A case for democracy and rule of law in Ethiopia :: Ethiopian Review

A case for democracy and rule of law in Ethiopia

By Seid Hassan, Murray State University

Lately, especially after EPDRF's realization of its defeat during the
2005 election and the rejection of its policies by the people of
Ethiopia, some of its representatives and cadres have began advancing
an idea, possibly concocted up at the Prime Minister's office, that
respecting the rule of law and democracy are not necessary for
Ethiopia. In fact, the concocted propaganda tool that they have begun
using sounds like the myth that Ato Meles has laid out in his
so-called book, which I possess the first version of the blue-print.
The countries that they are trying to mimic are what the World Bank
called High Performance Asian Economies, HPAEs. They are: Hong Kong,
Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and
Thailand. The propaganda arguments presented by representatives of the
Zenawi regime run like this: since these countries achieved their
economic miracles under one-party systems, the EPDRF would like to
follow their footsteps in order to achieve high economic growth and
political stability.

The purpose of this short article is to show that there are indeed
quite a few economic policy lessons to be learned from the experiences
of Southeast Asian countries. Second, if the last 18 years that
Ethiopia has been under the EPDRF are any witness, this country is
neither in a position to mimic these countries and bring about
measurable economic change, nor is the political and economic
phenomena of Ethiopia comparable to those countries. In the process, I
refute the argument that is being presented by the EPDRF
representatives on both factual and empirical basis. I do so by
briefly presenting the economic, social, and political experiences of
the Southeast Asian countries and by comparing and contrasting them
with that of the Ethiopian economic situation and political realities.
I then present a series of conjunctures on why the regime wants us to
believe that democracy is unnecessary for Ethiopia.

A Brief Summary of Some of the Common Characteristics of the High
Performance Asian Economies (HPAEs):

A. Shared Growth.

Sharing the wealth created through good policies and hard work is one
of the remarkable accomplishments of the HPAEs. What was also
remarkable is that the rise in their income levels was also
accompanied by economic equality. These countries accomplished this
remarkable feat with land reform, by expanding educational
opportunities (by making primary and secondary education free), access
to public health care systems, and a significant amount of investment
in rural infrastructure such as clean water systems as well as
communication and transportation systems. These policies were not
designed to equalize incomes but to provide their citizens the tools
they needed to raise their own income levels and to give them hope. In
the process, these policies raised the purchasing power of each
individual, which in turn benefited the local business owners. The
rising incomes raised everyone's hopes thereby encouraging everyone to
work hard.

In contrast, Ethiopia is a vicious cycle of poverty due to the small
landholdings, poor agricultural practices, a lack of potable water
(with only 7% of the rural population having access to clean water,
for example), and deteriorating health and environments. These
circumstances have been made worse by poor governance characterized by
repressive minority rule. Even though Ato Meles likes to talk about
how wealthy the peasants have become, the fact of the matter is that
his policies have heavily contributed to their increased misery.
Income inequality in the country has been rising under the reign of
the EPDRF, while at the same time a handful of former guerilla
fighters have become super rich nearly overnight. The corruption
scourge (with a corruption index ranking of 139th out 179 countries)
is so rampant and so repugnant that it has begun changing the culture
of that country.

As I will argue later with another write-up, even the highly
nationalistic and educated individuals have come to the sad
realization that they cannot make it in life unless they become part
of the corruption scourge. Such an attitude, driven by bad governance,
denies everyone the right to be an equal participant of the economy.
It denies hard working citizens the opportunity to reap the benefits
of their hard work and the stakes that their country may hold for
them. Rampant corruption erodes the hopes of citizens, and
unfortunately, this is what is taking place in Ethiopia. When
competent government bureaucrats realize that they could not serve the
people who paid for their education, they choose to fend for
themselves by working in the private sector or for the NGOs. When this
is not possible, they leave their beloved country and become political
refugees in neighboring countries, most of them facing increasing
hardships and terror. When educated people become refugees, Ethiopia
loses in a multiple of ways: being unable to use its young and
educated sons and daughters, and being unable to recoup the costs it
incurred for raising and educating the same people. There are also
other social costs that I would refrain from elaborating to save
space. A significant portion of the refugees make it to the West,
countries which enjoy a comparative advantage in human capital. But
their departure from their homeland adds to the problem of the
brain-drain, a loss that poor countries such as Ethiopia cannot
afford. In Ethiopia today, not only we do not have leaders who
understand this issue, but the same "leaders" have exacerbated the
situation by threatening the intellectuals that they would be replaced
by Nigerians.

