Gebru Tareke asks if the country’s foundation is crumbling

Gebru Tareke asks if the country’s foundation is crumbling

Historian and a specialist in conflict resolution, Professor Gebru Tareke says he fears Ethiopia’s foundation that was laid 122 years ago in the aftermath of the Adwa victory against an invading Italin army could be crumbling, speaking in connection with the celebration of the battle.
In an interview with BBC Amharic on Friday, the author of Ethiopia: Power and Protest: Peasant Revolts in the Twentieth Century, said the fact that the unity of the country is in danger means that there is task that has not been done yet. “It is sad that we are still talking about being Ethiopian and multi-ethnic state. Since the ruling party holds an autocratic grip on democracy and freedom, giving way to radical elements, the country has found itself in a very precarious situation,” he said. There are some in the country and outside who are engaged in disruptive political activity, he said.
Professor Gebru, who has witnessed three governments and three constitutions, says the current constitution is better than those before. However, as former president Negasso Gidada, who participated in drafting the constitution in 1995, suggested, he said, there are rooms for improvements. “The constitution is a good one, there are questions in the sense of observing it. For example, the promise of power and wealth sharing arrangement to federal government and regions has been broken”, he argued.
After the split in the Tigray People’s Liberation Front in 2001, the former Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has consolidated control over the country, the freedom and power the regions enjoyed have been diminished, Gebru argued.
He added: “The wave of protest that began in Oromia region two years ago did not come out of the blue, but was the accumulated effect of discontent related to the non-observance of the constitution, dominance by one party, the restriction of political space and absence of appropriate forum in which to express discontent with the government.”
Despite raising concerns about the quality, Gebru appreciates the rapid growth of higher educational institutions system in the past 27 years. “Even though thousands graduate every year, not nearly enough jobs have been created to accommodate them. The unemployment rate grown equally,” he said.
All those factors have made the Oromo Peoples’ Democratic Organization (OPDO) to examine itself and has to come to produce populist leaders such as Lemma Megerssa, who tried to solve the problems of the region, he said. The coalition of four parties, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) in recent months claimed to have undertaken ‘deep renewal process’, and promised to come up with immediate and long-term solution but the public are not satisfied, Gebru said.
Professor Gebru said the proclamation of a state of emergency for the second time in less than two years is a clear sign that the public is not happy with the coalition’s actions.“The state of emergency is astounding, I think it is driven by fear. It can never be a solution for the current problem,” he said.
The only way forward is continuing to seek a comprehensive solution to the crisis, according to Gebru, such as conducting vigorous and wide-ranging discussion with scholars, opposition members, and with political analysts. “The government has to engage people on important issues, because when the law is proclaimed, it is the public that puts it into practice. Tanks and military force are of little utility in changing the situation,” Gebru warned.
Finding the solution to the current political impasse in which the country’s unity is threatened cannot be the property of solely EPRDF, according to the scholar.

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One thought on “Gebru Tareke asks if the country’s foundation is crumbling

  1. I usually appereciated professor tarekegn gebru, as a former EPRP , his analysis was unbiased and he was talking the historical facts as it is.He uses to appereciate emperor tewodros.
    Now he is telling us that the weyane constitution is the fittest one to our Ethiopia.But if the same weyane/ eprdf does not respect the constitution.What would be his reaction?
    For instance the recent vote inorder to validate the emergency proclamation, it was a must to get a two third vote which is 364 out of 547 seats where as the vote in was 346 which means the result shows the proclamation should be canceled or failed.The fallacy and hipocracy lies here!!!

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