May be it is summertime blues, but I’ve been searching for an answer to one of life’s most perplexing questions –no, not the meaning of life itself –another question; an even more baffling phenomenon. I have been asking myself and a bunch of poor souls who’ve made the mistake of contacting me the last few weeks, this question: “why do some Eritreans still support the PFDJ?”

As the kids say these days, “dude, that is so 1999”.  Meaning, it is such a stale and out fashion issue, it is irrelevant today, in this century.  I think not.  Not that many people asked this question in 1999.  At least, I don’t remember what the answer was.  I was probably too busy supporting the PFDJ. Did I just say “kids these days”?  Hey, I was one of the kids… in 1999.  I am getting old but the kid in me that asks why? why? why? is still there and darn it, I need an answer.  We all do.

The most frequent answer I have been getting is, “Oh, give me a break! I don’t want to talk about this.  It’s pointless; an utter waste of time. Everybody knows why.”  Maybe.  But that doesn’t answer the question, does it?  Besides, how is that going to help me figure out what I have commissioned myself to find an answer to? In my opinion, it is one of the most important questions and remains unaddressed?  Throw me a freaking bone here!  …before a whole gamut of my pathetic impression of Austin Powers come jumping out, somebody does –if only to shut me up.

A bunch of explanatory bones are thrown about.  I ask again. Some Eritreans, mainly those who reside abroad, still support the PFDJ government because….

Explanation #1: “They are afraid of it!”

As in fear of the Mafia.  You don’t pay homage and some protection fee, you can find your self in an alley bloodied and bruised.  Pay your dues, clap and dance; your knee caps will thank you later.

Plausible? A little.  But to think that our fellow Eritreans are just a bunch of yellow bellies being intimidated by their morally repugnant brethren does not seem to hold water.  This certainly gives those of us who shake our fists in opposition of the dictatorship, a moral high ground of sorts, but not a probable answer.  You see, fear is certainly a motivating factor and it applies to those who are suffering under the hooves of the PFDJ thugs.  They don’t rebel and protest because they are afraid of the consequences. But how do we explain the fear factor in those who are, for all intents and purposes, shielded from the “long arm of the revolution”?  There has to be a more sensible reasoning.

For now, let me just say that I wish it was fear.  Fear is an emotional response to threats and danger.  Self preservation requires us to fear and avoid unnecessary risks.  Some might describe it as cowardice. Nothing to be proud of, but nonetheless, an honorable rationalization –at least in my book. However, the question being posed is not asking us why some Eritreans are choosing to do nothing to change our current predicament; it is asking why some Eritreans in the Diaspora still support the PFDJ?

Throw in the next bone please…

Explanation #2: “They are ignorant, uninformed and lack good judgment!”

If darkness is essentially the absence of light, we can definitely claim that dictatorship festers in the absence of enlightenment, independent thinking and free flow of ideas.   This, I am willing to concede. Through its monopoly of media outlets, it is claimed, that the PFDJ has brain-washed the meek amongst us and convince them to follow and support its evil deeds.

I have a problem with this postulation as well.  In this day and age, no one has a monopoly of any media.  Eritrea certainly has a de facto independent media.  You can even include rumor mills over coffee ceremonies as part of that.  Even if one chooses to “hear no evil, see no evil, and speak no evil”, it is hard not to learn about the sad situation Eritrea finds itself in.  PFDJ supporters are as informed about Eritrea as the rest of us.  If you think they don’t know that some citizens are languishing in jail for the past five, ten, fifteen years –and even longer –for simply opposing the policy of the government, you are sadly mistaken.  If you believe that they still have to be informed about the gulags and torture chambers in Wia, Adi Abeito, Adi Quala, Eira Ero, Aderset, Sawa, Gelalo, Track B and countless other police stations and military camps, you are in denial.  Therefore, lack of information or the capacity to comprehend it can not be an explanation or a valid excuse. 

Some are also quick to point out to the educational level of the majority of, the waning but still very strong, PFDJ support base in the Diaspora.   I don’t know about the ones you know, but the flag waving, PFDJ loving (they call it “Eritrea loving” when in polite company) patriots are as smart and as educated as their counterparts in the opposition.

