Kerry-ing on with African Dictators

Kerry-ing on with African Dictators

My regular Monday Commentary scheduled for June 3 was delayed and a special commentary posted on that date in recognition of the peaceful mass human rights protest organized by the Blue (Semayawi) Party in Ethiopia over the past weekend. Click here to read

  by Alemayehu G. Mariam
I enjoy watching American diplomats chilling out and kicking it with African dictators. I like seeing them kumbaya-ing, back-patting and carrying on. Their body language, more than their forked diplomatic tongue, speaks more honestly and eloquently. I have learned to take their words with a grain of salt and a dash of pepper. (Is it true that a diplomat is an honest gentleman (woman) sent to lie abroad for the good of their country?)
Not to be misunderstood, I get a kick listening to American diplocrats (practitioners of human rights diplomacy by hypocrisy) pontificating about human rights. I enjoy listening to them talk as much as I like reading Lewis Carroll’s poem “The Jabberwocky”. The diplocrats say, “We will work diligently with Ethiopia to ensure that strengthened democratic institutions and open political dialogue become a reality for the Ethiopian people… We will work for the release of jailed scholars, activists, and opposition party leaders… History is on the side of brave Africans…” These words, like “The Jabberwocky”, are nonsense; but I enjoy fairy tales, like Alice in Wonderland. (If history is on the side of a few brave Africans, what is on the side of the millions of frightened Africans? Just curious.)
After listening to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at a press conference during the Golden Jubilee of the Organization of African Unity/African Union (OAU/AU) Summit (a/k/a “African Dictators’ Club”) in Addis Ababa last week, I have concluded it is preferable to watch American diplocrats than listening to them. Kerry made a number of statements at that press conference which were not only disconcerting but also appalling. (I was tempted to plug my ears, but didn’t have the darn things handy.) Kerry glibly remarked,
With respect to the economic growth, we [U.S.] would love to have Ethiopia’s economic growth. Ethiopia’s one of the ten fastest growing countries in the world. It’s up in the double digits in growth. It’s really quite an extraordinary story.
To paraphrase William F. Buckley, I do not want to insult Kerry’s intelligence by suggesting that he really believes what he said about Ethiopia’s economic growth and “extraordinary story”. I am just not sure he meant what he said. Actually, I am totally confused. Was he being artfully glib, patronizingly humorous, graciously disingenuous or congenially accommodating in his hyperbole? Could he be so woefully uninformed or willfully ignorant about Ethiopia? Could he be engaging in barefaced diplomatic mendacity?
If he really believes the canard, it is shocking because it shows a reckless disregard for elementary facts bordering on gullibility. If it is an attempt at humor, it is pretty lame. If he is being disingenuous, no one is amused. If he said it to patronize his hosts, he does great disservice to U.S. foreign policy by lending the credibility of his high office to legitimize a manifest and notorious fraud.
A fact check by the Associated Press reporter Bradley Klapper following Kerry’s press conference showed a disturbing pattern of loosey-gooseyness with the facts. Kerry seemed to be sleepwalking facts. Klapper cites numerous instances of factual lapses at the press conference in which “Kerry exaggerated the U.S. record on climate change, appeared to conflate past U.S. policy on drones with President Barack Obama’s new policy and gave an incomplete account of how he opposed the Iraq war (and how) he struggled with economic data as well as the contents of his own department’s terrorism blacklist.” Klapper gave a big smack down to Kerry’s assertion that “Ethiopia is up in the double digits in growth.” According to Klapper: “THE FACTS: Ethiopia’s economic growth was 7 percent last year, following several other years of growth in the mid to high single digits.”
American Diplocrisy by Kerry-speak?
Let me say at the outset that I have no intention of “swiftboating” Kerry. I am not criticizing him because he was waltzing with the dictators in Ethiopia on the marbled floors of the African Union Hall. I appreciate the need for diplomatic decorum. Diplomatic language must be used with delicacy. I also bear no malice towards Kerry. I supported and voted for him in the 2004 presidential election. Though I fiercely opposed Susan Rice’s potential nomination to become Secretary of State earlier this year (soon to be National Security Advisor), I raised no objection when Kerry’s name was submitted for Senate confirmation. I was not overly concerned about his foreign policy credentials since he was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. I followed his confirmation hearing closely.
I am, however, concerned about Kerry’s “factamnesia” (to coin a new word to describe the selective recollection of fantasy facts intentionally or to unwittingly paint a rosy picture of thorny policy issues and problems), loosey-gooseyness with facts in general and a penchant for “doublethink” and “doublespeak” (kerryspeak) on important issues. Kerry has a history of fudging facts which troubles me in light of his statements at the AU press conference. For instance, in October 2002, Senator Kerry said he voted to give President Bush authority to use force against Saddam Hussein because he “believed that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our security.” In February 2003, he said, “If you don’t believe…Saddam Hussein is a threat with nuclear weapons, then you shouldn’t vote for me.” (I did not believe Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction but voted for Kerry anyway.) In March 2004, Kerry said “I actually did vote for the $87 billion [for Iraq war] before I voted against it. …” (Should I say I actually did vote for Kerry before experiencing pangs of remorse for voting for him?) In September 2004, Kerry branded the Iraq war, “the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time”.
What really concerns me about Kerry as America’s diplomat-in-chief particularly in the human rights area is the same concern many of those closest to him had during the 2004 presidential election. Kerry has a penchant for being namby pamby on critical policy issues. During the second presidential debate in 2004, Kerry was asked by ABC news moderator Charles Gibson, “Senator Kerry, after talking with several co-workers and family and friends, I asked the ones who said they were not voting for you, “Why?” They said that you were too wishy-washy. Do you have a reply for them?” (I voted for Kerry despite the same misgivings.) Now that Kerry is America’s chief diplomat, I am worried about what a “wishy washy” Secretary of State could mean for African human rights.
Kerry-talking the myth of double-digit growth in Ethiopia
Benjamin Disraeli, the Nineteenth Century British politician, is reputed to have said, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” The late Meles Zenawi said it even better. In March 2010, Meles condemned and ridiculed the U.S. State Department’s “Reports on Human Rights Practices” on Ethiopia as “lies, lies and implausible lies.” He said the U.S. State Department could not tell a crooked lie straight: “The least one could expect from this report, even if there are lies is that they would be plausible ones,” snarled Zenawi. “But that is not the case. It is very easy to ridicule it [human rights report], because it is so full of loopholes. They could very easily have closed the loopholes and still continued to lie.”
I am not suggesting that Kerry follow Meles’ prescription to “easily close the loopholes and continue to lie” about Ethiopia’s “extraordinary story”. (It is a boldfaced lie to say the Reports on Human Rights Practices in Ethiopia are “lies, lies and implausible lies”.) Kerry is an honorable man and incapable of such chicanery.

