BY HAILE DEMEKE
ADDIS ABABA –The government needs to work aggressively on ideas, and individuals and build strong institutions to ensure durable peace which is free from conflict between entrepreneurs and the patrimonial system, experts in the area stated.
Accordingly, Dire Dawa University Researcher and Political Science and International Relations Lecturer Surafel Getahun told The Ethiopian Herald that there are actors who are highly engaged in the political market to achieve their vested interests at the expense of the country. Those actors are not happy with the peace agreement reached between the government and TPLF and have made every attempt to ruin the accord.
The expert further highlighted the existence of internal and external actors that are participating in the Ethiopian political market and don’t want change in the country. Those actors were using rebel groups, extremists, and others as tools for their political market. “ They use conflict as means of income whether it may be by smuggling weapons, illegal financial flows or others because if peace is ensured they will fail to achieve their ill-intended profits. Likewise, countries and international organizations are also among the main beneficiaries of the conflict.”
Citing a scholar’s story which explains the political marketplace, he said: “I saw monetized or marketized politics as a threat to the state-led developmental order that the countries envisioned. I argued that as well as the two scenarios he envisaged, namely economic transformation versus a relapse into poverty and chaos, there was a third which is the political marketplace.”
Many developing countries including Africa are serving as the center of the political marketplace by the name of neoliberalism to protect their interest. The political market has a strong invisible hand from local parties to international actors which is a kind of monetized or marketized politics that is a threat to the peace of the country, the expert elaborated.
“Those are the main problems to build strong democratic institutions. On the other hand, the political market is from a patrimonial form of politics that depends on individual interests rather than common interests.”
As to Surafel, to overcome such kinds of challenges, establishing democratic institutions, building strong institutions, and avoiding patrimonial form politics are the main things that reverse processes of state-building and institutional development.
Sharing the above rationale, Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Bahir Dar University Yayew Genet said that for the past many years, the political culture of Ethiopia is quite difficult even though it has shown improvement gradually. There was pseudo-political participation of the citizens which resulted in the current crisis.
“We need to get out of the socio-centrism, group, and patrimonial political system which will lead us to further crises, and focus on ideas to build the nation we desire for. Some groups are using political parties as means of securing income and achieving their interest which is wrong. On the other hand, creating a strong institution is crucial,” the academician remarked.
The political marketplace is a system of governance run based on personal transactions in which political services and allegiances are exchanged for material reward and exerts pressure on individuals using their ability to mobilize votes, turn out crowds, or inflict damaging violence.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD THURSDAY 5 JANUARY 2023
