BY ZEKARIAS WOLDEMARIAM
Ethiopia has passed through series of political upheavals for quite half a century. The political issues have often led to conflict or civil war of varying scale causing bloodshed among its citizens.
Attempts were also made on regime changes. But the change of regime brought relative and temporary relief to the country as the country reverts to the usual tense political situation. Therefore seeking a sustainable situation that brings the country to consensus, peace and development is mandatory.
National dialogue has been mentioned repeatedly by various stakeholders for many years. But due to lack of agreement on the need to have national dialogue, how to carry out the dialogue and related constrains the country has not so far tried one.
Recently, the government has established a national dialogue commission as an effort to address the long ingrained political problems in the country. The commission is established and launched at a time many views are being reflected on the need to national dialogue, how it should undertake its responsibilities, what potential pitfalls it could face, how it should approach them as well as how the different stakeholders should discharge their responsibilities.
The Ethiopian Herald had a brief stay with Debebe Hailegebriel, lawyer, to explain on the aforementioned topics. Enjoy reading!
What do you think is the importance of the national dialogue?
There is no question regarding the importance of the national dialogue. It has many benefits. Indeed there are some who argue that it is not necessary. When a country founds itself in a problem due to a political path it followed in the past one of the ways that can lift it out from the quagmire is national dialogue. There are experiences in different countries to decide what should be done to go out of that. They enter into it due to different reasons.
In Ethiopia, too there was a political system that led the country for some three decades. But due to the changes made in the past 3 years some misunderstandings have unfolded. One of the misunderstandings is related to power sharing. It could also be related to resources distribution. The country’s future political system as well as mutual understanding as to who brought about the current change is also a point of contention. Since there is no consensus as to how the country can reconcile these differences and continue in the future this will enable to decide how the country can continue in the future. It helps to resolve these problems in a modern manner.
What do you think are the main things are the main things that should be met so that the reconciliation could be effective?
In order to make the dialogue effective we should raise the issues in a credible, neutral and incisive manner. These should be fundamental principles. If the forum is not neutral, we cannot solve our problems. Some issues could be grave. But we have to accept and entertain these issues. IF we enter in to complaining on issues, we may come up with some points but we cannot solve the problems fundamentally.
The forum should also be credible. It is actually related to neutrality. It must be credible to the public. These days there is a growing pressure that comes through the social media. It must not be hijacked by such pressure. The other important issue is inclusiveness. The dialogue should not be restricted among scholars. IT has to accommodate cross sections of the society. What scholars talk and what the society thinks about life are different with each other.
All members of the society women, the physically disabled, elders and marginalized members of the society should be given a chance. If it is inclusive, it can yield some result rather than becoming a mere talk of scholars.
What do you think could be the possible challenges to the dialogue process that must be preempted?
There were two institutions that were established after the reform and were believed to play a good role. One is the reconciliation commission. The commission was stalled after three years without doing anything only at is preliminary level. One of the reasons for it is lack of focus and support from the government. Support doesn’t mean intervention in the routines of the commission. But the government should provide all the necessary support.
IT must be face financial constraints and legal restrictions. For instance if there are problems related to proclamation they must be amended in advance. One of the problems that the advance. One of the problems that the reconciliation commission faced was legal loop holes. IT also had capacity limitations. The commission would also face problems if the government attempts to intervene in the activities, in which case the commission resists. The legal framework should enable the commission to do its jobs properly.
The members should also have commitment. Some of them are nominated by the public but when they are required for work they are not usually available. So they have to be committed. They have to engage full time. When we say fulltime, it doesn’t mean to start at 8:30 am in the morning and work until 5:30. But due to the nature of the job they have to engage extra time. The members also need cohesion among themselves. They should not set on each other. This would hamper their job.
Otherwise they would be preoccupied by other routine problems and resort to this issues rather than solving problems. They have to go functional as soon as possible and prioritize issues they address.
They should not be fettered by restrictions or scopes. For example they should not be told to refrain from handling constitutional or regional issues… etc. If amending the constitution is necessary, they should be allowed to discuss on it. Their big role is facilitating but not making decision. They formulate resolutions and pass to decision makers.
What do you think could be the challenge from lack of experience in debate?
Poor culture of discussion and tolerance is one of the problems in our country. The problem is mainly observed among the educated sections of the society. They tend to criticize whey a certain individual is allowed to speak or argue on something. They also argue against why someone gives opinion. They also argue that their stance prevails on others. The problem that our countries us facing now is a result of years of mess. Since the reign of the emperor HS there were attempts to change regime. There is misunderstanding among the
educated sections of the society. Once upon a time a senior government official said something that explains the problem in the thinking of that generation. He was a member of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Party (EPRP) and later became a senior official of the EPRDF government. Concerning the causes for struggle he noted “Derge responded to one of our causes, land to the tiller. Then again it solved the other question urban house and land. Finally we were left without a cause for struggle “This means what he wants is only a struggle, but not incremental change. IT was not a generation that believes in this [incremental change].
There are some who fight against you in person than challenging your thoughts. It aims to jail, harass the person than debating. It is still observed in some people of this generation.
The dialogue is expected to involve a large number of stakeholders. How can stakeholders contribute their share?
Various stakeholders have responsibility. The government, CSO media have responsibility. Especially the media should do its best to teach the public. It has to entertain diverse topics and set agenda. The social media should refrain from hate speech and fake news against the commission. Media should transform itself from destructive to enabler one. CSOs also have big role, though they are not strong and limited in number. They have to work in collaboration with the community. They have to set agenda to work with the media and other stakeholders.
The other important stakeholder is the government. The government has to do its job without intervening in the activities and responsibilities of the commission. The parliament and the executive organ have a big responsibility.
Education and research institutions also have a responsibility. They have to screen out works done in the past, identify controversial issues and play a constructive role rather than to stand aloof and criticize the errors of the commission. They would rather make themselves part of the dialogue and provide support on issues raised.
There are also professionals can contribute as resource persons. Many scholars give opinion from outside rather than joining the process and contribute actively. They can be resource persons or debaters.
Thank you very much!
You are welcome!
The Ethiopian herald March 12/2022
