henceforth baptized nations, had no reason to stick together. In so doing, the TPLF thought it will rise to the status of being the sole force upholding the unity of the country, but missed the fact that this hegemonic role will in due time cause resentment within the coalition, especially from the two partners representing respectively the largest number of people, namely, the OPDO and the ANDM. In other words, to exercise its political and economic ascendancy over the country, the TPLF as representative of a minority population had to fragment the country along ethnic lines so as to deploy the ruling stratagem of divide and rule, but his same stratagem was bound to backfire as soon as popular discontents showed that it can no longer rule by using the same method.

As one can see, the crisis in Ethiopia tallied with the requirements of a revolutionary situation, as laid down by Lenin. The continuous popular resistance and uprisings indicated a situation where “the lower classes do not want to live in the old way” and the divisions and conflicts within the EPRDF denoted a turning point announcing that “the upper classes cannot carry on in the old way.” Yet, the Ethiopian situation did not evolve into a revolutionary uprising seeking the overthrow of the government. Instead, a reformist wing led by Abiy and his followers managed to seize the control of the state. The explanation for this deviation is not hard to find: as we saw, the split within the ruling party was not only over the appropriate response to the popular demands; it was also about the unequal status of the junior parties in the coalition, notably of those representing the Oromo and Amhara regions whose populations and resources exceed by far those represented by the dominant party. Their status as junior partners clashed with their actual economic and political importance, so much so that there emerged a coincidence between the popular demand for a democratic system of government and the demand of democratic representation within the coalition. This coincidence explains the special bond that developed between OPDO and ANDM, which bond was instrumental in the election of Abiy as Prime Minster. It also clarifies why the reformism of Abiy and his followers had to go beyond a mere cosmetic adjustment of the existing system, as the restoration of the rightful places of their party required nothing less than the dismantling of the hegemonic position of the TPLF and of its methods of ruling. Their reformism could not be a mere patching up as it required a democratic reversal of positions within the ruling coalition. In short, what accounts for the far-going reformism of Abiy and his followers is that popular uprisings and dissents within the ruling party coalition converged on the same demand for solutions based on democratic principles.

There is more. The democratic rectification of alignment in the coalition no longer needed the stratagem, vital for a party representing a minority population, of divide and rule. Instead, it clearly displayed the link binding national unity and democracy. As representative of a minority ethnic group, the TPLF took the decision of undermining national unity and replacing by its own hegemonic rule. However, hegemony is incompatible with democracy, both in the society at large and in the coalition of ethnic parties. Short of secession, getting read of hegemony entails nothing less than the restoration of national unity as the very bond uniting equal citizens and ethnic groups. Paradoxical as it may sound, TPLF’s reckless policy of undercutting national unity so as to institute its own supremacy compelled those members in the ethnic parties who were not warming up to a secessionist solution to go unequivocally for national unity. Where national unity is restored and hailed, you dispose of hegemonic rule, and so put in place the proper conditions for a democratic government. This profound tie between democracy and national unity defines Abiy’s very vision, which he attained all the more easily as it rhymes with his humanitarian and open personality.

Clearly, we see how social movements and their subsequent divisive impact on the ruling party created opportunities for changes going in the direction of the restoration of democracy and national unity. Such a direction would not have been possible without Abiy’s specific leadership, the source of which is to be found in his individual dispositions. Indeed, what was surprising was not that the TPLF lost its domineering position, which was inevitable given the governmental crisis caused by its failures, but the direction of the change. While many expected the mere continuation of ethnic politics under a new prime minister from any of the parties composing the EPRDF, perhaps with some minor adjustments as concerns the excessive power of the TPLF, we heard a new voice that hailed Ethiopian history and called for national unity (መደመር) together with a forcefully denunciation of the undemocratic and unconstitutional methods of preceding coalition governments. This was the unexpected turn imparted by Abiy and his followers who, even though they belong to an ethnic party, soared and reached a trans-ethnic vision as the very path leading to a democratic and united Ethiopia.

Messay Kebede

University of Dayton

https://udayton.academia.edu/MessayKebede

The post The Rise of Abiy Ahmed and the Janus-Faced Nature of “Abiymania” appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

By Prof. Mesay Kebede

Though in many ways this article continues my previous article titled, “On Transitional Government and Ethnic Federalism” (http://ethioforum.org/), logically speaking, it precedes it in that it provides the social dynamics behind Dr. Abiy’s vision of መደመር, which I translate by the English terms of “conjunction” or “convergence.” Both terms presuppose a prior movement of separation that is followed by an inverse movement of convergence or of coming together. To fully understand this tendency toward conjunction subsequent to a prior phase of separation, we must have in mind the various stages of nation-building in Ethiopia since the start of the modernization process.

As shown in the above diagram, following the southern expansion of the Ethiopian state under Emperor Menilik––which expansion made possible Ethiopia’s resistance against colonial onslaughts––a nation-building process was put in place that is best described as assimilationist. Notably, Emperor Haile Selassie and the ruling elite used the Amharic language, modern education, Orthodox Christianity, open intermarriage, and social mobility to unite the various ethnic groups through the forging of a common Ethiopian identity. However, the serious limitations of the imperial regime in terms of political opening and economic developments as well as the lack of recognition of religious and cultural diversities ignited a revolutionary process that terminated monarchical rule in Ethiopia.
The regime that replaced the imperial state, namely the Derg, pursued the same policy of assimilation but with different means. It acknowledged the cultural and religious diversity of the country, but also wanted to solidify national unity by adding to the already existing instruments of assimilation the Marxist-Leninist ideology of the common interests, beyond ethnic diversities, of the working masses. Again, the complete banning of political freedom, the use of military force to crush resistance against the tight control of the central government as well as the generalized incompetence of the military elite brought about serious military defeats against insurgent forces leading to the collapse of the regime.
The insurgent forces shared the common feature of using ethnicity as a mobilizing force against what they termed “Amhara hegemony” and advocated secession as the best solution to the plight of the ethnic groups they claimed to represent. The most important ones were the EPLF, the TPLF, and the OLF, respectively promoting the secession of Eritrea, Tigray, and Oromia. Their secessionist ideology can be construed as a logical and strategic reaction to the assimilationist and centralizing policy of the two previous regimes. The EPLF successfully accomplished its secessionist agenda by declaring the independence of Eritrea. The TPLF, which by then had become the ruling power in Ethiopia, recognized the Eritrean independence, but fell short of pursuing its original secessionist agenda. Instead, it came up with a vision of a federal system based on ethnic divisions. As to the OLF, it never succeeded in creating a vast movement, mainly because of its inability to convert most Oromo to the idea of secession from Ethiopia.

With the TPLF at the head of the Ethiopian state, a new phase begins that I call the ethnic clustering of Ethiopia. Presumably, it is still a nation-building process but upheld by a Stalinist version, according to which semi-autonomous states are formed around linguistico-ethnic divisions headed by a federal government that is supposed to be representative of the groups. This political organization was intended to dismantle the Amhara dominance while providing the basis of self-rule for each ethnic group. One formidable stumbling-block of the whole system was the question of knowing what could possibly keep together the various ethnic clusters since the parliament and the prime minister had no any other legitimacy than the one granted by the ethnic groups themselves. The Soviet model of democratic centralism came in handy: power belongs, not to the peoples, but to the ethnic parties that control the states and compose the federal parliament. These political instances are, in turn, controlled by a centralized leadership in which the TPLF exerts absolute power thanks to its grip on the security apparatuses and the armed forces. The working method being that lower instances owe complete obedience to higher ones, the end game of this tight hierarchical structure is that it usually falls under the absolute control of one person (the chief of the dominant party) or a group of persons (usually called the politburo).

It is obvious that the downside of establishing ethnic clusters is none other than the sacrifice of democracy in favor of a centralized system, given that only authoritarianism can keep together disparate states. Unsurprisingly, this very stifling of democracy became the reason for the inability of the regime to deal with mounting protests arising from the clustered peoples against the hegemonic rule of the dominant ethnic party and its consequences, namely, regional inequalities, rampant maladministration, and gross abuses of human rights. The fact that the social protests took the form of ethnic demands represented a clear danger of disintegration of the country. At the same time, however, it was also an opportunity for a renewed commitment to unity, given that both the absence of democracy and the perception of a common obstacle to social progress gave way to a sentiment of solidarity among the discontented clustered groups. This situation of danger but also of opportunity brought about a reformist tendency within the EPRDF, the most consequential outcome being the rise to leadership of young and trans-ethnically minded leaders from the OPDO of the likes of Lemma Megersa and Abiy Ahmed. As Hölderlin, the poet, said: “Where danger grows, grows also that which saves.”

That ethnic clustering gives birth to leaders promoting convergence ceases to be a paradox as soon as we understand that, short of secession, which anyway is a human failure in the same way as divorce is, democratic spirit and methods alone can make it work properly. When the democratic spirit extends to other ethnic groups, it turns ipso facto into a cross-ethnic attitude for the obvious reason that it cannot overcome its own closed nature and exclusiveness without seeing the other, not so much as a member of a different group, but rather primarily and simply as a human being endowed with universal rights, that is, with rights equally shared by members and non-members of one’s ethnic group. After all, what else is democracy but openness? In other words, as when lane markings end, the lanes naturally merge into a single roadway, so too ethnic clusters converge toward unity as soon as the hegemonic rule that feeds on divisions is replaced by the democratic spirit. So renewed, unity is no longer due to the centralized force that keeps people together; it is rather a goal, a program that all concerned groups forge as their common good.
This movement from state sponsored unity to unity as the common doing of mutually respectful peoples seems to be the new path in which Ethiopia is engaged under the leadership of Prime Minister Abiy. Such a path is no doubt extremely difficult and sown with numerous and knotty obstacles. Failure is not to be excluded any more than success, provided that Ethiopians reconnect with the inspiration that enabled them to be the holder of the longest unbroken surviving polity in the world.

Messay Kebede
University of Dayton
https://udayton.academia.edu/MessayKebede

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by Zekarais Ezra

Throughout the course of their shelf life, politicians and activists will both be applauded and criticized. They will be both revered and reviled. When one is in the thick of it all, at the center of all that sound and action, it is difficult to determine when it is, indeed, the loudest. Yet, that is not my nor the people’s problem.

My humble advice to politicians and activists is this: Do your work in good faith and for good of the people; and not for yourself, and more importantly “Leave when the applause is loudest”. The, sit back and allow history to judge your legacies. You won’t understand the wisdom of those words unless and until you “Leave when the applause is the loudest”.

Building democracy and developing a country is like a playing football, which is a team sport. Think about a good football game. When the ball is in your possession, you do the utmost to move it forward, but then you must ( assuming you are not a totally self-absorbed individual) pass that ball to the your team member and wish him or her the best in making progress because in the end the victory is a team victory, not an individual player. In a democracy the team is always the people, the citizens of the country.

Democracy is a must

Democratic governance is a must for Ethiopia, but democracy is not a one-size-fits-all system. Each democracy must be shaped by the will of the people, by their collective voice, and, as such, Ethiopia must find the type of democracy that best fits the needs of its citizenry. We expect many ups and downs with the way things are now. So many extreme positions are being expressed by the various groups of the society. Caution, patience and a restrain to resorting to violence cannot be stressed enough.

Regardless of the form that democracy will take, each democracy, at its core, is a system of governance that is fueled by the will of the people. Ethiopia’s should not be an exception. Holding an election is on thing but holding a genuinely free and fair one is another thing. It summons an intestinal fortitude to accept loss.  In Ethiopia, where the dominance of one political party (EPRDF) has been the norm for over a quarter of a century, it requires more than a willingness. Particularly, when the same part expresses a desire to not only run in the election but also projects winning the election.

We must but stress that the journey to democratic transition, after 27 years of squandered opportunity, and economic prosperity would not come on a silver platter. We need to work at and we need to stay the course of structural reform.

We must recognize and sympathize the “impatient” youthful population wanting to see change and experience prosperity in their lives. Our leaders owe it to them. Yet, the youth must also recognize that nobody possesses a magic wand to create change and progress with a wish of abracadabra.

We all must work together with greater intensity to inspire and empower our citizens.

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Minga Negash, Seid Hassan, Abu Girma, and Ezana Kebede 1

I.        Introduction

The new Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Dr. Abiy Ahmed, has indicated that the privatization of certain state-owned enterprises (SOEs) is imminent. In August 2018, an advisory board has been established, and the team is expected to get support from legal, finance and accounting experts. However, the Prime Minister has been silent about broader economic liberalization, including state ownership of land, the 100 or so companies operating as “endowments” and other privately held public interest economic entities. While the privatization project has earned acclamation from the usual suspects (World Bank, IMF, lenders, foreign bargain hunters), a serious conversation among Ethiopians has yet to take place. This commentary is intended to draw the attention of policy makers to some of the grey areas of privatization.

Privatization is an eclectic subject. Economists, political scientists, sociologists, management, finance and accounting scholars have written about it. Pressure groups argue for or against privatization. Hence, a commentary of this nature has to be pluralistic, and pluralism teaches us that no single theory can explain a complex socio economic and political phenomenon completely. One has to agree that whichever theory one ascribes to there should be enough triangulation of policy, theory or method. New evidence on the privatization of SOEs has made it clear that the discourse is as much institutional as it is economic (Estrin and Pelletier 2018; Knyazeva, Knyazeva and Stiglitz 2013; Roland 2008). By institutions, we mean laws, organizations, norms, assumptions, values and cognitive matters that are often taken for granted. In theory, privatization has a number of benefits, including the reduction of the burden on the state, improving efficiency, turning loss-making SOEs into viable business entities, improving government revenues from taxes, and serve as vehicles for attracting new capital and technology into a country. A large body of the literature outlines the determinants of successful privatizations in both developed and developing countries. These gains however are traded off against loss of natural monopolies (e.g public utilities), and conditioned on a number of institutional factors, including the existence of well-functioning capital markets, effective regulatory environment that opens markets for local competition as well as adherence to sound corporate governance standards and control of corruption.

