Monday, April 30, 2007

Back to ‘Tribouli’

“Libyan and Eritrean military and security observers have been deployed at the border between Sudan and Chad, scene of recent clashes, a Libyan mediator said on Thursday.”

Sudan Tribune
Apr. 12, 2007

PFDJ seems to be following a well-defined pattern, retracing the Italian colonial period,
An Italian colony develops its own distinct identity then eventually becomes independent, then
PFDJ rebuilt Italian-era railroad system, then
PFDJ tried to rebuild Italian-era dams, roads and farms, then
Introduced PFDJ version of Italian Articollo Diece [No Eritrean nationalism allowed], then
Prohibited natives from walking on Kombishtato (thru Giffa for Slavery Campaign), then
Invaded Ethiopia (Per Border Commission and accepted by PFDJ) as Italians did in 1935, then
Invaded Somalia (albeit clandestinely) as Italians did, then
Sent its troops through ‘tribouli’ to Sudan/Chad border (Alright, the Italians stopped in Libya)
Moreover,
Italians were the last Europeans colonizers to scramble for Africa. PFDJ is trying to become the new kid on the block scrambling to become the new power broker,
PIA is telling us that we are too ‘tribalists’. Instead, we will be told to shed our cultures and traditions – symbols of tribalism - and to only speak Italian, to act like Italians and to celebrate Italian holidays (thus two new years, etc…).
Is this why PIA makes such frequent trips to Italy without even being invited?
Hail the Black Caesar!
He shall fight tribalism!
He shall fight religionists!
He shall fight regionalists! [Including the entire horn]
He shall fight the Goliaths of the World!
He shall build a great nation/region single-handedly!
Then he shall call himself – the “Visionary”, a demigod!
He shall rule the Horn from Roma … piccola!
II. CONSTITUTION & MULTIPARTY SYSTEM
As critically important constitution is, there is an overemphasis in our discussions of this issue. Although a constitution can be complex at a theoretical level, at a practical level, the options available to formulators are limited.
In my view, there are many other critical issues that we must equally address in order to cross the critical periods immediately after the collapse of the regime. If we are to embark on multi-party democracy within a short period after the collapse of the regime, there are zillions of other issues that we should discuss and debate in order to begin to understand the challenges we face. One among many issues is multiparty laws. I assure my readers that this issue itself can occupy us for the next decade. It will probably be the single most important issue that will define how we evolve into a stable nation.
THE CONSTITUTION
Simon M. Weldehaimanot’s paper titled “Ten years old yet not born: The Status of Eritrean Constitution” is an excellent paper on this topic, Mr. S. Younis’ article and Mr. Weldehaimanot’s reply are excellent discussions on the Constitution. Mr. Weldehaimanot addresses both the general theoretical issues as well as the historical developments of the 1997 Constitution. There was also a conference honoring Prof. Bereket Habteselassie at the University of North Carolina where discussions addressed various topics on constitution. I hope that their papers will be made available to the general public [as has Mr. Younis]. These are the types of issues we should equally address as we expose the regime’s atrocious acts.
Constitution contains the principles that govern a society and that laws emanate from these principles. Constitution is generally composed of the following,
Rights & Freedoms (see below)
+
System of Government (see below)
=
CONSTITUTION
[Note: A constitution may contain other particular and explicit principles or values that may be catered to a specific nation]
Rights & Freedoms
Although much can be written on this issue, it is suffice to say that these rights and freedoms are mostly universally shared. One can copy UN’s Declaration of Human Rights or any other countries’ Bill of Rights and Freedoms and apply them to Eritrea.
It should also be noted that rights and freedoms emanate from natural laws, and shouldn’t be viewed as privileges handed down by benevolent politicians. “Rights” might be referred to as the “rights to life, liberty and property”.
“Freedom” might be referred to as “Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Assembly and Freedom of Conscious …”
Possibly, the one challenge that needs to be addressed is how to address minority and group rights. A constitution is better left to address the broader principles of minority and group rights rather than to promulgate laws.
System of Government
We have to separate “system” and “government”.
“Government”: has three primary functions, first is administration, second is promulgation of laws, and third is policy formulation.
Government Administration:
Ø Who is primarily responsible for government administration? It should be civil service.
Ø What is the primary function of elected representatives in government administration? It is oversight over civil service.
