The socialist conscience of Ana Gomes

By Solomon Gebreselassie
July 8, 2006

As every one now knows, the results of the elections have been stolen in an act Hailu Shawel dubbed “daylight robbery and not an ordinary vote rigging”. What is unique about Ms. Gomes is the fact that among the over 200 election observers from the EU, AU, and the Carter Center, hers is the only voice that still echoes on the local and international political horizon on behalf of the Ethiopian masses in search of justice and for the results of their vote to be respected.

To that effect, she has made a few public speeches here in the US at the US Congress, at Capital Hilton in Washington, and the latest at Los Angeles Airport Hilton. In all her talks, Ms. Gomes has provided a consistent narration on her Mission’s tasks, accomplishments and observations. She has courageously identified the party responsible for the derailment of the May 15, 2005 Ethiopian elections. For that, she has been accused by the incumbent government of “interfering in the internal affairs of the country”, and to top it all, the EPRDF has amassed a laughable list of possible EPRDF cadres as signers of a petition opposing Ms. Gomes’ involvement. There is no surprise there.

Ms. Gomes was also instrumental in advancing East Timor’s democracy in 1994-95.

Why would such a woman who could have easily moved to her next task after submitting her final report on Ethiopia instead involves herself in the unglamorous and relatively risky task of loudly defending the Ethiopian masses? Largely, it is most likely the compelling power of her socialist conscience. She has witnessed the crushing poverty most Ethiopians suffer through, and she has also witnessed how close they came last May to throw the shackles of poverty and dictatorship. That ontological diagram etched in her mind has made her restless, and perhaps pushed her to resolve to struggle along with the millions of Ethiopians until their goals are achieved. Independent observers, such as Christopher Clapham have described the “daylight robbery” this way: “the evidence of fraud and intimidation, especially after the debacle suffered by the EPRDF is so overwhelming that it cannot be plausibly denied”. Therefore, where is the interference when this woman stands for justice and tries to reverse the injustice and help advance the cause of the rule of law? Rather, isn’t she living up to the full expectations of her electoral observation assignment unlike the other observers and centers who simply look at election observation as a formalistic, run-of-the-mill job that spouts out vague reports at the end?

Ms. Gomes is starkly different in that she fully knew what was a stake was no less than the destiny of millions of citizens humiliated by man-made poverty and lawlessness for thousands of years.

Criticizing public figures when they take up the side of the oppressed is nothing new. In the recent Mexican presidential election, writer Carlos Monsivais and journalist-novelist Elena Poniatowska came out publicly in support of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a left-leaning former Mexico City Mayor. For this they were publicly criticized and ridiculed. But they knew what was at stake in the just-concluded Mexican elections: illegal immigrations by hundreds of thousand of Mexicans to the US and the continued poverty of half the population if the party in power gets elected.

In response to the criticism, international uproar supporting the writers ensued. A group of Latin American and European artists and literati, including the Portuguese Jose Saramago (compatriot of Ms. Gomes and a Nobel laureate,) rallied to their defense.

Unfortunately, the candidate of the poor has reportedly lost the election by the slimmest of margins unless his appeal to the Federal Election Appeals Court – not Kemal Bedri prototype court one hopes- succeeds.

A social critic once said that if one is not a socialist in his youth, he has no soul; and if one continues to be a socialist past his youth, he has no mind. Obviously, Ana Gomes has shown that the second part of this parable is patently false. People of Ms. Gomes’ commitment give hope that a better world, one peaceful and prosperous can be realized.