We placed trust on the reform: Ephrem Madebo

Patriotic Ginbot 7 Movement for Unity and Democracy Political Affairs Head Ephrem Madebo recently sat with our reporter Abdurezak Mohammed on issues relating to current political situation in the country. Excerpts:

The Ethiopian Herald: Thank you very much for dedicating your time.

Ato Ephrem Madebo: The pleasure is mine.

Q: To begin with, you get back home after 28 years. What did you feel when you set feet in the Ethiopian soil?

Ephrem:  I was emotional during that moment to say the least. Actually, my arrival was not made public as it had happened ahead of the official date AG 7 leadership entered home. That was actually for personal reasons. As a matter of fact, I flew direct from Asmara to Ethiopia while the delegation led by Prof. Berhanu Nega did so from Frankfort to Addis. Plus, Addis-Asmara flight takes only one-hour.  And I didn’t like to make long flight to Frankfort then to Addis.

Q: How do you describe your impression after long departure?

Ephrem: Changes are eminent. I traveled from Addis to Hawassa. There are changes across the length and breadth. The population boom is also alarming. In all the places I visited, the youths seem to outnumber the other segments of the population. The vehicular traffic has become beyond my imagination. The industrial parks, high-rise buildings…all are encouraging.

Q: Could you tell us the reason you returned home?  

Ephrem: Ginbot 7 was first established ten years ago, and the merger with Patriotic Front (Arbegnoch Ginbar) had happened back in 2015. Our grand ambition was to dismantle then repressive political system in Ethiopia and usher the country in the phase of transition. It is eventually to install durable democratic system.

Despite our attempts, the last couple of years had brought an unprecedented situation in the country—i.e., the youths movement in the Northern and Central parts of Ethiopia. And these movements crushed the pillars of the repressive system. The change that we see and feel now has been delivered as result.     

Hence, our stance started to see changes in that we were convinced to change our strategy of struggle. The changes have been concluded with laying down arms, to resort to peaceful means.

Q: Does that mean it comes all of a sudden?

Ephrem: Actually, we closely observed the changes from its inception. We were vigilantly pondering about the actions of Team Lemma. The team’s stance comes to the fore with the vibrant words of current Oromia State President Lemma Megersa. His catch all phrase ‘Ethiopianism is addiction’ signaled real changes.  It was, generally, taboo among government officials to hear ‘Ethiopia’ in their mention. Dr. Abiy’s predecessor’s, former Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn, resignation had no less indication to see light at the end of the tunnel. We connected the dots and created meaningful scenario.

The Coming to office of Dr. Abiy itself had been a great victory to us.

Q: Why?

Ephrem: Previous [dominant cliques of EPRDF], had been preoccupied with sidelining individuals and groups that they perceive threat to the clique despite acceptance from public side and no matter what the viability of the said individuals and groups’ proposals. To our surprise, the clique had been forced to leave the space to the reformists.    

Q: You mean the premier’s coming to office?

Ephrem: Yes, it was historic to see decision going against the previous clique. Team Lemma had secured success in the bag even before the EPRDF Council had met, I suppose. And this brought new line up in the front’s landscape. But the clique’s wish was to nominate some other person to their favor. Nevertheless, the clique utterly lost ground to do so.

Indeed, the system had long been characterized by one-party domination within EPRDF until it left space to an even worst kind, one-man domination. But, Dr. Abiy’s power is not nominal like his predecessor.

Thus, week after Dr. Abiy’s coming to office, we suspended armed struggle.

Q: That means, you were confident about the reform’s continuity.

Ephrem: We remained skeptical for some time. The security forces had long been used to the advantages of the previous political clique. Unless a kind of reform gets institutional backing, it is likely to be futile. It was sure that the clique sustained political defeat. But that was not enough. The Premier’s subsequent appointments of new blood on security posts like intelligence and military elevated our confidence to the optimum. Scrutinizing these developments, the executive made decision to enter home before the onset of the Ethiopian New Year.

Q: How do you view the recent Dr. Abiy’s cabinet reshuffling?

Ephrem: I got the information from my tweeter page while in meeting in Burkina Faso. I had not been in Ethiopia for nearly three decades. And I personally don’t know the appointees’ portfolios. However, we’re very optimist that the Premier does things with utmost care. I appreciated the women’s appointment; it is exemplary, if not encouraging, to young girls. They feel that sky is the limit to their talent. 

