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What do we have! Hallelujah. An enlightened leader. A man born to become a King. So enlightened that the sun shies in front of him. A Pharaoh about to build his Pyramid in the rubble of a country. A considerate person. A master exorcist. A master manipulator. A master gambler with the lives of generations. A master who squandered the wealth of a nation. A master who doesnt like the looks of the good old Wheel. A man who condemns the re-invention of the wheel, yet spent a lifetime trying to re-invent one. The man who would challenge Aristotle and humble him under his feet. A Napoleon with no Empire. A man who believes he is a team on his own. A private team composed of only himself and sometimes peripheries. A cold, ice-faced man. A man who leads the laboratory of social engineering. A man who tests his muscles by dipping it in blood. A reckless captain. A freedom fighter turned freedom kidnapper. A man who threw his own history to the trash bin. A master organizer who lost it all for the sake of satisfying his insatiable hunger for more power. A man who holds a nation hostage. A man who erases his own scores. A man who should walk out as a man when he still is a man.
Is the above personal?
Personalizing the crisis
No two persons fully agree on the way criticism should be handled. No two Eritreans have the same views on what should be done to overcome the crisis that Eritrea faces for a long time, let alone the current crisis. That is why some describe the recent crisis in Eritrea in a multitude of theories and explanation. In the beginning, many discouraged people from taking sides arguing that the difference is in fact a family feud. Yet, they dont tell us how that family feud was supposed to be resolved. Then, they realized, late as usual, that the crisis they thought was a family feud touches the family of each and every Eritrean. It is a crisis of national magnitude. The only truth of it being a family feud is that, as in a family feud, the current crisis touched all Eritrean families. It touches the children, the parents and the extended family.
People who occupy public offices are institutions on their own right. When a public name is mentioned, it s mentioned in relation to the power it wields and the role it plays in the life of a society and its role of any crisis. Common people give mandate to public servants and not the other way around. The people have to name the culprits when the mandate it gave is abused. That is accountability. You cannot account for misdeeds, mishaps and wrongdoings without mentioning names. Therefore, in public issues, mentioning names is inevitable.
The concern is that overly personalizing issues might kill the main issues and divert the attention away from the issues that need to be attended to. But sometimes, the whole issue, mostly, is a person as is the case with Eritrea. All past experiences and the current standoff point in one direction: the PIA and his circle.
We believe the main issue of our predicament has always been the lack of Democracy. The other issues are derivatives of lack of a democratic environment. In such a situation when the practice of checks and balances is absent, people suffer from injustice. The system develops into a full-blown authoritarian regime. And in the case of Eritrea, this development was written on the wall for those who believed their eyes. Those who didnt had a rough wake-up call only few weeks ago. They cannot deny it anymore. They cannot brush it off as the making of outside forces and Weyane sell-outs. They cannot lecture us on the merits of a single party and single leader anymore. The supporters of the status quo have become a minority after they raised havoc everywhere for many years. There cracked our communities. They polarized our people. They blocked development of our country. And they created a multi-tier citizenship categories based on how close to the ruling party one is and how loud one screams in support of the rotten unjust system. Eritrea is for all, including todays minority: the supporters of PIA. What the Eritreans paid for will not be wasted in vain.
The Reformers have serious criticism regarding the way the PIA conducts business. The system in place is an archaic system that doesnt recognize modernization, basic freedoms and tolerance. It doesnt believe in peace and dialogue; it prefers the gun-inspired solution so that it can come on a later date and tell us how many lives we lost. Maybe just 18,999: less one than the previous number! This system, and those steering it, believe that the sole goal of Eritreans is to die non-stop. This we consider betrayal of the long struggle, which was waged so that Eritreans can live in peace in a stable country. None of that was achieved. They failed to deliver neither economic prosperity nor peaceful life. They failed in restoring the dignity to the Eritrean people; instead, they added humiliation.
