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After three decades and several lost opportunities,
a single party has been governing Ethiopia for the
last 19 years.
Is this surprising for an unstable nation that
underwent two failed coups in less than half a
century, with a backdrop of other coup attempts
throughout the past years? How virtuous it would
have been if the last two coups had never taken
place; if a multiparty democracy prevailed with the
crowned heads remaining as a symbolic power; if
political parties like the
aristocrat-cum-conservative party, the
dissident-cum-progressive party, and the
student-cum-revolutionary party came about not to
seize power through traumatic revolutions but to
give politicians the opportunity to peacefully
become their leaders instead?
Yes, it would have been respectable, if only
everyone had been wiser back then.
Stability was hardly achieved during the reign of
Emperor Haile Selassie I, and it was totally lost
after the 1974 Revolution. The downright failure of
the Derg, with its brawny approaches and naïve
diplomacy, ensured that stability remained as one of
the foremost issues that awaited the Revolutionary
Democrats when they came to power.
The past two decades have therefore seen huge
structural changes. One was the introduction of
federalism, but it was too late to salvage the
secession of Eritrea and the unfortunate border war
that ensued shortly thereafter.
For what is left of Ethiopia, however, the federal
restructuring is playing a pivotal role in narrowing
the causes of separatist groups. It is cementing
regions from breaking away.
Yet, the cause of past revolutions was not limited
to the equality and sovereignty of nations and
nationalities. It was more oriented in the equitable
distribution of resources among the social stratum.
With the monarchy much abhorred for feudalism, the
military junta came to power advocating class war
with the compelling intention to grant land to the
tiller through collectivism.
Even so, like any communist state, the Derg grew to
control all aspects of social life and failed to
bring substantial economic development. Besides
insufficient domestic revenues, scanty donors’
assistance (owing to poor international relations)
entailed the outright discontinuation of
infrastructural and social developments that were in
modest progress under the monarch.
Worse, any expression of dissent toward the status
quo was only dealt with duress.
It was after these 17 horrid years of Derg
leadership that the Revolutionary Democrats gained
momentum to seize power.
Now, how much of the nation’s deeply rooted issues
have they addressed since 1991?
The economy has been reformed to a free market
system. Today, though in dispute as to exactly how
much it is expanding, it is at least in a healthy
growing trend. Infrastructural developments are
thriving twice as much or more than they were three
decades ago, marking an impressive augmentation of
road and power supply coverage. A multiparty
democracy exists that is, from time to time, fusing
with the mainstream political system alongside
fostering free speech in society.
International relations have once more been revived,
and Ethiopia’s role in continental affairs has been
bolstered along with the transformation of the
Organisation of African Unity (OAU) into the African
Union (AU) and in the establishment of new regional
institutions.
Obviously, the nation has come a long way since the
early reformation attempts post World War II.
Throughout these years, the country has become
relatively stable with social, political, and
economic issues being addressed. Given the enormity
and intricacy of the nation’s problems, however, one
should agree that there is a lot more to resolve to
achieve lasting stability. Of course, this is to be
attained progressively, and so the nation is once
again calling for progressive governance.
In fact, if there is one positive feature that our
last three governments have in common, despite the
poles-apart courses that each one took, it is this
desire to achieve lasting stability and an
acceptable living standard for citizens. Their
commonality, nonetheless, extends to their sole
quests for self-aggrandisement, instead of being
wise enough to let go of anachronistic views and
share or even relinquish power when it is due. This
bounds them to a short political life that ends with
woes, often dissipating their small achievements.
Today, the last reigning monarchy might be
remembered as a masterful lion that waned together
with its aged visionary. The Derg could evoke images
of a drastic cogwheel that lost its track and
rotated backwards in the name of communism, and the
Revolutionary Democrats are in the defining moments
of choosing what their description will be in the
history of Ethiopian politics.
If they simply end up being a drone bee, only
priding themselves with their hitherto achievements
and speaking tediously of their overambitious
programmes, most likely with a similar fate as their
predecessors, then that will be surprising.
Or will they become a worker bee, which scales up
reform and stays in the political sphere with
progressive new blood?
With the fourth national elections and the 19th
anniversary of the Revolutionary Democrats’ takeover
ahead, the legacies of past revolutions serve as
political leverage – as much for the current leaders
as for having shrewd opponents and a well-informed
electorate.
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