interview by
Robert Wiren
Les nouvelles d'Addis
Addis Ababa, April 4th 2005
Mr Bulcha Demeksa is one the Ethiopian opposition leaders. He was born in 1930 and graduated in economics and finance. In 1967 he was appointed vice-minister of Finance before representing his country at the board of the World Bank. In 1974, as the revolution started, he left Ethiopia and was hired by the UN administration. He took his retirement in Ethiopia in 1991 and he created in 1994 the Awash International Bank which became a success story. And only a few months ago, he launched a political party, the OFDM.
LNA. You have said that the Oromos are unhappy. Is it a new situation or is it an old problem ?
Bulcha Demeksa. It is an old problem. It changes with regimes. When the emperors were in power, they were using Oromos and their land like serfs. Almost like slaves. The nature of that unhappiness is that the Oromos were not treated like the people in the northern part of the country. They were treated like colonized people. The colonized people in Kenya or Nigeria were not treated as badly as that. Colonized people were treated more decently. Our emperors beeing backward people themselves, they were not very kind to Oromo peasants. They took their land, they made them work for them, they made their families work for them. This was the cause of unhappiness before. As time went on, the problems were refined. For example during the Derg. When it came to power, the Derg said it would reform the land tenure system. “The land to the tiller”, and of course the Oromos understood that it meant them. And the Oromos were very happy. As the Derg became stronger and stronger, the power was concentrated in Addis Ababa among the elite of Ethiopia, the elite of Addis Ababa I should say. So the Oromos were totally ignored and then the oppression of the Derg was concentrated on the peasants. Peasants means basically Oromos because they are farmers and their land is fertile. The Derg made them produce certain quotas every year. So Oromo farmers were more oppressed then even before. When the Derg was overthrown, this government came and the Oromos saw their own people among them. It was the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF). OLF was with this government and the Oromos were very optimistic. But very soon, in less than one year and a half, the Oromo leaders were expelled or they expelled themselves. They left Ethiopia. They said that they could not operate in Ethiopia because the EPRDF gave them an impossible time : this party was legislating laws in Parliament ignoring them, it won an election which was totally rigged. Altogether OLF was treated very badly. And they left. EPRDF alone continued to rule the country and started to fight with the OLF. So many thousands of Oromo young men went to jail because they were considered as sympathizers with OLF.
LNA. How strong was the support of OLF among the people ?
BD. During the 18 months or so that OLF remained in Ethiopia, 1991-1992, they really left a huge impression on people. They were energetic, they were imaginative. They told Oromos how to change their lives. They told them that they could be a force in Ethiopia. “Look, you are the largest single group. You should control the political power. You should not always be serfs. You should be up there. You should make political decisions, you should control your ressources”. They told them a lot of things. In 18 months. So the Oromos were very impressed by the OLF. But they left and there was a disconnexion. And only a dream was left, an imaginary force that was going to liberate them. So the OLF was not anymore there but many young men went to jail or are still in jail.
LNA. Is this because they were active or just suspected ?
BD. You know, in any country young men are very revolutionary. They talk and have all kind of activities. May be there was no contact with the OLF, but they talk about the Oromo dream of beeing liberated.
LNA. Could you now define what could be the Oromo dream, to be secessionist and separate or to have a better recognition and be master of their own state ?
BD. This has been changing. Initially, in the 90’s, the OLF told their people they could be free and become an independent state. But OLF itself observed the Oromo situation. They found that the Oromo people are not really interested in secession or beeing an independent country. They gave up their proposal. They improved their program.
LNA. The OLF itself has now dropped the initial objective ?
BD. Definitely. They have given that up 9 years ago.
LNA. What is now their main objectives ?
BD. They want a number of things, such as : Oromo language should be an official language, like French is in Canada. They say the Oromos should be the masters of their destiny in the sense that they would control their ressources, their lands and the underground ressources. They could share it with the federal government according to certain laws. They think that in the political arena they should be the boss. They should control political power also, be the power elite because they are the largest single group, they say. Therefore, first of all they want to control their own state and secondly they want also to play a major role in the federal governement.
LNA. Do you share these kind of objectives ?
BD. Absolutely, but I do’nt believe in using force. I believe completely in a peaceful movement, that the Oromos elect their own officials freely and that these would be part of the controlling elite.
LNA. But if you unite people on the sole base of ethnic solidarity, one diverts the attention from social conflicts which exists in any society, with the richer, those who have economic power and the poorer.
BD. When people talk about social classes, it is class against class. In any case it is ethnicity against ethnicity or class against class. People are always interested in protecting their group interests. Let me tell you this : as long as litteracy is as low as it is in Ethiopia or in other African countries, people are going to vote according to their ethnic connexions. So Oromos, like any other tribe in Africa vote for Oromo, are going to vote for Oromo politicians because they know them. They speak their language. I do’nt think that this is certainly the base of conflict. It is like a federal structure. The Oromos have their own home within the federal structure, the others have theirs. They can live in peace together. There is no need to fight on the base of ethnicity.
LNA. . You accept the idea of federated states, but you citicize the way it is working now.
BD. Now it is not constitutional in the sense that the powers in Addis still issue orders to the presidence of states like the emperors did. It is a fake federalism.
LNA. It is a start may be ?
BD. How long are people going to wait ? The start must be fast, otherwise people are going to give up. We want a real federal structure to work. We don’t want that people lie to us and say : this is a federal state and then they follow the same system that emperors had in the past. For example, we have this false parliamentary system. It does not work for us.
