Book Review: “Erkab Ena Menber” (እርካብ ና መንበር)

Assefa A. Lemu 3-13-19

Prologue: The book titled “Erkab Ena Menber”(እርካብ ና መንበር ) was written in Amharic
language by DRAZ and published in 2017. The book has four parts and seven chapters. The
author used penname called DRAZ (ዲራአዝ) and there is a widely held postulation that this
name is acronym representing the names of the author and the names of his family
members: Deborah (daughter), Rakeb (daughter),Abiy (the author), and Zinash (wife). In
the Commemoration section of the book, the author said the book serves as attribute to
Tizita and Zinaye, who are the sources of his life and love. These two women are assumed
to be his mother and wife respectively. Therefore, all the circumstantial evidences show
that the writer of the book is the current Chairman of EPRDF and Prime Minister of
Ethiopia Dr. Abiy Ahmed and believed by many that way. Even though I am not aware that
this assumption has been denied or rebutted by Dr. Abiy, in this review, I respect the choice
of the author and call him either by the name on the book (DRAZ) or refer to him simply as
“the author”, or “the writer”, or “he”.

The Title of the Book- The title of the book (ErkabEnaMenber) (Stirrup and Throne) is the
good choice to reflect the content of the book. According to the online Abyssinica
Dictionary,Erkab (እርካብ) is defined as supporter of a rider's feet,
stirrup(ወደ ኮርቻ ላይ ለመውጣት በእግር አውራ ጣት ረግጦ የሚወጣበት ርካብ (ረከበወጣ))and member
(መንበር) is defined as royal seat, monarch's chair, throne, political seat, chair of monarch or
bishop, power, rank, and privileges of a monarch
(መቀመጫ የታቦት ዙፋን ጠረጴዛ ወይም ወንበር (ነበረ ተቀመጠ መንበር)). In a nutshell, the book is
about where to step and how to ascend to power and be there.

Preface: In the preface (pages xi-xiii), the author mentioned that Ethiopia has thousands of
years of history and civilization. However, he didn’t tell us how many thousand years and
from which year the counting of that thousands starts. He argues that Ethiopia’s situation
got from bad to worse because of misguided political and economic policies and accuses the
past governments of Ethiopia which he said brought catastrophe to the country. He blames
the current generation for failing to be like their fathers and forefathers. He tried to set the
stage by portraying Ethiopia of the past as civilized and glorious than the current one.
Introduction:In the introduction part of the book (pages xv-xix), the author provided the
definitions of the two words (Erkab and Menber) he used for the title of the book. These
definitions are similar with the definitions given above. He stressed the importance of
stepping upon stirrup to get the desiredpower. He discussed about the importance of power
and argued that political, economic, and social powers are the key engines and instruments
to have an authority. Power comes before leadership and leadership uses power to achieve
objectives. Regarding exercising power, he said, there are two extreme leadership types
and gave an examples of these two opposite extremes—Hitler and Idi Amin on one extreme
and Gandhi and Mandela on the other.

In this section,
Videos From Around The World the author
also explained
about the
objective of the book which is to discuss about power and authority, to list the threats and
calls of our era, to get away from entrapment politics and exercise politics which is free of
partisanship and dogmatic political ideology. He arguesthat Ethiopia’s situation is going
from bad to worse (kedituwedematu) and the country is sinking in the sea of darkness. He
sees today’s Ethiopia as a country whose light became dim, whose body temperature
became cold, and a destitute country bent like a bow with problems. To change this
situation, he advises the current generation to get prepared to be servant leaders.

PART ONE: Part one of the book starts with a quote “We cannot solve our problems with
the same level of thinking that created them” by Albert Einstein. This calls for a change in
the way we think and the way we do things. To achieve positive results, the change should
be progressive not regressive; for a better not for worse. The attempt to take Ethiopia
backward in the name of “Ethiopian renaissance” or “ making Ethiopia great again” widen
the gap between peoples in Ethiopia rather than narrowing it and we can’t solve the
problems of Ethiopia which the author listed with the level of thinking that created them
and that wishes to take the country backward. Therefore, the quotation he used and the
argument he made do not support each other.

1. Chapter One (Facing the Threat and Call of the Epoch): In this chapter (pages 2-15),
the author repeated his argument about Ethiopia having thousands of years of history.
We are not sure if he is equating the current Ethiopia with Axumite Kingdom or
Abyssinia or really talking about the current Ethiopia because he didn’t tell us when the
country called Ethiopia was established with a defined territory, people called Ethiopian
citizens, and central government. These are important factors to define a country as a
country. He argues that our knowledge is the source of our problems rather than being
solution to our problems. According to the author, religious and ethnic based conflicts
in today’s Ethiopia are led by educated and degree holder Ethiopians.