Privatization in transition and developing economies ended up transferring public assets onto the balance sheets of foreign companies and into the coffers of politically connected individuals (businesses) under shoddy deals. They failed to liberalize the sectors, hence essentially replaced state monopoly with private monopoly. Were the transferred assets had been valued correctly,

1 Minga Negash is Professor of Accounting at Metropolitan State University of Denver and the University of the Witwatersrand, Seid Hassan is Professor of Economics at Murray State University, Abu Girma is Associate Professor of Economics at University of Tsukuba, and Ezana Kebede is an automation solutions consultant for banks in Ethiopia. The opinions expressed in the article are those of the authors and not of the institution, they are affiliated.

transaction costs were reasonable (market efficiency) and the cash raised from the sale had been used for the wellbeing of citizens who gave up benefits from public ownership of the SOE, then privatization would have little or no distributional effects. The tax base would have expanded were the buyers, sellers and financiers had been domestic residents. Academic studies show that the gains in the investment efficiency frontiers of privatized SOEs had been difficult to measure, and they are often traded off against losses due to underpricing, transfer price malpractice, corruption and a de facto retention of monopoly rights in the post privatization period. Where the gains are measurable, they were limited to specific sectors, namely in the banking and telecommunication industries. The reforms have had adverse effects in that consumers, infant industries and workers were unprotected. In short, the institutional aspects of privatization are important to make the promises realizable. Despite the mixed evidence, both the World Bank and Privatization Barometer Report 2015-16 indicate that governments all over the world continue to transfer public assets into private hands in record fashion and raise substantial amount of money from the sale.

II  Privatization and liberalization

Privatization of SOEs is not an isolated incidence. It ought to be one of the cornerstones of liberalization, and liberalization in turn entails a package of sequenced reforms aimed at improving an economy and reducing uncertainty. Liberalizations succeed or fail depending on the degree of investor protection, quality of laws and their enforcements and the preexistence of deep and functioning domestic capital markets. For a developing country, liberalization may include taking a series of steps such as modernizing a country’s commercial and security laws aimed at improving the depth and breadths of its financial markets, protecting savors/investors, and establishing a settlement system that ensures liquidity and credible reduction of information asymmetry. A credit bureau that stamps out bad borrowers and “bank looters”, the existence of independent and credible analysts and audit firms that distinguish bad business and securities from good ones are important as well. Furthermore, a regulation that disallows political parties from owning, investing and controlling companies should be erected as they create not only distortions in product and labor markets, but also increase corruption and interference in elections.

It is also important to note that liberalization has its own winners and losers as the market re- assesses the risks and returns of companies and sectors. At a more general level, the unique features of observed liberalization programs include ownership rights rearrangements, deregulation, trade liberalization, currency adjustments, removal of foreign exchange restrictions, rationalization of government bureaucracy and finances, creation of an effective social safety net, and lower spending in social investments (education and health). In short, privatization is an important component of liberalization, and liberalization is contextual as it comes in different forms, packages and sequences. A cabinet that privatizes SOEs without some degree of liberalization is like a board of a company that decides to sell investments in plant and machinery only to relieve itself from an impending liquidity crisis. In other words, privatization with the aim of alleviating short-term cash/foreign exchange/ constraints is not going to be a good proposition.

III  Privatization in Ethiopia

However, at slow start by African standards, the EPRDF Government has had at least two waves of privatizations. The motivations for each wave however remain unclear. For instance, Getachew Regassa (2003)2 indicates that the Government privatized a number hotels, farms and small factories primarily through direct sale in the 1990s. The second wave was on mines, breweries and long-term lease of urban and rural lands. Despite these waves of transfer of public assets into private hands Ethiopia’s big business sector is dominated by SOEs, political party controlled and managed enterprises, beneficiaries of the entrenched clientele-ism and few genuine companies. The Government of Ethiopia has had no firm policy on SOEs and party controlled and managed businesses. In some years, the ruling party was observed selling SOEs while in other years the EPRDF government resisted privatization and deployed big public resources on SOEs, often financed by public debt, under an ideological mantra of “revolutionary democracy and developmental state”.

In November 2014, when Ethiopia went to borrow from open commercial debt market, we used a commentary entitled “Is Ethiopia’s sovereign debt sustainable?” in order to document the risks associated with over borrowing from the open market, and advised that the country rather diversifies its sources of external finance and continue to look for concessionary and bilateral loans. In that commentary, consistent with theory, we argued that debt is acceptable if the rate of return from a new project is greater than the financing costs. We explored additional critical issues such as the governance and management of the national debt; the behavior of credit rating agencies; the then financial flows into Sub Sahara Africa (SSA); the debt sustainability measurement method; stagnation of exports (debt to export ratios); the ways in which the government guaranteed SOEs’ debts and related matters. We fear that borrowed funds that were invested in hydro, sugar, railways, industrial parks, etc. have produced negative returns, cost overruns, delays, shoddy works and cash starved mega projects. It appears that the debt burden is now worse than it was in 2014.

The 2015-2018 period was a period of unrest that exacerbated low intensity conflicts, communal violence and revanchism, forcing the regime to spend even more on security and declare two state of emergencies over the entire country. It was also a period of high uncertainty, causing increased capital flight, outmigration and unprecedented level of internal displacement. The sustained unrest increased the gap in the fiscus: it decreased revenues from exports and remittances, thereby precipitating schism within the ruling ethnic coalition established through political and economic cronyism, patronage and clientele-ism. Like the saying goes, every crisis starts at the treasury, what we are hearing from the reformers within the party is that the country is under severe financial distress. They appear to be obliged to fill the short fall though new borrowing (United Arab Emirates), debt restructuring from the main lender (China), sale of public assets, and appealing to the conscience of the Ethiopian diaspora. As of late we are hearing allegations that megaprojects were used to plunder public resources, contracts and lands were

2 Privatization in Ethiopia: process and performance of manufacturing firms, School of Graduate Studies Master’s thesis, Addis Ababa University.

awarded without a transparent tender processes that focused on prices rather than on quality specifications, often through personalized intermediaries or guan·xi and shell companies in lender countries, suggesting the need for special reforms to introduce accountability and transparency. In other words, the mega projects have not raised the expected returns to pay off the principal and the interest. All these mean that the post-conflict transition period is not a walk in the park as the new Prime Minister has a lot on his plate.

While the Prime Minister has correctly identified the efficiency and accountability problems in SOEs, we suspect that the primary driver for the privatization project has to do with debt and general foreign exchange shortage, and agency conflicts appear to be either unknown or secondary. The absence of a carefully sequenced economic liberalization and stabilization program suggests that the Prime Minister is overwhelmed with crisis management, handling the factions within the party that threaten the unity and territorial integrity of the country, and ensuring internal and regional stability in the rapidly changing Greater Horn of Africa region. All of these actions are undoubtedly important. The absence of meaningful transformation of the cabinet that generates timely reform program for example by generating laws that regulate/re- organize party owned companies raises legitimate doubt about the depth, rigor and sequence of the liberalization agenda. In other words, the political liberalization observed during the last few months needs to be matched by a carefully designed economic liberalization and stabilization program.

One may ask a simple question as to why the Government is planning to embark on selling public assets when there are political party-owned companies that are not only inefficient and ruling party’s zombies but also distort both the product and labor markets, and adversely affect the promised democratization process. Moreover, it appears that the government did not take stock of the country’s past privatization experience before undertaking a new wave of privatization. In other words, the absence of separation of powers and the lack of decoupling the state, the party and the economy have created a unique form of networked capitalism that capture and weaken the effectiveness of the regulatory and supervision machineries of the country, thereby legitimizing the continuation of state capture. Thus, privatization in a networked or captured economy of course transfers public assets in disguised and opaque ways to those who are already connected. Privatization without institutional reforms may only relieve the government from temporary illiquidity but does neither affect the efficiency nor make the market contestable nor prevents throwing away public assets at questionable prices.

We suspect that the Government is contemplating privatizing its “crown jewels” like the Ethiopian Airlines (EAL) and Ethiopian telecom (ET), both of which enjoy monopoly powers. Unlike many African airlines, the national airline has been successful, and as of late, it is acquiring smaller African airlines, which makes it an acquisition target. This is despite empirical studies on mergers suggesting that the long-term benefits of business combinations for acquiring companies has not been great as the anticipated synergetic gains stemming from the merger are difficult to realize. We also note that, thanks to the leasing industry (collaboration between manufacturers and finance houses) , many smaller airlines work with leased equipment, and cash flows are more from landing rights, and the EAL is not an exception. The removal of state

guarantee for its foreign debt and making government business competitive could lead the SOE into the same unfortunate situation as the South African Airways (SAA) finds itself. Furthermore, the new lease accounting (FASB 842 and IFRS 16) may unravel the effects of “off balance sheet financing”. While the strategy of the airline in promoting intra-African investment and communication appears sensible, it is important to examine whether the cost of such endeavor could be absorbed by the rest of the Ethiopian economy, without creating major economic dislocation. Yet EAL has proved itself to have operational, knowledge and large diaspora market in a globally competitive air transport market. It is therefore critically important to be selective in allowing what kind of investors (financial capital) EAL invites. The method and modality of privatization of EAL is as important as the privatization itself.

In our opinion, the real test for the national airline is not just partial privatization through private placement that recycle oil dollars or looking for loan or equity partner from the east. Its strength lies in capitalizing its efficiency by reorganizing itself for an eventual listing in a credible global capital market. In contrast to the national carrier, the strategy for the Ethio-Telecom might be different. For instance, it is worthwhile to look into how the South African telecom market was liberalized and reorganized. The monopoly was broken down allowing Vodacom, MTN and Cell C to serve the market. This form of breaking up monopolies is somewhat similar to what Ethiopia did for its banking and insurance sectors. What is missing is an organized capital market and updated commercial and securities laws. Filling this gap could pave the way for financial deepening and the privatization and reorganization of other SOEs and political party-owned enterprises. It is in this light and with the above caveats that we agree with the Prime Minister that SOEs that do not serve as “commanding heights” or enjoy “natural monopolies” can be privatized, systematically.

With regard to the methods of privatization, there are several ways of disposing state assets. Direct sale or tender, private placement, equity swaps for exiting/new loans, and IPOs have been used to privatize all or parts of SOEs. In some countries, blocks of shares were sold at discounted prices to trade unions, war veterans, civil servants and other designated groups that deserve restorative justice. Direct sale by far is more likely to lend itself to mispricing, bidder collusion, abuse of investment incentives, corruption, and makes bargain hunters the winners of privatization, allowing them to earn super profits without requiring them to bring bricks and mortars to the economy or spending in research and development. In other words, governments must not only see the foreign currency inflow from the sale.

IV.      Concluding Remarks

Notwithstanding the series of failed elections Ethiopia experienced over the last 27 years, we believe that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has considerable public and international support, which could be used to put the country on a stable transitory path. In the sphere of economic policy, the Government needs to undertake a comprehensive assessment of economic policy and identify specific areas of reform. While the policy statement on the privatization is prudent as indicator of an overall policy orientation of the reform package, several issues need to be addressed before actual privatization. These include, among other things the need to understand

that the political costs of privatization in a period of post conflict election could be relatively high and there is a need for a series of regulatory and institutional interventions.

To conclude, privatization, whether it is a complete divestiture, partial sale, private placement, debt-equity swap, or IPO requires proper and effective regulatory framework, creation of new institutions, the selection of a reputable international investment bank, an innovative valuation and market timing. Revenue raised from privatization, as the ones reported in Privatization Barometer must not be the only incentive for the upcoming Ethiopian privatization. All of the schemes have advantages and pitfalls. Overall, privatization without changing the institutional framework would not bring about improvement on the performance of SOEs or attract new investment. The best that one can get is new cash from the disposition of public assets. In the sphere of economic policies, it is time to consider the sum total of the motivations for privatization and determine whether this should be done now or after the election.

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By Haile-Gebriel Endeshaw

Once up on a time there were two men who lived in an ancient African country. This country is named Ethiopia situated in the horn of that big continent…The two were residing in different parts of the country. Some people of the country are calling one of these individuals by a nick name, zombie. Long years after, the two individuals met while they were working for the same master, which was not liked by the entire nation.

Abdi Illie and Bereket Simon are the names of the said individuals. Now a days, people across the nation are quibbling over issues related to these two individuals. Until this very day, the squabble has not yet settled down. The current news is that the former chief administrator of Somali State, Abdi Illie, has been arrested and sent to prison.The general prosecutor filed charges against the guy. Many Ethiopians are now surprised that Illie was lucky to be brought before court in a very short period of time. There was no such justice during the defunct dictatorial government of his era. Innocent Ethiopians who were arrested then had to wait for months and years before they were brought before court.

Before the guy was given the position of presidency, he had been serving the Ethiopian Electric Power Company of Somali Region as a cable worker. The man was not to the liking of the whole Somali people. But surprisingly he happened to hold the significant rein of power. Meaning, people or their representatives did not elect or vote for him to be president. It was the defunct government that deliberately picked and placed him Illegally in abid to  push the Somali Ethiopians in to chaos. He was a puppet; the real one. But now having the puppet under control should not be the last solution. The puppet makers themselves who caused such a big mess in that part of the country should also be arrested and face justice immediately.

The moment Illie was appointed president, he started rounding up and throwing citizens in to prison;torturing and killing many innocent Ethiopians. People were forcefully displaced and lost their personal properties. Even worse,Illie came up with a strange decision of putting lions, tigers and hyenas in the same jail where human beings were locked up. By the way, this makes our Ethiopia very  unique. It is the first country in the world to put human beings and wild animals together inthe same  prison cell. I don’t know whether Illie was sent to dungeons, which were also serving as a zoo. I am wondering what the Somali Ethiopians feel this time up on hearing the current fate of the dictator. I am thinking of the top news I would have written had I not quitted working as a reporter. Hey fellow journalists, where are you while such weird incidents were happening in this country of ours?

