Knjit may have run into problems that may not make it live as it was before, but its powerful message must live on and ways must be found to make sure the message continues to fire the popular imagination even though the messenger may be distracted for one reason or another. There is thus a great stake in reenergising a strong post- knjit movement that aims at building citizenship at the core driving the freedom and development engine of the Ethiopian society, economy and politics by building social capital but not destroying it as it is happening now.
8. Fragmented Opposition Undermines Social Capital Development
One serious problem in Ethiopia is creating a political system where political society is organised by principles shared by those parties who govern and those who wish to mount opposition in order to govern. This system cannot be mimicked from outside. It must be home grown. The competition of political parties under norms, rules and procedures that permit legitimate debate and consultation amongst the parties to create a political process that is capable of generating lawful, legitimate and self- sustaining changes and transitions in government with the sole aim of building the infinite well being of the people and their wealth and happiness is a priority of priorities. Politics must start to create and improve the livelihood and well being of the people. All those who agree to do this and wish to devote their lives and sacrifice should enter into politics. If these noble minded people enter politics, there will be hardly any of the spectacles we see today in Ethiopia. There is no need to have all the ethnic entrepreneurs running amuck. There is no need to see all those who use ethnicity to oppose ethnicity. All the fragmented opposition should in principle converge. Those around the ruling party can evolve into a nation-wide unified cohesive party where the core of the party can collect other lesser parties as its allies. The party that emerged after the 2005 election with a popular mandate Knjit could have evolved as another nation-wide national party naturally with its allies. Major two parties that occupy centre stage could have emerged- and could potentially emerge for the 2010 election- clearing the ground for the novel emergence of a new politics that can deliver a predictable and sustainable national direction and transition in Ethiopia. This will provide a historical milestone in the nation’s age-old history. This would be indeed a real dream come true.
The worst scenario is the continuation of fragmented opposition, each seeking external ally to increase its own chances and decrease the chance of its real and perceived or ill-perceived opponents. In Ethiopia, the ethnic entrepreneurial project has multiplied many opportunists who wish to carve out a political niche or space by using an ethnic perspective to the country’s politics. This has fragmented both the concept and reality of doing politics in Ethiopia and created a situation where politicians appeal to their specific ethnic group and try to collect votes as ethnically certified leaders. The contestants become an ethnically validated political entrepreneur whose main platform is contaminated with the primordial politics of blood is thicker than water. This direction will embolden voting along ethnic lines and will undermine citizenship and the emergence of the best and most suitable person from being elected to public life. This is indeed a disease in Africa where multiparty elections imposed by donors in the belief that good government can come through such elections create a situation where such elections degenerate along ethnic voting lines and can even be violent. In Ethiopia the ethnic arrangement has made it a fact that people will vote not as citizens for the best candidate but for the person who belongs to their ethnic affiliation. This degrades citizenship and emboldens ethnic sectarian voting patterns. When this is entrenched it may lead to fostering a backward political culture.
There is a need to think long and hard to go over this ethnic trap and bring out a system of politics where at least for a country like Ethiopia two major parties are encouraged to compete with each other by also engaging with each other in a consultative process even when they compete against each other.
The parties from the ethnic groups should be allied to these major parties that are based on spreading a voting pattern on the basis of Ethiopian citizenship…
One thought on “The challenge of shaping Ethiopia’s sustainable future”
Better equip ourselves with WEAPON CAPITAL than SOCIAL CAPITAL.
We have been for centuries practicing trust, religion, friendship, norms, rules, and procedures, which are the fundamental tenets of social capital in this long and very informative article, and yet we have failed to feed our people, to produce tangible results, and to govern ourselves effectively. Who is responsible for the mess, the present or the past generation, the kings or the princes, Mengistu Haile Mariam or Meles Zenawi?
It has always been the norm for the present generation to blame the old generation that is not here with us today. I’m, however, on the side of the old generation against the present lousy generation. In consent with the writers of the article, Ethiopia is an old country; no one knows how old it is, and no one knows when it will die if it is not already dead.
There is a saying in Ethiopia: “When a lion gets old, it becomes a playground for the flies.” The old lion here represents the old Ethiopia, and the flies represent us, the new generation. Ethiopia as old as it is today must be commended for passing not the unfinished, but the finished work of its glorious history, a history of expansion, growth, success and victory to the present ungrateful generation. Ethiopia has been undivided country geographically, historically, culturally, and politically until the fall of Emperor Haile Selassie. Ethiopia’s old age has not been the problem for many Ethiopians; it is the young Ethiopians, the immature young and selfish Ethiopian politicians who have become big burdens and severe headaches to this ailing old Ethiopia.
The Ethiopian old history should not be considered a problem, a burden to the new generation; rather it should be regarded as a pride and glory, so it is very important to “invoke the long gone past….” The Ethiopian old history does not impose tyranny on the Ethiopian people; it rather empowers the Ethiopian people to fight against tyranny, to live together peacefully, and to protect its territories, its seaports and never to split them. The Ethiopian past history has been a history of freedom from Mussolini, Ahmad Gragn, and from many other foreign intruders, like Egypt, Sudan, and Turkey. The Ethiopian history has been full of justice and fairness, a history that respects the rule of law and justice.
