It was another week of the unexplained and the unexplainable.  In other words, it was another ordinary week in Eritrea, where surrealism is now the official reality.

Remember Mr. Ramadan Mohammed Nur?  He was the co-conspirator in the �Isaias is only the deputy secretary general: how can be too powerful?� drama that helped put Eritrea in the mess it is in.  Officially, Ramadan was the Secretary General of the EPLF until 1987.  Ramadan is now� I forget the title, but it is the usual Ramadan honorific: Big Title, No Function. The Secretary General of a front he had no hand in running is now an Election Commissioner of a country that won�t be having them. 

The smart ones figured it out decades ago: whether it is called a front, a party, or a state, it is nothing but a vehicle for Isaias Afwerki.  The ambitious had choices to make: recognize this power and accordingly act slavishly and crawl the Ladder of His Favors. Ministry! Executive Committee! Governor!   Or challenge this power and be punished.  If you survive the punishment, you have choices.  Live by your principles and die defiantly; or recognize the power and act accordingly.   After several punishments and rehabilitations, hot and cold treatments, you will be so confused you will just turn a blind eye to reality and bury yourself in your work� 

Whatever the work is.    Fresh from an interview telling us he will never, ever, ever retire from his position, President Isaias Afwerki must have thought, sheesh, with some people, you just have to draw things in crayon for them: so how do I communicate my message that we will never, ever have pluralistic, multi party elections as long as I live?   In a flash of brilliance, he sent Ramadan Mohammed Nur to the one place on earth that has never had elections and is likely to be the last place on earth to have it: China.

Don't you just love African politics? Africa got rid of the Big Men�only to replace them with Little Men.  At least the Big Men were colorful and charismatic and memorable.  What do we have now?  One of the Little Men, Rwanda�s Paul Kagame woke up a vice president one day and said to himself, �screw this, I am becoming president.�  And he became one.  With over 90% of the vote. And it was good.  Stop being so picky: of course he arrested his opponents by calling them �divisionists� which is Bantu for �Tulkuyat.�  But he has topped that one.  Kagame has created yet another crime for anybody who opposes him: the victim is said to harbor  �genocidal ideology.�  A thought crime.  In addition to the usual victims (Pentecostals and Jehovah Witnesses), proponents of �genocidal ideology,� according to Rwanda, include the Roman Catholic Church, the Episcopal Church, the Baptist Church, as well as virtually every Rwandan NGO�  So reports Amnesty International, which hasn�t been accused of that crime.  Yet.

Cross-Eyed Witness Reporters

Another week for the unexplained and the unexplainable.   Remember all the fuss about UNMEE not getting access through a highway it desired?  How could you not: it was in virtually every UNMEE press release.  It was in the UN Secretary General�s lengthy reports which are written as follows: Ethiopia won�t accept our ruling, which may cause war.  Disappointing, but their business.  Eritrea won�t let us monitor the deterioration of the situation.  This is a personal affront, because that is our business.  It was in the government of Eritrea�s explanations and responses.  It was in the meek questioning of �apologies, my liege, but perhaps our government is (gasp!) mistaken� little notes and it was in the loud denunciation of the �my government is never wrong: how dare you!� responses.  There is this road, and there is that road, and the only reason UNMEE is insisting on this road is because that road is not conducive to their spying, which is why they are here to begin with.  "They have no job to do; there is no peace to keep; they live as tourists," in the immortal words of our president.   And that is that: so take it or leave it.  Bang, bang.

That was in March.   You knew that that was going to be reversed, after needlessly antagonizing the world, didn�t you? Of course you did.  So now it is August, and it is time for the unexplained reversal.  Dear UNMEE, of course you can use the Asmara-Keren-Barentu road as you wish.  Whimper, whimper.

