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OPPOSITIONS
DURING EPRDF ETHIOPIA
PART I: POLITICS AND DEMOCRACY
By Mathza, (Originally posted at Aiga, March 25, 2004)
I: The Private Press
Most of the private press in Ethiopia and radio hosts in the Diaspora
are far from being dedicated to informing the public the truth as professionals
in the field are expected to do, i.e., respecting the publics’
right to know the truth. On the contrary, they misinform the public. As
one of the participants at a meeting of Diplomats on the Issue of the
Press put it "it [the press] should never exploit the ignorance of
the mass for ulterior motives." This aptly summarizes what the private
press should not do but, unfortunately, many of them do. Many of the journalists
are or act like tabloid journalists.
Many of them lack in professionalism, ethics and integrity; and lie and
fabricate news and information. The Editor-in-chief of the Ethiopian Reporter
newspaper not long ago admitted that most of these characterizations apply
to some of them. Most of them are biased against the government. Many
focus on hate politics and are politically motivated and serve as propaganda
machines of and surrogates for the oppositions. Much of whatever they
write are highly exaggerated or simple lies. An example of the latter
is a report in one of the papers stating that an individual who was jailed
in Addis Ababa central prison (Alem Bekagn) was battling against government
forces in the Gonder area. Another is a report of the death of the President
of Ethiopia. Some times the substance of their writings have no bearing
at all with the titles. According to the United Ststes 2003 Country Reports
on Human Rights Practices in Ethiopia “much of the private
press continued to lack professionalism in its reportingâ€
and “continued to publish inaccurate information, unsubstantiated
stories, and harsh antigovernment articles without any official penalty.â€
Many of the journalists and editors have no qualifications nor training
nor experience. This is the reason for the grant of the government of
Norway of US$7 million for the establishment of the School and Center
of Journalism and Communication at the Addis Ababa University. According
to its Ambassador in Addis Ababa, "The media sector in Ethiopia is
hampered by a lack of journalists trained in delivering professional,
objective and critical news services."
They invariably focus on criticizing the government; they never, even
in passing, mention any achievements where there is so much to report.
They may counter by saying they have no access to governmental information.
What about the private sector and the many United Nation agencies, NGOs
and civic organizations who deal with a myriad of development projects?
All of them would be glad to inform the public of their activities through
the media. Why are they silent in rgeard to some of the corrupt local
NGOs? Even at government level, has any one of them tried to report on
institutions, such as the Agricultural Research Institute and similar
centers at the state level? The findings of these institutions are already
contributing to raising the agricultural productivity of the country,
an essential factor that could eventually enable the country to feed itself?
The private press could have contributed in popularizing the findings
and encouraging their use by farmers.
The journalists do not want to be held accountable for their legal obligations
and the misinformation, distortions of facts and lies they spin and disseminate,
and the consequences thereof. To give the semblance of credibility to
their lies and fabrications many of them cite and quote fictional and
anonymous sources, simply referring to them as diplomats, academics, scholars,
observers, sources, etc. Understandably, they have, so far, been denied
access to some information originating from the government because of
irresponsible journalism, including divulging sensitive national security
information that could endanger the country. They were, however, permitted
to attend government briefings and press confrernces. The press law being
revised is likely to give them access to public information at par with
those of the government journalists but prevent them from publishing “declarations
or information related to subversive groups like the OLF or Al-Ittihad
or Al-Qaeda.†According to the Prime Minister the new
draft press law “is more or less directly copied from
continental [European] press law.†It would be opportune
here to note that the government is in the process of drafting the country’s
Freedom of Information Act, a bill on the right of the people to information,
that would promote transparency and accountability.
Public figure (the Foreign Minister for example) defamation is another
area in which many journalists are involved. Defamation is subject to
libel suits. Such are the so-called journalists who lament that there
is no democracy in Ethiopia forgetting that they themselves are practicing
journalism because of it and in the process abusing it. Unlike in the
previous regimes, people speak their minds without fear and freely travel
abroad (leave and enter the country as they wish).
There have been and continue to be complaints by the media, both in Ethiopia
and abroad, about oppression of the private press. It should be pointed
out here that the journalists and editors who were imprisoned or fined
were the individuals who, in contravention of the law, made statements
that could pit nationalities against one another or incite people to get
involved in aggressive and destructive activities -- thus jeopardizing
the country’s stability and security. Foreign critics
fail to understand the need for such law prohibiting inflammatory languages
in fledgling democracies. Such critics wrongly expect the West’s
copy-cat situation to prevail in developing countries. It is amazing that
they blindly condemn the government without ever hinting the need for
the journalists to discipline themselves. They do not care about the consequences,
including chaos and inter-ethnic and inter-group conflicts by the inflammatory
writings. Most of the controversial writings of which only a few were
brought to court are written in local languages. It is possible that the
foreign critics are not aware of or are misinformed by the private media
on the true contents of the controversial articles and writings. The bottom
line is the government has the responsibility to maintain law and order,
including anticipating and avoiding harmful incidents resulting from irresponsible
journalism.
