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.