I had an older version of this essay in which I went to a great length explaining my long absence. It then dawned on me that I was taking myself too seriously. Whoever thinks that my silence during an eventful period is symptomatic is welcome to hold on to those thoughts and when/if I come round campaigning for his/her vote I will explain.

Dear Generation Hope

In my opinion, Awate.com has become a phenomenal success in every sense of the word from the journalistic point of view. My indulgences of yesteryears: quibbling about word choice, second guessing people�s motives, ranting and raving against hype, trying to curb unfounded accusations, and searching for logic in the acts of politicians (in vain) now seem tasteless.

I have chosen to ponder on more fundamental issues instead.

Since I am retaining my watchdog title, I will talk only about issues on which I do not see things Awate�s way. There are increasing number of issues on which I have no argument against the Awate Team�s positions. I am sure you will agree with me that there won�t be any value added to this website if I dwelled on those.

The first issue I would like to tackle is my vision for an effective and constructive opposition to the PFDJ while at the same time addressing the related issue of reconciliation. Reconciliation, the central lynch pin of Awate.com�s is one of the issues I have yet to reconcile myself to, particularly in the context of the tumultuous events of 2001 and 2002.

You may find this rather incredulous. By most accounts here at Awate.com (e.g. Menhot Woldemariam�s and the Pencil�s latest), it is these same events that should propagate reconciliation to position number one on every political activist�s agenda.

I beg to differ and I will explain why towards the end of this essay.

As always, I will be addressing you, Generation Hope, and I humbly beg your indulgence while I try to use a brain trained for other purposes in this messy exercise. I say messy because it is a discourse in which substance easily gives way to flair, logic is subservient to rhetoric and addressing people�s emotions as opposed to their brains is the default setting.

Dear Generation Hope,

I wonder if you ever asked yourself, as I have been doing recently, what it is that President Isayas Afwerki did to the Eritrean citizen in the years 2001 and 2002 that he didn�t do ten times over previously?

The most honest answer I could come up with is, he did absolutely nothing new.

Of course, the more revealing answer is that in 2001 and 2002, the citizens at the receiving end when the president exercised the same powers that he has always held (and exercised with their blessing), were not the voiceless citizens anymore. From the point of view of the ordinary Eritrean, there is no other distinction whatsoever.

Not even that of scale.

For every one of the high ranking PFDJ members that Isayas put behind bars last year, at least three ordinary citizens were already there, even more severely deprived of their basic rights. The sad and telling part of the story is that each and everyone of today�s cyber-howlers knew/knows this.

You may well wonder what my point is, since in the last few months many have pointed out this same fact a lot more forcefully and persuasively than I ever could. Let me start by explaining what it is not. I am by no means trying to find excuses for the excess of the government of Eritrea, past or present. I condemn wholeheartedly any and all of the draconian steps taken by the government of Eritrea in its 10 years tenure against any and all of the prisoners languishing in its jails.

Dear Generation Hope

It is not, and has never been my style to use this column to make political statements that are not directly linked to a practical course of action. The above statement was prompted by a very sincere enquiry from a Generation Hoper like yourself.  He wrote to me via Awate wondering if my silence since the UoA incidents signifies that, like Elias Amare of Dehai (as he put it), I am having second thoughts about my condemnation of the arrest of the student leaders.

I am not.

So what is my point? Simply this. It may be a fact of life in the world of politics but to my mind, the grotesque excesses of the GoE/PFDJ, however bad they get, should not, by default, transfer our trust and aspirations to the opposition organizations. They have to earn them. All the more so in the case of those who institutionalized the culture and the power structure that is enabling the PFDJ/GoE to cause havoc, and are crying foul now that they are at the receiving end.

Dear Generation Hope

This may sound trite but I have a dream for the Eritrean opposition. The best way I can share it with you is by enumerating my wish list in the form of questions to the opposition organization. I am afraid this is going to be rather long.

No, I will not go into a litany of the current sufferings of the Eritrean people. Could someone please ask our new and old opposition voices if anyone ever won suffering people�s hearts and minds solely by telling them ad-infinitum how much they are suffering, and from a safe, comfortable distance too!

Instead, I will simply identify and outline to the best of my ability, the issues that could win the Eritrean opposition organizations my own mind and heart (in that order). For simplicity, I will call all the opposition organizations (and by extension the PFDJ) political parties.

My starting point for every issue I raise will be the pertinent current laws and practices in Eritrea. I am looking for clear-cut answers and commitments. Here are my questions categorized but in no particular order.

ON LEADERSHIP:

Is your political party committed to electing its leaders on the basis of one-member-one-vote? When was the last time you undertook such an exercise? Are your current leaders elected? Are they fully/partly paid or volunteers? How long has your highest party official been in that or equivalent position? How many hail from the days of the congresses of the sixties and seventies? How representative of the whole Eritrean population is the composition of your higher echelons? What is the mechanism of decision making by the highest body of your party? Who reports to whom and how often? Are there identified policy issues on which your leadership has to consult with party membership before taking decision? Do you have special provisions for the representation of women or youth in leadership positions?

