A Democratic Process Has to be Protected
(The Ethiopian Election from an Eritrean
Perspective)
The loss of 26 lives on Wednesday’s violence in
On the eve of the third Ethiopian National Election, it is
to be remembered that I wrote a short article in which I expressed my wish for
the Ethiopian people to have a successful election day. I did not want nor
found I appropriate time to write the desirable winning party from an Eritrean
perspective at that time. Now , even though not officially, the
election result is known. We can raise many questions from the Erirean
side.
What does it mean this election to us? What impact will it
have on
Democracy is a relative term. There is no absolute
democracy in our planet. Even the so called democratic countries are on process to build a better democracy from time
to time. Take for example the role of women and the equalities of minorities in
the western world are not even half way achieved. They are struggling to
build better democracy possibly they can.
Election: I myself have experience of at least 6 elections of
different European countries in my exile life. These are supposed to be
relatively the most democratic countries. But yet there are some times
irregularities and even vote rigging at a time. But most of them tolerate these
irregularities and respect the results rather than exposing them to the outside
world. Even we saw what happened in the USA in the five years ago election
between G. Bush and Al Gore. America,
the solo supper power and developed nation in the world experienced a serious
election irregularity. Above all, don’t forget, in the west, mostly the richer the
party which owns the mass media, the winner is. Look in the US, how many
millions of dollars is spent for election campaign? May be less, but the same in the other western countries
too.
Now Ethiopia a vast land of 72 million people, 85-90% of
them illiterate, with poor infrastructure and transportation facilities, where
no democracy has taken place, how can one expect an election without any
irregularity and shortcomings?
Just leaving the recent violence as incident and
unfortunate spot, in my view, the EPRDF government has created an inclusive
democratic sphere for the election. Unlike the PFDJ regime in Eritrea the
ruling party recognized and allowed the participation of various parties in
this election. There were about 36 parties which participated in this national
election. Unlike in Eritrea, there is freedom of speech, press belief and
assembly. Even the opposition parties were allowed to use 56% of the allocated
time of using the state media. Unlike in most African countries, there were about
300 foreign independent observers. The Carter Center and the European Union
observers have positively evaluated this election. As my compatriot Saleh AA
Younis said in his last article, what we can say as Eritreans is that “‘Na akum
yemaslena’ (we hope and wish to have what you have now)”. We have had a dream
for 30 years. But we could not realize our dream.
Democracy protects the rights of
people. But it must be protected itself. Democracy without the rule of law and
centralism is anarchism. In order to protect our rights, we must protect it
too.
The election results must be respected by all parties. As
there is chance to win, there is also equal chance to lose. It is logic one
party must win. At the same time one has to understand that democracy can not
be achieved overnight. As I have already said, it is a process which does not
have an end. The opposition parties have won now about one third of the total
seats in the Ethiopian parliament. It is a big win. If they act rationally at
this nation wide difficult juncture, it seems they are likely to win the
majority seats in the next election. I think they have to see this election in
this perspective. With a full responsibility and wise. Not to try to grasp
power at once by any means.
I think the theory which says “taking political power by
inciting public unrest during an election” which recently took place in the
former Soviet States like George and Ukraine does not possibly work in
Ethiopia, for two reasons:
a) Unlike the regimes of the above mentioned
states the present ruling party of Ethiopia was more democratic, transparent
during the election and was positively evaluated by the west.
b) Unlike the leaders of Georgia and
the Ukraine the Ethiopian leadership is supported by the supper power countries
like the Uk and USA..
Therefore, trying to use the wrong theory in the wrong
place will result only a setback to the achieved democratic process so far.
Dear reader, my intention is not to side or support the
ruling party as such, but as a matter of fact, I was following closely the
election process. When the election just started, the opposition threatened it
to boycott before the results were known. When they saw they won in Addis, they
said: “the election was fair” and were ready to accept the result of it. When
the ruling party began to gain more seats in the rural areas which is believed
to be a strong hold of the ruling party, they began again complaining and
blaming the ruling party.
The bottom line is,
for the interest of the nation, the opposition parties have now the
responsibility to settle down the unrest created due to the election
controversy. It is a fragile situation where no one can gain from this mess.
Even the democratic sphere created by the ruling party can be changed into
negative attitude.
How do we see as Eritreans this election? For the PFDJ
regime and its thugs, this democratic election is not for their interest. Mr.
Issayas does not want to see democracy working 50 kilometers away from his
dictating palace. Nor is he interested in the sovereignty (boarder) of the nation. He is only interested in his
power. The rest is just cover up.
As to the Eritrean people and the opposition (except few),
our view towards the on going election is mixed. Mixed in a sense, in one hand,
as victims of dictatorship, we want to see democracy working in Ethiopia,
regardless who wins the election. On the other hand who wins this election is
not only interesting to us , but is also a concerning issue. As a proverb in
Tigrigna says:” ‘neday nay lbu yhalim’ “ (a poor dreams of his wish) of course
we see the election results through the angle of our national interest, not selfishly but in a way
the two peoples can have a mutual interest.
When we hear clearly and loudly the Ethiopian opposition
parties rejecting our rights, there is no reason that we cannot tell who
supports our rights. We cannot and shall
not forget the political stand of the EPRDF government in our cause. Why did
the ruling party recognize the rights of the Eritrean people? This is an interesting question. Not because it
does not want unity nor does it have national interest such as sea inlets and
outlets. The TPLF earlier and the EPRDF later realized thoroughly in principle
that the Eritrean people struggled for a half century for this right and there
was no other alternative than endless bloodshed between the two peoples. So we
Eritreans, except a few naïve, want the ruling party to win. So that at least
we can have an opportunity to repair the damaged relationship between the two
brotherly peoples. But we Eritreans must remove the dictatorship first. This is
a must. Otherwise, there is no other way out of this mess.
The Ethiopian opposition parties did and do not see what
the ruling party saw. As some political
scientist say: “Politics is one sided. There is no fairness in politics,
because of national interest.” They are
just blind by national interest. They do not and did not see what the Eritrean
people paid for a half century. From Haile Sellassie’s era to the DERG , an Eritrean family (house) paid
an average of 3 children for this right. Worse than that, the opposition parties want to annex part of
Eritrea, Assab, neglecting the rights of the people. If they claim to be
democrats, why do they fail to recognize the Eritrean people’s right?
Finally, first and foremost, we Eritreans would like to see
the unrest created due to the election controversy be settled down peacefully.
It is a fragile situation. We want to see democracy working in
Adhanom Fitiwi (from Holland)
Comments: fitiwi@planet.nl