LNA. What do you advocate ?
BD. A presidential system where people compete and the one who gets a majority of votes should be the elected president.
LNA. In that case, if it is according to the number of votes, there will always be an Oromo president.
BD. Not always. We are only 40% of the population. There will always be a coalition.
LNA. . If one person has too much power, will he not be tempted to help his own ethnic group ?
BD. But you know that the presidential system is a very controlled system. There are checks and balances. You have a court system, you have the presidents of states, you have the federal parliament, you have the parliaments of states. The president is not going to be a king.
LNA. You want to modify the Constitution ?
BD. Yes, if my party wins in the future, that will be the first thing we do, to change the system and have a presidential system.
LNA. Now let us come to the present situation. How do you intend to develop your movement ? Oromiya is quite big. You must have people to organize local comitees, etc.
BD. Our movement which was created only four months ago, has a central comitee with Oromos from all the regions.
LNA. Is it not a big challenge to participate to elections after such a short time ?
BD. It is a challenge for a young party. But what people forget : we are not entirely new. We are based on Oromo consciousness. And in less than three months we could field 125 candidates. That is historical.
LNA. But you were not able to have the number of candidates you would like.
BD. No, far from it. Neither in terms of number of candidates, nor in terms of regions that we cover. We are only competing in Awassa, Harar and Addis Ababa, other than Oromiya.
LNA. Until now, during this campaign, could you debate and organize meetings ?
BD. There are various types of debates. The one organized by the Inter Africa Group are very unfairly organized. They have their own judgement and think that only three parties are important, EPRDF and the two coalitions. But they will be very surprised.
LNA. Is this NGO not neutral ?
BD. It is biased. They think that Orormos are peasants and do not influence the course of politics in Ethiopia. And therefore they can ignore them. They think that anybody can go on top of the Oromos and get their votes, that Oromos give blindly their votes to EPRDF.
LNA. Did your campaign start deep in the rural constituencies and do you have enough members to do that ?
BD. Our problem is not about the number of members but about time.
LNA. If a candidate of EPRDF asks what is the difference between your movement and OLF ?
BD. We are very different. We are working within the Ethiopian constitutional framework. Many chapters of the Constitution are acceptable to us. Not only that, but we are peaceful, we are not fighting, we have no guns. That is a very fundamental difference. May be some of our beliefs are the same as theirs. We believe that no violence should be used in order to obtain self-determination. That can be done through voting. We want to enpower the Oromo people so that they can vote and change their destiny.
LNA. The Eritreans were very skilled in lobbying abroad for their cause. Is there a similar action among Oromos to lobby or at least to inform the outside world about their problem ?
BD. . It is a very good question. The problem is that the Oromos are of divided mind. The Eriteans were so united. We are a very big ethnic group, all over Ethiopia. Not all of us want to be independent.
LNA. To begin you started talking about the bad fate of the Oromo peasants during the time of the emperors. But can you say that the Amhara peasants were better well of in Godjam or Begemder ?
BD. That is a question I always tried to answer myself. Actually, economically the Amhara peasants were just as poor. The problem was that their sons and daughters came to Addis Ababa, became the ruling class and oppressed Oromo people. Psychologically at last the Amhara peasants felt they were part of the ruling class. The problem was that the Oromo land was taken, their land was not taken. Their sons were generals, lawyers, engineers. Very few Oromos held high positions. It was only during the Derg that Oromos could really be able to get higher education. I was in the government of Hayle Sellassie and I was probably one of the four known deputy ministers.
LNA. About Oromo culture would you say that some progress has been made since the Empire ?
BD. I would say... yes, but I think it is very artificial. It does not carry with it material things. It is just annoucement. The Oromos can speak their language, they conduct courts in their language and so on. There is a slight improvement, a little bit of a cultural revival but without material changes.
LNA. But when you leave Addis Ababa travelling south in Oromo territory one sees that it is expanding economically. You have factories in Akaki, Dukem and Bishoftu. Is this wealth not profitable to Oromo people ?
BD. I was hoping that you would come to that kind of question. These lands are taken away from Oromo people. The factories and the warehouses are not built by Oromo people but by outsiders and Oromos became only workers in these facilities. The land was sold to investors. The Oromos would be paid 5 birr per square meter and the government would sell the land to investors 500 birr or more per square meter.
LNA. You hope to change this situation through the elections. Do you expect that the next election will allow your cause to make a big step ?
BD. Not only my party, but all the opposition parties will make significant progress. You see, Ethiopia is more and more involved in international affairs. You cannot be isolated and practice dictatorship. Ethiopia has to give in and practice what other African countries are trying to practice and that is democracy. Therefore the party which is supported by the majority of people will have to be in power. This unavoidable. This country is composed mainly of Amharas, Oromos and Tigres. This three forces have to come to a consensus. Otherwise there will always be conflicts and violence in Ethiopia. For Ethiopia to have a peaceful federal structure, the three important ones have to come together ans resolve to live together.
LNA. Do you think the present leadership will accept the result of the elections if they are not so good for him ?
BD. If it is not so good for them, they may find all kind of excuses to retain power. But the pressure is going to be so big because of what is happening in other parts of the world. If they loose I think this government will give in. But I am not saying they will loose.
LNA. The international context is an ally for you ?
BD. Absolutely right. We have to comply to the demands of the rest of the world. We are a poor country. We cannot just say : we are a dictatorship and we do’nt care what the rest of the rest of the world says.
Retour au dossier "élections générales, Éthiopie, 15 mai 2005"