B. Increased accumulation of human capital.

Investment in people, through good educational policies was one of the
most important polices of the HPAEs. They focused on primary and
secondary education levels whose rate of return is much higher than
university level (tertiary) education. By making primary and secondary
education free, these countries raised the literacy rates, thereby
laying the foundation for a highly skilled work force available for
both the business and government sectors.

In contrast, the failed educational policies of the EPDRF have kept
the county's position in terms of education one of the lowest in
Africa. For example, according to the UNDP and other sources, the net
elementary school enrolment ratio is the lowest in Sub-Sahara Africa
at only 35%, the drop-out rate being among the highest. The literacy
rate is 34% for females and 49% for males, which averages out to be
about 41%. Gross Tertiary (college level) School Enrollment is around
1%. To add insult to injury, the last 18 years of EPDRF policies have
exacerbated the situation since the EPDRF has forced intellectuals to
leave their country, making Ethiopia's brain to continuously bleed and
be hugely impaired due to the effects of the brain-drain. For example,
I have been told that the number of doctors of Ethiopian origin who
work in a single or two cities in the USA was greater than the numbers
of doctors who work in the entire country of Ethiopia. Logic would
tell you that doctors should be where most of the patients are
located- in Ethiopia. Logic would also indicate to you that teachers
should be residing in countries where they are the most needed, where
the student/teacher ratio is one of the highest in the world –
Ethiopia. One Ethiopian young mathematician tells me that, by his
count and just in the last few years, the number of college level
mathematicians who either have left their Homeland or decided never to
go back home, mainly for fear of persecution is over fifty. This
explains why the TPLF owned conglomerates, which were bought at throw
away prices during the privatization process, are known to be
operating way below capacity due to the shortages of human capital.

C. Rapid accumulation of physical capital:

The governments of HPAEs encouraged their people to raise savings
rates which were used for domestic investment. These policies were
accompanied by changes in demographics, which were accomplished
through both low birth and death rates. Such demographic transitions
allowed fewer children below the working age population while allowing
a larger portion of the population to be economically productive. In
addition, their policies enabled them to attract huge sums of foreign
investments.

In contrast, the rampant inflation rates in Ethiopia, the IMF
reporting it to be 40% for the month of June, is not only eroding the
purchasing power of savers' incomes but the real negative interest
rates are wiping out their assets on a daily basis. The negative real
rate of returns could only help the ruling party-owned corporations
who are enjoying preferential treatments by the government-controlled
financial institutions.

Regarding the demographics of the country, because of the absence of a
good national population policy and/or the lack of the provision of
more than basic health services, the country is flooded with high
birth rates. As a result, a significant proportion of the population
is young and unproductive, where children under fifteen years of age
make up nearly 50 percent of the population. Add to this the HIV/AIDS
epidemic, which continues to wipe out a significant portion of the
working age population. In contrast to countries such as Uganda, which
made reversals of the HIV/AIDS infections, thanks to their campaigns
for awareness and treatments, the autocrats of Addis Ababa instead
wasted the country's meager resources in waging senseless wars with
the country's neighbors, in creating ethnic and religious conflicts
and spending a huge sum of money to suppress dissent.

In addition, the Ethiopian economy faces environmental degradation due
to wind and soil erosion and the absence of good policies for the
country to protect its resources. Such a neglect of the environment
denies the country from developing its own homegrown physical capital.

