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Ethiopia Needs a New Political Arrangement

By Apee Ojulu

(USA, March 30, 2006) In his article, “Mother Ethiopia is Crying for a Leader,” posted on Sudantribune.com/March 26, 2006 Biadeglegne Tesfaye articulates the need to find a good leader to lead Ethiopia. Unfortunately, his hope for the Amhara  created Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) to produce that leader who replaces the corrupted ruling Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF) and deliver the country to a promised land is anything but a fanatic dream. Amhara  leadership is making deceptive attempts with talks about democracy and ethnic harmony to convince other nationalities and line up behind them to defeat the Tigray ruling Ethiopia. When they have ensured overthrow of the corrupted Tigray regime, CUD leaders want to restore past Amhara Empire in Ethiopia.

The Nature of the Discredited Empire CUD Plans to Replicate

Let me briefly first discus the structure of the Amhara past empire before I discuss CUD plans now to reconstitute that empire. Amhara  past empire was based on Amharatization. Amharatization was the attempt by Amhara  rulers using brutal force, incentives and other means to force non-Amhara groups to abandon their cultures and assimilate to Amhara  culture. Amhara  Empire/Amharatization has at least four fundamental elements. The first element of the Amhara  Empire was the unitary political system that ensured Amhara  control over other nationalities. Until 1991, Amhara rulers from earlier years to Menelik and Colonel Mengistui Haile Mariam made decisions concerning affairs of the regional states without consultations with the local populations. All governors were appointed by these emperors and most of these governors were certainly Amhara  and did not most of the time know the local language to communicate with the local population.

The second element of the Amhara  Empire was the Amharic language imposition on all non-Amhara groups that displaced other languages and ensured Amharic language domination. Amhara  language was made the only language in elementary education and all other languages based in each regions were prohibited from even being taught in public schools under the concept that Amhara was the national language and other were simply dialects. Amhara  leaders provided incentives to promote Amhara  language in the country such the idea that to get government jobs as well as doing trading one have to know Amharic language. Thus speaking Amharic language allowed the central government to maintain cohesive control over culture and accorded the ability to destroy other languages.

The third element of the Amhara  Empire was the role Ethiopia Orthodox Christian in serving Ethiopian state’s soul. Ethiopian Orthodox Christian Church played an important role in the assimilation process that emperors promoted among some non-Amhara groups. In some areas such Gambella and Southern region of the country the Ethiopian Orthodox Christian Church was not allowed until very recent to covert the local population because they were not “Ethiopians” enough.

The forth element of the Amhara  Empire was the feudal system that allowed those with access to economic resources and power to control much of land in the country. Given their closeness to power, Amhara were the ones who maintained the controlling large land under that feudal system that ended with the overthrow of the Emperor Haile Selassise.

Combined these four elements were the fundamental elements that played very important role not only in maintaining the nature of the Amhara  Empire but stratifying the entire society and made the minority Amhara the ruler and made all other nationalities the ruled populations.

This system of political domination lived on until 1991. The Tigrayan People Liberation Front (TPLF) led coalition in 1991 that overthrew Colonel Mariam destroyed Amhara Empire, at least, political control over other nationalities and introduced the current Tigray’s despotic political control over other nationalities. The ruling TPLF not only overthrew the Amhara empire physically, but it also dismantled the four fundamental elements of Amhara Empire listed above. It achieved this with the 1994 Ethiopian constitution. In that constitution, TPLF dissolved political power to regional states and allowed each regional state to be governed by someone (regime’s puppet official) from that region. This political arrangement largely destroyed the unitary system. The second thing that constitution did that helped destroyed Amhara  Empire fundamental was it enabled each regional government to teach their languages in their elementary and in some higher grades. The affect of this policy was that it displaced Amhara language that Amhara rulers promoted throughout centuries and empowered regional languages. The third TPLF destroyed Amhara empire with was it allowed each regional government to control the use of land. Under all Amhara rulers, land in major cities was held by feudal lords who most were Amhara. Under the Colonel Mariam, the land was moved from feudal lords to the state, which also ensured Amhara  controlled since governors were Amhara.

CUD Political Programs to Re-establish the Discredited Amhara  Empire

From day one Amhara leaders have not like Tigry taking power, displacing them and restructuring the state in a way that destroyed Amhara Empire. Consequently restoration of their discredited past Amhara Empire over other nationalities was the vision of the Ethiopian Democratic League (EDL); All Ethiopian Unity Party (AEUP); United Ethiopian Democratic Party-Medhin Party (UEDPMP) and Rainbow Ethiopia: Movement for Democracy and Social Justice (REMDSJ) that created CUD (See Reference 3). These four parties were largely created by Amhara intellectuals and intend only to rebuild the Amhara Empire using four specific political programs that restored four fundamental elements of their Amhara  Empire list above.

First, CUD leaders plan to amend Article 39 of the Ethiopian constitution and restore a unitary political system to reassert Amhara grip on power in the country. Their leader, Hailu Shawils, the chairman of CUD, asserts in an interview with Robert Wiren, “We believe in the unity of Ethiopia and not in article 39” (see reference 5). Shawils intends to take away Article 39 and replace it with direct rule. Article 39 grants citizens in each regional state of Ethiopia the exclusive rights to elect their own representatives to local assemblies and national parliament, the rights to govern their region, control their resources and teach their own languages in their respective schools in their regional states (see reference 4). CUD leaders detest Article 39 very much for it appearance to weaken Amhara  control over other Ethiopians, by placing Amhara  language and culture as secondary respectively in each regional state. Direct rule CUD intends to recreate means an Amhara  from far north of Ethiopia who never had any contact with, say, Binshangul Gumuz region would be appointed to govern Binishangul Gumuz and this Amhara  would expect the local population to follow his policies without resistance like predecessor governors Menlike, Haile-Selassie, and Mengistu Haile Mariam sent that led only to domination of non-Amhara  and non-Tigrean ethnic groups. By embracing on a unitary political system, Amhara leaders intend to call shots in the country from Addis Ababa and thus ensure recreation of their Amhara  Empire.

