A heroic campaign at the gruesome Ethiopian Super League season Head Coach Paulos Getachew popularly known “Mango” steered Baherdar FC in to promotion with three fixtures remaining. Just two defeats so far in the season Baherdar won an automatic promotion winning the sixteen side Group “B” while Shere Enda-Selassie finished runner up of the group and thus will battle against its Group “A” counterpart to book a place in the upper tier the coming season.
With Eighteen wins, eight draws and only two defeats so far in the season Paulos famous for building strong sides the likes of Burayu and last year’s Super League semifinalist Hadiya Hosana, Paulos’ hard work paid back his third trial this time leading “The Blue Waves” in style to automatic promotion by a mile. Eleven points clear of second place Shere Enda Selassie, Baherdar owner to the biggest stadium in the country, is the first side to represent the capital of Amhara Region since Baherdar University was relegated ten years ago. “The dream of having a regional representative from Baherdar came true and I dedicate the achievement to the football loving people and the sea side popular regional seat Baherdar,” Paulos remarked jubilantly.
The region that had been strongly behind the team through the hard times stood first to recognize the huge achievement showing its gratitude in awarding each of the players 100,000 Birr prize to go along with a 100 m2 plot while head coach Paulos Getachew was showered with a 200 m2 plot and the same amount of Birr. Paulos signed a new contract extension to spearhead the Premier League campaign in the coming new season.
Paulos (Mango) steers Baherdar to promotion
Group “B” trios in fierce PL promotion contention
With a marvelous home victory over promotion contenders Dilla, Jimma AbaBuna’s dream of promotion appears to have come true while Halaba clinched second place after a home win over Shashemene.
Though the likes of Debub Police and Dilla were in control of the Super League Group “B” table, they appeared to be out of gas by the crucial stage of the tournament. With three games to go Jimma AbaJifar took over the driver’s seat of the group in goal differences after a marvelous home display against Dilla. An astonishing hat trick from Bezuayehu Endashaw AbaBuna demolished Dilla 4-1 and they sit on top with 53 points and 27 goals. AbaJifar faces Hadya and Butagera away and Shashemene at home.
With 13 wins eleven draws and only two defeats in 27 matches; Halaba appears a real promotion contender as opposed to Debub Police. A 2-0 win on Wednesday Halaba took over second place with 52 points and 22 goals. Famous for its consistency Halaba needs extra energy to sail through the remaining matches with Hadya and Wolkite while at home against Bench-Maji Zone.
A bit out of form recently Debub Police is third in the table Debub Police is lurking behind the two a point down after Wednesday’s away draw to lowly side Negele. But Debub Police is still in promotion contention for it has humble sides to face in the remaining three fixtures. At home against Wolkite followed by away to Hambericho it closes the season at home entertaining its counterpart Diredawa Police.
Federalism – common sense will eventually prevail, even within TPLF
With Aby Ahmed’s election at the top of EPRDF and government, TPLF’s long standing influence within EPRDF was nowhere to be found. Almost instantly, EPRDF as we have known it, vanished. The resulting reemergence of separatist feeling within TPLF may not surprise many observers.
Is that going to be a problem? To certain extent. If persistent, it can make it difficult to come to a consensus on anything.
Clearly loosing influence in a political party one helped create is not funny…but time to stop acting like a child and start to act like an adult.
So where to from here?
To all those advocating secession..we.’ll be left with what? Several new countries on the African map: Oromia, Tigray, Amhara and so on…. Some new ambassadors… for what? To be irrelevant….be duped, exploited and used!
If there is one country in the world that really needs a functional and effective federal system – with its diversities of language, religion, and culture and a growing population – that is Ethiopia. Our present system of federalism certainly needs total overhaul: an honest, whole-hearted, clearly-stated, precise federalism that is acceptable to all the various regional states’ forming the Federal state.
Let’s work on this project.
The PM’s in-country tours have demonstrated that most people support unity with diversity and co-operation. For these people the only institution of the government that represents all Ethiopians is “federal.” On the other side of the political spectrum, there are few pundits in Oromia, that reject entirely the broader Ethiopian nation in favor for total independence for Oromia. They remind us that previous leaders have left them on the outside looking in, and so now, nothing short of independence is acceptable to them.
