Dula's Blog

There are certain events that require adequate and prompt explanations because the very future of the country depends on it. There was nothing more pressing, more important and burning issue than the need to adequately explain the death of Hachalu Hundessa in particular who orchestrated the killing and why.

In June, 2019, the handling or lack of prompt and adequate explanation of the murder of Amhara regional president Ambachew Mekonnen and General Asaminew Tsige has alienated many Amharas from the Abiy government. In June, 2020, the same thing is going with Oromos. By failing to fully expose the architects of Hachalu’s killers, Dr. Abiy has angered and alienating many Oromos. The enemies of Ethiopia who orchestrated these tragedies every year including the attempted assassination of Dr. Abiy are eroding his base of support, winning the PR game, and destabilizing the country. Unfortunately, the government of Ethiopia has gone AWOL in its responsibility to apprehend the culprits before the act or refute and to debunk accusations of complicity and hanging it squarely on the necks of OLF and TPLF.

In June, 2018 anti-reform forces tried to assassinate Dr. Abiy, in June, 2019 assassinated General Seare Mekonnen,Chief of General Staff of the Ethiopian National Defense, and in June, 2020, they assassinated Hachalu, all in an effort to restore the TPLF regime or fan genocide against Amharas and other minorities.

The minister of justice and the Prime Minister’s Office failed to share adequately with the local and the international media who orchestrated these attacks, and recently who financed the killing of Hachalu and why.

Despite the detention of three individuals, the international and even local media helped by the OMN and OLF-Shane supporters was awashed with the news that the Ethiopian government was the culprit. The news media including human rights organization such as Amnesty International were overwhelmingly influenced by OMN and OLF narrative that the Ethiopian government was the suspect in the death of Hachalu.

In addition, OMN and OLF were able to inform their supporters that the Ethiopian government was again the perpetrator of Hachalu’s death. This would have required a swift rebuttal by  the ministry of justice or any relevant arm of the government.

Unfortunately, there was no clear and unambiguous refutation of these charges, charges made by OLF and its followers. The media was completely blanketed by the death of Hachalu, but the loss of life and property that followed in the aftermath was barely covered. This failure by the Ethiopian government to share with the international media has turned Ethiopia and its citizens forever as killer of Hachalu for expressing his views. Of course, his views were not anti-Ethiopia, but it was shared in that manner by OMN.

Failure to properly and adequately relay the tragedies that followed the killing of Hachalu and the aftermath was maddening and unfortunate. Failing to expose the schemers, the financiers, and architects of Hachalu’s killing, will make it possible for such acts to be repeated.

This failure to articulate clearly this tragedy has left a big void and the majority of the Oromos still believing that Hachalu was killed because of his ethnicity by anti-Oromo forces.

For example, in the U.S. during any tragedy let alone in the scale that took place in Ethiopia where hundreds killed, billions of property destroyed in the city of Shashamene and others, even in the death of one person in such heinous act would have required many press releases and news conferences immediately and thereafter so that the public knows the truth and only the truth without any equivocation. The Ethiopian government seems to want to bury the truth or does not have a strategy to defend its reputation.

The government of Ethiopia has failed and  left a big scar or deep wound for another ethnic conflict by failing to discharge all the facts regarding the beloved Hachalu death and the plotters.

There should have been an extensive education of the Ethiopian people as to why, who, and how regarding the killing of Hachalu. Even Dr. Merera Gudina was planning to raise this question to Dr. Abiy during a meeting with parliament if he was given an opportunity.

These doubts need to be addressed to build public confidence in the government. Did OLF, with the help of OMN, orchestrated all this in order to take over Ethiopia or was it an unplanned spontaneous reaction that resulted in death and destruction? People are thirsty for facts. The facts will set them free and bring a swift healing to all parties.

I have tried to look at all the press releases and pronouncements regarding Hachalu’s death, but so far I have not seen anything  convincingly to refute these charges that the Ethiopian government has nothing to do with it. While I am not accusing  the government; however, I have not seen any significant effort to inform and educate the public about the facts. I am sorry to express my disappointment of this failure by the Ethiopian government to articulate to the world the truth about Hachalu’s killing instead of creating the appearance of a cover-up or sheer incompetence in managing its public relations.

The justice minister’s brief press release was highly inadequate and not convincing. In such a momentous and dire situation, one is expected to have mastered all available facts and express with confidence and straight eye to the world, that the Ethiopian government is sharing all the evidence in its possession and no stone was left unturned in doing that.