The WHY question: The battle for freedom from Woyane tyranny

The battle for freedom in Ethiopia is a struggle to get the answer for the WHY questions. It is a war between tyranny and freedom movements to keep the people ignorant or enlightened respectively, noting more or less to it. Which sides of the battle we choose to be determines freedom and the fate of our people. Those that skirt the WHY question to fit their agenda are parasites that live off the blood and sweat of our people; expanding the grips and extending the life of tyranny. They are the living dead, noting more or less to them.
by Teshome Debalke
The article ‘Why’ in the Land of ‘No why’ by Brother Muktar M. Omer nailed the most important question of freedom and democracy in Ethiopia. It triggered me to speak my mind and put the issue to rest. The simple fact, we as people couldn’t ask the why question and get the appropriate answer tell the story of our predicaments under tyranny for too long. Likewise, the failure to establish the right institutions to identify the responsible parties and institutions of tyranny to ask the WHY questions and demand answer itself requires the WHY question.
At present, there is no dispute we are under a degenerate ethnic tyranny that sees the WHY question as the end of its illegitimate and corrupt rule. At the meantime, its stooges and supporters see it as an end of their rent seeking-afforded to them by the same tyranny. Others see it ‘what is it in for me’ in their quest to benefit from the chaos ethnic tyranny created. In contrast, the rest of Ethiopians see the WHY question as a life-and- death issue of freedom and liberty to end tyranny for good. These divergences of interests are what got us into endless squabble among ourselves and with tyranny and its riffraff. The saddest thing of all is it doesn’t require a PhD to figure out the WHY questions and the responsible parties to answer them. But, we keep on asking the wrong question at the wrong time by splitting hair and wasting time from burying tyranny for good.
We must understand the WHY question isn’t going away until it is answered in the public interest until tyranny no more. Nor, we should expect tyranny to answer the WHY question against its very existence. Our misunderstanding of the nature of tyranny is costing lives and resources. The more we entertain tyranny can see beyond it survival the more we fail to reach freedom and democracy. Therefore, we might as well deal with the nature of tyranny head-on and once-and-for-all and move on to the next steps of making the responsible parties accountable. Failure to address this simple fact is where millions of our people are suffering under tyranny.
Before I say the way the why question should be addressed let me say how I came around to answer it for myself and live by its creeds. Early in life I swore not to associate or join any organization or group that doesn’t answer the WHY question of my people if hell freezes over. This personal decision wasn’t out of enlightenment or some divine intervention. It was not defiantly for personal interest on the expenses of my people. Simply, love and respect to the rights of my people and my demand for answer to the WHY question thought me a hard lesson. Individual in the position of responsibility are not willing to answer or afraid of the WHY question. I quickly realize the nature of tyranny runs deep at individual level in avoiding the WHY question of public interest. Later in life, I experienced the same behavior at institutional level; running from the WHY question in one institution or another.
Therefore, I recognized institutional transparency the key to answer the WHY question. Ever since, I have no respect, recognition, or interest in any institution that doesn’t answer the WHY question on the universal suffrage and the political, social economic rights of my people, the Ethiopians.
In a simple democratic language, no mandate, no rule of law and no accountability; no respect, no recognition and no interest in such regimes, institutions or groups no matter how much they pander to my personal above my people’s interest. I particularly detest those that peddle on ethnicity, religion, region… as excuse not to answer the WHY question of my people. I believe, they are not only playing the ‘us against them’ game contrary to Ethiopiawinet but, incapable of entertaining the WHY question as a moving targets.
