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An Open Letter to President Isaias Afworki |
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By Semere T Habtemariam -
Feb 18, 2002
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Dear Mr. President; Eritrea is at a critical juncture in its history. After squandering a decade of opportunity, Eritrea is once more at a cross road where it needs to embark once and for all on the democratic journey. The choice is simple. It is a choice of democratic or totalitarian rule. I hope you choose the former. I've lost my confidence in you but the rules of justice and fairness compel me to give you the benefit of the doubt and a second chance. The ball is in your court and you've a golden opportunity to redeem yourself, your name and your legacy. My wish is that you rise up to the occasion, as you've repeatedly done in the past, and do the right thing. To do the right thing is to implement the constitutional rule and democratic governance. In the last decade, your administration has deprived the Eritrean people the necessary apprenticeship of democracy. Let history not repeat itself. We have lost the opportunity; let us not lose the lesson. You've done a wonderful job of preaching us that democracy is not a panacea. The truth is nobody thanks it is. You've actually mastered the sophistry of telling us what democracy "is not" and completely avoided telling us what democracy "is". This is the oldest trick in the book of rhetoric. But, beneath the veneer of your sophistication, one could easily see that there is not much democratic inkling in your blood. You seem to be hopelessly obsessed with power, and power has corrupted your soul, but hopefully not beyond the point of redemption and atonement. It is this scintilla of hope that moved me to write you this open letter. It is understandable for somebody in your position to be equally pessimistic and optimistic about democratic rule. It is a political genius to strike the balance between too much democracy that could lead to petty squabbling and eventual civil war and too little democracy that could certainly lead us to the darkness of totalitarianism. I don't have the delusion to make a political genius out of you, but I expect from a man of proven leadership a reasonable attempt of doing the right thing. History has shown us once and again that democracy is the best form of government yet devised by mankind. Democracy has provided the greatest good at the lowest cost. It is this realization that has forced me to rightfully accuse you of squandering a decade of democratic apprenticeship of the Eritrean people. We all know that the democratic process is a hard, slow and time consuming process that could take generations to be fully viable and consolidated. Let it be noted that although the democratization revolution has engulfed the entire world political landscape, the number of democracies that are fully viable and consolidated are very few. Democracy has a life of its own and it grows and mushrooms in conjunction with societal developments. Let us, however, realize that democracy is a means and an end. If we care about freedom, then, the best way to institutionalize it is through a democratic rule. In a nutshell, Mr. President, "what do we need? Democracy. When do we need it? Now." Mr. President, you and your few political cadres that masquerade as intellectual heavy weights are guilty of intellectual bankruptcy and political demagogy. The historical and cosmopolitan jury on democracy has unanimously voted that democracy is a universal political means and end that transcends time and space. There are many shades within democratic governance but the core and essential values are the same. Just as our similarities make us human and our differences individuals, that is also true for democratic countries. The idea of a homegrown democracy is a given and not a point of contention. That is the natural evolutionary process and anything else is unheard of anomaly. The futile sermons on the homegrown democracy are a form of demagogy that bespeaks intellectual bankruptcy and dishonesty within your circle. I'm amazed at how the culture you've created within your circle is completely allergic to truth and honesty. When the elderly, the wise and the educated took it upon themselves to take early interventionist and conciliatory measures, you insulted them as naive and out of touch with reality. When your longtime comrades spoke, instead of heading their advices, you castigated them as irresponsible leaders that put the nation in danger. When your campaign of convicting these concerned Eritreans in the court of public opinion failed, you shamefully imprisoned them. It looks that the two businesses in Eritrea that don't have shortage of customers are the prisons and the smuggling of refugees to the Sudan. The caravan goes on as the dogs bark: In the past you've effectively marginalized voices of dissent and opposition as barking dogs that do not affect the journey of the caravan. Mr. President, those who sit tight and drift, murmuring incantations that did not wreck us yesterday, are apt to be cast away on hostile shores. Similarly those who urge us to remember that our only clearly demonstrable task is to simply to keep the caravan moving, have a rather curious view of the purpose of the caravan. In the past, there was a clearly demonstrable port of destination, independence from a foreign occupation, and as far as the caravan was moving in that direction, the so-called barking dogs were willing to let the caravan move on. Today, the caravan does not have a clearly demonstrable port of destination, and clearly not all directions are equally preferable. In fact, your new caravan has already casted us on hostile shores, the shores of war, devastation, foreign occupation of 1/3 of our land, the loss of our islands, displacement of 1/3 of our people but most of all you're decimating the indomitable spirit and morale of our people. Mr. President, I once read that the test for a free society is to ask whether the people are afraid of the government or the government is afraid of the people. In the former you've a free society and in the latter you've a society that is not free. Life in Eritrea is life in fear of the government. You've effectively installed a police state that shamelessly monitors every aspect of life in Eritrea. Your Stalinist security apparatus, made up of your most faithful dogs have rendered the country inhospitable and inhabitable to the free and independent. Dear Mr. President, if you also want to know whether a government is free, ask yourself if public criticism is allowed in a manner that is conceivably effective. The hallmark of a free government is whether opposition is tolerated. Mr. President Eritrea has miserably failed in both categories. It is very hard to argue against results, but somehow, you seem to manage in fooling a large segment of our population. But, as Lincoln would say, "you can't fool all the people all the time." The time has come for new breed of dogs to bark, and they are here to stay. As far as these dogs are concerned the old caravan has retired once it reached a beautiful oasis, an Eritrea, free of foreign rule. The barking is to determine which port of destination the new caravan would be heading. This is not the time we ask what we hate but what we love. Our whole identity should not be entirely expressed in hostility to foreign rule, theories and internal strife, for this is a barren paradox that conceals more than it discovers. We need now more than ever to come together and determine what we want to be and where we want to go. This is our common destiny and all of us have to be part of the process. Eritrean cannot afford to lose any of us through unwise exclusion that has characterized your administration. You can start the beginning of this process by immediately: a) Dissolving the infamous "special court" b) Restoring Chief Justice Teame Beyene to his rightful position c) Uplifting the "temporary freeze" on the private press d) Releasing all political prisoners, and particularly the 11 members of the so-called G15 members and all the journalists of the private press. If there are credible charges, then, due process of law has to be respected. e) Implementing the 1997 constitution. d) Honoring human rights and civil liberties of all Eritreans. Sincerely Semere Tesfamicael Habtemariam Dallas, Texas |
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