Double Standard, the Legacy of the West

By Ephrem Madebo


In the summer of 1936, a black head of state from the then only independent black African country [Ethiopia] made a historic speech in the League of Nations. The following is a script from the preamble of Emperor Haile Selassie’s historic speech in June 1936.

"I, Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia, am here today to claim that justice which is due to my people, and the assistance promised to it eight months ago, when fifty nations asserted that aggression had been committed in violation of international treaties”
When Emperor Haile Selassie made the above speech most of the current Western countries mocked at him and applauded Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia, a one time member of the Triple Entete. The infamous League of Nations that should have stood for the freedom of people, dismissed Ethiopia’s call for freedom and gave a go ahead green light for a European power to snatch the freedom of a poor African country. In 1941, five years after Haile Selassie’s speech, England; the same country that scoffed at Haile Selassie’s speech, fought Italians in the mountains of Ethiopia and helped the Ethiopian patriots to defeat colonialism. The British went to Ethiopia not to defend the universal principle of freedom, but to reprimand fascist Italy who was its ally during the First World War. In the last 75 years, the mixed and contradictory actions of the West have explicitly illustrated that the West’s actions to defend or disseminate democratic ideas are limited to areas of high Western interest.
In September 2001, when Vojislav Kostunica of Yugoslavia led a popular movement to kneel down arrogant Milosevic, the entire Western World stood by him. Slobodan Milosevic who tried to stay in power by changing the verdict of the people was eventually forced to step down. At the end of 2004, the Orange Revolution in Ukraine was supported by all of the Western powers. In Africa, the western powers have successfully alienated Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe from most international forums; but these same western powers were helping the White minority regime when Ian Smith was treating black “Rhodesians” like a rat in their own country. Here in the US, Ronald Regan, the so called “great communicator” was communicating and trading with the apartheid regime against the interest of the majority blacks South Africans.
In July and October 2005, when the TPLF regime changed the direction of history in Ethiopia and killed a large number of innocent demonstrators, the same “West” that stood by the side of Yugoslavia and Ukraine went deaf on Ethiopia. When Meles rigged the election results and when his Agazi Bull dogs changed Addis Ababa in to a war zone, the same telephone lines [Western] that rang hundred times a day in Belgrade, Kiev, and Harare went cold silent. Last week, when the Belarus police dispersed pro-democracy demonstrators, the USA and the European Union were the first two entities who spoke louder about a possible sanction on the incumbent government of Belarus. Both Ethiopians and Byelorussians demonstrated against a dictator that tried to change the will of the people. The only difference between the two is that Belarus is in Europe, and Ethiopia is in Africa. What a double standard! .
According to our biased fathers of democracy, Yugoslavians, Ukrainians, and Byelorussians have the right to demonstrate and force out vote rigging dictators, but when the wheel shifts to Ethiopia so does everything. The same fathers of democracy that supported democratic movements in Europe, stood by the side of the killing machine in Ethiopia. When young and innocent Ethiopians died for the cause of democracy, the self acclaimed fathers of democracy watched the sickening massacre reluctantly and kept on helping the government that kills its own citizens. In Europe, any democratic movement against dictators gets a fatherly blessing from the West; in Ethiopia, it is the dictator that gets the blessing. In the 1930s, the world betrayed Ethiopia and allowed Fascist Italy to invade it. In the 1970s, the Western world forgot Ethiopia and watched when Black Africa’s second largest nation made an ugly journey in to the Eastern block. Today, the same countries that repeatedly betrayed Ethiopia have ignored the freedom cry of millions of Ethiopians. In my opinion, the West has no moral ground to lead the fight for democracy if it chooses and picks democratic battle fields based on its national interest. Ethiopians deserve the same democratic right that the British and the American people enjoy; if the West has to plant the seeds of democracy in Ethiopia, it should be the same seed of democracy its citizens enjoy. The slogan, democracy and Justice to all has nothing to do with the standard of living of this or that country, justice and democracy are the God given rights of all human beings.
During the Second World War, the mockery of some irresponsible nations did not bother our grand fathers, they stood together and fought the enemy to ensure the independence of Ethiopia. It is the duty of this generation not to totally be taken by the false promise of the West and give up on the freedom of our people. Every step that Meles and the Western nations take to delay our D-Day should make us cohesive, determined, and resolute. External forces including Meles can delay our victory, but they can never keep us on the other side of democracy. Finally, I want to remind fellow Ethiopians that no force can stop our effort to create a true democratic Ethiopia; the direction of our struggle is not controlled by others, it has its own momentum.

