Addis Ababa, 07 October 2015 (WIC) – Participants of the panel discussion organized by Federal Police Commission about the National Flag Day Celebration and the Proclamation on the use and other issues of the flag underscored that law enforcement bodies in general and the police in particular have double mission both in respecting and making the flag and the law ratified for it respected.
Ayele Mulugeta, Vice President of Ethiopian Police University College, while chairing the panel discussion, said Police needs to respect and make respected both the national flag and the law governing its use. In that, police has a double mission. As citizens, the police have to respect the flag and the law governing its use. As a law enforcing organ of the government, it has to make sure that the flag is used in a proper way as provided by the proclamation. “For the question why the law is not properly implemented so far, we need to look in ourselves as a law enforcing organs of the government,” he remarked.
The participants agreed on the prevalence of flag misuse both in government and public domains at large. They said that in the due course of respecting and making the national flag respected, awareness creating activities should come first even though ignorance of the law cannot be an excuse for mishandling of the flag. Besides, such legal documents needs to be accessible.
“The Ethiopian Flag kept the public intact like glue over a long period of time throughout the course of history,” said Zufanias Alemu, a practicing lawyer while presenting the historical background about flag use in Ethiopia by comparing and contrasting it to the present day.
The other point that was raised in the panel discussion was the lack of detailed directive. Lack of directive is hampering the implementation of the proclamation. They argued that most people do not make use of the national flag inappropriately not out of bad intention but in their desire to express their love and compassion for it.
The panelists underlined that the flag rose to the place where it is today after many generations sacrificed their blood.
“It is the national symbol that identifies our country at an international arena as a sovereign state. It is the source of our pride and identity. People make use of the flag in a different way to express their love for it. Some dress it as a dress while some other makes use of it as t-shirt. People do that not because they have bad intention about it. Thus, the law needs a room to accommodate such a practice,” argued the panelists now and then.
The house needs to produce the detailed directive to implement it by the same analogy. But, due to the professional turnover the directive was not issued timely. I think, the points related with directive will be solved soon. However, the law takes in to consideration a number of country experience in to account while drafting it. It does not prohibit making use of the flag in the way mentioned earlier as far as it carries the proper color proportion and emblems,” explained Dawit, Chairman of the National Flag Day Celebration Committee.