Reflections
on The Ethiopian Condition.
BY
Teodoro’s Kiros (Ph.D.)
A
few years ago, I wrote sustained articles on the
Idea of Ethiopianity, the corner stone of
Ethiopian Pride, manifest in the classical battle
at Adwa, where our Ethiopian ancestors gave their
lives, so that we Ethiopians can live in dignity
and prosperity. I
would like to refuel the engines of Ethiopianity
on which I have contributed.
I maintain that pride in our Ethiopianity even now in the
turbulent and trying times in my beloved home.
Much has happened since I wrote last. Much
needs to be corrected by the existing regime, as
it prepares the coming Ethiopian generation to
assume power with a new national consciousness
that will free the country from negative ethnicity
on which I reflected in Two
Concepts of Ethnicity a few years ago.
The present situation should not be manned by ethnicity; rather
New Ethiopianity must be our banner.
We are not going to answer hate with hate.
Rather, the ethnic hates which we have embraced
must be replaced by national Ethiopian
consciousness, which aims at ending class
privileges and the abuse of poor women across the
Ethiopian landscape. Our
resolve to save our historic nation does not have
to be propelled by the wings of negative
ethnicity; however, hurt we are by the damages of
negative ethnicity, we can still engage the
enabling power of Ethiopianity to cleanse
ourselves from the DDT of negative ethnicity.
Love is a healer, whereas hate is a destroyer.
This is a proposition that our flawed
nature definitely needs and which can humanize us.
It is a practical proposition that we must reflect
on, deeply and seriously, to save a historic
nation on the verge of a civil war. Now is the
time to discipline ourselves and answer hate with
love and strategic understanding. Now is the time
that we must become Existentially
Serious, as I have argued for the past few
years.
I am convinced that we Ethiopians have
long internalized the unifying power of
Ethiopianity, an Ethiopianity which marked our
history with the rendezvous with victory at the
famous battle of Adwa.
We must move forward with the progress that we have made and
produce national policies which will spread the
prosperity by the few to be the collective
prosperity of all Ethiopians.
Dr. Ghelawdewos Araia’s has correctly suggested that,
By way of concluding and offering some advice to the EPRDF, I like
to recommend the following: 1) The EPRDF must
carefully diagnose the trends and patterns shown
by African leaders who were self-proclaimed
permanent rulers and who brought so much damage to
their respective countries. The ruling party
should not follow their example and should rather
prepare itself an exit strategy; 2) given the
complex Ethiopian political landscape, the
weakness of the opposition, and the predominance
of ethnocentric politics and values, it would be
advisable that the EPRDF stay in power but with
the sole purpose of giving a chance to a new
leadership (“young blood”) via peaceful
transition; 3) at long last, the pan-Ethiopian
agenda and Ethiopian nationalism must be
revitalized in such a way not only to galvanize
country-wide sentiments, but also to purposely
mobilize the Ethiopian people against the enemies
of Ethiopia and transcending all narrow
ethno-nationalist proclivities and political
programs; 4) the EPRDF must be transparent not
only in its routine government operations but also
with respect to some suspicious incidents that
have afflicted the Ethiopian larger society for
relatively long time. ( Trends
and Patterns in Contemporary Ethiopian Politics, Tigraionline, www.africanidea.org ,
ethioobserver.net,Dec 14, 2017)
The call for an exit strategy can complement the report of the
executive committee’s promising and serious
proposal that highlights the rightly positive
achievements of the regime in power, which are
internationally recognized, have been marred by
failure in three crucial areas (1) the economy (2)
Administration and the handling of the people’s
protests.
(1)
The
transformational gains embodied in impressive
infrastructure, schools and universities, clinics
are all marks of development which have put
Ethiopia on the map.
The benefits of these gains however, have
been punctured by corruption at the federal and
local levels, and that the regime has not
succeeded in recruiting talented minds from all
nationalities. This failure could destroy the
economy unless it is immediately attended by
identifying and systematically cultivating young
Ethiopians who could be trained to carry forward
the achievement of their elders, who have already
done enough. The
existing regime should have a transformational
vision which reaches out to coming generations who
could take the achievements to the next level of
development. The regime must learn the imperative
intergenerational transformation of power and
begin to practice it. On a philosophical plane
these existential imperatives force us to admit
our mortality and share our short life by
nurturing those who will inherit our legacies.
Also,
corruption at the highest levels must be exposed
and severely punished by democratic measures. As
promised by the executive committee’s report,
educated Ethiopians must be invited by the regime
to lead the way free of domination from the top.
