Five More Years!

I read on Aiga; “Mr. Prime Minister, no Retirement, Five More Years!” by Muluberhan Tsehaye, and I thought about it long and hard and decided to write this counter article.

In the short history of the United States, it is Abraham Lincoln who looms large in the minds of most people as one who saved the Union from breaking up during the Civil War and as one who freed the slaves, and not Washington. Except for Washington being the First President and Father of the Nation, so little is known about him.  Most American school children tell of Washington crossing the Delaware River, of the Cheery tree he cut and confessed to his father, and of the false wooden teeth he had, but not much else.

Washington however, was a colossal figure who really wielded power through hard work and quiet charisma. When the Second Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphia in May 1775, Washington, who attended as a Virginia delegate, was elected as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army. On July 3, 1775, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, he took command of his ill-trained rag-tag troops and started the campaign against the British.

After the Declaration of Independence in 1776 Washington was embroiled in a war that lasted six grueling years. He lost all six of the nine major battles and had to escape and/or retreat. But he would not give up. Finally in 1781 with the aid of French allies, he forced the surrender of the British General Charles Cornwallis at Yorktown, and won the war.

After the victory, Washington longed to retire to his farm in Mount Vernon but it soon became apparent the nation was not functioning well under its Articles of Confederation. So he became the prime mover in the delicate background work for the Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia in 1787. As the new Constitution was ratified, the Electoral College unanimously elected Washington President. In the more than two hundred years history of USA, he is the only person ever to be unanimously elected President!

When taking office, Washington refused a payment of $25,000 as a salary, a large sum in those years. He wanted to serve his nation freely as he was wealthy, and he could afford to do so. But Congress pressed it upon him and he accepted. Washington served only two terms of office.  Many supporters pleaded and begged him to stay for a third term, saying that the nation was new, still weak and fragile, and they were right. But he would not listen to them. He had more faith in the Constitution of the Nation, and knew that given the opportunity many capable people would rise to the occasion. He was proven right!

So, Washington walked away from power to retire to his private farm on Mount Vernon to brew whisky, his favorite drink. The ‘fragile nation’ survived and thrived, and there was no shortage of capable people to follow in his footsteps. He set an important example that soon became law and no president now serves more than two terms* in office.

Just like the Horse-Power of an engine is measured by its breaking power, the real power of a person is ultimately measured by Self Restraint. In Amharic we say: Marim sibeza ymeriral and also: Aletigib by sitefa yadral. Had Haileselassie passed on his authority to a successor timely, he would never have been dethroned and disgraced. He would have remained the revered King of Kings, and his legacy would have been totally different.

Thus, unlike Muluberhan Tsehaye, I would like to say this to PM Meles Zenawi: Sir, you have demonstrated outstanding capability and skill in leading your party and the nation through thick and thin over the last decade and half. You have also succeeded in bringing about a fantastic track record of progress and development in Ethiopia of which you should be exceedingly proud. Three five-year terms of office however, is long enough.  

There are some of us, therefore, who would like to see you lead your party to victory in the next election, appoint a capable successor, and within one year of your fourth term, bow out gracefully, in dignity and honor, to be a backbencher in the Ethiopian Federal Parliament. That would put your name as the first in Ethiopian history to do this, and a give you a far greater stature as a true Statesman. That would usher in a historic trend of genuine democracy in our country, a trend for which Ethiopia is waiting and longing for.

G. E. Gorfu

                                                                                                            01/24/08

* An exception to this rule was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was elected President four times, but held the office for only about 13 years.