It Is All About the Show
A couple of days ago, the VOA Amharic program broadcast an interview with Dr. Beyene Petros – a man that has come to represent the grace and calm which once was the hallmark of what is to be an Ethiopian. The interviewer wanted to know why he and his associates abstained from voting on the bill authorizing the establishment of a mechanism to investigate the state sponsored terror against the Ethiopian people. In explaining the vote of his block in parliament, Dr. Beyene spoke of the language in the resolution which presumes the guilt of the CUD and of other improprieties which reduce the entire exercise to one of confirming Meles’ allegations. He explained why it would not be appropriate to cast even a no vote. He stated that because there exists an urgent need for an independent investigation to identify and bring to justice those who gave the shoot to kill order, his party could not vote no on a bill to investigate the murders of innocent citizens. However, given that the modalities outlined in the draft bill fall far short of establishing an appropriate process for achieving that goal, they could not vote yes. So, the only real option was to vote no.
I got curios as to the language in the bill. Hoping to find out the exact language of the bill, I logged on to the Ethiopian Parliament website http://www.ethiopar.net/. What I found was that, just like everything else in Meles’ Ethiopia, the parliament and its website is all about show and no substance.
A website is God’s gift to those who seek the cheapest way to publish the most current information about the product or service of an organization. As best as I can tell, the only service a parliament performs is to initiate, debate and enact laws. So I expected to see perhaps the transcript of the debate or at least a copy of one of the two most important pieces of legislation acted upon by the third parliament of the FDRE. Oh, but no! Neither the draft bill nor the final piece of legislation were to be found anywhere in that website. For that matter there exist no entries about the work of parliament over the last five years. The last entry for bills adopted or debated was during the 1999/2000 session. It is as if the parliament did not exist over the last five years. Of course I know that many have said that it never really existed and still does not.
The front page of the website greets the visitor and announces itself to be the website of the Ethiopian Parliament. At the top of the page, there is a scrolling banner which reads “DRAFT RESOLUTION ON THE REPORT SUBMITTED BY THE GAMBELLA CONFLICT INQUIRY COMMISSION”. I looked further down the page and noticed a choice of Amharic, English or archive. I paused for a moment to consider what these choices might imply but my attention was drawn to an html link The Seventh ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly 16-19 February, 2004 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. I clicked the ACP-EU link only to find an old general information packet prepared of the delegates of a joint assembly of the parliaments of ACP and EU countries held nearly two years ago. So I proceeded to select the English language choice and went to the main site.
That takes you to a page which gives you choices of going back to the parliament home page, or proceeding to Basic Information, General Information, The House of Peoples' Representatives, The House of the Federation and Current Developments. I was attracted to the current developments sub-heading. The tag line for this link reads “Current Developments will treasure a wealth of information for you on what is currently happening in parliament, what the committees are doing, and the day to day schedules of various activities of the two Houses. It also provides you with information about the day's agenda, minutes of the parliamentary sessions, news and press releases.” The Ebonics aside, it still seems to be the most likely place for me to find the information I need. And so I eagerly clicked the current developments link and presto! that took me to another page with the following links: The House of Peoples' Representatives, The Committees of the House of Peoples' Representatives, The House of the Federation, The Committees of the House of the Federation, and The Press of the Parliament. Well guess what is behind each of these curtains! Well door number one contains nothing as did door number two and every other door. When I clicked, I found empty pages.
So I went back and visited each of the other links on the main page. The Basic Info link gives you information about the country: geography, demography, history, etc. The General Information link takes you to a page which reports on the government of the FDRE and the history of parliament. The link for the House of Peoples’ Representatives has many html linked pages which contain no information. It has a list of bills passed but the link to only one of them actually takes you to a Negarit Gazeta. The rest don’t take you anywhere.
Interestingly enough, of the many other links on that page, the only one that has the info it alludes to is the one titled Educational Status of the Members of The House of Peoples' Representatives According to their Electoral Region (2000-2005). It reminds you of the elite school listing the SAT scores of its freshman class and/or the educational background of its faculty – no mention of what the members have done individually or collectively in their capacity as parliamentarians. What there is, is a long expose on their educational attainments.
