A Rejoinder to "Cadres for Holy Men; Containers for Churches"

This is in support as well to level some positive criticisms of some points raised by one of our highly educated Eritreans in Dehai, regarding the apparent problems that we currently observe within the Tewahdo church.

First and foremost, I congratulate the Doctor for speaking up, better late than never. Just speak up and debate, one does not have to be right.

The Doctor’s general points about institutions and the history of the Tewahdo Church are I believe on the mark. But these are not offending points. I agree with the Doctor’s points and I assume even a fanatic supporter of the PFDJ regime will concur with us.

In some of his other points the Doctor is off base, in particular the issues that deal with who is at fault and the solutions to the problems. Let me bring up two crucial points.

First, the Doctor wrongly assumes that the Eritrean Government has no role and no hand at all, on the seemingly disintegration that is going on within the Great Tewhado Church. At the minimum, his posting gives that impression. It appears that he points his fingers at some figureheads who have usurped power of the Tewahdo Church illegally and blames them for everything. He left out timidly the biggest usurper of power the dictatorial PFDJ regime in general and the president of Eritrean in particular. Worse, maybe unconsciously but if one is astute enough to read between the lines, his posting presents the PFDJ as an angel and as a conciliator. For crying out loud, there is no rule of law and no constitution in Eritrea. He cannot fathom the plain fact that those simpleton figureheads of the current Tewahdo church are doing the bidding of the Eritrean Pol Pot, the president of Eritrea. It is sad that a person with such great education and learning like the Doctor is unable to realize this, or worse is acting as if he has no basic understanding of this. This is a very significant error on his part and thus his solutions are wrongheaded, since I believe he has not understood the fundamental problem, or is acting deliberately dumb. In sum, nothing moves in Eritrea without the order and approval of the president of Eritrea, and thus the problem of the Tewahdo church like all the problems of Eritrea in general, reside within one person, the president of Eritrea.

Second, all dictators hate civil societies. They do their best to abolish them. If not they try to make them their puppets through intimidation, blackmailing and bribery. These things happened, not long ago before our own very eyes, in the old Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Simply put, all churches in the old Soviet Bloc were instruments of the dictatorial regimes. The only exception was the Catholic Church in Poland. And that was due to a courageous, saintly and wise leader, the late Pope John Paul II. That was the primary reason that the movement for liberal democracy was the strongest in Poland; because the Catholic Church in Poland was independent; it spoke bluntly on behalf of the people; it was a contending force to the dictatorial communist regime; it had a big influence on the Polish people. Eventually, the Catholic Church in Poland and the late Pope John Paul II had a very big hand in the downfall of the whole communist regimes in Eastern Europe.

Now, what has this to do with Eritrea and the Tewahdo Church? It is necessary to note here, that one cannot speak of Eritrean history without an exceptional honorable mention of the Tewahdo Church. Let alone an Eritrean, any African worth his salt, is proud of this great African institution. This is a church that I believe gave us the Geez Alphabet, literature and beautiful music. How many African nations have homegrown indigenous alphabets? For that matter, how many nations in the third world have homegrown alphabets? Not many! (In the information age, not mastering English like the Indians could hurt us economically, but that is a different subject.) Does the PFDJ read history? Does the PFDJ read books? This is a church that is a custodian to more than a thousand years old traditions and cultures. Speaking about cultures and morals, which civilization in the world can match our traditions and cultures of compassion, kindness, hospitality, good moral order and tolerance? In short, this is the Tewhdo Church, a great liberal civil society. This is contrary to what dictators want.

For all practical purposes, the PFDJ regime has silenced all religious institutions and their leaders, and the whole Eritrean population. To speak for myself and as far as I know, the only prominent religious leader who stood up to the president of Eritrea is Abune Antonius. The Abune spoke on behalf of the illegally imprisoned Tewahdo priests and without any due process of law by the PFDJ regime. The Abune stood his ground firmly in the great traditions and teachings of the Tewahdo Church and rightly decided not to be a puppet and an errand boy of the president of Eritrea. This is very courageous. This is expected from a major religious leader. This is his "sin" in the eyes of the PFDJ.

At least, the president of Eritrea is clever enough to realize that if there emerges a strong civil society in the name of the Tewahdo Church in Eritrea, it would expedite the downfall of the dictatorial PFDJ regime; hence for the arrest of the independent Abune and the emasculation of the Tewahdo Church. Again, the Doctor completely missed this significant point. Otherwise, what is the point of asking the Eritrean Government to mediate in the apparent problems of the Tewahdo Church, when the very same problems appears to be created by the same Eritrean Government in order to suppress those entities who may speak up on behalf of the Eritrean people?

We have to win one person at a time to the liberal democratic movement side. From that perspective, the Doctor deserves a heartfelt congratulation for realizing that something is not kosher within the Tewahdo Church. The next step is to realize that most things that are taking place under the watch of the PFDJ in Eritrea are illegal and unconstitutional, and that the PFDJ is allergic to the rule of law. Peace!