Q: This is the second after the Premier took office.

Ephrem: But it did not come as a surprise to us. We lost two opportunities back in 1966 and 1986. And this one should not be missed. To success the reform effort, such reshuffles are crucial and it has to be in line with the demands of the reform. It could even continue until the people appointed could have good footing in the reform’s landscape. Put it another way, if any member of the cabinet fail to deliver as per the requirement of the reform, we may see another reshuffling. This is natural. Everyone has to put trust on the reform. Otherwise the cost we pay would be dangerous.

Q: Do you think government is soft on anti-reformists?

Ephrem: There is obvious tension between the reformists and anti-reformists. Violence could be aggravated easily. The people may see government is soft on those who commission violence. But, there are times that measures could further aggravate violence. Thus, it is good the government is tolerant.

Besides, I carefully followed the EPRDF Congress held recently in Hawassa. The Prime Minister pledged serious measure on anti-reform forces. He also mentioned this during the Oromo Democratic Party’s (ODP) meeting that held in Jimma. We expect the government would take wise measure that could not impede the change.  

Conflict is natural. But government has to create ground for us to work together, and to arbitrate among us.

Q: The law requires registration and receipt of license to operate as opposition. Could you tell us whether or not you are in the process?   

Ephrem: We have no program. We have no social, economic and political policies. In addition, our members have been working clandestinely. It requires us to organize them officially. Moreover, we are Movement now. The next months would be used to elevate our status to party level, and we’ll get registered. 

Q: Why did you choose to operate without policies?

Ephrem: Our Movement, when established in 2008, was on the ground of issues that hold us together. For instance, Ethiopians in unison uphold justice, democracy and Ethiopianism itself. The usual trend is prone to controversy. That means if we draw social, economic and political polices, differences are sure to surface. We did not like this at the earler stage. Political, economic …programs and policies of parties are good but we decided to trek through a different path.  

Q: Do you have any plan to merge with other parties?

Ephrem: We’ll invite other entities to participate in our party formation congress. Otherwise, once we get legal personality as party, we won’t accept any merger.  Merger has its own daunting aspects. To cite, the leadership would be quota based. People that your congress does not vote for may assume to leadership post.

Q: So, you would be prepared for the election in the mean time?

Ephrem: We work with sense of urgency to get well prepared. But we believe that the time in between is not enough to carry out national election. It is less than two years. The government has to understand this.

Q: Does it mean the election has to be postponed?

Ephrem: Yes, we believe. We discussed this with the government. They say the election would go according to the time frame. But the government also pledged to reconsider postponement if parties and other concerned bodies come up with sound justification.

Q: Why do you insist that?

Ephrem: The opening of democratic space itself is not enough. The players also determine the landscape. Building culture of dialogue among oppositions themselves needs time, on one hand.

Democratic institutions had long been instruments of the corrupt system. The independence of judicial system, the electoral board, media and the like has to be ensured, not to mention the security sector.

There should be consensus on the election system as well. Do we need to continue with the current simple majority system or do we need to resort to proportional one? Should we uphold the current parliamentary system or should we move to presidential system? These issues have to be properly be dealt.

It would be the cart before the horse, if we jump to election without strong institutions, therefore. But if we take time to build independent democratic institutions and civil societies, the election would be free and fair.

Plus, scholars, business men and the like have no active role in politics. Thus, we ought to draw them to the playing board.

Moreover, rushing to hold election without fulfilling the necessary conditions I mentioned may end up spoiling this historic opportunity. 

Q: What will the party that you may form pursue?

Ephrem: When we appear as party, we will design viable polices centering on the creation of social justice.

Q: Will you come as big-tent party or …?

Ephrem: Ethnic politics have sharp edges. It promotes differences than bringing people together. It is a cause of intolerance. I was born and grew up in Hawassa. I did not remember clashes between the Sidama and Wolaita people both as a kid and as a youth. Now ethnic-driven violence has become a usual phenomenon. Our political system should revolve around citizenship. That’s the way to build the country. And we’re here to reinforce such political approach. 

Q: What’s wrong with identity politics?