Ø Implication 1: regardless of who is elected into government, government administration should be allowed to function relatively independently and that administrative changes should be introduced in gradual manner only. Civil service should be highly unionized to counter political power and interference.
Ø Implication 2: Proliferation of political parties is viewed as creating upheaval in government administration. As long as there is strong civil service, the negative impact of proliferation of political parties can be highly mitigated. What can be done to create a strong civil service? Not much, but the task will be made more difficult the longer PFDJ is allowed to destroy Eritrea.
Promulgation of laws:
Ø This is the primary of function of government (legislative body). Society means people living together; and to live together they need laws.
Ø Promulgating laws might be the most challenging and contentious aspect of government, esp. in multiethnic, multi-regional and multi-religious nation.
Ø In a fast-paced and quickly changing world, laws must be enacted, modified, changed and rescinded quickly. Legislators must remain actively abreast of various issues.
Ø At the same time, quickly changing laws reflecting quickly changing realties and world shouldn’t cause uncertainties.
Policy Formulation:
Ø Policies include on health, education (social), defense, foreign relations, economic, etc…
Ø Political party forming government usually formulates these policies,
Ø However, there shouldn’t be wide fluctuations in policies from one government to the next. There must be a system that tapers wide fluctuations in policies. This may include strong civil service (esp. for social programs), strong private sector (esp. for economic policies) and strong civic associations (esp. on other general national interests)
“System”: suggests “checks and balances” to ensure power isn’t usurped to the detriment of individual rights and freedoms. “Checks and balances” are discussed in my article “Blueprint for Democratic Eritrea”. “System” also suggests a mechanism by which ethnical, religious and regional minorities’ rights is protected.
“System” suggests a structure to achieve a certain objective. Structure has a degree of permanency, at least over short period of time. The question is, would the public be allowed to debate over, for instance, “federalism” vs. “unitary system” and propose the preferable system? Most likely, the perimeters for a system of government are set by a certain select group.
Although a nation may import a “system”, customizing a “system” for a specific society is a trial-and-error process. The starting point is a universally accepted “system” of the three pillars of government: judiciary, legislative and executive.
“System of Government” = a mechanism to control government while doing its job. The most important control is to forestall government from encroaching on “Rights & Freedoms”.
Recommendation for discussions: Instead of just wrangling over whether the 1997 Constitution making process was inclusive or not, we should,
Discuss the shortcomings of the 1997 Constitution with the view of amending it in the future,
We need wider discussions and competent leadership capable of implementing the necessary government structural reforms [“systems”] to make the Constitution work. Instituting “system” is technical in nature and requires competent leadership to undertake these structural reforms.
For instance, I have concerns over the following articles in the constitution for now,
1. Article 26 Limitation Upon Fundamental Rights and Freedoms: I believe that this article weakens the rights and freedoms enshrined in the constitution. If Eritrea had a strong and independent judiciary system, Constitutional judges could have been relied upon to balance between rights & freedoms and political issues. Without strong judiciary, the constitution must be made to err on the side of caution and enshrine unequivocal protections of rights and freedoms. Moreover strong private media and civic associations are needed to control government.
2. Article 34 Chairman of the National Assembly: The constitution must unequivocally state that the President can not also be chairman of the national assembly.
3. Article 41 Election and Term of Office of the President: My concern is that without an automatic mechanism for electing a president, political wrangling within the national assembly may result in presidential vacancy for days, if not for weeks. Members of national assembly will have incentives to play a ‘hold-out’ game in order to extract the maximum benefit from presidential candidates. Instead, similar to some countries’ presidential elections, say, 30 days after [national] election for national assembly, there would be a mandatory election [in the national assembly] for presidency. If no candidate garners simple majority, there would be a second round election within 10 days after the first election among only the top two vote-getters for presidency. One may argue that the national assembly can formulate its own election rules to address such concerns. However, enshrining it into the constitution gives the process greater importance.
4. Article 36 Rules of Procedure in the National Assembly: There should be mandatory requirements to hold at least one session in each calendar year or any other period not exceeding 365 days after the first session. In the 1997 Constitution, the only requirement is to hold the first session within one month after national election. Otherwise the executive may coerce members of the national assembly not to hold sessions.