It’s great to be a great communicator, like Dr. Abiy is, but there is nothing more important than using such talent to save Ethiopian from another tragedy like that happened in June associated with the death of Hachalu and its aftermath.

The Ethiopian government should have invited all local and international media and share all the facts and to cast any doubts and to help and heal all Ethiopians who felt such a great loss by the death of Hachalu.

The Rwandan genocide, Holocaust and other saddest moments in history are shared and told often, so that they will not be repeated. Ethiopia’s tragic situation deserve the same in order to avoid a repeat.

The Ethiopian government will not be able to stop another tragedy if it is not willing or able to tell the world what really happened in Ethiopia on June 29 and thereafter. It should have made documentary of the mayhem share it for the world to witness the tragedy. It should have  invited the international media to visit Shashamene, Zeway and other cities to see the devastation, the homeless, and to talk  to those who lost love ones.

The current narrative as shared by OLF-Shane media is that the Oromos are the victims,  without mentioning the people that were slaughtered and burned in Shashamene and other places or those who lost their homes, properties and made homeless by the actions of OLF supporters.

In Shashamene and other cities, the police and the mayors of these cities and towns looked the other way when people were being killed and property being destroyed because Ethiopia sadly has a constitution based on ethnicity that pits one group against another. All the leaders of these cities are appointed based on their ethnic origin instead of being elected or based on competence.

Such tragedies will continue by design as well as by catalysts like the killing of prominent Oromos or Amharas and others. Instead of looking for justice to take its course, groups rush for vengeance against other ethnic groups because the system is designed to pit one against another and the people have been miseducated to believe that they are enemies instead of citizens of Ethiopia. This system has become a catalyst in creating millions of displaced people and hundreds of deaths and billions of property destruction.  Ethiopia has more internally displaced people than any country and the agony will continue because of the current constitution designed by the previous anti-Ethiopian regime remains.

Until the Ethiopian government fully exposes the architects of Hachalu’s killers and vindicate itself, eliminate ethnic policing, allows elections of mayors, as well as educate citizens through public and private media in the importance of rule of law, similar tragedies will be part and parcel of Ethiopia. 

Ethiopia has an extremely long and extensive recorded history going back some thousands of years, however, economically remains one of the poorest. What is disturbing is even in 2018, there are millions of Ethiopians suffering from famine.

Ethiopia in its current form has existed since 1991 when Meles Zenawi through his TPLF (Tigrean Peoples Liberation Front) guerrillas overran the country and ruled until his death in 2012. He is most remembered for facilitating the separation of Eritrea, the introduction of toxic ethnic-based federalism that gave an advantage to his own tribe, and blocking access to the Internet.

On April 2nd, 2018 Dr. Abiy Ahmed Ali became prime minister, after the resignation of Hailemariam Desalegn. His election is widely seen as positive and an opportunity to unite Ethiopia and address the wrongs of the past and improve the economic conditions for the extremely poor population of about 100 million.

The election of Abiy Ahmed may have saved Ethiopia from further bloodshed and disintegration; however, his chance of transforming the economic backwardness of Ethiopia, a legacy of poor governance from yesteryears, remains immensely difficult.

In 1996, in memory of the late Congressman Mikey Leland, who died on a hunger mission in Ethiopia, the U.S. Congress allocated $12 million dollars to put a broadband Internet in all universities and high schools in Ethiopia in order jump start Ethiopia’s famine-stricken society to a technology-driven economy. In the dawn of the Internet in the 1990’s, Ethiopia had the chance to leapfrog many nations and become a leading technology juggernaut in the likes of S. Korea, China, Singapore, and others.

However, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi blocked the grant because it stipulated open access and competitive bidding for the installation of the network. He was primarily afraid of social media to mobilize the masses against his authoritarian rule. This shortsighted greed resulted in the loss of the possibility of incredible advancement and incalculable damage was done to the economy. Because of TPLF’s restrictive and monopolistic policy, Ethiopia has one of the lowest Internet penetration in the world even less than the failed state of Somalia.

In Ethiopia, many children are stunted physically and intellectually because of malnutrition. While TPLF was able to improve infrastructure, its toxic ethnic policy restricted the free flow of trade and exacerbated the economic divide and created mass misery.

To grow the economy, the current government is promoting manufacturing by inviting companies from China, Turkey, India, and others by enticing them with low wages and tax breaks. Dr. Abiy should prioritize direct foreign investment in high technology transfer jobs rather than low-wage manufacturing to provide a platform for a sustainable economic development.

