B. Solomon | February 25, 2008
The Ethiopian political struggle to create a democratic and just system is currently at rock bottom. The opposition political parties which are supposed to lead the people to a better future and peaceful transition are at war with each other. The attractive opportunity that led the opposition parties into temporary alliance is no more there. As a result they are doing what they had been doing for the last 40 years, which is tearing each other apart.
The public is back resigning into political apathy saying that they no more want to hear about the opposition and CUD in particular. Even those who gave their hard earned money, time and effort are anxious to know when their hard earned money is going to be invested in the struggle that they were promised sometimes back.
On the other hand, the TPLF-led government is not only strengthening its grip but also working hard to make it very difficult for the opposition forces to get any ground. Some of the recent enacted laws, like the one making political parties to question their supporters who drop 10 birr in to collection box whether they are Ethiopian, had connection with terrorist group or earned the money through disreputable means are reminders of this sad state.
As a show of power, the TPLF-led government had registered 1 out of 4 eligible adults as a candidate for local and Federal bye-election. If we take 2 adults in a family, then one can say almost every other home in the country would be part of the establishment and the power structure. This thing wasn’t heard of anywhere in the world; I have not heard it before at least. So, would this plan make the public respectful of the law of the authorities by becoming part of 1 among the 4 million army of decision-makers or turn into the worst chaos to manage or control?
It seems to me that everyone appears to be lost and have no clue what to do? What to do next is beyond any politicians’ capacity in the land at the moment. So some have proposed to all of us to sit on top of a hill to meditate or nod off.
Even those who inundated the media as pseudo-political analysts to write 10 pages a day after the May/05 election have run out of ink, papers and definitely idea. Most of them have already returned back to their routine life by making excuses and blaming others. Since a victory parade is not in sight, the chanting followers and cheer leaders too have to find something to do with their own life. No doubt the analysts and the cheer leaders would once again crush the gate as the opportunity arises but till then they will be silent.
Rather than solving the Ethiopian problem, the May 05 election has revealed the complexity of the Ethiopian political problem. We all have thought that the problem is the TPLF-led government but what has transpired after the election is the public as well as the opposition forces are part of the problem. All need to be reminded to abandon the old way of doing things to adopt a fresh strategy.
A future strategy that does not take cultural problems in the society and inherent undemocratic culture of the opposition parties in to the equation is doomed to fail. The public as well as the oppositions have to be the new frontier of the democratic struggle.
The lesson of the May 05 election is that democratic change cannot and will not come only from change of personalities in the power house. It starts with individuals changing their mode of thinking to accept that democracy is nothing but accepting others right to have opposing views.
This is what I have for today…..you may have your say.