Yes, Isaias is to blame. Probably.
Once upon a time–actually, April 1, 2018–a bold man arrived in the horizons of the Horn of Africa. And almost immediately–actually immediately–he began clearing the debris of a century–actually, longer–of misrule in his country.
Jails were opened and prisoners were freed. Enemies were forgiven and exiles returned. The disenfranchised were empowered and the abusive humbled. War was ended and peace trumpeted. The silent spoke and the loud were confused.
But there was an anomaly. A political leper in nearby Eritrea was embraced. And not the sort of embrace mandated byrealpolitik, but what appeared to be a heartfelt, happy-to-see you embrace. This was a mystery because the leper had spent the last 28 years doing exactly what this bold man had boldly reversed:
He had stuffed jails with prisoners and when that wasn’t enough he had built more prisons to house the underaged and the elderly. He exiled 14% of his people, claiming they were deadbeats anyway, and he went on creating more enemies, every day. He disenfranchised and abused everyone. In 28 years of his rule, his people had known only 4 years without wars. He silenced everyone and spoke alone, to himself. He made the people destitute and hopeless.
And soon enough, the bold young man start sounding and acting like the cowardly old man. A man who once spoke of forgiveness, reconciliation, democracy started badmouthing his own people as talkers and opportunists and crybabies. He claimed that the displacement of tens of thousands of his citizens was not in his job description. He threatened that the State could easily revert back to the one he inherited. He stopped listening and talking and started lecturing and chastising. All because the people were not sufficiently grateful for the Boy Wonder. The virtue he sold–humility–was disposed of as he began to believe his mama’s childhood tales that he would be king. All this transformation, in less than a year.
Welcome to Abiy’s Ethiopia as it slouches towards Asmara, Eritrea: a contender for world capital of authoritarianism and tyranny. Exhibits below:
