Peace and security are fundamental pillars that enable societies to lead a peaceful life and advance development endeavors. Without peace, it becomes highly unlikely for countries to achieve their development targets and for communities to spend a single day in peace.
Therefore, peace and development are interconnected, and peace is an imperative element that helps citizens lead peaceful lives and advance development.
The presence of peace provides a conducive environment for societies to thrive. It fosters stability, social harmony; ensure the rule of law, creates the necessary conditions for economic growth, investment, and human development. Peace nurtures trust and cooperation among individuals and communities and establishes a favorable atmosphere where progress can flourish.
Moreover, peace plays a vital role in safeguarding human rights, promoting social justice, and ensuring the well-being of all citizens. It allows societies to focus on inclusive development, address inequalities, and provide equal opportunities for everyone to thrive. Peace also facilitates the effective functioning of institutions, encourages good governance, and promotes citizen participation in decision-making processes.
In contrast, the absence of peace diverts valuable resources away from development efforts. Conflicts and insecurity consume time, energy, and resources that could have been directed towards education, healthcare, infrastructure, and other critical sectors. This hinders the overall advancement of communities and perpetuates hardships for individuals.
For this reason, Ethiopia has been working determinedly to resolve conflicts peacefully, maintain peace, security and order throughout the country and advance its development. However, due to various reasons, it cannot fully sustain peace and security across the country. In actual fact, several endeavors have been exerted to resolve conflicts in a peaceful manner; and in return, the efforts have borne fruits though there are still some unresolved challenges.
And in the current Ethiopian budget year, the government has expressed its plan to exert utmost efforts and ensuring the rule of law and resolve conflicts in a peaceful manner. Particularly, because the National Dialogue Commission has finalized its preparatory phase and entering into the consultation phase this year, it is expected to create an opportunity to build a peaceful, stable country through narrowing our differences and augmenting our unity.
Addressing the 6th year and the 3rd tenure of the joint session of the House of Peoples’ Representatives (HoPR) and House of Federation (HoF) on Monday, President Sahle-Work Zewde, also accentuated her government’s commitment to work meticulously, resolve differences in a peaceful manner and sustain peace throughout the country in this Ethiopian budget year.
“When we trace back our country’s history, we encounter diverse perspectives. History reveals that our unity has been our strength enabling us to defend our country and showcase globally the country’s renowned heritage sites that attract visitors from around the world.”
Ethiopia has made significant contributions to the world in various fields, including art, philosophy, law, genes and the establishment of institutions. Additionally, it is a symbol of freedom for black peoples that inflamed the spirit of patriotism.
On the contrary, according to her, we have failed to develop a national narrative that unites us and accommodates all interests. Our efforts to establish a functioning state system that is acceptable for all have lagged behind, as we have been divided by localized ideas; unable to resolve our differences through peaceful means. As a result, conflicts and poverty have entangled us and limited our ability to utilize our natural resources.
Owing to this, we have become peoples with two faces. One face represents the country’s natural, cultural, and historical wealth Ethiopian endowed with, while the other reflects the conflicts and divisions that we destroy ourselves instead of utilizing our untapped resources. Thus, it is imperative to redirect our approach to national political and economic matters and mend the broken junctions, and engage in more productive and constructive ways. We should examine past experiences thoroughly; weigh the pros and the cons and figure out new ways that could work for us.
Now, in Ethiopia, a new chapter of hope has been ignited, and a comprehensive chapter of prosperity is opened. The reform is not up to a few individuals or groups or some locality but it is about all Ethiopians. We may agree and disagree on ideas, but the fortune is up to the generation and the country.
According to Sahle-Work, we should stand united be better prepared to effectively respond to the needs of our communities. This entails revitalizing our approaches and building the capacity to find political solutions to existing threats and emerging challenges. It also requires setting aside points of disagreement and ensuring that the voices of the general public are heard. Through this inclusive approach, we can pass on a better future to posterity.
It should be noted that developed nations enjoy wealth and tranquility not because they lack differences among them, but because they are committed to addressing those differences through roundtable discussions. It is natural to have unity and differences on certain issues and human beings have differences in color, religion, culture, language, place of residency, and attitude. In the same way, there are also matters that make us similar. The most important thing is appreciating the differences and exploiting the difference to strengthen our togetherness. The past should not spoil the future; but it should be a lesson. The past history should be a foundation for togetherness instead of being a source for disagreement, the President remarked.
“We should embrace the spirit of tolerance and open-mindedness for constructive discussions. We must strengthen our unity as a multinational country and strive together. It is important to invest our time and energy in shaping the future rather than dwelling on the past. This is the responsibility of this generation,” she underlined.
Recalling the ten year development plan that the government devised three years ago, the President said that in the first three years of the plan which is from 2013-2015 E.C. promising achievements are witnessed in all areas. The performance of the preceding year, for instance, was encouraging even though there were a number of challenges.
“We have also drawn a valuable lesson that if we work committedly, we can achieve better. Changing all the challenges; to opportunities, beating them and registering success is a great achievement.”
While talking about the National Dialogue Commission Sahle- Work said that building a better Ethiopia is in the hands of Ethiopians. Ethiopians should not miss this opportunity again. The dialogue is a historic platform in which we correct our mistakes, resolve our differences, and to ensure lasting peace. Thus, she urged all Ethiopians to work committedly and support the National Dialogue Commission to make the effort a success,
BY MENGISTEAB TESHOME
The Ethiopian Herald October 12/2023
