Quotation's that instill courage:

"No body can give you freedom; No body can give you equality for justice or anything. If you are a man you take it." Malcom-x

"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity ; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." - Winston Churchill

"Power never takes a back step, only in the face of more power." - Malcom-x

"Conflict and peace can not be addressed in isolation but must be approached with more comprehensive perspectives."- Kofi Annan

One could observe now days a healthier debate in an increased momentum and with a political mix of democratic forums and civic society groups. Seeing in a mirror image side by side, our approaches and civility of our debate two to three years ago and now, we can appreciate the ongoing maturity in appreciating and addressing the problems of our nation. Citizen are motivated to comprehend the problem of our nation from different angles and are coming with different approach of resolving to the current internal conflicts. Some with academic approach, some with rich experience, and some with both. The strings of inputs will ensure attainment of a multi-dimensional approach to the multi-faceted problem of the nation.

Too many grand strategies - National conference, National reconciliation, an exit strategy and road maps framed as a relieve from the current national crises, a strategy of negotiated peaceful revolution.....etc are popped up as an explosive political inserts into our debate. We should be overwhelmingly gratified by the lively and relevant conversations and debates on the bonafide issues of national matter.

Having said that, the accuracy and precision of the debate is questionable always since some approaches come with oxymoron ideas in antithetical incongruous terms.

The concept of enemy and adversary

In politics of war and diplomacy, one has to know the concept of enemy and adversary and how the terms are applicable rationally with the appropriate objective realty. Enemy is a hostile force or power with destructive effect. It is always defined relatively within a prescribed time and space. It could be foreign or domestic. An enemy should be confronted with a resolute and determined conviction. The method of confrontation is decided by the oppressed people depending on the endurance and the threshold of their pain.

Adversary is one who opposes another and has antagonistic idea. Adversary forces could be brought into a table for discussion to forge a compromised agreement. Hence Seyoum's keen insight will definitely acuminate the conflict of adversary forces. When we engage to a struggle be it peaceful or violent we have to be able to define who the enemy is and the nature of its enmity . Then we can speak what kind of strategy and tactics we can chose to employ the enemy with minimum lose.

Undoubtedly, Seyoum failed to identify PFDJ regime as enemy of our people. While the PFDJ regime continue to wreak havoc on the stability of our nation and restraining the democratic process that allows our people to determine the destiny of our nation, Seyoum is seeking a compromise solution with the dictator. No wonder, he elucidated an example of Poland and others suffice the examples of south Africa and soviet union to backup their argument. One has to take into consideration the socio- economic development of Eritrea and the countries in question before deciding to adopt similar approaches .The ruling regime does not have a defined system and mode of production. Unlike ours, both Poland and South Africa had a well defined system a communist and apartheid system respectively. Not only that, the international factor had also a lot to do to expedite the needed change in those countries. In the cold war the West had invested a lot of resources and technical support to the trade union to destabilize the communist regime in Poland. The consciousness of the industrial work force of Poland is another component vector force of change which our dare nation is lacking. The same is true about South Africa. The international community exerted an immense pressure on the apartheid nation to reform itself. South Africa is rich in natural resources and attracts big international business. I doubt Seyoum's thesis has taken into account the socio-economic realty of our nation and the international factor into the equation when he advanced his proposal .The international community has little or no interest to the tiny nation of Eritrea with its meager resources. Therefore the forces for change is completely incumbent on the human resources and know how of our people.

To make my stand clearer, neither do I want to condemn armed struggle if it is found as an appropriate means to resolve the current stand off with the oppressive regime, nor do I oppose peaceful negotiation if the apropriate forces of democracy are included as part and parcel of the struggle. It should be decided collectively in a broad Eritrean conference that include all sectors of our society and its organizations. However, I will absolutely condemn any role reversal that conspire to back pedal the struggle of our people by aligning with foreign forces (if there are any) as I did condemn the 1981-1982 EPLF/TPLF alliance to eliminate the national force of independence(ELF).

