MAY 2006- Ethiopia’s Special Democracy Month

May 1, 2006 — The elected mayor of Addis Ababa, still illegally and unjustly in jail, had a clear message to all of us. It is befitting to quote his message during this special democracy month of Ethiopia.

“He asked himself what he would like to devote his life for. He replied that he would devote his life and is prepared to give his life to make sure that his children do not have to suffer what he has lived through his life in Ethiopia: dictatorship. He would like to pass ‘nestanet’ or freedom to his children, he said, not buildings, money or any other material things. If his children have the freedom, they can make their future themselves in their country not in America or anywhere else outside their country. He said he found it weird how people think about what they like to leave behind for their children– material things and exile from dictatorship. He said this is not acceptable to him. He will fight tyranny and wish to bequeath to progeny and posterity freedom and democracy so that they can live working happily independently and freely in their own home.” (Paraphrasing one of the many speeches by Dr. Berhanu, 2005)

1. From the Democracy Month to the Democracy Summer: the struggle for democracy continues

Dr. Berhanu is right. He understood clearly the issue before us is the biggest unsettled matter in Ethiopia’s long history. It is what we would like to leave behind collectively to future generations of Ethiopians. Each generation has to discover its mission, fulfill it or betray it, said Frantz Fanon in his classic work the Wretched of the Earth. Are we prepared to call our generation’s mission to be quintessentially the doing away with dictatorship altogether so that it would not re-appear in any guise or disguise; and the creation of a sustainable democratic system in our country right now? Are we prepared to pass democracy or let dictatorship too be the problem and generational task to our children and grandchildren, much as this unsettled prolonged problem has bedeviled successive generations to the present time? Do we want future generations to suffer in tyranny or live and work in freedom and democracy? This is the big issue before us that history has put on the agenda. We must act now together to make sure that our children do not face the challenges that has consumed generations for nearly half a century after World War II. We must do away with dictatorship. We cannot afford to allow dictatorship to go on. It must be stopped. Future generations will not forgive us, if we leave this task for them to grapple with. We must try to solve this with the people of Ethiopia and the friends of Ethiopian democracy world-wide. We must say at least we left behind the treasures and treasured democracy and freedom. Let this be the will of the generations till now to all Ethiopia’s children in the future. It is up to them to use that freedom to develop the country and create a nation with no violence, no blood, no tears, no hunger, no more begging, and no more humiliation.

2. Significance of May 15, 2005!

It is one year ago in the month of May Ethiopians made another great history. On May 15, 2005, the Ethiopian people massively went to the polls and voted. 25 million are acknowledged to have stayed for hours patiently to vote. This was 90 % of the registered voters. And this is indeed a historical record never seen in this country’s very long history. This turn out demonstrated two matters: a) Presented with debates and information on the issues that matter to their lives, the Ethiopian people are capable of making independent choices peacefully and without coercion. The people listened to the debates and responded civically and with great public spirit. b) With such record turn out and given the pursuit of a minority-based constituency of its primary politics and added with the growing public revulsion at the regime in power, there is prima facie case that the regime has lost this election whether it admits this or not. Many independent observers, the Ethiopian people and the opposition believe that the election is rigged. The only way that trust, public confidence, honesty and integrity of the election process can be restored is by undertaking an early re-election, in any case much earlier than the next scheduled re-election in 2010. Since the rule of the election game has been broken by the regime, and there was no level playing field, the election results remain contested. They can only be cleared by going for an early re-election. Intuitively, with 25 million people turning out and with the regime’s very narrow constituency, there is no way the regime can win with a free and fair ballot. It is simply counter-intuitive to say that the regime won two thirds of this massive vote. It is one of the biggest lies of the 21st century for this regime to persuade itself and others it has won. No intelligent observer of the Ethiopian political landscape can buy this lie given the current political alignment. Thus May 15, 2005 is also a struggle against this big lie. It is a pause and action for taking stock of the recorded democratic achievement by the people in order to struggle against the theft of this achievement by the regime. Combining reflection with struggle constitutes the dynamics of the moment, and defines the core activities that reflect this contradiction in life. This is what the Ethiopian Democracy Month in May (EDM) is about. This month must be dedicated in exposing, educating and struggling against all those who are arrayed to defeat democracy, the Ethiopian people, and the democratic forces in Ethiopia.

