The Black Informant | African American Commentary, News and Community Building

E-mailed to blackinformant.com this week by the group Young Ethiopian Diasporans

It’s only Monday, and already the Ethiopian government has started mass arresting members of the opposition in advance of the mass peaceful rally planned on Sunday, October 2. More arrests are expected–it is, after all, only Monday.

This is the government that Mr. Jimmy Carter wants the opposition to bow to and say “Amen” for the being allowed to exist.

In an interesting turn, the outgoing parliament of the ruling party which had control of 95% of the seats passed a saucy new legislation before it closed shop. Previously, the opposition only held 12 seats in parliament. According to the contested results, it raised that number to 161 although the opposition says it has evidence that it won much more.

Mr. Carter and his ilk are seeing those raw figures and telling the Ethiopian people, “That’s good enough.” However, one of the last acts of the outgoing parliament was to pass legislation stating that only the party that has a 51% majority can even bring up items for the agenda let alone debate and discuss legislation. Basically, the opposition will be little more than wallflower. It has been rendered useless. The opposition is considering boycotting the elections, which Mr. Carter and the State Department are urging against.

This is the new standard of “Good Enough” Democracy for Africans.

Are all democracies made equal? Did President Bush mean it when he said, “All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know…

the United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you.”

Those were powerful words that had given so many of us hope, a welcome departure from previous administrations which believed that some countries are undeserving of “real democracy.”

On October 2, against all odds, without so much as anyone standing by them, Ethiopians will come out in force to say, “Enough!” to tyranny. Undoubtedly, many will be mowed down as they stand for democracy, and we would have seen it all happen. Our silence will indict us. Ethiopia will be another Darfur… another Rwanda, except this time we knew it was coming and chose to remain silent. Meanwhile, China and Iran are swooping down to pick up the pieces.

Maybe all democracies are not made equal.

Another grassroots movement: www.prayforethiopia.org