Ato Hailu should have come to that conclusion several years ago, and the events of 2005 were clear enough to him and to all other informed Ethiopians that the incumbent had no intention to respect the Constitution or rule of law. Glaring examples then and now are violation of Article 102 which provided for an independent National Election Board (NEB)that is free from any political influence, but that was violated by allowing the Prime Minister and Chairman of the Ruling Party to pick the appointments of all Board members and the chief and deputy chief of the NEB secretariat based on an election proclamation that violated the Constitution.
Article 38 of the Constitution states that there will be no discrimination against candidates or voters on the basis of color, race, nation, nationality, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion or other status, but a competent and highly respected Ethiopian Nuer cannot, for example, run for election in Afar state because Article 38 of the Election Proclamation violates Article 38 of the Constitution, and that violation is, understandably, respected by our partisan NEB. This shows that the incumbent does not accept that the Ethiopian people can make a wise choice in the absence of the self-appointed baby-sitter, EPRDF.
The incumbent’s self-appointed guardianship was rejected when Kinijit was welcome all over the country in 2005, irrespective of several ethnic barriers built by the ruling party for some 14 years, but opposition party leaders did not digest that lesson/victory over the last four years to come forward with strategies and actions that ensure free and fair elections in 2010; it has, sadly, turned out to be “business as usual”, a repeat of the failed election conditions in 1995, 2000 and 2005 with EPRDF in charge of NEB, the courts, the police and ETV.
Prof. Donald Levine is reported to have said as much in Fortune of March 7, 2010, and he was right. Does this suggest that our opposition political leaders who hold so many unused degrees have little or no memory or capacity for reflection, or no national interest beyond short-sighted sectarian or partisan goals?
Veto power will continue to be exercised as long as the opposition continues to fail to prepare a level playing field for elections, and this was also obvious in 1995, 2000 and 2005. The lessons of South African political parties of the period 1990-1994 is worth careful study by all serious political parties and their supporters. It need hardly be emphasized that gullible supporters and narrow interest groups in Europe and America have been key players in the final destruction of Kinijit in 2007 though the leadership and initiative came from Lidetu and Berhanu using unsuspecting Birtukan and Hailu, and a naïve Gizachew as their executing agents.
Page 28 is your OP-ED NOTES page where it is headlined as “Incumbent triumphs on policy, loses debate”, and it asserts lower down that “Even the rebellious opposition party, Hailu Shawel’s All Ethiopia Unity Organization(AEUO), which declined to participate in the debates so far, demanding that it be transmitted live, has abandoned its unitary stand five years ago and now subscribes to the federalist camp”.
As I see it, Fortune does not appear to know our political parties; it has not shown us how the incumbent has triumphed on policy, but if Fortune is referring to the adoption of the federal structure by AEUO, that was also AEUO’s policy as far back as 2003, which was the establishment date of AEUO whose political program of 2003, Pages 10-11, had stated that “AEUP is convinced that a federal structure is right for Ethiopia.”.
One needs to also recall that Ao Hailu was Kinijit’s chairman in 2004-2005, holding together a group that had no cohesion or serious content, but was still held together by the management skills of Ato Hailu. The federal structure was also emphasized in Sections 2.14 and 3.8, among others, in Kinijit’s Manifesto of 2005. Clearly, Fortune has to do some reading before claiming a bogus victory for the ruling party. Further, labeling AEUP as “rebellious” is totally wrong; Fortune can be accused of being biased and in the service of the incumbent.
Page 47 in your GOSSIP column in Fortune has stated: “… the incumbent somehow backslid on its earlier promises to allow the electoral debate among the contesting parties to be broadcast live on national TV”. Like Ato Hailu, Fortune does not appear to know the incumbent well; it is doing what is perfectly normal for EPRDF and that has been its consistent practice in 1995, 2000, and 2005. EPRDF can make a law and it can also break it when it fails to serve its purpose, and there are many examples of that in the Constitution and in other laws over the last 18 years. Unfortunately, Fortune and many others have failed to learn even those simple lessons.