D. Rapid growth of manufactured exports.

More than anything else, the HPAEs are known to have promoted
manufactured exports. As everyone knows, the gains from the export of
processed and manufactured goods are far greater than those from
exporting primary commodities mainly because of the higher value
added. Manufactured exports create economies of scale when domestic
firms produce to satisfy both the domestic and the international
market demands. Exporting manufactured goods also allow both the
importation and development of new technologies, learning by doing and
international best practices; create incentives for R & Ds, which in
turn have multiplier effects on their economies. Luckily enough, their
policies were also aided by the Cold War, in which Western countries
gave favorable treatments (lower tariff rates, etc.) to the goods and
services exported by the HPAEs.

In contrast, the EPDRF has focused on an agricultural-based
industrialization, if it can be called industrialization at all. The
fact of the matter is that, Ethiopia is one of those poor countries
which uses primitive ox-driven cultivation system, that no one in
his/her right mind could call it agro-industrialization. One aspect of
agro-industrialization is agro-processing of food products. When it
comes to Ethiopia, such an industrialization has many constraints,
including inconsistent and insufficient supply of raw material,
seasonality of crops, harvest losses due to droughts, lack of
efficient infrastructure such as good roads, nearby efficient ports,
poorly trained personnel, weak and non-existent markets, absence of
good managerially skilled work force, among others.

The fact of the matter is that, even though the EPDRF has been talking
about agro-based industrialization for the last 18 years, nearly all
of Ethiopia's export revenues come from the agricultural (primary
product) sector- the agricultural sector constituting nearly 60% of
the country's exports. Unfortunately, not only do the export prices of
these primary products tend to fluctuate very highly, but their
relative prices do decline over time as well. It is a well-known fact
that countries that are commodity dependent or exhibit a narrow export
basket, as does Ethiopia, often suffer from export instability arising
from inelastic and unstable global demand. Ethiopia's major source of
exports, coffee, is still being exported unprocessed. Export
diversification is one way to alleviate these particular constraints.

We hear from the government, on a constant basis, how many dollars the
country earned through exports. Unfortunately, it never wants to show
the employment figures created by phantom exports. Even the
much-advertised export of flowers, it only accounts for a little over
$100 million, a small sum for a nation of 82 million people. The
flower business is also causing tremendous environmental degradation.
The government never reports how much profit the country has gained by
selling the flowers. It never tells us the effects being landlocked on
exports, something that the TPLF and Ato Meles are proud of. Thanks to
Meles's ceding the country's sea outlets, the foreign company running
the Djibouti port, Ethiopia's only outlet, has Ethiopia by the balls.
It increases tariffs at will, as it recently did with a 25% hike.
Lately, it has been reported that Ethiopia pays over $300 million
every year to Djibouti for handling of the former's imports and
exports. By this count, Ethiopia had already paid billions of dollars
to Djibouti and other countries over the last 18 years reign of the
EPDRF, and will pay so dearly for many years to come for handling of
its imports and exports.

E. Targeting Specific Industrial Policies and Avoiding Rent-Seeking

Even though some of the HPAEs were governed by single dominant
parties, they completely liberalized their economies. This
liberalization of the economic sector was accomplished despite the
fact that these countries were surrounded by communist countries with
command economic systems. While following liberalized economic
systems, the policymakers, using the so-called Deliberation Councils,
avoided rent-seeking behaviors (corruption). The Deliberation Councils
were filled with highly-educated and competent bureaucrats who were
purposely insulated from the political process. The Deliberation
Councils were also in charge of targeting specific and narrow
development industries. These government interventions included
targeting very narrow and specific industries, directing credit, and
export promotion. To accomplish their goals, they used licensing,
quotas, tariffs, and export subsidies to restrict imports and promote
exports. Whenever those policies failed to work, the incentives were
withdrawn.

In contrast, the EPDRF cadres decided to follow the Russian model,
misappropriating public funds and giving away formerly government
owned institutions and sectors to the ethnically-owned firms. In
Ethiopia, the EPDRF inserted its cadres, who happen to be highly paid
and unproductive, into these ethnically-owned and other government
institutions. In so doing, the EPDRF has stifled the productivity of
competent bureaucrats. Any targeting of some sector is geared to
benefit the ethnically-owned businesses. There is no press freedom
which would expose the rampant corruption, nepotism and cronyism that
has engulfed the country for too long.

F. Stable Macroeconomic Environments

Macroeconomic stability is manifested by the absence of high inflation
and interest rates and stable financial institutions, relatively low
budget and trade deficits, minimal rent-seeking behaviors (that is,
low corruption), and well-defined property rights . In the HPAEs,
lower inflation rates protected the public's savings from being eroded
by high inflation rates and raised confidence in the banking sector.
Relatively low interest rates raised the real profits of the business
sector. Low budget and trade deficits minimized the occurrence a
financial crisis and dependence on foreign economic assistance, which
do not come free.

In contrast, as I showed elsewhere, Ethiopia is facing rampant
inflation, huge budget and trade deficits and high corruption. The
lack of well-defined property rights has allowed the EPDRF owned
conglomerates to grab any property they can find. As I argued
elsewhere, by not making land privately owned, the EPDRF has not only
denied the peasants to raise capital using their land as their
collateral for potential loans, but the policy also has been used to
scare the peasants and to force them to be real slaves of the ruling
party. It seems that the same policy has created a perfect situation
for the EPDRF to give Ethiopian land to foreigners at will, for the
same policy effectively has made the EPDRF to be the owner of all the
land of Ethiopia.

Admittedly, SOME of those leaders of the HPAEs have done something no
one desires and they already have admitted their mistakes and
shortcomings. They are no friends of tyranny, at least not anymore,
especially the most abominable one such as the one that is being
practiced in Ethiopia. For example, the former president of South
Korea, Kim Dae-Jung blamed the 1997/98 financial crisis on
"authoritarian leaders who placed economic development ahead of
democracy." The autocrats in Addis may invoke the Chinese economic
growth as their model to imitate. Again, the Chinese economic,
political and cultural situations are quite different from those in
Ethiopia. Even though one could be hesitant to call the Chinese
economic growth as an economic development, China was able to garner
such a sustained growth by allowing economic freedom, the protection
of property rights and a functioning market system. None of these
realities exists in Ethiopia.

Be that as it may, a good leader is not one which longs for and looks
up to the misdeeds and shortcomings of previous leaders. Such a desire
to continue tyranny is distasteful and not one that healthy leaders
could contemplate about and impose them on their own people. God: what
kind of curse have you brought to that country and poor people?!

Now that I have briefly presented the experiences of the HPAEs, I
would like to conclude this part by presenting the following parable,
which, in my view, sums up the point I have tried to make:

During the 1988 American vice-presidential debate which took place
between the late Democratic Senator Lloyd Bentsen and the Republican
vice-presidential candidate Senator Dan Quayle, and after the then
senator Quayle was asked what kind of qualifications he had to be
president in the event that the president was to die or be
assassinated as it happened to John F. Kennedy, and after Mr. Quayle
answered in the affirmative, Mr. Bentsen said: "Senator, I served with
Jack Kennedy: I knew Jack Kennedy; Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine.
Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy."

We echo the late Senator Bentsen and say to the tyrannical leader in
Addis: Ato Meles, we and the rest of the world know how those
countries achieved those enviable goals. We know how nationalistic the
leaders of the Southeast Asian countries were (are). The world knows
that they did not instigate ethnic strife. They did not commit
treasonous acts by ceasing the territories of their respective
countries. We know how their party members cared about the people in
their entire respective countries. There was no rampant corruption as
it exists in Ethiopia… We know Southeast Asia… We know the leaders of
the HPAEs. Ethnocentric autocrats in Addis, you're not like the
leaders of the HPAEs, not even close. The long 18 years of EPDRF's
misrule reveals that, it is no Southeast Asian political parties which
GOVERNED the HPAEs. Neither the world nor the Ethiopian people would
be fooled. Nor would they be intimidated.

