Reading the tea leaves
Alemayehu G. Mariam
ǀ April 13, 2009
Pax Obama
President Obama made a
historic speech to Turkish lawmakers last week, but his message was
global in scope and contained nuggets of his foreign policy yet to
unfold. The first chords of Pax Obama (Obama’s offer of peace to the
word) restore not only much needed sanity to U.S. foreign policy,
but also erect new pillars that will support America’s future
engagement with the rest of the world: Respect for American
democratic values, respect for Muslims and the Islamic faith,
respect for human rights and the rule of law, mutually shared
respect among friends, and even respectful agreement to disagree
with foes.
The speech was vintage
Obama-- sincere, uplifting, full of symbolism, hope and promise. It
was particularly inspiring to defenders of freedom, democracy and
human rights. The President charted the general course of U.S.
foreign policy and framed the contemporary global challenges and
humankind’s options in stark terms: “The
choices that we make in the coming years will determine whether the
future will be shaped by fear or by freedom; by poverty or by
prosperity; by strife or by a just, secure and lasting peace.” The
Turks, he said, have made the right choices because they have
“pursued difficult
political reforms” which have resulted in the “abolition of
state-security courts and expanded the right to counsel, reformed
the penal code, and strengthened laws that govern the freedom of the
press and assembly.” He urged them to maintain their momentum: “For
democracies cannot be static – they must move forward. Freedom of
religion and expression lead to a strong and vibrant civil society….
An enduring commitment to the rule of law is the only way to achieve
the security that comes from justice for all people.”
The President Against
“All Genocides” and For Human Rights
Obama could not have made
his stand on human rights more clear. He said there is no
justification for human rights violations. He declared it is
un-American to engage in torture, denial of fundamental due process
to those accused of crimes, or to engage in arbitrary actions that
defy international law and human rights conventions. “Every
challenge that we face is more easily met if we tend to our own
democratic foundation. This work is never over. That is why, in the United
States, we recently ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed,
and prohibited – without exception or equivocation – any use of
torture.” He openly acknowledged America’s own burdensome legacy of
slavery and injustice: “The United States is
still working through some of our own darker periods… And our
country still struggles with the legacy of our past treatment of
Native Americans [and slavery]”. Earlier in his campaign, he
had promised to be a steadfast voice against genocide: “The Armenian
genocide is not an allegation, a personal opinion, or a point of
view, but rather a widely documented fact supported by an
overwhelming body of historical evidence. America deserves a leader
who speaks truthfully about the Armenian genocide and responds
forcefully to all genocides. I intend to be that president.”
Obama’s
vision -- his dream -- of the future is based on giving a higher
priority to human need than slavishly promoting corporate greed:
“We want to help more children get the education that they need to
succeed. We want to promote health care in places where people are
vulnerable. We want to expand the trade and investment that can
bring prosperity for all people.” He said, “In the months ahead, I
will present specific programs to advance these goals. Our focus
will be on what we can do, in partnership with people across the
Muslim world, to advance our common hopes, and our common dreams.
And when people look back on this time, let it be said of America that
we extended the hand of friendship.”
Clenched Fist of Dictatorship and the Open Hand of Friendship
Last Summer, we announced
the imminent arrival of a new “sheriff” in town.
We offered the following admonition:
Petty Dictators: America
Stands for the Ideals of Freedom, Democracy and Human Rights! When
Barack talks about ‘where and what America stands for’, he is
talking about the American ideals of democracy, freedom and human
rights guiding American foreign policy in a world menaced by a
motley crew of nasty tin-pot dictators, petty tyrants and
bloodthirsty thugs.
It seems we read the tea
leaves just right.
The days of “If you’re not
with us, you’re our enemy; if you’re with us, even if you have blood
on your hands, you’re our friend” are gone. Obama’s message is: “We
will offer you a hand of friendship; but if you clench your fist to
hide the blood that soaks your hands, you are not America’s friend.”
Obama aims to put America front and center in leading a global human
rights revolution. It promises to be a new day -- a new era-- for
freedom, democracy and human rights throughout the world.
What is Good for the
Goose is Good for the Gander!
Will a president who
emphatically opposes torture, arbitrary denial of due process and
reaches back in history to criticize the injustices inflicted on the
slaves and Native Americans lend a hand of friendship to support
torture, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Ethiopia?