A mature political system can enshrine only the general principles and allow the political institutions to formulate laws, rules and regulations to address various issues. In emerging democracy, esp. one at its infancy, may require higher degree of protections enshrined within the constitution, which then can be rescinded if deemed unnecessary or too restrictive once a higher level of political maturity is achieved or strong judicial system, including Constitutional Court, is established.
While on this topic, some say that “national security” or “sovereignty” comes before “Constitution”. But what they don’t understand or conveniently forget is that “Constitution” encompasses “national security” and “sovereignty”. Only a law-abiding nation is able to address is internal and external challenges. Without constitution, surely a nation will continue to face national security challenges.
MULTIPARTY LAWS
What is the function of a multiparty system?
National leaders who attain power through democratic processes should have many limitations to their powers. Being elected into government isn’t a carte-blanche to experiment with one’s beliefs on various issues. The governing party won’t (and shouldn’t) have the power to easily tinker with the followings,
Constitution: the governing party shouldn’t have the power to change the constitution without wider public participation,
Administration: should be largely left to the civil service,
Laws: there should be committee hearings, white papers, etc… before promulgating laws.
Policies: concerned individuals and groups should be consulted before formulating policies. Civil service should be heavily involved in formulating policies.
The most important function of multiparty system is to allow the general population to kick out the incumbent political party in government. Voters aren’t necessarily electing the opposition into government, but showing disapproval of incumbent government’s performance. The ideal government is where faces change but laws and policies remain stable or change gradually. When one party remains in power for extended period, corruption and nepotism shall surely follow. Opposition parties must understand that they may not necessarily be elected to implement their social experimentation but just to revamp accountability and transparency. A casual observation of politics shows that the first act of any opposition party elected into government is to expose the previous government’s political abuses in order to boost its own image. This is healthy politics.
Proliferation of political parties
PIA and opposition camp alike express their concerns of the proliferations of political parties. The first question is, ‘why should we be concerned about the proliferation of political parties’? The concern might be that political parties may engage in divisive propaganda, or that divided national assembly wouldn’t be able to lead the country by promulgating laws or electing national leader. If we can articulate the problems caused by the proliferations of political parties, we may be able to formulate rules that may discourage unwanted political dynamics.
In my view, Min. Sheriffo’s 2001 draft multiparty law is well-thought out. This law requires parties to have national reach (Article 6) which limits the proliferation of political parties. Naturally, national elections won’t be limited to candidates affiliated to political parties, but individuals will run as independents. In order to encourage individual candidates to join political parties, and political parties to extend their geographic and demographic reach, various types of formulas may be used, for instance,
Parties with elected members from 5 or more administrative regions - Nfa 80/vote per year
Parties with elected members from 4 administrative regions - Nfa 60/vote per year
Parties with elected members from 3 administrative regions - Nfa 40/vote per year
Parties with elected members from 2 administrative regions - Nfa 20/vote per year
Parties & individuals with elected members from 2 administrative regions Nfa 10/vote per year
Vote means number of individual citizens’ votes cast in favor of party, and doesn’t mean per member elected.
Per vote payments would be made to the parties for administrative and campaigning purposes. Every system has its advantages and disadvantages. Their must be a system that encourages political individuals and parties to work and campaign beyond their immediate reach. Voters also must be inculcated that they can better advance their interests by affiliating themselves with better organized political parties than an independent politician.
Note: Sheriffo’s multiparty law requires the founders of a party to have wider representation across Eritrea [Refer to Article 6]. But this doesn’t necessarily mean that these parties would have elected representatives across Eritrea.
For emphasis, let me reiterate that multiple political parties are needed to replace the governing party in form but not in substance. “Absolute power corrupts absolutely”. A change of government should be viewed as just changing faces, but all policies should remain the same or changes introduced in gradual manner. Nobody wants a big swing in national policies every time a new or opposing political party wins power. This creates uncertainties with grave consequences. Hopefully, in their ambitions to reach power, the competing political parties will expose each other’s sins only.
III. Political Agenda [Manifesto]
We are asked to support the opposition camp, yet we have no clue what might be served by the opposition camp if they were to jump into the helm in post-PFDJ Eritrea. In order to expedite the downfall of PFDJ while simultaneously addressing the public’s apprehensions for the immediate periods following the downfall of PFDJ, strong and decisive parties or groups of parties should draft a clear political manifesto, [not just we are democrats manifesto, but to address specific issues]
1) There will be no political witch-hunt. Top government and PFDJ leaders will be relieved of their positions and will receive pension payments commensurate with cost of living.