Illie supposedly gives directions to the imprisonment of many innocent citizens. He is said to give order that innocent Ethiopians should be tortured, forced to flee the country, compelled to live the lives of suffering and destitute. He sent young delinquents, dubbed heggo, to burn houses and churches, to execute innocent civilians including kids, mothers, elderly people, religious leaders and patients. Thanks to God, this notorious guy has now been arrested and brought before court. People are now looking forward to hearing the last verdict of him.

Illie (the word sounds ill; does it not?) must be ill to commit all these strange and inhuman acts or to dip his hands in the blood of many innocent Ethiopians. “…The president of Somali State, Abdi Illie, himself directly gave order for the killing of my 36 years old brother. My brother, Feisal Mohammed, was thrown and murdered from a fast riding vehicle. The appalling thing is that, my father who is 70 years of age was made to see the incident while his son (his flash and blood) was flung down and killed shockingly from a flying vehicle in an atrocious manner. After this incident, the septuagenarian was made to suffer mental and physical trauma…” This was said by Mustafa Umar who fled Ethiopia lest he should not be killed by Abdi Illie.

Mustafa Umar further said that he would not hit back. He did not swear vengeance. “No need for that,” he said. Rather, he is now filled with anger at those “who deliberately appointed this man (Abdi Illie) over six million Somali Ethiopians as if they needed a care taker like mentally sick people”. Mustafa Umar has now been appointed deputy chief administer of Somali Region.

The other man is the former Minister of the Federal Communications Office, Bereket Simon.The veteran party guard is enraged regarding the measure taken by his regional party, the Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM) to suspend him from membership of central committee. The reason is the guy allegedly misappropriated responsibility while leading aparty endowment company named Tiret.The guy is also said to be accused of corruption and nepotism,among other things.

Ethiopian citizens in general and the Amhara people in particular are currently saying that the measure taken against the man by ANDM is the tip of the iceberg. This is only the beginning of the big measure to be taken by the government against the man. Some further say that the guy is playing foul to the extent of calling attention for his arrest. He seems to urge the new government to put him under control and send him to the place where Illie is. Many are heard saying that the guy is showing a deep sense of longing for the fate the zombie met.

The funny thing is that Bereket is now reportedly knocking on the gate of various media offices in a bid to give self-initiative interview. He has already retorted many things which have been out wittingly shielded by the concerned bodies from ANDM. “What the guy has been saying is backfiring on him. It would have been much better forhim not  to say a single word,” a friend of mine commented.

The guy said that he was not able to travel to Bahirdar Town lest he should be attacked by people. I don’t know why he is afraid of such things unless he himself knows what he did previously(something wrong) against the public. There is a saying that a hyena is not seen roaming in daylight for he knows what he does at night.

Some people are heard admonishing ANDM that it should keep clean itself of these and other crooked individuals who were triggering wave of outrage and grievances among the people. Hey ANDM, listen attentively to the advice! Shake these dangerous and fraudulent individuals off your shoulder.

Let me tell you something… There is abook entitled the Prince of Africa. This book was thematically intertwined to raise waves of hatred against Amhara people. The story setting is Dawro. It is as usual on mudslinging of the people of Amhara. Rumors have it that this book was authored by one of the TPLF (the one that took the steering wheel of this country…) sympathizers who vehemently hate Amahara people. Bereket Simon who claimed to be the leader of Amhara surprisingly took initiative to have thatmalicious book  translated in to Amharic by his brother-in-law, Mezmur Fentie (?), and be retold by Radio Fana.I personally feel that this is tantamount to the firing of canon against the people of Amhara. Many renowned artists turned down the contracts given to them by Radio Fana to stage broadcasting of the book. They knew the fact that the book instigates row among the people. Why this book which sows the seed of abhorrence against the people of Amhara was deliberately written, translated in to Amharic andretold over  the radio? This is quite clear! It was done deliberately to create animosity between people of Amara and Dawro in particular and among Ethiopians in general. How can anyone expect such a devilish act from the chief and veteran party guard who claim to represent thepeople of Amhara?

Where was the old party guard when the people of Amhara were summarily displaced and murdered in various parts of the country? What did he do when the so-called authors like the disreputable Tesfaye Gebreab unethically insulted that particular ethnic group in his infamous books? Where the hell was he when things were systematically directed by these crooked and devilish individuals in such a way that they could create animosity, hatred, suspicion and conflicts among the peaceful Ethiopians?

Hey, did I hear a journalist working for Ethiopian Satellite Television (ESAT) saying that Bereket was imploring to get a chance for a self-initiative interview? Very surprising! Do you know what I am thinking about? How this guy showed interest to be interviewed by ESAT which had been denounced by him? Did he not say that ESAT belonged to a terrorist organization, Ginbot Seven? Did he not labeled the journalists who were working for ESAT terrorists? Why does he need to change his mind all of a sudden? I am wondering to know about things he is thinking of to achieve after the interview via ESAT? Anyways, what I can tell you now is that I am very ashamed of this thing?

The veteran politician is now accusing regional party officials of inefficiency. This is surprising. Who trained and gave responsibilities to these young politicians? Was he not the major character who was involved in all these things?

By the way, I have heard Madam Anna Gomez saying that Bereket Simon should be brought before court as soon as possible. What an intelligent lady she is!

*****

N.B. Dear readers, the writer penned this piece based on his personal views.

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September 13, 2018 4:00 PM

Salem Solomon

The United States should strengthen its ties to Ethiopia following unprecedented reforms in the East African nation, a top U.S. diplomat said Wednesday.

Tibor Nagy, the newly appointed assistant secretary of the U.S. Bureau of African Affairs, told members of a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee in Washington that Ethiopia has earned praise for its historic changes.

“Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has initiated groundbreaking reforms across most every area of Ethiopian society,” Nagy said. “He deserves tremendous credit for his boldness in tackling issues previous governments have not addressed.”

But Nagy also outlined a number of unresolved concerns and urged the United States to continue to engage with Ethiopia, mobilize resources to provide aid and assistance, and maintain dialog with the country’s leadership in the wake of momentous reforms that, nonetheless, remain “quite fragile.”

Ambassador Tibor Nagy discusses how the U.S. can support Ethiopia through historic refo

Eritrea’s ‘re-emergence’

Representative Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican who is chairman of the Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations Subcommittee, outlined Abiy’s accomplishments: releasing thousands of political prisoners, lifting a state of emergency and securing peace with neighbor Eritrea.

Officials at Wednesday’s hearing celebrated the July peace deal that ended nearly 20 years of war between Ethiopia and Eritrea, but they expressed concerns about the internal dynamics in Eritrea, a country that has faced U.N. sanctions since 2009 for allegedly supporting the extremist group al-Shabab and a border dispute with Djibouti.

Smith said Eritrea could become a “critical U.S. strategic partner,” and Nagy welcomed “Eritrea’s re-emergence on the regional and global stage.”

But Nagy also expressed “significant concerns” about the countries’ bilateral relationship, citing the Eritrean detention of American citizens, possible arms deals with North Korea and human rights concerns.

“The United States has deliberately engaged with Eritrea in recent months with both these opportunities and concerns in full view,” Nagy said.

Peace with Ethiopia eliminates Eritrea’s reasons to militarize its population, particularly through the use of indefinite forced conscription, Nagy added. And, although the “atmosphere” between the United States and Eritrea has improved, he said, concrete actions will need to be taken to introduce internal reforms before sanctions can be lifted.

As a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, the United States has the power to veto any vote to remove sanctions.

Youth factor

In his remarks, Nagy underscored the importance of Ethiopia’s youth. Some 70 million people — about 70 percent of the population — are under age 30, Nagy said, and they have high expectations of their government.

As the country’s demographics shift, many additional people will enter the workforce, emphasizing the need for new jobs.

So far, Ethiopia has turned to China as a stalwart economic partner, Nagy said, but that may soon be changing, especially as the country’s economic concerns shift from building an infrastructure to supporting a workforce.

“Ethiopians understand that China isn’t the long-term solution to their problems,” Nagy said, adding that the U.S. government should reach out to American companies to forge new relationships with Ethiopia and engage in more trade.

Unresolved threats

Smith; California Democrat Karen Bass, the subcommittee’s ranking member; and Nagy outlined unaddressed concerns with Ethiopian governance and civil society, including ongoing reports of torture, a high incidence of human trafficking, and what Bass described as “hardliners within the EPRDF [Ethiopia’s ruling political coalition] that hope to stall his [Abiy’s] reform agenda.”

Smith emphasized the need to redress victims of torture, repeal laws that encourage gross human rights abuses and resolve a mass displacement that has resulted in 2.5 million people fleeing their homes.

Experts on the region identified other fault lines.

Yoseph Badwaza, a senior program officer at Freedom House, a nongovernmental research and advocacy group in Washington that focuses on democracy and human rights, said Ethiopia faces enormous challenges and is still grappling with much-needed reforms to its judicial system, electoral system and other democratic institutions.

Emily Estelle, a senior analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative research group in Washington, highlighted the volatile nature of fast-changing regional dynamics.

“The potential for Ethiopia to destabilize persists. It faces a rapid political transition and ethnic conflict across multiple regions,” Estelle said in prepared remarks. The United States must prepare for “worst-case scenarios,” Estelle added, by recognizing “the dangers of rapidly changing domestic and regional dynamics in the Horn of Africa.”

But changes this year indicate just how much can happen when leaders commit to peace, and both committee members and invited experts emphasized the region’s accomplishments in recent months.

Citing a series of rapprochements between Eritrea and its neighbors, Nagy said, “In my 40 years of following Africa, I’ve never seen this type of transition happen.”

Camera: VOA Africa Division’s Betty Ayoub

• Salem Solomon

  Salem Solomon is a multimedia digital journalist with the Voice of America’s Africa Division. She covers the latest news from across the continent, and she also reports and edits in Amharic and Tigrigna.

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By Mimi Kalinda
By CNBC Africa – September 13, 2018

The underlying concept of communicating to the right audience requires an understanding of Africa’s dynamics coupled with a strategic approach that encompasses not only smart ideas and effective planning, but also a combination of traditional and digital media expertise. As the communication landscape evolves rapidly, strategic communication means keeping a watchful eye on the way your audience consumes information and the channels they utilize.

Let’s look at The African Innovation Summit (AIS), for example. It showcased potential solutions to Africa’s challenges in water, energy, food and healthcare. Young innovators from across the continent identified problems in their communities and came up with ways to fix them. What followed was genius. A compelling communications strategy was developed and effectively delivered. It entailed a three-step approach from pre-summit to post summit and this method involved telling the stories of each innovator in a way that would inspire audiences to action.
The hope was to enhance the African narrative and change the poor perception of its youth.

With media and business in attendance at the event, the summit highlighted detailed information about innovations that, with the right funding and support, could change Africa’s outlook in the future.

One of the inventions at the AIS included a remarkable diagnostic test that could detect and distinguish between seven different viruses simultaneously, including HIV. Dr Dougbeh-Chris Nyan invented the portable system, which fits into a college-size backpack and could be powered by a car battery plugged into its cigarette lighter outlet. Solar power was being looked at for alternative power.

This device could go a long way in helping deal with Africa’s health challenges, given that the continent accounts for 25% of the global disease burden. Health should be one of the region’s major priorities considering that HIV and AIDS claims around one million lives each year, while Africa’s leading cause of death in children under five is malaria.

This is just one example from the variety of proposals emanating from AIS that could advance Africa into the future. The key driver in turning these creative ideas into prototypes and tangible outcomes is strategic communications. Once the rest of the world sees Africa’s potential through a positive lens, investment and support is likely to follow.

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By  Dr Tigist Mengistu

Recently I posted something on my face-book page. I thought it was something very harmless till I saw the reaction that it generated.

So I have decided to write this article so that I can express, explain myself better. I am very sorry if some of my friends were very offended but what I said. That was not my intention.

So for those of you that have not seen my Facebook page. This is what I said. I put the flag of Scotland, England and Wales as well as the Union Jack and said that when they all fly together it adds to the beauty and not take anything away. I also used that as comparison to some people in Ethiopia wanting their own flags. Why not? If they feel it expresses their identity better.

I know this is a controversial topic but I felt it needs to be said. First of all I would like to tell you that I am now in my 40s.  I have lived in Ethiopia for only 12 years of my life, which is less than a third of my existence. I use a travelling document of a foreign country. Yes a travelling document! That is what it is to me. When people ask me where I am from I say I am an Ethiopian. I teach my children about Ethiopia and Ethiopian history. I teach them to say that they are Ethiopians.

No one has forced me to do that. I choose to be an Ethiopian. When people I consider Ethiopians choose to identify themselves as not-Ethiopians, it saddens me but I choose to respect their choice. Since I would like my choice to be respected.

No two countries are identical but as a human race we can all learn something from each other. For that reason I used the example of UK with its different flags and one flag that unites its nations. Scotland had a referendum not long ago and they chose to stay within the UK. Therefore the fact that they want a flag that expresses their identity does not automatically translate into wanting a separate country.

So I thought I would look into the meaning of flags. Historically flags originated as military standards. That is a symbol that is carried by an army to differentiate itself from the enemy. Present day flags have evolved such that they are used as symbols of a country. They are also used by the citizens to express their patriotism and their devotion to their mother/father land.

Types of flags on land

1-Civil flags

2-state flags

3-military flags

At sea flags also have their own types. For the purpose of this article I will stick to flags on land.

Some countries use the same flag for all 3 purposes. Also called the National Flag. Ethiopian flag which is green, yellow and red is our national flag. National flags are included in the constitution of the country.

The national flag, when flown with other flags, must always be given position of honour and priority. Other flags may be flown but never higher than the national flag. No other flag is equal to the national flag.

The tricolour of Green, Yellow and Red is not just the Ethiopian flag but is adopted by many African countries and is adopted as a symbol of pan Africanism all over the world. It is a heritage we should be very proud of. I am proud of my flag, my Ethiopianism and my heritage. It is something I choose and do willingly. It will not work if I cannot choose it of my own free will.

