Beyond Ideological Bout

If only Desta has told me earlier I would have saved my 16.95 plus tax I spent on Ian Shepiro’s book “the State of Democratic theory.” I could not find “Revolutionary Democracy” in this west centric book. Little did I know our brothers searching for anchoring ideological theory have navigated like a Magilan from east to west and back to Africa. I say more power to you – who would be against the assertion that Africa, after all, is the beckon of democracy long before the Greeks. Though, you must admit, it would be a hard sell, in case of Ethiopia whose political system for thousands years is that of Selemonic Dynasty. I mean, the constant battle b/n Tigray and Gonder, Gojam and and Wello and Shewa is not to preserve authentic democracy of Bayto but to reclaim the Solomonic throne which each party claimed he/she exclusively deserved. I say we are all students of democracy,but if revising of history makes you at ease with your current political skin - Yikunelka. You say “Democracy can only be genuinely and quickly ensured in smaller unit of sovereignty. And the best way to do it is through Revolutionary Democracy.” I say if you say so, good for you. There is more than one way to skin a cat .The burden is to show that smaller units are really sovereign and self contained democracies.

You see the theory of “Revolutionary Democracy” is not in debate here. It may have been lost on you, but I am cognizant of the energy and time lost on useless argument of our “bolshevic and menshevic”,“Labador” and “Wezador” – by brilliant minds that could have spent their time putting food on the table of the poor in the name of whom they have spilled the blood of their adversary all over Ethiopia after the 1974 revolution. It was misunderstanding of what “the Transformation” I had in mind, when commenting about Alamudi, that lead you astray to such condescending, alas hilarious, academic contortion about Revolutionary Democracy. Again you totally misread what I said and went on barrage “the futile attempt to confuse people to believe that Revolutionary Democracy is alien is utterly stupid.” Well stupid is what stupid does and I never allege Revolutionary Democracy is alien concept. Your comment

‘In societies that are infested with little souls who satiate with having a dollar worth sandwich irrespective of the fact that there are others who unjustly have double whopper, or worst there are others who dig dumpsters to stay breathing, democracy will remain a fantasy”

shows unhealthy and unsettling understanding of Western Democracy. I know people of such mentality that wasted their time complaining about the “Man” engrossed in futile search of “Afrocentric” theories instead of helping the American youth, who is primarly dying at young age by black on black crime, pull himself on his boot strap and make something of himself. Yes the "little soul that satiate with having dollar worth of Sandwitch" knows that once he/she could not venture to the store the very food it bought because of his/her color and have faith in what tomorrow brings and there were millions who died in the name hopeless dream of Marxism and Leninism. I doubt if you realy know the western democracies you despise and claimed that I am clueless about.

Surely Revolutionary Democracy can not be such antagonistic ideology?

Faced with Anti-Government forces and their assertion that the constitution is a law of the beast (Hige Arawit), the prime Minster did not go disparaging Western Constitutions and asserting that ours as unique African creation. What he did was settle the issue once and for all by making comparison with constitutions of other democratic counties and show that our constitution is as good as any other. Nobody is asking for Indian Constitution, German or Canadian constitution. Having shown that our constitution is as good as any other, the rest is to strive to achieve the ideals of the constitution. That would be done by perfecting it at home and learning from the experience of other countries which have different but follow the same international standard as ours. Likewise, unlike your presumptuous assertion that I am asking to transplant “what we don’t know to fix a problem of what I don’t understand”, I am of the belief that our democracy can be as good as any other and the more we learn from others the better. Unless “Revolutionary democracy” claims to be a brand of its own incompatible with other countries, whether you fetch it from Albania, China, or Russsia or assert an AfroCentric roots, it should accept the parameters upon which a country is said to be governed democratically i.e

1) Elected officials,
2) Free, Fair and frequent elections
3) Freedom of expression
4) Alternative sources of information
5) Associational autonomy (the freedom to organize forming a party being one)
6) Inclusive citizenship

In an era where the world is way pass the divide over ideology, I am not interested to engage on the merits of Revolutionary Democracy. Unlike you I give Revolutionary Democrats, however tortured path they traveled, are striving to be democratic and that their brand of democracy is as good as any other and is open for a give and take from the lessons of other democratic countries. You are the one who has problem reconciling your version of Democracy with other forms of democracy and exhibit such revulsion even to common terms – terms unavoidable when speaking about –democracy. Frankly I don’t think you believe in democracy or the democratic path in Ethiopia – which explains your convoluted explanation and claim of exclusivity. And that is an insult to those who are striving to building democracy even to the extent of accommodating the opposition who are just Anti- government forces, giving head start at their expense in hope that multi-party system will be a reality in Ethiopia. If you don’t have faith that developmental state can be democratic state it is your problem – the prime Minster has clearly stated how a country can be both democratic and developmental. I advise you go back and do your Tehadisso. And by democratic it means but one that does not compromise the basic parameters of democracy, for short of that it is not acceptable and should never be acceptable.
Having taken the stand that “Revolutionary democracy” to be as good as any other in its own right, the transformation pointed in the last articles is a transformation that any self preserving party should do, and quite frankly EPRDF is smartly doing since election 2005 whose fruits are born in election 2008. And more should be done in the face of smarting opposition and the demanding citizen. And questioning the wisdom of recycling unfavorable individuals to power or looking back to election readiness of individual candidates as well as the party and pointing to some solutions for the ruling party to look into is the least we can do to help the democratization process.
[Alula Nega 05/18/08]