Let the People go! Travel ban does not solve the problem

By Temesgen Zewdie 

The Honorable Temesgen Zewde is foreign relations chief of UDJP (Andenet) Party (Photo: Ethiomedia)

The recent decision by the government of Ethiopia to ban domestic workers from traveling
to the Middle East and Arab countries is myopic at best and stone-age governance at worst. Any sensible government would define the alleged problem and seek solutions without subjecting innocent people to lose their Constitutional and Universal Rights to travel to their places of choice. This type of draconian government decision can only happen in a one-party totalitarian state.
Any rational government would ask itself why its citizens choose to travel to another country by hundreds of thousands instead of staying put in their own country. Most people need income to live on, and support their families; and hence they need to work to earn money. The stagnant Ethiopian Economy does not create jobs; and when it does, you have to belong to a corrupt ethnic net-work Ruling party circle to secure employment. For the majority of the population who do not belong to this corrupt circle of thieves, the choice is to travel to an equally unenlightened savage environment to earn a living or starve. There are many Ethiopian domestic workers who have lost their lives and some seriously injured because of abuse by their employers during their stay in the Middle East, and Arab Countries. The fact of the matter is, domestic workers do not have much of a choice; it is either to stay in their homeland Ethiopia and starve, or flee the country to a lawless foreign land and a hostile environment; where human rights of workers are grossly neglected, or most of the time abused.
Any responsible government would investigate the cause of injustice, death, and injuries sustained by its citizens in a foreign land through its diplomatic mission in host countries; and seek diplomatic and legal solutions to mitigate the crisis; or better yet, make an honest and vigorous effort to accelerate the economic development of the Country to create conditions of employment available to all citizens without bias to ethnic favoritism, corruption, and nepotism which is rampant under the current administration. The people at the helm of power in our Country seem to have no clue, nor do they care about the right of the individual to work and support himself/herself and their family in any place of his/her choice as long as they meet the legal requirements of the host country. What is one supposed to do if not work and earn a livening? I have argued both as a member of parliament (2005-2010), and as a member of the Opposition since then, that the double digit GDP economic growth propaganda of the Ruling elite is an illusion sometimes supported by International money lenders to systematically loot the country for their mutual benefit, while allowing the narrow ethnic Ruling cliques continue its misrule and pillage of the resources of the country to satisfy its insatiable desire for money, power, and ethnic chauvinism. In Ethiopia, almost 70 percent of the urban youth is unemployed. To make matters worse, 20 percent of the rural population is flocking to the urban area in search of employment. Those who are capable of escaping the miserable economic deprivation and lack of freedom in their homeland flee the Country by tens of thousands endangering their lives; by any means necessary, legally or illegally. In 2009 alone over a hundred thousand Ethiopians have illegally crossed over to Yemen with the hope of reaching Saudi Arabia. An equal number of Ethiopians have also migrated to Sudan and Kenya in search of a better life. It would be an understatement to say that any responsible government would be alarmed by the mass migration, and the loss of life in the process. The Ruling Party just walk-up to this monumental national problem and the first step it took to mitigate the crisis was a travel ban to the Middle East and Arab Countries, without due consideration to the Natural, Constitutional, and Universal Rights of its subjects. While unemployment is a source of despair for many Ethiopians, an equal number of urban consumers are stretched to the limit to meet their daily expenses because of the high cost of living instigated by the upward spiraling inflation. While the government purports inflation to be in the single digit using its mouth piece propaganda media machine, it is actually in the double digits which is attested by the escalating prices in the local markets for goods and services which have quadrupled in the past few years especially for agricultural commodities such as Teff, Corn, wheat, cooking oil, sugar, coffee etc….commonly consumed by the people of Ethiopia. The purchasing power of the local currency (birr) has depreciated almost 60 percent within the past four years, making life impossible for people with fixed income such as government employees, and retirees. This is a Country where 90 percent of the population earns less than two dollars a day; and where 5 to 8 million people are exposed to food insecurity at any given year. While the cost of living is extremely high because of the ravaging inflation, the Regime is busy flooding the economy with printed money, while at the same time widening the budget deficit, making an already bad situation worst. The Ruling Party refuses to use conventional macroeconomic tools to bring inflation under control for fear of deflating its shattered political image. The external debt of the country has ballooned to 15 billion dollars; without taking into account the 6 billion dollar international debt cancellations the government received in 2006 from Western Countries. In addition, the country suffers from shortages of foreign exchange, which has forced the current account deficit and the balance of payment to widen, which in turn has forced the government to reserve just enough money to cover a one month of imports. The Ruling Party has the distinction of running a continuous trade deficit with all its trading partners; not having a single instance of trade surplus with any international trading partner in the last 23 years of its dictatorial misrule of the Country. Who among us would not wish to flee from a country mired in social, political, and economic problems to last generations to come? Not only the domestic workers flee their country to the Middle East, and Arab Countries; the rest of us, living in various western countries, are proof to the atrocious social, economic, and political conditions in our country. No government has the right to hold its citizens hostage by declaring a travel ban; the decision by the government to ban travel has fortunately pointed to the glaring inadequacy of the government in managing the social, political, and macro-economic governance of the Country. It is illegal to ban travel to any Country short of a military hostility between two countries. In a democratic society the right of a citizen to work and earn a living is legally guaranteed, and cannot be abridged by the whims of dictators. In conclusion, I would like to suggest, what in my opinion, would be a common sense solution to the problem. a) The source of the conflict between employer and employee should be researched, so that the government has facts and figures to base its future decisions.
b) Hostilities between employer and employees could be reduced if entrepreneurs in Ethiopia are encouraged to open training schools for migrant workers to learn the language, culture, tradition of host countries.
c) Trained government diplomats (courses in 101 International Relations would help), sensitive enough to seek legal and diplomatic solution to the conflict.
d) Networking with international Human Rights Organizations to highlight the problems in host counties. Travel ban is not a solution. The underground movement to smuggle people out of the Country would begin in earnest because of your callous decision. The sooner you learn from your monumental mistakes the better for all of us. The writer, Temesgen Zewde, is chairman of Foreign Relations Committee of the UDJP (Andenet). He was also member of parliament.