In this chapter, the author listed major threats or problems that our world has including
conflicts, terrorism, extremism, poverty, migration, child mortality, and computer virus
and argues that these threats lead the people into despair which in turn led to the
 election of individuals like President Donald Trump. According to the writer, our world
is in the darkness before the dawn and in labor to give birth to an inevitable change.

2. Chapter Two (Heroism, Adventurous Cruelty, and Adventurous Sincerity): In this

chapter (pages 17-26), the author discussed about the meanings of heroism and
adventurism. He says, in most societies, heroism is associated with killing. He refers to
Alexander the Great to explain heroism, to Adolf Hitler to explain adventurous cruelty
and to Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandel to explain adventurous sincerity. He said
Ethiopia had many adventurous cruel and adventurous sincere leaders and individuals,
and listed some of them in chapter four of the book.

PART TWO: Power comes before a leader; power to be practical, it shall wait for a Leader

3. Chapter Three (Power and Authority): In this chapter three (pages 28-45), the
author discusses about the lust for power and authority. He discusses the love Emperors
Tewodros II, Yohannes IV, Menelik II, and Hailesellassie I had for power and how they
put their own interests for power and authority above the interest of the country. He
mentioned Emperor Yohannes IV whom he said cooperated with the British forces that
killed Emperor Tewodros II as an example.

By referring to Holy Bible and Nichol Machiavelli’s book, The Prince, he mentioned that
human beings are naturally not thankful for what have been done for them and
emphasizes on the importance of using “stick” than love to be revered. He also discusses
about the importance of having double personalities- the visible and concealed
personalities. He says, the leader should use visible personality to win the support of
the people in good times and should use the concealed personality when there are
revolts or treasons. He says, if the choice of immersing one’s hands either into water or
fire is given to an individual, no reasonable person can choose to immerse his or her
hands into a fire; no one would like to wake up the sleeping devil against him or her.

In this chapter he also discusses the need to be shrewd, to keep one’s plan for power in
secrete, and navigate carefully to take power and get authority because power and
authority cannot be attained easily. This reminded me Sun Tszu’s advice in his Art of
War which says “Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move,
fall like a thunderbolt.” This strategy worked for some of the leaders. For example, as Dr.
Abiy himself told us on public television, he had been planning for a long time to
become a head of government of Ethiopia (Prime Minister) and he kept that plan in
secret (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTMA4jvFp78&t=5s). However, he
advised others not to hide their plan to take power. This is also another strategy to
know who is who and to know who is planning to do what.

The author listed some of the strategies and tactics that help to defeat
enemies/opponents, to take power and authority, and stay in power and authority.
These are:
 a. To win over your opponents by generating new ideas and to make them come to
your side;
b. If your opponent is not submitting to your ideas, design alternative strategy;
c. Bark on your opponents like a dog and give them a way to escape/ to go away;
d. Set a hidden trap for your opponent and make sure it is defeated for once and for all
to the extent it will not come back again and bother you;
e. People are selfish. Therefore, use bait (enticement benefits) to take them where
you want and then throw them away;
f. Get your objectives implemented through diplomatic ways;
g. Put pressure on your opponent to accept your terms and conditions;
h. Build your capacity and get ready to face problems coming from your opponents;
i. Get your objectives implemented using legal system;
j. Use coercive force as needed.

He also discussed about the use of power and authority in general and mentioned that
in some countries, especially in developing countries, the provisions written in the
constitution are simply to give cover for the actions of the government.—in realty, law
enforcement institutions and religious institutions are horses thatgovernments ride.

4. Chapter Four (Power and Authority in Ethiopia):The writer started this chapter
(pages 47-73) by repeating again the stereotype of three thousand years history of
Ethiopia, the number that never changes over years. He discussessource and usage of
power and authority in Ethiopia. He explained that the group which came to power
through the support of military and religion claimed that its linage is connect to King
Solomon of Israel and anointed by God. It made the God fearing people to obey without
resistance.He argues that the followers of kingship system intentionally divided the
people and led them to war along ethnic and religious lines and divided them along
class lines.

The author also discussed the attemptsto change adventurous cruel actions to
adventurous sincere actions by praising adventurous cruel actions in music, literatures,
books, over the radios and televisions, by presenting cruel actions as genuine and
sincere actions, and by feeding poisons coated with honey to this generation.

