First, a few words about PFDJ twerps. One thing which is a defining characteristics of all PFDJ thugs, and I mean all of them – the so called educated, the skunis and the wedinis alike, is that they are all hopelessly vulgar. Bonafide “sidis”, if you like, who are too alien to our predominantly conservative Eritrean culture. 

What is strikingly puzzling though about the latest attack on the person of Saleh Johar by this thing called Sophia Tesfamariam is that, it is entirely a criminal assault, which incidentally is punishable by law, more than it is a political critique or even the usual disparaging tirade spewed by all PFDJ thugs.

For this woman to be so much consumed by hate so as not to be able to tell the difference between a criminal offence and a tasteless filthy verbiage, is a clear testament of how low these thugs have sunk. If this criminal offence was done within the confines of PFDJ banditry, then it would have been the norm, for everyone knows that the PFDJ and its cronies commit far more atrocious crimes than this, almost on a daily basis. But to have the audacity and do it in jurisdictions where it is punishable by law, is not only a sign of desperation by a long dead regime, but also a sign of the troubling extent to which the regime has instilled its culture of hate in the hearts and minds of its blind supporters. They would do anything, or say anything to save the day for their bloody dictator; but “anything” in this particular case, may not go unpunished.

If the intention was to intimidate Saleh into giving up his relentless efforts to fight tyranny, then perhaps PFDJ thugs don’t know Saleh all that well, and certainly don’t have a clue about the tenacity and the resilience of Kerenis in general.

For a fierce small town that has given Eritrea generations upon generations of martyrs –  the likes of Mahmoud Janjar, Debrom Tulluk, Hassan Bashimel, Abdulkadir Ramadan, Said Saleh and countless other heroes; for a town that prides itself in being the cradle of Eritrean Revolution, just as do many of its sister towns and villages throughout the Metahit – intimidation is the last tactic that will ever confine its proud sons, like Saleh Johar to inaction. If anything, it will be a shot in the arm to do more; and believe me, there will be more to this, just stay tuned.

Back to my original topic – it is quite a relief to see the new energized rapprochement efforts made by both EDA blocs, this after almost a full year of going in circles, bickering about non-issues, which served no purpose whatsoever. It looks like all groups are re-invigorated once again, and the hope is that, that this time around, common sense will prevail.

Are there things to learn from past mistakes? You bet.

As a precursor, I would like to mention that over the lull that followed EDA’s split last year, I did share and briefly discuss some of the following thoughts with some friends and concerned citizens, whom I respect very much; and whose opinions I hold in high regard.

In my modest opinion, I think that the main problem with our opposition groups is their inability to reconcile the dual roles that we ask of them – the role of deferring their organizational agendas, which are nothing but party platforms, and the role of creating a cohesive collective entity, which at the end of the day is supposed to give them – ALL of them, a fair chance to present those same agendas to the public. For some reason, they just don’t seem to be able to co-ordinate these two roles.

Unfortunately, this problem was very much at play during last year’s EDA conference.

This could have been due to fear on the part of the opposition leaders of losing the support of their respective constituencies, if they were perceived to be caving in to the demands of their rivals, or given their backgrounds of adherence to rigid organizational constraints, it could have just been sheer ineptness in being unable to wear two different hats. Add to that age-old grievances, blame games and somewhat archaic thinking and we all ended up in a logjam that no one could break. It took us a full year to recover from that setback, but sadly enough, this also meant another year of misery for our people under PFDJ’s tyranny; this, when even one single day under such tyranny compares to a lifetime in hell.

Does anyone have the stomach to go through that heartache all over again?

You see, over a decade and half was lost just to try to bring those groups together, and when they seemingly created a collective entity (EDA), which could have been transformed into an interim government-in-exile, they retorted back to their old habits of fragmentation. Now, if this latest rapprochement ends up being a de-ja vu, which I have no reason to believe that it will, then it would sadly mean that we haven’t learned a thing from our past mistakes. The expectations are high this time around, and failure, any failure would deal a fatal blow to the entire opposition establishment.

No one doubts the sincerity and the selflessness of almost all the opposition leaders, who spent their entire lives struggling to bring peace, justice and democracy to their people. No one can be arrogant enough to say that they are in this for their own personal gains. If that was their overriding motive, then they could have easily joined the ranks of the PFDJ establishment and turned into fat pigs in no time, just like the rest of the PFDJ thugs. Instead, they chose the life of exile, with all its hardships and indignities; in order to follow through with a noble cause they spent a lifetime struggling for. That alone, should earn them our respect, gratitude and admiration.        

Having said that, when and if any sensible folks criticize these leaders; the idea is not to belittle their contributions or to undermine their efforts; but rather to help them look at issues from the public’s perspective or from a different angle, so to speak. Constructive criticism is necessary and should be encouraged, especially when they err, and as humans, they are definitely subject to make errors.  

