Worthiness in office is the real victory

The local, wereda level, and by election polls which launched last Sunday are being concluded today. It has been officially announced that more than 26 million eligible voters and over 3.2 million candidates participated. These are relatively high figures (esp. the # of candidates) and indicate the peaceful (somewhat) conclusion of the polls is a sign that Ethiopia is accumulating demonstrable and valuable experience in the organization of such complex and mammoth operations. We say 'somewhat' peaceful in response to the two heinous bomb attacks perpetrated on innocent citizens by unknown assailants on Monday, April 14th 2008.
What do voters expect from the incoming public officers as they assume their new elected positions? Many issues come to mind but a few stand out for shear urgency and potentially disastrous impacts. These are:

" Urban poverty and especially high food prices
" Graft, corruption and accountability issues
" Public service efficiency
Urban poverty is inexorably deepening as the last few years of frequent and steep fuel price adjustments and the drastically declining purchasing power of Ethiopia's currency has dealt, especially the poor, an inflationary blitzerkreig.
Although the rising cost of living and skyrocketing food prices are global pandemics worsened primarily by gluttonous oil producers and their henchmen - Western, Russian and Chinese oil multinationals, there is quite a lot that we can do locally to attempt a rescue of the urban poor from the vicious cycle. In this arena, the incoming public servants can play a pivotal role. This can take the form of the proposed and formative establishment of consumer cooperatives, watchdog structures to combat price fixing, hording and other acts by zealous traders, and the enforcement of minimum standards for especially, food items such as bread, edible oil, cooking fuel and other basics.
Perhaps at no other time in Ethiopian history have corruption, graft and flagrant abuse of public trust been so pervasive and at such grand proportions. Here too, the incoming public officers, from their vantage point of grassroots proximity, can help in the national effort to stopper the haemorrhaging of national wealth. The best way the new officers can help accomplish this huge task is by being squeaky clean role models for the community they represent. Constituents are morbidly sick of news of corruption - big or small. We hope the incoming representatives are keenly aware of the enormous responsibility resting upon their collective shoulders.
In tandem with local and city wide measures to reduce urban poverty, mitigate the impacts of high inflation, and monitor and check corruption, is the very pertinent matter of public services. These include proper waste disposal, housing matters, early and accurate dissemination of directives and the enhancement of community based development efforts.
In the larger sense, foresight and prudence are required at all levels of government, in order to avoid a situation in which for instance, the nation squandered precious yet scarce energy on temporary beautification for the sake of the new Ethiopian millennium. Such shortsightedness in the face of obvious poverty is something Ethiopia simply cannot afford.
We wish the new officers all the best in these pursuits and despite some clouds on the horizon, keep our fingers crossed for better, more inclusive and less stringent times.