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Toronto – Some Ethiopian opposition political parties, that are members of the Political Parties Joint Council, on Monday had a meeting with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. It took place in the office of the Prime Minister. But there are many opposition parties that decline to take part in the discussion as they seem to see no relevance in it.
A day before that the political party representatives had a meeting with Farah Adem, Deputy chairman of the ruling Prosperity Party, in Sululta.
The meeting with the Prime Minister was a scheduled one and it is for the second time in three months.
The ruling party has over 97 percent of the seats in the parliament and many opposition parties do not have the means to play an active role as opposition parties. On top of that many of the parties have very scarce resources (including media) while the ruling party is exploiting government resources extensively as if there is no distinction between ruling party and state resources.
As has been the case in the past, the Prime Minister was speaking in a condescending way.
” We have only two years remaining. Within these two years, if there is anyone who can support us at any level [of government] who is professional and patriotic, even though we have difference of policy issues, we are open to any who wants to serve in a day to day duty,” PM Abiy told political party members.
Over the past year, Abiy Ahmed’s government has been cracking down on opposition leaders especially from the Amhara region. Like in the past, he boasted before the opposition party leaders that his government can not be defeated forcefully as it has abundance of resources at its disposal.
Issues raised by opposition parties
Problems of political space and repression of opposition party members at different levels of government (including threats and arrests) are among the issues political parties raised. They called on the ruling party (the Prime Minister) to release all political prisoners.
Implementation of the Pretoria Agreement, fair use of media (public ones) and government resources, protection of the mobility rights of citizens, independence of the justice system and national dialogue among the key issues raised by the political parties. The questions were scripted and presented by Desta Dinka, Chairperson of Political Parties Joint Council.
Regarding the national dialogue, which has lost credibility among many opposition parties, PM Abiy said “What I want to emphasize for opposition political parties to understand is that inclusive national dialogue is beneficial for the opposition parties more than Prosperity [party].”
There was a strange question from a participant who seemed to have represented the Gada. Among the issues Gadaman raised (his name was not disclosed) is the issue of access to the sea. He raised it in the context of “Kush culture.” He said ‘Kush people have great wisdom. We want to make peace with Kush people, and the continuation of access to the sea issue. We will work by your side and support you.”
With the ongoing wars in Amhara and Oromia region, the crisis situation in Ethiopia is far from over.
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Is there any real political opposition parties worth the name to talk about that Abiy and his PP apparatchiks believe and recognize in Ethiopia? Abiy doesn’t and won’t believe a bit in such thing and so are majority of sane and conscionable Ethiopian citizens at the moment. This sounds news from another planet.
I hope Ethiopians have learned to choose their leaders very carefully
Never fall for people’s words. Only in actions
This is a good start. At the same time, the opposition should take a serious look at itself in the mirror. It is hopelessly splintered into hundreds of groups making it very hard for those working hard to help fix the dilemma in the politics of that country. Let’s say you have decided to bring both the regime and opposition parties/groups to a dialogue table. Who would you start with when it comes to the opposition? Which one you will start and which one you end with? Aha! Now you know. It will take you at least a year or more to go through every one of them. That does not include those civilian groupings. It is pathetic.