This is where I really get confused.  We have already removed fear from the domain of possible explanations; and now we have to take off ignorance.  So what could possibly move some of us to support an organization of incompetent thugs who have unleashed so much misery on their own people?  Simple, emotional answers are plentiful.  But it’s a complex question with equally complex answers and we are duty-bound to try to answer.

One way to arrive at some consensus is to eliminate some myths and keep asking why?

Why? Why? And why?  Not the best way to entertain your friends but it could lead to an intellectual discussion. Our PFDJ supporting brothers, sisters and friends (yes, that is what most of them are) do not usually want proceed beyond this point.  You see, the system they hold dear is firmly in power, they already have arrived at a comfortable, however convoluted, justification of why they support tyranny, torture and injustice.  Now, you and I are trying to poke holes in that balloon.

But what could that elusive justification be? So elusive and effective the PFDJ apparatus has used it to build a moat around its crumbling castle.

For a good measure, let’s try one more of those widely accepted clarification.

Explanation #3: “They are simply cruel.  They lack a sense of empathy.”

True. They should have a felt more compassion for the victims and less so for the perpetuators. But the perpetual question remains.  What drives an otherwise decent human being to lend such a blind eye to overt actions indecency?  What do they say to the PFDJ party bosses, when they meet them for yet another clapping session of hzbnan mengstnan?  It makes you wonder if the whereabouts of innocent journalists whose only crime is publishing the ongoing debate of high ranking former PFDJ officials comes up. 

Eritrea’s independent writers, editors and reporters have been locked up incommunicado for almost 8 years now.  In the meantime, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, Bin Laden’s driver is about to be released from America’s Guantanamo Bay prison.  The lesson?  One is better off working for the world’s most wanted terrorist than choosing to be an independent journalist in Isaias’ Eritrea.    Their parents, children, spouses, extended family have absolutely no clue whether they are alive or dead.  Anyone who can sleep at night knowing that they contribute to such vindictiveness is indeed cruel.  Again, the question begs to be answered.  What is the justification for all this unnecessary cruelty; not by indifferent foreign invaders, but spite among brothers and sisters who should know better?

We’ve met the Enemy and He is us

Now, one may ask why this question merits our attention and at this time.  It is safe to say that inside Eritrea the regime has virtually no support left.  But it has enough systems of intimidation in place to quell any dissent.  There, the PFDJ has and will continue to use brute force.  It has exhausted whatever respect the EPLF has brought in.  Fear and intimidation is what a dictatorial system is good at.  But its financial and political lifeline remains Eritreans in Diaspora who live in the Middle East, Europe, Australia and North America. 

Needless to say, if the cruel system is to crumble, this umbilical cord needs to be cut-off.

Therefore, If we don’t understand this symbiotic relationship of odd bedfellows, we wouldn’t know where, how and when to cut.

So far, the conventional wisdom in understanding the level of support for the PFDJ is pretty much a one or a combination of the three.  Usually, the combination has been our favorite.  “What can we do?  They are all ignorant, selfish, mean cowards; and they won’t stop dancing!”

How descriptive, precise ….and wrong! 

I am asserting that a more appropriate answer should be, “What can we do?  They love their country.”  People who love their country more than their countrymen are dangerous. In the process of pledging allegiance and giving an emotional support to a nation, most people lose the capacity to differentiate between right and wrong.  History provides countless examples and some Eritreans are undergoing it as we speak.

So, what would you do for your country?  Pay all your taxes? Donate your income? Fight wars? Kill and get killed?  Most people would.

How about, burn villages, deport families, bomb cities and kill civilians.  Some might hesitate.  A whole lot of others won’t even blink or think twice.  Hey, if it is for the good of the nation!

Let’s up the ante.

If your country calls for it, would you gang rape women and girls?  Would you hack babies with a machete?  No need to calculate the odds against that.  It’s happening as we speak in our next door neighbor, Sudan.  The Janjaweed Milita consider themselves patriots and they are doing it for flag and country.

At the heart of the matter is a gross violation of other people’s rights by powerful people who garb themselves with national flags and absurd slogans.