Seyoum is clear and understanding regarding this point. Incidentally, whether it is intentionally or not, Seyoum glided slip sloppily into the intrigues of politics and I am afraid whether he comprehends the full picture to the political contradictions of our society. Even though I am not in favor of armed struggle at this point, it would be unwise to categorize as "sectarian politics" to those who believe armed struggle as alternative to root out the oppressive regime. They do not need to convince Seyoum in this medium if they have to. This is not the right moment to debate as how to remove the regime. If the Eritrean war of independence(armed struggle) would have started now, would he be bold enough to call it "sectarian politics". I believe Seyoum has run out of vocabulary to his politics of diplomacy which he showed it in his first article "Eritrean political opposition's umbrella building" of May 21,2002. At this stage the formation of a united umbrella building is needed. Thereafter we can discuss the feasibility to the course of strategy they could take.

When courage is mutilated it is a threat to our make ups I hope Seyoum did not articulate this provocative brilliant idea , while he was in doubt to his basic instinct and experience when he said " we had learned to doubt our basic instinct and experiences." A statement which raises a question to a critical reader. Doubting our basic instinct is a sign and symptom of mutilation of our inner instinct, the driving force of our courage. Bear in mind, under no circumstances I am not questioning to the courage of Seyoum nor did I deduct a judgmental inference from his statement. But that simple statement propelled me to think how courage could be mutilated. When culture of fear dominates a society as it is vividly apparent with our people, it is really a threat to our make up. The courage of our fathers and forefathers to face all the challenges against the chains of colonizers, the courage of our generation in the army struggle of our independence are the indisputable truth of our make up. These thoughts should develop to the young generation, well equipped with thought-shift to breed young leaders to challenge the new dynamic.

A few days ago, I listen to an echo from my sound sleep dream night. A message from the silent voice of our people. A touchy message to our intellectuals. The message was transmitted in a flashy light very fast to catch it, and says - " Teach me I will process into my thoughts and involve me to understand our direction". What a wonderful message it is, that instill courage to the hibernating and vacillating intellectuals. This happened, I believe after I read Habtom Yohannes's recent article lamenting to our intellectuals who use pen-names and others who are 0n "watch and see" and never hesitate to give excuses to disguise their fears. On the other hand we have to be careful, hatred not to be the driving force to our courage. Courage should not be contaminated with hate, arrogance, and bigots. Courage must always respond to the demand of your inner instincts. How many of us do we act against our instincts?

Court of public opinion and the current struggle

The most undesired political move of Seyoum involved rising the unnecessary topic for debate to create confusion and open the old wounds of our politics. It did not even take time to divert the public from the current enemy to the old animosity. The recent article of Paulos Natnael which endorse Seyoum Tesfaye's approach "negotiating with the regime" but denouncing the dialogue between Idris Abdella and Seyoum Harestay is a simple example. Evidently this is a bad taste at least to the democrats who strive to create a bridge between the two political culture. Peaceful negotiation and political seclusion does not fit to each other. I am totally saddened with the detour of our debate losing our focus from the reverberating issues of national matter. It is equally mind boggling to teach peaceful dialogue with the dictator and at the same time trying to exclude others that does not correspond to their individual taste. While honest citizens are thriving to build bridges to narrow the gap that divided us, Seyoum added a new environment for new camps by inducing us to debate as supporters of armed struggle and supporters of peaceful dialogue. Subsequently Paulos opened the old wounds to make it worse. One has to understand that any real or perceived crimes can not be judged by the court of public opinion .It has it's own due process in due time.

I call to all Independent and unaligned Eritreans to stand against any diversion or trends of concealed political expediency. The current struggle demand visionary ideas that unite our people, look forward, and bring the end of the oppressive regime once for all. Evidently, that will lead us to install a constitutional government that respect rule of law and democratic governance. It should be prudently approached, non judgmentally until the power is transferred to the true owner " the people". Verdicts out of the court on the line of traditional political conceptions has to be ruled out from interference to our healthy debate and the direction in which our thoughts is moving. The idea of organic connections among citizen through a healthy debate is so important to us now and any thing that impede to this course has to be challenged.