1-This was the flag of Ethiopia before the rectangular flag was created

2-Emperor Minilik adopted the rectangular flag in October 1897-1914 (1890-1907 Ethiopian calendar)

3- The plain flag was the flag of the Ethiopian empire from 1914-1936

4-Flag of Ethiopia from 1941-1974 where the symbol of Lion of Judah was added. I would like to briefly remind that the years between 1936-1941 was when Ethiopia was under the occupation of Fascist Italy

5-The official/national flag of Ethiopia from 1975-1986. Essentially the imperial flag without the lion of Judah .This was a period of Dergue.

6- The state flag between 1975-1986 i.e. during the Dergue era.

–

7-Flag of People’s democratic republic of Ethiopia (1986-1991). In 1986 Dergue disbanded itself by handing power back to the people.

8-Flag of transitional government of Ethiopia adopted May 1992

9-Flag of Ethiopia from 1996-2009

10-Current flag of Ethiopia adopted in 2009. Different from the 1992 flag by the fact that the blue background darker and the star made bigger

In recent years the use of the plain tricolour without any political emblems has become a symbol of protest and unity against the tribalistic way the country was being ruled for the last 27 years. This in my opinion shows as a nation we are tired of current divisive tribal politicians trying to rewrite our Ethiopian history.

My point is not about disrespecting our flag or heritage. Ethiopia is a country of many tribes. Recognising and acknowledging these individual tribes does not weaken us quite the opposite. It will strengthen us. We need to have a union that respects individual rights. National rights come with national duty. One cannot exist without the other.

Humans are social animals. When we attempt to live with each other we surrender some rights in order to benefit from the protection we get from the collective group.

I am not trying to trivialise the issue. But I am trying to explain it in its simplest form. If we take a family as a social unit. It begins with a union of a man and a woman and they produce offspring.  A marriage is a compromise. Sometimes one party compromises more than the other and at other times things change. Traditionally women tend to sacrifice and compromise more. It is a very well-known fact that married men are happier and healthier than their single counterparts while it is not the same for women. Single women are happier and healthier than their married counterparts.

If a woman in marriage says I am not happy. The husband cannot tell her that she is, just because he is happy in it. And trying to convince her that she is and refusing to listen to her is not going to strengthen the marriage but weaken the bond. Unless they are able to talk and iron out the differences the marriage is not going to last.

The green, yellow and red tricolour is not just the pride of Ethiopian but the pride of all the black people on this planet. But we should ask ourselves the question. Why do certain people of Ethiopia feel that this symbol that we are ready to die for does not represent them?

As a doctor I have been trained to differentiate between a disease and a symptom. Let’s take the example of a man with a headache. That is his problem. The whole purpose of the visit to a doctor is to find out why he has these head aches and to stop the pain. The head ache is not the disease. It is the symptom. It is a symptom of stress, eye problem, sinusitis, migraine, side effects of drugs, brain tumour …I can go on and on

So if we come back to the question of flags. The fact that some people in Ethiopia do not feel the green, yellow and red does not represent them is not the disease but it is a symptom of something else.

The fact that we have done multiple investigations and could not find something tangible that we can treat does not mean the man does not have a headache. The headache is real and it is still there. Telling the man all your tests are normal therefore you have no head ache does not solve his problem. Let’s give him pain relief and then try to do some life style modifications. Advise him to eat healthy, stop alcohol, do exercise, get good night’s sleep etc.

In fact it is also a well- known fact that people with chronic pain feel better just by speaking to a health professional who is willing to be patient, give them time and listen to them. This is, mind you, just listening without giving any treatment. The question we are taught to ask the patient is ‘why do you think you have these pains?’

Ask the people why they want a different flag?

Like I said I am not a politician and some people might say I am looking at this from a simplistic point of view. I am just expressing my opinion.

Those who want their own flags should also recognise that the rest of Ethiopians are proud of their heritage and the pride that comes with being an Ethiopian. We are the only country in Africa that has not been colonised by foreign powers. That freedom did not come cheaply. It was passed on from generation to generation through the sacrifice of many lives. By honouring our flag we honour the memory and the lives of those who paid the ultimate price so that we can live.

As a nation we have survived being swallowed by the Roman Empire and Ottoman Empire as well as European colonialism. This was paid for by blood signified by the red in our flag. We have also paid dearly for the religious freedom –signified by yellow.

Ethiopianism is more than just the people, the flag, the food, the land and the rivers. Everywhere I go I proudly introduce myself as an Ethiopian. Some people have even have gone as far as saying to me ‘are you not ashamed to say you are an Ethiopian?

I have nothing else that I am more proud of than my Ethiopian heritage. Yes we are poor now, yes we still need food aid, and yes we have one of the highest child and maternal mortalities in the world. As a nation what we need more than anything else is peace. And peace will only come if we choose to listen to each other.

Let’s agree we all want the best for our country but we differ in what we think is the solution. Let’s not questions ones patriotism just because they disagree with us. We have tried this method before and it does not work. Einstein has said if you try the same method over and over again but expect different results then you are mad.

Some of you have heard me mention the missed opportunities in our history. If we are not careful then this will be another missed opportunity in our history. The spirit of Ethiopianism runs deeper than any symbol. The life of individual Ethiopians is greater than the symbolism of Ethiopia. The biggest asset a country has is its people.

Tribalism is a disease. Nothing good will come out of excluding others and promoting ‘them and us’ attitude. I agree with very many who want go back to the province system (ክፍለሃገር) as opposed to region (ክልል) based on language. I believe that is the way to promote Ethiopianism.  Let’s stop politicising our flag and just keep the simple green, yellow and red that is not burdened by any political symbols. Let’s stop tribal politics and remove the mixed message. We talk about one Ethiopia but we still have ethnic based exiled parties taken to their ethnic regions rather than coming together as one national union.

Let’s sit down and listen to each other before we go too far into the opposite corner. Once we dig deep into our own corner then it becomes a matter of pride and self-preservation to win no matter what it costs.

Let’s try a different method. The listening method. Maybe we can finally reach the potential we all know we have.

By  Dr Tigist Mengistu

The post “My Flag is My Identity” Dr Tigist Mengistu appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Abdur Rahman Alfa Shaban

Ethiopia’s flag clashes which started this week continues to elicit reactions across the social board. As at Friday afternoon, movement in the capital Addis Ababa had been largely paralyzed amid heavy police deployment.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed chastised persons involved in a crisis that he says could easily be resolved through dialogue. The police chief has also waded in asking the parties to respect the laws of the country.

Ethiopia’s vibrant activists will not be left out of the ongoings. a cross-section of activists have slammed the tensions in the capital.

According to award-winning and persecuted journalist Eskineder Nega the issue was much ado about nothing and that in the end there were no winners in a useless face off.

Meanwhile, a key pro-democracy activist, Jawar Mohammed, has confirmed that police action had resulted in one death. He also reports an assault on a Reuters crew covering the event.

Jawar Mohammed

@Jawar_Mohammed
Federal Police must stop firing on people. They should be protecting them against attacks by the hooligans.

2:59 AM – Sep 14, 2018
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A series of tweets on reaction of activists to the crisis

Eskinder Nega
@eskinder_nega
Like I tweeted yesterday….all really empty threats….REBELS WITHOUT CAUSE are getting no where….this is absurd DRAMA that is outrageously being written by the blood of the innocent….WHO is responsible?…..

4:54 AM – Sep 14, 2018
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Eskinder Nega
@eskinder_nega
The presence of the POLICE in certain areas of ADDIS has increased visibly…… in FERENCAY( the vicinity of the French embassy)there are less number of ETHIOPIAN FLAGS on the main thoroughfare after local YOUTH voluntarily removed them to pre-empt provocation…..

11:27 PM – Sep 13, 2018
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Ephrem Madebo
@GTWTW_Now
What is wrong with us? We fought and defeated the enemies of democracy. It’s perplexing that now we’re fighting democracy, the very value that we died for. Why can’t we enjoy liberty by respecting the liberty of others, and why in the hell are we taking the law in our own hands?

8:54 AM – Sep 13, 2018
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Soli

@Soli_GM
· Sep 12, 2018
we are very intolerant society
There is a major divide with in the society represented by symbol or what ever else
acting these things don’t exist when they support our narrative and get shocked when we see it on “others” is not gonna help to bridge the difference.

Soli

@Soli_GM
That said, I reject any competition of symbols & any attempt to incite communal violence based on symbols. sending cars full of emotional youth into the city knowing conflict is inevitable is irresponsible, even if that might be a response for previous political events.

7:57 AM – Sep 12, 2018
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Bisrat Teshome
@_Bisre
For the last 27 years, TPLF/EPRDF has been preaching tirelessly that OLF is a terrorist. They’ve also been preaching Amharas are Oromo’s historical oppressors.
It is this generation that is now fighting one another on the streets of Addis Ababa. #WeShouldKnowBetter #Ethiopia

7:07 AM – Sep 14, 2018
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Zecharias Zelalem
@ZekuZelalem
There is a segment of the Addis Ababa population that refuses to accept the extent of the greater country’s diversity. Strongly condemn any attack on individuals waving a flag of their choice. Second report of violence against people waving Oromo resistance flags in barely a week

9:36 AM – Sep 12, 2018
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Birhanu M Lenjiso
@BirhanuLenjiso
Institutional madness is the norm in this country and they back to it. Why should the federal police have to fire live bullets and tear gas to a large crowd coming to the city. Isn’t their role to protect them?

3:35 AM – Sep 14, 2018
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Addis Zeybe – አዲስ ዘይቤ
@AddisZeybe
Update: The federal and the city Polices are safeguarding Menilik II Square using anti-riot vehicles. The youths from the Oromia region holding the OLF flag and residents of holding the Ethiopian flag are rallying is now on the streets. #Ethiopia #AddisAbeba

Addis Zeybe – አዲስ ዘይቤ
@AddisZeybe
BREAKING: The violence occurred in Addis Ababa is still going on. Youth from the Oromia region are entering Addis through Addisu Gebaya. According to the source, the youth in Piassa are retaliating to the conflict.

4:33 AM – Sep 14, 2018
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BefeQadu Z. Hailu
@befeqe
· Sep 14, 2018
Most shops are closed in Piassa. It looks like a holiday like quiteness. But, cars startting to move again and some shops reopening. https://twitter.com/befeqe/status/1040547914542731265 …

BefeQadu Z. Hailu
@befeqe
Piassa, the road from Degol square to Menelik II square is blocked by riot police. Most shops are still closed but people moving around calmly.

4:38 AM – Sep 14, 2018
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Photo credit: Biruk Terrefe,

The post Ethiopian activists fume at ‘senseless’ flag clashes, death reported appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

By Elias Yemane
September 8, 2018

Dr. Abiy Ahmed became the Prime Minister of Ethiopia on April 2, 2018. The positive and inclusive political articulation sparks bright dawn for Ethiopia. It fosters an innovative sphere that begins to transform the political landscape that has divided Ethiopians for many decades. Political enmities thrived in those years of contentions, and polarization became the norm. Ethiopians, including those in the diaspora, were determined to topple the corrosive system but they saw no flicker of hope. They quickly realized that their feeling of abandonment did not extend beyond the shore of their motherland. One of the most daunting questions was: “How can Ethiopians overcome the past grievances and injustices to promote a new chapter of unity, interdependence, respect, and tolerance?”

Despite the ingrained national skepticism, Dr. Abiy struck a profound chord in Ethiopia and made a marked influence in the national psyche, opening the door for the twenty-first century’s storyline of Ethiopia’s historical, political, social, and cultural aspirations. The prime minister positions himself as the champion of reconciliation and inclusion and plays a vital role in the unfolding chapter of Ethiopia’s transition. If anyone had suspected his humble and approachable personality on the first week of his premiership was a one-off, his consistent and conspicuous public displays so far confirmed it was not. The main driving force behind Dr. Abiy’s pioneering effort involves his comrade in arms, Lemma Megersa who is the current president of Oromia region.

Nationalism has always been vigorous in Ethiopia, but Dr. Abiy is injecting new energy by preaching trans-ethnic unity, recalling past national greatness and assuring a democratic political sphere that could rapidly transform Ethiopia’s hard economic realities. However, highlighting the friendly features of inclusive politics does not mean that Dr. Abiy is a naive idealist. The prime minister often reminds his people that civility and tolerance are essential parts of Ethiopian ethos and remarks on some sociological factors that produce social changes. He also pitches his innovative mantra mäddämär, contextually defined as ‘inclusion’ – an unbiased and progressive political approach that aims at advancing Ethiopia’s interests. The term mäddämär erupted in the Amharic lexicon in the immediate aftermath of Dr. Abiy’s rise to power, and it remains the cornerstone of his political outreach towards polarized groups. Mäddämär in this context might be as much about Ethiopia’s assertion of preeminence as it is about the political plea for individual Ethiopians to embrace tolerance and national unity at any cost.

Dr. Abiy believes that minor differences between Ethiopians should not account for the social gap. By embracing the Ethiopians in the diaspora, he showed that he is above invoking political rivalries to stir up support at home. This awakening also permeated into the broader society where the prime minister scored critical game-changing achievements – the immediate releases of political prisoners, the reunification of the two feuding synods of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, and Ethiopia’s diplomatic restoration with Eritrea, its northern neighbor, to name a few. Dr. Abiy implores his people to reject ethnic enmities, embrace their civic duties to labor diligently, and maintain the prerequisite of solidarity and tolerance to create an Ethiopia that is equal and appealing to all. In a country that involves significant political and economic challenges and a governing system that fosters political leaders who seemed incapable of tolerating criticism or dissent, Dr. Abiy becomes a messiah of hope. Ethiopians embraced him as a genuine exemplar of everything that they missed from their previous leaders. His rise signals an interruption between the representational power grip of old-school politics and the essential significance of the Ethiopian youth that involves the future of the nation.

