In many cases, the ultimate prosperity of a country depends on the success of building democratic system and ensuring justice and good governance among others. Building all these assets is not an easy task. It requires handwork and dedication both from the government and the people.
The existence of competent political parties will contribute to a speedy and smooth transition to an effective democratic system where justice and good governance are ensured. In other words, the building a multiparty political system determines the future of our country. If we are successful on this, then our ascension to greatness is inevitable. To realize this, a more enabling and tolerant political landscape must be ensured. The end game is clear—to create a country where its citizens thrive.
Ethiopia is a country of about 120 million people with diverse ethnic, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds. Coupled with other factors that create multiples of interests, ideas and opinions among the people, this diversity calls for the ability to accommodate them and ensure the sustainability of the country.
Multiparty political system is relatively a new development in the long history of the nation. The system which was introduced in the turning of the 1990s following the downfall of the Derg was even full of shortcomings that inhibited the proper formation, growth and participation of political parties in the political activities of the country.
By looking at the current situation of the nation one can conclude that it has not yet come out of the cold in terms of practicing multiparty system. Including the ruling Prosperity Party (PP) there are about 60 political parties legally registered and operating across the nation. PP being the biggest and most comprehensive one, the remaining are still very small, young and full of weaknesses. These limitations hold them back from properly discharging their responsibility. Some of them are aligned to ethnic groups while many others still have to struggle to stand firm as political institutions due to lack of financial, technical, membership and related drawbacks. This adds the burden of ruling the country on the incumbent party that is already shouldering the responsibility.
Recently, President of the ruling Prosperity Party (PP) Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) had gathered and held talks with representatives of political parties on ranges of issues. The meeting has enabled the representatives of the political parties to raise diverse topics of national concern.
Up on responding to the issues raised by the political party’s representatives, Abiy indicated that the main reason for holding the conversation with the political parties was to gather their reflection on mutual concerns especially policy related topics. As to Abiy, political parties are supposed to have their own policies regardless of holding political power. Therefore, the government’s intention was to absorb ideas and inputs from the parties which the ruling party might not have considered or might have overlooked.
Abiy further noted that his government is the first in the country to involve opposition or competing political parties in the cabinet or governmental positions. This is an import measure to empower the political parties through practically involving in the governments activities so that they can be ready to fully shoulder government responsibility any time they win election as competing parties and grab power.
One of the takeaways from the premier’s conversation with representatives of political parties is that the government should uphold its stance of involving competing political parties in its cabinet as well as further continue the forum as frequently as possible to nurture political inclusiveness. The political parties should also make use of the opportunity to forward vital information, ideas, comments and policy inputs rather than solely focusing on reflecting their distinctive stance, objections … etc.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD THURSDAY 4 APRIL 2024
