CHENG Kwan Yee, Queenie

KWOK Pui Ki, Patricia

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After the long Ethiopian history of imperial rule with the national-building done largely through ‘Amharization’, there have been more calls for respecting diversity. The attempts are to equalize the rights for different groups. The most significant change is the implementation of Ethnic Federalism in effective from 1991. The Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) has taken the lessons from the previous problems, and therefore introduced the right of self-determination in various ways to the newly demarcated regional states. Ethnic Federalism in the contemporary Ethiopian system can hence be seen as an alternative to the ethnic dominant model, which is currently experimented by the Ethiopians. The primary objective of this paper is therefore to understand Ethiopia’s contemporary political system, namely the rationale behind, the current challenges and future prospects. The paper will first present a review of the transition from a unitary system towards Ethnic Federalism starting from Emperor Menelik II, through Haile Selassie and the Derg. The second part will focus on delineating the present system of Ethnic Federalism, namely its features and goals. Meanwhile, the on-field observations from an 8-day fieldtrip will highlight the individual positions of Ethiopians who have different backgrounds on ethnic federalism. This will facilitate the understanding of the current political system. After a series of interaction with staff and students from different parts of the country, we will highlight their ‘diverse’ opinion towards the existing regime as well as their ‘love-hate’ attitude on ethnic federalism.