Oppositions and their Land Agenda

                                                                                                              Taye Kebede

In Ethiopia, these days land agenda becomes a hard talk-especially in the opposition side. The Oppositions are asking for land to be sold and exchanged at will. It has to do with their wishes of rent-seeking through exploitive liberalism thinking. One can easily understand how much this puts a weigh on our country’s developmental path, on top of the economical and administrative decadence it creates. This is because if land is made to be sold or exchanged, it will stop the development from being rapid and sustainable by lowering the opportunity to use labor hugely and extensively and the opportunity to save capital.

However, it’s quite telling that the oppositions are concerned by this judging from their actions. If things go as they say it is obvious how much hard it will be to the Farmers whose lives depends on the lands. If land is made to be sold and exchanged, the problems that would follow the farmers, especially after they sold theirs to cover their momentary troubles, will be very hard. When the farmers could solve their problems by selling the products they produce from their land or through loan giving institutions that are established around the corner to where they live, by selling their land they stretch their problem for good.

In other side, if land is sold or exchanged, the parasitic investors and maybe the oppositions who are behind the idea could have a huge opportunity to rent-seek by buying lands. We can understand from this is that selling or exchanging land is an opportunity for the parasites, whilst being damaging to the farmer and to the economy – basically it’s a harmful thinking for our country. That’s why it is baseless argument; only a joker card to be used by the oppositions every time election times comes to the corner. That’s also the reason why they are seen flaunting the liberalism position, which benefits the parasitic wealthy, unable to present their own alternative outlook.

Of course the farce that’s made up by our country’s politicians is becoming more ridiculous and their acting gets amazing by the day.  When they are faced with the question, “how come you say land should be allowed to be sold or exchanged, are you willing to make the farmer be empty-handed?” they answer by saying, “what we are saying is that the farmers right to sell or exchange land should be respected”. However, there’s one truth these parasitic people do not understand. That is, if a law is to be upheld, it should not be mere words on paper.

If there is a wish for right to sell and exchange land to be respected, then the law should be there just to do this, not to be mere words on paper. Thus, their statement that goes like ‘we are saying only for the right to be respected, and not for land to be sold or exchange’, is nothing but a system used by the opposition to hide their anti-farmer and anti-development positions. It’s nothing but a sugar coat to their ultimate goal.

Let us now look into the other self-contradictory argument put forward by the opposition camp. These people are heard asking “why are foreign investors are involved here?”, whilst criticizing the government for adhering to socialist policies. With this they try to present two different issues as one. The thing is funny. The opposition camp which claims to adhere to liberalism thinking is seen criticizing attracting investment, which is the main description of the thinking, whilst accusing the government for adhering to socialism order at the time … What kind of confusing “strategy” is this?

As any reader of this article knows, socialism does not accept any kind of investment that comes from the outside. In fact the system follows strict guidelines to amass any investor’s (wealthy) profit that passes a certain quota that is set by the government. But, the developmental and democratic government of Ethiopia has been able to produce plenty of domestic investors. When the facts are like this, the way they try to make their point by linking socialism to the developmental government of our country is not clear for anyone else except for themselves. Nevertheless, this is not surprising considering the fact these people does not have the courtesy to even admit to the good things that are going on the country.

As the science of economics clearly indicates, a certain country can achieve development by utilizing the development potential it have in abundance, while saving the resource that are scarce to the country. When we come to our country’s realities, it obvious that there’s a huge abundance of labor force, while there’s a scarcity of capital.

However, despite the fact it is through the government’s formulated agriculture led development policy that would be possible to utilize the abundance labor force while solving the capital deficiency problem; the oppositions does not even have the courtesy to admit countries (those without natural resources) from east to west adhere to this developmental model, and that there are some countries that are developed through this method. Their goal is to lie their way to power in the name of liberalism.

It is not really difficult to understand that our country’s successful results are garnered through the support of sound policy and strategy, and not by cheap talk unlike what the oppositions are claiming. Had it been an alternative program like the oppositions are claiming it to be, the country’s economy would have stuttered and stopped at the middle. However, this people should know that the government’s adhered ‘the land is the governments’ and the peoples’ policy is responsible for the country’s economic growth and step-by-step benefit of the public.

These oppositions, who when it is fruitful states that ‘there is no country that developed through agriculture’, whilst promising to ‘develop the agriculture and the industry together’, objective is t confuse everybody else by presenting such kind of contradictory issue. This is also because telling the oppositions the base of those countries with huge economy today like china and Korea is agriculture led, is doing the obvious.

Let us now look into our country’s agriculture to industry path that it’s currently taking place. As it is known, our country before the formulation of the growth and transformation plan had been going through 13 consecutive years with more than 10% economic growth on average.

Basing on the public’s huge support amassed in the wake of five general elections and by taking the plan’s future role on the development in to account, the country went down on its path by formulating a second five year growth and transformation plan. And this successful path had showed that the agriculture is a springboard for the industry. In relation to this, making appear as if the power shortages that occur as a consequence to the infrastructural and developmental works that are undertaken in the country as a deliberate act of the government taken to muddle the public’s living is one of instances of the opposition’s effort to incite the public to violence by disseminating bogus rumors. However, as the public are very well aware of the schemes of the opposition parties, they do not take them seriously. 

I don’t think an opposition party that claims to stand for the benefit of the people should deny the positive things the public is gaining if it doesn’t chose to lend a hand on the developmental works that are done in the country. All in all since the public fully knows this truth, we’ve seen their repeated cry mount to nothing. The developmental transformations that are clearly seen make their cry all the more futile.

Here it important to raise one issue. That is, when it is said that the agriculture will lead the industry, it means on top of the growth that’s recorded by the agricultural sector, the majority of the capital I in this sector as more than 85% of the labor force of Ethiopia is farmer. Thus, the reason why these parties are clinging on the industry has to do with their wish to exploit the labor of the majority of the people and to impose neo-liberalism ideology on the country. Nevertheless, the country’s economy; the agricultural sector leading the industry, is able to garner huge results, unlike what they are saying.

The main reason why the oppositions are saying ‘we should follow the industry path’ has to do with their wishes to grab on the shares of the government’s spending on rural development. Also when they propagate ‘we will bring foreign capital’, it’s because they want to spoil the shares when foreign investment comes.

These oppositions objective is to flaunt parasitic tendencies whilst harming the country’s development and the public’s benefit. So, I am sure any sensible reader would understand that the opposition’s agenda has no benefit except to confuse and to bewilder the public.

Generally it can be said that the opposition camp; which praises and are nostalgic to previous regimes that are dead and buried through the armed struggle of the people, want to profit by dislocating the farmer from its land, as if they are saying ‘we will give land to the farmer’.

These people are also heard saying small scale farming lands cannot bring change, except for large agricultural mechanization. And to setup large scale farming mechanization, many farmers are going to have to sell their land move into the city. And if the farmer fled into the city, how is it going to be ‘land to the farmer’? ... I will leave the answer to the reader.