ON PARTY MEMBERSHIP

Do you have a written constitution, political program, bylaws, member duties and entitlements? How representative of the whole Eritrean population is the composition of your current membership? Is representation of all Eritreans in your membership a policy issue in your party? Do you have a membership recruitment program? Who is it aimed at? Do you produce a regular membership-focused publication? In what language(s)? Are there membership fees? Are financial accounts audited/open to membership scrutiny? Do members determine remunerations in the party hierarchy? Are there any restriction on party membership (to Eritreans of legal age)? Can members leave and rejoin the party at will? Does your party provide any services to members (health, education, diplomatic representation where you enjoy the blessing of a host country, cultural, IT, etc)? What percentage of your members are women? Are there youth, students, women�s or trade union organizations affiliated to your party?

ON THE ERITREAN CONSTITUTION

Does your party accept the Eritrea constitution? If you don�t, what is the nature of your rejection? Do you object to the manner in which it was drafted and enacted? Is that the only basis of your rejection? Are there any specific issues in the constitution your party disagrees with? Does your party have alternative positions on these issues? If your party were to come to power through a peaceful process facilitated by the current constitution, would you commit to abide by it while in power? Which provisions of the constitution would you seek to amend through the mechanisms provided in the constitution? Would identifying an official language(s) for Eritrea be one such amendment? Would your party seek to amend the secular underpinning of the current constitution? Are there constitutional issues that your party believes have not been addressed by the Eritrean constitution? Would a clearly worded guarantee of the complete separation of the executive from the legislative/judiciary be one of them? Should the constitution have unambiguously stated that Eritreans shall practice multi-party politics? Are the election provisions at all levels adequate? Does your party find any of the provisions in the constitution objectionable on religious grounds? Does your party approve the gender specific provisions in the constitution? Is the presidential/prime-ministerial hybrid system in the Eritrea constitution acceptable to your party? If not, what would you replace it with?

In future essay I will list my questions on:

Strategies for the realization of democratic governance in Eritrea
Land policy
Education / Language policy
Economic policy
Human rights

Followed by questions on

Agricultural policy
Rural development
Higher education
The mass media / press law
Health issues

Followed by questions on

Foreign policy
National defense
Mandatory military service
Demobilization
Law and order

Followed by questions on

Managing our diversity
Refugee/returnee issues
The interface between State and Religion
Regional disparities
The civil service

Followed by questions on questions on

Taxing the Diaspora
Representation of the Diaspora
Services to the Diaspora
Emigration policy
Human resources

Dear Generation Hope:

I am hopeful that by now you have gained a glimpse of what my vision is for the way forward in establishing an effective opposition which could replace the PFDJ through non-violent means. I would like to see the parties practice what they preach to us within their own organizations, commit to public scrutiny and convince us that it is not power per se but our welfare they have in mind and that they are capable of delivering. In short, I wish for our political parties to take us seriously and tell us exactly why they merit our trust.

Notwithstanding the recent heart-wrenching calls from all and sundry that we should unite to bring the downfall of the PFDJ, I hold the opinion that it would be a tragedy for Eritrea in the long term, and for the opposition parties too assuming they seek genuine democratic governance, if we flocked from one camp to another simply out of disillusionment or desperation.

I call on you to join me in asking questions and seeking clarifications.

This brings me to the related issue I mentioned above, reconciliation.

I have read many an essay on the topic of reconciliation mostly here at Awate.com. In all these essays, some cogent and moving others incoherent and sterile, I can�t recall anyone really making the case for reconciliation in relation to the real need of the Eritrean people for democratic governance.

Yes, a very valid point that GoE�s excesses have become intolerable is being made.

Yes, some glaring excess of the GoE, including placing our country in the unenviable position of being the world�s biggest jailer (per capita) of octogenarians are being highlighted.

Yes, equally valid calls to all to say nay to abuse of power and to human rights violations are out there.

My simple question: How does all this add up to Awate.com�s calls to opposition organizations to reconcile their differences and join hands to bring down PFDJ.

Is it just me, or are there others like me out there who think that, first and foremost, they need to be reconciled to the Eritrean people?

Like many of you who write on this medium my political leanings are the product of the upheavals of the seventies and eighties.

It will take a lot more than elegant prose to convince me that the only hope Eritrea has is in bringing Mesfin Hagos, Ahmed Nasser, Abdella Idris, etc, to sit together in a round table to hammer out a program of action that will drive PFDJ out of office.

We deserve more and better than that.

Reconcile these organizations to the people of Eritrea, particularly to Generation Hope, first.