An Economic Freedom Party for Ethiopia

By Samuel Estefanous

Bottom line-just about everybody except PP cadres and their avaricious commercial agents are being pauperized at an alarming rate. Towns are shining bright, latest edition Toyota V-8, Nissan V-8 and Infinity brand Vehicles are competing for parking space in front of Super Luxurious Deluxe Apartment Complexes occupied by the Cadres and their cohorts .In this respect there is indeed growth in leaps and bounds and there is no point in denying the obvious. However one doesn’t have to read a Nobel Laureate to understand that inflation is in part driven by unchecked government spending on mega projects and corruption.

But one certainly needs to read an EPRDF or PP insider like Ato Bereket to learn how speculations in urban land and mega Construction contracts have created Ethiopia’s multimillionaires with substantial kickbacks reserved for you know who. No wonder City officials are preoccupied raising lucrative ‘symbolic’ non-functional City Gate Arches and Domes at staggering cost running in hundreds of millions ironically in Regions where civil servants have been going AWOL after backlog salary payments were frozen.  No wonder the bulk of the society is mad like a raving lunatic.  No wonder the leadership is so isolated and drowned in debauchery that it is no longer capable of the truth. Makes the rest of us wonder-how do they sleep at night? 

What is worse, in a blatant disregard to public opinion, the incumbent keeps waving the red rag to enrage the public even more.  When folks timidly protest that cronyism is going full throttle at most Public Enterprises, the government takes offence and appoints family members at ministerial level by rotation. Then it prepares the usual brief in defense of the indefensible-even America, the ultimate beacon of democracy, does it. They would go on declaiming that President Kennedy had appointed his own younger brother as the reigning Federal AG.  But they don’t care to go further and read how JFK had tarnished his legacy by appointing Bob Kennedy against his better judgment at the behest of his shamelessly manipulative father. Besides, the end of the Camelot isn’t one to be envied.   

You see, we might have been systematically disenfranchised, we might have been systematically relegated to second class citizens but we don’t want the entire justice administration system to collapse on us.  Though there is hardly any sense of being represented at the House, we hate to see it disrespected like when it was given the middle finger by a directress of a corrupt Agency. 

Okay, you want to have your edifying lessons from the Americans? Try to find out what had happened to Trump’s ex-Chief Strategist and Council, Steve Bannon, who had disrespected the legislature by publicly ignoring Congressional subpoena and failing to appear before a House Select Committee. He was packed away to prison.   In our case the worst the Committee could do is-begging the culprit not to repeat such misconduct, you know why? They are chums and they go way back in the service of TPLF and one cannot press another very hard lest counter accusations ensue.    

Unlike the Politicians, we are here to stay; we don’t have a reserve country to run to. I will be damned if they don’t have a plan B to fall back on in the event they are forced to abscond.  Knowing this very well the Premier had tried to suspend foreign travel at one time but he was obliged to withdraw the executive decree. I would very much like to know why. You see, he isn’t calling all the shots.     

The symptoms are all too familiar, aren’t they? Before it was crushed into the pit of dishonor and became a living symbol of a gutted Party, TPLF was already rotting inside out.  Any resident of Addis remembers it very well. The stench was unbearable.  In the company of EPRDFites, the public was like Hugo Chavez crossing himself at the podium of the UN General Assembly complaining that the stench of sulfur in the hall was unbearable. I mean, becoming a pariah is one thing but making the sad transition from a selfless Front of freedom fighter evoking a dedication parallel to religious fanaticism to being a butt of practical jokes is pathetic. If you aren’t aware of it, these days, incredibly talented comics at Mekelle are making fun of old guard TPLFites. You know, doing unflattering impressions. They are hilarious beyond measure and the punch lines?  Absolutely riveting

A few years ago, children of the old guard party members were so unruly that they could shut down a section of the City and give the marching order to anybody whom they disliked. Ill-gotten wealth consumes one alive. Those kids born with silver spoons in their mouths were beyond the jurisdiction of law enforcement but the self-inflicted wound was way stronger.  They were enmeshed in all sorts of illicit activities-some were downright a disgrace to the human race. In all honesty, they were the ones who had heralded the downfall of TPLF’s empire.  Thus, unless PP takes heed, it is destined to end up in the same dustbin of history.  

I know populist political groups and activists have become anathema and the public is left with little stamina to indulge in their raw hate driven rhetoric.  I understand particularly those hooked on the shallow and narrow ethnic persuasions have run their wild natural course and are unapologetically spewed out. But there is one populist agenda we haven’t tried to advance to this day. An Economic Freedom Organization on the lines charted out by Julius Malema’s South Africa. 

Trust me the realities on the ground warrant it. No sophistication, no place for the slick and slackers, dishing out the wrath, upfront, brash and raw to the deserving. 

The Premier himself had admitted it. The reason corruption, nepotism, favoritism, cronyism etc have become veritable challenges PP couldn’t overcome is chiefly on account of the ethnic foundation of the Party organizational structure.  It goes without saying that ethnic politics is a thick den of thieves. It shelters them like a good mafia boss.  Think of the 15 million PPs. Half of them are drafted into the ranks to buy ‘protection’.  The Chief skipper himself had said it. Yet he surrounds himself with weak willed adoring yea-sayers. 

PP was unable to break free from the long established network; it just revised the manning, replaced the actors but maintained the system. Around the end of his tenure and life, Ato Meles was increasingly being disillusioned with EPRDFites and he was trying to reach out to non- EPRDF honest Ethiopians. Bereket writes that Meles had candidly said that they had assumed that they were sweet fragranced honey nectar; however at the end of the day they ended up attracting horrible nasty gutter flies.  

That is why with all its downsides, we need a populist brash Economic Freedom Party to break up the network and hold accountable the foot soldiers as well as the high echelon of the Dominant Party hierarchy in power.

God Bless.        

The writer can be reached at : estefanoussamuel@yahoo.com  

Editor’s note : Views in the article do not necessarily reflect the views of borkena.com

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