Second, CUD leaders plan to prevent Ethiopians from converting to Islam, and discriminate against those Ethiopians who are already Muslims to re-establish Ethiopian Orthodox Christian Church domination. CUD key leaders have described growing conversion among some Ethiopian communities to Islam as a threat to the Ethiopia Orthodox Christian character, and repeatedly they say they would never tolerate a new religions taking over Ethiopia. But many Ethiopians, mainly Oromos and other oppressed ethnic groups, these CUD leaders are talking about converted to Islam as a way out from the domination of Amhara and their cousins, Tigray. By embracing on an attempt to prevent Ethiopians from converting to their own religions of their choice, the CUD stands ready to discriminate against Ethiopians who are now Muslims, either directly or indirectly through policy choices and reiestablishes their Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity that privileged them in the country’s society.

Third, CUD leaders plan to reopen the issue of the Eritrean port, Assab, meaning they still question the independence of Eritrea. CUD leaders remain adamantly opposed to the idea that Eritrea took its port of Assab and willing to recover the port by whatever mean necessary. Yet CUD leaders’ intention to do whatever necessary to recover Assab port is an imperialism venture, and brings only a destructive war which definitely marginalized ethnic groups in Ethiopia would shoulder as is often the case in hours of need, by being forcefully sent to front lines as were the case during the just border war with Etritrea over Badme, war Ogaden with Somalia, war of independent and past wars. By embarking on retaking Eritrean Port of Assab, Amhara leaders want to recreate a concept of shared nationalism

Last, CUD leaders want to re-introduce a discredited feudal system was lively under Haile-Selassie regime through privatizing all states sectors, knowing perfectly well that people who would be able to have money and able to buy these privatized sectors are Amhara . Amhara  domination over other nations within Ethiopia for two centuries has ensured Amhara  dominating position business. If the government is to privatize businesses owned by the state the only ethnic group would be able to buy these businesses would be Amhara .

Other apologetics and Amhara  revisionist intellectuals like Tesfay and their intellectual paint a different picture about these leaders than their actual pictures are. These revisionist intellectuals deny that CUD does not intend to re-establishes the discredited Amhara  Empire. Some of them argue that Menelik, Salessie and Mengistus did their best most for the country during their times, and other argue that they were dictators that their rules did not benefit Amhara region or people. The tendency toward separation or instability among nationalities is the fault of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and his advisers in TPLF. These revisionist intellectuals maintain the tendency toward separation in the country lies on the leadership of Zenawi and his advisers in the TPLF, because they have dissolved power to the regions that are not now able to exercise it effectively, but only to destroy the unity of the country.

It is true that Zenawi and his advisers in TPLF have committed a lot of crimes against all nations in Ethiopia. They authorized their military forces to commit genocide/ massacres in Gambella, Sidama, Ogeada, Beni Shaugi, and Oromia. Thus no doubt that Zenawi has done his part to increase the tension in the country. In final analysis, however, Zenawi is not totally responsible for division to the level that Amhara  revisionist intellectuals claim he is- that Zenawi is the only person responsible. People who are responsible for the division and crimes are in fact Amhara  past rulers who had implanted ills in the country by building a hegemonic political structure that privileged Amharic culture, politics, economic and social. Amhara  had ruled Ethiopia for over thousand years until 1991 and they never allowed other nationalities to participate in the affairs of the country all of these years. How can Amhara  who had ruled Ethiopia for all these years and never allowed other nationalities in these many years to participate in politics and economy now turn around and introduce democracy in Ethiopia? It is inconvincible to entertain such idea.

Conclusion

It is perfectly clear that CUD is not more democratic political party compared to the current Zenawi’s regime. In fact, CUD is more extreme than the Zenawi’s regime is and, if is to take power, its policies would more extreme policies than Zenawi’s. Thus, for the sake of economic development and peace for all nations inside Ethiopia, each nation in the country should be allowed to choose either separation or create some union with other nations within the country or outside. The current Ethiopia state is a mess and we should not continue to pretend like CUD and other unionists continue to do that can be cleared up and reformed. Ethiopia has existed for over two thousand years of Ethiopia state and the current mess existed through out these years.

Apee Ojulu is a citizen of the greater East Africa area and is the Editor of www.gambelatoday.com, a website which is devoted to publishing news and commentaries on issues concerning Gambella state, Sudan and Ethiopia. He can be reached at api@gambelatoday.com

References
1. Asafa Jalata. 1998. Oromo nationalism and the Ethiopian discourse: the search for freedom and democracy, p. 109-124
2. Geleta, Abiyu. 2000. Ethiopian System of Domination and Its Consequences. The Sidama Concern Vol.5. No.4, pp.5-10. [on-line] http://www.sidamaconcern.com/articles/abiyu.htm
3. Coalition for Unity and Democracy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coalition_for_Unity_and_Democracy
4. Ethiopian Constitution http://www.sas.upenn.edu/African_Studies/Hornet/Ethiopian_Constitution.html
5. Robert Wiren. 2005. “Hailu Shawil, Chairman of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD).” Les nouvelles d'Addis (April).
http://www.lesnouvelles.org/P10_magazine/16_analyse03/16152_electionseth/032_hailu_eng.html

© 2008 The Sidama Concern