Strengthening Mechanisms and Processes for addressing Intra-State and Inter-State Conflicts 131. Some opposition party members expressed their fears that the House of the Federation could become weaker and ineffective as the EPRDF government demands greater party discipline of its members in the House. An overly strong display of partisanship in such a body - whose principal mission is to heal and build bridges across nations and nationalities - would be counter-productive, they argue. It is important that the federal government, as dominated by the ruling coalition, takes this concern into account. The House of the Federation is a distinctive Ethiopia political institutional innovation that performs a function indispensable to the consolidation and sustainability of Ethiopian federalism. Perceptions that have the potential of weakening its legitimacy and casting aspersions over its credibility must be addressed at all cost. 132. There is a call to continuously strengthen institutions responsible for establishing and implementing conflict management and resolution processes. These include the Council of Constitutional Inquiry and the Ministry of Federal Affairs, as well as the courts, in order for their legitimacy in Ethiopia’s multi-national federal experiment to grow from strength to strength and with it, deepen the culture of the rule of law. The challenge is to develop strong federal institutions considered legitimate by the peoples of regional states without further strengthening the state at the centre. Strong regional state institutions can galvanise local people for self-reliant development without barricading them into the exclusivity of ethnic nationalism. Allowing them to develop the identity of a larger Ethiopian nationality remains a challenge. 133. It falls to the leaders of the various regional state governments - as well as the leaders of the Ethiopian federation - to act prudently and provide exemplary leadership. On their shoulders lie the responsibility of enabling Ethiopians to make the transformation from values and norms of centralisation, command and control, to those of democratic decentralisation, tolerance and equality so that its peoples can find “beauty in their unity and diversity in its beauty”—as stated in Ethiopia’s creed. 134. Ethiopia’s withdrawal from Somalia reduced the conflict it had with hostile elements in that country. However, more flare-ups are still possible as many factors prone to spark violent conflict still remain. These include the active presence in Somalia of Islamic extremists whose operational patterns involve religious extremist interventions in Ethiopia; Somali ethnic irredentists who may not be active but pose a potential challenge; and, the bitter memory, and scars of warfare and armed rebellion in the Ogaden. The CSAR did not provide - 79 -