(2)
At the moment, the
administrative sphere is contaminated by negative
ethnicity. Power is being given to those who may
not be fully qualified. Ethnic
loyalty as opposed to merit is leading the way. This
must be stopped. Again, the regime could seek help
from educated Ethiopians to carry out the needed
research, identify the centers of corruption, make
recommendations, weigh the recommendations and
choose the best decision that reflects the idea of
Ethiopianity.
The needed empirical research cannot be
conducted by the bureaucrats who are benefitting
from the corruption. This important task must be
conducted by objective outside professionals who
are committed to make Ethiopia great.
(3)
The
grievances of the people have been badly handled
by the regime for the past few years. This too
could be handled differently.
The regime should firstly separate media
leaders who may be fueling hate by engaging
negative ethnicity from youth and their parents
who are marred in poverty and cultural dislocation
and are appealing to the regime to recognize them
and their needs and make every effort to spread
the wealth and prosperity of the nation to them
also. Here the cardinal virtues of equality and
dignity, the distinguishing features of
revolutionary democracy must be honored, as
promised in the Executive Committee Report.
Concertation
of wealth at the highest levels of the leadership,
as admitted by the regime, is what is angering the
Ethiopian poor’s. This anger, if uncontrolled,
cannot be contained by imprisoning the leaders of
the protestors, the cause of the anger must be
removed by effective revolutionary regime policy.
It is at this level, if the regime does its work
well, that Ethiopianity could be watered by the
abolition of classes, and the New Ethiopia of
nations and nationalities could wear a
revolutionary garb and silence those who are
igniting the fires of hate.
In
conclusion, I would like to make a few suggestions
to the powers that be and the writers of the
promising and serious report.
(1)
I for one, am taking the promises of the report so
seriously that I will be heartbroken if these
promises are broken and the hearts of Ethiopians
are again shattered. When Ethiopians are ready to
forgive, and they might, then the regime must
clean its acts and deliver the promises in
consultation with the people and in concert with
educated Ethiopians as the report emphasized
twice. The educated with the right moral fiber
must be given positions of authority with trust
and respect.
(2)
The regime must begin immediately nurturing and
grooming new blood, as Dr. Ghelawdewos has wisely
suggested while it is still in power.
(3)
EPRDF, a party of New Ethiopianity, must do a
better job of reintroducing itself to Ethiopians
not as an Ethnocracy but Ethiopianity. This vision
for which the armed struggle was fought must be
reinvigorated by the able hands of educated
writers who can help the regime while it is busily
implementing its impressive programs. At the
moment, the party does not have committed and
talented writers to popularize the programs of the
party. This too must change, and those who know
must lead the way. Knowledge must guide policy and
those who know must be invited to provide
solutions.
If
the party wants to assume the status of an
educator and a moral leader, it must search its
soul and purify itself to the highest level of
leadership. As the regime hints in the report it
is not sufficiently ethical and that its
bureaucrats are advancing their interests while
three fourth of the population for whom and by
whom the armed struggle was fought are living in
deplorable conditions and gazing at stars at
night. The
abolition of this wretched condition must be the
central goal of the party. The armed was fought to
end the domination of classes and not the
perpetuation of class and ethnic privilege.
(4)
The regime must
correctly be praised for the number of the
universities that it has constructed, but the
conditions at the university must be revisited. As
a starter, the party should not be in the business
of competing with the professors who teach there
about curricular matters. It should take its
hands-off university life and discontinue offering
positions based on ethnicity. The vision should be
the development of an Ethiopian citizen for whom
ethnicity is merely an accidental badge.
Moreover, university students ought to
exercise their Ethiopian rights and advocate for
the poor and dislocated as a matter of being
engaged students. The challenges which students
raise should not be translated as ethnically
motivated but as expressions of citizenship. The
idea of Ethiopianity is an articulation of a
concerned Ethiopian citizen. The regime should
immediately follow this path, and in a few years,
it will begin to witness a new era in Ethiopian
politics. Students should and will continue to
protest on the behalf of the Ethiopian poors, not
as members of an ethnic group, but as Ethiopian
nationals. Ethiopianity and national citizenship
will replace tribal and ethnic identities, and
positive identity will complement Ethiopianity.
(5)
Finally, as a
potential moral and strategic educator, the party
must preach to its functionaries that politics is
not dirty, nor is life short and brutish, as
Neo-Liberals think; in fact, revolutionary
politics is necessarily patient, generous,
truthful and Just and that the leaders themselves
must embody these virtues in order to lead.
To be continued.
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