‘At last, I have just found a party I would vote for,” wrote a man on the comment section of a breaking news posted on a social media heralding the establishment of a citizen based national party called Ethiopian Citizens Party for Social Justice,ECPSJ. The news about the formation of the new party, in the advent of the election year, was received with great enthusiasm among those who associate the present waves of political turmoil to the existing ethnic oriented political set up.
There were also scores of readers’ comments cursing the new party and its leader with every possible spitefulness. There is also the other look at the professor. To begin with, some commentators allure that Berhanu Nega’s political career is bizarre and sordid. For such people, his only interest is power and fame; and he is the ultimate taker. His political voice had dwindled long before he left Ethiopia to wage war against it from the comforts of the United States.
Now it will sink altogether in to inaudibility. Sure he will retain some star power for a little while longer. But even that will fade away with in short time. That is the story that should trouble us all. Unlike ECPSJ, the majority of parties currently active in the country, including those constituting the ruling party, EPRDF,are ethnic based, hence they draw their members exclusively from a specific ethnic group prioritizing in their program the interest of that group.
Twenty seven years on since EPRDF came to power, though multi party democracy is the declared order of the day, there has never been an opposition party having a massive popular support across the nation, except the defunct CUD, Coalition for unity and Democracy. CUD was the party that claimed victory in the third national election,2005, and later decimated into oblivion. Critics say that EPRDF was the culprit using its security apparatus to ensure opposition parties remain weak and divided.
The thinking behind ECPSJ is the need for creating a strong opposition that could stand on par with EPRDF, a task that takes more arduous journey than just staging a two day conference. Interestingly enough, the current leadership of the EPRDF has expressed its support for such move. The appearance of the representative of EPRDF at the founding conference of ECPSJ may be taken as a gesture indicative of their commitment to their words.
ECPSJ, which is said to have a tendency towards the socio economic model of Nordic countries, is the result of merger of seven political parties. The major party constituting the new party is Patriots Ginbnot7 Movement, formerly a militant organization that had been fighting the ruling government until premier Abiy Ahmed came to power last year ringing a peace call to all political groups both home and abroad.
ESPSJ is reported to have already recruited members in various parts of the country ,and about 300 districts (woredas) had been represented by their delegates in the founding conference of the party held last week. As many expected, the man who stole the show at the conference and got elected to lead the new party is the prominent opposition politician in the post derg era, Brehanu Nega. By any standard, Brehanu is a quintessential political survivor. He is a seasoned politician who has been through the thick and thin of Ethiopian politics for decades now: he has been imprisoned, exiled, blackmailed, and what not.
In a closing remark he gave at the founding conference of his new party, Brehanu did not disclose his zeal to win the coming election. He rather opted to stress the need to prioritize the stability of the country, restore the rule of law, widening platforms for political discourse and strengthening of democratic institutions .Of course ,it is in an election to be held under stabilized atmosphere that Brehanu’s odds of winning gets better. The crux of the matter is time is running out against Brehanu.
It is now or never for him to win the elections and clutch the power of the highest public office of the nation, and administer the prescriptions has he believed the best remedy for all the nation’s ailments. At the same time, he appears to have all what it takes. He is sexagenarian, a wise old hand in negotiating his way up. He talks like a president; has a practical expert knowledge of both the politics and economics of the country, perhaps even better than anybody else.
May be he is familiar with the back doors of The White House and Brussels. According to political analysts, Brehanu need to face and address two major challenges, if he is sure to win the coming elections. The majority of voters’, the youths’, political attitude is by in large dominated by ethnic mentality which is in direct contrast to Brehanu’s citizenship based approach. The other thing is he has to win the heart and minds of the intellectuals as well as opinion makers in various states and pull them to join the band wagon.
Most of the intellectuals and scholars have now mainly limited themselves to the role of bystanders in the political game. The likelihood of Brehanu’s party in meeting these challenges is under big question mark. But we do not know if he would come with a strategy that would work like a magic wand, the way he and his former party,CUD, surprised us 14 years ago. With Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed leading from the front, opposition parties are also increasingly working together to build bigger political platforms.
The Ethiopian Herald Sunday Edition, May19/ 2019
BY SOLOMON WASSIHUN
