Gar-haye Posted May 17, 2008 Weird democracy and legal system in Ethiopia By Hussein Aden Ali May 17, 2008 The current Ethiopian government made up of mostly former rebels of TPLF gorilla fighters came into power in1991. It’s well known that this organization was closer to socialism that to democracy before they over through Mengistu a socialist himself. To its credit the TPLF immediately realize switching to democracy is more beneficial to them than to hold on to the old socialist idea. In this changing world where the nice words are democracy and good governance you need to adopt, and to make change as they become necessary. To be specific the TPLF implemented their own style of democracy, but what surprised me and force me to write this note is how much they deviated from conventional democracy as it’s known to the rest of the world. To make clear my point I will share with the readers few examples, that make Ethiopia’s current democracy weird compared to the rest of democratic world. We will look in to examples both at federal level and state levels, since the country is divided in to ethnic line states, and we focus on Somali state when we are considering state issues. The Ethiopian parliament at federal level is made up of little more than five hundred members. To your surprise the governing TPLF who holds only 38 seats out of more than 500 will force other ethnic parties who hold seats in palement to join the coalition. A good example is the Oromo party who holds 110 seats, the Amhara party with 87 seats, and the Southern people’s party who holds 97 seats. I could not personally find the rational behind why a party with 110 seats has to join and take order from the party who only hold 38 seats in parliament. The current Ethiopian prime minister comes from the TPLF party which holds only 38 seats in federal parliament. The question we have to ask is how they do it. The answer is very simple, all the parties who have more seats than the TPLF have no choice but to join a coalition known as EPRDF created by the TPLF to cover their dictatorship, and make it look to the rest of the world that these parties who have more seats are joining the coalition freely, and accepting to pick their prime Minster from the TPLF. It’s an deniable realty that they are forced to do so, and they do not have any other choice but to accept the realty on the ground, a dictatorship covered by bogus democracy. At the state level particularly the Somali state the TPLF who are the leaders of the coalition called EPRDF dictates to the Somali state leaders who will join the parliament to represent the Somali Ethiopians both in the state and in federal level. For those of us who live in the democratic world, if a member of parliament is elected, the only way he/she will lose his or her seat is if he loses in election or if he decides to resign. That is not the case in Somali state of Ethiopia. The EPRDF is the only one who decides, who joins or who leave the Somali state of Ethiopia’s Parliament. Any one who wants to check on these facts, it was on the news not long ago that few members of the Somali state parliament are force to leave. The state officialise may say we decided to let these elected officialise go, but the reality is they been told by EPRDF. If we look at the justice side it’s a universal principle that the criminal responsiplity to be Personal, but in Ethiopia particularly in the Somali state it’s different. You will be prosecuted by a crime committed by your father, mother, and uncle or by distance Relative. What is more surprising is that people are forced on daily bases to admit a crime they never committed in a process known as gimgama which the Somali Ethiopian call it gabagabo in Somali language, which is an old style system in which their camel were rounded up to punish those who do not follow the rules of the king. To my understanding the gimgama system is a socialist idea which the TPLF used during their struggle with mengistu. In this process when the person admit a crime he/she never commits in public gathering, they let him/her go, but keep the record and use against him in any subsequent legal process against him. It seems to me despite the clear evidence that the current regime in Ethiopia’s an democratic behaviour they are rewarded by the west for their special interest, ignoring the suffering of Ethiopian population in the hands of dictator covered by a bogus democracy. By Hussein Aden Ali Email: Husseinali25@gmail.com source: wardheernews.com Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Fabregas Posted May 17, 2008 isgaaba wax ka sugayey! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
