The MPH Formula

 BY GETACHEW MINAS

The practice of Meritocracy, Pragmatism and Honesty (MPH) was introduced in Singapore about fifty years back. It resulted in the economic miracle of the country that kept the rest of the world puzzled. Singaporeans improved their standard of living tremendously by rendering their poverty only a historic record. The architect of the economic miracle was Dr. Goh Keng Swee supported by S. Rajaratnam, the country’s philosopher par excellence. This has been revealed on the ETV program “DAGU” in which two youngsters discussed the Ethiopian philosophy and history of renaissance with absolute clarity.

These young men signaled that the Ethiopian youth is a mine of hope and opportunity of the country. These young men are Akalu Abraham and Yonas Ayalew who are filled with hope that their country will prosper. They revealed that Ethiopia has all the endowments for prosperity as Singapore has.

Before every bright future and economic development took place, there are domestic and external hurdles that impede progress. The two hurdles feed each other. Externally, the Western superpowers have been causing trouble for the Ethiopian people to render them tied to harsh poverty. They are not allowed to develop and escape poverty like Singapore. The superpowers provoked internecine wars and local skirmishes among people of the same origin.

They wanted to keep the Ethiopians permanently impoverished and dependent on food aid. They very well knew that Ethiopia has the full potential to escape poverty and achieve higher standard of living like Singapore. This would be a bad example for the rest of the people in the African continent in which the so-called investors come from abroad to exploit the virgin natural resources. These investors never wish to see an independent country that will be an obstacle to their goal of keeping Africa poor and dependent on them.

If Ethiopia tries to emulate Singapore it is bound to be encircled by the West and subdued to its policy of subjugation. The superpower encourages investors to come to Africa and practice neocolonialism under the guise of economic growth and development. These investors do swim in the ocean of Africa’s wealth unimpeded. If there is any sign of impediment to the free operations of these alien capitalists, the superpowers will definitely intervene.

They will design a strategy of isolation or alienation against the government that fails to cooperate with their investors. If this strategy is not fully functional, another approach of subjugation will be applied. Ethiopia will be on the black list of countries to be penalized if it does not fully cooperate in the exploitation of its own natural resources by aliens. The penalty is a disguised one until the pain is felt by the people and government of the country.

Ethiopians have a proclivity for effectiveness and efficiency which is an indicator for meritocracy, pragmatism and honesty. These indications have been identified and noted by the foreign direct investors (FDI). For them, the local entrepreneurs are taken as obstacles to the free ride enjoyed by foreign investors. Most hard working Ethiopian businessmen may be lacking exposure to the global technologies and markets and, therefore, are limited to local ones.

These days they effectively compete in the local markets making foreign investors less competitive. The FDI are forced to focus on external markets which they dominate through their networks. They never want Ethiopian to be a beneficiary of new technologies and markets for fear of creating another Singapore here in Africa. The trap they use is unfair competition by limiting Ethiopia to traditional exports only.

The major traditional export items of Ethiopia are coffee, oily seeds, leather and leather products, live animals and gold and recently flowers and khat. It is the Task of Tantalus or difficult for local entrepreneurs to engage in the export of industrial products to the global market. The FDI of superpowers will not tolerate to see an African country engaged in the production and export of industrial goods. The means of production used in Ethiopia are not domestically manufactured.

The technological inputs, machineries, spare-parts, technical and marketing skills are all imported with foreign exchange. The latter is obtained from export of domestically produced primary products mentioned earlier. These sources of financing import are not enough to meet the needs of the country. Ethiopia is, therefore, forced to look for financial sources from international financing institutions mostly controlled by the West.

External source of financing to stimulate growth and development is a false start. Real development takes place with domestic factors of production, including land, labor, capital and entrepreneurship. The last factor is fully dependent on the application of meritocracy. Ethiopia needs to select and pick its best citizens, not the relatives of the ruling class or ethnic and tribal groups to run its political, economic and social development. In other words, there should be a time-tested mechanism for selecting people on merit rather than class, privilege, or wealth. This has to be applied at all levels of the government and in other sectors in Ethiopia.

It will be a great manmade disaster to a poor country when its appointed government officials are relatives or of the same ethnic group. There is, therefore, a big opportunity for embezzling a nation’s meager resources, including budget, without any fear of repercussions or accountability. The budget of a country originates from the Ethiopian taxpayers, who are keen to meet their official duties. There may be, of course, some tax evaders, who are confident of their strong links with the bureaucracy.

