Opinion: Systemic & Systematic Corruption in Ethiopia Under TPLF**

By Wardoffa Banti* A VIEW FROM THE SILENT DIASPORA [posted April 23, 2008]

What we hear nowadays are tales of the astounding and uncontrollably yawning economic gap amongst Ethiopians. That is between the too little “haves” and all the rest “have-nots”. As all nations pass through a change of economic and social transformation, there would naturally emerge classes of people who would be identified with levels of economic and wealth prowess. In today’s Ethiopia, we hear and witness many stories of corrupt and unfair distribution of wealth, which is reserved to those who have political power; those who are connected and enter into a subtle and mutual game of corrupt practice with those in power in splitting public funds; those who do not hesitate to plunder public wealth as those in political power do not have the moral high ground to resist or curb the corruption; and those who loot public wealth while the government looks the other way as those corrupt officials and their partners are necessary political entities that need to indulge in corruption in order to blackmail them into political servitude.

“FREE MARKET ECONOMICS” IN THE EYES OF REVOLUTIONARY DEMOCRATS

The basic underpinnings of free market economics lies in the “invisible hand” of market forces to bring about balances and the government’s role as the regulator of the economic and financial sectors. In an ideal free market system, the state (or the government) is given by its citizens (or in the case of Ethiopia, by its “subjects”) the mandate or authority to “regulate” the economic regime by leveling the playing field in order that all independent players would play by sets of standards and rules of the game of economic activities.

The Invisible Hand

Free market’s (liaise faire) underlying dynamics is that of the market’s “wisdom” to self-regulate itself. This idea is embodied in the concept of the market as having an “invisible hand” that would guide its course with its inbuilt mechanisms and dynamism of basic principles such as demand-and-supply. Although the free market models appeared in myriad forms, the experiences of governments have proved that regulation is a necessity to avert monopolies and unfair practices by strong economic players. That is an unbridled and unregulated free market would be self-defeating given the innate human drives of insatiable greed to monopolize and the necessity to control some business entities and variables that are needed for the stable sailing of the economy (for example, the needs to manage and regulate interest rates, interstate and foreign trades, corporations and partnerships that veiled the individual merchant.)

Government as a Regulator

This function of the government presupposes that the people would be guaranteed with a leveled playing economic field, where all players (individuals or business entities) would enjoy a fair, non-discriminatory and healthy competition without any interference by the government or other forces. This government regulatory function stands out as the cornerstone of modern market economies with the view to do away with unfair competition, favoritism and cronyism by the few over the rest. In addition to this role as a regulator, any government is tasked to collect tax revenues and to furnish taxpayers with the goods, services, and infrastructures that facilitate and guard their activities, well-being, interests and security.

Throughout this reshaping and crystallization of this modern free market principle, what has invariably evolved is the fundamental duty of the state to refrain itself from being involved as a business entity itself. In basic terms, these economic and political obligation and mandate given to the state gear towards establishing a fair system that is fundamentally constituted to serve the people. (We equate this economic relationship between the state and its citizens as a football game, where the referee, being a neutral and fair judge, regulates and implements the rules of the game, and the players abide by the rules as the game progresses.)

It is under this original backdrop of the function of a state that we forward the following analysis demonstrating that the economic policies and directions in present-day Ethiopia are submerged in the sea of distorted irregularity and aberration of free market economics that is manifestly resulting in inequitable, discriminatory, and unhealthy system infested with exploitation, domination and abuse.

SYSTEMIC CORRUPTION AND TPLF’S DECAY

Aside from regulating for the purposes of leveling the playing field, the free market economy presupposes the economic and financial sectors are to be free from the involvement of the state in the daily economic activities of citizens. The roles of the state are to collect taxes and to provide the people with security, infrastructures and regulatory functions that enable citizens to play by the rules.

TPLF - the Regulator & the "Regulatee"

The reality in Ethiopia under TPLF (Tigray People's Liberation Front), however, is another story. The TPLF regime knows no distinction between its regulatory functions as a government and its unhealthy submergence into the economy with its overly large and visible hand that works as a business entity in contradiction to free market economics. The case of Ethiopia is unique because the ruling party that controls the state (supposedly the regulator or referee of the game) is, in fact, also a business entity or a player itself. This is because, the TPLF/EPRDF (EPRDF - Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front - is another name for the ruling party) is SIMULTANEOUSLY a “political party” at the helm of state power (with all the powers of the state to use and abuse) AND a merchant or business conglomerate (having its own giant businesses, companies and “endowments”). Under the TPLF, the football referees take the ball into their own hands and score goals for their illegal advantages while sanctioning other players to sit outside the field using their authority as the government. This is the fabric of a sick system where the economic interests of the citizens are compromised by the absolute power of the TPLF regime, which uses this power to accumule capital through corrupt mechanisms. That is why the TPLF government is said to suffer from systemic ailment as the economic system is shakily built on a wrong, unjust, corrupt and volatile base.

