Dictatorship is dangerous when it considers itself as if it is in the democratization process. Such unpredictable nature confuses others who know democracy and good governance. It is very difficult to advise such a system because the real sickness has been hidden. In a rule of camouflage democracy there is always slow killings of citizen, torture and imprisonment. Currently open dictatorship changed its strategy to camouflage democracy i.e. the worst face of dictatorship. Among many countries in the world Ethiopia, Sudan, Eritrea, Yemen, Zimbabwe can be considered as the best examples which are practicing camouflage democracy. The systemic approach of violating human rights and the way it controls the basic human necessities clearly depicts the new nature of false democracy. In the case of a county like Ethiopian camouflage democratic system it is very difficult to anticipate the degree of violence and ethnic segregations because processes like conducting elections, having parliaments etc are varnished by political talks and discourse which disguise the truth on the ground.
Since 1991 Ethiopia advanced from open military dictatorship to camouflage democracy. In this system of democracy the minorities are dominating the majority ethnics. It uses the true democratic system structures and principles for the sustainability of the dictator rule in power. The very centralized ruling power is in the hands of one person. This person has already arranged mechanisms by which he can select trustful servants to implement the verbal instructions given from top down. In the process of implementing the direct procedures there will be zero tolerance for anybody or anything. A person who questions the practicality of the command above will face a very serious problem. Normally what is happening in the current Ethiopian ruling system is that if a person or group or society consider as a resistance to the camouflage democracy the consequence is horrifying. From the past experience of the country individuals had been dismissed from their professional job, threaten to continue supporting the ruling regime so that they would remain in their work, kidnapped, put in jail, tortured and even killed.
After abusing an individual’s and group’s rights and even killings the ruling system fabricated false stories to confuse everybody and transmitted them using the solely dominated media of the country. When human right groups and countries concerned about torture requested explanations from the ruling system, the common answer that had been given was to prevalence the rule of law. Nevertheless by the name of law students had been tortured and massacred, professionals were killed and jailed, intellectuals enforced to leave their country, majority was alienated. The writer of this article witness what had happened in 2001: the future generation potentially enlightened university students were brutally attacked by the ruling party trained soldiers and many was wounded and killed. Today the sophisticated strategic techniques of tortures and human right violation have applied within the country. In the bureaucratic system of the country professionalism is the last criteria to be considered and because of this many educated young Ethiopians are unemployed. Those who get the opportunity to be hired in the government bureaucracy are not allowed to the already limited ruling system political party ideology and motif. In order to control the activities of these professionals trustful ruling party members who do not have the capacity of doing the work will follow up each and every activity and then report to the centralized leadership. The main task of the assigned person is to listen what that professional person comments about the ruling system, what kind of opinion does the professional has towards the ruling party opponents, this perspective about the longstanding leadership of the country etc.
In this regard information about each and every professional will be gathered by these assigned ruling system’s persons. Unless in very exceptional cases such persons are mostly from Tigrian ethnics or persons who have especial attachments and affiliations (marriage, family, friendships etc) to Tigrian leaderships. With regard to the professionals before they get hired detail personal information will be gathered by those assigned trustful ruling system persons. Actually if the background check has been done from the professional angle it is possible to say there is no problem. Nevertheless any person’s background check starts from ethnicity. In this case the worst face of ethnic politics within the camouflage democratic system revels. Here we can mention the employment process of one of the biggest bureaucratic complexion of the Ethiopian ruling system i.e. Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
However it is very difficult to say the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia, since at least the building has significant importance to the people of Ethiopia and also it is their property, in this article it is better to call it the ministry of foreign affairs of Ethiopia. This Ministry has been leading by the former Tigrian Liberation Front (TPLF) fighter Seyom Mesfin. This person has been organizing his own people by the assistance of the already assigned persons. Since 1991 Seyom was crowned minister for that building by Meles Zenawi. Seyom has the quality of giving attentions and due emphasizes to ethnicity and loyalty to the ruling system. In the existence of well versed diplomats and knowledgeable persons for diplomacy Seyom has been monopolizing everything with the under capacity and feudalistic thoughts. Within the ministry he preaches about camouflage democracy, imposes rules and regulations of domination. Nobody questions but rather echoes what he said. If one heard of by the assigned persons questioning that person’s fate will be dismissal or demotion. In 2006 several career ambassadors, diplomats and professionals and semi-professionals had been dismissed and demoted. At that time Seyom had received instruction from the Prime Minister’s office to screen out the potential threats of the ruling system especially those who were suspected of having afflation to the opposition parties. During that very time professional staffs of the ministry had been interrogated about party loyalty which they did not belong. Those professionals whom assumed themselves as experts were confused by the ongoing screening on the bases of the ruling party loyalty. Many lost their job and many others were demoted because one way or another they were heard by the assigned persons criticizing the ruling party. These professionals were not understood the true nature of the camouflage democracy which have been running Ethiopia. There were dismissed because what was expected of them was to articulate the camouflage democratic system which the ruling system of the country follows.
The basic principle of camouflage democracy is “if you do not belong to us you are a potential threat and enemy”. The guideline principle is implementing by poor countries like Ethiopia, Yemen, Eritrea, Sudan, Uganda, Zimbabwe and other poor countries of the world. Dictator leaders of countries under the camouflage democracy are trying to widen their scope as the former communist countries had been trying. Leaders of camouflage democracy consult in a closed door on the mechanism by which they can contain any political opposition possibly emanate. For example Ethiopia, Yemen and Sudan leaders established a tripartite round-table called “Sana’a Forum”. They have created a coalition to resist internal and external resistances for their power control. In this regard one can easily tell the reaction given by the Ethiopian ruler Meles Zenawi and his Yemeni counter part Ali Abdallah SALIH and other poor country rulers while the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for the arrest of Umar Hassan Ahmad al-BASHIR, President of Sudan, for war crimes and crimes against humanity. All the rulers especially Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia and Ali Abdallah of Yemen were strongly protesting and lobbying others to protest the ICC’s decision because both knows what they have done within their country. To prevail their camouflage democracy they have been kidnapping, killing and evicting innocent people. Unless they protect the ruler within the coalition, Zenawi’s and Abdallah’s will be next in the Court.
The leaders of the ruling system of Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan and Yemen have been in power since 1990s. The rulers of these countries know the theories of true democracy but when coming to implementing it they use the hidden principles of camouflage democracy. All of these leaders boldly say they are civil leaders; nevertheless all of them came to power through military means.