My readers, if you are convinced by the facts and logic as well as the
contrasts that I presented above, let's follow the late Senator Lloyd
Bentsen and chant together: "we know …., you're no….!" Well done, and
thank you!

SOME CONJECTURES

So, these being the facts, why do the leaders of the EPDRF concocted
such a ridiculous suggestion and comparison? Comparing the experiences
of the HPAEs and that of Ethiopia is comparing apples and oranges,
really. Therefore, one cannot escape the thought that Ato Meles and
his group concocted such a propaganda tool in order to use it for
their political consumption, and possibly out of desperation. Here are
SOME conjectures. It may be that:

1. The pressure from the public is mounting against the EPDRF, and as
a result, the EPDRF is confused, to the point of becoming
schizophrenic. On the one hand, Meles has been lying to his foreign
backers and the donor countries that democracy prevailed in Ethiopia.
On the other hand, it has been difficult for the EPDRF to hide the
facts: that it has ruled Ethiopia with brute force. It knows that the
world now knows it has robbed the peoples' votes on daylight. By
telling the world that it wants to follow the HPAEs, Meles is
effectively admitting to the world that he is an authoritarian. Such
contradictory statements and admitting to rule Ethiopia with brute
force is an act of desperation.

2. As one of my other friends pointed out, knowing that the leaders of
the EPDRF will not stay in power (quite possibly not even in Ethiopia)
for too long, they must have decided to concoct an idea, no matter how
ridiculous it may sound, in order to buy time for their exit. Knowing
that there are other graceful ways of exit, following this route is an
act of desperation.

3. The regime is facing a crisis, both political and economic. On the
political side, the regime knows that the Ethiopian people have
rejected its ethnocentric policies and authoritarianism. It faces
dissatisfaction and cynicism on every policy it follows, mainly
because of the corruption scourge and the selfish nature of the EPDRF
and its cadres. The 2005 election revealed to the EPDRF that, if
allowed, the people of Ethiopia can cast their votes peacefully, no
matter how much they were intimidated, arrested, or killed. Given the
opportunity, the people of Ethiopia showed to the EPDRF autocrats and
the rest of the world that they could show their dissatisfaction by
peacefully marching in the streets of Addis Ababa, in millions, and
come out and vote those they did not like out of r office. Humiliated
by the outcome, the EPDRF leaders do not want to repeat the same
"mistake" by going through a similar election process and talking
about democracy. Therefore, they are laying the ground to do away
completely with any semblance of democracy. It must be due this same
humiliation that the EPDRF has received why its cadres have now begun
terrorizing the general populace- threatening or firing those workers
who voted for the opposition parties.

4. Ato Meles wants to engage the cadres with such a frivolous issue,
in order to keep them busy and confused. For those of us who know the
tricks Meles has played and how he played them in the past, a similar
concoction has been adopted right after the debacle of the senseless
war with Eritrea. When members of his own party, some of them founders
of the TPLF rejected his ceding of the prize to win the silly war and
the country's sovereignty, he concocted the idea of fighting
corruption. Well, we all know what happened to the level of corruption
in the country after Meles's concoction: It skyrocketed since then!
Unfortunately, he succeeded: He threw in his opponents in jail and
purged the rest of them from the party. He succeeded in his deception
by deflecting the public's attention away from himself. He managed to
put the docile members of his party, and especially the ones who are
the most selfish, who are summarily called in Amharic as the HODAMs,
in his column. He might have done it out of desperation even then, but
he succeeded and he thinks he would succeed again.

