One of the earliest and most famed opponents of the Kremlin, the core of the Russian political power, Boris Berezovsky, accumulated vast wealth and influence in post-communist Russia. He even worked hard and was eventually ranked by Forbes Magazine as one of the richest individuals in the world, with a net fortune of three billion dollars, back in 1997.
It was only in 2010 that the magazine dropped him from its list of rich individuals, after his wealth dropped to just one billion dollars in 2009. Berzovsky was, last Sunday, found dead at his home in Surrey, England.
The 67 years old tycoon was at the centre of a group of anti-Putin exiles living in London, which included the Russian dissident, Alexander Litvinenko, who died of poisoning by radioactive polonium in November 2006. The real cause of his death is still being investigated, though police believe that he committed suicide.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, in his first meeting with the leading oligarchs, on July 28, 2000, offered them a pact that as long as they paid taxes and did not use their political power, he would respect their property rights and refrain from revisiting privatisation. This pact defined the ground rules for the oligarchs’ interaction with the central and regional government during Putin’s first term.
Although the pact could never have been written down, even the general public were well aware of its existence. Putin’s threat to prosecute any oligarch who deviated from the pact was based on voters’ support for expropriating the oligarchs.
Putin proved his credibility in 2003, when the prominent Russian oligarch, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, majority owner of the Yukos Oil Company, deviated from the pact for unknown reasons. Khodorkovsky and his partners were either arrested or forced into exile, and their stakes in Yukos appear likely to have been expropriated.
Ethiopia is facing similar concerns when it comes to their rising oligarchs. As happened in Russia, there is the worry that they will misuse their influence to divert national efforts for their own personal gain.
In simple terms, a business oligarch means a businessman who controls sufficient resources to influence national politics. Although they appear under various disguises, the real role of such oligarchs is the pursuit of profit.
Ethiopia, within two decades of adopting a free market economy, has managed to produce businesspeople with resources sufficient enough to impose significant influence on national politics. There are numerous occasions where Ethiopia’s oligarchs have signaled their intent to intervene in national politics, for their own business interests.
Of course, they are expected to be against a government that strives to create strong state organs, for it narrows the illicit channels of profit making.
It is well understood that every citizen is supposed to have concerns for the nation’s wellbeing, out of patriotic duty, not self-interest. Given the measures he was determined to take, Meles Zenawi understood that he would need to curb the rising influence that oligarchs held over the nation.
The measures he took have helped to save the nation from suffering at the hands of its undeservedly rich individuals. I hope it is something that we will continue to see in the aftermath of his death.
The Ethiopian government must not hesitate to take the necessary action to stop the rule of Ethiopia by the rich. Otherwise, future and existing oligarchs will be beyond government control and, thus, will be able to redirect national efforts for their own personal gain.
It is not a call to stop them from accumulating wealth, so long as they make it legitimately. But, its sources certianly ought to be closely scrutinized.
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