Some of the very contentious issues which most of the opposition leaders are often criticized for are inaction, lack of progress, weakness and inherent malaise in general. Even by their own admissions, some of these leaders were courageous enough to acknowledge the prevalence of these problems, despite the fact that they fell short of facing them head on. Perhaps unnecessary side issues were to blame or perhaps everybody got so engrossed on trying to bring the opposition groups together; whatever the cause, the process of extricating the bloody dictator did not get the absolute urgency it deserved.

This time around, the opposition groups must be brave enough and ambitious enough to take bold steps towards creating a provisional government-in- exile, and more importantly, do it in a time frame that is commensurate with the urgency, which the plight of our poor people calls for. They should ignore the cynics, cut the crap and go for the ultimate goal. Worst that could ever happen is that the experience may fail, but then again, the worst failure ever is to give up trying.

If the idea of creating a provisional government-in-exile is seen as yet another thorny issue for these groups and if the level of mistrust among them is so hopelessly deep, to the extent that this would lead to yet another dreaded logjam – then pursuing different avenues to achieve that goal must be fully explored.  

One of the things that could be done in that regard is to split the dual roles required of the opposition groups, roles I alluded to a little earlier on, right in the middle – into a two-faceted approach, or plan of action, if you will.

The first approach would be to set up a National Committee, with the full blessing of the opposition groups of course, from among the various civic organizations, prominent national figures, independent media figures, activists and so on. The committee would assume the role of creating an interim administration or a provisional government-in-exile, thus fully, albeit temporarily relieving the opposition groups of a responsibility which is at the core of their frictions, mutual mistrust, bickering and what have you.   

The second approach would be for the opposition groups to be totally free in harnessing and carving their own political agendas without any limits or constraints whatsoever, thus sparing themselves the adversities of marriages of convenience or impotent coalitions; and most importantly – sparing Eritreans as a whole, the agony of being confined to inaction, due to the lack of a common ground between these different factions.

Now on the outset, these may sound a simplistic approach to an intrinsically complicated problem; however, the devil is in the details, as they say. In order for this to work, there is a slew of caveats that need to be met, and of course, a slew of hurdles to be crossed too.

For starters, the committee will be tasked with the most important mission of carving the path towards democracy and the rule of law.  I am sure many would agree that, the Nation’s survival as a unified, single and sovereign entity would depend on the success of such an endeavor.

One of the most important aspects of the committee would be its composition or makeup. Such a committee must be representative of the wide cross-section of the Eritrean society, and that it be composed of non-partisan members, with no ambitions in political offices beyond the mandate of a transitional period.

In fact, and as a strong confidence building measure, the committee could adopt as the first article of its charter, a covenant it enters into with the Eritrean people, limiting its duration, say three to five years with no provisions for renewals or extensions. Also as an additional confidence building measure, committee members could irrevocably waive their rights to seek election or be appointed to offices. (Who wouldn’t be honored to retire comfortably as an elder statesman/woman with their dignity intact, after accomplishing such a noble task?)  

Of course the challenges to such an endeavor would be numerous, to say the least. The committee for example, could not be composed of part-timers. Full time dedication to the cause would require that committee members be adequately compensated to meet their personal needs and their family obligations. This in turn would entail the need to procure adequate funding (this may not be an impossible task, if the committee manages to show some progress during the initial risky stages). Also, the issue of scouting for and recruiting suitable candidates would not be an easy task; but as they say, if there is a will, nothing is impossible.   

Then there is the issue of convincing the opposition groups that they are not being circumvented and that at the end of the day, it is they who would be the building blocks of the democratic institutions of the nation. Even if they gave their initial blessings, as time goes by, some groups may accuse the committee of alleged bias one way or another.  The opposition groups have to be convinced that the objective of the committee would be to give them, ALL of them, a fair shot at presenting their platforms to the public at large, in a free and a Democratic Eritrea.

At this point, the platforms of the opposition groups could be similar, redundant or even diametrically opposed – it should never be an issue. They don’t have to bicker about who voted with one hand and who used both hands, they don’t have to create a collective entity or unite if they don’t want too, in fact, they don’t even have to meet, period.

All they have to do is concentrate on their respective party platforms and be ready to present them to the general public in a free and a fair election process. The only people who could have a say on which platforms are broad-based, which ones are progressive, which ones are too narrow or downright freaky, are the ELECTORATE, period. 

This may sound a bit ironic, but I truly believe, as do many sensible folks, that the easiest part of this whole endeavor would be getting rid of the bloody dictator himself. There are a number of things that could be done – but these things need to be discussed and sanctioned by a collective authority.

Wa-Allah-ul-Muafik
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it