5. Ato Meles probably concocted this idea of ruling Ethiopians by hook
or crook, and in the process, placate the EPDRF cadres, especially
those who have stakes at the EPDRF controlled conglomerates. On the
one hand, he is terrified by the news of the tariff hike that Djibouti
recently announced. He is also terrified by the fact that his cadres
would turn against him for making the country land-locked to begin
with. Having a sea access is very essential to these corrupt
conglomerates and the rest of the business sector in which the EPDRF
is involved in, which according to some people, its involvement in the
Ethiopian economy is so deep that it even includes small retail trade
such as exporting of Ethiopian traditional bread, the injera. The fear
adds to the schizophrenic nature of the EPDRF leadership thereby
making them to be desperate and concoct ridiculous ideas to be used
for propaganda purposes. Some even speculate that, the same
desperation may be behind why Ato Meles gave away huge tracts of
Ethiopian land to the president of Djibouti. They further argue that
Meles decided to implement his plan to give away Ethiopian land to the
Sudan so that the EPDRF owned conglomerates would have access to the
Port of Sudan. If what they claim is to be true, the same desperation
must have spread to the entire ruling clique and forced some of them
to be schizophrenic. They ask, what else could explain this bizarre
behavior of betrayal of a country, making her be land-locked, giving
away the prizes that comes with a winning of a war, lying to the
people that the so-called Ethio-Eritrean Commission has ruled in favor
Ethiopia while the fact is to the contrary, and now the giving away a
big chunk of the country's territory to a neighboring country? In any
case, the giving away of the countries territory and fertile lands is
another manifestation of desperation to stay in power, even if it is a
blatant betrayal of trust.

6. Knowing that it has lost the backing of the general public, the
EPDRF concocted this idea in order to send a terrorizing message to
both the opposition parties and the general public by sending the
message that, whether they like it or not, the EPDRF is here to rule
them for many years to come. In reality, it is a desperate move taken
by a desperate party.

7. Create an excuse for those foreign powers and supporters that their
governments were behind the rulers of the same Southeast Asian
governments and they ought to do the same for the EPDRF. Second, the
EPDRF is trying to suggest to them that, if a one-party system was
good for those countries mentioned above, it has to be good for
Ethiopia as well. Some of those foreign governments and/or their
unsuspecting representatives probably like such an excuse. Such
blackmailing, however, would not last.

In addition to their contempt for the people they rule, the EPDRF
leaders have, in a stealth manner, instigated ethnic and religious
conflicts - the latter a phenomena rarely seen in Ethiopia prior to
their rule. It is quite possible for them to try to do it on a massive
scale, especially when the going becomes a little too hard.
Fortunately, those who were pushed for an ethnic-based strife had come
to their senses, and in most cases, the spirit of Ethiopianism has
triumphed over sectarianism and disintegration. As a disciple of
Isayas Afewerqi, Meles undermined the unity of Ethiopia for nearly two
decades. Fortunately, so far, people have refused to go along with his
plans and instigations. Such refusals had frustrated the leaders of
the EPDRF. That may be why they have become as desperate as to concoct
such a myth.

8. By comparing the incomparable situations that Ethiopia is in with
those of Southeast Asia, the TPLF (EPDRF) is trying to fool the
general public and the unsuspecting cadres that Ethiopia is in par
with those countries and placate them in the process –by feeding them
with empty words, as the Prime minister has been doing it to the
peasants – telling the world that they have gotten richer under his
rule, while in fact they are starving. At the same time, by advancing
such issues, Meles is trying to scare the west that Ethiopia would
ally itself with such undemocratic countries such as China and Russia
if they fail to accept the status quo ante. I happen to believe that
the days of such deceptive tactics are about to be over.