The normal trajectory of moving from agriculture to manufacturing is no more an option for Ethiopia. Because of TPLF’s fear of social media and denial of access to technology, Ethiopia failed to enjoy the full benefit of the digital revolution. Given this failure, Ethiopia has no time to go through these stages and catch up with the rest of the world technologically and economically. Jumping to the Fourth Industrial Revolution will accelerate its economic and technological development, save it from future famine, ecological damage emanating from manufacturing, and massive economic disruption that arises in the phase-out of manufacturing.

Manufacturing undertaken by Chinese and other companies will not save Ethiopia from its permanent third-rated status or fill empty stomachs. Huajian is one of the most celebrated Chinese Company with over 5000 employees. According to AP “Amazing China” (May 2, 2018), Ebissa Gari, a 22-year-old employee of Huajian, earns 966 Birr ($35) a month. The average worker at Huajian factory earns $50 a month despite the fact that according to Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, a basic living wage is about 3000 Birr or ($109) a month in Ethiopia. On the other hand, Artificial Intelligence (AI) specialists with little or no industry experience can make between $300,000 and $500,000 a year in salary and stock. “Top names can receive compensation packages that extend into the millions” according to NYT (April 19, 2018).

In order to catch up with the rest of the world, Ethiopia needs to take a leap to the fourth Industrial Revolution that focuses on robotics, AI, nanotechnology, the blockchain, biotechnology, the Internet of Things, autonomous vehicles, and 3D-printing, while not totally discounting manufacturing. The government should prioritize the introduction of the Fourth Industrial Revolution by opening up Internet access, broadband, and Research and Development in these areas.

The increased productivity, efficiency, lower operating costs and high wages are a product of access to technology. The Heritage Foundation, recently reported that economic growth had not been enjoyed evenly by all Ethiopians and it argued that more economic freedom is needed to grow the economy and to reduce civil strife.

Ethiopia is a very poor country by any standard and sits at the bottom of the ladder in all barometers. Many articles have been written with glowing statistics about Ethiopia’s fast-growing economy around 10%. In 1994, Ethiopia’s GDP was only $6.93 Billion; however, as of 2015, Ethiopia GDP stood at $72.4 Billion, a ten-fold increase according to TPLF data. This means GDP should have doubled every two years in the last two decades, which is unprecedented and improbable. Still, GDP of $72.4 Billion for a country of 100 million is not very impressive compared to Apple Inc.’s $72.6 billion income earned before taxes in 2015.

Given the state of the economy and technology, Ethiopia is at the pre-industrial stage where Britain was in the 1840’s. Unless Ethiopia skips some steps, it will need hundreds (100) of years to catch up. Of course, this assumes the rest of the world will stand still and wait for Ethiopia. For example, at a reasonable growth rate of 5%, Ethiopia will need 177 years to catch up with the U.S. growing at an average of 2.5% holding everything constant. At a 10% rate, it will take 60.5 years. The calculation is derived using a per capita of $50,000 for the U.S and $700 for Ethiopia.

Technology has the potential to be a tremendous tool in advancing the well-being of mankind, by improving quality of life and lifting standard of living. Access to technology allows us to work from anywhere and improves productivity. The progress of industrial revolution from the steam engine, electric power, and digital and information technology is the foundation for the fourth industrial revolution.

Artificial intelligence will be pervasive based on autonomous products from cars to robots. In the next two decades over 80% of the jobs will be AI and IT driven. AI will increasingly take over mundane tasks to the most sophisticated including fabrication, surgery and ground and space warfare.

According to Global Information Technology 2016, Ethiopia is 120th out of 139 countries in the Network Readiness Index (NRI) which measures access to latest technologies to individuals, businesses, and government, ease of starting a business, the efficiency of the legal system, infrastructure, capacity for innovation and more. Ethiopia’s ranking could have been much better had it not been for TPLF’s fear of technology and lack of interest in advancing Ethiopia’s technological and digital capability.

Sophia the robot and Dr. Abiy’s meetup is a promising sign. Dr. Abiy’s willingness to visit Sophia is an indication of his appreciation of the importance of technology, especially AI that encompasses autonomous or self-driving cars, nanotechnology, digital fabrication, the blockchain, biotechnology and more. In addition, IT will become more accessible to a larger part of the population and cheaper like the rest of the world if Dr. Abiy’s privatization plan proceeds with speed. Sophie visiting Addis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gp4SnCVFYl0

The technology revolution is taking place at a breakneck speed lead by Artificial intelligence, Internet of things, the cloud, and 3D-printing. Ethiopians need to demand unfettered access to technology and the Internet as a right for their survival and to avoid future famines.