2) All middle- and lower-tiered government officials will retain their positions and housings. However, if housings were obtained by evicting ordinary Eritreans without “proper” due process of law, restitution will effected.
3) There will be no immunity from criminal persecution for those engaged in gross human rights violations. Regardless of the next government’s decision on persecutions, ordinary citizens won’t be prevented from pursuing civil actions to rectify illegal acts committed against them.
4) Pension rights will be conferred on all government employees.
5) PFDJ business organizations will be transferred to a trust under government oversight. No PFDJ business venture employees shall lose their jobs. Winding down these business ventures shall be made in the most prudent manner, balancing the interests of the employees and the need to reinvigorate the private sector.
6) Warsais will be compensated for their forced labors. Their years in national service will count towards their government pensions.
7) Such compensations will extend to those who fled from national service, but based on actual service plus a separate formula for years in exile in neighboring countries or AWOLed.
8) Demobilization, rehabilitation and reintegration of Warsais are the next government’s top priority.
9) Employment creation shall be the top economic priority to absorb Warsais, lest they become a hotbed of political instability.
10) There will no longer be a mandatory national service requirement for women.
11) There will be a full review and public debates on the advantages and disadvantages national service program itself in view of our experiences of the last decade.
12) Implementation of the 1997 Constitution [with necessary proposed amendments, which will remain subject to future approvals but amendments used in practice]
13) All Eritreans are free to exercise their God-given rights and freedoms including freedom of speech (including establishing public media) and freedom to assemble (including establishing any forms of peaceful organizations). Failure to promulgate “Press Laws” or any others shouldn’t be used to suspend citizens’ rights or freedoms.
14) Land reform is critical for jump-starting the economy, which is needed to absorb demobilized national servicemen. Housing projects commenced under PFDJ shall continue but compensations for land use, slavery labor and other factors will be addressed in a comprehensive manner. Those who benefited under PFDJ have moral and legal obligations to compensate all other Eritreans whose rights were deprived through PFDJ’s illegal acts.
15) Reversing the social and moral deteriorations during the PFDJ regime will be addressed through the education and other systems.
16) Immediately address the socio-economic issues facing the countryside.
17) Immediately engage in face-to-face meeting with the Ethiopian government to rescind the “Declaration of War”, to redeploy troops away from the border areas and to gradually begin restoring diplomatic ties. This will include allowing Ethiopia access to use the Ports of Asseb and Massawa. Simultaneously, begin confidence building measures that will gradually bring the border dispute to its logical conclusion.
Stability first (not exceeding three months), then build.
We should reject, destroy first (“sur betekh”), then build.
We need leadership that is bold, confident and decisive enough to articulate issues and vision. We should be apprehensive of a leadership that is only able to amend two provisions in its Charter in two years. We would have expected them to amend the two and to formulate a manifesto and political platform. The G-15 publicly proposed a whole slew of political, economic and social reforms. They didn’t just state we envision a rich democratic Eritrea where private sector becomes the economic engine while government delivers “A-1” health system. Instead, the G-15 brought out detailed reform proposals on specific issues. Why are we in Diaspora afraid to articulate our vision in such detailed way? I am sure many have greater expectations from the latest structure within the opposition camp.
IV. Building Organizations & Managing Organizational Conflicts
All organic forms undergo through the same phases,
a. Inception
b. Growth
c. Maturity
d. Decline (demise)
As human beings undergo through these phases, everything that emanates from humans also undergoes through the same phases. These include human ideas and organizations. Some organizations disappear due to their rigidity; while other organizations survive by adopting changing ideas. However, changing organizations will end up transforming themselves so much that what connect the old organization with the new organization are simply a name and a certain tradition.
[Inception] Political, religious, or other organizations start from ideas that people get attracted to. At the beginning, new ideas are promoted by young and energetic individuals working almost independently from each other. What connects them is only an idea.
[Growth] At certain stage, memberships and followers of the new idea begin to grow requiring an organization to manage memberships. Hence an organization is born.
[Maturity] By nature an organization is a means to manage membership, and is not primarily designed to adapt to new ideas and to changing realities. Organizations discourage individual innovativeness, individual initiatives, and creativity, because their primary concern is ‘control’ over people. Organizations by nature attempt to maintain the status quo, thus bringing them into natural conflicts with laws of nature – change – change brought about the phases humans must undergo naturally.