The author criticizes the killing of the officials of Hailesellassie’s government by the
leaders of the 1961 coup.He argues that the action of the leaders of the coup pushed
Hailesellassie who had previous experience in killing his opponents like Lij Iyasu
Michael and Belay Zeleke to kill the leaders of the coup including General Mengistu
Neway.He argues that Ethiopian political history is full of adventurous cruel actions and
this is deeply rooted in the culture of the Ethiopian peoples who praise the killers and
territorials like lion. He used the commendationthat some individuals give to Emperor
Tewodros and the cruel actions he perpetrated against his opponents/enemies
including burning them alive, cutting their hands, legs, tongues, ears, throwing them off
the cliff, killing them by chopping with knife, and denying the families of the victims the
 right to mourn for their loved ones. He said Derg got the experience of killing opponents
and depriving the families of the victims the right to mourn from Emperor Tewodros.

The writer presented Emperor Tewodros as a representative of adventurous cruel

leaders and argued that the claim which says Emperor Tewodros worked to unit
Ethiopia doesn’t hold water because the person who was left without supporters
because of his cruel behavior could not be a unifier. He also rejected the excuses of the
spirit of the time when Tewodros committed these cruel actions which are unacceptable
by any standard at any era,presentation of the death of his wife as a cause of change in
his behavior,and the good job he did in building canon. He argues these are simply futile
attempts to change adventurous cruelness to adventurous sincerity.

The writer also presented Emperors Hailesellassie and Menelik II as well as Colonel
Mengistu as other examples of adventurous cruel leaders of Ethiopia and argued that
adventurous cruelness and adventurous sincerity are two sides of a coin and explained
that the Ethiopian leaders whom he said adventurous cruel leaders were also
adventurous sincere leaders. He also strongly advocated for the unity of Ethiopia and its
peoples.

PART THREE: Those who will be leaders start their leadership role today

5. Chapter Five (To use Power and Authority You Must be True Leader): In this
chapter five (pages 78-119), the author identified three most important characteristic of
a leader in a top government power-- 1) to generate useful ideas, 2) taking the interest
of the country and citizens as a center of its actions, and 3) informed decision making.
The author provided long list of what he believes the characteristics of good leader:

a) To love the people he leads;

b) To be governed by principles;
c) To avoid procrastination;
d) To generate new ideas and to be a person whom others like to follow;
e) To win the trust of others including supervisors;
f) To have a vision and to believe in one’s vision;
g) To choose a right place where to be a leader;
h) Networking and recruiting supporters;
i) Knowing who is who and what to get from who;
j) To be capable, to be ready to learn and to excel;
k) To be likable;
l) To know one’s strengths and weaknesses;
m) To get out of your comfort zone;
n) To mobilize supporters and be in the driver’s seat ;
o) To make your speeches convincing and refrain from criticizing others unnecessarily;
p) Be visible, use media to sell your ideas and to advertise your achievements;
q) To show love, compassion, and concern to others to attract them;
r) To know the timing and the limit;
 s) Consider alternatives; life has many choices;
t) To know yourself, your talent, and to listen to your gut feeling or intuition;
u) Self-control
v) To know the right alignment;
w) To build self-confidence- know what to do and what not to do;
x) To be inclusive;
y) To have integrity;
z) Ability to plan and to follow up the implementation of the plan.

On pages 110- 119, the writer tells us Nasrudin’s story of “Lamp and the Key”, discusses
pieces of disconnected issues such as neo-colonialism,transnational, companies, film
industries, liberal journalism, developmental journalism, and other issues not related
with the topic of the chapter. These 10 pages affected the flow and quality of the book.

6. Chapter Six (A Prophet is Not Honored in His Own Country; Great Leader is Not
Always Loved by His People ): The author used the expression of Jesus as written
under Matthew 13:57 and Mark 6:4 as a title for this chapter (pages 121-135).
According to the teaching of the Holy Bible, when Jesus started preaching in Nazareth,
he was not accepted by the residents of Nazareth among whom he lived and who knew
him as the son of carpenter, not as Messiah. As writtenunder Matthew 13: 54-
57 “Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they
were amazed. “Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?” they
asked. “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his
brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Aren’t all his sisters with us? Where then did
this man get all these things?” And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “A
prophet is not without honor except in his own town and in his own home”.This is
simply to give the context to the title and let’s move on to our review.

