Ethiopia has been celebrating the Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Day for quite a while now. The original idea must have come from the promulgation of the Federal Constitution of FDRE which is dated 8 December 1994. But there are two sides to this story as it is usual of anything like this that involves vast public and has deep political and social implications.
It all boils down to deciding ‘what is the rationale behind celebrating this day’ and ‘is it something well accepted or even owned by the majority of the population’ or ‘is it a sort of ‘imposition’ so to say, like we are used to experiencing in many areas?’
In genuine democracies simple impositions on the public cannot be accepted unless the public is convinced. Just take the current example of the ‘yellow vests’ movement taking root in France. There is no manner of justifying violence to assert one’s rights but even democracies have their flaws. There was probably an underestimation of the reaction of the people to any increments on certain products.
Consulting the public is an irreplaceable instrument of democracy one would say. That is what this administration seems to be embarking up on because discussions are everywhere among authorities and the common citizens. We have even seen the acting mayor of
Addis Ababa using this instrument to bring together people of various regions because there is the realization that too much focus was given to divisive ideas rather than looking after a common consensus.
The advantages of unity have been purposely downplayed by celebrating differences and of course animosities that are made to cater from past historical episodes which for the generation may mean little except as a story to learn from. We can cite the example of various wars and destructions carried out among nations in Europe and yet they have learned intelligently to live with them.
The same can be said about the history of the blacks of the world in reference to the atrocious indignities committed during the slave trade.
How can we build a nation with so many divisions? The challenges are daunting even without looking for divisions. At a time when sovereign nations are curtailing their powers to accommodate differences and try to build up common markets, integrated economies and diluting of the nationalistic ideas that in the end serve little, how can we always talk exclusively about ‘divisions along ethnic and linguistic, religious factors’? This is a question that every Ethiopian who feels the indignity of poverty and marginalization in alien land must pose.
The idea of the celebration of the Nations and Nationalities Day hence must be rebranded to take into full account the current state of affairs and not that of outdated tales. The historical perspectives of our nation should be used to learn from the mistakes and avoid committing new ones. Those who do not learn from their past history are condemned to relive the same mistakes again as one politician asserted.
It is clear that what we need is to adapt to the times and if we don’t, there is no doubt that we are doomed to repeat the mistakes our neighbours are committing and the story becomes another tragedy where people of more or less the same stock kill each other only because there are those who take advantage of these differences.
There are those unscrupulous people who trade on the deaths of human beings. We have experienced this in the past several months and there is no doubt that the instigation are deliberate and financed by certain elements whose vested interests were affected.
Ethiopians have a whole chapter of history to close down once and for all and vow not to repeat them because it was another epoch, there were no communications and the world was too large to be taken as a village as it is now.
It is really sad if there are people who still hope that Ethiopians will continue to harbor hate and revenge among themselves just to buy the ideas of certain political agents who find themselves displaced by the current reforms. It would be just a fancy to believe that people will continue to subscribe to their outdated philosophies just because they may lure them with some financial benefits.
Their strong empire based on violations of the rights of poor Ethiopian peoples seem to fall as a pack of cards. The basic tenet of Ethiopian society is respect for the neighbour no matter what language they speak and no matter what religion they profess.
This is an idea that we need to underline continuously; the perspective the new generation has been inculcated is really sad, to say the least. And the psychological damage among families was really tragic. Hence, there are so many things to be reinvented and rebranded and it might as well begin from the very constitution that gives exceptional focus on differences rather than similarities or advantages of unity.
Hence, we must make sure that the very constitution that keeps us together must be revisited in a new perspective because certain ideas are really démodé. Some are even ridiculous.
The new leaders will have the immense task of replacing repeatedly advocated ideas of division and animosity and replace them with the supreme ideas of a sovereign one Ethiopia that celebrates its diversities but does not manipulate them to push them towards disintegration.
The Nations and Nationalities Day must be considered from a new perspective and that is we need to know our realities and we need to celebrate them while not allowing certain politicians to exploit them with the Machiavellian cynicism of ‘divide and rule’.
The existence of the country Ethiopia relies only on democracy and this must be a concept to be pushed hard to the psyche of citizens. And democracy is nothing else than respect of citizens’ rights in equality. There can be distinction between people of this or that region or regional state as we used to advocate for.
Unity in diversity must be the main motto and respect of all peoples with full rights in a democratic country whereby there could not be tolerated any forms of suppression of rights as people have been well aware that it was a constant reality of our political class, now to be outcast.
There will be no undue reverence to change certain laws including the Constitution itself that has been accused of being an instrument of exploitation and imposition.
Of course there have always been elements who in all the twenty seven years of this EPRDF government have argued against some of the provisions of the constitution and some have even questioned the way it was promulgated in the first place because they argue that it was the victors’ law.
Definitely the FDRE constitution has several strong sides and there have even been those who wanted to label it as the most advanced or most modern especially in terms of featuring the various human rights provisions. However, the true weakness of the party and government that pushed to its promulgation was that it did not always respect it. The recent declarations made by the Attorney General are for many just the tip of the iceberg and it has been considered as scandalous!
This takes us to the ideas that the existence of supreme and exquisite laws does not guarantee the benefits of the large masses of Ethiopians where a class apart was created thanks to the lack of accountability and transparency as well as the rule of law.
If we celebrate the Nations Day with the same spirit that we used to, there would be little change and we would be back to square one.
It takes a lot of courage to disown the past and adopt a new idea, a positive idea of unity in diversity and not only at the slogan level. Concrete steps are imperative.
It may take time because after all, to change the line of thoughts that used to reign for almost three decades appears to be very hard to die. The new generation needs to be ‘redeemed’ from the selfish politicians who always thought first for their personal gain and dismiss the plight of the over one hundred million people.
What we need to do is of course rebrand the day to be marked and use the opportunity to emphasize our unity and the gains from working together. The current leadership seems to be on this page and if there are nostalgic elements they must not be allowed to divide the people anymore.
The youths need to be well informed that things are now changing and there is only one manner of conquering poverty and backwardness or migration and displacement and that is ‘unity’ in equality. Not demarcations that are an indignity in the current world. Not evictions from this or that regional state!
Ethiopians cannot be fooled any more by divisions so that the politicians can carve undue advantage to rule. The new air now being respired in the country can only be a testimony to this treasure. The end result of any ‘divisive politics’ is only the ‘balkanization’ of the country along frivolous criteria and just as we see in our neighbourhood, the disintegration of the country and the devastation that we must all be ashamed of. Can this be entertained in 2018?!
Herald December 9/2018
FITSUM GETACHEW