The opposition to its credit may have lacked resources and organization, but it had what the regime sorely lacked: intellectual resources, the power of argument, the expression of values and issues that resonated entirely with what people believe in and experience in their daily lives; and above all the opposition was guided by principle and morality in the way it presented the issues and cases that meant a lot to ordinary people. When the opposition talked about human right, they mean it. They do not fake it as the regime which kills at will and at the same time claims to stand for human rights. When the opposition means democracy, it is real; it is not like the regime democratic talk and dictatorial practice. Above all the opposition wanted to change what politics is for- to build and not to destroy, to empower and not disempowering the people, to respect the people and not to cheat them, to be truthful to them and not lie to them; to save lives and not kill them; to make those who represent the people be governed by the people and not allow the governors to impose arrogant rule over them, and finally to end ruler-power and create a people- anchored democratic governance system that can be sustained by the energy, knowledge and struggles of the people themselves.

We have a regime which conducts politics without principle and stands condemned in the eyes of history for preferring to prolong dictatorship at the expense of institutionalizing democratic governance in the country.

3. The People are ready and want to ditch dictatorship and call for Democracy Now!

When the growing world wide movement of Ethiopians for democratic transition

call for common action during this month, it is to ditch dictatorship for good and institutionalize a democratic system now. The achievement side is reflected by the fact that the Ethiopian people have broken through the era of dictatorship and are not defeated by those in power who are desperate to cling to force, deception, disinformation and bribery and splitting people, movements and organizations to retain the era of dictatorship by passing it to deal with by future generations. On the one hand, this is indeed an epochal struggle between the people and those organized as political parties, associations, civic groups and others supporting them; and the reaction represented chiefly by the regime and its foreign backers on the other. Foreign backers who support the regime are those very often who are not committed to long-term and sustainable transformation, but who simply calculating with short-term goals prefer easy surgical fixes to address complex problems.

Donor regime backers seem to say the very fact that Ethiopians voted largely freely until May 15, 2005 is good enough. And the regime is good enough for Ethiopia by ?African standards’. This is not an accurate diagnosis. Ethiopia is far behind many African countries in comparison with those that have achieved democracy in recent times. Many African countries are making moves towards changing their governments in ballot boxes, Zambia, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, and so on that are on course following the democratic achievers such as Botswana, Mauritius and South Africa earlier. A lot more will be joining these front runners of democracy in Africa.

Ethiopia should have been a leader, but it is sadly a late comer to democracy. It is the oldest independent African country, and it should have been a democratic front runner like its marathon runners. It should have been a shining example of democracy. Unfortunately we can only say now that we are struggling to catch up with other African countries that have undergone democratic transition, who appear to have run ahead and faster than us. We have not yet had that luck; but today we have the determination to bring about the democratic transition and join the democratic states in Africa and the rest of the world.

Instead of appeasing dictatorship, donors should fight the regime that has chosen the path to abuse the entire elected leadership, whose only ?crime’ is to respect their people and demand to take democracy seriously manifested by the people of Ethiopia. They have been in jail since November. They have been there for seven months now; and sadly they could still be in jail on May 15, 2005, the historic moment that they have much to do in contributing to precipitate and create. All the donors can muster is to beg the regime to speed up the trial or join forces with the regime by volunteering to put pressure on the victimized opposition. It is very difficult to understand such weak position from donors who are afraid to talk the truth to the regime. Ideally the donors should stand firm. They did force the regime in 2004 to accept international election observers though the regime rejected it. They prevailed. There is no reason given the leverage they have over the regime as providers of the biggest suppliers of foreign aid, they cannot put pressure to help the elected leadership freed without any delay.

Ethiopia continues to be humiliated by those in power who do it and their allies who reinforce it. We must reject this outrageous attitude outright as backing dictatorship means the 25 million voters are ignored shamelessly. This message must be delivered to both regime and foreign backers alike, that there would be no surrender to dictatorship any more.

