ሩህ ሚዲያ – Ruh Media

By: Habtamu Girma

Lecturer, Department of Economics, Jigjiga University, Ethiopia

NOTE FROM A WRITER

የአረንጓዴ አሻራ ቀን ግቡን መቷል! ኢትዮጵያዊያን እንኳን ደስ አለን!

የአረንጓዴ አሻራ ፊት አውራሪ የሆኑት ጠቅላያችን አብይ አህመድ ዛሬም በአስቸጋሪውና ነጎድጓዳማው የኢትዮጵያ የፖለቲካ ሰማይ ላይ በረራቸውን በብቃት ተወጥተዋል። የቀደሟቸው መሪዎችም ቢሆኑ በራሳቸው መንገድ በጭጋጋማው የኢትዮጵያ የፖለቲካ አየር ለመብረር ሞክረዋል። በረራቸውን በተመለከተ ስኬታማ ነበሩ ወይስ…? ብያኔው ከኛው ከተሳፋሪዎቹ ነው።

ታዲያ ከብያኔአችን ቀድመን “ከበሮ ሲያዩት ያምር ሲይዙት ያደናግር” የሚለውን የአበው አባባል ስንቶቻችን አስታውሰናል?
በእርግጥም ቀድሞ ማሞካሸት ቀድሞ ለመውቀስ ነው። ሙገሳም ሆነ ወቀሳ በምክንያት ሲሆን ያስከብራል።

ይህ መጣጥፍ መሪዎቻችንን (የቀደሙትንም ሆነ የአሁኖቹን) ስንመዝን እንዴት? ለምን? የሚለው ዋነኛ ጭብጡ ነው። ተጽፎ ከታተመ አንድ ዓመት ደፈነ፣ የመልዕክቱ ይዘት ግን ዛሬም ይሠራል።

በፈረንጅ አፍ የተጻፈበት ምክንያት መልዕክቱ ለኛ ብዙም አዲስ ስላልሆነ ነው።

This Article was originally Published by Media and Communication Center, The Reporter Ethiopia. It can be accessed online via the link: https://www.thereporterethiopia.com/article/dont-look-abiy-look-where-abiylooking

Excerpts from the Piece

“……As we learn from political history of the world, transition times are by far tougher and rocky. Hence, it is not surprising that the changing face of Ethiopia may be accompanied by some woes. Here, readers shall not misperceive my point, that I am not belittling the woes happening to millions of citizens in various parts of Ethiopia. In this time where our country embarked on the right path of democracy, we should not look at Abiy; we have to look at where Abiy is looking…..”

Shy away from hasty-generalization!

As one of the evils of Ethiopian political system is unfair and unbalanced judgment on our leaders, past or present, and their governances. I believe that before judging our political leaders, we need to see circumstances and contexts, and we find ‘time factor’ a better word to represent those underlying issues for considerations. As one Amharic saying goes, ‘brave is time, not man’. The essence of this saying is that it is not to total discretion of a man to behave, act or decide as he wishes or believes it to be. Time factor is a strong force that may (can) trigger and/or limit a man to behave, act or decide not in his/her desire, but in a way it has to be.
By way of explaining my point, I quest why the corollary of the saying may not hold. I mean, why not we blame time factor for at least allowing, if not triggering men behave in (act) bad manner, as it is credited for the bravery of political leaders? My point is without considering time factor, our assessment on our leaders and their regimes would be far less credible and genuine.

Showcases of Bias

The ugly face of Ethiopian politics is how the elites rate or judge political figures, often biased for many reasons. Indeed, biased narratives on regimes (past and the incumbent) and leaders takes up one face of Ethiopian political culture. For instance, a blind accusation on H.I.M Haile Selassie I and Mengistu Haile Mariam’s rule makes up the most itching element of our recent history that should be scratched. Those regimes had many deeds, whose fruits successive generations reaped and future generations will reap.
Evident from political discourses reflecting on Meles and his 23 years of leadership, they are all polarized, which are neither credible nor genuine. Though it is too early to infer on reflections by pundits about the new prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed (PhD), bias assessments are likely to hear as time progresses.

Understanding Meles Zenawi and his Leadership

As is true to his predecessors, Meles Zenawi and his leadership often applauded or accused not in proper scale. The late prime minister and his rule, with many faults, was not bad in all measures. It is undeniable that Meles’ rule has had enduring contributions not to past and current generation, but also to the coming ones too. To mention one is the federal rule being practiced in Ethiopia, for which Meles was an architect. In my opinion, the federal system resolved the age old quest for the right of self-rule of Nations, Nationalities and Peoples (NNPs) of Ethiopia. Right to worship and practice one’s religion is another breakthrough followed the onset of Meles’ rule in 1991.
In terms of freedom of speech and right to express one’s thought, Meles’ rules had wide scale of condemnations by pundits, whose essence I also share. Still, however, there are elements which we need to give credit. One such is the constitutional article that bans censorship on any written account set to be publicized. I remember from my readings, that Professor Mesfin Woldemariam in one of his pieces wrote this constitutional article better preserved in EPRDF’s rule.
Another bias on the political personality Meles Zenawi, which is all polarized. For his supporters, Meles was selfless, pragmatic, and democrat; for his opponents the leader was eccentric, dogmatic, and undemocratic. But a fair picture about political personality of Meles only be depicted if we are honest to consider time factor: specific contexts and circumstances. A particular mentioning are his political personality as autocratic leader and his role & legacy in Ethiopian politics. Indeed, I recognize the two elements are yardsticks to judge on the revolutionary democratic leader.
And given the prevailing political system of Ethiopia, it is unfortunate that Meles’ dictatorship can be justified. But, Meles’ contribution to cleanse the evils of Ethiopian political system is nil.
As a political face of Ethiopia is the motive of many of our elites to involve in politics. More often than not, their venture in politics is meant not to flag popular causes, but personal gains and/or agenda. It is common our politicians use politics a platform to work on their vested interests driven by hatred, hostility and victimhood mentality. Therefore, before labeling Meles a dictator, it takes to look our political culture. The ugly faces of Ethiopian political system give democratic leader hard times in his rule.
And as will be elaborated in successive paragraphs, I suspect the evils of our political system may trigger dictations, not democratic rule, even for our new prime Minister, whose political personality hailed democratic.
I blame Meles Zenawi not by his autocratic leadership, but for failing to use his plus two decades of state power to do away with hatred politics and national reconciliation. It is ironic that Meles and his leadership have been opted a political strategy or tactic that preserve, even adds, to the ailments of the political system: hatred, hostility, and victimhood mentality. As a consequence, the Ethiopian political market is still struggling with minor issues than on topics to a strategic importance in nation building. It is unfortunate that politics, rather than a tool to addressing challenges of the mass, have bee dividing the Ethiopian populace.

