Human Rights in Polarized Ethiopia: the need for collaboration

Aklog Birara, PhD

December 4, 2014

Presentation at the SHENGO DC Forum on Human Rights

Aklog Birara (DR), November 30, 2014 (Part one of three)

Remark

This series is intended for the benefit of those who did not attend the forum.

Why are human rights essential?

If we respect ourselves as people and want the world community to respect us and support our causes, we must face up to the demanding responsibility of owning and leading the struggle for human dignity, rights, the rule of law and representative governance ourselves. No one will do it for us. In terms of justice, rights, fair distribution of incomes and access to opportunities, sustainable and equitable development and the like the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) controlled and led government of Ethiopia has failed. This is one part of the story. The other is what the rest of us are doing to redress the situation. Blaming others, including the repressive regime is easy. Offering a compelling alternative is hard.

I believe that we—the people of Ethiopia at home and those of us in the Diaspora who believe in their plight and cause—can make a difference. For this to happen we must overcome the Tigray People’s Liberation Front’s corrosive ideology of irreconcilability among Ethiopia’s 96 million people. This ideology is based on hate rather than mutual respect and tolerance. Often times, it seems that we are driven by the ruling party’s ideology and strategy of worshipping our differences rather than our incredible diversity. Observers find it hard to believe that Ethiopia’s opposition within and outside the country is reactive rather than proactive. It is often driven by the ruling party’s agenda rather than its own.

Those of us who want a government that is accountable to and serves the people are unable to lead the struggle; we simply react to it. Let us face it. Most of us want justice but defer to others to gain it for us; even if it costs their lives. Freedom and justice are not free goods anywhere in the world. They are earned.

By now, we should know that TPLF and by extension, the EPRDF ideology is determined to “divide and rule” and control the national economy and resources in perpetuity. It does this through a web of controlling institutions and through fear. It has foreign support.

I find it utterly sad that Ethiopia’s civic and political opposition groups and prominent individuals who should know better “have agreed to disagree” in perpetuity (ላለመስማማት መስማማት) as a matter of principle. This is exactly what the TPLF/EPRDF wants us to do. In part, this phenomenon is an outcome of the deliberate polarization of Ethiopian society and the diminishing of common bonds. Ethnic and religious based polarization is essentially Balkanization and effective de-Ethiopianization. It is a means of control and as such a means to diminish rights and to disempower.

Polarization has the unintended consequence of reducing collaboration and unity on the fundamental principle of human rights and fundamental freedom among those who live outside the country as much as those who live in Ethiopia. In my mind, rights and fundamental freedom are indivisible. They are ethnic, age, gender and religion blind. They apply to Oromo, Amhara, Tigray, Somali, Gurage, Annuak etc. alike. One life is no better than the other. One ethnic or religious group is no better than the other. It is this we have failed to recognize and realize. Most of us are oblivious to the fact that the ruling party has made numerous inexcusable mistakes. I have highlighted these in the past and will mention the core ones again.

Policy mistakes generations won’t forget

TPLF’s history with regard to harming Ethiopia’s long-term interests and the security of its people is replete with failures:

i) It abandoned Ethiopia’s legitimate access to the sea and made it land locked

ii) It failed to address the policy, cultural and structural roots of hunger, malnourishment, environmental degradation, job security and ownership of land and other assets by Ethiopians

iii) It ceded vast tracts of fertile lands and waters to North Sudan

iv) It polarized Ethiopian society by pitying one group against another

v) It transferred millions of hectares of farmlands and waters to foreign investors (Karuturi, Saudi Star and others) in an opaque manner dispossessing Ethiopians, making the country vulnerable to political conflict and disintegration

vi) It closed political, social and economic space making a mockery of its own Constitution

vii) It caused the largest human (social capital) exodus in the country’s history thereby eroding talent and continuity

viii) It created unprecedented income inequality through deliberate party intervention in procurement, credit, access to land, permits and the like

ix) It opened up Ethiopia’s wombs by selling and or transferring real resources from Ethiopians to foreign investors, crowded out deserving and hardworking Ethiopians and deterred the national private sector from emerging

x) It burdened future generations with foreign debt that has reached $20 billion and domestic borrowing and debt in excess of 60 billion Birr

xi) It directly or indirectly sponsored or facilitated illicit outflow of capital in excess of $30 billion to-date, about $3 billion per year

xii) It established and institutionalized assaults on civil liberties and human rights and implanted a culture of fear and mutual suspicion