IDEA Editorial

July 22, 2007

Good News From Ethiopia in Anticipation of the Millennium Celebration

Like most people of good will and endowed with reason, I am delighted to learn that the 38 prisoners were pardoned and released. IDEA was confident that the final fate of the said persons was going to be one of joy and jubilation. In anticipation of this great news, on June 23, 2007, IDEA editorial entitled “Granting Freedom to Political Prisoners is a Step in the Right Direction,” in part stated, “At long last the Ethiopian government has decided to grant freedom to political prisoners, and we at IDEA say this is a step in the right direction. We have pleaded to the Government several times to pardon and release the prisoners, and the government now decided to set them free, we would like to use this opportunity to extend our gratitude to the Ethiopian authorities.” That anticipatory remark has now been reinforced by the real freedom of the prisoners.

With respect to political prisoners we have said all along that they must be pardoned not simply because they were prisoners of conscience or because we have endorsed their political agenda. We have advocated on their behalf simply because they are Ethiopians and they deserve to contribute to civil society instead of being wasted behind bars. So, our advocacy is at once humane and neutral and not political. In this context, of course, we like to remind our subscribers that we respect alternative perspective even if it is contrary to our own principled stands that we have advanced from time to time.

However, we also like to use this opportunity to critique the various episodes of intellectual “insights,” catapulted in one form or another, vis-à-vis the current politics in Ethiopia. Unfortunately, most of the Ethiopian websites, discussion forums, and radio networks, are infested with eclectic methodological choices, paradox of inconsistencies, and mechanistic world outlook. We at IDEA have no problem with widely differing assumptions; in fact, we have been encouraging the multidimensional nature of civil discourse, which in turn could foster a healthy democratic system. We very well understand that sociopolitical and socio- cultural idiosyncrasies are to be expected in a given complex political web.

The above reasoning enables us to critically examine cynical politics at a deeper level and explore the various groupings who are either genuinely opposed to the policies of the Ethiopian government or those who claim to be patriotic, but on the contrary promote hate politics. Unfortunately, the former are minuscule and ill-organized; the latter are multitude, at times arbitrary in their outlook, often times carry double-edged ideological content in their deliberations, but for the most part foster innocuous-sounding assumptions. Thus far, the ideologues of this group have only entertained scattered political and philosophical observations. This is what I mean  by ’mechanistic world outlook’; in its extreme version, it could be called ’sterile politics’. and it is this kind of politics - a profusion of technical issues -  that pushed the CUD or Kinijit movement astray.

As we have argued several times,  the Kinijit group should have seized the moment in the post-election period, enter parliament, and make itself part of the political system instead of depending on the nuisance of the Diaspora supporters that ultimately led to catastrophic outcomes. But, not all the CUD supporters were of the same mind. Some, in Ethiopia, were sincere in their actions; others were fellow travelers, and yet others betrayed their own comrades when the CUD leaders were thrown into the Kaliti jails. Similarly, some of the Kinijit supporters in the Diaspora were sincere and committed to the meaningful change in Ethiopia; others actually were opportunists who managed to amass fortune for their own selfish interests under the guise of pro-CUD advocacy.

What is important, now, however, is the pardoning and freedom of the 38 CUD leaders. It is a delight to witness their reunion with their respective families, as Siye Abraha did with his family and his ailing mother. We also wish the Kinijit leaders a happy and prosperous life as well as  reintegration in Ethiopian politics, and if they pursue the latter they must seriously consider the subtle nuances of Third World politics; they must transcend cultural and linguistic (ethnic politics) affinities; they should not be limited to and motivated by political considerations (the power nexus) but should also consider the exigencies of economic development or transformative politics; avoid completely the pernicious effect of cutthroat competition; try to reconcile its differences with the EPRDF and other contending parties. At this present moment, however, the CUD leadership and other freed politicians like Siye should simply take it easy, lay back, and “forget” politics and usher rather psychosomatic regeneration.

On behalf of IDEA, Inc.

Ghelawdewos Araia