This is Ethiopian Review Policy Research Center’s series on From Dictatorship to Democracy extracted/quoted from books and articles published by Albert Einstein Institution and similar sources.
Some people who recognize that they lack deep knowledge of nonviolent struggle turn to outsiders for guidance on what they should do. They may find individuals, groups or agencies who are eager to advise and who offer to help.
Usually no foreign saviors are coming, and if a foreign state does intervene, it probably should not be trusted. The harsh reality is, foreign states will tolerate, or even positively assist a dictatorship in order to advance their own economic or political interests, and foreign states also may be willing to sell out an oppressed people instead of keeping pledges to assist their liberation at the cost of another objective.
However, accepting those offers can at times be as dangerous as deciding how to conduct such a conflict without in-depth understanding of nonviolent struggle. Outside resource persons cannot have intimate knowledge of the particular conflict situation, nor the current political situation, nor the historical background.
Additionally, external assistance is not empowering. The people who receive external advice to resolve their difficulties will still be dependent on others to deal with their problems.
Furthermore, the guidance provided by outsiders can on occasion be primarily motivated by the desire to achieve the objectives of the outside group giving the advice, instead of the objectives of the population facing the oppression.
At times, asking outsiders for guidance on what resisters should do can even result in a loss of control of the struggle to the outsiders.
It can happen that outsiders offering to assist a nonviolent struggle group also offer money to the resisters, who often are in difficult financial straits. Extreme care is merited in such instances. The financial assistance may later be revealed to be linked to controls of one type or another.
If the controls are accepted, the resisters have lost their ability to determine their own course of action.
If the controls are not accepted, the financial support may be severed.
Additionally, revelations that the resisters have been funded by an external saviors may tarnish the movement badly and contribute to discrediting the resisters as tools of a hostile foreign government.
To View Division of Responsibilities for Self-Liberation CLICK: Division of Responsibilities for Self-Liberation
The basic premise of the article, namely, that the struggle for democracy in a country like Ethiopia should be solely be undertaken using internal forces is a highly flawed strategy.
The need for a twin approach to the fight against dictatorship in Ethiopia i.e. internal as well as external becomes easily obvious when one consders that the Woyane regime survives economically and militarily from the huge ($4 billion) sum it obtains from other nations as well as another substantial ($3-$4 billion) that it gets from diaspora Ethiopians. Coupled with this is the diplomatic and political support the Ethiopian regime obtains from such countries as USA which shelter it from international condemnation despite its well known and documented crimes against humanity.
A successful struggle for democracy in Ethiopia will, therefore, need to have a highly coordinated advocacy/lobbying effort to influence government policies in other countries while at the same time supporting the internal struggle through financial support as well as ideas and information through the utilization of effective instruments such as Ethsat, radio stations, websites, and other media.
Let us, therefore, not be too big for our boots and ignore external forces.
[Reply]
Belehennet:
May be you wrote your comment before you view Column One on the graphic design (DIVISION OF RESPONSIBILITIES FOR SELF-LIBERATION)
Good observation though!!!
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Thank you, Temelkatch, for your prompt and positive response which I appreciate.
However, I must state that my remarks referred to the article, not the graphic design which was obviously presented in an entirely different context. By the way, I had already seen that graphic design earlier and I do believe that it deserves the fullest accolade and support.
The article is completely different from the graphic design in that the former completely downplays external forces by stating, among other things: “….external force is not empowering”. The author could not be farther from the truch. Espousing such erroneous ideas will only help the Ethiopian dictators.
What we in fact need is the sophistication and wisdom to make a full use of the external forces be they the diaspora Ethiopians and/or the foreign governments and institutions which virtually facilitate Woyane’s survial at this stage.
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Elias Kifle the GREAT (Keep it up),
Our slogan must be “ETHIOPAN PROBLEMS MUST BE SOLVED BY ETHIOPIANS”.
We do not need the USA and its partners who are always behind their intersets in solving our shortcomings.
USA must be kept out of our internal politics. We know how to do it and, as such, no need of external teachers.
Meles is dead!!!!!!!!
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Sure one has to balance between the internal and external inorder to choose the optimal strategy that produces maximum positive outcome for the country.
Unfortunately some times beggars can not be chooser, metaphorically speaking of course.
This particularly reminds of the Libyan popular uprising when at itse early state the activists categorically rejected external assistants and involvements of any sort claiming that the uprising is the uprising of the Libyan people against tyranny and as such must be fought out and settled by the Libyans alone. “LIBYAN PROBLEMS MUST BE SOLVED BY LIBYANS ALONE” was the slogan of the time. That is excellent and good intention but reality talks other language when you are dealing with an established regime possessing highly organized and professional military and and other security forces laying low and seducing opponenets deep in to its own territory for an effective catch for an end to the constant nag.
That being the case and the ragtag untrained emotional fighters, running all around slowly but surely started facing the professional and highly trained forces of Quaddafi started slaughtering the unprofessional fighters on the way to sure extermination.
The fighters started seeing the end right in the eye at which point they strated swallowing their pride and loudely begging for any external assistance.
The needed external help came and saved revolutionaries from the imminent sure genocide in which the Colonel was a master expert for the last some 42 years.
[Reply]
Temelkatch Reply:
July 13th, 2012 at 5:30 pm
It is unfortunate that what started as Mass Disobedience reistance ended up being an internatinalized Armed Resistance.
As a result many many people died.
It is also interesting to see the new EU-Libya energy contractual agreement, or any other “shared” interest as part of the support they got to remove the tyrant.
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Reppi Reply:
July 14th, 2012 at 7:18 pm
@Giingoo
Are you suggesting that the same colonialist who plundered the continent of Africa brought freedom to the Libyans?
Do you have any idea of how many innocent Libyans were slaughtered by these external forces?
Do you really believe that countries who collaborate with Saudi’s and Qatari’s have good intentions?
No matter what MSM says you can not deny the fact that before the so called revolution, Libyans had the highest standard of living in Africa and even some European countries. You can not deny the fact that Qaddafi has helped a lot of freedom fighters in their struggle against colonialism.
Some of our people were slaughtered like cattle by the very people you refer to as revolutionaries during and after the insurrections.
What do you think happened to the wealth of the Libyan people? Who do you think took it?
Before advocating external help keep in mind the old saying “Keras belay Nefass”
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