BY GIRMACHEW GASHAW
The constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) stipulates two important pillars of the nation state: building one political community, cited in the preamble, and building one economic community.
The concept of building one political community could be measured in terms of public sovereignty as stated under article eight of the constitution. Thus, sovereignty of the people could be expressed in representation, as it may not be possible nowadays for the public to directly participate in the decision making process of the government. Hence, representation is central. The other is direct participation.
“So when we talk about sovereignty, right of the people and representation, the concept of party politics will come into being. As we can see from the experience we have drawn so far, political parties have been organized based on ethnicity. However, I cannot find relevant provision in the constitution which supports political party organization based on ethnicity,” Tesfaye Abate Assistant Professor of Law at Civil Service University said.
In fact, the constitution says the Ethiopian federal system is based on ethnicity. By the way, ethnicity is not only the element of the Ethiopian political system but it is part and parcel of the federalism. “Concerning the issue of sovereignty again, we can also consider the right to self-determination which is indicated in the preamble and article 39 of the constitution.”
Here, the right to self-determination requires again equitable representations of nations and nationalities especially at federal and regional government systems, as it is stated under article 39 (3) of the constitution.
Therefore, equitable representation may need due attention of nations and nationalities which may require ethnicity “But in my opinion this does not mean that political parties should be established based on ethnicity. It is possible to establish a political party based on governing ideology or idea rather than ethnicity.”
The other point that needs to be taken into consideration is, the right to self-determination is the right to development as it is indicated under article 43 of the constitution. Nowadays, it is the epoch for the right to sustainable development as the world agreed up on agenda 2030 for sustainable development. As part of the world, Ethiopia is an active participant in the making of the agenda both at regional and global levels.
Therefore, Nation’s Nationalities and Peoples of Ethiopia in general are endowed with the right to sustainable development. Hence, the point here is, which constitutionality would help the people exercise the right to self-determination and the right to development as well. The right to development is an important point, which is directly related to the making of one economic community. This fact is stipulated in the constitution.
Again this issue is related to the right to work as it is stated under article 41 which says each and every Ethiopian citizen is entitled to choose any legal activity to lead his or her own life. Therefore, to promote the right to sustainable development, the right to work is a fundamental one. For this to happen, it is important to respect people’s right to move from place to place regardless of their ethnicity.
“As we learnt from our past experience, government or a political party formation based on ethnicity is very difficult and dangerous. So as to enable individuals whatever their ethnic background is, no one should be marginalized to secure a job and lead their life because ethnicity is an important point in that perspective.
But if we make the party politics based on idea for example promoting the liberty, development of the society in general, it may be easy at least to move from one place to another so as to search activities, so that, it would be possible even to exchange labor as well.
Thus, if the politics is based on ideas, people would have a chance to criticize the political ideology of the party.
But if the party is based on ethnicity, it may be very difficult to belittle one’s own party as it is based on his or her ethnicity. If you do not agree with the idea that is propagated by a certain political party, I think it would be easy to at least to forward ideas because it is a matter of ideas rather than identity or ethnicity. This would help the people in general and citizens in particular promote their right to sustainable development.
When we say one economic community, each and every person should benefit out of the development of the country. But now, we have witnessed that solely certain groups of people who benefited from the development. In fact, we achieved a certain economic development, but it may not be possible to argue that there was a fair wealth distribution. Therefore, it was a challenge to enforce a concept of fair distribution in the economy aspect as well.
As it is initiated by the Prosperity Party, all citizens should take the idea into account. So people regardless of their identity should be encouraged to come to political parties and forward their ideas on how to develop the country, how to change the living standard of the people, and so on.
Political parties by ideology should not neglect the identity of each and every people. As the issue of identity is correlated with ethnicity, it should be safeguarded and by the same token the idea of each and every person regardless of identity or ethnicity should be protected.
Therefore, this necessitates making a balance between one’s own identity and idea. On the one hand, we have to respect groups’ rights as identity. We have to make sure individual rights, as individual rights begin with the right to express one’s own idea.
Without improving the existing constitution, nothing prohibits political parties to organize themselves based on their ideas rather than ethnicity. But what is imperative here is, we make sure that the participation, equitable representation of ethnic groups should be protected as the right of nation’s and nationalities is ensured under article 39/3.
Assistant Professor of Political Philosophy of Gonder University Sisay Asemre said that wherever you go, you cannot find a constitution that allows political parties to organize based on ethnicity or religion. In the Ethiopian context, it is the constitution that authorized political parties to organize by ethnicity and such sort of arrangements led the country to instability, insecurity, isolation destruction as well as endless hostility.
As it is the major source for everlasting chaos, the law of the land should be amended page by page so as to address core problems stipulated in it. Thus, amending the constitution is of paramount importance in immediately coming out of this treacherous political perception.
As many civilized countries do, the constitution should be amended in a way that encourages idea based political parties in a bid to ensure unanimity, amity and sustainable economic development. Ethnic politics however block the generation of new ideas, says Sisay adding that Instead of pressurizing governments to respond to the needs and interests of broad segments of the population, most political parties, operating in Ethiopia, have narrow or defined outlook. By and large, ethnicity based political formation is a determinant factor that forced the country to engage in awful situations.
Countries, employing ethnic based politics, are turned to fragile states and remain hostile. By chance, Ethiopia is now staying safe after passing through dreadful situations that lead to complete destruction. Over the past two decades, the vision of political parties which were organized by ethnicity is holding power in a shortcut instead of resolving the long awaited public enquiries coming up with various policy options.
Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF), the party which introduces ethnic based political parties in Ethiopia is being dissolved once and for all as 85 percent of Ethiopians do not suffer regaining to ethnic based politics.
What needs to be underlined here is, the constitution and the ill-operating democratic institutions are the major quandary of the country. From its inception, the constitution is devised to isolate pubic coexistence.
Thus, we have to craft a constitution that equally entertains religions and political parties. So as to do this, there is no time better than today. Unless we revised the constitution, no doubt, it would lead the country to hostility more than ever before. Except some individuals, the majority does not want to regain ethnic based federalism hereafter.
The Ethiopian herald December 15/2020
