First of all, is UEDF a coalition or a political party? What are its objectives and goals? These are not clear in the UEDF draft Constitution which has serious flaws, which include several others. These same problems need to be openly discussed and corrected if Ethiopia is to come out of the quagmire it has been in since 1974, after the elections in May 2005.
All Ethiopia Unity Party had objected to the draft UEDF constitution and the direction UEDF has been going as far back as August 2003, but its leaders had no ears. Now came the additional bombshell last week that its Secretary General, Dr. Admasu Gebeyehu, had resigned since UEDF’s course of action consistently went against agreed principles in the UEDF inaugural conference last July. Who is to blame ? What is clear is that UEDF is not internally democratic !
Clearly, the immediate blame goes to those that drafted the UEDF Constitution, and attempted to operationalize it without the approval and support of all member parties, and the overall blame goes to the supporters of UEDF in the Diaspora for providing uncritical support to a leadership that was completely out of line of the principles agreed at the inaugural Conference in July 2003.
All supporters should ask the leadership to put the UEDF Constitution and its political program on the UEDF web-page since they are everbody’s business, but they are not there some 10 months after the end of the conference. Why ? Lack of transparency and accountability, or a desire to play a self-serving game that is only best known to the three chairmen ?
Let me point out some of the problems of the UEDF Constitution to serve as a basis for further urgent discussion on the internet, hoping that such a discussion will make UEDF stronger, more transparent, accountable and relevant to today’s Ethiopia. I shall not say anything about UEDF’s political program since I want us to take one step at a time.
1. UEDF’s Organizational Structure
This includes ( Article 3) a UEDF Council, the Central Executive, the Executive Committee, the Foreign Affairs Committee, the Public Relations and Information Committee, the Finance and Property Committee, the Political Affairs Committee, the Organizations’ Committee, the Development and Rehabilitation Committee, the Research Committee, the Auditors and Inspection Committee, and Advisory Shengo. Latter on, in Article 3.14, we learn of Regional branches in Europe, Africa and Asia.
That is a heck of a lot of bureaucracy for a new and humble coalition (Hibret) which, presumably, has the sole mission of creating an enabling environment for free and fair elections in 2005. Or, its there any other design behind the Hibret ?
Having failed to find an explicit statement of UEDF objectives and goals in the UEDF Constitution, and after having read through the overall organizational structure and the functions of the several committees that are made responsible, among others, for development and rehabilitation, assistance to political refugees in the Diaspora, research in 5 areas [ (i) Constitution, (ii) the Economy, (iii) Public Health, (iv)Education, and (v) Defense], I come to the following painful conclusions:
(a) There is no mention of UEDF’s objectives in the Constitution, contrary to standard practice in such important documents;
(b) There is no list of founding members and no address for the Head Office;
(c) UEDF is dominated by the 10 parties abroad and the few founding parties in Ethiopia have had to receive directives mainly from the Vice-Chairman in the USA ( See Articles 3.13.2.6, 3.13.2.7,3.13.2.8, 3.13.2.9,3.13.4.5) whereas those that wage the principal political struggle in Ethiopia are junior partners in UEDF. A necessary consequence of this lope-sided structure is that member parties in Ethiopia will have increasingly less voice in UEDF management if they merge into stronger parties, and further reduce their small number to end up having still fewer votes/say in UEDF’s meetings;
(d) The top leadership of UEDF is uniquely fashioned to revolve from Dr. Beyene of SEPDC to Dr. Merera of ONC, and lastly to Ato Fassika Belette of EPRP every 6 months ( See Article 3.13.1.2 and Article 3.13.2.5). What is to happen after Ato Fassika is left open, perhaps leaving room for a strong man to take over ? That does not portray UEDF as internally democratic ?
The design of such a rotation is highly undemocratic for a Hibret that is organizing to win democratic elections and achieve fair proportional representation of all Ethiopians in a free and fair election in 2005, or is the objective of UEDF different ? Where have the free and fair election and democratic representation principles gone in UEDF or are they simply put forward for propaganda purposes?
Is it not much like that of Weyane’s Transitional Government Assembly in 1991 when some 60 parties were hastily cooked up by Weyane to give a majority voice to the TPLF/EPLF destructive agenda, and Dr. Beyene is well aware of that show since he was also an active player at that time.
(e) The Deputy Secretary General, who is also based in the USA, is a de facto Secretary General ( See Articles 3.13.4.2-3.13.4.3).
(f) The proliferation of the committees has inevitably led to significant redundancies and irrelevancies;
(g) UEDF’s leaders appear to have cooked up long-term goals, when UEDF’s only significant goal is to win the national and regional elections in 2005, which is not even mentioned anywhere in the document though there is some reference to civic education;
(h) UEDF’s Constitution appears to be prepared for a political party, albeit the absence of explicit objectives and goals;
(i) Founding members of UEDF are not recognized in the Constitution, and many have very little to say in managing
and overseeing the UEDF other than as members of strange committees.
Even the issue of membership fees is not in the Constitution so that it appears that UEDF regards itself as a political party to raise its funds from the public, which is wrong ! Does this appear to be intentionally designed to marginalize founding members of UEDF, particularly those in Ethiopia ? Indeed, all, except the UEDFF leaders, appear to have had no voice, and no say in approving the Constitution. Is this what UEDF wants to practice if it comes to power by some miracle ? God forbid ! We do not want to replace one group of dictators by another !
Indeed, if UEDF is a coalition of political parties, it must collect membership fees, and seek other sources when there is full support for that approach from all founding members. There is no mention of membership fees in the Constitution, and that is, unfortunately, encouraged by an uncritical Diaspora which emotionally responds before finding out about UEDF’s constitution, objectives, goals, the state of its internal democratic practice and, hence, the prospects for success in liberating Ethiopia.