9. Meles has come to the realization that the days for him to play the
game as an ally of the west and one who stands against Islamic
terrorism is about to be over. It could be that Meles is terrified
with the fact that it is his government which has instigated
religious-based conflicts. He may be terrified that the West would
come to realize that Islamic fundamentalism has not roots in Ethiopia.
As you all know, the EPDRF has tried to foment not only ethnic
conflicts, but also religious ones. Their calculation is that, once
such religious hostilities begin, Meles would attempt to convince the
Western world that terrorism indeed exists in Ethiopia. Perhaps, the
EPDRF leadership has come to the realization that they cannot dupe the
world for so long and they would be denied of the financial assistance
that they have been generously getting. Perhaps, the same autocrats
are now terrified that the West would know that even his invasion of
Somalia has nothing to do with Islamic terrorism. Instead, it has more
to do with Meles's jailing of protesters, journalists, human rights
workers and opposition leaders, to satisfy his insatiable appetite for
hard currency using false pretexts- which ultimately will be used to
buy weapons, which in turn could be used against the people they rule.
Meles is terrified that he himself is an agent of terror for his
brutality and oppression helps breed terrorism.

The Evidence is In: Democracy has Triumphed over Tyranny

Many researchers have come to conclude that authoritarianism helps
economic development is a myth. If anything, there is only a spurious
correlation between autocracy and growth. Good governance begets
development, not the other way round. Empirical evidence shows that
democracies enjoy higher economic development compared to non-free
ones. Most importantly, evidence shows that those countries which
adopted democratic principles have outperformed those which followed
the path of tyranny on a range of development indicators, such as life
expectancy at birth, access to clean water and air, literacy rates,
and infant mortality rates. They did this in part by doing away with
special interest groups and rampant corruption. The citizens of
democracies stayed within their own countries, to raise their children
within their homeland, to be with their own loved ones, instead of
becoming "super maids" as Ethiopians have become. By allowing their
citizens to be part of the decision-making process, leaders who
respected the rule of law have enabled their citizens to have their
own stakes, thereby motivating them to work hard. Democratic countries
were (are) able to enjoy peace, which has been a scarce commodity for
Ethiopians for decades. As the 1998 Economics Nobel Prize Winner
points out to all of us, hunger and starvation do not take place in
countries which adopted democratic principles. In the age of
globalization, good governance and democracy is the precondition for
economic development. So, the evidence is in: democracy and the
respect of the rule of law bring more prosperity to a country than
authoritarianism. In fact, research shows that both the well-being and
the survival of poor countries depend on people controlling their own
destiny more than others. In fact, both empirical evidence and logic
indicate that resource-scarce countries need better governance and
policies than those endowed with relatively abundant resources.

For those of you who do not know Meles and the EPDRF, it may be quite
puzzling to both hear and see why "leaders" of a political party that
has been in power for 18 years continue to behave like mad dogs
against their own people. One would expect such leaders, who have
amassed enormous wealth, a good portion of it at the expense of the
poor peasants, to be humbled by the Grace of God who allowed them to
be in such a position, while at the same time, the people they rule
are homeless and starving. One would expect the so-called "leaders" to
work hard to deliver what their subjects yearn dearly, which is the
respect of the rule of law and democracy. Instead of being proud of
satisfying the demands of the people, Meles and his gang opted to
frighten and terrorize them, in a crude and repugnant manner at that.
Instead of being confident for delivering the goods and services that
their subjects so desperately needed, they seem to tell the world that
the peasants are rich and not starving. Instead of lifting up the
moral and spirits of the people, they continue to intimidate them,
putting them in concentration camps in drones, just because they
exercised their rights and voted their conscience. Instead of being
proud by protecting the territorial integrity of the country, which is
one of the cardinal obligations of a government, they chose to
willingly give away portions of the country's territory to its
traditional enemies. Instead of taking advantage of the modern
telecommunication technology created elsewhere and try to catch up
with the rapidly advancing world, they chose to suppress its usage and
even use it to suppress the people they have ruled for too long. Such
an act is not something to be proud of, unless the so-called leaders
are so paranoid to the extent that they even fear their own shadows
knowing the crimes they have committed against the poor people of
Ethiopia.