The only way to hold EPRDF accountable is to build strong democratic institutions that are grounded in a strong and democratic legal framework, and those have been consistently missing in the political history of Ethiopia. An independent National Election Board, a democratic electoral law, an independent electoral court, an independent public mass media, a neutral and professional police force, and a neutral civil service are essential pre-requisites for free and fair elections and for the birth of a democratic Ethiopia. That is what Ethiopian political parties have failed to do in 1995, 2000 and 2005, and history will repeat itself in May 2010.
South Africans fought each other for over 80 years, but achieved free and fair elections and a democratic Rainbow Nation, all at one stroke in April 1994, because all opposition political parties and the ruling National party had intelligently prepared the ground for free and fair elections between 1990 and 1994, thereby nullifying the apologetic propaganda of EPRDF and its local and international supporters that democracy requires decades to build. That is true only if political parties are too stupid to learn their lessons.
Ethiopian political parties, including the press, want free and fair elections to come to Ethiopia as a gift from some heavenly force or from western powers, while they waste valuable time attacking each other or otherwise staying away from serious preparatory joint political work due to sheer incompetence or laziness, or even possibly out of ignorance of their responsibilities. Hence, elections continue to fail consistently !
Let me now contribute to the recent election debate on federalism between Medrek, represented by Beyene Petros, EDP represented by Lidetu, three other opposition parties and EPRDF which was represented by Teferra Deribew and Junedin Sado. First, the perception of ethnic federalism is only EPRDF’s fantasy and that of retired diplomats like Ms. Vicky Huddleston, the former US Charge d’Affairs, who is well-remembered for her contributions in destroying the first Kinijit and the creation of the current Kinijit in the US Embassy.
All opposition political parties in the debate have accepted federalism as a good system for the future, but all rejected its current form and the way it was practiced by EPRDF, and gave their reasons: Lidetu argued that Ethiopia’s existence could be under serious threat if a region, like Oromia, that cuts across the middle of Ethiopia, opts to secede; Beyene argued that the regions had little or no power since the Federal Ministry of Federal Affairs controlled the regions, and the central government controlled their budgets.
A political party, represented by an engineer, argued that it was ridiculous to create a region for 15,000 Harari people, and impose the Harari language on some 200,000 other people in the region where most were Oromos from rural areas outside Harar, where the Amhara was a majority; he wanted EPRDF to explain why such a small minority of 15,000 Hararis has a region and why ethnic groups such as the Gurage, Welaita and others that count in millions have none.
The same engineer went on to explain that if EPRDF wanted each ethnic group to use its language, then Ethiopia’s 83 ethnic groups should have 83 separate ethnic regions. With such an arrangement, Tigray itself will have to be divided into several regions, like one each for Tigrie, Irob, Kunama, Affar and Amhara, among many others, since forcing all of them to use Tigrigna was outside the ethnic federalism preaching of EPRDF.
Tefera Deribew and Junedin Sado did not, and could not, respond to those criticisms against EPRDF’s false ethnic federalism, but Teferra went, instead, to groundless and irrelevant accusations which were his last resort when he could not respond to valid criticisms from the opposition.
Surely, intelligent elements in EPRDF itself must realize that creating 9 regions has not created 9 ethnic regions, or ethnic regions for all 83 ethnic groups of Ethiopia, and hence the current regional structure is biased in favor of only 7 groups of elites who speak only seven of our 83 languages.
Putting Oromos, Amharas, Hararis and some 25 other ethnic groups in a region, and naming that region after a tiny minority is not creating an ethnic region, but creating a region that is a sort of replica of Ethiopia itself. By the way, Harari is not the only region ruled by a minority ethnic elite, and this is, clearly, regarded as right by the ruling elite since Ethiopia itself is ruled by a tiny minority elite.
Likewise, each of Oromia, Southern Nations and Nationalities, and Amara house more than 50 ethnic groups, whereas Benishangul, Gambella, Tigray, Affar, and the Somali region have no less than 30 ethnic groups in each of them. Hence, each of the 9 regions is some replica of Ethiopia, but ruled only by one select group of ethnic elites so that only 9 such select ethnic classes rule Ethiopia today, and the remaining 74 ethnic groups continue to be at the mercy of the select 9 of EPRDF. In some ways, this is worse than even the Derg’s era.
