As an independent and interested observer of Ethiopian politics, I have come to conclude that we should get rid of the current government in order for us to start the democratization process in our country. I ruled out the option of working with them already. Lets be pragmatic. We know how EPRDF responds every time invitations extended to work together by opposition groups. EPRDF’s policy is all or none. While agreeing with the idea of leaving the door open to any steak holders including EPRDF), let me try to explain why I argue the current government should step down before anything else.
Many EPRDF appeasers and other well-intentioned citizens would like to have you believe that change isn’t radical but a process and therefore we should give the government time to build up on the democratization process. It’s a well-proven historical fact that democracy doesn’t happen over night. I have no problems with that. My problem with the above argument comes when anyone bases his or her argument on this historical fact and assumes what EPRDF needs is time. I beg to differ here. Why?
-You give a government or anyone for that matter a chance/time if one sees evidences of improvement overtime. But that isn’t what is happening under EPRDF Ethiopia. We don’t need to look any further than the policy changes that happened after the may 2005 election. Before the election and for a little while after that we have at least a free press no matter how hostile the working environment was. Where are the free presses and their publishers now? Either in jail with trumped up charges or in exile. What is the message one gets from this? Do any sane person still believe the government is improving its policies so we should give the time after seeing what happened to the free press?
-What happened to the parliamentary law was also a case in point to show the EPRDF government is going from better to worse. Changing the parliamentary laws over night so that the coming opposition couldn’t do practically anything other than making the government look good wouldn’t pass the litmus test of any improving government. What good is it to give time for a government like this?
-The government’s stand on the so-called electoral board isn’t promising either. Despite the many attempts by opposition parties to make it independent, the government remained adamant in keeping it as is. To make matters even worse, the electoral board is given unappealable authority to decide who can observe elections and who can’t. What it means is that if the board decides a certain organization cant observe an election, that decision is final. In the 2005 election at least one had an option of appealing to the bogus court if one feels the decision wasn’t fair. But that is a lost cause from now on. What is that we see here to make us believe that what the government needs is time.
-How about the broad casting law? The draft law wasn’t bad enough, we read on ethiopianreporter.com that a “new and revised law” is endorsed by the parliament. According to the reporter, the new so-called “revised law” is so much worth than the previous one. How is that for an improvement?
- It has also been reported that journalists that can report on elections are only those journalists who are invited by the government. It’s not enough to be a “licensed” journalist to report on elections. NO. NO. Not in EPRDF Ethiopia. To have that “privilege,” one has to be specifically invited by the government. Even that invitation doesn’t guarantee freedom of reporting. It comes with restrictions as not predicting election results or things like that. With time, EPRDF goes from requiring journalists to be registered and have licenses issued to them to hand picking the journalists that can report on elections and limiting the things they can report on. Who would call that an improvement?
And so on and so forth. Those mentioned above are just the tip of the iceberg. There are lots and lots of reasons to believe giving time to EPRDF does nothing but making things worse than ever, if it gets any worse.
Many EPRDF appeasers and other well-intentioned citizens would like to have you believe that change isn’t radical but a process and therefore we should give the government time to build up on the democratization process. It’s a well-proven historical fact that democracy doesn’t happen over night. I have no problems with that. My problem with the above argument comes when anyone bases his or her argument on this historical fact and assumes what EPRDF needs is time. I beg to differ here. Why?
-You give a government or anyone for that matter a chance/time if one sees evidences of improvement overtime. But that isn’t what is happening under EPRDF Ethiopia. We don’t need to look any further than the policy changes that happened after the may 2005 election. Before the election and for a little while after that we have at least a free press no matter how hostile the working environment was. Where are the free presses and their publishers now? Either in jail with trumped up charges or in exile. What is the message one gets from this? Do any sane person still believe the government is improving its policies so we should give the time after seeing what happened to the free press?
-What happened to the parliamentary law was also a case in point to show the EPRDF government is going from better to worse. Changing the parliamentary laws over night so that the coming opposition couldn’t do practically anything other than making the government look good wouldn’t pass the litmus test of any improving government. What good is it to give time for a government like this?
-The government’s stand on the so-called electoral board isn’t promising either. Despite the many attempts by opposition parties to make it independent, the government remained adamant in keeping it as is. To make matters even worse, the electoral board is given unappealable authority to decide who can observe elections and who can’t. What it means is that if the board decides a certain organization cant observe an election, that decision is final. In the 2005 election at least one had an option of appealing to the bogus court if one feels the decision wasn’t fair. But that is a lost cause from now on. What is that we see here to make us believe that what the government needs is time.
-How about the broad casting law? The draft law wasn’t bad enough, we read on ethiopianreporter.com that a “new and revised law” is endorsed by the parliament. According to the reporter, the new so-called “revised law” is so much worth than the previous one. How is that for an improvement?
- It has also been reported that journalists that can report on elections are only those journalists who are invited by the government. It’s not enough to be a “licensed” journalist to report on elections. NO. NO. Not in EPRDF Ethiopia. To have that “privilege,” one has to be specifically invited by the government. Even that invitation doesn’t guarantee freedom of reporting. It comes with restrictions as not predicting election results or things like that. With time, EPRDF goes from requiring journalists to be registered and have licenses issued to them to hand picking the journalists that can report on elections and limiting the things they can report on. Who would call that an improvement?
And so on and so forth. Those mentioned above are just the tip of the iceberg. There are lots and lots of reasons to believe giving time to EPRDF does nothing but making things worse than ever, if it gets any worse.
3 comments:
hmmmm....itersting insites.i think people who still think eprdf needs time to democratize the country can learn alot from ur article
how are you?
Awesome blog, great write up, thank you!
top [url=http://www.001casino.com/]online casinos[/url] brake the latest [url=http://www.casinolasvegass.com/]casinolasvegass.com[/url] autonomous no deposit perk at the chief [url=http://www.baywatchcasino.com/]baywatch casino
[/url].
Post a Comment