WE HAVE NEWS FOR THE AUTOCRATS

There is news for such paranoid, angry, prejudiced and desperate
"leaders"- bad news for them, good news for everyone else: with the
demise of communism, respecting the rule of law and freedom has
triumphed over dictatorship. People refuse to be intimidated. They
will continue demanding for the respect of the rule of law, freedom,
human rights, and democracy. Despotic leader leave their victims with
no choice. Despotic leader leave their victims with no choice. Even
though they suppress the independent media with their new draconian
press law, even though they intimidate opposition party leaders by
arresting them with familiar tramped-up charges, even though you have
made the existence and function of opposition parties practically
useless, we will not rest until we gain our freedoms. We know such
ridiculous propaganda and intimidation is an act of desperation. We
know the world has changed and we will go along with the rest of the
world that respects and practices democracy. Just like those people
who have found their freedom, who have found the path of democracy,
who found ways to discard authoritarianism, the Ethiopian people will
find ours and do the same. We know, sooner or later, the entire world
will be with them. We say, "No" to tyranny, intimidation, ethnocentric
policies; "No" to nepotism; "No" to government instigated ethnic and
religious strife; "No" to mass arrests and state terror. "Yes" to
checks and balances, to the respect of the rule of law, to
accountability, to equality, and to freedom!

So, bad boys, what are you going to do when those freedom loving
people stand in unison and try to liberate themselves from your yolk
of tyranny? Bad boys, what are you going to do when Ethiopians come
after you, demanding their freedom? Bad boys, what are you going to do
once the people begin chronicling how you expropriated the peoples'
resources by selling the previously government owned corporations to
yourselves? Bad boys…, Bad boys, what are you going to do when…?
- - - - - - - - - - -
The writer, Seid Hassan, PhD, can be reached at seid.hassan@murraystate.edu

REFERENCES (in brief)
* Exposing a 50-Year-Old Myth
Gerber, James, 2002. International Economics, Addison Wesley, Boston, MA.
* World Bank, 1993. The East Asian Miracle: Economic Growth and Public
Policy, Oxford University press, New York, NY.
* Harvey, James Jr. July 2007. "Time Under Authoritarian Rule and
Economic Growth" CORI Working Paper No. 2007-02, to be found at:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1010748.
* CIA World Fact Book
* Mulat Demeke, Fantu Guta, Tadele Ferede - (Professors in the
Department of Economics, Addis Ababa University): "Growth, Employment,
Poverty and Policies in Ethiopia: An empirical investigation",
Discussion Paper 12, 2003. [pdf]

2 Responses to "A case for democracy and rule of law in Ethiopia"

masinqo says:

Fantastic

August 16th, 2008 at 6:17 pm

Assta B. Gettu says:

I think the EPDRF has committed a terrible blunder by trying to follow
the economic systems of the most vibrant nations such as Hong Kong,
Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia, and
Thailand, instead of telling the truth that it is following the
economic system of Burma, the most corrupt country in the world. The
Woyanne regime looks exactly like the Burmese ruling military junta in
many ways. Burma is one of the poorest nations in Southeast Asia, so
is Ethiopia in Africa.

The Woyanne regime never said that democracy is unnecessary for
Ethiopia as the article suggests, but what the regime is saying is
that Ethiopia is not yet ready for democracy; therefore, Meles
Seitanawi continues to enjoy ruling Ethiopia until Ethiopia is ready
for a democratic government, and no one knows when that will be. Also,
the article says that the Ethiopian people will never be fooled and
intimidated again; the fact is that they have been already fooled and
intimidated when they have refused to rise up against their oppressive
Tigrean regime.

I doubt it will make any difference whether the Woyanne regime expands
the primary and the secondary schools unless the entire governing
system in Ethiopia is changed and replaced by a dedicated and selfless
leader who abhors ethnicity but believes in equality.

One final note: The author believes this article is short; whom is he
fooling, a 5,968 word-article is short? My Lord!