If you are concerned how the �my government is never wrong� crowd will explain it, you are, to use one of their favorite words, one of the �lewahat.�  Na�ve.  Any explanation will do: our visionary leaders did this only after insuring that the UNMEE chief was rotated out; after getting assurances that all the UNMEE spies and pedophiles have been arrested.   And, they were waiting for the rainy season to start and confirm UNMEE�s point that the unpaved roads are unusable.   The conclusion is the same: it was a good decision then, and its 180% reversal is a good decision now.   Next!

Next we visit one of our old friends who likes to describe himself as an �eyewitness� to events.  But we walk by faith not by sight, as the Good Book says, and he should call himself a Faithful Interpreter of One Version of Truth.  Several years ago, there was a demonstration in San Francisco that was attended by the supporters of Awate, ELF-RC, EPLF-DP, and other then-new civil societies.  Even professional crowd-estimators always dispute sizes, but it is safe to say there were anywhere between two to three hundred people attending.   Our eyewitness reporter, whom I�d have considered a friend months earlier, wrote a report at Shaebia.org telling his readers that the demonstration was attended by �Saleh Younis, Saleh Gadi and their cousins.�  Old story, why even bother to raise it now?  Because now this same �eyewitness� is telling us that Sawa camp could be described as Sawa campus.  

Sawa campus? Is it because there is a campus environment of free speech?  Of demonstrations against authority? Of a learning environment? Is it because he witnessed voluntary associations? Alumni Associations? A campus newspaper free from censorship? Debating clubs? Academic freedom?   Did he see a single Sawa graduate from previous rounds speak fondly of his stay at the campus?  Perhaps alumni addressing the current students? 

No.  He saw dorms: rooms with beds.  And a cafeteria.  And a lot of university-age students.  Voila, a campus.

Incidentally, this �eyewitness� was also perfectly content with the government�s decision to close the Asmara-Keren-Barentu paved road because he had eyewitnessed the alternative road which was just fine.  No doubt, he is perfectly content that it has re-opened it.  �Question Authority� was not the mantra of the campus he attended; it is modeled after the Chinese campuses where �Obey Authority� is the slogan.

He Is A Reporter; So It Must Be True

There is another eyewitness reporter whose reports must be accurate because�he is a reporter.  Did I mention he is a reporter?   You are so cynical; you are saying illustrious writers like Dan Connell, Thomas Kennealy, Roy Patemen got it all wrong with their rosy reports about EPLF�s �participatory democracy� for years and they have to eat their words now.  But these guys had a disadvantage.  They were foreigners, didn�t speak the language and didn�t visit Eritrea and didn�t speak to the common folk as often as our own young reporter.  I did mention he is an accredited reporter, right?  They lacked enthusiasm; our young reporter packs more exclamation points in one page than they do in an entire book.  So learn from him.

I always do; his work is a masterful glimpse into Orwellian Oceania, a resident of that surreal .  The last election proved that �Eritreans know how to exercise their rights,� he reports.  Bet you didn�t know that. How does he know?  Because an �incredible� 93% of the voters turned out.   Now, that is proof.  Give us a few more years, and we will be as good as North Korea, Cuba and Syria and we will have 100% voter turn out and we will give the ruling party 99.9% of our vote.    There is a catch: we have to have one party: Eritreans know how to exercise their rights�as long as they only have one legal party to vote for.  Give us more and we are like kids in a candy store, we get confused. 

Like they did in Florida.  Our young reporter compares the USA elections of 2000, with the Eritrean elections of 2004 and finds the Eritrean model superior. Of course he would. Years ago, they did a survey to find out why do people bother to watch re-runs on television?  They found out that it appeals to people who do not like surprises and want to know how something will end before it begins. Eritrean democracy has improved on American democracy by removing all the messy, chaotic and uncertain parts of democracy.  Things like polling, campaigning, advertising, political parties, contests, disputes, passions, polarized views, judges, journalists, independent observors, political platforms, and everything that contributes to the the uncertainty is all gone, in exchange for orderly procession where the outcomes are certain.

Come on, stop being skeptical.  Did I mention he is a reporter?  But did I also mention he is a sports fan: an activity that requires impartial judges (referees), an even playing field, and a contest which is not fixed?  Why then does he prefer a sports where the player is the ref, the playing field is uneven and there is no contest?

