A Post-Mortem

An inveterate critic of l'ancien régime that was consigned to the dustbin of history in 1974 used to amuse us with his acerbic remark that a government - not unlike a fish - begins to rot first in its head. Of course, not being conversant with piscine affairs, we are still not quite sure that a fish first rots in the way described by our politically conscious intellectual. However, a government no doubt first begins to rot in the head.

We have a lingering suspicion that the EPRDF government - where the tail wags the dog - has been long afflicted by persecution mania. It is a pity that no psychiatrist worth his salt has so far come forward to lay the government on a couch for purging it of its disturbing psychological ailments. Surely, a nebulous political party based nowhere in Ethiopia cannot be seriously troubling its sleeping and waking hours.

In one of his moments of madness, Adolf Hitler used to see communists and Jews under all Teutonic beds. What he did on February 27, 1933 was, therefore, to set the Reichstag on fire and to claim that the crime was committed by communists and Jews - perhaps with a sprinkling of Gypsies. That was how Hitler had seized supreme power. Many dictators have been resorting to similar stratagems actually first devised by Caligula and Nero.

Some forty years ago, for instance, a bomb had exploded in Cinema Empire. The bomb was obviously planted there by agents of the feudal regime. It was done so with the aim of incriminating the Metcha Tulema Development and Self-Help Association. Four of its leaders were seized, summarily tried and found guilty of bombing the cinema to advance the political aims of the Oromo people. One of them was, in fact, executed.

It is always facile for dictators to find scapegoats for their own abysmal political failures. Always imagining that one is being persecuted by this or that party does not certainly succeed in righting wrongs. As a prominent American politician had put it so beautifully several decades ago, at the end of the day there is nothing to fear but fear itself - unless, of course, one happens to be sick in the head. n

Waste of Time

For some thirty years now the powers that be in this country have been urging the public to demonstrate in favour of certain measures taken by them to promote their own vested interests. Very often too peasants and industrial workers in particular were being organized by political activists to condemn or to demonize whatever the powers that be had wanted them to condemn or demonize.

At the same time, there is a prevailing feeling here and there that these demonstrations constitute an astronomical waste of time and energy that could have been diverted towards beneficial work. From what one sees on television, peasants and townspeople in numerous regional towns are "venting" their "anger" at incidents created by nobody knows who. One can imagine how much of our precious human resources are thereby going down the drain.

Government-sponsored demonstrations have failed to achieve anything here since the time of Menghistu Haile-Mariam. In fact, these demonstrations have become something of a national joke. We do not comprehend what any government hopes to achieve by mobilizing innocent peasants and workers to parrot its own words. For God's sake, aren't the radio and television enough to brainwash the masses?

Time is a precious commodity that should be used wisely.