BY SOLOMON WASSIHUN
Even though it is has been heavily depleted after I witnessed their shameful biased coverage of the Tigray law enforcement operations, my respect for the BBC is still huge. Especially the BBC, as we know it some 20 years ago, in terms of its program contents and personalities, was termed by many as “College of the Air”.
Much as I do not do it as often as it has been, I still tune to the station occasionally. The weekend documentaries, The Fourth Estate, From our own Correspondents, Hard Talk, the Travel Show were the programs I follow till the end; And in the good old days of the radio, ’Letter from America’, by the legendary Alistair Cooke.
Not only that. I also equally enjoy their once in blue moon live transmissions from the British Parliament. The last time I watched such an event was last week while they were debating on the Brexit Deal. If you happen to listen on the audio the proceedings of the British Parliament, you would be excused for mistaking the place for a theater hall or even a liquor pub., You hear people [MPs] speaking with absolute freedom and with simple and straight words. Others would cross-question the speaker whoever he/she might be. Some shout a “Yeahhh” for support while at the same time others say “No/Whoo” expressing their disagreement.
There is also intermittent roaring sarcastic laughter. When things seem to have spiraled out of control, you hear an angry voice saying ‘Order!”.
That is a rough description of the charged atmosphere in the British Parliament-[partivciularly the House of Commons] the British equivalent of the Ethiopian House of Peoples’ Representatives. Whenever I watch the British MPs debates, I always wonder if I could stay long enough to witness the day when would our federal parliament brim with the clamor of opposing ideas.
The friction of ideas to reach at laws and policy decisions that better serve the interest of the nation and guarantee the rights, the freedom, and equality of citizens.
Fortunately, from the last two and a half years onwards, since the start of the transition period, we have seen the arrival of the wind of change in the Ethiopian Parliament. The once dormant parliament is slowly and surely gaining vitality.MPs have begun debating with each other, opposing and abstention votes are on the rise.
MPs are beginning to pose challenging questions to the officials of the executive arm of the government who came to present their periodic performance reports. During the TPLF era, the then Premiers use to answer questions submitted to them well in advance, days before their appearance before the parliament. Now that is no longer seems to be the case.
The way things are in today’s parliament is a far cry from how things were before the advent of the transition period, the onset of political reform. This by itself is an omen for the democratic transformation that is coming to our nation. During the 27 years under TPLF led EPRDF regime, parliamentarians were just the nominal representatives of the people from their constituencies. They cannot exercise their power stipulated in the constitution.
The parliament was just a rubber stamp of the executive branch of the government. The executive was in the ‘pocket’ of TPLF leaders. Therefore, the government’s title, the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, had been nothing more than a charade.
The parliament is not even remotely similar to what the constitution empowers and requires it to be.-The supreme authority of the Federal Government can ‘hire and fire’ members of the executive and the judiciary branches of the government.
The constitution empowers the parliamentarians to be accountable only to people of their respective constituencies and their own conscience. What they were actually and entirely serving and answering to was the command of TPLF.
It would worth reminding here that in the last general elections, the 5th election held in 2015, all the parliamentary seats were won by the then ruling coalition, EPRDF. The reason for that was not because of the popularity of the front, rather it was a sham election carefully choreographed by the ruling parity operatives., not to mention the compromised neutrality of the then election board.
The Deputy Speaker of the House of Peoples’ Representatives, one of the longest-serving parliamentarians still in office remembers with sadness how things were in the parliament during the TPLF era that span s almost three decades.
She recently confided to EBC that TPLF used to influence and divert decisions passed by the parliament, stressing the paramount importance of creating multi-party participation in the parliament by conducting free and fair elections.
“Truth be told! If we have to name institutions that were tied and gagged [by TPLF over the past several years before the reform] to make them totally frivolous, then the one that has to be mentioned first is the Parliament. There was no single day we [MPs] passed any decision based on our conscience.
If we decided as we believed on some days, the next day, TPLF leaders would call us demanding change to our decision as they wanted. The House[the parliament] was at the mercy of two or three TPLF MPs.There was no regard for public concerns. It is hard to describe those times when influences are clearly seen in the decisions that were passing. The pressure on the parliamentarians was extremely tough and beyond description.
But now at this time, unless members of the House do not have the desire to speak in the house, all are free to express their views and idea without fearing consequences. There is no power to influence them. In case similar pressure may happen, MPs will not accept it.
They now have the freedom to say no. but we need to improve the situation even further by exerting more commitment to better strengthen the parliament .we have visited the NEBE, National Election Board of Ethiopia, recently to look into their preparation works for the upcoming election. They are doing a good job.
It is encouraging. We want to see to it that the upcoming general election is free and fair. We do not want it to be the same as the elections conducted in the past.”
The extent of the freedom of parliamentarians to fully execute their legislative duties and exercise their rights by the virtue of the power vested upon them by the law of the land, the constitution, mirrors the state of freedom of the people they represented.
A strong, lively parliament composed of MPs with a diversified political stance could only come from a free, fair, and democratic election acceptable by the majority.
As the Deputy Speaker mentioned, there is a realistic hope that day of free election and politically diverse parliament could come within a few months. The countdown for the sixth general elections date has already started with the recent announcement of the NEBE. The board, an independent institution established under the FDRE constitution with responsibility for the administration, conduct, and supervision of all elections in Federal and State constituencies, has unveiled the timeline for the upcoming general elections to be held in the coming June 2021.
The landmark general election was initially scheduled for August 2020 before the parliament decided to postpone it to March 2020 due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Eventually, Ethiopians’ long and hard struggle for genuine democratic institutions, that span for about half a century is about to bear fruit. We are now approaching the historical juncture where Ethiopia would see the first-ever democratically elected government in power.
From now on, until the end of election season in June 2012, the NEBE, and its leader, who was a federal court judge, lawyer, and a senior leader of an opposition party [CUD]that won over a third of the Federal parliament seats during the most controversial 2005 elections, would stay in the media limelight. Regardless of the party, they sympathize with, Ethiopians do realize the outcome of the upcoming election would have a significant bearing on factors shaping the future of the country as a nation.
The NEBE appears to be well organized and well resourced enough to make a difference this time in the election history of the nation. Its infrastructure and working methods are evidently advanced than it has been in the last election.
Various working procedures and ethical codes to be observed by election executives, observers, candidates, media, and voters have been in place. Several political parties that failed to meet the set requirements have already been disqualified from the election ‘race’. The board has organized several consultative meetings with stakeholders to create consensus, transparency, and accountability in the election system.
Other major stakeholders in the election process, including the media and Political Parties, have been making statements lately expressing their commitment to making the preparations enabling them to play their role to ensure that Elections- 2021 would be a success story. Some media have gone as far as assigning an exclusive Election- Desk devoted to covering the election stories.
Besides, they are making arrangements to carry out their obligations to provide air time /page space for all legitimate competing parties providing them with opportunities to forward their messages to the voters during the election campaign period.
The success of Elections- 2021 would ensure the establishment of a democratically elected government with a tenure as stipulated in the constitution. It would signal the closure of the three difficult years of the transition period.
It would also guarantee the smooth and accelerated continuation of legal and socio-political reforms, along with reinforcements of democratic institutions to address the current multifaceted challenges besetting the nation. We even could have a chance to enjoy attending the parliamentary debates on our own affairs by our own MPs, the way the Brits do it.
The Ethiopian Herald January 6/2021