4. Some Suggested Activities in the May Ethiopian Democracy Month

NES calls all compatriots throughout the world to intensify the struggle to see real democratic transition. We cannot stop this critical struggle. Our people have a historical opportunity to beat back those who have reigned over their unspeakable humiliation.

And let us pack the month with world wide and coordinated Activities, teach-ins and rallies and the like by using our creative resources and being good at uniting and acting together with total solidarity, kindness and truthfulness.

The May 15 Event in Strasbourg is excellent to have on the Democracy day of Ethiopia, the day the people thronged to vote. That this took place is truly commendable and NES extends its appreciation to all those who contributed with one capacity and another especially the members of the EU-EOM from the European parliament.

The world wide hunger strike is symbolically very significant. It should be a globally coordinated event.

A world wide concert drawing artists -Ethiopians and others has to be organized. Instead of Live Aid that has been used to express solidarity by adding to our humiliation, our own Ethiopian artists must rise to the occasion like the fearless, witty and intelligent national artist Tamagan and others to come together and mount a global two to three day event. They can variously call their artistic productions with brand names such as: Live Freedom, Live Ethiopia, Live Democracy or any other appropriate name they wish to encapsulate their collective efforts with. It can also serve as a fund raising event as well.

There must also be combined world wide rallies as well as rallies in each individual country. Rallies can be mounted on a world wide scale at once with concerted joint statement by all taking part.

We must have workshops that are globally conceived, as well as carried out in individual countries depending on the specific context in given countries. Any combination of events is possible. Workshops and cultural events and rallies or vigils or hunger strike can be arranged in specific contexts for different audience groups.

We can try to create a regular system of fund raising say 10 Euros a month including a world wide coordinated fund raising campaign through judicious combination of rallies, seminars and cultural evenings.

WITH ALL THESE TYPES OF ACTIVITIES WE SHOULD BE ABLE TO CREATE THE NECESSARY COMMUNICATION FOR A WORLD WIDE MOVEMENT OF ETHIOPIANS FOR DEMOCRATIC TRANSITION. This movement can consist most of the civic and community associations with a democratic aspirations for their homeland and can work with political parties, fronts and all those struggling for democracy in Ethiopia.

5. A Call to Unite and ACT Together with Total Solidarity

We call on CUD and EUDF and those organized on the basis of self-determination like the OLF and others to lead, encourage and support the suggestion of May as the democratic month and give the green light to various self- initiated activities that clearly support the cause of Ethiopian democracy.

We call on all their support and relief committees to join and carry out the activities for democracy this month.

We call on all those in civil society, trade unions, the media, religious associations, students and other professional associations to join and initiate and jointly promote the democracy month.

There are already events that have been announced, but we encourage all to use this time to forge new and durable connections that can accelerate the birth of an Ethiopia as the democratic nascent nation in the not too long future.

6. Concluding Remark

We must continue the struggle for democracy. It is the only way to fight poverty and deprivation. It is the only way to fight for dignity and human well being. It is the only way Africa will unite in the 21st century- through each being democratic to make all become democratic. We believe Africa will make it in the end. And the time will not be long that the African Union- which is really an ‘aspirational’ union now, will be the first to oppose when the entire elected leadership is thrown into jail as it is the case in Ethiopia now. As now, the AU then will not appease tyranny by its silence. The time would come when successive democracies in Africa after undergoing democratic consolidation would declare: the democratisation of their own country is incomplete without the democratisation of the entire continent of Africa. The AU should begin to say this, but it is not. Just as Kwame Nkrumah in a different time, facing different challenges declared with zeal: The independence of Ghana is incomplete without the total independence of Africa; the time will come when all African states would undergo democratic transformation. Ethiopia too would then join and say the democratisation of Ethiopia is incomplete without the complete democratisation of Africa. Democratising Ethiopia is not just for Ethiopians, it is also for Africans and humanity in general.

There is no doubt Ethiopia’s democratic month- May- will contribute to this larger goal besides many other achievements.

Professor Mammo Muchie, Chair of NES-Scandinavian Chapter

Berhanu G. Balcha, Vice- Chair of NES-Scandinavian Chapter

Tekola Worku, Secretary of NES-Scandinavian Chapter

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