Despite all the positive strides made, the critics might express doubts about the whole implications and parameters of mäddämär, by pointing out the notion’s possible difficulties and contradictions. It is true some questions demand clear answers:

• Does mäddämär serve as a Trojan horse for the propagation of the unitary state by advancing a monochromatic interpretation of the Ethiopianist school of thought?
• Does it enforce ethnic, cultural and social homogeneity?
• Does it undermine social distinctions under the pretext of the national sphere?
• Does the concept of inclusion override or atone one’s accountability and responsibility from past sins?
• How can we establish liability to any public officials who have abused their power of influence and never offered remorse, regret or contrition for their atrocious wrongdoings?

The proponents of mäddämär argue that focusing on the past wrongdoings shatters the current national mood and instead choose to highlight the constructive aspects of the transition period. The response is to unfold shortly. However, the critics might also argue that Dr. Abiy has embraced a naïve sincerity and pleasantness in his limitless aspirations for acceptance. They might even suggest that his ascendancy evolves into the making of a personality cult where changes by the public were subsumed as changes by an individual, elevating him into the deities of the Ethiopian pantheon. Abiymania has been like a wildfire that is rapidly spreading, consuming everything else in its trail.

The sporadic public unrests challenge Dr. Abiy’s efforts in asserting stability. Any turmoil would irreversibly destabilize and impede the achieved significant landmarks. The government must maintain peace and order, and the country can’t afford to be one incident away from social disorder or anarchy. In the past, state violence had only funneled public anger. It is therefore imperative to solidify the democratic framework by building democratic institutions and getting the Ethiopian public on board. Political transparency and democratic clarity will enhance the extensive social and economic transformation. We must not forget that the truth might still get muddled in translation.

Elias Yemane

elyem321@gmail.com.

https://mellenpress.com/author/elias-yemane/5435/

The post Reflections on the Rise of Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

By Assegid Habtewold[1]

I love and respect Abiy. I want him to succeed. I pray for him and his team on a daily basis. One way of demonstrating love is being honest and providing someone you care about tough feedback. I’ve a quick feedback to him and his team.

Abiy and his team have done their best and we are grateful to the change they have brought thus far. He has a tender heart and is a servant leader. He cares about his people. We haven’t seen that from our other leaders in history.

One area he has to work on very quickly to succeed in leading the change is his values. It seems to me that his administration lacks values clarification. It’s obvious that LOVE is one of his top values. Great!

However, Abiy must follow the principles of Values Formation. The first stage is defining what LOVE means (I’m not going to cover the remaining stages in this post). Abiy should make sure that all stakeholders including his own administration, the military, security apparatuses, police, the lawless, and the public understand what he means by LOVE! He keeps preaching LOVE telling the public to love, forgive, and ‘killing others is a defeat’, and so on.

I’m wondering: Does he know that members of his own administration, the military, and police may not fully get the meaning and connotation of the LOVE he preaches? I don’t think so but I could be wrong. What makes me question whether the military and police got it is that they are unable to prevent the lawless on time before they kill innocent people. They may be thinking that they have to LOVE the lawless 🙂

I also see that members of his administration are quick to give press releases and condolences to victims after the facts. That is not the primary job of a seating government. Let charitable organizations, churches, mosques, and so on, do these things.

An effective and streamlined government should have prevented these from ever happening. How many innocent people should die before he upholds the law and commits himself and his administration to law and order? Successful governments also respond swiftly, first, by taking responsibility that they failed the public. They didn’t do their primary job, protecting the helpless and innocent such as women and kids! They also send a clear message to the violators and bring the perpetrators to justice very quickly. Most importantly, such governments take tough measures so that others would learn and never do such things again. These are missed grossly by the current administration.

I’m also wondering and asking: Does Abiy know, hope he knows, that the gangsters and those who are trying to take advantage of his kind heart may misinterpret the meaning of the LOVE he promotes and may assume that they will get away with their unloving behaviors and acts?

What is happening in Ethiopia since the change process began is promising and we are heading in the right direction. However, this is a critical moment to clarify the new administration’s values. It should be clear and everyone should be on the same page.

LOVE, yes, refrains from hate and brutality. But, LOVE also protects and defends the innocent! Abiy should define this value and communicate clearly, using his extraordinary communication ability, to be on the same page with his administration, the military, police, security apparatuses, the lawless, and the public.

The country endorsed your leadership and we love you. However, you must lead and sometimes leading takes to be tough. Remain kind, servant, and gentle but at the same time be firm based on principles.

Of course, don’t lead using an iron fist. Don’t be a dictator like your predecessors. But, stand up to the bullies and lawless, to defend the helpless and innocent with passionate LOVE!

Otherwise, you are sending confusing LOVE messages to your own administration, the military, police, and the lawless alike. If you don’t address this quickly, I’m afraid; you may soon lose control. We all may miss the boat and ruin this golden opportunity to transform the nation for once and for all.

[1] Dr. Assegid Habtewold is the author of five books that are available on Amazon. He is a leadership speaker and workshop facilitator for some government agencies and major corporations. Assegid can be reached at ahabtewold@yahoo.com

The post Mr. Prime Minister: LOVE also passionately defends the helpless and the innocent appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

To say that our country is at a “cross-road” now seems to have become a cliché as the expression has been used by many and we have not heeded to the warning. The various conflicts that are unfolding in different parts of our country before our eyes (Somali region, Oromia Region, Southern Region, Amhara Region, Benshangul Region and now in the outskirts of Addis Ababa) are dangerously alarming! The brutal murder of innocent citizens including women, children, and elderlies, burning churches and killing priests, destroying properties, and seeing pictures of citizens carrying their children and small properties migrate from areas that they lived for generations to shelters and cities within and outside of our borders depicts and brings to memory horrible pictures of genocide that took place in other countries.

The venomous seed that the diabolic Meles Zenawi and company have deliberately planted to disintegrate our beloved Ethiopia through their constitutionalization of ethnic politics seems to be bearing fruit. The sad thing is that such atrocities continue to be committed at a time when hopes and aspirations of our people for a democratic change have peaked and embraced the current change, that is the result of decades of struggle and sacrifice by the Ethiopian people, which is now being led by Dr. Abiy Ahmed and his team. Without a doubt, some of these atrocities (e.g., the Jigjiga and neighboring cities as well as the outskirts of Addis Ababa) could either be completely prevented or at least minimized had Dr. Abiy’s Government taken the necessary security measures beforehand. These atrocities were never unpredicted and, in fact, the symptoms for their occurrence were palpable even before they took place. The attribution of a difficult landscape for not preventing the carnages committed in the outskirts of the capital is a cruel joke at the lives of the many innocent civilians that have been massacred.

Now the question is: What Should Be Done?

This article aims at initiating immediate conversation among Ethiopians as to what should be done to prevent the massacre and displacement of our people and stabilize our country in the short run and throw ideas for discussion on the trajectory of the change that is currently underway.

The violence unfolding before our eyes in different parts of the country is extremely dangerous if not curbed as expeditiously as possible. Hence, the primary and most urgent focus should be conflict prevention and stabilizing peace in all parts of our country. In this regard, this author suggests the following:

1. As it is well known, the primary responsibility of any responsible government is to ensure the safety and security of its citizens in all parts of the country. In view of this, Dr. Abiy’s Government must put all police forces in all parts of the country in a defensive posture to protect citizens from such heinous crimes as expeditiously as possible.

2. Political parties’ leaders, religious leaders, prominent citizens, intellectuals, Elders, Abba Gedas and civil society leaders must come out and use all available media and educate and ask all Ethiopians, particularly the youth, to desist from using violence and unconditionally stop massacring their fellow citizens and destroying property.

3. Abiy’s Government must bring all those who have committed such horrifying crimes to justice and announce to the public court decisions as expeditiously as possible. If such legal measures are not taken quickly, criminals could feel that they could continue their atrocities with impunity.

4. Abiy’s Government must hold any individual or media that spreads hate crime propaganda among the people to account under applicable laws. Whereas in a democratic society people have the right to free expression, however they don’t have any right to spread such propaganda that results in the massacre of citizens, destruction of property and destabilization of the country’s peace. We have heard on media a self-appointed “liberator” bragging about his ability to secede part of our country should he choose to do so and has described some of the youngsters who were involved in the recent conflict as “hooligans”, tacitly condoning the actions of those that were on the opposite side. After all, such characterization of the youth is reminiscent of Meles Zenawi’s similar characterization of the youth who were massacred during the 2005 election.

5. It is alleged by many that the massacres that we see in different parts of our country are either initiated or facilitated and financed by criminals who lost political power due to the recent changes within EPRDF. Dr. Abiy’s Government must take appropriate legal measures on those that perpetrate such atrocities as soon as possible, provided it has evidence for such crimes.

With respect to our country’s political trajectory, this author believes that political parties would initiate discussion with Dr. Abiy’s Government now that all major exiled political parties are in country, in addition to those who have been struggling peacefully in country. However, as a concerned citizen this author suggests the following in view of sparking a conversation among stakeholders:

1. Abiy’s Government needs to immediately convene all-stakeholders including, the Government, political parties, prominent individuals, intellectuals, elders, Abba Gedas, religious leaders, civic society leaders, etc. to discuss the current socio-economic and political situation and map out short- and long-term strategies to chart the democratization process in an inclusive manner. The Government needs to be inclusive because a) a democratization process has to be inclusive in principle and not exclusionary – the attitude that we are in power and we know it all leads to nowhere but to dictatorship; and b) our country’s multi-faceted problems were not created by a single individual, community or political party but are the results of our societal interactions over several generations and hence dealing with such complex problems requires the inclusion of all stakeholders.

2. Some Ethiopians have proposed the idea of forming a transitional council composed of all stakeholders mentioned above while maintaining the current government. This author shares this proposition since such a council will play a vital advisory role to Dr. Abiy’s Government and the stakeholders take ownership of the change that is currently underway. The author urges the stakeholders to examine the merits and demerits of such a council or some other similar structure as soon as possible.

3. The author suggests that Dr. Abiy’s Government be more transparent with the people of Ethiopia about the various bilateral or multilateral agreements that it is entering into through press releases, press conferences, etc. in order to solidify the massive support that it has garnered over the past few months and build the confidence of the Ethiopian people. (e.g., a bilateral agreement that secured $1 billion each from the UAE Government and the World Bank, the agreement with the Chinese Government, the agreement with the Eritrean Government, etc.).

As a cliché as it may sound, our country undoubtedly is at a cross-road between democracy and chaos, hope and despair, light and darkness. In spite of the horrific incidents that have taken place over the past few months, this author believes that our people have the wisdom, maturity and foresight to choose the former in each case and usher in a new era for our country. However, the Government, political party leaders, religious leaders, elders, intellectuals, Abba Gedas, civic society leaders and the media must play a vital role in bringing about the fundamental political change of a free, just and democratic governance that hundreds and thousands of our fellow citizens paid the ultimate sacrifice for over the past nearly six decades.

May Almighty God protect and bless our beloved Ethiopia!

Asfaw Regasa

The author can be reached at asfawregasa1@gmail.com

The post Ethiopia – Where are We Headed? (Asfaw Regasa) appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

by Zekarias Ezra

Have you ever thought, for whatever reason, how many or which group of people it would be useful to kill to secure a benefit for yourself or your cause? And just how to go about doing it?

God forbid, you might not have found yourself thinking like that. Yet, the sad reality is that others have. Their answers have ranged from Cain’s original “Abel, with my bare hands” to Hitler’s “all the Jews, mainly by gas,” and the Rwandan genocide, “Tutsis with machetes”. This same barbaric act was in display in our own backyard, in Ethiopia, this weekend.

Humanity will never be able to get rid of all murders in the manner of Cain. For that, society has a system of laws, police forces, courts, prisons, mental hospitals, and including the death penalty to address the extreme cases.

But we can and must rid the world of murder on the scale of populations. Genocide in its simplest terms is an extreme, dangerous and inhuman way of settling differences: a stronger group’s decision to annihilate the weaker.

Genocide is organized. Genocide never arises in a vacuum. People do not just get up one day and, as if to quench their thirst for blood, want to systematically murder their neighbors. No, a hundred times no! It never happens that way. The narrative that ‘these are just a few hooligans’ will not hold water. Imputing this act of genocide to the scheme of ‘የቀን፥ ጅቦች’ will not hold water either.

We must repeat this fact: Genocide is organized. It entails an organization of some sort, or a planned undertakig or a project, which in turn requires leaders with a purpose in mind and their acquisition of the means of death, including followers to do the dirty work.

Genocide is always preceded by several steps, including state sanctioned discrimination of the would-be target group, a dehumanization process in which the target group is portrayed as the “other” (‘መጤ’) or the “enemy,” and a culture of impunity. Anyone with an open and objective mind can see clearly that these preconditions are in the works. Listen to the interview and discussions in media. How is it just and fair, in God’s earth, to claim that ‘Oromia’ and ‘Oromos’ have special interest, guaranteed by law, in Addis Ababa? What does this even mean if not a baby step towards ‘state sanctioned discrimination’ against those residents and citizens who are classified as “other (‘መጤ’)?

We simply do not have to put up with this. This “we” is an inclusive group; everyone with a will, a way, and an abiding belief in human live is welcome. We must dig deep, get to the bottom of it, and expose it.

We must pay attention to the patterns, which precede the actual killings and must heed the warnings before it is too late. It is cheap to say, ‘Never Again’! It is cheap to say ‘Love, መደመር’! We said, ‘Never Again’! and ‘ተደምረናል’. Tragically, it has happened multiple times since then. Thousands were murdered, disappeared, lost their families, and were forced to flee their homes. Preventing another manslaughter requires us to act by speaking up and demanding that our leaders make the right choices to prevent and stop atrocities.

The post Mass Atrocities near the capital city: What has happened to Abyi’s ‘መደመር’? appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

17 September 2018

The Association for Human Rights in Ethiopia (AHRE) condemns the violent and brutal attacks against innocent residents of Addis Ababa and the neighboring town of Burayu. On September 15, 2018, ethnic Oromo and Addis Ababa youths were involved in violent clashes over the choice of flags in different parts of the capital, including Piazza and Kuasmeda.

