By LeoulMekonen | August 27, 2012
The New York Times article by Jeffery Gettleman "Ethiopian Leader’s Death
Highlights Gap Between U.S. Interests and Ideals"is one of the best articles I have
read since the death of Ethiopian dictator Meles Zenawi. I don´t know what
readers might think but this is what I love most about USA. Even though the US
foreign policy is guided by self-interest and selfishness, US is honest in revealing
its own hypocracy to the world. It is seldom governments in Europe reveal their
hypocracy to the public. By that the reaction of USA is predictable. But there is
one thing the writer of the article Mr. Gettleman miss in the analysis, that is the
impact of self-interest driven policy and the image of USA as father of democratic
rights in the developing countries.
It is obvious that USA and West European countries are threatened by China´s
economic strength and expansion. As an Ethiopian refugee who have paid high
price for democracy and experience many set backs again and again even in
exile; one thing I have learned during the last 21 years of MelesZenawis rule was
that all I have sacrificed for just vanished as a ”cry in the valley”. I saw with my
own eyes that the so called HUMAN RIGHTS which once I worshiped as an article
of faith was just a political weapon to the west to punish leaders who they don´t
like. All other dictators like MelesZenawi who were supposed to be called mass
murderers like Anders Breivik of Norway instead praised as strongman. The
politicians and leaders of the west who were benefited from the dictatorial rule
substitute the ”mass murderer” title to ”strongman”. On the contrary, the west
used lame excuse "stability" as a ground to cheat the international community,
feed and arm the beasts of Africa.
If stability is more valuable than democratic governance and liberty, why is that
we hear deafening news and debates about repression in China, Iran or North-
Korea? These countries are led by "strongmen", these countries maintain
stability at gunpoint the same way MelesZenawi of Ethiopia did for the last two
decades. Why wouldn´t the West change the tone towards these countries? This
is a very bad lesson to the rest of undemocratic and developing world. In my
opinion, Chinese now have got more acceptance in Africa over the West because
the west couldn´t deliver and show a genuine effort in supporting democratic
governance. It was since 1960s many African thinkers and intellectuals streched
their hand to the west in their effort to democratize African countries. Since,
many of African countries and governments then were not a threat to US interest
none of these visionary and democracy oriented intellectuals got support. This
has left a big scar on the minds and heart of African intellectuals and elites.
Now, if you travel to Africa and for example ask one Ethiopian university student
to tell the difference between Chinese and Americans, most probably the student
will tell you that the Chinese have smaller eyes while Americans are big in size.
But 15 or 20 years ago the moment one mention America or the West, it used to
be associated with liberty, democracy and freedom. Such association, we find
hardly in todays Africa. Whose fault is it? The West!
Since the self-interest driven US and European foreign policy didn´t make any
difference in the lives of Africans in terms of good governance, they view both
Chinese and the West as vultures that compete to devour African resources. So, if
many Africans asked today to choose between China and US, they prefer Chinese
to get more influence in their country. Since the issue of human rights is the
same under the influence of both states, Africans will be more inclined to
consider the cheap electronic devises from China than the bogus American
democracy which they have had never experienced. It is so amazing that the
west couldn´t learn from its mistakes. But this situation is not permanent, it can
be altered. If the West from today shows genuine interest in democratization of
Africa, China will lose its ground within a short period of time. Until then, the
Chinese will prevail and the West just remains as a territory that grants
democratic freedom and human rights only to its citizens. The time is mature to
act.US must reconsider a just, and sustainable solution to Africa based on
democratic rights than feeding and arming ”strongmen” who help to achieve the
wests´interest. Such policy is like a foundation laid on sand. It will collapse and
US ran after new strongmen forever.
---
Leoul.mekonen@gmail.com
Ethiomedia.com - An African-American news and views website.
Copyright 2012 Ethiomedia.com. Email: editor@ethiomedia.com