Yet another Party?

By Ephrem Madebo

The recent immoral race of Lidetu and company to create yet another opposition party reminds me the famous American saying, “Too many chiefs, not enough Indians”. From EPRP of the late 1970s to the ESDFP (Ethiopian Social Democratic Federalist Party) of February 2006, the political stage of Ethiopia has entertained numerous parties and political organizations. It is surprising that today one needs to carry a large registry to correctly pronounce the ubiquitous political parties of Ethiopia. To be honest, if the number of political parties was directly proportional to economic and social development of a country, the recent imaginary economic forecast would have put Ato Sufian Ahmed on the Guinness Book of Records. Today, our country Ethiopia finds itself in a deep hole; we all are responsible for either shoving our country in to the hole or watching it in the hole. Our immediate task should be to stand together and pull our country out of poverty; dividing and subdividing in to smaller units like amoeba will only aggravate our problem.

The recent plot to disgracefully transfer the administration of Addis Ababa to a yet to be established party is nothing, but the customary dirty political game that TPLF has been playing for the last fifteen years. According to the news release (http://www.aigaforum.com/new_party.pdf), the new name less party was needed to formally transfer the administrative power of Addis Ababa to elected officials. As far as the people of Addis Ababa are concerned, they have voted for CUD, and as far as CUD is concerned, the mayor of Addis Ababa is Dr. Berhanu Nega. The only way of ensuring a new administration to Addis Ababa is to free its Mayor and the rest of the CUD leaders. According to the constitution of Ethiopia, large cities like Addis Ababa are administered by elected people, not by political appointees. In May 2005, the people of Addis spoke unequivocally and made it clear that EPRDF has no place in the Ethiopian capital. The recent behind the scene political dance of Ayele Chamisso and Ledetu ayalew should never be allowed to materialize no matter how fine-tuned and choreographed it is. For all practical purposes, CUD has won every single seat in Addis Ababa; therefore, Addis Ababa should be administered by the original CUD, not by an imaginary “CUD” that sounds like OPDO or ANDM. To all traitors who traded their public trust for personal gain here is what Benjamin Franklin said three centuries ago: “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety”

During the decades long struggle of Black South Africans, many ANC leaders including the distinguished Mandela were jailed and many others were brutally murdered; but neither the atrocious killing nor the torture of the Apartheid regime were able to break the will of ANC, and divide the South African people. From 1964, the year Mandela was thrown to jail, until 1991, the year he was freed; black South Africans waged a double edged struggle for twenty seven years. Many black South Africans stood on the footpath of Mandela and fought for his release in the diplomatic field, and shook the foundation of the apartheid system in the battle field.
In our country, opposition party leaders were jailed just six months ago, but we have already forgotten our leaders to fade away in jail and started talking about another party. Forging political parties is not an end by itself, it is a means to a goal, therefore, when party leaders are jailed, we should not flinch an inch from our objective, we should pool our resources together and fight to free them. We should keep in mind that what frightens our jailed leaders is not TPLF’s groundless treason or genocide charge, it is our inexplicable stillness.

