Report

Ethiopia: Ethnic Federalism and its Discontents

Excerpt: “The Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front
(EPRDF), led by its chairman and prime minister, Meles Zenawi, has radically reformed Ethiopia’s political system.
The regime transformed the hitherto centralized state into the Federal Democratic Republic and also redefined
citizenship, politics and identity on ethnic grounds. The intent was to create a more prosperous, just and representative
state for all its people. Yet, despite continued economic growth and promised democratization, there is growing discontent with the EPRDF’s ethnically defined
state and rigid grip on power and fears of continued inter-ethnic conflict. The international community should take
Ethiopia’s governance problems much more seriously and adopt a more principled position towards the government. Without genuine multi-party democracy, the tensions and pressures in Ethiopia’s polities will only grow, greatly increasing the possibility of a violent eruption that would
destabilize the country and region.
The endeavour to transform Ethiopia into a federal state is led by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which has dominated the coalition of ethno-nationalist
parties that is the EPRDF since the removal in 1991 of the Derg, the security services committee that overthrew Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974. The EPRDF quickly
institutionalised the TPLF’s policy of people’s rights to self-determination and self-rule. The federal constitution
ratified in 1994 defined the country’s structure as a multicultural federation based on ethno-national representation.”