Dictators: How do they grow in our land?

By Golto Aila | May 1, 2008

Throughout its history Ethiopia has been ruled by dictators. The last two rulers of Ethiopia, including the current one, were people of different backgrounds, social class, education, temperaments etc, but they had one thing in common - they were all dictators. But why does Ethiopia keep on producing dictators? It is human nature to want power and have one’s material needs catered for, i.e. one wants food, shelter from the elements, and security from threat of injury or death. It is also human tendency try to procure one’s needs with minimal effort, not just for oneself but for one’s family friends, community, nation and the like. If one can give orders and get all these creature comfort - fine. But life’s realities are such that one often needs to do more than just give orders.

Often times there are rivalries and competitions before one can achieve such a lofty position from which one can give orders and expect to be obeyed, hence, the strategy to eliminate the rival to gain the control. The methods differ depending on the social and cultural norms. In its crudest form one usually physically eliminates one’s rivals or sends those under one’s command to the job. Once lives have been lost in this type of struggle for supremacy a new relationship now prevails between the victor and the vanquished. The victor is determined to maintain supremacy and the vanquished is determined to avenge the deaths of his people and recover whatever else was lost, and more, hence, the vicious cycle of killing, with each win increasing the appetite for further conquest, and each loss increasing the bitterness of the vanquished!

In the context of dictatorial governance, once an order has been given to illegally kill or otherwise eliminate an opponent, a new situation prevails whereby the ruler, who is now in the grips of paranoia emanating from the guilt of unlawful killing and fear of revenge, is forced to kill more and more with each perceived threat due to the fear that any other course of action will only lead to his own demise!

From our childhood we are taught to obey our elders without questioning, however unreasonable they may be! We carry that teaching into our adulthood and obey our leaders however unreasonable they may be. If you raise objections, however right or rational you may be, that would most likely be considered an affront by the leader, and disrespect by his subordinates. You’ll probably be taken care of by the subordinates even before the leader gives any order on your fate. It is our culture that creates dictators!

People’s behavior is mostly based on habit formation, and like most animals, on conditioning. If bad behavior is punished people will discard that behavior. If good behavior is rewarded people would tend to repeat it. Leaders in the developed and democratic world do not expect to gain or retain power by bad behavior (unlike their ancestors), because the governmental, legal and societal norms will deter them and punish them. We have no such tradition in Ethiopia! On the contrary, we have a tradition that rewards dictators by silence or even praise in spite of their wrong doing! Ordinary Ethiopians respect their leaders to the point of demeaning and humiliating themselves. Humiliating the ordinary people by those in authority is a national pass time, I’m saying this from experiences which our families go through every day, and not just under this regime but under every regime we have seen so far. We repeatedly act in a manner which emphasizes the leaders’ superiority and ordinary people’s inferiority to gain some little favors! Is it any wonder that our leaders, be they the heads of the State or a mere village elder, behave as if they are supernatural beings, and anointed by the All Mighty to rule? One may go to any office in Addis Ababa today for whatever reason, and have to say Yene Geta, for the gate keeper to be let in. Our culture makes us to insult ourselves in order to show respect for those in authority. This permeates every level of our society. Is it any wonder that such a treatment goes to a leader’s head and make him believe that only he has the right to rule? It is our culture that creates dictators!

So, as we now focus on removing the current dictator, we have to be on our guard that we are not hatching new ones. Leaders, including those who are democratically elected, will be only as democratic as the population forces them to be. The natural tendency is to gravitate today a dictatorial rule for reasons mentioned above. In a culture that rewards strong men over reasonable men and women, the promise of democracy may fail to come to fruition simply because of lack of the necessary vigilance and intervention on the part of the populace.

A democratic Ethiopia must ensure the following:

• There should be a nationwide program to educate the public that they are the boss, and their elected representatives and the government officials are truly their servants. The public must be educated not only about their civil rights, but as importantly their civic duties.
• Every citizen deserves as much respect as any other person in Ethiopia. But every person must have self-respect first and foremost.
• Give due respect to its leaders but avoid the habit of worshiping them and demeaning yourself and humiliating the ordinary people.
• Be on its guard for any over-reach by its elected/public officials and take immediate remedial action to minimize any perceived damage. Such actions must be made public as a deterrent to future misdemeanour. In other words, Ethiopia must make a habit of quickly cutting its over-reaching leaders to their sizes, and avoid leaving the matters to out-grow its ability to contain the problem.
• Have a rigid control (societal, legal and legislative) on leaders so that excesses, that may harm the public is nipped in the bud.
• Every citizen must act as the protector of the democratically adopted Ethiopian Constitution; otherwise Ethiopia will go to the dogs again!