I also reached a conclusion; for the most part our contemporary intellectuals are not up to the job of taking our people to the promise land. Pandering for their individual interest of power and lust by all means they failed raising the WHY questions on behalf of our people. Beyond that, I watched when they reduced the bigger public interest into pity squabble willing to waste time; watching lives and limbs lost and the integrity of our people and nation compromised, contrary to the sprit of Ethiopiawinet.
Therefore, the article ‘Why’ in the Land of ‘No why’ by Brother Muktar is timely and stirred me up to say my thoughts. It is unavoidable question that must be dealt with institutionally by all responsible parties. Without addressing it transparently in the interest our people there is no going forward.
Who is frightened of the WHY question?
No need to list the unanswered WHY questions of the public in the last century that traumatized, tormented, robbed and reduced us into poverty, we are living it. In fact, it is so obvious for all; including the benefactors of tyranny they are chasing those that ask the WHY question. Our tormentors didn’t learn from the millions of death and destruction they caused to our people and country. They still ridicule and mock us on our suffering. They still insult our intelligence in public by showing their ugly faces everyday. They still tell us they are doing us a favor; growing and transforming the economy to feed us ‘three meals a day’. They still produce dramas; telling us they are the best thing that happened to us in millennium. The still call us terrorist, extremist, anarchist…for asking the WHY question.
The shameless Shemlse Kimal, ‘Deputy Information Minster’ audacity to tell us, Ethiopians we are not supposed to ask the WHY questions together but separately. In another words, we have to ask permission from the brazen ethnic tyranny when, where, why and how we can associate with our own flash and blood. When tyranny reached the bottom of the pits not far from where it started that is what we get.
The bald-faced Deputy Minster Custom Gabrewahid Wolde-Giorgis of TPLF that asked the WHY question 40 years too late is another shameless criminal of the ruling regime we have been subjected to be ruled under. His cry for WHY; when a kangaroo court of the ethnic tyranny he helped erect knocks on his door is typical. Many of us are guilty one time or another either asking the WHY question at the wrong time or for the wrong reasons, if we ever ask it at all until it knocks on our doors. Those that claim victims of regimes don’t ask the WHY question when they victimize others either.
Our contemporaries self-serving behavior opened the door for the lowest denominator to emerge in our tyranny infested society; followed by all kinds of division, wars, conflicts, atrocities, corruption, misery and hopelessness because we failed to ask the WHY question early on and demand an answer when someone is unjustly killed, imprisoned, loss livelihoods and rights violated. Instead we trip over each other to take advantage of each others’ misery. That must be stopped and it will.
Our forefathers ingenuity and wisdom that understood justice 1000 of years ago that sustain us for too long is no where to be found in our contemporary elites in the 21^st century. The best they do is blaming the past not to answer the WHY question of the present. How we degenerated to this level demands the WHY question and honest answers by itself.
The ‘WHY’ question has an easy answer if we have our people’s interest at heart. But, it is hard for many of our contemporaries; pandering one thing or another. Until we ask the WHY question collectively in the interest of our people we can chase one tyrant or another but we will never see the day of freedom and peace in our beloved country.
We must first ask ourselves; why we ask the WHY question too little too late? Why we are not tuned; asking the WHY question and getting the appropriate answer is the rights of every citizen and the only way out of tyranny? Why do we fail to understand we can’t hide behind our ethnicity, religion, region, or ideology not to answer the WHY question of the people? Why is it hard for us to come together to setup the institutions to ask the WHY question on behalf of our people?