The Oromia Region Police Commissioner announced today that 23 people were killed during clashes since Friday. Federal Police also reported today that at least 600 people who were involved in the violence have been arrested. Police also confirmed that five more people were killed today, September 17 during clashes between security forces and protestors in Addis Ababa who were marching in protest of the killings and violence of the prior two days.

The clashes began on September 14, 2018 during preparations for the welcoming celebration for the delegation of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), an armed group based in Eritrea for more than 20 years. The OLF which until recently was on the government’s terrorist list, returned to Ethiopia as a result of negotiations undertaken by the new administration as part of the ongoing political reform taking place in the country.

According to sources on the ground, the violent clashes between the two groups began in northern Addis Ababa when Oromo youth groups faced resistance from residents while attempting to replace the green, yellow and red Ethiopian flag with the flag of the OLF, which symbolises the Oromo resistance movement. Oromo youth traveling with the OLF flag also painted road sides, pavements, fences and other public properties on their way to the capital. Local newspapers reported that on Friday, the informal youth  groups from Oromia known as Qerroo marched to Piazza in an attempt to take down the statue of Menelik II, located at the heart of the capital.

The violence spread to Autobis Tera, Merkato, Kuas Meda and Piazza, and as a result, dozens of people were wounded from both sides, and a few were hospitalised. Victims have claimed that the Federal and Oromia Regional Police forces failed to act in time to stop the violence and to take all necessary measures to prevent the attack from happening in the first place.

“Authorities should take steps to protect residents from such acts of violence and ensure that ethnically fueled violence is prevented”, said Yared Hailemariam, Executive Director of the Association for Human Rights in Ethiopia. “We urge authorities to conduct transparent and timely investigations into recent events and ensure perpetrators are brought to justice.”

On September 15, 2018, large numbers of OLF supporters gathered at Addis Ababa Meskel Square to take part in a welcoming ceremony of leaders of the Front.  While on their way home, hundreds were reportedly clashed with residents several parts of the capital. On Sunday morning, September 16, clashes continued in the town of Burayu, an Oromia regional state town on the outskirts of the capital. It was reported by the Oromia regional police commissioner that at least 23 were killed in Burayu and surrounding villages.

According to The Reporter, the clashes began on Thursday, September 13, 2018 involving different residents from different ethnic backgrounds.  Groups of youth in the town were attacking non-Oromos, and local media report that many have been displaced and women have been raped.

Association for Human Rights in Ethiopia (AHRE)
Tel: +32 (0)486 336 367

https://www.facebook.com/AHREthio.org/

https://twitter.com/ahrethio
http://ahrethio.org/

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By Abate Kassa

The purpose of this article is to encourage fellow Ethiopians to craft a new political economy for Ethiopia ሀገር–በቀል አዲስ የኢትዮጵያ ርዕዮተ–ዓለም ለመንደፍ, in the spirit of following our ancestor’s paradigm pioneering tradition like that of innovating the Ge’ez alphabet.

There is a world of developed and developing nations. Most of the developing nations in Africa emerged as independent nations only in the early 1960’s. Yet, Ethiopia, a country that prides itself on thousands of years of recorded history during which time it always enjoyed independence except for a five-year Italian occupation, also belongs among the developing nations. The year 1974 marked the end of monarchy in Ethiopia and the beginning of oligarchy. The political system that would be more appropriate for Ethiopia today in the light of its political culture, however, would be a polyarchy where power would be dispersed among competing political parties.

The main burden of evolving an appropriate model of development rests on a society itself by examining what it can learn from its own history and culture by a full comprehension of the constraints and opportunities available in its internal and external environments. Let us now review some of the key thoughts of such a new model for autonomous development.

The path many developing countries have taken to develop their national economies is that of either the capitalist or the socialist model of developed societies, but most still suffer from abject poverty and economic decline; and Ethiopia is no exception.

Yet, both capitalism and socialism have many unresolved problems, and Arrigo Levi, a prominent Italian journalist, in “Failure Cannot Shatter the Socialist Dream,” Times of London, October 30, 1980, puts the matter bluntly as follows:

Socialists dream of a utopia, a classless society of equals with universal prosperity, and on top of that, perfect freedom for the individual. This utopia has never become real.

The power of the socialist dream is so great that there are many otherwise quite intelligent people who have developed total blindness to the dismal failure of the Marxist theory of socialism.

Marxist socialism has proved unable to offer either plenty, or equality, or freedom. The idea that the full state ownership of the means of production could be the basis of a socialist utopia clearly appears, today, as just a historical hallucination.

Historical experience has taught us that a socialist structure can only provide the basis for a centralized, totalitarian and intolerant political power.

It deprives the workers of their union freedoms, and the consumers of their right of choice. It provides the worst possible system for the allocation of scarce resources. It slows down innovation. It condemns the economy to near stagnation.

Such a stubborn insistence, on such patently wrong ideas, can only be produced by the fact that other ideas have been found to be equally unsatisfactory.

Indeed, the “mixed economy, welfare state” model, the dominant one in the West, in spite of its great historic achievements, keeps presenting great blemishes: inflation and unemployment; and there are glaring injustices and inequalities, profiteering, and greediness.

Therefore, both socialists and capitalists are more than ever in search of a better formula.

In an insightful exposition on the “great competition” between capitalism and socialism, Richard L. Sklar in “Beyond Capitalism and Socialism in Africa,” The Journal of Modern African Studies, 26 (1988), pp. 14-15, 18, explains the dichotomy as follows:

Few sophisticated socialists today rate the “developmental merits” of socialism above those of capitalism; fewer still would dispute the short-term advantages of capitalism for societies at early stages of industrial development. Instead, they argue that socialism is morally superior to an economic system, such as capitalism, that depends upon the domination and exploitation of working people by a privileged class.

Socialism persists as an ideological and political movement, regardless of its failures, because capitalism is unilaterally identified with social injustice. Personal insecurity, social disorganization, and urban unemployment are the spectral witnesses of capitalism in Africa.

Still, three decades of trial and error, in Africa and elsewhere in the Third World, have also acquainted social reformers with the pitfalls of socialism. The hardest lesson for socialists to learn is one that Karl Marx taught better than anyone else. Plainly stated, there is no substitute for capital; it is the driving force of economic development. A second important lesson for socialists, one that cannot, alas, be learned from Marx, is that socialism lacks an adequate theory of incentives.

In sum, socialism needs capital and lacks a theory of incentives; capitalism needs the state and lacks a theory of social responsibility. The African economies need private capital, purposeful state participation, powerful incentives, and public responsibility for the general standard of living. These common requirements for social progress can only be met by judicious mixtures of capitalism and socialism.

The challenge is to question the validity of a restrictive political conception that limits developing nations to adopt an absolutist approach of either the capitalist or socialist model. My proposal dubbed Ethiocracy tries to break that paradigm by introducing a relativistic and pragmatic approach that benefits from the strengths of both models but starves their weaknesses.

The Dergue claimed socialism was the truth. TPLF/EPRDF claims ethnic federation as the truth. Both (closed societies) pursued delusion of perfection. Yet, Stephen Hawking told us, “One of the basic rules of the universe is that nothing is perfect. Perfection simply doesn’t exist. Without imperfection, neither you nor I would exist.” We witnessed that an extremist socialist economic policy was inappropriate for a pre-industrial peasant economy like that of Ethiopia. Nor is unfettered capitalism considered to be a viable alternative.

Recognizing the failure of socialism as a development theory and the failure of capitalism in its social responsibility, we ought to opt for a pragmatic economic system that makes its strengths effective and its weaknesses irrelevant. A “means/end” rationale may help to explain the dichotomy— capitalist in MEANS and socialist in END. Socialism as a philosophy is “directive;” it does not build bridges or make እንጀራ. Capitalism as a science is “productive;” it is a development theory. While the socialist mode of production largely follows a command economy, the capitalist model emphasizes market demands. While the socialist mode takes the form of collectivism, the capitalist stresses individualism. While the socialist system may be committed to maximum public ownership of the means of production, the capitalist may prefer maximum private ownership.

Ethiocracy on the other hand, follows pragmatism where ideas and actions are evaluated by their useful results, not on dogmatic ideological lines. Unlike the mixed economy model, Ethiocracy incorporates both capitalist and socialist ideas, but selectively based on the system’s capacity to deploy a pro-growth agenda that increases productivity by investing in talent, infrastructure, technology, fostering teamwork, promoting competition and innovation, enhancing global connectivity and mobilizing domestic savings and capital formation; enabled by genuine democracy, the rule of law, and utilitarian approach asserting morally correct actions. Ethiocracy incorporates the traditional cultural values of Ethiopia in order to make the full participation of the citizens effective because “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Since culture should determine a political system, and not vice versa, and because political culture is the bedrock of everything that happens in a political system, it will be necessary to devise a system that has congruence with Ethiopia’s political culture, i.e., its fundamental system of beliefs, attitudes, values, and expressive symbols which define the situation in which political action takes place. I would like to underscore that Ethiopia invested thousands of years in the development of its political culture and it would be inappropriate to superimpose an alien experience onto a nation where the realities are completely different.

As Piero Gheddo argues in Why is the Third World Poor, the spiritual concept of development sees development as a human fact, and therefore one that is primarily cultural before it is technical or economic. Since it is man who is to grow and develop, as Ethiopian philosopher Zer’a Ya’iqob said, “man is the first agent of his own development;” and if development is to be authentic it must respect the cultural values proper to all people so that they may be able to evolve and to adapt to different conditions of life. Gheddo asserts that a country’s material progress cannot be paid for by the loss of the traditional culture that represents its identity.

You combine the best of capitalism and socialism plus the best of liberal democracy and social democracy, and you will get the new social, economic, and political policy of Ethiopia that I dubbed Ethiocracy, Ethiopia’s socially responsible market economy, ሀገር-በቀል አዲሱ የኢትዮጵያ ርዕዮተ-ዓለም. Ethio stands for Ethiopia and –cracy denotes a particular form of government or rule. Hence, Ethiocracy is the Ethiopian way of government because our country should do it its own way! Ethiocracy is an embodiment of Ethiopia’s genuine democracy that recognizes the equality of all citizens, individual human rights, and the supremacy of law. It is the alternative to TPLF/EPRDF’s revolutionary democracy and developmental state policy which is undemocratic and inappropriate for the tribal-based political economy. The developmental state model worked for China and other states in Asia because they are not burdened by an ethnic federation policy. TPLF/EPRDF pursued a zero- sum politics of patronage through the instrument of Joseph Stalin’s ethnicity model. It used ethnicity as a means of accessing state power and accumulating personal wealth.

Ethiocracy would categorize the economic sectors into four clusters, namely, State Owned, Privately Owned, Cooperatively Owned, and Non-Owned Organizations.

• The Government Sector provides public infrastructure like roads, prisons, meteorology, police, passport office, postal service,
• The Private Sector which could be either closely held or market traded shares, delivers goods and services that are controlled by market
• The Cooperatively Owned economic sector refers to institutions controlled by Suppliers like agricultural cooperatives; or controlled by Customers like mutually held insurance companies or joint purchasing corporations; still others owned and controlled by
• The Non-Owned organizations consist of not-for-profit institutions such as non- government owned (NGOs), non-business owned (NBOs), and non-cooperatively owned (NCOs). In this category, you find professional societies, trade associations, charities, universities, hospitals, and the Red

One of the root causes for the implosion of the Soviet Union was that everything was state- owned. Success requires a balancing act where wider uses of all four forms of ownership are employed to achieve the triumph of balance. Governments that create markets are more successful in promoting growth than governments that try to replace markets.

In the socially responsible market economy of Ethiocracy, the ethos of love and caring are balanced against the ethos of greed and selfishness that is embedded in the competitive market.

Market fundamentalists falsely believe that common interest is best served by unfettered pursuit of

self-interest. Markets are not designed to address distributive justice. For example, corporations do not aim at creating employment; they employ people (as few and as cheaply as possible) to make profits. Firms compete in order to make profits, not to preserve competition, and if they could, they would eliminate all competition.

Instead of dogmatic rigidity, Ethiocracy follows pragmatic flexibility. Ethiocracy rejects the idea of the ideal form of government. There cannot be a perfect government in an imperfect world, but we do not have to settle for mediocrity either. Ethiocracy pursues a practical business-like approach to economic management. It develops and sets forth standards of increasingly excellent government that strives to provide its citizens protection, justice, and best government service at the least cost in resources. In its pursuit of excellence in government, Ethiocracy attains better standards and continues to improve public service as it is geared for change and does not allow itself to be stifled by ideological constraints. Unlike religion, in the political economy of Ethiocracy, ideas are always in flux and there is no place for doctrinaire ideology. Ethiocracy places a high premium on performance and achievement, expert knowledge, and the need for mutual gain through win-win collaboration.

Ethiocracy seeks to satisfy the “basic needs” of a poor nation by following flexible, creative, and non-dogmatic approach that embraces what is worth preserving in both capitalism and socialism. In so doing it rejects the politics of an all-out capitalism or socialism. In other words, it considers the dogmatic and formalistic approach of selecting one over the other as inappropriate or restrictive for a developing society. Therefore, to the extent that it opposes absolutism, Ethiocracy is non-ideological. Under Ethiocracy, participatory democracy, constitutionalism, good governance, sustainable development, and mandatory voting laws with elections held on either weekends or holidays will be the foundations of state order in Ethiopia.

In the light of the absolute monarchy in the past, and the one-party dominance of today, there is an imbalance between the development of the political and administrative institutions, with the imbalance favoring the latter. Therefore, there is a great need for launching soundly conceived institutional capacity building programs for “political development” to strengthen elements of the constitutive system, such as the legislature and political parties.

