We are passing through a tough period in our history.  Yes, another one; yet another one.  Eritreans who just celebrated passing a test are being given yet another test by the All-Knowing and All-Wise. 

Another Failure of the Intelligentsia

A major row within the ruling party has now been brewing for quite some time. Any mention of such row and discontent was being received with denials and more denials. Those who were supposed to see the problem coming, the Eritrean intelligentsia, and contribute towards finding a peaceful solution were busy formulating messages of utter denial. The role of the intelligentsia is to question, to analyze, and to have a critical mind, which, among other things, prepares the populace for good news or bad news.  Unfortunately for Eritrea, our intelligentsia is too fearful of or deferential to authority. They have no problem mouthing off their views about every authority, including God, in the world; but when it comes to Eritrean authorities, the silence is deafening. Others were considering the row an �Inter-Shaabia� affair and hinted that they have nothing to do with it. Still others seemed happy because they thought the shaabia they so much toiled to bring down was coming down on its own weight. All partisan and self-absorbed thinking and nothing patriotic about such a thought. Few are those who weighed the consequences and saw the risks involved. Few are those who see the development in relation to our national unity.

How Bad Is It?

Worst scenarios are not the monopoly of others. We are not immune from turmoil. The chaos and rift developing within the high echelon of the leadership is a risky business. A very risky business. Our bloodied and fatigued nation can ill-afford yet another mismanagement and brinkmanship. The causes are all clear and too obvious to need an explanation. The state of the nation was all too open for those who were prepared to see things with a critical mind. Main issues that needed utmost care and solutions were neglected. The government deviated very much from the mandate given by the people to the liberation forces. Power centers were developing everywhere. Unfair pockets of power concentration were sprawling everywhere. Eritreans  became more of a subject and less of a citizen with every passing day.  When the truth is loudly declared, even an obvious truth, it has a soothing feeling. When the Reform-minded PFDJ lawmakers state that the love the people used to feel for PFDJ has transformed to doubt and fear, it resonates with truth only the blind will deny.

The economy has been off-limits to the common stakeholder, the citizen turned subject. Transparency was not even considered while the people were kept in the dark regarding issues that touched their lives and the lives of their families. A PFDJ mega business that never gets audited, never pays taxes and exploits every unfair advantage it can milk from the �bourgeoisie� class.  Parents no more own their children when kids became the property and pawns of the state to be used by unaccountable politicians in hazy, fuzzy, ill-explained missions in foreign land. The mighty Eritrean Army was politicized to the extent that it lacked leadership and was put in harms way unnecessarily. It was ill equipped, ill managed and ill treated. Its image suffered and as a result, the whole of Eritrea suffered. It is time to restore the pride to the Eritrean Defence forces. It is time to de-politicize the Army. It is time that the Army is limited to the task of defending the sovereignty of the country under a constitutional arrangement. No power should use the Army of the people at whims.

Now what was being denied has come out to the open. What next?

Who Is The Accuser?

The group of veteran leaders of the EPLF who a few days ago came out in the open to complain to the EPLF/PFDJ broad membership about the problems facing Eritrea as a result of misguided policies and bad governance, are household names. Among them, as Gedab News reported, is a combined struggle of  �around 500 years�. Yet, even those names are not immune to defamation tactics that went rampant for many years. Many years in which countless Eritreans suffered similar or worse attacks on their integrity and honesty and even on their liberty and life. It was wrong, it is wrong and it will always be wrong. This is not the unwritten agreement Eritreans had since 1961 regarding the future once Eritrea is liberated from the grips of the ruthless occupiers. This is not the written promise that all liberation organizations proudly displayed for all to see.

Many had misgivings about the way our affairs are conducted in the Eritrean political Arena. The convoluted political tradition of the struggle days has followed us to the contemporary life in the capital city. Issues are curtailed from the very people the issues are about. Many complained of the sad situation that we found ourselves in when we were hoping for a transparent, tolerant and inclusive system. Partisan politics inherited from the days of the struggle were kept alive and was chewing our unity piece by piece. The risk was neglected and its existence denied. Forces and elements who cried and aspired for democratization were made a laughing stock by those who preferred to run Eritrea as a Feudal State. It is the responsibility of every Eritrean worth his blood to rally behind the call for change. It is the duty of those spearheading the call for change, wherever they are, whoever they are, to reach out and draw a parallel line of healing and reconciliation on our fast deteriorating political body.

