The Ethiopian National Dialogue Commission was established with 11 Commissioners by the House of People’s Representatives on December 29, 2021 to lead an independent, inclusive, and transparent national dialogue across the country.
The main objective of the Commission is to facilitate consultations among various segments of the society on fundamental issues of the country by identifying the root causes of existing differences through dialogue.
Since its establishment, the Commission has been carrying out various activities, engaging numerous stakeholders at federal and regional levels including civic societies. The National Dialogue is expected to help create a consensus by averting the root causes of conflict and disputes that have been ongoing for a long time.
There are various controversial issues regarding among others the formation of the current Ethiopian state and what sort of country we want to build going forward. During the past several decades we have observed that Ethiopians have been engaged in various kinds of disputes about what kind of country we want to form and what sort of system of government we intend to follow.
Hence, the formation of the National Dialogue Commission that could present another opportunity to begin anew for the country leaving aside all controversies and removing all clouds of doubts on how we should conceive the state and move ahead leaving aside useless allegations and politically motivated and driven narratives that can only inflame the emotions of peoples. The National Dialogue Commission has the duty to bring together all suppressed voices and views and discuss them extensively putting things in the right historical context and without being carried away by emotions and hasty generalizations or assumptions.
Comparisons with other countries’ experiences and how they resolved their issues of formation and how they managed to cope with historical issues that threaten to haunt present day realities will be useful.
History shows us that no country was formed without disputes and at times even violence and wars that took heavy tolls on the people. Hard and difficult decisions had to be adopted by the leaders of the epoch with inevitable consequences that could cost a lot in terms of human and material resources. At times civil wars had to be affronted and a lot of confrontations faced and eventually settled with truces, negotiations and discussions.
Peace was in the end made and compromises reached. Cohabitation cannot be conceived and reached without readiness to make concessions and compromises. Here the leadership has a critical role to play.
National and common interest must prevail over marginal and extremist positions. Pragmatic decisions need to be adopted in the interest of the great majority of the people. However, it should not be forgotten that there will never be unanimity on any number of issues in a country full of diverse cultures, languages and beliefs but the most prevailing ideas must be embraced and implemented to avoid a risk of incessant wars of attrition. That is how multinational, multiethnic and multicultural states have been formed and prospered in their diversity and in the acceptance of their diversity as strength rather than a weakness. If the relations are based on equality before the law and the principle of the rule of law is applied without any form of discrimination, then everyone will have trust and confidence in the system and the possibility of growing together becomes reality.
In the world today we have several examples of such states even with difficult past stories but they have not remained tied to the past as we often experience in our case. Past stories must not be allowed to be a source of relentless controversies today and divert our attention from facing the problems of today and be prepared to face those that come along our way going ahead. We are living in a fast changing world with globalization taking its toll on every country both negatively as well as positively but what we need to do is adapt to current realities and cope with them as much as we can. The negative stories of the past should rather serve us as a lesson not to be repeated.
The National Dialogue Commission is intended to settle all these outstanding issues that have been a source of infinite disputes and controversies as if Ethiopia does not have more pressing and timely economic, political and diplomatic issues that need the full attention of the government and all political parties and other bodies that have their constructive roles to play. In recent days, this Commission has been covering several regions and interest groups as well as political parties, civic society organizations and all grass root bodies whose contribution to the discussions is key.
Agendas have been set, issues identified and the selection of participants has been made moving to the next stage of the discussions. The Commission has been explaining its intentions and plans to all these participants and more and more groups are being called to join the conversation. It has said it wants to include in its discussions all 1,400 districts of the country.
In the past few days, there have been reports of the Commission presented to parliament and explanations were given by the Chief Commissioner on the way things were developing. Professor Mesfin Araya has informed the parliament that the Commission has consulted with the representatives of the diaspora from Africa, the Middle East and Asia and soon they would be stretching their wings to have discussions with those in Europe and North America as well. These are important groups of people whose voices must be included in the discussions.
Furthermore, the Commission has also been insisting in trying to include even those forces that are engaged in armed revolt against the establishment because the discussions cannot exclude any force that has complaints or dissent against the government and the establishment in general. But an atmosphere of peace and stability is required in order to continue fruitfully its discussions in areas where there are sporadic informal and formal armed groups presenting a potential danger to the security and safety of the members of the Commission in their attempt to gather the people in relatively remote localities and hear their voices and ideas. It has always sustained that the Commission does not want to exclude any group because of their political views and the main objective of this entire exercise is to bring together every one around a table and deliberate on any number of issues that need to be addressed legally and peacefully in a transparent manner.
The Commission has thanked all those who supported it in its endeavors particularly the government for facilitating the entire operation and those who have also been supporting it financially. The Commission is working knowing that it is necessary to alleviate and resolve the differences and disagreements through a broad based inclusive public dialogue that engenders national consensus. It is trying to convince everyone involved that conducting inclusive national dialogues is important to bolster national consensus and along the way a culture of trust and of working together on critical national issues. That is why participation is crucial for the success of the mission of the National Dialogue Commission.
BY FITSUM GETACHEW
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD TUESDAY 16 JANUARY 2024
