An open letter to the G8 from Ethiopian scholars
We welcome the intentions to translate into practical action the vision of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty to make it history. Though the systems the G8 leaders are steering are way more complex and not so easily amenable to any good intention to make them deliver to the poor, we hope that any set of serious effort that you collectively undertake makes a difference.
Africa has suffered for too long. Until today the record of the political economy of international aid has been largely unproductive. Africa was trapped in a double bind: if the G8 and others refuse their assistance, Africa loses; if it accepts their assistance, Africa loses also. We hope now for the first time, the G8 are prepared to provide aid by engaging with the political economy of aid, investment and trade without forcing Africa to lose and blaming Africa for it. It is time to provide the kind of assistance that will make Africa a winner and would not put all the blame to it, if things go wrong.
The G8’s New Deal
North-South Partnership has been proposed as the new deal or strategy to see Africa out of poverty. Africa is expected to deliver on good governance and the construction of transparent and accountable institutions to its citizen; and the G8 and others from the North are to provide economic assistance, better terms of trade and debt relief. This deal enjoins the African side to demonstrate a transparent and accountable government to its citizens. Failure to demonstrate good governance would mean that the G8 side would balk from providing the resources to assist. The assumption is that with democratic governance, the assistance from the G8 would reach to those who need it most and will not be pocketed by unaccountable officials and their clientele and loyal networks that undo the effort to create accountable and open institutions capable of propelling development forward.
Is It Good or Bad Governance Under Meles Zenawi in Ethiopia?
Ethiopia has had no record of effecting a peaceful transition in its history. For the first time in this country’s history, the people of Ethiopia freely came forward after hearing the debates in the election to vote for the party of their choice on May 15, 2005. We consider this to prove a historical landmark in the country’s long history. Unfortunately the pre-election freedom could not be sustained during the election and the aftermaths of the election. Once again, the country is at the crossroads.
Meles Zenawi’s regime had the historical opportunity, and indeed the most sacred responsibility to make sure democracy and free election succeed. Why enter the game of democracy voluntarily and try to play foul when the going goes against Meles Zenawi’s expectations? Unfortunately the subsequent killings, election riggings and emergency rule declarations show that Mr. Zenawi and his group are not prepared to concede to the democratic will of the people. They resorted to the usual trick of talking profusely about democracy whilst preparing to continue to act with dictatorship and repression. They have been in power for nearly fifteen years and have thus built up a dense network of clientele and loyal acolytes that will do anything but deliver good governance that can be up to the task to make poverty history in Ethiopia.
Meles Zenawi came to power with violence and failed to show that he can retain power through democracy. We wonder what criteria has been used by the G8 to invite Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia- a person who just oversaw a rigged election on May 15,2005, that has been difficult to clear and declare the outcome after nearly two months. When Meles found out that literally most of his ministers were voted out, and his party was losing the election, he rushed to declare a state of emergency and used that to create a context for the murder of 36 students and the arrest of thousands. Meles continues to use all sorts of justifications why he thinks it is right to take officially sanctioned violent action. He remains unrepentant and defiant and could not see the wrongness of his actions.