Dr. Abiy needs to leapfrog Ethiopia to the fourth Industrial Revolution, stop Internet censorship, and unleash innovation to create a better future for Ethiopia. If he does not leverage the technology revolution, grow the economy with open competition, transparency, with respect to property rights, unfettered access to technology and the Internet, he will leave Ethiopia with a distressed economy and with more hungry and angry people.

Leveraging technology underpinning the Fourth Industrial Revolution will create a strong and sustainable economic foundation. The people who generate the wealth (the next Apple, Google, etc.), the carpenters, the risk takers and inventors should be marveled and appreciated much more than others. After all, it will be the efforts of all hard working and creative Ethiopians with a strong work ethics that will propel Ethiopia to be an economic and technological juggernaut.

Ethiopia besides being the seat of the African union, cradle of mankind, carries great historical symbol for  people of African origin. Ethiopia earned this position as one of the longest independent nations, and for repulsing Western colonial occupation. Despite this legacy, Ethiopians have never enjoyed rule of law or fair and free election.

Representative of warring factions from South Sudan are in Ethiopia to hammer out their differences and to form democratic union where all different groups can live in peace. Unfortunately, Ethiopia is not a place to teach such lessons. The Ethiopian regime pretended for long for things that it is not in order to earn respect and foreign aid.

In Ethiopia the government perfected the Machiavellian system where ethnic groups are pitted one against another, embraced the bantustanization of Ethiopia, resources are controlled like in North Korea and Cuba by the state, where the state owns land, access to Internet, telecommunication, banking and  all other vital means of production causing many Ethiopian to live a precarious often miserable economic and political existence. Freedom of the press, free assembly, civil societies, and political parties are barley existent or survive at the whims of the regime.

In 2005, the late Meles Zenawi allowed unfettered debate among candidates believing that he was assured of victory, but when the polls started coming, he realized that he was losing in all major cities and in most of the country side except in Tigre, Silte, Hadre regions, so he stopped the countdown and declared victory. When protest erupted  he used deadly force killing over 190 peaceful protesters and arrested hundreds of thousands. The U.S. government and African leaders looked the other way because the sway Ethiopia holds in Africa.  After  Meles emerged unscathed except condemnation by a few representatives in Europe and the U.S.,  leaders in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Sudan realized that if  Meles can get  away by stealing an election, they can do it too. The Kenyan attempt was bloody, others were less bloody, but the pattern for dynasties or one party apparatus were set in motion. Now some elections in Africa are ceremonial because the winner is predetermined.

Ethiopia holds the key to democracy in Africa. So in order to restore democracy in Africa, Ethiopia as the seat of the OAU has to uphold the rule of law,  respect free and fair election, then the rest of Africa will follow suit. Ethiopia plays a significant leadership role and that role has to include in promoting democracy in the continent. African leaders come to Ethiopia in a regular basis at least once a year and see  Ethiopia’s oppressive system year after year surviving and the West giving a blind eye. So  goes the rest of Africa.

Ethiopia will hold its true place in history not as the physical capital of Africa, or as the cradle of man kind, only when it upholds the rule of law and becomes  a pride for the rest of the oppressed African masses, as it did during pre-colonial Africa. The Obama administration has tremendous power on Ethiopia, a country landlocked and far dependent on aid ill can afford to alienate the West.

All Africans from  Eritrea, Ethiopia and others are yearning for democracy and for American leadership. Unfortunately, leadership has been reactionary only willing to put out fires instead of building a roadmap for democracy for the continent.

Some countries like Ethiopia are exempt from respecting the rule of law despite their repeated defiance. Many African leaders are aspiring to anoint themselves and their children for life whether it is good for the country or whether the people support it or not. The West especially Washington is eager to acquiesce in the name of stability, which in this case is a mirage, because there is no stability without respect for rule of law.

Billions of souls from Third World nations are potential terrorists, unless we end their extreme poverty, oppression and suffering. For Africa, the first place to start is Ethiopia.

Unless other African countries including Ethiopia pledge to hold free and fair election, respect the rule of law and respect the rights of their citizens regardless of their tribe or religion, the leaders of South Sudan may not want to be an exception to the norm. In the long run, for Africa to enjoy peace, stability and economic growth, ethnic and/or one party dictatorship has to be forbidden.  The writer can be reached at  dula06@gmail.com