Ethiopia’s long existence should not be called “vegetative existence” as the article attests emphatically. I hate the word “vegetative” the writers of the article used here to explain the living condition of Ethiopia. On the contrary, Ethiopia throughout its glorious history has been very active, vibrant, resilient, and proud of its accomplishments in art, in building towns, cities, churches, and in expanding church schools and at the same time fighting foreign invaders. So Ethiopia, in its long existence, has never had the mark of idleness and laziness. Each single day, each single year in Ethiopia has been a day and a year of progress and accomplishments. To name some, look the pyramid at Axum, look the rock hewn Church of Lalibela in Wollo, magnificent art of work! So to me it is not fair to call the old 3000 years of Ethiopian civilization years of vegetative existence.
The past generation had lived by solving its own problems, and it is the responsibility of the present generation to solve its own problem without blaming the other generation. In fact, it is this selfish generation that divided the country in two: Ethiopia and Eretria, and it is going to divide it further unless it stops its selfishness and political ambition based on ethnic lines. We should not attribute the current situations, the current divisions among the various political parties to Ethiopia’s magnificent past history. If Ethiopia had not struggled hard to keep all its territories together, you and I would not be here today. We are blaming the past history of Ethiopia based on material things, neglecting the spiritual dynamics Ethiopia has made through its long history: combining Judaism and Christianity and accommodating other religions and passing them to us is, in it self, a big achievement.
Ethiopia has never passed a deficit of problems to the present generation as the article suggests; it is in fact the present generation that created the deficit – the giving away of Eretria, the war with Somalia and Ogaden, the leadership crisis with Kinjit, and the division of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church: one in exile and one at home. It is my and your generation who created such huge deficit, not the Ethiopian Lucie generation. Ethiopia has never left unsolved problems to the current generation; even though it has ethnically and religiously diverse society, this society has lived comfortably for thousands of years harmoniously with each other. It is this generation that created Mengistu Haile Mariam and Meles Zenawi.
The writers of the article are absolutely right that it is the politicians (add “selfish”) – the selfish politicians – that bring “more new problems…,” but they are wrong in saying “…than in solving old and transmitting problems from earlier generations.” As I said before, the old generation had never passed its problem to me and you; we should not blame our ancestors for the current problems we have selfishly created. Let our ancestors rest in peace!
What makes you think “…had Ethiopia had turned into a republic after World War II… then the problems to solve today would have been different”? In what way would it have been different? Do you mean all republic countries are capable of solving their own problems? For example, among many other republic countries, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran are republics. Have these countries been capable of solving their existing problems? I don’t think so. At this particular time, we cannot say this or that system of government would solve the Ethiopian existing problems. In my opinion it is our task to devise a new system of government that accommodates all ethnic groups – a government that does not exclude its political opponents from participating in politics with the governing party.
In 1974, the Emperor did not transfer his power to the military; the military took it by force, and that is why Ethiopia is facing today multitude of problems more than ever before. Had the transition of power been voluntarily and peacefully without humiliating the Emperor, we could have later avoided all the unnecessary bloodsheds by both Mengistu Haile Mariam and Meles Zenawi in the name of new revolution. Indeed, Ethiopia has never had such deep division in its entire history. So the pattern of problems can be traced to Mengistu and to Meles, not to the old generation because the old generation has nothing to do with our new problems.
The Ethiopian people at this time have no ways of measuring which politicians are capable of governing them democratically, ethically, and justly. I assume, at this time, the Ethiopian people are not yet ready to be governed by a democratically elected politician; I may be wrong. I think they need a thorough training about what a democratically elected government would offer them. Then they will have a yardstick to measure the diverse opinions of the politicians who run for the higher office.
Social capital cannot be achieved by only avoiding our dependence on our ethnicity; however, what are the substitutes for ethnicity in case people are willing to disregard their love affairs with their ethnicities? Are we ready to substitute ethnicity with something concrete that satisfies each group? For example, in the old days, some Ethiopians used to worship idols on the hills, on the mountains, and in the wooded areas. In order to prevent people from worshipping idols, the Church built beautiful churches on those hills, and on those mountains and in those wooded areas so that the people could worship God instead of idols. So how can we replace ethnicity by something good that unites the people rather than divides them?
Yes, Yohannes II helped General Napier to defeat Tewodros; yes, Menelik II let Yohannes be killed by the Sudan Muslims, and yes Teferi defeated Lij Iyasu because Iyasu was leaning to accepting Islam; however, internal conflicts of such kind are common every where in this world; it is not new. In those days people were not educated as most of us today. The question is how can we avoid such internal conflicts among us today? How can we run our organization free of foreign hands? It is an impossible task in this global age of ours. If avoiding foreign help is one of the requirements of social capital, then social capital is doom to fail because no government in this world is free of getting help from a foreign power.
We cannot avoid “fragmented opposition” if we believe in democracy; we should not oppress such opposing, fragmented political parties, and we should not limit the number of parties who want to work as independent political parties, but we can influence them to join our own political party. All political parties, in my opinion, must be institutionalized, and the party that wins the election will become the governing party.
Finally, after we have done every thing in our power to persuade Meles Zenawi to cooperate with us but failed to do so, then we must resort to arm struggle rather than to social capital and defeat our common enemy for the right cause – to liberate our people from tyranny.