TPLF - the Tax Collector & the Taxpayer

In this regards, there is this underlying “conflict of interest” in TPLF’s confused and mixed-up role being a political party AND a business company. Ideally, the state power is vested with the duty to collect taxes from citizens and corporations. The state is expected to present itself by promising to collect as little taxes from its citizens as possible but to provide the best service to the people. In this dynamics, it is evident that people best prefer a government that would provide them with the maximum possible qualitative and quantitative service, but collect the lowest amount of taxes. The state is, however, vested with discretionary authority to keep watch of the payment of taxes by citizens even if individuals and businesses inherently prefer, given government's waste, to pay taxes as little as possible. However, in the case of TPLF – that wears two hats as the tax collector AND the taxpayer as a business entity - who is to supervise, control and regulate whether, TPLF, as a business entity, had paid all taxes due? Could a person be a football player and a referee at the same time? Who is auditing the books of TPLF/EPRDF’s companies? Did TPLF/EPRDF obtain the capital for its business from sources outside of Ethiopia or Ethiopians?

The TPLF has abrogated this fundamental duty of safeguarding the economic interests of the people and the country by being a “taxpayer” and a “tax collector” at one and the same time. This is the best manifestation of the conflict of interests that the TPLF is wallowing in and decaying with. The TPLF/EPRDF should have chosen either one of these roles because political parties, in principle, cannot engage in business practices. It is unethical because the responsibility of the mandate to govern requires the respect of one’s duty either as a political or an economic entity. It is also illegal as the state's resources are used to protect TPLF's business monopolies and plunders.

TPLF - the Corruption Fighter & the Corrupt

The protruded dictatorship of Meles Zenawi is the natural consequence of warding off others from political power as they would be checks and bottlenecks to continuity of this unjust system. The “fight” of the symptoms of corruption by the TPLF government is proving barren and cosmetic because a system that is built on corruption could not be propped up as it is torn between illegal accumulation of capital (to be guarded by guns, whenever necessary) and a semblance of order by acting as a government. That is why we see the “supporters of the TPLF” having no moral ground or the reasons to back their positions as an undeserved advantage knows no rationality but blind denial and/or feigned (insincere) support to the TPLF.

REVOLUTIONARY DEMOCRACY OR “REVERSAL OF FORTUNE”

It is a natural motive of a human being to promote and protect the interest of its individual self, then its race and finally of mankind. I do not remember an instance where I had been a fan of the football team of a different Kebele than mine. Hence, in a country where the system of governance is tailored along fragmented ethnic entities, it is not surprising for an individual or members of a group to promote and protect their interests.

TPLF's Ingrained Motive

The TPLF, professing to be the vanguard of its constituency, does not conceal the fact that it is promoting the interests of its group. In spite of this natural and inherent motive, however, the TPLF, being the real power behind the Ethiopian state, desires to lead us to believe that it is saintly working for Ethiopia and all Ethiopians. This would be a travesty of nature and reality. Especially, with TPLF gaining state power after an arduous guerrilla war that unfortunately caused unimaginable misery and suffering on its constituency, it would be natural to reduce its motive to compensate and avenge the unfortunate consequences of the civil war. The TPLF’s interpretation of history, the realities that evolved through dynamism of the years of the civil war and the nature and individual perceptions and takings by its leaders whose capacities are limited for the mere fact of being individual human beings, would factor in the formation and implementation of policies and directions frantically and narrowly devised by such leadership.

TPLF's Monopoly Over State Power

Ethiopia’s TPLF government had been in euphoric state of affairs after it militarily seized power, which turned out to be demagoguery in pitting various ethnic groups against each other while consolidating its monopoly on power. With the passing of each day and when resorting to brute and excessive force to silence the people became the more so successful, economic and social policies became intertwined with the goal of perpetuating the actual control of power. This over-reliance on divisive tactics and guns in turn translated into a lack of accountability and opaque transparency, as the TPLF immersed into a cultish height of invincibility and omnipotent arrogance that have us hear the words of its officials who declared that the “TPLF could not only win a battle, but knows how to make/fabricate wars or controversies”. As Meles put it rightly, the May 2005 election was not a “contest” to be conceded but a “calculated risk” (thanks to guns and repression) for political and international PR consumptions. When Meles said (Is it the British who call people who confuse too much information with “knowledge” as suffering from oral diarrhea?) that the people falsely believed that they were free citizens to exercise their basic rights and freedoms, while in fact they forget that they are in a big prison where “they are tied with a long rope like a chicken”, the arrogance was impeccable. It is under this political background that the “makers of battles” single-handedly devise and implement economic policies that would put the advantageous few to a state of exploitation at the cost of the disadvantaged majority.

