የኢትዮዽያውያን ዴሞክራቶች ድረ-ገፅEthiopian Democrats' Website

Source: Fortune;

History is knocking on our doors. A political landscape bound with principles and standards for the Ethiopian Election 2010 is before us. Let us open our doors, our minds, and our hearts and speak our thoughts. Let us begin the debate. It is time for more honest debates to instil policy confidence into the electorate. It is when the public becomes perspicacious that they can buy the right policy.

Political Liberalism (PL) is getting momentum now, catching the eyes and ears of many people since the Liberal Democrats officially launched their election platform or manifesto in March 2010. Their freedom agenda and amenable economic policy principles got considerable political and economic clout over others, especially, over the incumbent (the EPRDF), whose leaders lambasted those policies as “empty promises.”

But in essence, the “empty promises” metaphor remains a complete sham and is seen as a thin cloud. Such a political blunder and bluff must have come from the blight of defeatism and despair of the continuous policy failures of the incumbent.

The manifesto was so groundbreaking, stylish, and well-rounded that it really landed on safe ground, suitable for and accepted by many.

Apart from excellent feedback from the public, the manifesto has also attracted much media excitement and interest. First among others is Fortune. Its editorial points and opinion notes were not too bad to begin with. Albeit some puzzling questions and out rightly skewed facts and information concocted or written out of novice attempts (God knows) appeared on March 14, 2010.

I take this opportunity to straighten and explicate salient matters on the comments. I would like to address unfairly extrapolated “pop out labels” assigned by the writers and make adjustments to their “high tower theorising go”.

Liberal democrats have now their mission around which the people can unite. Senior citizens and young voters seek change and new leadership. Voters’ most pressing concern is jobs, to put it in the words of Barack Obama. The same is true for the Ethiopian Democratic Party’s (EDP) job creation agenda.

Job creation is a universal agenda for liberals around the world; Ethiopia is no different. The jobs are not meant only for the civil servants as some people perceive. They are to be created in all economic sectors: manufacturing, agriculture, merchandise, trade, and services. These must not be the burden only of the state. They are created and absorbed by investments made by businesses. Thus, without farmers, there is no food, and without workers, there is no capital.

The EDP has a unique position in the world of liberals. Yet, Fortune colourised the EDP as a “centre-left social democratic’’ party and called for its safe exit from the liberal camp, I think to the revolutionaries. Some writers, without making enough effort to see every nuance of political liberalism, may take it as leftist. Still, this is no surprise, because some people just pick the bits they like.

However, I have made a careful perusal of the EDP’s literature. Assuming the EDP as a left leaning party is a far gone assertion; it is simply tarnishing its brand.

My assessment places it on the “right-of-center or center-right liberal” in the ideological compartment. That makes it categorically different from the incumbent, the Revolutionary Democrats.

The EDP’s very political platform clearly and vividly discerns that it will build a capitalist socioeconomic and political system. The EDP is not, of course, a devotee of laissez-faire capitalism. It is rather a liberal type of compassionate capitalism that would deliver efficient services and products to the world.

Our society and the external world would benefit from the efficiency in productivity and leadership strategies would undoubtedly place us on the competitive edge. It is the businesses and investments that would create jobs and taxable income, benefiting the people and the state at the same time. To that end, the party embraces business and investment friendly policies. Such a pro-business position helps create more jobs, tax cuts (connoting price cuts), and even tax breaks for wealthy people who invest in small businesses.

How on earth does a party that promotes liberal policies such as tax cuts, job creation in the millions, setting a minimum wage, and lifting the stagnation of existing wages and salaries be blamed as anti-business?

Argaw Belay

The EDP’s Parliamentary Candidate