The Government recently halted the operation of the Ethiopian Free Press
Journalists’ Association (EFPJA), apparently beset
by internal crisis, for failing to meet the legal requirements for its
annual registration for three consecutive years. In addition, the maximum
period for the elected leadership was overdue. Under such circumstance,
the Ministry of Justice claims that it is vested with the responsibility
to call the General Assembly of the Association to elect a new executive
committee. Accordingly, a new EFPJA leadership was elected at a meeting
held on January 18, 2004. The former leadership have taken the Ministry
to court, a manifestation that there is democracy in the country which
many members of EFPJA deny.
J: Conclusions
What we should all be clear about is that Ethiopia is a developing country,
and a least developed and at the bottom of the rung, at that. This being
the case, it should have been apparent to the oppositions that there are
overwhelming diverse and complex problems hindering progress in the political,
social and economic sectors. As shown in this writing, most of the criticisms
leveled at the government by the oppositions are lies, fabricated, exaggerated,
etc. These criticisms emanate from a limited number of vociferous persons
who, strangely enough find time, besides working to earn their living,
to churn out a flood of articles. How do they do that? Simple, most of
them do not conduct research; they sit down and cook articles, not supported
by facts but based on their biases, fabrications and repeated ad infinitum
boring allegations. What they seem not to realize is the fact that the
country and the system of governance have reached a point of no return.
They have made themselves irrelevant and lost credibility and respectability.
Generally, people judge others by what they are themselves. They are guided
by ‘what would I have said or done if I were in the
shoes of the person(s) being judged.’ It reflects what
kind of mind set they have. Some are positive: understanding, sympathetic,
supportive and give the person(s) concerned the benefit of the doubt.
Others are negative: selfish, jealous, suspicious, unforgiving, revengeful,
etc. Apparently, many of the persons in the oppositions fall under the
second category. It seems that they have lost their faculty for reasoning.
They are very angry having lost power, wealth, integrity and dignity.
They are hopeless; no amount of logical reasoning could enable them to
see and accept truth and reality.
Some of those in the oppositions are victims of heresy. They have never
been to Ethiopia during the rule of the incumbent government. They have
been mislead by the diehards who are blinded by their prejudices, jealousies
and hunger for power. Their knowledge of the current situation in Ethiopia
is based on the oppositions’ versions and therefore
one-sided, i.e., biased and based on wrong and deceitful information.
Even many of those who visited the country and observed first hand deny
of any progress achieved. The exceptions keep quite either to deprive
credit to the government or for fear of being labeled traitors, Weyannes,
hodamoch, etc. What is surprising is that some of the Diaspora Ethiopians
return from visits to Ethiopia with horror stories of poverty as if they
have not only seen it but experienced it themselves or their relatives
or their friends before emigrating.
As the saying goes, ‘Rome was not built in a day.’
There is no magic wand for creating instant democracy. It takes time for
democracy to take root, especially in the diversified traditional Ethiopian
society comprising about 87 ethnic groups. Contrary to what the oppositions
allege, significant progress has been made in politics, democratization
and related areas. Of course, as in other governments anywhere, mistakes
have been made. Innocent people have suffered. The oppositions are partly
to blame for misinforming and inciting students and others to achieve
their agenda. Had it not been for their obstacles the process of democratization
and therefore governance and respect for human rights, would have, by
now, attained higher levels.
Sustainable peace and stability are essential preconditions for enhancing
the democratization process and improving the grinding poverty of the
Ethiopian people. Anything that undermines these preconditions cannot
and should not be tolerated. Individuals or groups who are guided by and
practice ‘the end justifies the means’
and undermine the peace and stability, and therefore the development process
that is underway in the country, should be considered enemies of the people
and human rights violators. The poor country and people cannot afford
further distractions by such elements.
(PART II to be continued)
Click the sections below to read previous postings of PART I
Introduction
A: Ethnic-based
Federalism
B-D: State
Land Ownership, Human Rights, Democracy
E-F: Governance,
Support of the People
G-H: Attacks
on the Leadership and Other Criticisms
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