“Having bigger plans that could bend our shoulders, we will push forward to realize the renaissance of this country.” Once said the then Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. This was the principle accepted by most officials of the time, as they went on repeating the word in some of their public speech. But, due to the wrong patterns that have been followed, much was not done for the appropriate implementation of the bigger plans and even worse the results have became good governance problems, protests, conflicts and economic inflation.
That was why the country needed a new administration, which would bring new socioeconomic and political reforms. Quick change was mandatory.
As a result, EPDRF started to avoid its old trends by the new administration, which is currently led by Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed. The dramatic change that is still undergoing has gained acceptance not only by Ethiopians, inside and outside of the country, but also by the global community including politicians of developed countries.
Dr. Abiy’s new principle of “Medemer” or synergy has already rocked the entire horn region. It was
started by embracing the values of unity in diversity among all Ethiopian nationalities. This has grown to another unbelievable level of people to people relationship between Ethiopians and Eritreans, as the Premier and the Eritrean president Esayas Afeworki took the initiative to break the wall that has separated the two people for nearly three decades.
Public diplomacy and bilateral relations between countries of the horn region flourished more than any time before. The Prime Minister’s effort to bring peace and integrity between Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somali, Djibouti, Sudan and other countries of the region is bearing fruits.
The reform undertaken inside Ethiopia has touched each and every level of governmental structures from Federal to State and Woreda levels.
In terms of politics, many of the then opposition, now competent parties that have been outside of the country have accepted the premier’s call for peaceful and democratic struggle and came back to their country.
Currently, the parties are practicing this peaceful and democratic struggle, having different discussions on different ideological and constitutional issues as well as on the procedures for the upcoming national election. The premier is still calling upon the competent parties, which are more than —, to merge themselves in less or three strong parties based on common principles that could serve the nation best.
He also indicated that weak parties may not continue if they don’t step their strategies up. On a recent discussion the premier noted that, “Parties who are used to running only hundred meters on election could be troubled to compete when the race is by kilometers. Their only option is to come and join with better collaborations for ideological competency. This is not a time to oppose the government for exerting effort to maintain a peaceful democratic system. The main objective of every peaceful discussion is for the sake of unity, peace, democracy and prosperity of Ethiopia”.
In the cases of controlling economic inflation, several jobs were done by the new administration with crafting better strategies on investment, export, and giving priority for the nation’s developmental projects, particularly the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
Coming back to the issue of having bigger plans that could bend shoulders and striving forward for the realization of Ethiopia’s Renaissance, there is one point I would like to make. Like it has been discussed at the beginning, the principle has failed before the new administration due to inappropriate implementation in most of socioeconomic and political agendas in a way that has affected the country’s fast economic growth.
That means, those former officials who have been lauding the principle have also failed and some of them are being held accountable for the consequences. Some former officials, who are suspected of corruption, violence of human and democratic rights etc. are currently standing trial based on the law. Some of them are still running and hiding though some say it is just only a matter of time to bring them to justice.
Meanwhile, the recent interview that one of the former officials, Getachew Reda made with the BBC has been a topic of discussion between several Ethiopians as I observed.
But, the most important idea that inspired me to write this piece was the part that the official described his impression on Prime Minister Dr. Abiy and his deeds for the past couple of months. He would say that he likes Abiy’s courage. He then added the premier has to be the Prime Minister of the Nation. “He is not doing as much as I hope he would do,” he said this and portrayed the premier as an ambitious guy who is trying to achieve everything than addressing the major questions of the public.
Now this is the dilemma. This person who has been seating on the words of ambitious plans that could bent shoulders and push forward principle and who is also one of the failed officials is trying to degrade all the above achievements that the world has been lauding. He also noted that the biggest mistake could be listening to the testimony of international media about ones’ success.
But, the fact is that whether the media condemns or worships you, your deeds are always and will be the reflections on your own peoples’ lives. It’s not because of the media that Abiy’s administration achieved all those aforementioned bigger plans in short period. As he himself said, it is because he is walking his talk even if there is no doubt that some inconveniences are observed. Those former officials have been repeatedly saying Meles’s words, but they did not walk the talk, which is why failure is chasing them from behind.
To me, the major improvement in any professional career is to keep upgrading one’s own self efficiency before everything goes out of hand and not degrading others achievement. Failure can never be compromised by degrading others’ best performance!
The Ethiopian Herald February 23/2019
BY HENOK TIBEBU