Smret? Nay mntay Smret?

In the bad old days of the 1970s, the Eritrean elite converted every topic to political discourse.  How would the political class then disseminate this indigestible pabulum to the masses?  The same way you feed a child: get a spoon and make airplane sounds.  It was called kfli Bahli and its job was to produce polemic that you can dance to.  

Then as now, one of the biggest (if not the biggest) issues was unity.  The ELF had a position, and the EPLF had one.   The political elite had to mystify the most elementary subject and  Bereket Mengesteab, then with ELF cultural troupe, penned the �unity? What kind of unity� song.   �Is it a unity of the opportunists?  Is it a unity for the reactionaries?� He cautioned. �Do we know the meaning of National Democratic Front?� he lectured.  We danced, the subliminal message sank in, and everybody who wanted to be �conscious� started qualifying unity.  What kind of unity?  One has to be careful, you know�

Bereket Mengestab is now wearing fatigues and exhorting kids a quarter of his age to war, but his skeptical spirit of �smret? Nay mentay semret� lives on.   As soon as the news of the �Four Plus One� was announced, the �smret? Nay mntay smret� questions followed. Of course, it is now pass� to speak of reactionaries and progressives but the political elite can always find substitutes.  Is it unity of the weyane slaves?  Is it unity of the separatists?  Is it unity of the regionalists? 

I am not a reporter and I don�t have an eyewitness report.  But I have, like everyone, a set of biases that I hold on to.  One is this:  I have met many, many Eritrean opposition figures and I have yet to meet a single Eritrean who doesn�t love his country.  True, just because I haven�t met them does not mean they don�t exist.  Also true, just because somebody accuses them of something, I will not believe it.  Those of us who have been on the receiving end of false accusations should be skeptical of �take my word for it� accusations.  Isn�t this what we despise most of the PFDJ: that it demands that we accept accusations as evidence of guilt?  Isn�t this what we find most puzzling about the supporters of the PFDJ: that they equate accusation with evidence of guilt?   I don�t believe that there is a single opposition group, in or outside the Alliance, which is not composed of Eritrean patriots who are doing what they think is in the best interest of Eritrea and Eritreans. I will go a step further: I believe that the government is made up of people who are patriots.   Everybody wants what is best for Eritrea; we just disagree on how to bing that about.  And our opposition to the government is that it refuses to believe that one can be patriotic and opposed to the government and insists on dominating all political, economic, social, cultural space in Eritrea.

That said, I believe any effort to organize and any move towards unity is a good one, because I believe the intent is a good one and it is better to our status quo of 20 shell organizations challenging a formidable opponent.   The Four Plus One approach is a good move.  The ELF/ELF-RC/EDP is a good move.  The he.de.ge.Ha.E/Sagem joint declaration is a good move.  The Four Plus One Plus ELF Plus ELF-RC Plus EDP Plus..would be an even better move.

Given our history, a dose of skepticism and questioning is warranted.   We are, after all, dealing with politicians and politicians are an ambitious group-- and thank God for that.  And when their ambitions get in the way of our goals, we should take them to task on it.  But to deny ourselves the satisfaction of celebrating a hopeful sign because we want to psychologically prepare ourselves for what we consider the inevitable breakup is to live half-a-life.  Perfection�smret? Nay mntay smret?--should not be the standard because then nobody will attempt anything fearing failure. 

Kem Sebom Volume 2

The favorite subject of this column is, was and will remain justice and the exhibits evidencing the injustice are names, pictures and stories of those unjustly accused, disappeared or arrested without due process.  One of these exhibits was my father, which made him the occasional subject of my articles.  I am elated that he is out of prison and I thank all who sent their congratulatory messages, including many who have a family member as an exhibit.   If we believe in the rallying cry of �none of us are free until all of us are free� then the struggle for justice must and will continue, even as the exhibit pages change.

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