That uncritical public response has repeatedly bedeviled progress over the last 30 years, and brought disaster after disaster on a preponderant majority (farmers, workers and civil servants and their children) of our innocent countrymen.
2. The Way Forward
I could have translated the entire UEDF Constitution and sent it forward for all to see, but I think the important points raised above are sufficient to highlight the need for UEDF to first look urgently inward and improve its Constitution before it is too late, if UEDF is, indeed, PRO-ETHIOPIA. The national and regional elections are only a few months away, and let us all come together this time to make a significant difference to a nation that has been bled profusely by the very elite that has frequented several talking shops over the past several years in Europe, Africa, USA and Ethiopia.
We have had enough of the suffering here at home, and you must feel the same way in the Diaspora, and I plead with you to please drop any personal or group ambitions and interests for the moment and come, for once, as our great “ feudal” forefathers have repeatedly done in Adwa and Maichew, to make history by making UEDF credible and agreeable to all founding members and to all of us before mid-2004.
If we succeed in the national elections in 2005, believe me, you will all have the forum to appeal to Ethiopia for power. Let us hold back our personal political agendas for now and do first things first: create a democratic Ethiopia in 2005 ! Personally, I will be fully content to enjoy a quiet and happy life in a democratic and prosperous Ethiopia. I wish that were the attitude of all actors in UEDF and then there will have been no need for in-fighting ! Dirty politics is the surest way to perpetuate backwardness and famine in Ethiopia, and if that is what the current trio of UEDF leaders want, then they are fully on course !
The only plea I now have is for all of us to do one thing we have refused to do over the last 30 years: Let us unite, forget about grabbing political power, drop any self-serving personal or group designs, and side wholeheartedly with our starving and bleeding countrymen of all ages, ethnic groups and religions throughout Ethiopia – people who are our victims, and still look up to the elite for redemption, but continue to be repeatedly betrayed by the elite for all sorts of laughable reasons since the 1960s.
It is absolutely clear that UEDF (i) is not internally democratic, (ii) is not a coalition that is meaningfully organized, (iii) is not a coalition of equals, (iii) is not a coalition with explicit and realistic objectives and goals, (iv) is not aiming at winning the 2005 national and regional elections, as a national priority, and as an absolutely essential peaceful prerequisite for the transition from an autocratic state into a democratic state to also ensure the triumphant return of members of the Diaspora to a democratic Motherland.
Time is running out, and we have only a few more critical months before the elections. Unity is our most potent instrument, and we need to achieve that (a) by ensuring that UEDF is a truly democratic coalition of all founding parties with an agreeable Constitution and a pro-Ethiopia political program before mid-2004, (b) by forging unity among the 10 founding parties before mid-2004 in the Diaspora so that they may all speak with one word for Ethiopia abroad instead of tearing each other apart, (iii) by encouraging JADE, the coalition of AEUP, ONC and SEPDC, to be revived to also include UDEP, since it was, paradoxically, destroyed as a consequence of the UEDF inaugural conference last July. At this time, UEDF appears to behave more like a Private Limited Company.
It is no use pointing an accusing finger at AEUP and UEDP or other founding members of UEDF that have serious doubts about UEDF since they all have a democratic right to do that, and since ignoring them or giving them bad names is not going to move UEDF or Ethiopia forward. Doing that sort of thing is imitating EPRDF’s undemocratic leaders ! The only valid solution is to address the root causes for the serious dissent.
UEDF has to urgently reexamine its Constitution, and its political program, and make itself agreeable to all member parties and to all of us in Ethiopia and in the Diaspora, and assure us that UEDF is not another EPRDF. The Diaspora can force that to happen today !
I want the Diaspora to ask those same urgent questions and push the UEDF leaders to be internally democratic by responding to the concerns openly and adequately in a manner that is not a replica of that of EPRDF. Otherwise, as the saying goes, “ yichi ttire kaderech atikorettemim”, and Ethiopia needs to do away with the current retrogressive culture of elite-sponsored and elite-cultivated shame and self-destruction.
The Diaspora needs to be more critical if UEDF leaders are to be responsive to the urgent needs of today’s Ethiopia. This can be done now by stopping all support to UEDF unless such a request comes from a united UEDF with an approved Constitution and a political program that is agreed by all member political parties; that should have been done way back in July 2003. This in not too late since we still have 6 more months to the formal opening of the election activities.
Indeed, one wonders what UEDF had been doing over the last 10 months. Soon after the first meeting of UEDF leaders with the Prime Minister, a Reporter’s journalist ( See Reporter, April 2, 2004) asked Dr. Beyene about the next date of the meeting with the Prime Minister, and Dr. Beyene Petros, the Chairman of UEDF for the first 4 months, responded: “ We did not request fixing a time frame. … We have been analyzing … the electoral law and election procedures. … So we have not pushed for an appointment because we have, on our part, not finalized the preparation of the document.”. That was a total shame 10 months after the July 2003 inaugural Conference of UEDF, and given the fact that the elections were the only reason for the existence of UEDF. Is that because of sheer incompetence or lack of proper orientation on the objectives and goals of UEDF ?
Some months back, All Ethiopia Unity Party (AEUP) had done its duty of raising several serious questions regarding UEDF’s failure to live by agreed principles regarding the Constitution and its political program, and today, UEDF’s Secretary General, Dr. Admasu Gebeyehu, has quit his leadership post in UEDF for exactly the same reasons since enough was enough.
We all have a national obligation to bring back UEDF on course and work together, as a united force, to win the elections in 2005.
