By Mezemir Girma
“Once in power, the Nazis implemented racial laws and policies that deprived Jews, Black people, and Roma (Gypsies) of their rights,” reads part of an article from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The same model seems to have been copied and implemented on the members of various victim ethnicities in Ethiopia over the last three decades. A phone call or a request to visit their bosses’ offices that is reaching individual government employees these days must be part of a bigger covert program which is cascading from the constitution. People who are increasingly caught by other complicated life and national issues these days almost forgot it as something which is part of their everyday lives. This activity which we are dealing with is the implementation stage of the sinister ethnic-centered policy. How could one ingest this act which is more of like adding gas to burning fire at this time of juncture Ethiopia is in? Such seemingly trivial issues like ethnic profiling of government employees should awaken Ethiopians or humanity at large.
Citizens of this country suffered immensely for three decades and their plight doesn’t seem to abate to date. Since the obsession with divide and rule is in the mindset of the politicians who were brought up by the TPLF is it could take us a long way to come out of it. Depriving communities of their rights, silently working on minimizing their population, economic deprivation, all type of influence have been experimented in this country. Human rights violations range from individual ones to big scale. Vanity from the world over has been copied and inflicted upon the people.
“Hello Mr X. A new form that every employee should fill in has come. Please tell us a few pieces of information and let us fill it on your behalf. First, could you tell us your ethnicity?” This is a call that employees of Federal institutions have been receiving these days. None seems to care, they simply comply. That is at least what I noticed. Only a few raise the issue among friends’ circles. The registration process has not been questioned by serious personalities, journalists or people concerned. No one seems to deter it. So far, they call and ask those who they think don’t resist the scheme. A social media post from Hawassa disclosed that the registration was underway there and a considerable number of university staff responded as Ethiopians. A few other teachers and staff said that they were asked for place of birth. Just like those Kebele officials in Addis Ababa who went to each household and found out the ethnicities of the residents a few years ago, this one is going smoothly. I just treated the issue here only because they are doing it without a little shame. Who knows about other secret works they are doing?
A few months ago, there was a wind of it. Certain people whom I don’t exactly remember for the time being posted on their social media platforms about the issue. Some of them wrote a few lines opposing the scheme, but the rest just posted photos of notices from the noticeboards of their work places. Those notices required employees of agencies in Addis Ababa and Federal institutions to report to the human resource departments and inform the ethnic groups they belong. Now, the silent work has come to every town in the regions. This may not sound like a surprise. Yes, the Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia is centered on ethnicities than citizens – “We the Nations, Nationalities and People of Ethiopia … our common destiny can best be served by rectifying historically unjust relationships … Every Nation, Nationality and People in Ethiopia has an unconditional right to self-determination, including the right to secession.” – a time bomb! The question in my mind is who is the mastermind of the ethnic-profiling underway at this time and for what purpose?
Politicians who ruled the country for 27 years with an iron-grip used ethnic difference as a means of divide and rule. At that time it was common to hear them speak the issue in public. I remember one mentioning the percentage of employees in Addis Ababa and the need for balance. This answer he brought in response to the question on the unfair distribution of power and resources exposes what sort of calculations they were making. At this time that miscalculation seems to be the guiding principle too. That time could be one in which the politicians and local cadres were almost free and calm to table such issues. They were just issues and the actions they made were more of done backstage than now. At this time of war, increasing cost of living, unrest and almost all type of problem in the country, what use could be ethnic profiling of employees? Won’t it be better to seek a means to rally the population to support in the rebuilding of the nation! It is clearly dousing the dying nation with gas. An escalation of the problems we have could be from those who want the nation crumble than a responsible administration that is ruling a country.
Ethnic profiling and any actions related to dividing the people should halt and the mother of all these vice, the constitution, should be revised accordingly. The current action seems to be in line with what the TPLF led system did when they came to power by the name of putting the ethnic group of people on Kebele identification cards which they used to discriminate against those who they labeled unfriendly. For the current system which promised such fancy ideas as it will give a national identification card and focus on nationality than ethnicity, this seems to be a paradox and puts their undelivered promise in question. The racial laws and policies could be meant to deprive employees of their rights and ethnic groups’ representation at government agencies if not introducing a pre-1994 Rwanda like ethnic quota. If an employee reshuffle or any sort of decision follows this, it will result in a mess. That is in the minds of employees since at this time the administrations terminated employment. They could be planning to use ethnic background than merit. Until that nobody knows what the future holds for Ethiopians.
ምንም አስተያየቶች የሉም:
አስተያየት ይለጥፉ