So none of us should be surprised when our compatriots decide to lend their support and resources to an unelected, cruel and very inept dictator who has betrayed the trust of a nation.  Worse things are possible.  Give people a sense of purpose, a feeling of importance, a conspiracy theory, a grand vision of some sort, some poetry and songs and you will be surprised what you can make them do. The trick is to somehow convince them that your voice is the voice of ancestors and martyrs and the nation.

This is not reserved for the weak-links among us.  I happen to believe all of us are susceptible to this hypnosis, conformity, peer-pressure and manipulation.  The counterbalance is simply to remember that no one can converse with a country and know what “she really wants” or with dead foot soldiers -and yes, that is what “martyrs” are.  When such claims of lies are broadcasted, usually the person behind the mega phone is megalomaniac despot who couldn’t care any less for the values he claims to represent.

Most Orthodox Christian Eritreans would not have allowed the broad day light coup d’etat of their patriarch Abune Antonios if they honestly did not believe it would hurt Eritrea to interfere.  Quick stark choices had to be made. Justice versus injustice.  No, I take that back; that is for principle centered people.  For patriots, nation comes first.  Everything is a distant second. Throw your religion under the bus!  If handicapped freedom fighters on wheelchairs have to be gunned, so be it.  If citizens have to be tortured for practicing their chosen religion, that is the price to pay. If individual rights have to ignored, if parents have to be held hostage, if homes have to be raided, if a farmer’s land has to snatched, if a young man has to be tied to a tree for several days, if wars have to be ignited with impunity …anything and everything goes, as long as –you guessed it –it is good for the nation.  More aptly, as long as the megalomaniac with the mega phone says it is good for the nation.  Good luck building a nation devoid of veterans, farmers, spiritual leaders, youth, family and merchants!

I recently watched a harrowing documentary titled The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo.  It is a story about the mass rape of helpless villagers by armed militias and the Congolese army.  The film includes interviews with the victims and some of the perpetuators. I didn’t find it that shocking to learn about rampant episodes of rape in a war-torn country.  Heck, people burn their neighbors alive and crash babies with tanks. The segment that caught my attention was the interview with three of the rapists themselves. Each one admitted to have raped tens and even hundreds of women and girls.  In most cases, they were actually attacking the very villagers they were supposed to protect. It was astounding to see them openly talk about it until one of them invoked the magic word -nationalism.  Aha, now it makes sense. These soldiers believed that raping women before each battle made men “stronger”. Therefore, whatever they did is justified as long as it was good for their country. The filmmaker tries asking a curve ball question… “Would you let other soldiers rape your mother, daughter and sister before they go to the battlefield?”  It is beyond belief, but blinded with their love for their country; these patriots would not have any qualms about letting that happen either. We all have to sacrifice damn it!

What does this have to do with the PFDJ and its supporters?  Everything.

Just like those Congolese soldiers, by using the misguided love for Eritrea as a convenient cover, some Eritreans are contributing to the abuse of their own mothers, sisters and daughters.  They have and continue to unleash a rebel leader turned mad dog to drag their fathers, brothers and sons from one disaster to another. We all have to sacrifice for Eritrea damn it!  How convenient.  So long as you are not doing the sacrificing…

Of course, all these can be construed as fake love which needs to be replaced by other form of real authentic nationalism. I have misgivings about that as well.  As long as people feel they are working for a higher purpose, they will always remain dangerous.  Before you know it, they are wearing matching hats, marching in unison and itching for a fight.

We have too many nationalists and far too few who value, cherish and fight for individual liberty.

But where do we draw the line between using the symbolic power of waving a flag and turning into a hypnotized zombie?  It is simple really. If your neighbor prays to God every single day, you should probably admire his faith; but if he claims to have had a two way conversation with God on Tuesday, you should probably keep him away from the children.  Similarly, if someone is talking about a vision of development and progress for his or her country, by all means, let them.  But if the conversation includes phrases such as “hagerna kabana tdelyo zela” or “swuatna zgedefwo melekti”, stop them.  Most of the time, they are saying things without thinking.  If they really mean what they say however, stay away from them -and definitely keep them away from the children.

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