Fascist dictatorship (Italian), monarchical dictatorship, military dictatorship, proletarian dictatorship, and one-party dictatorship in succession have produced poverty and misery for Ethiopia. In the proposed socially responsible market economy dubbed Ethiocracy, the government derives its authority from the consent of the governed, given in free and frequent elections. The power of the government is further harnessed by a check-and-balance system, free

press; and the political leadership will be elected from among the competing political parties. Furthermore, it will be “We the Citizens,” and not a vanguard party who will ordain and establish the new constitution. Ethiopia’s 110 million people of today comprising of 86 ethnic groups who speak 123 languages but one official language of Amharic have lived in harmony for a very long time ማለት  እኛ  ኢትዮጵያውያን  ለዘመናት  የመደመር  ታሪክ  ያለን  ሕዝብ  ነን። The current ethnic-federalist constitution that is designed to serve the political agenda of TPLF/EPRDF needs to be changed as it is intensifying polarization fueling ethnic conflicts instead of promoting the cultural values of peaceful co-existence.

Political change without economic change merely gives people freedom to complain about what they cannot do anything about. Let us, therefore, further address the economic side of the equation. The new economic policy of Ethiopia should aim to increase food production and end hunger. To do so, the social budget should be significantly greater than the defense budget without, of course, having an adverse effect on the security of the nation. This policy would stress a balanced development that begins with favoring agriculture, raw materials production, and light industry—a paradigm that makes prudent use of foreign investment and leaves sufficient room for private initiative. A new emphasis that needs to be given is the development of value-added labor-intensive manufacturing in the sugar, cotton, leather, and coffee industries.

The burden of debt of 59% of GDP makes development difficult. A debt relief scheme needs to be crafted for the debt overhang that will be inherited by the new government. The new economic policy anticipates a development financing that provides an infusion of capital similar to the Marshall Plan or European Recovery Program that was implemented following the Second World War. Such a reconstruction strategy would be relevant to Ethiopia today because many of the essential structures and institutions are in place or can be rehabilitated. Demand management strategy should be launched in order to inject government expenditures to stimulate demand and thereby bring about economic recovery. Such a strategy needs to be accompanied by a fiscal policy that alternates between corrective and propulsive orientation, fine tuning economic policies intended to produce desired outcomes. Accordingly, the general economic policy guides that should be pursued will include: the mobilization of resources by the employment of otherwise idle labor in public work programs to help raise productivity and provide purchasing power; impact investing (achieving sustainable financial returns while doing good for the community such caring for environmental concerns) and the promotion of savings which is essential for growth in GDP.

The new economic policy of Ethiopia should address the actual needs, interests, and hopes of the people, and expects the nation to conquer the widespread famine, disease, and illiteracy by the year 2038.

According to Alemneh Dejene, land is relatively abundant in Ethiopia with an estimated 75 to 85 million hectares of agricultural land in Ethiopia. Findings from Arsi support Dessalegn Rahmato’s argument that about 5 hectares would be an appropriate size for most farmers to operate efficiently. In consideration of the long-established tradition of private holdings in Ethiopia and also in an effort to revitalize the agricultural sector, farm families should be allowed to own farms privately and be allowed to sell their produce in the free market. The new agricultural policy should aim to achieve a new program of “land to the tiller” as well as decontrolling of all prices coupled with low-term low-interest financing. In order to feed Ethiopia’s growing population, agricultural productivity will need to improve. Therefore, transformation from oxen ploughing to the adoption of modern agricultural appropriate technology must be a national priority initiative.

A system in which the state regulates, but private persons own and operate, has been extolled as combining the best of both worlds. While private ownership contributes its vaunted efficiency, because of the profit motive and competitive stimulus, state surveillance ensures that service and safety to the public is considered along with profit. Since a business will cease to exist if it continues to operate at a loss, and not make a profit, profit should be acknowledged as an important desideratum because business prosperity is vital to the nation’s well-being.

Furthermore, the public-private partnership (PPP) concept requires a special value-for-money (VfM) review in its application to infrastructure projects.

While Ethiocracy accepts the classic economic theory that the marketplace can better evaluate the public’s needs than government, it also believes some things are too important to be left to the vagaries of the market. Therefore, some social regulation by government is required to provide a connective tissue between the needs of the public and the private sector. Private industry is entitled to make a reasonable profit; but its employees are also entitled to their health and safety; consumers are entitled to safe and well-made products; and the public is entitled to have its air, water, and quality of life safeguarded. The invisible hand doesn’t take care of everything; government needs to be proactive and accept responsibility for cities, climate change and the environment. Considering Ethiopia’s conditions today, Ethiocracy’s pragmatic

alternative would be more appropriate, lying between the aberrations of socialism on the left and laissez-faire capitalism on the right.

Ethiocracy permits experimentation with policies that allow for private and state ownership to exist side-by-side, with the proviso that government should not do what private industry can do better. The government should be responsible to set up the regulatory and legal frameworks required for private investors to have confidence. The need is for both a healthy public sector and a healthy private sector. Therefore, Ethiocracy allows state ownership in the following situations: (a) services like transportation and water on which everybody depends; (b) key industries such as energy and power that are necessary and integral to the functioning of others; (c) some undertakings that require so much capital—either to start a new industry or modernize an old one—that the state alone may have the resources; and (d) whenever a monopoly is appropriate, such as power generation, because it is of the kind over which the public can have the most control by owning it through the state. Of course this is only a guideline, subject to parliamentary debate.

Beyond exercising political leadership, the ruling party in Ethiopia today is occupied directly in the technical and economic management of production. The over-bearing involvement of the political party bureaucracy extends to the equivalent role of board of directors in state enterprises. Party dominance destroys confidence, and stifles initiative of government administrators and enterprise managers. Therefore, party cells in all government offices and industrial plants must be abolished.

Poverty may not necessarily be evidence of personal failure. Workers who are underpaid, unemployed, or disabled could be impoverished through no fault of their own. It is at times the duty of the government to supplement workers’ income not as an act of charity but as an act of social justice. A comprehensive social security system should be developed which would be compatible with the state of the economy.

For a state or an enterprise, talent is its most valuable and reliable asset in institutional capacity building and with an outsize impact on organizational performance. Leadership development will be an investment in the future of Ethiopia and such training cost is soft infrastructural investment that can assure Ethiopia a return of maximum value-for-money (VfM). Therefore, Ethiocracy’s new national ethos of Ethiopia will be people-centered capable to unleash its human capital. By adopting a continuous improvement culture in business as well as government, political and economic leaders of Ethiopia will be able to optimize resources by

doing work better, faster, and leaner. Talent is the engine that drives economic growth, and Ethiopia cannot eliminate poverty without first increasing and nurturing its intellectual capital. For instance, the future of our flag carrier Ethiopian Airlines doesn’t depend on its airplanes or route structure but on its people and their thinking abilities.

An important ministry that needs to be recognized in the area of the management of the economy is the Ministry of Finance. In view of the critical role this ministry plays in the national economy, the government must ensure that it is staffed with people of high standards of professionalism. Consideration should also be given to make the National Bank of Ethiopia independent of the government and responsible only to the Parliament.

Ethiopia is underdeveloped because it is undermanaged. Ethiopia is an economic basket case (with millions still starving) not because her people failed, but because her leaders failed. What Ethiopia needs is leaders that measure up to her people’s greatness. I welcome Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed as the new inspirational and aspirational leader of Ethiopia. I feel he is the God-sent charismatic leader to help us streamline and accelerate the change process from the Current State (where the country is) through a Transition State to the Desired Future State (where the country should be). The status quo of despotism under TPLF/EPRDF is not acceptable because the regime is a personification of our common enemies of tyranny, poverty, disease, corruption, and inter-ethnic conflicts resulting in 1.4 million citizens internally displaced according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre or IDMC. I am hoping Prime Minister Abiy will be able to use his soft power to transform Ethiopia from TPLF/EPRDF’s mafia economy and ethnic apartheid policy to genuine democracy where all citizens are equal before the law and their individual human rights are fully respected. ANC took issue with apartheid, not with whites, and was successful in fighting for the rights of all South Africans. We too need to do the same in dismantling ethnic apartheid and mandate the equality of all Ethiopian citizens and disallow the formation of political parties based on ethnic identity.

The appropriate mechanism or instrument for Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to facilitate the transition process should be to follow his own mantra of መደመር and become our ድልድይ by engaging the citizens of Ethiopia in a participatory democracy. Accordingly, he should organize a National Constitutional Convention (prior to the next election) comprising of district delegates elected by popular votes and experts with relevant knowledge to assemble in order to debate and replace or amend the current constitution within 4 to 5 months and ratified by a referendum of the citizens. To expedite their research and for benchmarking purpose, the team

can refer to this website https://www.constituteproject.org/ where all the constitutions in the world are published.

By the way, speaking of a new or an amended constitution, I have quarrel with the Amharic word ሕገ-መንግሥት for the word Constitution because it conjures up to me የዘውድ ሕገ- መንግሥት፣  የደርግ  ሕገ-መንግሥት፣  እና  የኢሕአዴግ  ሕገ-መንግሥት።  ርዕሰ-ብሔር እና ርዕሰ- መስተዳድር እንደምንለው I hope we will adopt የኢትዮጵያ ርዕሰ–ሕግ for the Ethiopian Constitution as that conveys the supreme law of the state and not of the government keeping in mind that ኢሕአዴግ ሕገ-መንግሥቱን የራሱ የድርጅታዊ ሰነድ  ያደረገ፣  ወደ  አንድ  ወገን  ያጋደለ  ከፋፋይ  አምባገነን ነው።  ትግላችን  ከሥዩመ-እግዚአብሔር  ወደ  ሥዩመ-ፓርቲ  የተሸጋገረውን  አሁን  ወደ  ሥዩመ-ሕዝብ ለማሳደግ፣  ከሕዝብ ለሕዝብና በሕዝብ ድምፅ የተመረጠና በሕግ የበላይነት የሚዳኝ ሕገ-ሕዝብ አስተዳደር ለመፍጠር ነው። መንግሥት እና አገርን አንድ አድርጎ የማየት ልማድም ማብቃት አለበት። A state is a soverign entity that exercises its sovereignty through its government. A state is permanent whereas a government is temporary.

Before government (or civil society), there was the state of nature. Since everybody is primarily self-centered, we form governments to protect ourselves from one another. People rise against governments to exercise their right to self-preservation (natural right). Law must conform to human nature. The source of law must therefore be the people. Citizens must have not only the right but also the duty to overthrow an unjust government. As Thomas Aquinas said, “Resistance to a tyrant is obedience to the laws of God.”

The Ethiopian Diaspora that used to be ridiculed and ostracized by the late PM Meles Zenawi is now considered to be a hidden treasure and embraced by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed who invited us to be engaged in the nation building process. By the way, due consideration needs to be given to enacting a dual citizenship law for the mutual benefit of both the state and the Ethiopian Diaspora and thereby enhance PM Abiy’s bridge-building effort. Visioning is about crafting Ethiocracy’s compelling desired future state of Ethiopia that is people centered and talent driven that could optimize the value of its human capital by creating the right kind of an enabling environment for its people to help Ethiopia accomplish what the immigrants of USA and American-Born-Chinese have achieved for their respective countries.

Ethiopia tried class politics under the Dergue and then ethnic politics under TPLF/EPRDF; it is now time for national politics where we put love of country before party. Political parties also serve their party best when they serve their country first. Political parties and civil society organizations as well as patriotic individuals should break with factional

politics to fully respond to the mantra of “ዛሬ ትብብር፣ ነገ ውድድር.” It is time for collaboration to save Ethiopia first from the ruthless and repressive regime of TPLF/EPRDF. Accordingly, in preparation for the next election, I call upon opposition political parties to be on the right side of history and choose to make a difference by engaging in win-win collaboration and craft a party platform or manifesto that offers our citizens credible and viable alternative to TPLF/EPRDF.

TPLF/EPRDF is driven by the hate politics of ethnocentrism. Our driving force is the love of our country. Love will triumph over hate. Ethiocracy does not tolerate the toxic ethnocentric narrative. All Ethiopians have suffered under irresponsible, illegitimate and incompetent leaders for a long time. Ethiocracy looks forward and build a new Ethiopia under a new constitution with greater ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity.

122 years ago at the Battle of Adwa, patriotic Ethiopians of all ethnic groups and all religions proved that Ethiopia is greater than the sum of its parts. We are fortunate that we have a glorious past such as a multi-ethnic nation-state, recognized as the cradle of humanity with our own Ge’ez alphabet and the Victory of Adwa, all representing our Ethiopian exceptionalism. But the challenge of the day is to make our own glory. Ethiopia’s history is best exemplified by unity in diversity that serves the common good. We are stronger together. When we are indivisible, we will be invincible.  ብዙ  ሆነን  አንድ  የሚያደርገን  ኢትዮጵያዊነታችን  ነው።  ለኢትዮጵያውያን  ልዩነታችን ጌጣችን፣ አንድነታችን ኃይላችን ነው።

The type of government that we could all be proud of was best described by Thomas Paine over two centuries ago: “When it shall be said in any country in the world, my poor are happy, neither ignorance nor distress is to be found among them; my jails are empty of prisoners, my streets of beggars; the aged are not in want; the taxes are not oppressive; the rational world is my friend, because I am the friend of its happiness. When these things can be said, then may that country boast of its Constitution and Government.”

Our compatriots at home have been incarcerated in droves and many others have sacrificed their lives in their political struggle to liberate Ethiopia from the tyrannical regime of TPLF/EPRDF. No government can fail completely for long and remain in power. Ethiopia will be liberated, and dictatorship will be replaced by democracy, because as the African saying goes, “Nobody can stop the rain!” Enjoy Kebebush Tesfaye’s poem: https://www.facebook.com/100000548352118/posts/2237052182989705/

Abate Kassa is the author of Value Analysis and Engineering Reengineered and የፋይዳ ትንታኔ እና ህንደሳ

I welcome your views about Ethiocracy. Thanks. kassa.abate@gmail.com

The post ETHIOCRACY, Ethiopia’s Socially Responsible Market Economy (By Abate Kassa) appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Teshome M. Borago | Zehabesha – Satenaw Columnist

United States (US) Congressman Mike Coffman asked for an independent investigation of the ethnic violence in Southern Ethiopia that has killed dozens of Wolaitas in Hawassa and other southern towns between June and August of 2018.