Obviously, the TPLF gang is using its entire ammunition to extend its borrowed life for another five years. We Ethiopians should not be a perfectly misguided “Samaritans” to lend extra days to this harebrained brand of rulers who are in the business of compromising our territorial integrity. We have a ruthless enemy that brutally kills and jails people, our resolve to stand for the cause of democracy and justice should manifest it self in a variety of ways to stop the killing of innocent people. TPLF is so determined to shrivel the size of Ethiopia and pass a smaller and weaker Ethiopia to the next generation. If we don’t act now and save our country from disintegrating, we will be no different from TPLF. Remember, when a generation is remembered for its moral liability, its place in history is failure.

The only Fair trial is acquittal !

By Ephrem Madebo


In the last 15 years, the TPLF regime has used the media, force, and the decrying power of donor nations to pour water on the popular movement. When he is challenged by the Western media, the Prime Minister has always been a compulsive liar who feeds western diplomats with his daily fabricated lies. Recently Prime Minister Meles pledged that Ethiopia would give charged journalists a fair trial, I have two messages to a man who always promises, but never delivers.


Mr. PM Meles, you have imprisoned the most loved sons and daughters of Ethiopia. All the people you jailed are innocent, since you are the PM of Ethiopia; you need to listen to your own people, not foreigners. Please release our leaders! Court trials are held for suspected criminals, not for people who oppose you.

The men and women you imprisoned are people of principle who prefer the prison life than the comfort of the outside world. You may promise a fair trial, but to them fairness is always associated with freedom and justice to the people. You may think that you have alienated our leaders from us, but most Ethiopians believe that they are moral prisoners of your regime, therefore; morally, the people outside and the heroes in your jail are together.


In the last one hundred years, many dictators and racist regimes have made an attempt to muffle popular upheavals by killing, jailing, harassing, and expelling [from their country] leaders of the popular movement; however, no dictator has survived the wrath of the people by silencing leaders. Here the extraordinarily amazing fact is, regardless of their political origin, succeeding dictators never learn from the mistake of their predecessors. White South Africans tried to kill ANC and its vision by jailing Mandela, today the ruling party in South Africa is ANC. The now rambling Colonel Mengistu once thought no force would dare to challenge him, today; Mengistu is a refugee in a country of another dictator. Mengistus’s successor seems to have got no lesson, currently; he is doing what Mengistu has been doing. Time will not be that far before he faces what Mengistu faced.

In my opinion, Meles’s promise for a fair trial is his customary manner of diverting attention; his recent flawed promise shouldn’t make us lift our eyes from our target. In Ethiopia, there is no judicial transparency and the court system is not free from the executive body. All of the opposition leaders and journalists were charged by Meles, and Meles is a man who likes to deep his dirty hands in the functional process of the three branches of the government. How do we expect a fair trial? Didn’t Meles promise democracy, free election, independent election board, equal sharing of media and many more? What did he deliver nothing…zilch! We should not trust Meles based on his own record of the last fifteen years.


Currently, we Ethiopians face dual challenges: First we have the responsibility of fighting a bitter fight for the unconditional release of all political prisoners, especially leaders of the popular movement. Secondly, we need to get closer and carry the popular movement to its inevitable victory. Evidently, as we move from one stage to the next, Meles and his puppies would give us a bump in every path; they may imprison or kill some of us, but they can never kill all of us. As we all remember, some of the political prisoners were here in North America weeks before they were rounded by Meles, they could have stayed here and avoided the brutal hands of Meles. These heroes and unwavering Ethiopians preferred to go to jail than bending to TPLF. By going to jail, they demonstrated their love, responsibility, and trust to the people that trusted them and voted for them.

To all people that pine at the hands of dictators, and to all territories and nations that suffer from economic mismanagement, I believe, the 21st century is the era that should flicker the sparks of democracy and bring an end to all types of totalitarian regimes. Meles promises good things to the consumption of the international community because he knows his existence as a “democratic” leader depends on the transparency of the EPRDF system. Prime Minister Meles knows his survival as a leader depends on the legitimacy of his actions and how donor countries trust him as a lawful leader, therefore he always washes his hard-to-clean face. As we heard him recently he has promised a fair trial, if he listens, a fair trial is nothing, but acquittal!