Let’s be clear however, separatist sentiments will always be part of Ethiopia’s politics, and Arat Kilo should make sure “normal” democratic politics does not break down and violent separatist movements do not dominate.
What is remarkable is that diverse as we are, MOST OF US (emphasis), Ethiopians, have still no difficulty in referring to ourselves as a nation. We do that not by erasing all linguistic or cultural differences, or squash them into an indistinguishable whole, we do that by working to create a new kind of nation, where citizens of Ethiopia will, say, introduce themselves as an Ethiopian from Afar.
I am confident that for the young generation, neither the national origin nor the religion of any individual would be a handicap … Young Ethiopians seem to easily accept Orthodox, Muslims and Protestants, Afars, Amharas, Guragues, Oromos, Wolaitas and more… They understand one can still be a member of both the Oromo nation and the Ethiopian nation, without injury to either. They understand – Lemma and Aby are good testament to what young leaders can bring to the table – democratic government is only possible among a group of people who mutually agree to sacrifice for each other, to defer to each other, to be ruled by each other. The minute the idea takes hold that the government to which they are asked to submit is not their government but someone else’s, the necessary consent of the governed will be withdrawn – if not wholly, then in part.
To put the whole issue in perspective, we are quite often presented with a model of the United States of America. Whatever their deep divisions as a country, the idea of Americans as part of “one nation, indivisible” is uncontested and, indeed, incontestable. And where there are calls to return powers to the states (which happens from time to time), it has more to do with arguments of efficiency and good government than with any deeper questions of legitimacy. The federal government has a role in national affairs of which many other federal governments could only dream.
The main point is that America has realized the creation of a “political nationality” rooted not in blood or soil but in common values, common aspirations, and common principles of government, all summarized in the Constitution, for which Americans have a reverence bordering on the cult-like.
I am convinced that it’s very much part of Aby/Lema team’s ambition to adhere to the principles of unity in diversity, decentralization in administration, and devolution in authority. I am also confident that the team will politically confront groups that have absorbed the idea, consciously or unconsciously, that real nations are ethnocultural nations.
In an important sense I want to point out the indispensability of the idea of the indivisible nationhood. The whole point of a federation, after all, is to have a federal government – a government with powers to deal with matters that transcend region interests and cross region boundaries. If we succeed, it will mean more progress, justice and power for all Ethiopians.
ETHIOPIA & THE HORN I
It seems the current definition of the Horn doesn’t include the two Sudans. A while back the whole Sudan was considered part of the Horn, but that conception seems to have faded away, particularly after the secession of South Sudan. Whether the Sudans will be reconsidered as part of the Horn in the years to come is something that remains to be seen. Be that as it may, the ongoing flux of geopolitics seems to have worked its way, also in our region. Positions of countries that were taken for granted for a long time are now changing rather swiftly. The currently evolving relations between countries of the Horn are aspects of this changing global reality!
Ethiopia and Eritrea are making amends. We are not going to belabor this point, as it has been dramatically demonstrated, to all and sundry, in the last few weeks. By the same token, Eritrea and Somalia are restoring formal diplomatic relations. We can realistically expect good relations to be established also between Djibouti and Eritrea, maybe sooner than later. Such goodwill will certainly pave the way for more cooperation between the four countries of the Horn. If the current trend continues it might not be long before closer political arrangements between countries can be forged across the width and breadth of this once rife with violent region. Confederation or even Federation might not be out of the ballpark, so to speak! There are two visible motives why such political configurations might come to fruition. Today we will examine some of the internal imperatives, to be followed by relevant sequels.
In all the four countries of the Horn, objective conditions exist that compel the reconsideration of the seemingly various trajectories these countries have been pursing. Ethiopia, as the core country of the horn is regarded as a trendsetter, in many regards. In the last half a century, it had managed to execute radical changes, both in its polity and policy. From Imperial Ethiopia, whose polity was dominated by highland Christians (for thousand of years) to a Marxist regime that promulgated the most radical land tenure system in Africa, Ethiopia proved, time and again, its willingness to experiment with far reaching ideas to secure peace and stability. Despite the number of protracted wars the Ethiopian state waged against both outsiders and organized insiders, the country as a whole had always displayed an open attitude towards new and more cohesive projects with a view to foster its long-term strategies. Ethnic federalism is the latest to be tried in this land of diversity. This overarching policy ruled the land for about three decades, with mixed results. Time has now come to also rethink this paradigm, may be in toto!
