Part 1 Mathza_Haimanot

Part 2 Mathza_Haimanot

“OPPOSITIONS DURING EPRDF ETHIOPIA (Continued)”

OPPOSITIONS DURING EPRDF ETHIOPIA

By Mathza, (Originally posted at Aiga, March 25, 2004)

PART I: POLITICS AND DEMOCRACY

E: Governance

Governance in Ethiopia based on an emerging democracy enjoys the support of the international community. The latest comes from the German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder. He said "Ethiopian (sic) has become exemplary regarding good governance. It has also opened up to a reform process that we entirely support." In contrast, oppositions deny the existence of any semblance of governance. They ascribe all undesirable happenings in the country to the government. They exaggerate and capitalize on short comings, mistakes, misjudgments, failures, wrongdoings, etc. emanating from governance. The difficult circumstances under which the government operates in this poverty stricken country is of no concern to them. They do not admit the gross inadequacy of human and financial resources to effectively enforce government rules and regulations.

Some of them dwell on such criticisms and misconceptions because of lack of knowledge and experience of what it takes to run a government. Flaring-up of feuds between neighboring tribes/clans and ethnic clashes, particularly between nomadic communities (some manipulated and fueled by oppositions and separatists themselves) are, for example, presented as something unusual, the creation of the present government and the result of ethnic federalism. These incidents are not peculiar to Ethiopia; they have been happening and continue to happen in neighboring countries. With drought, a matter of life and death, there is nothing to prevent pastoralists from crossing borders to grazing and watering areas whether the borders are ethnic borders or not. It is mind boggling to fathom how some even go to the extent of accusing the government of purposely causing the clashes. The same goes with the demonic thinking of government creating religious conflicts when it is very well known that the government is intolerant to religious disturbances. It is worth mentioning here that the Christians-Muslims relationship in Ethiopia has been described “exemplary” by Ethiopian moslems themselves.

In the few cases where interstate boundaries were contested the boundaries were delimited with the intervention of the Council of Federation. In regard to traditional inter- and intra-ethnic conflicts, the government has trained and is in the process of training persons useful in resolving ethnic conflicts through traditional mechanisms in all the states with actual and potential conflicts. At the intra state level, six pastoralist communities in SNNPS “have agreed to resolve conflicts in a sustainable manner” at a conference held last year. This is a good example of the use of traditional mechanisms in a democratic system. It is likely that the same approach will be applied to solve the latest conflict in the Gambella State as well as that between Somalis and Oromos in the east of the country.

The old-fashioned and discriminatory governance by the previous governments are the reasons why some of the states (Somali, Afar, Gambella and Benishangul-Gumuz) have had difficulty administering themselves. Their people’ sparticipation in governance during the previous regimes was limited mainly to lower level posts. As a result, the leaderships lacked the experience and capability to administer and misused resources allocated to them. Despite this, they have made progress thanks to the special attention given to disadvantaged states: a higher proportion of resource allocation, temporary assignment of experienced manpower from other states, use of institutional facilities in other states and capacity building, including training of their civil servants in the Ethiopian Public Service College and other institutions. Bilateral agreements with the neighboring Amhara and Tigrai States to cooperate in executing development projects were recently effected. For the long-term, boarding schools have been opened to encourage, facilitate and ensure students in the pastoral communities to go to school and thereby address regional disparity in education.

When vehemently criticizing the government, oppositions do not, of course, talk of the other constraints that the government faces in a very traditional society with deep rooted social and cultural values and norms and very diversified at that. These include: individual destiny predetermined by God; no work done on saints and angels days; unaffordable expenses related to weddings, funerals, etc. (currently steps being taken in Tigray State to drastically reduce and/or eliminate them); tolerating begging (originating in traditional schools where students fed themselves by begging); and wrong attitude of people to work, specially menial work. The last is not acceptable to many people because it does not fall within the traditional nobility/military, clergy or peasantry categorization. These problems are compounded by resistance to change (mainly within the church itself) that the Ethiopian Orthodox Church administration is trying to make related to these and other constraints. Another problem related to tradition is bribe, gifts to officials at every level. Many public servants continue to exploit this tradition. This tradition together with rendering free service has its roots as a form of compensation to officials during the feudal system -- when salaries were unheard of. Is it not apparent that the pace of development, in part at least, depends on the crucial change in the attitude of the people and that it takes time? There is no magic wand for an instantaneous attitudinal change.

They discount and spin the correct justifications for actions taken by the government and misinterpret and twist the matter to serve their own agendas. They do anything and everything to condemn the government and in the process misinform and misdirect the people. For instance, they repeat ad infinitum that 40 university students instead of hooligans were killed in April 2001 riot instigated by the oppositions themselves. They should understand that they are responsible for the consequences, criminal and other undesirable actions taken by individuals and groups, because of their misinformation and misdirection. They have no conscience. What a disgrace!

The latest criticism on governance comes from a research conducted by the Addis Ababa University (AAU) and the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). The research involved 80 experts and 2,500 households. According to the research, “limited accountability in the government was observed ... the general public in Ethiopia was not convinced that there were sufficient checks and balances among the three branches of the government ... about 45 percent of the experts believed that the appointment of civil servants was rarely governed by merit principles, while another 29 percent mentioned that it was governed by merit principles,” etc. In regard to the appointment, what was the opinion of the balance, 26%? What criteria were used to select the experts and the household samples? How representative were the households samples? What were the compositions of the experts and the household samples in terms of ethnicity, urban/rural area, level of education, social standing, membership in or supporters of oppositions or government, etc.? What was the ECA/AAU experts ratio? What questions were asked and how were they framed? What about citing some analytical numbers, such as margin of error? Inclusion of answers to these and related questions would go a long way to dispel doubts that readers may entertain on the article on the research posted on the Ethiopian Reporter. Similar questions and comments apply to other researches and surveys cited in this writing.