The Reformers are raising issues that many opposition elements from outside the PFDJ raised for years. They are calling for the reformation of the whole organization and the political culture of Eritrea. They are concerned about the culture of intolerance that prevails in Eritrea. They criticize the way the Justice system operates. They have serious criticism regarding the mandate given to them by the members of the EPLF and its misuse. Democratically speaking, the only political clique that is opposed to all of the above is the Presidential Office and its small parasitic elements and some diehard supporters in the Diaspora who have a vested interest in its maintenance. People who have small businesses or some Dollar investments.
The Government in Eritrea is a government of the EPLF. It is obvious that the members of the EPLF mandate the central Committee. We dont think the sane members claim to represent anyone outside the EPLF membership as some nave individuals would like to present them to us. Naturally, when they reach a deadlock, they have to communicate their problems to the membership of the EPLF. However, as a diverting tactic, some people have been questioning the way the Open Letter was published on some websites. The letter is addressed to ALL PFDJ members. We know that electronic copy of the letter was addressed to several websites including Dehai. While awate.com and Asmarino.com published it, others preferred not to publish it. They must be asked why. Again, the letters spirit was covered in detail in private papers inside Eritrea. The same people who tried hard to discredit the Berlin Manifesto tried hard to confuse the situation. However, this is too big an issue to be derailed by the few noisy ones. The issues cannot be discredited anymore. The Berlin Letter was a warning sign. Reading that letter, people should have understood a torrent was building. Alas, some people, including PIA, are proud because they move as slow as gobye, the slow Turtle. Certainly, they get things at an equally slow pace.
We feel the only thing holding the Reformers back from taking the issue to the next natural phase is their concern that PIA might decide to call A State of Emergency. Nonsense, what more can befall Eritreans?
How Do We Mourn?
Many intellectuals who wouldnt miss a chance to preach on what they consider the systems achievements of building schools, roads and other amenities, that even the occupier Haile Sellasie was carrying on, amaze us with their ability to be dead quite when it comes to the systems blunders.
The recently announced figures of lost lives are shocking by any measure. Yet, it could have been more is the only solace we get from the pseudo-intellectuals and despicable fake patriots. 19000 lives that wouldnt shock anyone when announced is how Isaias explained this some time ago. An interviewer asked him what the figure of lost lives he expected. Hundreds? She asked. More He said. Thousands? She asked. More He said. Tens of thousands? She asked. Yes he said matter-of-factly, as if he was a grocery store keeper counting eggs that went bad. 19,000 lives. 19,000 (though we dont believe anything this system says by the way, even the figures). That means, in normal warfare, three wounded for every one killed, almost 60,000 wounded. Then add the POW, MIA and other losses. If this system is not checked now, they might be planning for another adventure. Even if they were not, if they face a crisis, they wouldnt know how to handle it. This is risky because all our neighbours are also equally bloodthirsty systems. We need democratisation so that the will of the people can prevail. Then, the people would make their own mistakes and wage their own wars.
To start with, all prisoners of conscience must be released immediately. Other prisoners must be presented to court, a civil courts not the Presidential offices pass-time court: the so-called special court. The Status Quo is already on the defensive; you can tell by the way it was forced to disclose the rulings of the Special Court. We must push for its dismantlement.
No intellectual and no citizen should remain silent when his people and country are being raped non-stop. University Students, who have played a proud role in Eritreas history, are asked once more to lead the charge for liberation and democratisation. University students know what is at stake and what needs to be rectified. Students world over rebel against injustice and tyranny when they see it. They rebel by sickouts, demonstrations and civil disobedience. In our case, how can one rebel without provoking a State that would not hesitate to shoot unarmed citizens including the handicapped.
Free Press And The Spirit of Welwel
Shining stars of Eritrea. Patriotic writers. Builders of Democracy. Never submit to tyranny; face challenges. The price of freedom is expensive; a principled writer is not stingy. Writers with integrity do not fear jail, do not fear tyranny. Free writers move forward. You have boarded on the bus that drives straight to freedom, dont disembark before reaching your destination. You know, the destination of a genuine free writer is long. It is an arduous and thorny journey. Fight with your pens for the pen crushes any power of injustice. The Free Eritrean spirit is behind you. Freedom will prevail, it is written by the blood. Nothing written by the blood of those dear to us can possibly fail.
the awate team |
