The Role of Civic Society in the Struggle for freedom, democracy and good governance
One aspect of the struggle in Ethiopia that has not gotten the attention it deserves is the role that civic society organizations like ETA, EFPJA, The Ethiopian National Congress, etc. have been playing in it. A month or so before the May 15 elections, these civic organizations, both at home and abroad, got together and wrote an open letter passionately appealing to the two opposition groups (CUD and UEDF)to coordinate their campaign against the EPRDF by fielding candidates in each district against the EPRDF and not against each other. After the appeal letter was presented to them, it was published, in the form of an open letter, in all Ethiopian newspapers for a couple of weeks, both as a news item and in the form of advertisement.
The civic organizations are now working together, behind and in support of the goals of the opposition, for freedom, democracy, and good governance. They have just published an open letter, again appearing in all publications in Ethiopia, calling on the opposition and the Ethiopian people to ensure that the verdict rendered through the ballot box is honored without any compromise.
It is indeed gratifying to see that these organizations are playing the kind of independent and watch-dog style role in support of freedom, democracy and good governance. As we have observed, the European Union, the U.S. and other forces have been putting a lot of pressure on the opposition and, as political organizations competing for state power, CUD and UEDF can not completely ignore these forces. Civic Society organizations can and should, however, operate without any such pressures. Indeed, they can serve to counterbalance these pressures and compliment the leadership that the opposition parties are providing to ensure that the will of the Ethiopian people expressed through the ballot box is honored and respected.
