Part II
BY EPHREM ANDARGACHEW
Abel Gashe is Chairperson of Ethiopian Center for Peace and Progress. Together with his team, he has visited different areas affected by recurrent conflicts. The Ethiopian Herald made a short stay with him requesting him to share his observations of these areas for its readers. He also discussed diaspora’s roles in supporting the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), fighting the terrorist TPLF’s propaganda campaign and the like. This is the continuation of the first part of the interview which was carried by last Sunday’s edition. Enjoy reading.
What are the hopes about nearing the completion of Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam in the midst of the various challenges? It seems that the international community has got a lopsided view of the GERD as if it will just block either flow of Nile water or create damage on the riparian nations. As you have close communication with the international institutions, agencies, and the like, what are you doing to communicate authentic information about this dam?
According to the International Migration office, there are more than two million Ethiopians living out of their native land. So the proportion of the young might not be much different from what you see here in the country. According to the most recent statistics, almost 70 per cent of the Ethiopian population is under 30 years of age. So those in the diaspora may not be any different from that, probably. The majority of the diaspora are the youth. It is a very critical component of the diaspora community and it is important to emphasize what these communities or the young can do for Ethiopia.
Ethiopia provides 86 per cent of the total water flow to Sudan and Egypt of the Nile. As we know there is a White Nile flow from Uganda and the lower basin and the other side but Ethiopia contributes the lion share of this flow and there has never been a time in our history that systematically used this water.
The first time we have vigorously worked as a nation to use this water is when the government and peoples of Ethiopia launched the construction of the GERD project. Of course, this had been under consideration since the Imperial majesty Haileselassie’s time. It had never been implemented because Egypt and Sudan had been pretty much sole users of this water.
As the colonial agreement ascribes inappropriate right for the Sudan and Egypt to access the Nile water, issues related to the use of the water remain controversies. Ethiopia has decided to use its water resource so that it can provide energy and power for its people. This seemed a nightmare for Egyptians as they erroneously believed that Ethiopia’s decision might change the status of flow of the water.
Egypt provides power for its people almost 99 per cent while only 34 per cent of the Ethiopian population has access to light and other energy utilization. This has to change. The Ethiopian population has been growing and the need for energy has been growing as well. Hence, the necessity of constructing the GERD has become a real issue. Of course, Ethiopia has taken its sole agenda when there is no support from the international funding organizations.
Egypt and Sudan systematically blocked Ethiopia from having any access to financial resources. Then Ethiopians along with their government decided to build the dam on their own. Ethiopians at home as well as abroad united to realize this national project. Though our people at home lead hand to mouth life, they continued contributing share from their limited resources. Interestingly, Ethiopians are bringing this mega project to completion as they have completed the second round filling. Above all, this is the clearest indication that Ethiopians are capable enough to accomplish similar mega projects on their own.
Why some individuals and organizations take prejudiced stance? Why are they incongruously advocating for a terrorist group on the expense of the longstanding diplomatic relation of the two countries?
I think it is a matter of awareness of the way international geopolitics works. For instance, the US power corridor is greatly influenced by lobby power. There is a lobbyist called “K Street” where many lobby organizations have their headquarters. If you go and analyze their staff most of these people used to work previously in congress as senators and house representatives.
When they finish their term, they get employment in these lobby agencies. They already have well-developed networks systems which they use to influence the current policymakers. As they work for lobby organizations, they advocate your policy when you provide them money. That is what the terrorist TPLF is currently undertaking. The lobbyists are not working for principles; they are working for dollars.
The terrorist TPLF has been sucking the Ethiopian economy taking the dollar that has been flowing to Ethiopia either in aid or whatever ways. This terrorist group channeled out close to 90 billion dollar in 10 years and put it in different banks and in different individuals’ hands so that they can easily pay for the lobby firms whenever necessary.
Unfortunately, you can see different congressmen advocating for TPLF inappropriately because of those kinds of lobbies influence. They even do not take time to get authentic information and analyze the reality on the ground. As long as they are paid, they do not care about the consequences on diplomatic relations of these countries. Ethiopia has had a very warm, nice and great diplomatic relation with the USA since 1906 AS IT has been part of the major international policy that the USA supported.
Ethiopia was the only country in the League of Nations to be there even if it had been deserted when it had an issue with Italy. Being a founding member of the UN, Ethiopia has been on all these international major undertakings that the US has been part of. For example, in the Korean War, Ethiopia has contributed its young soldiers who played their bravery in winning the war.
And the sad part of it is while this is warm relations Ethiopia had from the time of King Haileselassie and next few years maybe there was interruption during the Derg regime. Otherwise there was a very good relationship that we know. Then to make the problem worse they had TPLF under their record as a terrorist organization like ISIS is or Al–Shabaab is. When they had issues with Al–Shabaab, the Ethiopian government supported their efforts to maintain peace and establish a government in Somalia. This is the kind of record Ethiopia has with the US, that being said though what has happened the last two-three years, the policies Trump organizations promoted being influenced by the Egyptian PR machine coming out in the open to be declared that maybe the Egyptians would be better if they bombed the GERD, it was tragic.
