Best wishes for UEDF-Frankfurt Meeting But...
By B. Tsehaye
March 27, 2004

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I am not anti-UEDF, but I am strongly pro-Ethiopia, and I want to be pro-UEDF.

For me, the election in 2005 is the most important, if not the only one, mission of UEDF or any sensible coalition, or any political party and any normal Ethiopian at this point of time when we are only a few months from those critical national and regional elections.

I would like to wish UEDF a successful meeting in Frankfurt, but I have a hard time defining “successful” at this point since UEDF’s objectives and goals are, to put it mildly, very vague.

Is UEDF a coalition or a political party ? What are its objectives and goals ? These are not clear in the UEDF Constitution (If it can be called that since it is, reportedly, prepared by a select few last August to serve the many!) which has serious flaws, and it is these same problems that need to be also discussed in Frankfurt if Ethiopia is to come out of the political and economic quagmire it has been in since 1974.

Indeed, the clouds of doom (Gambela’s massacre, repeated mass dismissals at AAU, conflicts between different ethnic groups in Ogaden, Afar, Harerge, Sidamo, Welega, Benishangul, Arsi, etc…) are already in the air and they have been passively observed in the past, but the elite keeps going as usual, largely talking about the irrelevant in numerous talking shops.

Let me point out some problems of the UEDF Constitution to help as a basis for discussion on the internet and in Frankfurt next April, hoping that such a discussion will make UEDF stronger, more transparent, accountable and relevant to today’s Ethiopia. I shall not say anything about UEDF’s political program since I want us to take one step at a time.

1. UEDF’s Organizational Structure

This includes (Article 3) a UEDF Council, the Central Executive, the Executive Committee, the Foreign Affairs Committee, the Public Relations and Information Committee, the Finance and Property Committee, the Political Affairs Committee, the Organizations’ Committee, the Development and Rehabilitation Committee, the Research Committee, the Auditors and Inspection Committee, and the Advisory Shengo. Latter on, in Article 3.14, we learn of Regional branches in Europe, Africa and Asia.

Lacking an explicit statement of UEDF objectives and goals in the UEDF Constitution, and after having read through the overall organizational structure and the functions of the committees that are made responsible for development and rehabilitation, assistance to political refugees in the Diaspora, research in 5 areas [ (i) Constitution, (ii) the Economy, (iii) Public Health, (iv)Education, and (v) Defense], among several others, we come to the following painful conclusions:

(a) There is no mention of UEDF’s objectives in the Constitution, contrary to standard practice in such important documents;

(b) UEDF is dominated by the 10 parties abroad and the few founding parties in Ethiopia have to receive directives mainly from the Vice-Chairman in the USA ( See Articles 3.13.2.6, 3.13.2.7,3.13.2.8, 3.13.2.9,3.13.4.5) whereas those that wage the principal political struggle in Ethiopia are junior partners in UEDF. A necessary consequence of this lope-sided organizational structure is that member parties in Ethiopia will have increasingly less voice in UEDF management if they merge into stronger parties, and thereby further reduce their small number to end up having still fewer votes/say in UEDF’s meetings;

(c) The top leadership of UEDF is uniquely fashioned to revolve from Dr. Beyene of SEPDC to Dr. Merera of ONC, and lastly to Ato Fassika Belette of EPRP every 6 months ( See Article 3.13.1.2 and Article 3.13.2.5). What is to happen after Ato Fassika is left open, perhaps leaving room for a strong man to take over ? That does not portray UEDF as internally democratic, or does it?

(d) The Deputy Secretary General, who is also based in the USA, is a de facto Secretary General ( See Articles 3.13.4.2-3.13.4.3). "How many Head Offices?" is ulso unanswered.

(e) The proliferation of the committees has inevitably led to significant redundancies, in spitre of the meagre resources of UEDF;

(f) UEDF has long-term goals, and the only significant short-term goal – winning the national and regional elections in 2005 - is not even mentioned anywhere in the document though there is some reference to civic education;

(g) UEDF’s Constitution appears to be prepared for a political party, albeit the absence of explicit objectives and goals;

(h) Founding members of UEDF have very little to say in managing and overseeing the UEDF other than as members of committees. Even the issue of membership fees is not in the Constitution so that it appears that UEDF regards itself as a political party which often raises most of its money from the public. Does this appear to be intentionally designed to marginalize founding members of UEDF, particularly those in Ethiopia ?

