Last month, the PFDJ marshalled "over 1,200" Eritreans to attend a seminar in Washington, DC.  Last year, they had the hugest demonstration, ever, in Europe.  The year before that, they had the largest festival, ever.  The year before that, they had the largest petition, ever, ever. 

Also last year, independent Eritrean civil societies had the "largest" demonstration in Sweden. Last year, the independent civil societies had a large demonstration on behalf of refugee amnesty.  Last month, the ELF-RC had one of the largest-of-its-kind meetings in Seattle.  Last year, the combined attendance at Kassel and Frankfurt festivals was estimated to be the largest in the history of festivals.  Last year, opposition leaders organized several football-stadium-sized meetings in Gedaref, Kessela and Khartoum, Sudan.  Last year, the Alliance organized the largest-of-its kind September 1 celebration in Sudan. And so on.

But also last year and last month and last week, an even larger group of Eritreans, bigger in size than the combined total of government supporters, opposition supporters and civil society activists voted with their feet and decided to sit out every event.  They, let�s call them the Unmoved Majority, attended no meeting, gave not a cent to anyone and just watched from the sidelines.

This begs at least two questions.  (1) Why have some Eritreans chosen to withhold support from or provide no support to the PFDJ and what is the PFDJ doing to win them over? (2) Why have some Eritreans chosen to withhold support from the Opposition and what is the Opposition doing to win them over?

The Unmoved Majority Defined

For the purposes of this discussion, the unmoved majority does not include Eritreans who are, for whatever reason, indifferent about Eritrea.  Maybe they were born in foreign lands and have no connection to Eritrea; maybe they never supported the concept of a free, independent Eritrea. Rather, we are talking of Eritreans who supported the struggle for Eritrean independence but have now withdrawn from any activities that touches on the future of Eritrea.  This segment includes those who were (or feel) victimized by the Liberation Movement organizations (ELF, EPLF, ELF-PLF) and/or, more recently, the PFDJ. 

The Unmoved Majority and the PFDJ

Given the track record of the PFDJ, it is not hard to decipher why the Unmoved Majority may be alienated by the PFDJ.  Maybe they are the youth who have lost all hope on the future of their country.  Maybe they are students whose education has been disrupted by war and winds of war.   Maybe they are conservative and religious people whose right to worship has been violated.  Maybe they are former EPLF supporters who view the PFDJ as violating the trust of their front.  Maybe they are mothers who lost their children in pointless wars.  Maybe they are small businessmen who were denied an opportunity to make a living.  Maybe they are elderly folks who feel disrespected and violated.  Maybe they are simple folks who have lost everything and don�t want to lose anymore.  Maybe they are farmers and pastoralists whose land has been confiscated.  

Not only does the PFDJ make no effort to win them back, it denies that they even exist. It continues to define and redefine patriotism to mean full support of the PFDJ so that someone who doesn�t believe in One People One Party, and someone who refuses to pay the 2% tax, $ 1/day donation, and $500 war bonds on the grounds that they are proclamations of an illegitimate government loses his/her Eritreanness automatically.  Borrowing a phrase from the Derg and the Haile Selasse regime, the PFDJ dismisses the great majority of Eritreans as �insignificant few,�  �those that can be counted in one hand,� etc.  Occasionally, when it runs out of money, it proclaims that it is willing to �forgive� them, so long as they submit to its edicts.  It can afford to do this because it knows that the unmoved majority is not moved by the opposition, either.  It is, in the words of the Amharic song, inye zero-zero, anchm zero-zero.

The Unmoved Majority & The Opposition

If the PFDJ is so bad, why haven�t the Unmoved Majority been pushed to the warm embrace of the opposition?  What is the reservation that people have about the opposition?  After all, the opposition groups are not in power and they cannot be held accountable for the economic and social malaise currently infecting Eritrea.

