Ethiopian newspapers seized with debate over federalism

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Sunday Nov 23rd
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - The Ethiopian media trained its attention on the role of the opposition political parties this week, as debate on the effective of the country's federal political system moved to parliament.

Ethiopia's mainstream daily, the Ethiopian Herald, which typically prioritizes stories on the country's bilateral ties with the rest of the world, paid attention to a fresh debate on the effective of the country's federal system of government.

The debate was ignited by the visit of a Canadian expert on federalism, who elaborated on the need to have a federal structure of government capable of creating a strong central government, but with diverse political representation, including g a strong opposition.

Columnist Dejene Sakoume, while interrogating the federal system of government in his column in the Ethiopian Herald, said over the last 17 years, federal systems appeared to breed conflict between forces of politics and economics.

"On the one hand, because of the favorable and unfavorable conditions, the market moves masses of people from place to place on the one hand, on the other hand, we have a political projection where rights are defined in terms of places of origin," he wrote.
According to the Canadian federalism expert, Prof. Ronald Watts, whose lectures dominated the news pages for three consecutive days of the week, economic policies affect cultural policies and the cultural policies also affect economic policies.

"The two are intertwined. We have to learn that economic policies have to be shared. Some of it done by the federal government and some by the provincial government," he was quoted as telling the Ethiopian Herald.

The Canadian expert said the federal system of government has become more complex and complicated.

In the discussions, the Ethiopian journalists took the view that stronger political parties controlling the central government and making it impossible for the opposition to effectively participate in other chambers of parliament was "antith e sis by nature."

The issue of federalism has come under intense scrutiny in the recent past following the post-election conflict in Kenya.

The Ethiopian foreign ministry experts have in many ways presented the Ethiopian model of federalism and the antidote to such conflict.

In its weekly overview on the Ethiopian Herald, the state-owned daily, the foreign ministry made reference to a conference held in Egypt, where the regional security issues dominated debate, including Ethiopia's interest in Somalia.

Ethiopia's federal system of government also featured prominently in that debate with the Ethiopian experts attributing the peace and order in the East African nation to its federal nature of governance, which has ensured 'effective' regional representation.