Response to Gurummesa Gurum’s “on elders’ attempt”

Dilwenberu Nega

20/11/09

Dear Gurummesa Gurum

I feel duty bound to respond to your comment.  Unfortunately, you have got the wrong end of the stick.  Neither Aiga Forum nor I have advocated for EPDRF’s heavy handedness.  What we have done, and no doubt, we will continue to do is to high-light the need for respect of the Constitution as well as the pitfalls inherent in appeasement.

Nor are we EPDRFites ‘intoxicated’ with the puerile belief that EPDRF must be the sole and undisputed occupant of Arat Kilo.  You see what is important, here, is not who is right or who is wrong, but what is right and what is wrong.  It is MEDREK which had walked out twice from the All Party Talks; it is MEDREK which is to this day continuing to denounce the Code of Conduct and, worse of all, it is MEDREK which is publically promoting the need to have a Kenyan/Zimbabwean style of government of national unity before we have even started election campaign.

These are the on-going unadulterated facts we face with MEDREK.  EPDRF, on the other hand, had so far dealt the matter with due care and attention.  What, then, do you expect EPDRF to do under the circumstances – give in to MEDREK?  Besides, in which democracy do you find a ruling party negotiating with an opposition about this or that election matter?  In a parliamentary democracy such as ours, the appropriate venue to raise concerns such as MEDREK’s are in Parliament, or take recourse lodging a complaint with the National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE).

You do not have to have preternatural abilities, therefore, to realise that MEDREK’s unflinching desire to talk solely with EPDRF is to raise matters which are tangential to the elections.  The track record of EPDRF, as I hope you are familiar, is redolent with instances of EPDRF going to great length in order to be more accommodative to the sometimes wayward behaviour of our toddler opposition parties.  But in politics there comes a point when you do not, under any circumstances, deviate from what in your heart-of hearts you believe in the right course of action to take.  For EPDRF that point has revealed itself.  No hesitation or deviation from the Constitution must be the order of the day.

On a lighter note, do remember that you and I know EPDRF takes pride of the fact that it has over the years evolved into a broad-church.  But this should be taken in its political and not religious sense – which means that EPDRF is not bound by the teachings of the scripture: “...If someone strikes you of the right cheek, turn to him the other also.”

I hope my prom response has gone some way to allay your fear and concern.

With my best wishes

Dilwenberu Nega