This government, unlike its predecessors, should be given credit for self criticism and ferreting and admitting mistakes and failures. It is among the first 18 African Union member countries that committed themselves to undergo “peer review.” Government officials are humans and to err is human. Those who admit and correct their errors are true leaders. The on-going renewal process is, among other things, designed to minimize repeat of the bad aspect of the past. Gemgema, which is not to the liking of the oppositions and saboteurs, is one of the methods intended to inculcate responsibility on the part of civil servants and monitor their actions. According to the President of the Ethiopia and the Addis Ababa Chambers of Commerce “bureaucracy in governmental offices is significantly improving.” This, coming from the business community, is a good indication of what could be expected -- a higher level of democracy and development despite the oppositions’ obstacles and machinations to thwart progress the country direly needs.

F: Support of the People

We hear and read that the government has no support of the people, that the people do not have confidence in the government, that the people hate the government, that the people do not trust the government, that the people are refusing to fall prey to the scheme of ethnic politics, etc. “The EPRDF-led government blamed for its lack of legitimacy” was the title of an article that recently appeared in the Ethiopian Reporter website. What are the basis for these baseless accusations and lies? Are they based on surveys or polls, such as the unscientific and inherently biased polls that pop up now and then in some websites? How can they make such outrageous and sweeping generalizations in a country like Ethiopia where there are no ways and means to gauge the opinion of the people? Do they refer to the losers, some people in Addis Ababa and some other cities who lost wealth (land and houses) as well as power and all that goes with the latter (benefits, exploitation of the people and undue imposed respect/getoch)? These are persons with vested interest in the old systems who object to the government’s emphasis on “ethnic power-sharing and even employment opportunities.” They are against the equitable sharing of power, wealth, rights and duties by the diversified ethnic groups. These same persons are the ones who ardently oppose affirmative action in Ethiopia but support it in the United States.

These naysayers label the present government a TPLF/Woyanne minority government as the Eritreans and their government do with a view to fomenting discord among Ethiopians and thereby destabilizing Ethiopia. This, of course, is not true as the ethnic diversity and representation of officials in the coalition government at all levels show. EPRDF and its affiliates, without any doubt, do represent the peoples of Ethiopia, including the minorities, from day one of the rule of this government. It should be recalled that the transitional government was formed based on the charter that was approved by EPRDF and the then anti-Derg oppositions, including exiles in the Diaspora, which EPRDF invited to participate in a national conference. There is no denying that the EPRDF was inclusive from the outset.

From the numerous articles posted on the internet one would conclude that there is a huge force and people’s support out there capable of banishing the incumbent government whose resignation they demand. Most of the writers are individuals, private press and those who claim to have supporters (parties, movements, etc.) have in reality no roots in the populations or negligible following. Although they pretend to, they do not really represent the interest of the people. This is the reason why many of them have been boycotting participation in elections in the past, knowing full well and fearing that they would be exposed for what they are. Their boycotts were excuses for their miserable failures to attract followers. The latest technology, remote control, could only give them virtual reality followers.

By the way, some of the Ethiopians who pretend to support the oppositions in the Diaspora are individuals looking for a short cut to getting green cards or similar documents. Such individuals make outrageous statements against the government and have their pictures taken at rallies organized in opposition of the government to present to the US Immigration and Naturalization Service and the equivalent institutions in other countries as proof that they will be persecuted if they go back to Ethiopia. It is possible that some of the government officials defected for the same purpose using similar tactics. Except for few persons (in single digit) wanted for criminal acts during the Derg regime, there has not been a single Diaspora Ethiopian inconvenienced, detained or imprisoned while visiting Ethiopia. On the contrary, Ethiopians in the Diaspora, unlike Eritreans (see the Testimony of Mr. Mohammed Musa Ibrahim in Awate.com, 03/17/04) and the so-called Amches, are welcomed home without any strings attached. Their political affiliations and their vehement/absurd criticisms against the EPRDF and the government do not matter. Even those with adopted foreign nationalities have the same rights, with very few exceptions, as their brothers and sisters in Ethiopia.

If those opposed to the government are to win followers, which are lacking or are grossly inadequate, even to entitle them to a single seat in the parliament -- specially those in the Diaspora who still maintain their Ethiopian citizenship -- they should come out with realistic and acceptable alternative workable solutions to the problems which form the subject matter of their criticisms. They are incapable of innovating new ideas (except parroting ad infinitum their opposition to ethnic-based federalism and state ownership of land). This is so because most of the relevant issues specific to Ethiopian conditions that could form realistic plans and programs are already appropriately being dealt with by the government. There are elements among them who believe in hereditary rule and are convinced that there is nobody other than their ethnic group that should, could and are capable to rule Ethiopia. They have, for over a decade, been predicting the impending fall of the government, a wishful thinking. They hallucinate the handing over of the administration of Ethiopia to them on a silver platter. They better come down from their ivory towers; face reality; this is the 21st century! There is no way that a single ethnic group could ever dominate the scene of Ethiopian body politics or rule Ethiopia anymore. They should wake up, those days of one ethnic domination over others are gone for ever. They should accept realities for the sake of Ethiopia, if they are genuinely concerned about the country they claim they love.

(To be continued)