While I agree that there is lack of tolerance

While I agree that there is lack of tolerance and polarization in this country

Executive Director, Inter Africa Group - Ethiopian Reporter

19 January, 2008

"While I agree that there is lack of tolerance and polarization in this country, I wouldn’t say it is so static that one should give up hope"

Ato Tamirat Kebede is executive director of the Inter Africa Group, a local civil society organization engaged in promoting democracy.

The director, who is optimistic about building a democratic future in Ethiopia, says that people should not be frustrated by setbacks, and must strives towards achieving their goals even though it takes time.

Ato Tamrat spoke to senior reporter Bruck Shewareged on the challenges of building democracy in Ethiopia, and the recent conference that the Group organized this Tuesday on the issue of fostering political space. Excerpts:

What were you hoping to achieve with Tuesday’s conference?

As you are aware, Ethiopia is a country that has gone through different types of challenges: internal and external wars, natural calamities, economic crisis, etc. Unlike other countries that have gone through this kind of crisis, it has weathered these challenges and it has survived as one nation.

It is our strong belief that there are core shared values of the society that have kept this unity. And we were trying in that conference, through the commission papers of the scholars, identify these shared values in order to foster and fortify these values in the new millennium that we have started. That was the objective of the conference.

Some are anxious that we are losing these so called shared values. They are not comfortable because they think that Ethiopia might not continue to survive as one nation. Do you share that fear?

No. I, for one do not share that view at all. Well, there are pessimists and optimists in the world. But I don’t see any indication. Sure, there are certain values that are deteriorating. But they are not deteriorating at a speed that would indicate that in a few years to come that they would no longer be there.

The essence of the conference is precisely to prevent that kind of loss of national assets or values. Some of these values, which I think are unique, and which were raised at the conference relate to, our sensitivity to our independence as a nation, which I think is still strong, our spiritual values and others. We also have some other values like “Yilugnta” (I don’t know whether its direct meaning exists in English as a word) which is the fear of both God and the fear of what others would say about you. Yilugnta is a certain restricting type of morality that does not allow you to do certain things because you have the fear of God, and because you also respect society’s view about yourself.

Though not unique to Ethiopia, the other value we have is hospitability. We are not known for xenophobia. We respect foreigners. That could be put to advantage to attract collaboration from external sources.

We also have associations like Idir, Maheber and so on which allow the society to sort of go beyond one’s ethnic origin or locality to tie us together to achieve a certain objective. These are by way of pointing some of the core values that were discussed at the conference.

Let’s come to religious tolerance. A year or so ago in Jimma there was an incident in which followers of the two major religions clashed. There were also other unreported incidents. Could these be indications that religious tolerance is waning in the country?

Those incidents are unfortunate incidents in my view. If you take the history of this nation, and if you see the incidents or conflicts that took place between followers of the two major religions, it’s been a long period of peaceful coexistence.

I’m sure you are familiar with places like Wollo where the Muslims accompany the “Tabot” along their Christian brothers. Go to Harar where both religions are mutually respected.

I think, the social fabric is extremely strong to allow any minor conflict between these two religions to reach a proportion that other countries are experiencing these days.

You organize many meetings and fora. But most participants are scholars or what some would call “elites”. Do you really have an outreach to the majority of the public?

That question is well raised. We are aware of it. That has been the experience previously. But we are trying now to replicate the fora we have had at the national level to the regions. By so doing, we are trying to expand our outreach.

The limitation has been partially due to resources. It wasn’t by design or by intent.

We also rely on the media in expanding the outcomes of these fora.

Apart from the media, what other ways are there to reach the public?

Depending on the nature of the forum, we try to ensure that the stakeholders are directly involved in that particular issue at the forum. We try to make sure that stakeholders are represented. If it is a forum on the youth, we invite the youth from different regions.

For example, the conference that we and the AAU organize on religious tolerance this afternoon (Thursday) has invited most of the major religious denominations, leaders and followers, including university students. We try as much as possible, to have cross-sectional participation of stakeholders so that they will be the agents, aside from the media, who would pass over whatever outcome has come from the conference.

How about political tolerance? Would you say it is being nurtured in the country? Or is it the other way round, bearing in mind that more than 200 people died on the streets of Addis some three year ago?

Well, I would like to see that question in the context of a democratic culture because you’re pinpointing to a situation that has to do with that issue. You would agree with me that democracy as a culture in Ethiopia is relatively new. And cultures of that sort don’t come in a very short period of time. Even in Western democracies, it has taken a long protracted struggle and time.

While I agree that there is lack of tolerance and polarization in this country, I wouldn’t say it is so static that one should give up hope, or that it is in reverse which was what your question was. Are we becoming more and more intolerant? I wouldn’t say that we are becoming more intolerant than we were before. If any thing, we were as intolerant as before, to start with. But I think, it is a step forward for us to come up forward with our views, clash, and again in the process learn to listen to each other and tolerate a different view than we hold to ourselves.

Some argue that given Ethiopia’s history of being led by absolute monarchs, and because this culture has been deeply rooted, it is virtually impossible to experience or develop Western type of democracy.

That is a question of optimism versus pessimism, and a very quick judgment on historical evolution. France, a country known for its democracy in the West, had its Napoleon, and its kings.

In a time span of history since we deposed the emperor through the 1974 revolution, it is not such a long time to completely give up that this society will not adopt a democratic culture. It is not an easy process but I don’t think it is an impossible thing to achieve.

What are the challenges for you or any other civil society group?

The challenges for Inter Africa Group or any civil society group are the same as the challenges of any other organized group that tries to promote democracy in a situation or in an environment where democracy is just evolving.

There will be setbacks as was the case, in my view, in post-2005 election period. But there are two alternatives. One is, “Oh, they shouldn’t have started something that they were not going to make any ways. This country is not made for democracy,” and throw the towel and pull out. Or you take this as part of the struggle that any young democracy would go through, and with whatever spare, marginal space that one is allowed to push for democracy, you continue to struggle. I think that is the correct thing to do.

Building democracy involves investing in the youth. What are your programmes in this regard?

We had a youth tour programme. We also had a youth forum where we invited researchers to present papers. Perhaps the youth these days doesn’t have much grasp of history, or even its role. What was the role of the youth during Emperor Haile-Sellassie’s time? What was the role of the youth during the Derg time? What is the role of the youth currently? Which way should it go? What are the issues that it should focus upon?

These were the issues that were discussed at that forum. And our programme for the youth is [intended] to make them understand that they both in number and in responsibility have a great potential in contributing towards building democracy.

Many countries give history a very great deal of attention in building a democratic future. But here, that doesn’t seem to be the case?

That is sad. It is sad because the present is the continuity of the past, and the future highly depends on the past and the present. History is a continuum. You can’t clip it as you wish and start afresh from a certain point.

This country, particularly in my view, has a very profound history that one ought to be proud of regardless of the gloomy times one has gone through. It is one of the few African countries that has resisted colonialism and remained independent. It has been an exemplary country for independence for Africa; not the Africa of today where each country is independent. A few decades back, that wasn’t the case. Ethiopia had carried that banner of independence.

Ironically, from historical perspective, Ras Tafarians and Jamaicans who have not been from this country seem to cling to this history of ours more so than our youth, which is unfortunate in my view. But that by no means indicates that history is not important, that we should not make a continuous effort to let our youth understand its past, and based on that past, define its future.