Ethiopia, Cut and run CUD style

By Temesgen Markos

February 15, 2008 — Calling a spade a spade doesn’t always come easy, especially when you have had ideological and emotional connections with the spade for too long. That is exactly the situation I am in as I set out to express my disappointment (bordering a heart break) with the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), Ethiopia’s popular opposition party.

I wasn’t fortunate enough to vote and probably do some activism, obviously on CUD’s behalf, in the 2005 national elections. However I followed the events from a distance as attentively as any other compatriot at home would have done, kudos to the internet. I don’t want to expound on what happened after the elections and the resulting incarceration of the top brass of CUD. The feeling of hopelessness and outrage that I felt in that doomed November week is still very vivid. I told a supervisor that I can’t submit the reports for that week because I couldn’t concentrate on the work. Later on, I dedicated my thesis (I was a student then) to one of the imprisoned CUD leaders. Little did I know that the Ethiopian government was making heroes out of zeros by putting them behind bars. (It just occurred to me that when you put 0’s behind |’s it actually gives large numbers. Any mathematician out there? Is this funny or should I quit making jokes?)

It didn’t take long before the larger than life (at least in my eyes, but that was then) CUD leaders were on each other’s throats in foreign lands. The reasons they made for rushing to the United States and Europe right out of prison are as laughable as the trips themselves. Millions of their supporters in the capital and the regions waiting eagerly, hundreds of families who have lost loved ones during the clashes expecting gestures of condolence, and the Ethiopian millennium coming up didn’t hold the newly freed leaders from taking jaunts.

One of the several alibis put forward by the CUD leaders was the need to collect money to support the families who lost loved ones. I listened to that interview and it was obvious that was a reason made up on the fly during the interview. I have heard several accounts of individuals and groups in the diaspora extending helping hands to victims and their families. God bless. On the other hand, it is now half a year since that interview and I didn’t hear any such support made particularly out of the money the CUD leaders claimed to be collecting for the cause. Hey, wouldn’t people in need appreciate a genuine visit and show of concern, even with empty hands, than hearing stories of their miseries being exploited? In the Ethiopia I grew up in, we do!

I will just mention one more out of the litany of lame excuses given by the CUD to justify the travels: the conditions at home were not conducive for them to meet their supporters. This sounds plausible at face value. But if you seriously think about it, it really makes no sense. The methods which they can communicate with the populace in Ethiopia from abroad are one of the foreign based radios, mainly the Voice of American and the German radio, and online news outlets. As far as the radios are concerned, these individuals can make interviews even if they were stationed in Ethiopia. And the internet, how many Ethiopians have internet connections? Even then, aren’t the neutral and opposition leaning websites which could potentially be used blocked in Ethiopia anyway? May be these guys didn’t hear about that, they were in prison then. Talk of Demolition Man!

In retrospect, I feel like they rushed out of Ethiopia because they would not find cheering crowds for their fights if they stayed in. It has now almost become a cliché to say that Ethiopians at home are much more cool-headed than most of their compatriots abroad. Indeed this was proven true in this instance too. When the diaspora was busy taking sides in the ensuing disputes, people at home were signing petitions asking for a truce. The CUD leaders were apparently accountable to their handlers and kept on fighting shrugging off voters who actually should matter more.

Right from the start it was apparent that the coalition would take putting petty issues such as ego, pre-coalition party affiliation, lust for power aside. It required putting the best interests of the country above everything else. With people who can even kiss with the infamous military junta (Derg) if it means “lijoch lemasadeg” (translation: raise children) that was too much to expect, I guess.

Divisions have been occurring within political parties and they will continue to. If they can be resolved with a compromise or a majority vote and every one abides by the decision, well and good. If not, there is nothing wrong with parting ways with dignity. Mind you I am not advocating for a split within the CUD. But I can’t help noticing the fission. Back to my point: aren’t these people mature enough to handle differences without slinging mud at each other? The only thing they accomplished by the acrimonious interviews they gave to all journalist and wannabe journalists is tearing each other down and losing the respect of the audience. I have heard seniors complaining about “good old days”. But I never thought, given our culture of high regard for the elderly, that such a deterioration of good traditions would happen in my life time. And I still have many years to live, I hope, even by the low life expectancy that we have. Scary, eh? Actually I should dismiss these incidents as exposing lack of character on the part of the individuals concerned and not a cultural issue. I will be doing a disservice to the good mannered senior citizenry of Ethiopia otherwise.

The events I listed above are at least three months old. Readers may ask why I regurgitate my disappointments now. It is because of an interview I listened to two days ago. It was from a CUD leader I had very high regards for. I had his picture in my desktop, kept his pictures in some of my online profiles and all. My friends wondered if my obsessions with him aren’t going a bit too far. Even when every news about the CUD was lately negative, I held on because of my favorite guy. So this interview was kind of a deal breaker.

Asked why he decided to stay in the US while his colleagues were returning to Ethiopia, he bluntly replied “so what? Can’t I stay here? Why are you guys yourselves not returning home?” Say what? You can stay, we couldn’t care less about that. But the people you almost told to go home first didn’t go to the US on an official party business and remain there. You can live your private life, but then don’t go around masquerading as a leader! Talking of the fellowship from your alma mater, congratulations! But that is personal. It was sad to hear you say that you want to use it to chart the next route in the struggle. Talk about leadership! Say you were at the helm of the Ethiopian government and some disaster happened, you know like our insane cousin to the North invading the country, something of that magnitude. Will you go look for a fellowship to think about what to do or may be get a graduate student to study it? That’s exactly what you are doing now, I mean if you insist on saying you are doing it for Ethiopia. Didn’t you at the outset think that the going will get this tough? Didn’t you have clear ideas of what you wanted for Ethiopia (apart from unseating the incumbent) when you run for office? If you want to make academic research on the current situation in Ethiopia, that’s your choice. We can only wait to read the publications at the end. But know that you have left so many of your followers in the cold. You can give it any name, but it’s just a cut and run.

It was heart breaking to hear you put it as if some people have issues with your fellowship. Come again? At that point I felt like I was listening to Britney Spears or Paris Hilton speaking in Amharic. You know, the kind of people who get much more attention than they can handle and start saying nonsense to their screaming fans? “Why should any one care if I get paid to go to the mountains and think?” and things like that.

By the way, mountain thinker, shall we climb up to hear the sermons or will you descend with the tablets?

The author is a researcher based in the Eindhoven University of Technology and may be reached at [email protected]