The tone of the reforming group has been a positive start. First clean �thy house� seems to be their motto. All power to them. Because, once they clean their own house, the EPLF-PFDJ house, the rest will be easy to accomplish.  This is why our Reconciliation Letter addressed many of these luminaries. However, the EPLF members are not the only members who suffered from the governing malpractices that they mentioned in their documents; the whole Eritrean population did. As such, the letter that they addressed to the �PFDJ members� is in fact a message to all nationalist Eritreans who dream to see a united, peaceful, reconciled, stable and prosperous Eritrea where the citizen�s pride is the priority, where citizens do not feel marginalized, where rule of law is the authority and the constitutions reigns supreme, where bloodshed is condemned, where our achievements as a people are celebrated and where the police state is eradicated. What next?
 

The Bogus �Do Not Take Sides� Argument

Any political system is born, grows, gets old. In the phase of old age, the players in the political party are defined as either Hardliners or Reformers. Whether the political party is recreated as a fresh birth or decays and withers away is decided by which players prevail and which players succumb. If the Hardliners have it their way, they embark on a drive of vengeance and defamation to elongate their stay in power. Undoubtedly, the reformers are facing a risky period ahead. There are already reports that Sherifo, Ogbe and Petros Solomon have been targeted for charges that they will not have the �luxury� to defend in a court of law. They face the same machinery countless ordinary Eritreans have, possibly with their knowledge if not approval: trial by �special court.� They must be supported simply because what they are asking for is a legitimate popular demand. Do not fall for the siren call of �Do Not Take Sides.�  Most of the people who tell you to not take sides have already taken sides. Worse, they may be the type that never takes sides; they just wait for the direction of the wind.   By all means, do take a side: the side of truth and justice.  To take sides does not mean to confront or to exacerbate; one can take sides and still be civil and peaceful about it.  After all, the charges are serious: the reformers are not accusing the president of being rude or not shaving; they are accusing him of operating illegally and outside the bounds of the constitution. If they get their way and actually hold a meeting, they won�t stop there: working outside the bounds of the constitution is the introduction followed by dereliction of duty followed by compromising and endangering the security of the state. This is serious stuff. 

What will happen next?  If the way the President treated the �G-13� is a clue, the President will fan out his spokespersons�Yemane Gebreab, Ali Said,�to assemble Eritreans. They will say, �the President is ready to speak to his colleagues; to his brothers and sisters at a mutually convenient time and place.�  The tone will be deceptively low-key and there will be efforts to explain away this development as �nothing new; we have seen many in our history, etc.�  Don�t buy it.  Because, behind the scenes, the blackmailers and intimidators will be working overtime and in overdrive. The mutually convenient time and place will be weeks, if not months away.  Then the president, a masterful politician, will gauge the political wind.  He will watch to see the people�s sympathies: are they with him (meaning, are pumped up people loudly denouncing the Reformers?) If so, he will ignore, humiliate, and marginalize the Reformers further�thereby creating a crisis that he will accuse them of provoking (a word he used in one of his unbelievably dismissive and patronizing responses to his own colleagues.)  If he sees that people�s sympathies are with the Reformers, then you can expect a massive downplaying of differences: �this is minor. We were aware of it and we were working hard to find constructive ways to bridge our differences.  Mistakes were made; what matters is the future.  Etc, etc.�

This is why all Eritreans, regardless of their political position, should support the Reformers.  Not because we know the facts and we are sure they are innocent and he is guilty but because they are the only ones calling for a mechanism to stop lawlessness and extra-constitutional work and excesses of the state. The hard-liners are telling us everything is peachy; even Eritrea�s position as the second poorest nation in Earth is a miraculous overachievement of their economic policy which is so wonderful it will be quietly changed�conveniently sidestepping accountability.  The Reformers are the ones calling for speeding up the process of constitutionalism and rule of law, accountability and transparency and, above all, PEACEFUL CHANGE.  It may very well be that once that is implemented, it may be proved that there is no merit to their allegations or that the people of Eritrea do not think that the allegations are serious enough to warrant an investigation or that the group is even guiltier than the president in dereliction of duty, or, or.  The point is that that is for the Eritrean people, for us, and specifically for Eritreans in Eritrea, to decide and, at the moment, the Reformers are the ones who want to place their destiny, and that of Eritrea, at the hands of the people.  We at awate.com, hope for a peaceful resolution of the crisis. We also hope the EPLF/PFDJ to clean their house and embark on a totally new era of political dialogue and reconciliation with the other half of Eritrea that is not part of EPLF/PFDJ.

The VISAFRIC we will miss

Since its inception, Visafric chose a line and it played it professionally. Regardless of its political stand, it set a standard on quality of output. No doubt, the owners of Visafric worked very hard for the last three years. And if they are like Awate.com and Asmarino.com, they did this at considerable drainage to their pocketbook and their time.  When we were hoping for more Websites to enrich our forums and represent our diversity, Visafric  went blank on us. Our solace is on the launching of �Shaebia.org� that might fill the void created by Visafric. We wish Visafric  the best of luck in their future endeavors.

the awate team