TPLF's Abuse of State Power to Accumulate 'Group' Economic Power

In this regards, as it professes, the idea of “revolutionary democracy” of the TPLF/EPRDF is to devolve political, economic, social and cultural powers from the hands of past beneficiaries (by definition the Amhara and by default Gurages and the rest of non-TPLF constituencies) back to the rest of the people. This idea, understood in terms of the economic dimension by the TPLF’s agenda, would be fostered by making an accelerated, radical and propelled change or devolution of power (revolution) by using state power to divest past beneficiaries of their power in a just and fair (democratic) manner. Given the economic realities on the ground, what we see is the TPLF’s historic and unparalleled accumulation of economic power in its own hands as has never been witnessed in Ethiopian history. Considering the realities of the corrupt economic policies and practices of the TPLF/EPRDF, we cannot understand “revolutionary democracy” as none other than state sponsored “reversal of fortune” using power.

SYSTEMATIC CORRUPTION

Some companies of TPLF, Inc.

Locking Lackeys with Corruption Addiction

In today’s Ethiopia, we hear and witness many stories of corrupt and unfair distribution of wealth, which is reserved to those who have political power; those who are connected and enter into a subtle and mutual game of corrupt practice with those in power in splitting public funds; those who do not hesitate to plunder public wealth as those in political power do not have the moral high ground to resist or curb the corruption; and those who loot public wealth while the government looks the other way as those corrupt officials and their partners are necessary political entities that need to indulge in corruption in order to blackmail them into political servitude; giving some “cut” to political lackeys who would serve as a go-between the TPLF and other “nations and nationalities” - for instance, Dinsho (OPDO), Wondi (SEDM) - in order to lock the lackeys with corrupt addiction, thereby making them slaves of the whims of the TPLF.

The Muted Majority

The policies of the TPLF are devised on narrowly constituted ground (but with a grandiose self-esteem that shrills the sound of “who is there better than us”) that leaves out the majority of the people in the cold with their genuine political representation muted, silenced or sidelined. The highest echelon of those with actual power within the TPLF government is held by a narrow group that is insulated from inputs from other sections of the society who have stakes in the affairs of their country.

The Winner-Takes-All Mentality

Under Meles’ government, principle is compromised for loyalty and grab-your-share mentality. The scheme of economic policies is dictated and steered by Meles Zenawi or other TPLF cheerleaders like Neway Gebreab, Bereket Semon, Abay Tsehaye. (TPLF's tone of governance is that of the “my way or the highway” or “put up or shut up” - after all, they believe, how dare ordinary people question the conquerors?) It is understandable that the TPLF would come to this state of organizational mindset after considering its bunkered guerrilla warfare calculus and mentality of the ONLY solution to a given problem is to “neutralize or eliminate” the other differing side or the “enemy that tends to cross the field with the red line engraved for citizens by the TPLF”. This condescending perception by the TPLF of the state machinery as being the “property” of those who conquered their “enemies” or a “perpetual entitlement” for the victors is no different than aristocratic monarchies or Marxist-Leninist dictatorship of the proletariat. As such this sentiment of entitlement that the TPLF portrays (as opposed to realizing that the struggle was for the people not for its fighters) is diametrically in conflict with the concept of representative democracy that upholds the interests and the will of the people.

Change is Inevitable

The TPLF has proven for itself that sharing power and accommodating differing views would block the smooth flow of undeserved advantage that it is accumulating. (Remember the post-May 2005 express legislation in parliament to deny discussion of finance issues by the House of Representatives? It is a typical example of reserving money issues not to be questioned and scrutinized by opponents so that the public would not know the covered up budgetary and finance corruption and favoritism of the TPLF.) Growingly, the irresistible sweetness of power and wealth is blinding the TPLF to a level of arrogance that is typical of dictatorships that died and are dying. There is the need to seek political change and influence by exposing the corrupt practices of the TPLF government. It is also necessary to continue equipping the political, social, and pressure groups, that have a stake in our country, to hold rational and reasoned policies and political positions that would challenge the political leaders into realizing the ideals of fairness, justice and equality that would lay the foundations for a sustainable nation. It would be a matter of time before the outwardly-strong-but-decaying TPLF acknowledges that there is more to equitable and democratic governance than political expediency of consolidating political tyranny insulated from the interests, will and participation of its subjects. The accumulated injustices committed by the TPLF would not draw any sane minded person to support a government that is infested with systemic and systematic corruption, which have historically been the recipes for a stagnating and dying regime.

By Wardoffa Banti

* Disclaimer: the opinions expressed in the article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of  Gadaa.com.

** The article has been edited to fit editorial formats.

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