Addis Ababa, 23 May 2015 (WIC) – Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said that democracy refers to various issues not only to election.
In an exclusive interview with Al-Jazeera, the premier elaborated the status of democracy, human rights, press freedom and the future of Ethiopia.
Responding to some of the questions posed by Al- Jazeera, Premier Hailemariam said that let our people judge us, not somebody from outside. After all, a democratic, credible, fair and free election should be credible in the eyes of our people, who are responsible for electing all of us.
According to the Premier, credibility of the election lies in the eyes of the public, the Prime Minister remarked. Regarding the recently signed Declaration of Principles, he said what is important is creating mutual trust and mutual respect which he said is important for discussion.
He added that Ethiopia’s 90 million citizens are part of a healthy, multi-party democracy that holds elections every five years.
Ethiopia‘s democracy is a house in the making where every election is getting better than the previous election, he said adding that apart from conducting periodic election, Ethiopia considers participating and engaging the public in all aspects of development as an important aspect of democracy.
He also said that democracy is not considered as a matter of choice but as an existential issue. He also rejected the allegation that there is wealth disparity in Ethiopia despite an impressive growth.
The Premier emphasized that such allegation comes from misunderstanding about the mainstay of Ethiopia’s growth.
Ethiopian farmers and agriculture are the engines behind Ethiopia’s growth and dismissed the allegation of wealth disparity saying out of 70 million farmers only 15% are below poverty which shows the fairly distributed wealth, the 15% figure is a drop from 50% fifteen years ago, he added.
The war over poverty is not over and it is no miracle for people to leave the country in search of better life and stressed the inevitability of fighting poverty tooth and nail to tackle migration and subsequent challenges, His Excellency PM Hailemariam emphasized.
According to Hailemariam, Ethiopia needs 10-15 years to effectively eradicate absolute poverty which he said will bring a real change and he rejected criticisms of Human Right Watch and other right groups on the anti terrorism law and human rights in general as ideologically motivated.
He said “We are criticized because we do not accept the neo liberal prescription”. Regarding freedom of speech and allegation of arrest of journalists on the ground of violating the anti-terrorism law, he said.
Regarding Ethiopia’s anti-terror law, he noticed that it is just a copy of similar laws of countries like UK and there is no special reason that makes it vulnerable to castigation.
Many countries like UK, Australia and France are making their anti terror laws tougher to underscore the importance of the law as Ethiopia is facing challenges from Alshabaab , Ginbot 7, OLF and ONLF, groups labeled as terrorists by the Ethiopian parliament, he said.
Hailemariam also elaborated situations in connection to the allegation of the detention of Zone 9 as political, he said, “if you become a blogger after joining a terrorist group you will not be immune from being tried before a court of law.”
National News