Having probed all the arguments, we find conclusively that all his reasons, in whatever form he expresses them, would not provide justification for killing unarmed, civilian students or as he likes to describe them ‘unemployed youth.’ There was no justification to send troops to the dormitories of university students, rough them up, pull them out of their beds with guns to their heads, beat them and kill them. There is no reason to declare a state of emergency and continue to intimidate by warning the people that Meles is prepared to repeat and take this and similar action. There was no reason to intimidate and harass opposition members throughout the country. There is no reason to jail and hide the where about of the writer Mr.Andargachew Tsige, and the human right activists such as Mr. Nega Birhanu, Mr. Yahred Hailemariam, and Mr. Taddesse Chernet. There is no reason for all these violent actions, for the simple reason that neither the opposition nor the citizens used any other means other than to play within the rules of the democracy that the regime claimed to honour. How can the regime kill by claiming an opposition figure in exile has written a book advocating rose or orange peaceful democratic expression in the event loser does not concede to winner? How can the regime justify killing by imagining and self-validating a false scenario in Ethiopia of Rwanda type genocide? It has absolutely no-good reason to kill, justify, and more over, continue to threaten similar action by maintaining military emergency rule ! What the regime fears from the opposition is not violence, but the peaceful mobilisation and commitment to peaceful methods of struggle to expose the vacuity of regime claims to popular support in the urban and rural areas of Ethiopia
Implementing the New G8 Deal for Ethiopia
We call upon the G8 to endorse the growing demand that the next five years should be a period for the democratic experiment of peaceful transition and the incubation of good government in Ethiopia. Both are necessary if the G8 are serious to implement the policy where their assistance delivers results rather than making Ethiopians losers once more. It is no good to blame Ethiopians and organise another live concert when famine, hunger and bad government recur after one episodic mobilisation or another. Ethiopia needs to get the kind of assistance in order to stop seeking assistance for good. We call upon you to demand that ‘your good guy’ Meles accepts a broad based Government involving opposition parties who demonstrated genuine backing by the people through free and fair elections, his own party and other independent personages. This is critical to deliver what has eluded the Ethiopian imagination to this day: to work collectively for the next five years to create a workable system that will make it impossible for anyone to use violence to perpetuate authoritarian rule. Let the coming five years serve to solve this one and only one problem: creating the necessary and sufficient possibilities for enduring and sustainable change or confirming power through the unrigged votes of the Ethiopian citizens.
If Meles is indeed a democrat, as he likes to parade himself to you and the rest of the world, and if indeed he wishes as your partner to see that the poor get a deal from any of the projected investments you are hoping to mobilize, he should be happy to endorse this idea. Let the next five years be used to develop skills and styles of give and take to make the opposition and the Meles group cultivate a democratic tradition and culture by using debate and public participation to solve all issues that appear so intractable in the country.
We are happy to offer ideas on how such a national unity Government may be composed and sustained. We call upon the G8 leaders to impress the historic importance of constructing an alternative to forming a Government either by the incumbent or aspirant alone, given the election has been mishandled badly and the people who voted for either side would feel cheated if either side becomes a winner takes all. The notion of Meles re-inviting unelected ministers back to cabinet would create a situation that is potentially explosive. The G8 have the opportunity to put the maximum possible pressure on Meles to contribute to peaceful and democratic change in Ethiopia by supporting a Government of national concord, paving the way for the release of all the arrested, the lifting the state of emergency for good ,and the call for all parties to enter into genuine dialogue.If as the G8, you are serious about the New Deal, we expect you to have invited Meles Zenawi to put to him that he has got to get governance right in his country so that your expected assistance for Ethiopia proves worthy and productive. We call the G8 to put maximum pressure on Meles Zenawi to respect the voice of the Ethiopian people by being prepared to form a government of national unity with the opposition, whether he likes them or not. The Government of national concord should be entrusted to implement the new deal from the G8 to make sure that the assistance reaches the people that need it most fairly and with a system and accountable and transparent procedure that Ethiopians negotiate and put in place with the support of those who like to see them succeed.
Concluding Remark
The substantive achievement of equalising Africa with the rest of the world has a universal humanising thrust to it. Efforts to stimulate the improvement of the African condition become equivalent to improving the human condition. And that is a truly universal achievement for all. Those who like and choose to engage in improving the lot of the most oppressed community of the human race should recognise the wider significance of their intervention to move civilisation forward. In the end it is not just for Africa, that values of justice, care and freedom matter, but through their realisation in Africa, they matter to all. It is not your benevolence, but your enlightened self-interest that demands action to eradicate poverty on earth. We hope this larger fellowship and vision and not the icy cold calculation of self-interest drives your engagement with our continent and our own old country-Ethiopia.
Professor Mammo Muchie, Chair of NES-Scandinavian Chapter
Berhanu G. Balcha, Vice- Chair of NES-Scandinavian Chapter
Tekola Worku, Secretary of NES-Scandinavian Chapter
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