Indeed, it is accurate to say that today’s Ethiopia has a government structure where a few ethnic elite have created a fake federation of seemingly ethnic regions in which the people themselves have little or no choice in the entire fake show. In a country of 83 ethnic groups, creating only 9 seemingly ethnic regions is a mockery of democratic rights since at least 74 other ethnic groups continue to be under the fake 9 selected by EPRDF.
Given that all existing regions are replicas of multi-ethnic Ethiopia, it is time to go back to the old provinces of the 1960s or those 30 regions that were used by the Derg in its later days, and build an honest federal structure thereon. Using the ethnic question as a tool for perpetuating an oppressive minority rule by a cooperative of selfish elite that claim to stand for a maximum of 9 ethnic groups should come to an end before things get irretrievably worse. How about the rights of the remaining 74 ethnic groups?
EPRDF’s claim that it stands for ethnic groups’ rights has been violated in all regions: The minority in Harari region violates the rights of some 200,000; the same holds true in Oromia where the select ruling elite impose Oromiffa on some 4,000,000 other Ethiopians, and in Tigray which imposes Tigrigna on some 500,000 other Ethiopians. Indeed, ethnic federalism cannot exist when we have only 9 fake ethnic regions for 83 ethnic groups. Where is the Ethnic Federalism if some 25,000,000 Ethiopians (over one-third of Ethiopia) or some 74 ethnic groups are forced to live under conditions imposed by one of the other 7 select ethnic groups ?
Using language as a tool for divide-and-rule by an illegal cooperative of ethnic elites is not only inexcusable, but a criminal act. EPRDF still has a chance to make amends, and political parties need to play their part more responsibly. This much for the non-existence of ethnic regions in today’s Ethiopia. The other question is: Is Ethiopia a federal state ? It is not at present, and that is what the opposition is saying in the political debates.
Ethiopia is currently ruled by EPRDF; its Executive Committee is composed of 9 select individuals from each of Tigray, Southern Nations and Nationalities, Amara and Oromia, adding up to 36 in total number. Each of the 9 members of EPRDF’s Executive Committee constitute the very top leadership of each of the 9 regions that serve as EPRDF’s power base. In addition, the Mayor of Addis Ababa is a member of the Executive Committee of EPRDF and that of Oromia, and its General Manager is a member of the Executive Committee of EPRDF and that of the Southern Nations and Nationalities . Together, these 4 regions and Addis Ababa account for over 90% of the population of Ethiopia, and they are all ruled directly by EPRDF’s Executive Committee.
The remaining five regions get their orders from the Ministry of Federal Affairs, which is under the Prime Minister, who is also Chairman of EPRDF’s Executive Committee. Hence, the notion of ethnic federalism is only an illusion or a deceptive tool fabricated by EPRDF and upheld by the cooperative of ruling elite for selfish ends; it cannot exist in Ethiopia when EPRDF sets policy and oversees the implementation, owns all land, controls programs and budgets, and makes all senior appointments in every region of Ethiopia. Indeed, the current structure of government is closer to unitary rather than federal, and resembles more like that of Derg.
In conclusion, it has been shown above that Ethiopia has no ethnic regions, but only ethnic rulers over non-ethnic regions, and that it is more of a unitary rather than a federal state.
The privileged ruling elite of today, like the previous rulers of Ethiopia, will not give up their usurped power without a fight, but they can be brought to their senses with a strong and responsible opposition that is ready to work together on the legal and democratic framework that is a pre-requisite for free and fair elections in 2015. South Africa’s 27 warring political parties have done it during 1990-1994 and have achieved the “small miracle” in 1994 with the very first election in the history of South Africa after having worked studiously and responsibly together during 1990-1994 on the legal and democratic framework that has successfully ensured free and fair elections in 1994. Can that be done in Ethiopia after 4 failed elections ? I have my doubts, but I would love to be proved wrong !