The Meeting Organized by the Shengo and My Observation

by T.Goshu

I want first of all to say that the efforts being made by the Shengo to bring different groups and genuinely concerned individuals together are truly appreciated.  And organizing meetings and conferences which are aimed at publicizing its objectives and progresses, and encouraging exchanges of ideas is a very desirable thing to do.
I am reflecting this observation and impression; because I sincerely believe that expressing our views and comments (big or small) about the political and socio-economic quagmire our country is experiencing is not only the right thing to do, but also a very desirable and important thing to do. I have a feeling that there should be for opposition political movements and civic groups as well as genuinely concerned individuals to engage in critical but constructive conversations, not the other way round. The culture of attempting to glorify one’s role by undermining the role of others should be discouraged, if not be avoided.
I was listening to Addis Dimts Radio of Abebe Belew’s general comment (10/26/13) on the atmosphere of the meeting, and his view about the way forward. I sincerely appreciate how he tried to make sense how the seemingly unhealthy perception between the Shengo and Ginbot-7 should be dealt with amicably, not mistrustfully. And he has informed us that he has invited two representatives from the two sides to his next radio program to have conversation from the perspectives of their organizations. That is the way it should be if we want to make a well-informed comments and to extend any support we may afford.
I had a chance to attend the public meeting of the “Shengo” organized by the DC Metro coordinating committee on October 20 – 2013.The meeting was scheduled to start at 2: pm. When I arrived at 3:10, there were about 15 attendants. The panelists did not arrive yet. The program started at 3:30 when the panelists arrived and were seated in their respective chairs. They were: Professor Achamyeleh Debela, Dr. Aklog Birara and Woizero Tsigie Mulugeta. There were about 35 – 40 attendants who I think were genuinely eager to listen what the organizers and the panelists had to say. I also sensed that the attendants looked interested to participant actively during the question and answer (discussion) time.  Although I felt seriously disappointed about one and half hour late start, I had to be patient hoping that the meeting would be desirably fruitful as far as the desperately needed contribution from the Shengo to the very critical struggle for political freedom, rule of law and socio-economic justice going on in our country is concerned. Now, let me proceed to my comment on the issues raised by the panelists and the discussion:
We were introduced with the panelists and the topics they presented and discussed on. The introducer stated that our country is in danger; and he underlined that the very objective of the meeting was to discuss on the issue of how we should stand together in perusing a united struggle and subsequently to bring about a common solution. Although this was and is a very common statement in any political forum, I had a sort of feeling that the presentations and the discussion would be positively interesting and inviting. Did they turn out to be the case or….? Let me continue:
Professor Achamyeleh Debela gave a brief description about the mission, objective and function of the Shengo. I strongly believe that it is the right thing to reiterate the very compelling reason that has brought the Shengo into being, and its mission to stick with and its objectives to accomplish. However, I would say that since the Shengo has already celebrated its first anniversary and the publicity of what it stands for has been conducted via various media, not to mention its web site; it would have been better just to highlight about it and take more time on the challenges and opportunities and the way forward in a much more concrete manner. My point of observation is that especially for very highly qualified persons such as   Professor Achamyeleh Debela, it should have been better to devote their time and resources on issues pivotal to the ongoing struggle and the efforts being made by the Shengo to deal with those issues. I did not have an impressive impression about assigning the Professor to go through mere description of missions, objectives and functions of the Shengo. Once again, do not get me wrong that what I am saying is that it was not necessary to highlight those missions/objectives/functions). What I am trying to say is that it sounded not productive to devote all his presentation to mere description of what the Shengo stands for and which is of course written in black and white; and any interested person can refer. Underscoring the serious challenges our country is facing, Professor Achamyeleh declared that the door is open to those who share the concerns and objectives of the Shengo. Unfortunately, he did not say anything about the need for the Shengo to take courageous initiative to knock at the doors of other groups. Yes, good intention is great; but interpreting that great intention into practical terms by going extra-mile is much greater. He did inform the meeting that two civic associations have joined the Shengo. But, he did not tell about the influence and seriousness of those groups. Yes, it is desirable to bring all those who want to play their parts. But, I sincerely believe that bringing in only the easiest ones, not those who have significant role in the process of the struggle but who may have legitimate differences of views with ours is a serious weakness.
Woizero TSegie Mulugeta’s subject of discussion was “the Participation of Women and Youth from the Perspective of the Shengo.”I have observed that she is a genuinely involved member of the leadership. I had an impression that she is with a reasonable knowledge and information about what is going on in Ethiopia. She has tried to support her argument about the plight of the Ethiopian women and youth with critical issues such as human rights violation, socio-economic quagmire, the politicization of micro- finances, environment degradation, water shortages, the rampant practice of rape and etc.  Although it may not seem important, I observed her struggling to express her thoughts in such a way that participants (audiences) could understand without struggling to have a sense of coherent flow of ideas.
The noticeable problem I observed was that Wizero Tsegie Mulugeta did not clearly demonstrated what and how the Shengo is doing in this respect (women and youth) in practical terms. She couldn’t go beyond saying that the Shengo has stood firm to provide a road map in this regard (the participation of women and youth). This was not of course different from making a very general statement. I think the audience was expecting to hear if there was any concrete step taken, if not what that road map looks like. That is why the panelists had to deal with some very critical comments and questions.