In the end, I could not find either the draft submitted to parliament or the approved bill authorizing the establishment of a body to investigate the government’s murderous spree. The website of the Parliament of the FDRE contains no mention of what the Parliament did in this or any other matter over the last several years. Of course this is in keeping with the reality of the Ethiopian parliament. After all, in 14 years, it has never initiated a bill. It has never successfully amended a bill or voted down a bill. It is meant to serve as a rubber stamp body. No more, no less. Its mandate is to assume the position of the legislative branch only for the purpose of completing the organizational chart outlined in the constitution. It is there to show the world that there is a legislative body. Its existence presumes that the observer would not have any reason to look beyond the form and dig into whether this parliament actually does any thing.
In EPRDF land, it is form over substance. It is all about the show!!
I got curios as to the language in the bill. Hoping to find out the exact language of the bill, I logged on to the Ethiopian Parliament website http://www.ethiopar.net/. What I found was that, just like everything else in Meles’ Ethiopia, the parliament and its website is all about show and no substance.
A website is God’s gift to those who seek the cheapest way to publish the most current information about the product or service of an organization. As best as I can tell, the only service a parliament performs is to initiate, debate and enact laws. So I expected to see perhaps the transcript of the debate or at least a copy of one of the two most important pieces of legislation acted upon by the third parliament of the FDRE. Oh, but no! Neither the draft bill nor the final piece of legislation were to be found anywhere in that website. For that matter there exist no entries about the work of parliament over the last five years. The last entry for bills adopted or debated was during the 1999/2000 session. It is as if the parliament did not exist over the last five years. Of course I know that many have said that it never really existed and still does not.
The front page of the website greets the visitor and announces itself to be the website of the Ethiopian Parliament. At the top of the page, there is a scrolling banner which reads “DRAFT RESOLUTION ON THE REPORT SUBMITTED BY THE GAMBELLA CONFLICT INQUIRY COMMISSION”. I looked further down the page and noticed a choice of Amharic, English or archive. I paused for a moment to consider what these choices might imply but my attention was drawn to an html link The Seventh ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly 16-19 February, 2004 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. I clicked the ACP-EU link only to find an old general information packet prepared of the delegates of a joint assembly of the parliaments of ACP and EU countries held nearly two years ago. So I proceeded to select the English language choice and went to the main site.
That takes you to a page which gives you choices of going back to the parliament home page, or proceeding to Basic Information, General Information, The House of Peoples' Representatives, The House of the Federation and Current Developments. I was attracted to the current developments sub-heading. The tag line for this link reads “Current Developments will treasure a wealth of information for you on what is currently happening in parliament, what the committees are doing, and the day to day schedules of various activities of the two Houses. It also provides you with information about the day's agenda, minutes of the parliamentary sessions, news and press releases.” The Ebonics aside, it still seems to be the most likely place for me to find the information I need. And so I eagerly clicked the current developments link and presto! that took me to another page with the following links: The House of Peoples' Representatives, The Committees of the House of Peoples' Representatives, The House of the Federation, The Committees of the House of the Federation, and The Press of the Parliament. Well guess what is behind each of these curtains! Well door number one contains nothing as did door number two and every other door. When I clicked, I found empty pages.
So I went back and visited each of the other links on the main page. The Basic Info link gives you information about the country: geography, demography, history, etc. The General Information link takes you to a page which reports on the government of the FDRE and the history of parliament. The link for the House of Peoples’ Representatives has many html linked pages which contain no information. It has a list of bills passed but the link to only one of them actually takes you to a Negarit Gazeta. The rest don’t take you anywhere.
Interestingly enough, of the many other links on that page, the only one that has the info it alludes to is the one titled Educational Status of the Members of The House of Peoples' Representatives According to their Electoral Region (2000-2005). It reminds you of the elite school listing the SAT scores of its freshman class and/or the educational background of its faculty – no mention of what the members have done individually or collectively in their capacity as parliamentarians. What there is, is a long expose on their educational attainments.
In the end, I could not find either the draft submitted to parliament or the approved bill authorizing the establishment of a body to investigate the government’s murderous spree. The website of the Parliament of the FDRE contains no mention of what the Parliament did in this or any other matter over the last several years. Of course this is in keeping with the reality of the Ethiopian parliament. After all, in 14 years, it has never initiated a bill. It has never successfully amended a bill or voted down a bill. It is meant to serve as a rubber stamp body. No more, no less. Its mandate is to assume the position of the legislative branch only for the purpose of completing the organizational chart outlined in the constitution. It is there to show the world that there is a legislative body. Its existence presumes that the observer would not have any reason to look beyond the form and dig into whether this parliament actually does any thing.
In EPRDF land, it is form over substance. It is all about the show!!
posted by eth4life | 9:48 PM
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