Answer To Professor Messay`s Essay on a Grand - Ethiopian Observer

Saving the Regime of Meles from a total collapse or saving Ethiopia: <strong>Answer</strong> to
<strong>Professor</strong> <strong>Messay`s</strong> <strong>Essay</strong> on a Grand Coalition to save Ethiopia.
From the outset I would like to express my frustration that <strong>Professor</strong> <strong>Messay`s</strong>
article does not have any new substance or cannot be accepted as entailing a thoughtful
idea. Those who side with the position of the <strong>Professor</strong> may think and believe that
<strong>Professor</strong> Messay wrote a grand theory which might be seen as a panacea to save
Ethiopia from all the evils the Meles regime has inflicted.
After reading the article twice, I cannot detect the theoretical and methodological
foundation of the article of <strong>Professor</strong> Messay. However, <strong>Professor</strong> Messay believes that
his approaches in characterizing the Meles regime, and Meles himself, and the theory of
developmental state, are new theoretical reflections which can be carefully studied. In all
three points I cannot scrutinize the exact methodological and scientific approaches to
substantiate his theory. Except for the fact that he masters the English language which
makes impossible for many to detect his theoretical weakness, I am not convinced that
the article can teach us new things.
If somebody writes such an article he must either explicitly or implicitly clarify that
he follows some paradigmatic approaches to prove that the article he writes reflects
things which are taking place on the ground.
First of all to pursue authoritarian politics is not a matter of choice, but it is a desire
of certain groups to impose their interests and thereby to shape the entire political
landscape according to these interests. Such kind of authoritarian politics emanates from
the nature of the person who seizes political power. In order to understand the character
of such an authoritarian ruler one should study the society and the circumstances he grew
up in, and the education system which shaped his behavior. These family backgrounds
also play decisive roles in shaping the mind of such an authoritarian ruler. As Meles and his
compatriots are the products of a particular area, even though they boast that they follow
this or that ideology, what ultimately decides their thinking and handling is the
socioeconomic condition and the family background in which they grew up. Philosophers,
psychologists, and men of drama like Schiller have already proved that the exercise of
political power for good or bad can be conditioned on the particular circumstance in
which the political actors are grown up. <strong>To</strong> say that Meles had no other option than to be
an authoritarian means that he can alter his mind at any time and become a democrat.
That is why <strong>Professor</strong> Messay thinks that there is no other option than building a grand
coalition before the country falls into pieces or the situation ends in bloodshed.
If we accept the argument of <strong>Professor</strong> Messay as he tried to analyze in his essay,
what Meles and his friends did against Ethiopia was not calculated from the outset, and
they were compelled to follow an ethnic and a neo-liberal policy because they did not
have any other choices. As we all know Meles and his group could not seize political
power without the help of Blair and the American government. The West in general and
America in particular did everything to eliminate the Mengistu regime in order to wipe out
Ethiopian nationalism once and for all. Therefore ethnic politics, and neo-liberal economic
policy as Meles had introduced and practiced in Ethiopia could not be materialized
without the help of America and England. In all his previous analysis when <strong>Professor</strong>

Messay accuses the Meles regime, he either deliberately or unconsciously omits the role
of the Americans and the British in shaping the Ethiopian politics over the last 20 years.
Only in a weakened country in which a regime which pursues ethnic or any other politics
which fits the interests of the West and practices a neo-liberal economic policy, it is easy
for the West to meddle in the internal affairs. Coming to neo-liberalism, it seems that
<strong>Professor</strong> Messay did not understand the economic policy of the Meles regime prior to
the 2005 election. As if the regime until then did not follow a neo-liberal economic policy,
<strong>Professor</strong> Messay tells us that the Meles regime understood well the dangers of neoliberalism
and has done everything to convince his comrades to follow his developmental
policy which is strictly regulated and manipulated by the state. <strong>To</strong> my understanding, prior
to the election of 2005, Meles and his regime had agreed with the IMF and the World Bank
to strictly apply the structural adjustment program (SAP). Devaluation of the Ethiopian
birr in relation to the US Dollar, privatization, liberalization of the internal and foreign
market, reducing state budget for social purposes, so as to canalize the money for
productive “purposes”, are all instruments of neo-liberal economic policies. In all Sub-
Saharan African countries where such a policy was applied, though the negative effects
vary from country to country, the policy has enriched the few and impoverished the
masses. There are well documented studies which show the negative effects of SAPs. In
short the main agenda of SAP was to de-industrialize Africa and to make her dependent of
one or two raw material or agricultural products. The chaotic situation in many Sub-
Saharan African countries, including Ethiopia, proves that SAPs were designed to
impoverish the entire continent and canalize wealth to the capitalist West via different
mechanisms. If any country accepts the shock doctrine of the IMF, it will end in
permanent debt, and payments of this debt permanently by transferring her hardly won
wealth every year becomes a natural law which must continue indefinitely. It is a
calculated intrigue of the West to systematically unlock such kinds of governments to
pursue a macroeconomic economic policy which does not work in such backward
countries like that of Ethiopia. After the Meles regime has been applying for almost fifteen
years such a bitter economic policy, to say that he has well understood the danger of neoliberalism
is a pure mockery against the Ethiopian people. The misunderstanding of the
work of the IMF and the World Bank is not only the fault of <strong>Professor</strong> Messay, almost over
90% percent of Ethiopian economists have the same attitudes. Because all hate the Meles
regime, they believe that what our country had to experience over the last 20 years is
solely the work of one dictator. It is perceived that all foreign forces and their
international organizations which shape economic policies for Third World Countries are
by their nature innocent. The widespread belief is that African dictators block the
application of the policy as is prescribed by the IMF and the school books and thus all
countries are condemned to poverty.