Indeed, if UEDF is a coalition of political parties, it must collect membership fees, and seek other sources when there is full support for that approach from all founding members. There is no mention of membership fees in the Constitution, and that is, unfortunately, encouraged by an uncritical Diaspora which emotionally responds before finding out about UEDF’s constitution, objectives, goals, the state of its internal democratic practice and, hence, the prospects for success in liberating Ethiopia. That uncritical public response has repeatedly bedeviled progress over the last 30 years, and brought disaster after disaster on a preponderant majority ( the farmers) of our innocent countrymen.

2. The Way Forward

I could have translated the entire UEDF Constitution and sent it forward for all to see, but I think the important points raised above are sufficient to highlight the need for UEDF to first look urgently inward and improve its Constitution before it is too late, if UEDF is, indeed, pro-Ethiopia. The national and regional elections are only a few months away, and let us all come together this time to make a significant difference to a nation that has been bled profusely by the very elite that has frequented several talking shops over the past several years in Europe, Africa, USA and Ethiopia.

We have had enough of the suffering here at home, and you must feel the same way in the Diaspora, and I plead with you to please drop any personal or group ambitions and interests and come, for once, as our “ feudal” forefathers have repeatedly done in Adwa and Maichew, to make history by making UEDF credible and agreeable to all founding members and to all of us before mid-2004.

If you succeed in the national elections in 2005, believe me, I will not be a party to any government at any level after such a sweet victory. My good days will have come then, and I will be fully content to enjoy a quiet and happy life in the democratic and prosperous Ethiopia.

The only plea I now have is on behalf of our starving and bleeding countrymen throughout Ethiopia, people who are largely our victims, and still look up to us- the elite - for redemption, but continue to be repeatedly betrayed by us for all sorts of laughable reasons.

It is absolutely clear that UEDF is not (i) internally democratic, (ii) a coalition that is meaningfully organized, (iii) a coalition of equals, (iii) a coalition with explicit and realistic objectives and goals, (iv) aiming at winning the 2005 national and regional elections, as a national emergency, and as an absolutely essential peaceful prerequisite for the transition from an autocratic state into a democratic state.

Time is running out, and we have only a few more months before the elections. Unity is our most potent instrument, and we need to achieve that (a) by ensuring that UEDF is a truly democratic coalition of all founding parties with an agreeable Constitution and a pro-Ethiopia political program before mid-2004, (b) by forging unity among the 10 founding parties before mid-2004 in the Diaspora so that they may all speak with one word for Ethiopia instead of tearing each other apart, (iii) by encouraging JADE, the coalition of AEUP, ONC and SEPDC, to be revived to also include EDUP, since it was, paradoxically, destroyed after the UEDF inaugural conference last July. Failure to do that is almost as bad as treating UEDF as a Private Limited Company. Dr. Merera has the happy duty to achieve that in the next few weeks.

It is no use pointing an accusing finger at me or at one or more members of UEDF that have serious questions about UEDF since we have a democratic right to do that, and since ignoring them or giving them bad names is not going to move Ethiopia forward. UEDF has to urgently re-examine itself and make itself agreeable to all parties and to all of us, and all that we request you is to assure us that UEDF is not another EPRDF.

I also want the audience in Frankfurt/Main next month, and elsewhere, to ask those same urgent questions and push the UEDF leaders to be internally democratic by responding to the concerns openly and adequately in a manner that is not a replica of that of EPRDF.

Otherwise, as the saying goes, “yichi ttire kaderech atikorettemim,” and Ethiopia may not even be allowed to continue at the current level of elite-sponsored and elite-cultivated shame and bleeding. The Diaspora needs to be less emotional and more critical if our aspiring political leaders are to be responsive to the needs of a democratic and prosperous Ethiopia.