SEMAYAWI PARTY HAS BROKEN THE SPELL

Imru Zelleke (Ambassador)
Thanks to the Semayawi (Blue) Party at last a light has appeared at the end of tunnel that leads to freedom. Those that have to be congratulated the most are the Ethiopian People at large who responded to the appeal in massive numbers with enthusiasm and dignity. They expressed clearly and without ambiguity their demands and aspirations.
A new phenomenon that gave impetus and dynamism to the movement is the overwhelming participation of the youth including the leadership. The highest accolades and compliments should be given to Engineer Yelikal Getinet and his colleagues for their courageous and exemplary leadership. They have overcome the negative paradigm of divisions and contentions that has so far infected the opposition factions, and appealed directly to the people. In fact it is time for the younger generation to take over the helm of the opposition; it is their future that is at stake. The elderly generation can give advice and share their experience, because the past is an essential element to understand the pre-existing conditions and to build the future on solid foundations.
This new advent on the political scene opens new challenges and pitfalls presaging critical events and conditions that must be met with clarity and absolute determination. I humbly suggest the following:

a. We should give up the notion of a “united” action. For the past forty years we have heard the word “unity, union, united etc.” that it has lost its meaning, and has become to mean to do nothing in unison, as the popular dictum “a committee is a gathering of people who cannot do anything by themselves, who together decide to do nothing”. A plethora of parties with hardly constituencies worth mentioning are more of a hindrance than a positive element. What is needed is a determined and genuinely patriotic group to leads the struggle for freedom. Semayawi Party has taken the lead with undeniable action let’s support them.

b. If the regime had a modicum desire to reform its governance, the current development would have been a good opportunity, unfortunately its reaction are negative and as usual consisting of intimidations and false accusations. As mass arrests and killings are likely to ferment further public anger, we have to look at what they could create to divert popular opinion and secure their survival. One way would be to use sacrificial lamb some the old honchos like Sebhat Nega, Azeb Mesfin and a few others for corruption, open some business space for loyal fellow travelers, and release some prisoners; a second way is to ignite some conflict with Eritrea or another neighbor in order to inflame the patriotism of the masses; a third way is to cause internecine conflicts and implement more coercive measures to impose their rule by share force.

c. Don’t expect any help from foreign sources; they have what they perceive as their national interest to maintain as long as things remain stable as they are momentarily. It is up to us to change conditions in our own country, and not by foreign forces.

d. The Semayawi Party and the parties who join them must be prepared to face these challenges with appropriately designed strategies and tactics, giving serious consideration to the strength

We need justice and freedom!

by Abebe kassa
We need justice and freedom was one of the main slogans demonstrators held on June 2 peaceful demonstration in Addis Abeba. Peaceful demonstrations were de facto banned by the regime since the aftermath of 2005 elections. Semayawi party challenged that and organized one on June 2,2013. Depending on the source from tens to hundreds of thousands of demonstrators from broad section of the society took their messages to the streets of Addis abeba. They put forward 4 clear demands: release all political prisoners, stop forced eviction of Ethiopians from their settlements, stop interfering in religion and incarceration of Muslim leaders, and address skyrocketing cost of living and unemployment. They gave the regime 3 months to respond. If the regime does not listen, they promised to hold more demonstrations. The rally was seen as a warm up for what is to come and serves as a yellow card for the regime. Now the ball is on TPLF’s side.

We need justice and freedom was one of the main slogans of Addis Ababa’s demonstration on June 2nd, 2013

The early signs are not promising. The regime does not seem ready to listen. Redwan Hussien the regime mouthpiece said in an interview that ” trying to stop cases which are under trials in the court system through peaceful demonstration and disturbances is unconstitutional”. His reply assumes that there is independent judiciary system in Ethiopia. We know that is a lie. The regime controls all 3 branches of the political system.Three out of four demands by the organizers are mainly results from lack of independent court system in the country. Believing his own regime lie, Redwan judges actions of peaceful demonstrators who asked the regime to stop using the legal means as a weapon to take away Ethiopians rights as unconstitutional. How he think of his regime forcing Muslim leaders to incriminate themselves in a fabricated video called ”Jihadawi Harekat” before the court makes any ruling?
Beyond his interview there is no official response by the regime to gauge their next move following June 2 protest rally. After 2005 election late PM Meles’s trademark response to public or opposition parties voicing against injustice and oppression had been ”to cut their fingers”. His style of leadership was first to frighten Ethiopians not to dare express their protests in public. Those who dared to do it has languished in prison and follow up with threats for those who might think to do it. The question now is what will be the figurehead PM Hailemariam response to the demonstrators demands and follow up demonstrations if demands are not met. More than once he affirmed his job is to follow on what his predecessor started. He continues to live in Meles’s shadow. Till this time there is no visible indication he can free himself and come up with his own doctrine. For some allowing the demonstration stimulate a faint hope that there could be a shift in the regime’s policy. We do not know why the regime allows it. We do not know how they are going to react when more protests are to follow. It is too early to suggest a shift in policy.
Abebe kassa, can be reached at : abkassa@gmail.com