Remember during the Obama regime, TPLF maintained a very close relationship with different government representatives, secretaries and also advisors; one of them was Susan Rice and those have been re-hired, it is normal practice in the US government structure when one party goes it brings staff from the previous government of their time. So all Obama’s staff’s people like Susan Rice and others have joined back the Biden government. And now when they feed information for congress or for executive branches these people are taking the exact reason for the kind of information given to them to duplicate from the TPLF side. They did not weigh in on the other side of the information, be it as the PR machine or this kind of officials have negatively affected the whole decision-making process and the policymaking process.
Do you think that in the long run, the PR and lobby firms will bring the US systems to collapse?
Well the US system will not collapse because of this, but I think it is very critical that decision-makers just pause and consider exactly the kind of policy they are making. This kind of decision has backfired even on a global forum. What we have seen for example during the second filling and the decision making process in the UNSC shows the extent of the problem.
They are just opening the door for their rivalries; for instance, when the US is pursuing policies against individual countries like Ethiopia, Ethiopia would start to see other options or friends.
You see the three branches of government have their own working mechanisms; especially the relationship between the executive branches and the congress is very important to understand. This is what you call bills that can be initiated by any congressman when there are issues they think to be considered by the US Congress and by the executive branches. Taking the HR 45 case, this is a bill presented by four congressmen to consider Ethiopia for blocking the financial assistance that is coming and doing more damage to the Ethiopian economy. These senators, congressmen have been influenced by the PR machine mainly.
So the reason why they brought this HR45 to the table was the information they were being fed. Of course, there was especially a delegation coming to the USA to understand the situation. These missions that have been brought I don’t know the information they took but they should be when they had their conversation with the leaders of Ethiopia. We thought they got the information they needed to counter what was being said by TPLF and its colleagues.
What does it mean just to harm centuries-old relationships between Ethiopia and the US?
It is a black dot on diplomatic relations. It needs reconsideration. Probably the reason why they are backing down on the HR45 might be reflection that they are now reading more into the reality and assessing it better than what the initial information they had. That should be done more because the kind of policy they make has a very serious impact on the world forum. Before they even bring HR45 to the table, they should have countered it with the diplomatic history of Ethiopia.
What do you do to support the majority of Ethiopians?
We have a lot of work that needs to be done. We have a responsibility as citizens of Ethiopia; we are part and parcel of the Ethiopian society. We need to do more. Of course, we ourselves need to organize ourselves better, it should be in different formats; there are a lot of University students. There should be this organization to be encouraged, needs to be supported and we have to develop our networks better, get more information and also not just also develop a relationship with Ethiopians civic organization and government. We need to join our hands and the diaspora communities. As we know it has shown its impact on the society, the kind of foreign remittance that we pay back to the country for helping our people in different investments is now becoming an important contribution.
So, the government has to elevate this even more. I know the PM Abiy office has done a lot to do this; they have elevated to diaspora agency-level. I think that can be taken even further because this relationship has to be strengthened and also need to learn from other countries’ experiences in this regard. I like to emphasize that in the last 30 to 40 years other countries have learnt the importance and power of the diaspora role. At the top of this list comes Israel. The Israelites have made every Israeli part of their community.
They contribute significant economic resources to support their country. The US congress was greatly affected by the Jews interest group. We should learn from them. How do they do that? They have the Jewish distribution committee that galvanized those forces from all Jews supporters and they bring resources, bring their political power and they kick out congressmen, senators, they don’t vote when they don’t support their Arab-Israeli causes. The different conflicts that you see in the Middle East are the pro-Israel war many times. The reason is the Israeli diaspora works for them. We should learn from that. From most recent experiences Mexico and India have understood this. They have accelerated that they raised the diaspora offices to a ministerial level. Mexico allowed the diaspora Mexican to be part of their political process. They can comment, they
can criticize the government, give a positive impact, show a positive impact to the political process, even in the case of India too. They have about 20 million or more Indians living outside of India. So knowing how much that community contributes they elevated it to a ministerial level. Now the diaspora is playing a critical role in supporting India.
In the case of Africa, you can take the case of Ghana; they have appreciated what the Ghanaian Diasporas make. What they do is they also elevated the role the diaspora plays. In fact, the Diasporas have double citizenship. They are both Ghanaian and Americans. They can play a critical role in the political process. What do we see in this? What do we learn? The political leadership here in the country can do the same.
As a diaspora I want to emphasize we can do more, we can organize ourselves more, we can bring more financial resources, we should use our voting power to communicate it to those senators and House of People Representatives (HPR) because in the previous election I voted for Biden. I shouldn’t have done that.
So when we have that kind of political power by voting the way for example Ethiopian-Americans did in Atlanta in supporting more elections of black I mean the democratic, we can do the same. So we need to raise our voice, we need to organize ourselves more, we need to bring more financial resources, we need to hire lobby firms, we need to get the Ethiopian agenda straightened and streamline and properly understood in these power corridors.
Thank you very much!
You are most welcome!
The Ethiopian Herald August 17/2021
