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Few as they may be, my friends are a
crucial part of my life. They heavily influence
every aspect of my world view. Knowing that I would
ingest their thoughts sincerely, I choose them
cautiously. One of my most esteemed friends is a
trained Seychellois manager, who recently came to
Ethiopia for a visit.
Unlike his managerial proficiency, I
grapple to understand the root cause of his hate for
politics. He serves as Chief Operation Officer (COO)
for a Moscow, Russia, based firm that has an
expansive investment in an island located 1,500
kilometers east of Kenya, in the Indian Ocean.
Unlike his constant engagement with politicians, he
proclaims that he hates politics, not to mention
African politics. His previous experiences as
government official and his current position in the
corporate world seem to have pushed him to this
conclusion.
He claims that African politicians
are self-serving and ignorant.
Even in knowing that most of their
constituents are destitute, they are not willing to
minimize their unjustifiable opulence. They abuse
their office so much that public service is no more
a priority to them. They have so many mistresses in
so many different capitals of the world that much of
their international travel is unrelated to project
negotiation, finance mobilization, policy
benchmarking or training, but rather “sex and the
city” escapades.
Because I am aware of the extent of
my friend’s policy knowledge, I can imagine what he
means by hating politics. His emphasis on
personalities might have distorted his perception
about politics. Compounded by his close
relationships with many politicians, his opinion
might have slowly transformed to hatred. Even then,
his disgust is profoundly about personalities rather
than politics as a system.
Noting that the line “I hate
politics,” is so common in the Ethiopian discourse,
wherein artists seemingly have a lead in this
hatred, I’am constantly puzzled by what makes people
make such statements. It might be possible for
people to hate politicians, but it is by no means
possible to live with a hatred for politics. After
all, politics is not Hockey.
Modernization has obscured many
aspects of life. Increasingly, more is being said
about less. Socratic questioning is scarce that
trends annihilate identities. Flawed thoughts
diffuse into cultures so unnoticeably that wiping
them out would be an unimaginable task. The
statement on hating politics is no different.
Many, like my friend, would like to
put politics in the same footing as choosing between
Basketball and Hockey, Lasagna and a Steak Sandwich,
country and Hip hop music. Deeply explored, however,
the search for selective dichotomy is less about
choice than lack of it.
Structurally, politics has
transformed into a monotonous framework of
partisanship. Even in the developed world, ideology
plainly drives policy making while public interest
takes less weight than party wrangling. Money sets
the rules and the rich attune the provisions. Noting
what little, insignificant influence they have, many
people opt to care less about politics, as long as
its eminent effects do not knock on their doors.
An Everest of bad policy decisions
seems to have reactivated public interest in
political decision making since the global financial
crisis. Reckless banks, unregulated insurers,
ill-advised manufacturers and poorly managed
sovereigns have put social welfare under such huge
uncertainty that politics has gotten under the skin
of ordinary people. It is no longer reassuring or
even bearable to leave subsistence to the indecision
and mediocrity of career politicians. Hence,
movements from Occupy Wall Street to reclaiming
Greece.
On the flip side, the situation in
most developing countries is complicated and
political superstructures are poorly developed.
Partisanship is not yet ripe. States are too distant
to listen to public resentments. Income inequality
is so large that an opportunist politician might die
of excessive consumption, whilst his unfortunate
neighbor dies from hunger. Most African politicians
are seen struggling to get rich or die trying.
Apparently, Africa has turned into
an island of political malfunction. It is home to
injustice and destitution. Poverty, unemployment and
infrastructural deficit plague economies. Bad
governance has been so rampant that finding a leader
to take the continental governance prize by Mo
Ibrahim Foundation for three consecutive years has
been extremely difficult.
An expanding incongruence between
state and public interest disguises Africans from
political participation. Increasing repression
worsens the case. No wonder that vibrant grassroots
activism could not be initiated with the handful of
vocal activists facing torture and jail terms in
different countries. It is as though the veins of
African politics are filled with pecuniary interests
and the pacemaker is a cash register.
Along with their African colleagues,
Ethiopians are developing their own share of hatred
for politicians. Growing income disparity worsens
the abhorrence amongst the poor. Economic
monetization has uprooted cultural values so swiftly
that politicians are considered economic
opportunists.
At the heart of it lays poor public
representation. Ethiopian politicians are known to
talk considerably more than they listen. It is also
common for them to trespass societal norms for
political gains. The lives of ordinary people are
trivial to them. Swamped by ideological division,
they provide inadequate attention to public
interest.
Reigning fear and mistrust continue
to endanger communal solidarity. Political divisions
are so deep that many prefer to conceal their
affiliations. In public, hate is the phraseology to
swathe dissatisfaction. Although it seems that the
statement “I hate politics” is thoughtless, it
actually recounts history; an account of fear,
hopelessness and helplessness.
As it appears, Ethiopian politics is
evolving into what Robert Frank, an economist, has
called ignorimatocracy – a system identified with
ignorant politicians and the helpless public.
Nonetheless, the familiar expression remains “I hate
politics.” |