In this chapter, the writer explained how Moses who had been adopted by Egyptian
Prices and grown up in privilege turned against Egyptian Pharaohs and led the Jewish
people from Egyptian slavery to “the promised land”and how rebels from the inside
become liberators from suppression. This is a valid argument and Team Lemma that
came out of EPRDF and dramatically changed EPRDF is the best example in this regard.
He also explains the need to be ready to assist and lead the change that comes out of
dissatisfaction of people and to accept the challenges which may come from the two
extremes—from the oppressor like Pharaoh who objected the liberation idea of Moses
andfrom the oppressed that are liberated but oppose the change and want to go back to
the previous conditions like Jewish who blamed Moses and asked him that they want to
go back to Egyptian slavery. He presented Moses as an example of good leader.

The other person whom the author presented as an example of god leader in this
chapter is President Park Chung-hee of South Korea. The author glorified President Park
who was a military General that came to power in 1961 through coup and known for his
authoritarian way of ruling and assassinated in 1979. He argued the New Community
Movement (SaemaulUndong) launched on April 22, 1970 by President Park to
 modernize rural economy united every South Korean regardless of race, religion,
language, and ethnicity. I think the author wrote this to create an example for Ethiopia
because South Korea has homogenous people with only one race, one language, and one
ethnic group.Here, I observed factual deficiency.

It is undeniable that under President Park (1963-1979) the South Korean Government
promoted the import of raw materials and technology, saving and investment over
consumption, kept wages low, and directed resources to export-oriented industries and
these contributed to the fast economic growth.However, the credit of that economic
growth shouldn’t be given only to his leadership because there were many factors which
played into that. For example, following the end of Korean War of 1950-1953, South
Korea emerged as one of the key allies in the Cold War to fight communism and there
were huge foreign aid (both financial and technical) flow into South Korea until early
1980s which contributed to its fast economic growth. The Confucianteachings of love
for a country and hard work and social system also had its role. However, like the rest of
the advocates of the idea of “Developmental State” including the late Prime Minister
Meles Zenawi,the author exaggerated the contribution of President Park who is the
controversial person in Korean history to the fast economic growth of South Korea in
1960s and 1970s.

In this chapter, the author over simplified the relationship of Government and the
people by saying that “government and people are like a family who live in the same
house”.

PART FOUR: “If You Don't Know Where You Are Going, Any Road Will Take You
There” George Harrison

7. Chapter Seven (The Oars by which the Boat of our Political Economic Ideology is
Steered and the Uncertain Destination): In this chapter seven (pages 139-162), the
author discussed four political ideologies (socialism, social democracy, neoliberalism,
and revolutionary democracy) and the concept and result of developmental state. Out of
the four political ideologies, he chosen neoliberalism and revolutionary democracy as
relevant ideologies for Ethiopian situation and discussed in more details. He criticized
neoliberalism and concluded that it is not a preferred choice for developing countries.
However, the arguments he presented to discredit liberal ideology are not strong.

In his detailed discussion, the author used revolutionary democracy which is a political
ideology and the concept of developmental state interchangeably. He didn’t tell us the
similarities and differences of revolutionary democracy and developmental state policy
and how they are related.He also didn’t tell us whether the countries he listed as the
implementers of developmental economic policy(South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore)
used revolutionary democracy as their political ideology or not.

Farewell: In the farewell section of the book (pages 164-173), the author discusses life and
death and mentions about the importance of doing something valuable before we die. In
this section, he also discussed road and bridge, science and technology, the need for
knowledge and honesty. I expected to see the concluding remarks about stirrup and throne
(how to ascend to power) in this last section of the book, but I couldn’t find them.

Commentaries on the back of the book: On the back of the book, the opinions of two
individual were given. The reviewer by the name of Dr. Miheret Debebe said DRAZ
simplified the hard leadership secrete and shared with us. The reviewer by the name of Dr.
Abdulrezak Muhiyedin said DRAZ is the first Ethiopian to provide us illustrative sources of
modern threats and their solutions in a good language.

Epilogue: The book was written in simple and beautiful language and this shows writer’s
ability of command of the Amharic language. The author used parables and stories to
illustrate some of his ideas; quotations, songs, and figures to support some of his
arguments, and parallelism writing style to attract the readers. These make the book
interesting for readers. In this 173 page book, I noticed only one minor typo on
page148.This shows that the manuscript of the book was well proof read and the
seriousness of the author on what he is doing.

The book is about politics, leadership, history, and motivation. Except chapter seven, all
chapters of the book are connected and the flow of ideas is good. I recommend the book to
readers.