Abiy Ahmed (PhD) and his Government

The second bias I observe from political market lies how not few of us reflecting on the newly selected Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed (PhD). There are groups who blame Abiy arguing his decisions in key national agendas lacks thoughtfulness. This, however, stems from not understanding the temperature of current Ethiopian politics. Abiy was awaited with a government and institutions which lost legitimacy of Ethiopian populace. Under this tense political time, rapid response is necessary to restore legitimacy of government. Unless, the country will be faced with lawlessness and anarchism. In this context, what a wise leadership would do is the way Abiy is doing. That is the only way EPRDF led government win legitimacy.
Reconciliation, integrity, unity and brotherhood, virtues for which Abiy has been preaching in the past three months, are values for every healthy human. That justifies why Ethiopians from every corners are grossly lending support to Abiy Ahmed. Any judgment on Abiy and his rule should be cautious.

Ratchet Effect may hold

Since he took office in April 2018 to date, Abiy is yet to start politics. Abiy has been touring Ethiopia to heal wounds of past injustices, cleanse hate minds and vie for love, reconciliation and unity. But what would be when the day changes, when Abiy embarks on his political venture, perhaps in the weeks or months to come?
I am afraid we Ethiopians will prey victims of a ratchet effect. A ratchet effect is tendency of people to be influenced by the previous highest (or best) level of a factor (variable).
As Abiy start his political venture, his moves inevitably go against the interest of some groups or sections of society. Unless we see the benefit of the mass and be open minded, judgments in this regard would be all to bias.
My fear also goes to supporters of Abiy possessed by faulty sentiments, perhaps stemmed from considering Abiy and his government perfect, slip away from gross applaud to get back gross condemnation and total discredit. My suggestion for such individuals, if any, is: expect Abiy has done and will do many goods to us; expect too he will make mistakes in the process.
The point I am driving at is the need for us all Ethiopians (not taking myself out of the box) to endow fair judgment.

Abiy may turn a Dictator!

Since taking office three months ago, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and his rule is passing decisions over decisions on daily basis to heal the fractures of the Ethiopian political system, that is hate, hostility and victimhood mentality. However, circumstantial evidences on the current states of affairs of Ethiopia reveals the evils of our political system remain big hurdle for political transition to democracy.
News of looting, banditry and lawlessness have been aired in the past few months or so. And the reasons for chaos, as has been aired by pundits, were elements within EPRDF who failed to embrace ideals of democracy and who unable to cope up with the time. I suspect that persist to be the tough challenge Abiy’s leadership confront in the time to come.
The worst case, but a likely to happen is thwt the evils of Ethiopian political system trigger Abiy to adjust his political personality, and turn dictator. For a leader widely hailed for his political personality as democratic, the Ethiopian political culture is testing his values. A recent parliamentary speech is a clue, when the Premier stressed elements within his own party and their supporters were taking advantage of his ruling principles – love, reconciliation and unity of all Ethiopians – to work on their destructive causes with impunity. Prime Minister Abiy openly expressed his fear that such moves would trigger a tit-for-tat from his leadership. As a consequence, two scenarios are possible.
For one it pulls back Abiy and his government and immerse into the vicious circle of hatred politics. And if Abiy’s move is retarded, one of Ethiopia’s biggest projects in history, that is cleansing the evils of the political system, would get a defeat. The second would be scenario is Abiy’s working principle may change. The carrot only method he has been using so far would be replaced with sticks only approach, turning Abiy from democrat to a dictator, the worst to fear happening

How Ethiopians Support Abiy?

As Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) is passionately leaping forward to realizing this project and mark his legacy by healing the fractures of the political system, Ethiopians have to stand with him. It takes for all of us be vigilant of defending the causes of Abiy – love, reconciliation and unity of Ethiopians. Therefore, while we remain watchdogs that Abiy is working to his promises, we have to understand that the march to realizing his project accompanied by flaws and mistakes. While helping mitigate the cost of realizing the project, the current generation of Ethiopia has historic responsibility to help our leader achieve his land mark project.
Those who may not be interested by the ongoing changes or unable to lend support to Abiy has to shy away from things that retard the pace of the ongoing change. They can do so at least by not politicizing the nutty and gritty. While judging the performance of Abiy and his government, we have to understand the country is in transition.

And as we learn from political history of the world, transition times are by far tougher and rocky. Hence, it is not surprising that the changing face of Ethiopia may be accompanied by some woes. Here, readers shall not misperceive my point, that I am not belittling the woes happening to millions of citizens in various parts of Ethiopia.
In this time where our country embarked on the right path of democracy, we should not look at Abiy; we have to look at where Abiy is looking.

May God Bless Ethiopia and its People !!!