Will a president who
zealously condemned genocide committed nearly a century ago in
Armenia condone the genocide committed in Gambella, the Ogaden
and Amhara regions in Ethiopia just a few years ago?
Will a president who
shutdown Guantanamo and a network of CIA “security” prisons
supply hard-earned American tax dollars to keep open the stinking
dungeons (which the U.S. State Department in 2008 described as
“harsh, life-threatening and overcrowded”) that warehouse hundreds
of thousands of political prisoners in Ethiopia?
Will a president who
benchmarks democratic progress in terms of the “abolition of
state-security courts and expanded the
right to counsel, reformation of the penal code, and strengthening
laws that govern the freedom of the press and assembly” coddle
outlaws who have managed to criminalize civic society
institutions and NGO’s, and jail, persecute and exile journalists?
Will a president – a former
civil rights lawyer and constitutional scholar – who declares his
“enduring commitment to the rule of law” embrace a malignant
dictatorship that uses “courts” and the “law” as weapons of
persecution and oppression? We say, “HELL, NO!”
It all boils down to a
simple proposition: What is good for the goose is good for the
gander. If the rule of law and protection of human rights are good
for America, Turkey and the rest of the world, we say they are good
for Ethiopia too. If genocide, torture, arbitrary arrests and
detentions, secret security courts and prisons are bad for America,
Turkey and the rest of the world, we say they are bad for Ethiopia
too. We ask for nothing more or less than what all civilized
societies are entitled to have: A government that is freely elected
by the people (and elections are not stolen) and governs by
respecting the human rights and liberties of its citizens; a
government that is accountable to the people for all of its official
actions and omissions; a government free of corruption and jealously
guards the public treasury from fraud, abuse and waste; a government
that respects the sovereignty of its neighbors and refrains from
naked aggression, displacement of the civilian population and
commission of war crimes; a society that is founded on the rule of
law where no man or woman has the right or opportunity to seize the
law for political and/or private economic advantage; a society where
courts serve the interests of justice and not the interests of
crooked and corrupt official profiteers; a justice system that
relentlessly pursues known and suspected human rights violators, war
criminals and others who have committed crimes against humanity, and
leaves no stones unturned to free innocent individuals, opposition
leaders and dissidents who have been locked up for years because
they oppose dictatorship.
Putting Out Fires With Flames
President Obama hearkened to
an old Turkish proverb in his speech: “You cannot put out fire with
flames.” Of course, the President knows only too well that you can
put out the fire when you let “justice rush down like waters and
righteousness like a mighty stream”. But when your house is on fire,
you don’t need flames to put it out. You need firefighters. In
Ethiopia we need strong firemen and firewomen to put out the
wildfires of ethnic divisions, and now stoked-up and smoldering
religious antagonisms. President Obama is right. These fires can
not be put out with flames of anger, hatred, and revenge. But they
can be put out by flames of justice that sear the consciences of
good men and women; they can be doused by the righteous indignation
of patriotic men and women who commit to the defense of their
motherland against mercenary soldiers of fortune. To paraphrase the
lyrics of Billy Joel: “We didn’t start the fire/ No we didn’t light
it/ But we got to fight it.” That is exactly what we said two years
ago:
There are fire brigades
rising up all over the Diaspora. Everyday we see courageous
firefighters coming to the frontlines. They no longer want to be
frightened spectators jabbering about what somebody else should do,
could do or needs to do. They have decided to act, and you see them
flying around carrying their droplets of water to put out the fire.
These Diaspora firefighters do not fight fire with fire; no, they
fight fire with water. Like water on fire, these firefighters spray
hope and optimism over the despair and misery inflicted upon our
brothers and sisters; they sweep the wreckage of repression and
tyranny with the broom of democracy and human rights; they plant the
seeds of freedom and liberty on a land charred and ravaged by
political violence, corruption, savagery and lawlessness.
The dictators in Ethiopia
know the GAME IS OVER! They are out of lies, out of cash, out of
gas, out of ideas, out of hope, out of order, out of control, out of
the shadows, out of luck and out of time! They are out of their
freaking minds because they are OUT OF BUSINESS! A verse of advice:
Saddle up tin-pot dictators,
‘Tis time to ride out before the big roundup.
The new sheriff and posse are in town,
You better scram before
sundown!
Scram Before
Sundown!
