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A dear old lady has a theory about the PFDJ that explains all their behaviours to her. Son, it is not that they are evil, she says; it is just that they are exhausted. Think: have these people rested even for a day? So you folks in the opposition instead of insulting and criticizing them, she asks, why don’t you just offer to provide a respite? Why don’t you give them a break? Why don’t you volunteer your services? Well. If you have your son or your son-in-law in the Mafia, you better find good qualities about organized crime. They sure keep a safe neighbourhood—safe from everybody except themselves, of course. And they are fine patriots—when they are not killing patriots or destroying enterprise. And they dress sharply. And they are devout men of honour, with peculiar understanding of piety and honour. They will send hit men and throat-slitters while they take solemn vows:
“Michael Corleone, do you renounce Satan?” “I do renounce Satan.” But why break the poor woman’s heart? Why tell her that they need no respite: that they have designed a system to make sure that there is no Plan B—it is either them, or mini-me versions of them? Why tell her that if you are an opposition member, or even one reputed to be sympathetic to them, you land at the Asmara Airport with full intention of giving them a break and volunteering your services, they will reciprocate by a kindly gesture of a special Adika Zura—tour your country: -- you will go straight from the airport to Adi Abeyto, Gahtelai, Tio, Gelalo, Asab, Track B… But all along, they will have told you that no harm will come to you and you may even have your daughters waiting with flowers for you at the airport. Michael Corleone, do you renounce Satan? I do renounce Satan. “I am sure you are right,” I say, “It must be exhaustion. They never go on vacation.” The Exhaustion of PFDJ The PFDJ is exhausted. But it is a self-imposed exhaustion. It is structural: because they have a closed system with an unwritten rule that only Shaebia veterans can have senior positions. It is like the endogamy and exogamy rules of traditional societies, a perpetually small gene pool, guaranteed to provide birth defects. In Africa, patronage is by tribe—so it is in Eritrea, except the tribe’s name is PFDJ. The exhausted tribe’s idea of hitting the refresh button on the system is to rotate the same people to different offices. The minister of fish is now the minister of lentils. Hip, hip, hooray. So of course they are exhausted. And exhausted people not only make mistakes but they don’t even care that they are making them anymore. Twelve Years Ago Deja-vu. How old were you in 1996? I know: 12 years younger. Twelve years ago we had headlines that read exactly like the ones today—about a border dispute between Eritrea and Djibouti. As usual, the only people in the world who did not know what was going on were we Eritreans. So it was then, so it is now. Of course, in 1996 people either had no Internet access or they had dial-up. Information was at a premium: you had to subscribe to Lexis-Nexis to buy information by word count. You had to wait for the Indian Ocean Newsletter and Le Monde Diplomatique and the universities that subscribe to their services to give you the information about fascist era maps, shellings, denials and retractions. You can learn that, then as now, there were “fact finding missions” sent by the Arab League and the AU. Deja vu. There were excuses for ignorance then; what about now? You can wait for the PFDJ media to cover it for you. But remember they are exhausted —and by the time they are ready to cover the Djibouti news, we may be on to a new dispute with another country. Me? I will wait for the great journalist Jean-Louis Peninou to write the definitive piece. And it will show what it always shows: the PFDJ is just tired.
- Ten Years Ago Today, May 12, was the 10th year anniversary of the breakout of the Eritrea-Ethiopia border war. 1998-2008. Ten Years. That is the length of the rule of the British administration rule in Eritrea, 1941-1951; the duration of Eritrea’s federation with Ethiopia, 1952-1962; and it is one third the length of Eritrea’s armed struggle, 1961-1991. Ten years. 60% of the life of independent Eritrea. Ten years. Our one-party rule system is not just exhausted but rickety old—it has always been deaf, but now it has gone blind and mute. Since December 2000 (the Algiers Agreement), the United Nations Security Council has passed 20 resolutions on what it calls the “situation” between Eritrea and Ethiopia. There is your giveaway: you may think you are in some existential threat but to the UN, which sees worse crisis every other minute of every day, what we have is a “situation.” In virtually all the resolutions since 2004, the UNSC has been reminding both Eritrea and Ethiopia that “the primary responsibility for implementation of the Algiers Agreements lies with both parties.” It is the UNSC telling the PFDJ that it is not up to the UN to solve a problem it did not create. But for years now the PFDJ has pretended that this phrase is an empty gesture and it keeps insisting that the UN has the primary responsibility of implementing the agreement. Ten years. Nothing changes. Every year, it is the same exhausting game of “who stole the axe?” And because the PFDJ is so exhausted, it is not even arguing to persuade people anymore. It is just going through its rants and making things worse for Eritrea. Did you read the UN Security Council president's statement of April 30, 2008 on the "situation between Eritrea and Ethiopia"? It could have been written ten years ago. That is our ten year old problem. Seven Years Ago Our exhausted Tribe is also dealing with the seven year old problem—the case of the publicized arbitrary detentions. (The unpublicized cases of disappearances are counted by decades.) Courtesy of two extraordinary Eritreans, Dawin Mesfin and Habtom Yohannes, we have been given a glimpse of what passes for legal argument in the exhausted minds of the PFDJ. The PFDJ responds to the accusation that it is guilty of arbitrary detention with what can be called the legal equivalent of Ef You. You can find many examples in this glimpse, but here is my favourite: The accused did not get speedy and fair trial yet. The reason for this is that the persons are accused of conspiracy with hostile foreign powers at a time of war and the evidence gathered so far cannot be made public and forwarded to judicial proceeding since the war situation is not yet over. Therefore, taking the persons to court under the circumstance, which does not allow the declassification of crucial evidence, could seriously compromise fair trial. In addition, there are co-offenders who are not yet apprehended due to the prevailing no war no peace situation in the country. There are four sentences and each one is more farcical than the other. It really is the kind of statement that must generate guffaws and ridicule from every office in the world. I expect that it will be taught at Pol-Sci classes throughout the world as an exhibit of the obtuseness of African governments. “The accused did not get speedy and fair trial yet.” Don’t you love the “yet”? The implication is that they still could get “speedy” trial—7 years later. It is like a parent saying, “My 7 year old hasn’t won the infant-of-the-year award. But maybe next year!” Yes, the 7 AM train has not arrived on time yet but let’s give it 7 more hours and maybe it will come on time. But it gets better, read the second sentence. Then the third and fourth sentence without stopping. The elegance of the logic is so overpowering that you may feel light headed and fall. You may also weep uncontrollably at the compassion the alligator is showing to the antelope: it has swallowed it whole while it argues that although a carnivore, it really doesn’t chew, and is inflicting no harm. It is just saving the antelope from other predators. And don’t you love the role of the co-defenders who have not yet been apprehended because of the “no war no peace situation.” Apparently, these co-defenders assume three dimensional solid state only in states of war or peace but change to ether when it is no-war-no-peace. -
I don't know which is worse: that they are exhausted or that what they are exhausted from is the heavy load of guilt they are carrying. Waiting in the wings is our even more tired opposition and, on stage left, the Y-PFDJ, who have inherited all the arrogance of PFDJ without the accompanying list of accomplishments. What we need is to expand the gene pool a bit--let's have farmers, traders and businessmen for politicians, and let's send the politicians on a long, extended vacation. They deserve nothing less.
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