Ethiopia has been wallowing in the quagmire of recurrent political turmoil, taking a toll on the nation-building process. Building national consensus on major issues has been elusive due to backlogs of predicaments and emerging woes. The years of divisive rhetoric and polarized outlook on some emblematic figures of the country have made lasting peace and sustainable development daunting. On various occasions, the country missed watershed moments to create a gray line and ensure a middle ground, thereby fostering national consent.
The hardline positions some political parties have been entertaining somehow morphed into national setbacks, fracturing harmony and unity. Arguably, these parties imposed their political interests and programs on the general public for years. The hawkish political stand and infertile ground for dovish politicians cultivated a rise in political hostility, impeding peaceful power transfer and dialogue based on good faith.
The parties that took power were exerting their own philosophy and agenda, most of the time through the use of force. Thus the power and the perspectives have been flowing from top to bottom to the people, which is against the principle of democracy.
Hostile political culture coupled with narrowly defined interests that exclude public interests and undemocratic leadership stymied progress and created fear of possible backsliding.
In the plain truth, the country has been going through recurrent violence and conflicts making the road to sustainable peace bumpy. Political power grew out of the barrel of a gun and the imposition of the government’s selfish interest on the public through the use of force has made a full-filled peace and inclusive development a toll order. Hopes for a possible turnaround of political cultures and democratic paths were dashed at different times. The failure to resolve the years of unresolved issues meant increased public grievance and chaos. That is at least what unfolded in the past years.
Despite the sweeping reform that followed the 2018 change, the country has been beset by violent acts and even war resulting in human causalities and property damage. Some of the causes trace back to years of disagreement over some major political, and governance systems of the country in addition to various socioeconomic demands. The longtime bone of contention and recent incidents have been behooving the country to face the elephant in the room and carve out a better future.
In what could be a vital step to redress the issues, the incumbent has established the Ethiopian National Dialogue Commission (ENDC). This national body has been undertaking various activities with major works poised to enter the year.
One of the commissioners of the ENDC, Yonas Adaye (PhD) had an interview with Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC)’s news channel (ETV). He had touched upon various relevant points regarding the Commission and its tasks.
The primary point that he cleared up was the necessity of the Commission for the country. He mentioned that since the previous political systems and decisions were made as per the intentions of the ruling powers and this had caused the messes to naturally follow; this trend needs to end somewhere. That is why the Commission stands to grasp the minds of the people to reach an inclusive consensus and address it to the concerned body to be part of the policies and decisions and even to be the root for the governmental bodies. The commission believed that it should be the people who should decide on the fate of the country. It is through this way that the challenges the country is facing now could be solved and transformed as expected.
As he said, the commission’s tasks had five pillars or stages. The first stage is the exploratory stage. In this stage, the commission had done a vast investigation and analysis of literature. In this process, he said that they have studied regional and global experiences. From this examination, they have learned both from successful and failed national dialogues. He mentioned Tunisia, Poland, and South Africa as examples for conducting successful national dialogues.
Tunisia is the one that applied national dialogue and benefited as perceived. Since the country was in a crisis, the people were coming to deal with their own issues by themselves and negotiating on those controversial issues. Opposite political parties too were actively involved in the process because what matters for them is the broader picture, which is ‘Tunisia’.
Since the opposite political parties and influential people exceeded the interests of their country over their own, they were committed to coming to the table to echo the voices of their people. They then benefited and continued as a sovereign country as planned.
Yonas (PhD) pointed out that since Tunisians’ national dialogue process was owned by the locals, they succeeded. Thus taking a lesson from this country, the Ethiopian National Dialogue made agreements with organizations that represent the community for instance. It signed an agreement with the Ethiopian Civic Society Organization.
Among the failed national dialogues at least based on the allotted timeframe, Yemen can be cited here. Though the country was trying to stage national dialogue for longer years, it couldn’t do that. As the leaders said in their briefing, they had achieved 90 % and they are working on resetting 10 %. They have been facing challenges that have prevented them from achieving their objective.
The national dialogue of Sudan was also another instance that this big task can be deemed a failure. The major obstacles included people’s lack of trust and undemocratic tendencies in the process.
Yonas also talked about the challenges that the commission has faced. He said that the leading challenge they encountered has been the political culture of the people. It is always believed that the winner takes all aspects. That is a wrong trend. Thus, based on the phases, the national dialogue showed its commitment to achieving its goals for the nation. As per the phases, the commission is doing its best to target its objective. As the commission continues to exert its utmost effort, the nation should continue to put its hands on the deck so as not to miss the golden opportunity again.
To sum up, past international experience showed that national dialogue cannot and should not be an end by itself. Some nations have been able to reconcile differences and achieve relative peace, while others have descended into a bloodbath. For experts in the area, the success in the preliminary process and post-national dialogue are equally detrimental to achieving the intended goal. In this regard, the Ethiopian people and the government should contribute their share to back the efforts of the National Dialogue Commission to make the dialogue a success. The international community needs to help the country technically and financially. However, cooperation should not be equated with intervention.
BY MEKDES TAYE (PhD)
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD TUESDAY 1 OCTOBER 2024
