Major Dawit Wolde Giorgis, currently head of the Namibia-based the Africa Institute for Strategic and Security Studies, called into question the Ethiopian constitution that redefined citizenship, politics on ethnic grounds from 1991 onwards.
Speaking on January 6th in Addis Ababa’s Nexus Hotel before an audience sponsored by the Vision Ethiopia, an independent network of Ethiopian scholars and professionals, Dawit Wolde Giorgis, 71, said the country is passing through a period of acute national misgiving and lasting solutions to the ongoing conflict and insecurity will not be possible while keeping the constitutional arrangements.
While acknowledging the reform led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, Dawit, who came back to his homeland after 33 years of absence, said “The supreme law of any country including Ethiopia is the constitution. Rule of law is the prevention of arbitrary exercise of power which obliges people to submit to the principles enshrined in the constitution. Constitutions are established not by individuals or political parties but by the people of the country. Constitutions are drafted by and approved with the will and participation of the people.
About three decades ago, a system of ethnic federalism, championed by the late dictator Meles Zenawi has replaced the centralized rule that existed during the years of the military and the hitherto feudal regimes.
“Meles had a destructive agenda and believed in the supremacy of one ethnic group. The constitution reflected that agenda. The people of Ethiopia did not participle in the preparation of this document and the draft was never presented for referendum,” Dawit said.
The former President of Ethiopia from 1995 to 2001, Negasso Gidada, who also served as chairman of the Constitutional Assembly which adopted the current constitution, acknowledged there was a serious flaw in the drafting of the new Constitution. He told Addis Standard on March 2016: “We should have presented it back to the people of Ethiopia in a form of referendum where the people could have had the chance to decide on whether what we formulated was according to their wish or not. That we did not do and I believe it was a mistake.”
In his speech, citing Negasso’s remark, Dawit Wolde Giorgis, who was a well-positioned member of the Ethiopian political elite during early period of the military regime, echoes it was clear that this was not the law that was made with the consultation of the people. “Therefore one cannot expect the people to abide by this law. What the people are demanding today is plain and simple: let us prepare a constitution in which the people of Ethiopia fully participate. This is the basic right of any people. Moving with reform without addressing this fundamental problem of the country will lead the country to uncharted territory,” he concluded.
Lovise Aalen, a political scientist at Norway’s Chr. Michelsen Institute, in her book, The Politics of Ethnicity in Ethiopia (African Social Studies Series, 2011) indicated how competing political forces were practically excluded from the process. “This resulted in a situation in which the major institutional framework of the country, the federal system, is very much linked to the specific interests of the actors behind it, namely the members of the EPRDF. Many people see it as ‘the EPRDF’s federal system’ and not as “Ethiopia’s federal system’,” she wrote.
Image: Addis Zemen
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Dear Editor:
Just for the record that the distinguished Major Dawit Wold Georgis , now at the magical age of 71, couldn’t possibly joined at the age of 10 Harar Military Academy in 1958 (European calendar) right after his high school graduation from Tefeferi Makonnen School. The law says one should be 17/18 years-old and above every thing else, disgustingly healthy before accepted as a cadet officer. Perhaps, the criminally incompetent assigned reporter forget to change the Julian calendar and add 8 more years. I hope my assertion isn’t in error. It can be verified from the web site .
http://www.hararacademy.org/history/
Dear Paulos, thank you for the comment. Major Dawit himslef told Ethiopia Observer that he was born in 1948. Hence, what was stated here was accurate.
Dear Aref:
Thanks for clarifying this “age issue” once and for good. On this occasion, I want to assure you that I have never question your integrity since the inception of EO. Take my word, I have faith in you as a writer of ascetic value and sensibility. Cheers.
Thank you, Paulos. Appreciated.
Do we need to debate on this “age” issue? Let us focus on the novel idea discussed by the brave son of Ethiopia, Major Dawit WG, instead.
There are people who can’t read without assistance. Did my inquiry to the editor sound an ageist? Only an apparent air-head whose soul contracted a political virus thinks so in modern Ethiopia. I can’t think of anything to say about this.
Unsuccessful in any other endeavor, they tread on the worn road of politics they have abused to their personal advantage for decades. They don’t retire from the cow that continues to provide milk. He has 20 more years to reach the age of Robert Mugabe. Unable to stand up on his own , unable to walk on his own, obviously assisted to go to a washroom and bathe himself, even then he would not resign from politics. Selfishness is not a medical disorder?