The reasons are many.  First, most of the opposition groups and their leadership, like those in the PFDJ, hail from the revolutionary war era. People who feel victimized by these organizations-- ELF, ELF-RC, EPLF, ELF-PLF, Sagem, DeMaHaE, Kunama Liberation Front, etc�and their leadership are not likely to proclaim forgive, forget and give a second chance.  They are more likely to say, �once burnt, twice shy� and stay in the sidelines. Second, most people have no problem siding with a �winning� organization but are loathe to invest in long-term relationships with unknown outcomes.  This is true whether it is sports or politics.  Only the true believers, the true fans, are unswayed by the size and record of the organization they are supporting.  Right or wrong, the impression the opposition has given over the last several years is that of a movement regressing, not one experiencing dynamic growth. Third, the unmoved majority are unwilling to devote their time or energy to the cause of the opposition unless they are convinced that their struggle to uproot PFDJ�s rule, characterized by despotism, autocracy, exclusionary, chauvinist politics that gambles with Eritrea�s sovereignty and unity, is not replaced by another.

Listening To The People

In these trying times, saying it may sound surreal or anachronistic but the fact is that Eritrea is a blessed country.   It is blessed because even in the midst of the worst provocation a people can face�war, want, starvation, displacement, exile, abduction, terror, disappearances, death and destruction�the people have remained remarkably retrained.  There are no intra or inter-ethnic feuds; no religious wars.   No political party can take credit for this; the credit belongs to the people and their civilized history.

Some credit should be given to the opposition for remaining responsible and doing all they can to define the problem in Eritrea as a political one, and not one with insoluble social contradictions.  Instead of bemoaning the presence of �armed groups� in Eritrea, we think we should be happy that, in the face of all the provocations, our �armed groups� are not bandits and terrorists but disciplined forces that are loyal to a political organization.

That said, what the people want is UNITY.   This has been the one constant message of the people in the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and in this decade. With each splintering, with each brother-on-brother war, with each polarization, the Eritrean people�particularly the elderly�have begged the political organizations to find a common ground and work towards a common goal.   The PFDJ understands this; however, instead of providing true unity�one where ALL Eritreans are made to feel welcome in their own land, one where ALL Eritreans can participate in the affairs of their nation�it has disenfranchised nearly half the people and cynically told the other half �we are united now; and the rest don�t count, they are not even Eritreans.�

The opposition groups must belong to a coalition force, an alliance, all united by the goal (the what) of bringing about a just, democratic Eritrea that is a home to ALL its citizens; but with each offering a different platform for how to bring this about.  We believe all opposition groups believe this.  The debate is in the mechanism: do the organizations join the existing alliance and try to reform it from within?  Or do they re-create it?  It is a familiar debate Eritreans have had since the 1950s about Haraka, ELF, ELF-RC, EPLF, PFDJ. Given the urgency of the situation in Eritrea, given the level of difficulty the opposition groups are facing now, we believe that the best option is for the organizations to join the Alliance and to reform it from within. We�ve come to this conclusion because the Alliance is perhaps the most representative of Eritrea�s diversity and has empowered, perhaps for the first time, segments of Eritrea that had been largely ignored. The areas that require reforms are many and they include: (1) charter; (2) proportional representation. 

An Enhanced Alliance and the Unmoved Majority

How would a larger Alliance attract the Unmoved Majority. First, it would address the people�s call for unity.  Many who are dismissing the individual organizations as small and ineffective would see the Alliance as strong and vibrant and capable of challenging the PFDJ.   Second, if the Alliance conducts some meaningful reforms, it would answer some of the reservation people have about its commitment to democratic principles and would provide a laboratory to those who rightfully fear that all they would be doing is replacing one autocrat by another.  

The Alliance, even a larger and vibrant and democratic one, would still not be able to attract those Eritreans who were victimized during the War of Independence. For that, we need something that this website has been talking about since its inception: reconciliation.   This is the way to unity and the path to effective opposition. 

Postscript

Our folks say, zgebrelka gberelu, wey ngerelu.  Return a favor or publicize it.  Our dilemma: we are not in a position to return the favor, and we cannot really put a spotlight on those who bestowed the favor because they are too modest, too humble. Friends and supporters from the San Francisco Bay Area gave us a brand new laptop. It was a surprise gift, presented very casually, which made the present extra special.  We are touched and honored and indebted to them. We could say more, we could say, for example, that this was not the first time: that the group has been our base, our center of support.  We will just conclude by saying: we value their advice and encouragement and the only way we can return the favor is to stay true to Awate's pledge and to keep on fighting the forces of darkness.  And, yes, this editorial was written on the donated laptop computer.

THANK YOU

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