Forward with the democratic movement in Ethiopia
Network of Ethiopian Scholars (NES)
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Introduction
We have now in Ethiopia political forces that continue to fight both within the rules of the game set up by the ruling power of the time and those who are struggling to make the rule of the game broader and more inclusive. First we have the ruling TPLF/EPDRF Coalition that claims with a self-referential certainty to have established a constitutional order for building multi party democracy in Ethiopia. The best to this claim manifested in May 2005. But the response to the success of the opposition gains was a ruthless and brutal repression by the ruling coalition making its democratic commitment and credential suspect. The ruling coalition showed fear and mistrust and spread publicly scenarios of Rwanda-Type genocide, massacre of any opposition win, thus revealing that the minority ethnic power and economic holders are frightened that any democratic takeover would not respect their newly acquired property or political power. With one hand the ruling power dangles the democracy carrot; with the other hand it dangles the repression stick. Faced with such a dilemma, it remains doubtful that the regime’s commitment to democracy is unconditional and unconstrained by other ulterior motives and fears.
We have opposition parties in parliament and those that are not in parliament and have in fact been in jail. There are also opposition parties whose members are in parliament and outside parliament. At the moment the opposition seems in disarray and there is no clear strategy of how to relate or understand the carrot and stick on offer from the ruling coalition.
There are also ethnically representative parties that are in parliament and that also fight with armed struggle outside against the regime’s army. The response of the ruling coalition is to use military force against those that have been conducting armed activities, and relative tolerance of those fighting through parliament.
We have thus an array of political forces that need to enter into serious negotiation to create an all inclusive rule of the game shared and understood and owned by all the armed and non- armed parties. The question is this: after nearly one hundred years aspiring to modernise, unify, develop and democratise the country, are the current array of political parties, fronts and personalities equipped intellectually, morally and humanely to bring about an honest space for democratic expression? This is the question the current generation of politicians must do better than earlier generations during the time the country is passing in the third millennium? This must be the stuff of debate now where all should be invited to participate and come with a workable arrangement to build an innovative a democratic future for all Ethiopians.
Challenges to Create an Ethiopian democratic system
Nothing is more central and pressing than founding and embedding as social-political innovation and culture a democratic system to manage all types of conflict in Ethiopia with peaceful means free from resorting to any form of violence and blackmail. The principle that those who submit their programme to the people and win a majority can govern deriving their legitimacy from those who voted and elected them, and the equally important principle of upholding the right of the minority to continue to disagree peacefully with those who govern until the very minorities also convince and create alliances and opportunities to get the right to govern when they too succeed to get the votes – are the key prerequisites for a democratic situation to exist in the country… continued on next page