Ethiopia on the road to nowhere
By Abebe Gelaw
The May 15th general election has been widely hailed a historic landmark in Ethiopia’s political history. There is no denying that this year’s election was unique as it clearly manifested the desire of the Ethiopian people to change the self-anointed ruling clique, which came to power fourteen years ago after seventeen years of destructive and bloody power struggle with the Mengistu regime. Regardless of the fraudulent count, it marks the maturity of political culture in Ethiopia that has long been characterized by violence.

But it is equally important to emphasize that no matter how resolute the majority of Ethiopians are to change their government peacefully through elections, the ruling clique appears to be unprepared to accept change gracefully. The hope for a peaceful democratic transition is in danger as a result of the obstinate stance on the part of the palace group. Resistance to change is a salient feature of tyranny. Change and tyranny are symmetrically opposite because tyranny has never been willing to budge to popular demand for political change.

The greatest challenge to democratization in Africa always comes from the ruling elites that find it hard to accept life after power. The ruling elites know that the hunger for excessive wealth, privilege, luxury and gluttony can never be satiated anywhere outside opulent palaces, where they live rent-free. The very thought of surrendering power with all its incalculable perks makes African leaders so nervous, suspicious and violent that they see insurrection in peaceful protests.

In an interview with ETV, the ruler, Ato Meles Zenawi, has made it clear that change will never come soon and there will be no hope for an interim government, which was proposed by UEDF and CUD. He maintained that his party has secured majority votes and the National Elections Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) would soon confirm that officially. According to His Royal Highness, rejecting NEBE’s election tallies or the decision of the courts, whose lack of independence is the root cause of the crisis, is tantamount to insurrection. He insisted that there was neither a need for fresh elections nor a coalition interim government that could rescue the nation from a relapse to political violence.

Ato Meles even ridiculed the opposition’s call for a fair share in the public funded media saying the opposition’s access to the media is not being considered as their right or a precondition for democracy but as per the gracious will of the ruling party. After a dull sophistry, he fell short of giving an assurance that opposition parties would have their constitutionally enshrined right respected to access the taxpayer-funded mass media.

The leader of the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF), which has spent 17 years fighting to ‘liberate’ Tigray from the Derg, must realize how the nation has suffered not only during its destructive and bloody ‘war of liberation’, but after it imposed its own brand of tyrannical rule in May 1991. After fourteen years of tyranny, Meles is yet again determined to continue leading the nation to Armageddon without accepting the fact that he is a cause for the crisis.

The electorate clearly abhors his sinister ethnic politics meticulously and maliciously designed to divide and oppress. Yet Ato Meles’ messages to the Ethiopian people appear unacceptable because his rebel group which has fought to ‘end’ tyranny should have transformed itself to a civilized political force that gives peace and democracy a chance rather than sustaining tyranny in different colours. It should have come up with coherent political, economic and social policies rather than playing the dangerously divisive ethnic cards for so long. Why does Meles’ TPLF expect the nation to elect leaders who openly profess to be narrow ethnocrats? Why is it a sin to cherish a desire to elect leaders who can unify and represent the whole nation no matter what their ethnic origin?

Opposition parties, who have rapidly gained their strength not through divisive ethnic agenda but through unity, should not be seen as enemies but as partners for peace and democracy. Though Ato Meles declared that his party has no common ground with the opposition, peace can only be achieved when all contending parties accept a mutually agreed framework to resolve the disputes that arose in the aftermath of the elections. It is not judicious to force the opposition or the millions of people they represent to accept whatever suites the ruling ethnocrats. As we have witnessed, the elections have turned into farcical ploys mainly due to the fact that the election board openly sides with the ruling party that created it. Both sides need to make sure that the election board is a trustworthy neutral body whose sole purpose it to organize and supervise elections, which are the most important manifestations and expressions of democracy.

The ruling party need to accept the responsibility for turning a general election into a melodrama. The NEBE has now lost the trust of the people and almost all contesting parties, except the TPLF and its puppies. Whether there is an investigation of vote rigging or not, the board does not command the popular trust it desperately needs to be taken seriously. Even if that is the fact, the board is ready to do the ultimate job given to it by its creator. It will soon crown Ato Meles for another five years. If everything goes according to plan, Meles will be in power for a total of nineteen years and may be more. That is bad news for the majority oppressed by a minority armed group. As Winston Churchill puts it: “Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry."

Just to state the obvious, political legitimacy cannot be secured by guns and declarations. The source of real political legitimacy is the will of the people. As long as the aspiration of the Ethiopian people is to establish a democratic government, the people’s votes need to be respected. Otherwise the inevitable conflict between the people and tyranny will have undesirably incalculable repercussions.

Meles’ obstinate stand has once again put the nation in despair. Politics without compromise and concessions becomes a dangerous gamble that can lead to another cycle of war and violence. Regrettably the root cause of grinding poverty, famine and backwardness in Ethiopia is violent internecine conflicts that the Ethiopian people hate to bring back to their own detriment. As NEBE’s melodramatic elections have proved too farcical to accept, the call for a coalition interim government, mandated to ensure peace and stability until the people give their verdict in a truly free and fair election, appears rational. Otherwise, the nation will remain in despair and at loggerheads with tyranny. That will continue to put Ethiopia on the bumpy dark road to nowhere….
In the words of the American poet Vichel Lidsay:
“On the road to nowhere
What wild oats did you sow
When you left your father's house
With your cheeks aglow?
Eyes so strained and eager
To see what you might see?
Were you thief or were you fool
Or most nobly free?…

O nowhere, golden nowhere!
Sages and fools go on
To your chaotic ocean,
To your tremendous dawn.
Far in your fair dream-haven,
Is nothing or is all...
They press on, singing, sowing
Wild deeds without recall!

I believe the proposal for an interim gov't is a good idea because TPLF has already told the whole world that it is not willing to share power.