The ethnic federalism launched roughly three decades ago has yielded tangible results, some positive and others not so positive. Most importantly, this paradigm demonstrated to the world, especially to neighbors, Ethiopia’s resolve to try all means necessary to tackle its recurrent internal problems/strife consciously and deliberately. ‘Taking the bull by the horn’ was the phrase favored by the late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. Again, it would be preposterous to thoroughly evaluate the experiences of the last three decades in this column. We will only pinpoint to the combined outcomes that threaten to unravel the federal state of Ethiopia! We are inclined to believe that Ethiopia’s ethnic federalism, despite its benign features, is implicitly predicated on ethnic favoritism. Adhering to such principle is tantamount to reading the ‘universal declaration of human rights’ up side down, so to speak! When abrasive ethnic consciousness is regarded as the height of enlightenment, all other rational discourses tend to be relegated to the back burner. There are plenty of examples to illustrate the various consequences of such an emphatically stated constitutional program. When ‘collective rights’ outshine ‘individual rights’, the tendency is to have instinctively organized entities (along ethnic lines) impose their will on individuals. As a result, critical reflections as part and parcel of ‘freedom of expression’ suffer immensely, to say nothing about other activists’ issues of whistleblowing, organizing, etc.!
Unbridled collective rights has fostered, maybe inadvertently, wide spread organized crimes in Ethiopia. It is not without reason qualifiers are used when discussing the Mafiosi: the Irish Mafia, Sicilian Mafia, Russian Mafia, etc. The current PM Abiy Ahmed has already coined the phrase ‘Daylight Hyenas’ to describe our homegrown Mafiosi. To be sure, these ‘Daylight Hyenas’ exist in all regions of the country and tend to operate in unison. For example, opportunities were limited or even fully closed to the ethnically unaffiliated, particularly in the domains of the regions. At times, even native inhabitants of a region were excluded from all considerations (state, market, civil society, etc.) if they were reluctant to support the reigning policy of favoritism. Disfranchising and disempowering those deemed competitors, in the sphere of politics, economics, etc., became the pastime of the ethnically obsessed, as this platitude shielded their incompetence, inhumanity and gross corruption! To further such shallow ends of the degenerate politicos, some of the critically inclined mavericks, both from within and without, were targeted for elimination. The highly organized Mafiosi State that operated behind the scene was empowered to execute such tasks along with its creation in the private sector, namely the parasitic oligarchs, both domestic and foreign! By the Ethiopian ‘Mafiosi State’, we mean a clandestinely operating state that leverages the apparatus of the formal state and the ruling party (in a highly coordinated manner) with the clear intention of undermining the rule of law to fulfill criminal desires! What is to be privileged, if one cannot flaunt one’s position of being above the law to ordinary mortals? This was the motto of the Mafiosi state, which has effectively undermined the current federalism from within! See the various articles from the Ethiopian Diaspora next column and on page 44.
If truth be told, ethnicity-targeting violence is to be expected, particularly in a country where regions are legally encouraged to prefer ‘their own’, as opposed to ‘the others’! This not-so-subtle and institutionally built-in alienating sentiment was elevated to the highest echelon of all the country’s state organs. The failure to dismantle this lopsided and disempowering governance structure, along with the heinous Mafiosi State, which was behind many of the injustices and atrocities, is what ignited the country from below. This comprehensive socio-economic ailment was initiated, to a large extent, by the degenerate elements of the TPLF and later expanded to all the other regional parties and states. Patiently waiting for the ever-receding ‘deep reform’ from above, the sheeplets (the youth) finally lost it and took to the streets. The rest, as they say, is history!
The whole episode of ethnic federalism serves, once again, as another illustration of Ethiopia’s inherent willingness to try non-conventional methods/approaches to come up with lasting solutions to what ails its complex existence. When such attempts fail, the country seems to be ready and willing to embark, yet again, on another wave of reform, with determination to sweep the old and replace it with the new! Ethiopia seems to openly uphold the following obvious truth; the only thing inevitable in the whole universe is change, and it should be embraced, not feared. “The enemy is fear. We think it is hate. But, it is fear.” Gandhi. Good Day!