Ephrem: If you are organized on the ground of identity, you have no space to other kind of identities.  If you find people with different identity in your empire, you feel ownership of that empire and may try to force others out. It is satirical that Ephrem who managed to live and prosper in the US, where he is treated as alien, cannot choose place to live and prosper in Ethiopia. And this is the result of ethnicity. Ethnicity and religion are sensitive issues. This is one source of violence. Thus, political organization on the ground such issues is dangerous. We have witnessed deadly clashes in many parts of the country after the ethnic boundaries come to existence. Take Moyale, for instance, which had been hallmark of peace. But, now the situation is different. Countries in Africa demonized ethnic federalism. We can take lesson from Nigeria and Ghana. 

Q: And you claim citizenship politics is the way out?

Ephrem: African countries take their system of administrations from their colonizers. And that did not work here. The Colonizers went through years of nation-state building, and the model had worked for them. Liberal democracy, however, failed in Africa.  We have witnessed coups after coups and unrests in Africa despite elections.

The political arrangement in Africa has to be in line with the socio-economic and cultural system of the people. In Ethiopia, the federal system was installed without preceding it with adequate scientific studies. Had it been based on empirical study, Southern part couldn’t have been subject to redesigning that underwent twice.  The architects did not consult the linguists, geographers, cartographers, historians, political scientists and the likes.

The federalism could have also taken criteria such as population size, development potentials, land area, wealth distribution and historic contacts. It was only linguistic reality that was considered.

Q: You’re saying that your party promotes citizen politics. But, the travels you’ve made so far seem to be limited to some places. Why is that?

Ephrem: By the way Jigjiga, Mekele, Jimma, and the like are in our itineraries. But we need guarantee s to the security of our leaders. Actually, the leadership in Amhara state cooperated for that. And this is the reason we were successful there.

Q: You mean the others are not cooperative?

Ephrem: Not all states. But there is a state that the administrators even aggressively treated us.  

Q: There was information regarding split of Arbegnoch Ginbar from Ginbot 7, how far is this true?   

Ephrem: Let me tell you two facts here. In 2011, the legitimate source of power in our Movement is election. Individuals defeated in election all of a sudden started to spread rumors that Ginbot 7 splits into two factions. They immediately get backing from the previous ruling clique as well as from people who rather do not support us. They campaigned against us for over a month, one. And some sympathizers even urged us to issue statement on it. But we gave no statement.

Our merger with Arbenoch Ginbar happened in 2015.  And we heard the news of split for second time recently. Similar to the previous one, it was one individual whom we fired on account of theft and other crimes that spread the baseless news. Our court sentenced this individual for three months of imprisonment in Eritrea.  But he took refuge in Eritrea after being expelled both from leadership and from the movement. We refuted the unfounded claim via various media.

Q: How do you prove that?

Ephrem: Close to 5,000 fighters are still with us. We are finding ways and means of readjustment to get them back to civilian life. The executive and councils are still intact. Such baseless claim is common in Ethiopia. But the media should not rush to announce such claims. Media people should verify facts.

Q: Where are the fighters now?

Ephrem: The fighters are in military camp in Amhara State. And it is a non-governmental entity established for this purpose that is coordinating the task of reintegration. We even have no contact with them. The NGO along with other international bodies is closely followings their case in addition to raising funds to reintegrate them to civilian life.

Q: Few alluded your Movement with the recent deadly clash in the outskirt of Addis, what do you comment on that?   

Ephrem: The issue has to do with the tricolor flag. It is the flag that our movement has been using. But we haven’t set direction for supports to use the flag. Our supporters waved the flag in masse and put the flags in public areas when the leadership of AG7 entered home. Similarly, supporters of OLF also brought the flag the flag that represent them. We cooperated with Oromo Democratic Front that uses the same flag. And we have respect others rights. Thus, it was right for the supports to put their flags in areas they like so long as they did it legally. But the fact is that the youths from both sides were emotional. We also gave statement to refrain such unlawful actions. Otherwise, we did give no direction to this end.

Q: So who is behind that?

Ephrem: Federal Police Commissioner General Zeynu Jemal said they tracked 8 million Birr. It does not require mental gymnastics to guess who could spend such amount of money. But I can say that it is anti-peace forces that involved in the deadly conflict.

Q: But two of your members detained allegedly for coordinating mass rally following the deadly clash in the outskirt of Addis.  

Ephrem: Yes, it was for coordinating demonstration. But one of the accused people was with us in Bahar Dar on the same date the demonstration occurred in Addis. Actually, coordinating demonstration itself is not a crime.  

The Ethiopian Herald: Thank you.