Coming to the developmental state, many development experts, by eliminating social
history and economic anthropology from their heads convinced many that the policy of
developmental state is a new phenomenon which can be reduced to few countries. If
one studies the economic history of Europe, at least from the fourteenth century
onwards, state systems had played crucial roles in shaping and manipulating their
economics and social systems. Especially from the sixteenth century onwards, European
Monarchs had pursued an active economic policy to develop a home market in their
respective boundaries. Their approaches were holistic, and supported by all available
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instruments to build a coherent and strong nation. If we consider Japan, there were well
established relationships on one hand between the German and the Japanese
governments and on the other between the United States of America and Japan during
the Mejia dynasty. Japan had sent some young men to Germany to study the economic
performance of Germany, and sent others to America to study modern administration
systems. The Mejia dynasty which had well disciplined military organizations, and which
was determined to modernize the economy had forced the industrialization of Japan. The
unique socio-cultural condition of Japan and their disciplined psychological make-up
helped Japan to materialize her inward looking strategy. Without a disciplined
bureaucracy, and without a unique culture which prevails in the society, it was not
possible for Japan and others to pursue their policies. As <strong>Professor</strong> Messay believes these
countries did not follow a strict free market economic policy and the rule of law, but the
unique relationship that has prevailed between the banking system, the state and the
industrial sector helped the industrialization of Japan and South Korea. During the 80s
South Korea was governed by military dictators which did not allow any political
participation, and the organization of trade union was strictly forbidden. As some critical
analysts affirm, foreign debt and military dictatorship are behind the industrialization of
South Korea.
<strong>To</strong> apply in countries like Ethiopia such a strictly state oriented economic
development policy like that of Japan and South Korea is an impossible task, because the
cultural situation of the society and the psychological make-up of the intelligentsia are
factors which block any meaningful economic agenda. The fragmented and intriguing
characters we have, and the loss of our self-reliance and the lack of theoretical
background, are some of the factors which block our desire to develop Ethiopia. I do not
know any Ethiopian economist who has extensively studied the role of Mercantilism, and
the Works of Friedrich List, Heinrich Pesch, and others, which are indeed crucial for the
application of a developmental state economic policy. Neither do I know who has a good
understanding of philosophy and tries to combine philosophy, sociology and cultural
transformation with a kind of renaissance economic policy to foster industrialization
policy in our country. As so long as we stick to the market economic policy of the IMF and
the World Bank it is practically impossible to get Ethiopia out of the present poverty.
Having this in mind, if we come to the advice of <strong>Professor</strong> Messay to create a powersharing
arrangement with the regime, I do not believe that the Meles regime with such a
bloody past, and which has been selling our country to the so-called foreign investors, and
systematically destabilizes our country so that patriotic feelings could not develop among
the youth, will accept an arrangement which could save Ethiopia. Meles and his clique are
determined to see a much weakened Ethiopia, and could stay in power when they follow
such an intriguing policy. Foreigners who know the regime very well say that Meles and
his clique hate Ethiopia, and the divide and rule system which they have been
systematically applying nation-wide over the last 20 years weakened the entire nation.
<strong>To</strong>day in Ethiopia we do not have a political elite as <strong>Professor</strong> Messay likes to believe;
instead we have a Mafia system across the country which has corrupted all the local
administrations. How is it possible to build a grand coalition with such a regime which likes
to see a very fragmented Ethiopia? Meles like his masters the West hates the concept of
Nation-State, because only through a strong Nation-State the people of that country
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could exercise true freedom, and build a strong economy which is based on science and
technology. It seems that <strong>Professor</strong> Messay does not know what is going on in Ethiopia
and the real economic and social conditions which the Ethiopian people are subjected to.
Therefore, not only from a theoretical, and paradigmatic point of view, but also from the
conditions which are existing on the ground, and from the nature of the regime, the
proposal of <strong>Professor</strong> Messay is not acceptable. It seems that in such a crucial condition
when the regime is in a desperate situation <strong>Professor</strong> Messay tries to divert the attention
of our struggle for a just and democratic Ethiopia and by that saves the Meles regime
from a total collapse.
The writer can be reached at fekadubekele@gmx.de
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