by Zekarias Ezra
Civilization begins with order, grows with liberty and dies with chaos. Will Durant
Ethiopia is not in danger of civil war or rebel violence yet, but surely it risks sliding into a political crisis that could eventually threaten the country’s existence as a nation. This is not mere conjecture. With what we have been seeing these past few years and even this past month, Ethiopia faces the gradual fraying of order, security and governance.
Less than a month after Dr Abiy assumed the mantle of power and told the nation of a hopeful future, we saw clashes in different regions of the country. Citizens have lost their lives, properties ruined, and chaos ruled.
Fueled by unwise speeches, animosity between people is made to fester and grow. Those animosities in some cases grew quickly and manifested in the displacement and killing of certain group of people.
These clashes illustrated the fragility of the new administration’s authority over a nation started to slide into sectarian loathing and violence. Among the deepening crises are accounts of towns like Jijiga where a huge number of Amhara and Oromo population have fled, and 29 people killed and over ten churches burned. In eastern Ethiopia over the weekend 40 people were killed by paramilitary forces.
Over this same weekend, another violence erupted in Shashemene. Even in a country where sectarian violence has become a regular occurrence, what has happened in Shashemene proved some acts of inhumanity still have the power to shock.
It behooves us to argue that the government is incapable of providing the most elemental service: security. This is a true and just charge.
A government that is incapable of securing peace and order must not be expected nor trusted to bring about democracy. There cannot be any democracy in a nation where anarchy and chaos are prevalent.
Not only that, today the citizenry is completely disillusioned. There is a semblance of government, but it is difficult to know where the power center is located. Is there a governing party called EPRDF? Is there really? The PM is busy tarnishing his own party.
Jawar, the activist, tells us, with utter bravado ‘he and his invisible group’ are the ones who have effectively brought down the government to its knees. They could have finished the job and completely overthrow the government, Jawar said, but wanted to give a chance to EPRDF to reform itself. His professor friend echoes the same thing when he said the ‘reform is not led by EPRDF’ Qerro, Fano is still around’; apparently watching and overseeing the reform. So, who is governing the country today? Or
Jawar, with no humility, went further and sent a message (more of an order) to the group supposedly defeated and encamped in Mekelle; the ‘Azawent , the elderly’, in an apparent reference to the former fighters of TPLF, to invite him and his entourage to Mekelle so they can discuss how to move on. Why would TPLF leaders be expected to oblige to this call unless Jawar is (or thinks he is) the ‘de facto’ leader of the reform movement, by extension the force behind the PM Abiy administration?
It is not surprising then Ethiopians are disillusioned. When any violence or clash or incident occurs, the disillusioned citizenry immediately points its fingers at the ‘defeated’ group in Mekelle or people of Tigrai in general. Some even claim ‘Woyane is still in power’. C’mon people, we cannot have it both ways. You cannot keep blaming the ‘defeated’ group for every new ill that sprang about everywhere in the country. Just so you know, ‘governing is a hard task’.
I have been very critical of the late PM Meles Zenawi on many occasions. I still stood by those positions. Yet, reflecting on the type of prime minister he was and his formidable political skills, I have concluded that the ‘fracturing’, ‘chaos’, and ‘confusion’ of today would not have happened if he were still alive. His comrades owe it to Ethiopia, which they ruled for 27 years, to break their hiatus and play a major role in bringing about peace, security, order and a genuine transition to democracy.
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