Ethiopia is in the Right Direction: Tsehaye Debalkew

Washington D.C. August 22, 2015 (GMN) - It is noteworthy to elucidate on the achievements registered to-date by Ethiopia which has irreversibly anchored on the path to progress and transformation. The salient path to development, democracy, justice, good governance, the respect of human rights, the inalienable right to expression, assembly, association, the indelible right of choice and voting, and the unparalleled and unique right of equality of nations and nationalities are abundantly enshrined on the highest legal document of the land, the modern times Magna Carta i.e. the Ethiopian Constitution.

These legal altruisms have been put into the test of time through objectively verifiable practice where they have been deeply entrenched unmistakably defining the present system in Ethiopia as irreversible and on the forward march.

The fending off of undesirable views that I believe are unhelpful to the democratization process are of critical importance in today's Ethiopia. I believe misinformation by extremist elements of the Ethiopian Diaspora and unfounded allegations from some quarters who blindly echo such orchestrated campaigns of mayhem are futile attempts at creating a wrong perception about Ethiopia's progress on all fronts.

Suffice it to state the glaring and incontestable truth that Ethiopia is located in a very rough neighborhood and the challenges emanating from the sub-region to its security, stability and the building of democratic values are very enormous.

To demonstrate a few telling facts it is legitimate and appropriate to surmise that Ethiopia in recent times has become an important contributor to the UN and African Union Peace keeping missions in our continent. Ethiopia is one of the top troop contributing countries to the UN peace keeping mission in the world and the1st top troop contributor in Africa.

It’s to be noted that, since the 1990’s Ethiopia has made important troop contributions to several UN peacekeeping missions: Rwanda (1994), Burundi (2003), Liberia (2005) and currently Darfur and Abiye regions of the Sudan and greater Somalia.

Ethiopia is also playing a very crucial role in the ongoing effort for the realization of peace in South Sudan wrought by the conflicting parties along with other IGAD countries.

Needless to stress the accepted and widely hailed role of Ethiopia as bequeathing its historic role as the defender of the UN Charter right from its inception by diligently partaking in the UN sponsored Korean and Congolese engagements in the early years of the world body.

Incidentally, Ethiopia was the only Black Country as a member of the League of Nations, a precursor to the UN body, who was fighting for decolonization single handily.

The democratization process in Ethiopia cannot be expected to be faultless but there is no ambiguity as to the fact that Ethiopia had made great strides in nurturing democracy and the country is unleashing the correct stewardship in the right direction for the total transformation of its modus operandi.

It is only recently during President Obama's Ethiopian visit that it declared its intentions to learn from the vast reservoir of American long experience in putting the building blocks of democratic values.

Ethiopians and Ethiopian Americans should take great pride on the achievements made by our people and the Ethiopian government over the past 24 years and on the anchor role Ethiopia has come to play in ensuring peace, security and stability in the horn of Africa and indeed in the wider African continent.

As a result of sound and pro-poor economic and social policies the government has pursued, Ethiopia has been able to register impressive progress on many fronts. The economy annually grew by a two-digit leap consecutively in the last twelve years, making our country, one of the fastest growing non oil economies in the world.

On the social sector, education and health services have been expanded. Just to mention but a few examples in education: elementary school coverage has reached over 97 percent in 2014 from just a miniscule 19 percent in 1991. Girls’ school enrollment reached about 86 percent during the same period.

In 1991 the country had only two universities while private universities and training institutions were unknown because of the then obtaining command economic policy of the military regime.

Now there are over 33, / and 11, more to be built during the second phase of the GTP / government universities that are evenly distributed throughout the country, while over 100 faith based and private universities, colleges and vocational training institutions are operating throughout the country. It is unthinkable to admit that close to 25% of the Ethiopian population or 1 in every four Ethiopians are attending schools from the Kindergarten up to the university level. A whopping 24, million students and counting,,,

Equally significant headways have been made in the health sector. Only recently Ethiopia has graduated a substantial number of medical doctors to be voluntarily dispatched to the rural areas. It is pertinent to reminisce at this juncture Ethiopia was hailed at an international Forum for the impressive steps she has taken by curbing child mortality rate and for attaining the Millennium Development Goals prior to the set target.

According to current projection, Ethiopia will position itself to be one of the few developing countries that will meet the UN Millennium Development Goals of universal education and health care ahead of the globally slotted time table.

The impressive and fast development gains it is registering by simultaneously undertaking expansive projects in the construction of huge railway infrastructure, urban housing, building of paved highways, gigantic hydro-power, wind, solar and geothermal energy, including Africa's only power house, the already startling Grand Renaissance Dam of 6000 MW are already transforming the image and true face of Ethiopia.

Source: gambellamedia.com