In the letter from Congress of the United States signed by Coffman to the Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, it stated “more than 15,000 individuals from the Wolayta ethnic group were displaced due to the violence” in Hawassa.

Last week, the Wolayta Committee for Human Rights (WCHR) published a report condemning a cover-up of the investigation on the “Wolayta massacre” and the suffering of Gurage, Gamo and other minorities living in Hawasa; as some Sidama politicians (supported by Oromo activist Jawar Mohammed) are pushing for a referendum on independence from the southern state.

In an email response to questions, WCHR said it is concerned that human rights is taking a backseat to tribalism. “New SEPDM leaders are brainwashing their youth, claiming that Hawassa is only Sidama land, similar to the ‘Addis Ababa is Oromo land’ slogan of recent years,” according to WCHR.

Meanwhile, the famous Ethiopian activist and artist Tamagn Beyene is reportedly facing threats as he plans to tour Awassa this weekend. Top Sidama and SEPDM officials are plotting riots to block Tamagn’s visit to the town, according to inside sources.

Tamagn is viewed by many as an unofficial spokesman for the Patriotic Ginbot 7 group by promoting Ethiopian nationalism over ethnic nationalism. His tours nationwide has produced massive crowds, angering many tribal politicians and activists. Particularly, Tamagn’s enormous crowd in the Oromia Capital of Adama was reportedly an embarrassment for Jawar’s side.

Due to concerns of more embarrassment that very small local crowd will show up to welcome Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) chairman Dawud Ibsa in Addis Ababa last week, Jawar and some OPDO politicians mobilized and drove tens of thousands of Qeerroo Oromos from outside Addis Ababa to travel many kilometers into the city. This controversial political decision led to tensions between Qeerroo and the locals, causing the shutdown of the city for days; followed by the massacre of non-Oromos around the city, especially in Burayu suburb.

The alleged Qeerroo involvement in this gruesome massacre of mostly ethnic Gurages, Gamo and Wolaitas in Burayu led to condemnation of Oromo agitators by Patriotic Ginbot 7 (PG7) spokesman Ephrem Madebo.

Mr. Madebo specifically blamed the Australia-based Oromo politician Tsegaye Ararsa who was recently seen agitating against non-Oromos living in Burayu and urban areas. The PG7 spokesman Tweeted that Tsegaye Ararsa dehumanizing “a large group of Ethiopians as “‘settlers’” is a sign of “mental decaying.”

This rare war of words between opposing politicians was followed by Jawar Mohammed’s meltdown, when he first boasted on Twitter about the big crowd size welcoming OLF in Addis Ababa compared to the smaller crowd in Bahir Dar welcoming Ginbot 7’s Dr. Berhanu Nega. Then, Jawar attacked the famous Ethiopian journalist Eskinder Nega for reporting on the Burayu massacre by Qeerroo. In response to Jawar’s attacks, Zone9 bloggers co-founder Berhane defended Eskinder by comparing Jawar’s Oromia Media Network (OMN) to the Rwandan media that instigated the genocide of Tutsi minorities.

Despite these online disputes; Jawar, OLF and PG7 are making cordial joint statements on national TV due to their common fear that escalating tensions nationwide will hurt Dr. Abiy’s reform agenda or possibly lead to a coup attempt by the formidable TPLF military.

Tamagn’s upcoming Awasa tour follows his last major stop at Dire Dawa City; while Patriotic Ginbot 7 leaders also received enormous welcome in the northern Gondar city. During his speech in Dire Dawa, Tamagn told the massive crowd to stay united and committed to both their multicultural heritage and Ethiopian nationalism; citing examples of Ethiopian patriots who rescued Dire Dawa during the 1977 Somalia invasion. “Instead of being segregated with tribal identity, remember Dire Dawa is famous as a welcoming town and we identify with our Ethiopiawinet,” he said.

Tamagn also condemned ethnic killings and internal displacement due to tribal conflicts in eastern Ethiopia.

“Our languages and our cultural diversity is our beauty. But there is no big ethnic group or small ethnic group in Ethiopia. We are all equal citizens, with human rights to live anywhere in Ethiopia. There is only one Ethiopian people, one nation,” Tamagn shouted with the crowd repeating.

If Tamagn is planning to take his message of unity down to Hawassa, he will face new challenges from tribal movements led by Qeerroo and Ejjeetto (Sidama youth). Human rights defenders are already warning local citizens of possible violence in the next few days. “There is currently no impartial or accountable government in the south,” said Ermias Asale, an Ethiopian activist from the area.

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By Assegid Habtewold[1]

A large-scale national change like what is happening in Ethiopia right now doesn’t just go smoothly without some ups and downs- without experiencing some setbacks. The reformists just experienced a serious setback since we began this outstanding journey under their leadership. They are thrown off from the main course they chose five months ago because of the current chaotic situation. That is it. Nothing more, nothing less.

Unless they are careful, however, this crisis has a potential to distract Team Lemma, and the people they lead from the MAIN THING- transforming the nation to defeat poverty, building democratic institutions, and establishing the rule of law for once and for all.

Had it not been for this recent setback, they would have been focusing on taking the change to the next level by translating their promises into realities. Unfortunately, things went south. It seems the nation is going back to square one. This is a very critical moment in the change process where we need strong leadership.

Thus, the reformists shouldn’t allow what is happening to take their eyes off the ball. Please calm down. Refocus. Let’s be thankful for how far we have come. Let’s be hopeful again. We can come out of this!

The nation needs your leadership. Know that true leadership is tested not during peacetime but rather during such challenging times. Don’t retreat nor take a defensive position. Keep leading…

However, you need to regroup. You need to go back to the drawing board. You need to rechart the change journey by taking into account what has happened since the start of the change. Take lessons but don’t get disappointed by the setbacks.

This temporary setback shouldn’t preoccupy you and stop you from outlining the overall change process, putting in place the roadmap, consulting with key stakeholders, developing the nation’s human capital, and building its institutions while stabilizing the nation by putting in place some boundaries and guidelines to maintain law and order.

I don’t see you as managers. And thus, you shouldn’t waste the majority of your time in managing the current situation. Give direction and let the relevant bodies take care of the rest. You’re leaders and lead the nation in the right direction.

You have the public’s support, tap into this social capital to advance forward. Don’t slow down. Don’t get bog down by this temporary setback nor retreat nor take a defensive position.

[1] Dr. Assegid Habtewold is the author of five books that are available on Amazon. He is a leadership speaker and workshop facilitator for some government agencies and major corporations. Assegid can be reached at ahabtewold@yahoo.com

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Ethiopia and Eritrea should not repeat the mistakes of the 1990s, when a period of rapprochement ended in war.

by Goitom Gebreluel

Ethiopia and Eritrea took one more important step towards normalising their relations on September 17, when Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed signed a peace agreement in the Saudi city of Jeddah, the details of which have not been publicised yet.

A week earlier, during the Orthodox New Year’s celebrations, the leaders of the two countries met on the border town of Zalambessa to re-open the common borde

The rapprochement that began in June has been marked by a number of symbolic gestures and events, including official state-visits by both leaders. During Isaias Afwerki’s visit to Addis Ababa on July 14, the strongman who is known for his stern image and carefully choreographed speeches, emotionally declared to the Ethiopian prime minister “you are our leader now”.

Abiy then proclaimed to the cheering crowd: “when we become one, Assab will be ours,” in reference to the symbolic Eritrean Red Sea port, which was once part of Ethiopia. This hasn’t been simply a process of rapprochement between two states; it almost seems like a social reunification.

Telephone lines have been opened and commercial flights restarted allowing people to call and see their relatives and friends for the first time in decades. The two countries have also exchanged ambassadors and reopened old trade routes.

The international community has welcomed these developments with enthusiasm. The secretary-general of the United Nations, Antonio Gutteres, hailed the reconciliation as “illustrative of a new wind of hope blowing across Africa”. Peace between these two nations was long overdue and has already had some positive effect on the Horn of Africa.

But the two countries have gone through a similar euphoric moment before – in 1993 when Eritrea got its independence from Ethiopia. That rapprochement, however, did not end well.

The secession of Eritrea was supported by the new government of Ethiopia at that time and was celebrated internationally as an ideal separation. Then, five years later, Africa’s deadliest war broke out between the former allies.

What made this conflict extraordinary – even in a global context – was that it took place under conditions of extensive economic interdependence and social integration between the two states.

Today, as the two countries start rebuilding their relations, it is absolutely crucial that they revisit this moment of history and do not repeat its mistakes.

The first rapprochement

The peaceful secession of Eritrea from Ethiopia in 1993 marked the beginning of the first rapprochement between the two nations after the end of the 30-year-long civil war.

The Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) had both fought against the Ethiopian communist military government, the Derg, and by the early 1990s had taken power in Addis Ababa and Asmara respectively.

There was a common understanding that the Derg had been the sole source of past animosity and a convergence of interests between the two states was uncritically taken for granted.

The emergence of two young and charismatic revolutionaries – Ethiopia’s Meles Zenawi and Eritrea’s Isaias Afwerki – was hailed internationally as a landmark moment in which the “next generation” of African leaders was taking over.

Their first diplomatic act after the partition was to sign a cooperation agreement known as the Asmara Pact. The 25-protocol agreement was an ambitious plan to integrate the two nations in all sectors, including defence.

Eritrea’s economy was in practice already integratedinto Ethiopia’s, as around 80 percent of its export products were destined for its neighbour. At the same time Ethiopia relied on Eritrea’s main port as a transportation hub for most of its trade with the world.

After the partition, the Eritreans were allowed to keep almost all the benefits of Ethiopian citizenship, but with a sovereign state of their own. In practice both peoples continued to live as if they were still one state.

On the foreign policy front, they cooperated against Sudan’s attempt to export its Islamist ideology to East Africa and Ethiopia supported Eritrea in its war against Yemen in 1996.

These unusual policies were rooted in an ambiguous approach to Eritrean nationhood by both governments. There was a common understanding that the two nations were really one people, despite the secession.

In his first visit to Ethiopia after the secession in 1993, President Afwerki declared that after economic integration, the two countries could move towards political integration. His Ethiopian counterpart, Zenawi, was also convinced this was inevitable.

Due to these fraternal sentiments and optimistic expectations, important aspects of the relations between the states, including the demarcation of the common border and currency exchange rates, were resolved. They were simply not considered priorities in the first years after independence.

Ethiopians and Eritreans were therefore caught off-guard when a dispute over a relatively unimportant piece of land turned into a full-blown war in 1998.

The war was fought with the same emotional zeal with which cooperation and integration had been pursued only a few years earlier. The two governments were unyielding and fought for two years in a deadly war that claimed more than 100,000 lives.

During the war and the subsequent decades of hostility, people on both sides saw it as the product of betrayal and deceit, rather than as an outcome of conflicting interests and policies.

Regardless of who is to blame for the conflict, both governments have to take responsibility for not doing enough to resolve differences peacefully.

The second rapprochement

While it is unlikely that history will repeat itself with another major military conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea, it is nevertheless important for the two states to establish clear mechanisms for arbitration and communication. After all, in the early 1990s, a war between the two was also deemed extremely unlikely.

The international community and the governments and people of Ethiopia and Eritrea have been desperate for peace, and now that it’s seemingly here, no one seems to be interested in confronting the thorny issues. Indeed, according to local customs it would be inappropriate to revisit the past during reconciliation.

Nostalgia and notions of fraternity have come back with the new rapprochement. While the historical and cultural affinity of the Ethiopian and Eritrean peoples is undeniable, this shouldn’t be the basis for diplomatic relations. This approach has been tried in the past and has failed – with severe consequences.

The basis for the relationship ought to be based on a dispassionate recognition that Ethiopia and Eritrea are two sovereign states with individual interests that will not always overlap. Rights, responsibilities and mechanisms for managing disputes that will inevitably emerge must be clearly formulated.

Ethiopia and Eritrea find themselves in one of the world’s most conflict-prone neighbourhoods. A number of regional and domestic political actors currently feel left out or marginalised by the peace process and have an incentive to sabotage it.

Two months after the peace declaration, the demarcation of the common border, which was the crux of the two-decades-long stalemate, is yet to begin and there already seem to be disagreements on how to proceed. The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (part of the EPRDF), which governs the Ethiopian regional state bordering Eritrea, does not seem to agree with the federal government’s approach to demarcation. It keeps repeating publicly that the physical demarcation has to involve the residents of the borderlands.

Eritrea, for its part, is a state that is not governed by a constitution or parliament. The extreme centralisation of the regime around the figure of the president makes it a highly unpredictable partner. In addition, in a deliberate effort to sow resentment and suspicion, Eritrean diplomats keep insulting the TPLF on Twitter, despite the fact that the latter is a constitutive member of the ruling EPRDF.

All of these factors make the process more prone to derailment than it may appear.

In the context of these outstanding issues, the two states has already taken some steps to resume economic relations. Ethiopia has started using Eritrea’s Assab port on the Red Sea and Ethiopian investors have been looking at opportunities in Eritrea.

But the rules that will regulate the resumption of trade have not been made public yet and much like in 1993, these matters are either being deprioritised or handled in an opaque manner.

In this context, it is important to remember that neither fraternal bonds nor economic interdependence have been sufficient for preventing war in the past; on the contrary, they have served as enablers for emotive and reckless policies that culminated in war and a long and bitter rivalry.

It is imperative that the two governments dispassionately formulate their national interests and institutionalise the terms of their relationship as soon as possible, and leave as few issues as possible to fate, trust or fraternity.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Goitom Gebreluel

Goitom Gebreluel is a PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge.

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