Yet, the budgetary abuse is very open and glaring, as made evident in the recently exposed A.A. Stadium financial scandal. Even the recently appointed high government official was extremely shocked by this scandal. The shocking incident will, of course, be stronger when it reaches the innocent Ethiopian taxpayer. Those involved in such a scandal are the least disturbed by the news.

There should be a high body to consider and approve the appointment of officials and heads of institutions in the government. Its duty is to ensure that these appointments are made based on competence, not class, privilege or wealth. Prior to the selection, the proposed candidates should be audited. All of them have to submit their asset declarations, etc. for inspection.

Next to meritocracy, the high body will check the candidates for pragmatism. This means that Ethiopia does not try to “reinvent the wheel,” but just take lessons from problems Singapore had encountered regarding pragmatism. If candidates are selected on the basis of what problems they encountered and solved, then their solutions should be copied and adapted.

Adapting best practices is something Ethiopians can do to solve their political, economic and social problems. In so doing, its current leaders should refer to relevant best practices of countries of the same standing. They should not necessarily be aligned with dogmatic ideology as the previous Ethiopian leaders did. There is, therefore, a need to analyze experiences and change and adjust with reference to best practices used by countries solving similar problems.

Lessons may be taken from state-run and private institutions of those countries. All stakeholders and heads of state institutions, including management, employees, trade union, and customers should come together and make certain changes learnt from experiences of other countries, such as Singapore. It may be proposed to have “Consultative” groups in state-run institutions in combination with stakeholders from the private sector.

It is worth referring to successful “external” private sector enterprises that have the same condition as the local ones. The private sector requires transformational leaders with intellectual affinity with which they challenge each other. They should confront one another on how best they can change Ethiopia for greater happiness. The other aspect of transformational leadership is the capacity to “influence and inspire” motivation.

The influential leaders have to be charismatic, self-confident, consistent, and trustworthy. The inspirational leaders inspire confidence, motivation, and a sense of purpose in their followers. Both qualities are important for advancing pragmatism. A pragmatist leader is close to the reality of his institution.

In MPH, the last but not least is Honesty. It is always parallel with, but not aligned to unethical activities such as corruption. Psychologists believe that the “religious leaders” of a country should take the initiative to act as the main influencing group responsible for inculcating a country with honesty. They have to preach the congregation representing the three branches of government about great values associated with honesty in the Kingdom of God. It is to be noted, however, that practicing “Honesty” is not only applicable to politicians, but it is also relevant to all Ethiopian citizens.

The country is facing the most horrendous and deep-rooted corruption as revealed by the Ethiopian PM in his parliamentary report. The government institutions need restructuring with new leaders known for their skills, honesty and devotion to the country. Of course, they have to be “clean” from ethnic, tribal and clannish corruption.

As mentioned earlier, a political system of “meritocracy” is one in which individuals are granted access to economic benefits and political power based on their abilities, efforts, and successes rather than their social standing or riches. In such a system, advancement is based on performance and merit which is determined by demonstrable success. Achievement is measureable and clear for all engaged in the same field of operation. In other words, it is pragmatic and acceptable by all as it develops from thoughts.

Pragmatism is a tradition of thought used as a tool and instrument for problem-solving. Those who develop tools for solving the problems of human beings are realistic and pragmatic. They convert ideas into practice for the benefit of society at large. Pragmatic persons are honest and self-less ready to devote their knowledge and resources to the benefit of others.

“Honesty” is a moral characteristic that indicates and signifies positive and virtuous attributes. These are integrity, reliability, truth, honor, veracity, along with the absence of lying, cheating, deceit, immorality, theft, corruption, etc. Honesty also involves being trustworthy, loyal, fair, and sincere. The Ethiopian bureaucracy is accused of being filled with some officials that lack “Honesty” in the performance of their official duties. They have surrounded themselves with persons who serve them as instruments in the flow of bribes from clients.

They widen the vicious circle of poverty among Ethiopians by devouring resources committed for poverty alleviation. These dishonest and immoral bureaucrats design the so-called “development projects” as wide avenue of secretive and immoral cheating. A good example of such scandalous projects is the construction of the new AA Stadium. The Ethiopian government has to cleanse its operations in institution by engaging trustworthy public servants ready to serve the taxpayers and all Ethiopians with MPH.

Editor’s Note: The views entertained in this article do not necessarily reflect the stance of The Ethiopian

The Ethiopian March 10/2023