[Decline] By laws of nature, organizations ultimately face two choices – change or disappear. Some organizations can incorporate change in “continuous” basis. These are the learning organizations that will dominate in whatever endeavor they engage in. Other organizations will learn but only at a point of extinction. However, by refusing to change on timely basis, they may cause tremendous damage and might be overtaken by the learning organizations. Organizations that refuse to change will disappear either through loss of membership, loss of business or through dire means.
How do mature organizations avoid decline, or maintain their mature phase, or even be able to revert to growth? We will leave this to future discussions.
V. The “Truth”
Suffice to say that no one knows what the “truth” is in life. Yet, that word gets thrown around so nonchalantly that it creates the wrong beliefs. Some may say that there is “scientific truth”. But ultimately, the “truth” is beyond our understanding. If we understood the “truth”, we would have unlocked the ultimate knowledge that has alluded man for millenniums.
In the meantime, our warped ideas about our own definitions of “truth” is used to propagate our self-righteousness, which in turn leads to intolerance and even to engage in atrocious acts against other human beings in the name of our “truth”.
For us weaklings, the only “truth” is a “personal truth”, which is to live at peace with oneself, with those around us [our society], and beyond that with nature.
VI. Latest episode within the Orthodox Church
We have to carefully study what PFDJ is trying to do by meddling in the affairs of this church. In order to analyze this we must examine two things, PFDJ’s “acts” versus its “intentions”,
1) PFDJ’s “Act”: is to use Yoftahe Dimitrios to create schism within the Church. PFDJ’s act is to remove the Patriarch and illegally install another Patriarch. But the Patriarch was forced to accept all of PFDJ’s demands including 1) close down the “reform” churches 2) hand over all donations 3) send “excess” priests and deacons to Sawa. The Patriarch may not be an immediate threat to the regime. So why relentlessly pursue the Patriarch.
2) PFDJ’s “Intention”: can be summarized as yet another effort to create schism among the population designed to forestall any possible public uprising or protest by fomenting mistrust and bitterness.
How do we react?
1) If people react to PFDJ’s “Acts”, then we will fall right into the very trap set by PFDJ. A large segment of the public may react not only against the regime but also against those who capitulated to the government’s pressures. For PFDJ, this is mission accomplished – more division – and keeps creating more schisms among the public.
2) If people react to PFDJ’s “Intentions”, then people should forgive the misled Eritreans and keep [as much as possible] their close relationships with those who capitulated. People should expose the regime’s efforts but people wouldn’t be judgmental towards their fellow countrymen. People should remain conciliatory with those who are misled.
Our campaigns should be to react to PFDJ’s “intentions” rather than to its “acts”.
VII. Game of Politics
Public life is never easy. Those who choose life of politics must learn to accept the occupational hazards. If politicians’ egos can’t absorb a degree of public ridicule, innuendo, second-guessing and even mud-slinging then they are in the wrong business. If they see themselves as half-monks and half-politicians, then they will muddle their roles in the political system. If one wants to be a monk, then join a monastery. If one wants to be a politician, then be a good politician.
Starting from this writer, to other political writers to our politicians, we are too sensitive to engage in healthy politics. We want to engage in politics at varying degrees, yet we don’t know how to handle it. We want to be perfectly civil in our political engagements to a level of Puritanism and yet feel the need to play the underhanded game in order to win.
In general our politics is too naïve, and we are poor losers. A nation’s greatness is determined not by its great men but by its graceful losers, who in the end win for themselves and their nations. A typical interview by an Eritrean opposition goes like this, “I don’t personally believe in talking about an individual or an organization within the opposition camp, and besides we should focus our campaign against the regime but let me tell you about this individual and organization that nobody knows about but which I have personal experience from 30 years ago…” so the politician violates his own declared beliefs or principles at the beginning of the sentence. To me, this is a lack of genuineness in one’s declared beliefs. These types of politicians automatically lose their credibility.
Role of Analysts: Every Eritrean has the right to become a “political analyst”. However, an analysis is less than genuine if it relies on the benefits of hindsight. For instance, to say that had G-15 acted in certain ways in 2001, they would have had better success is totally incorrect. We have no idea where any other alternative reform movement strategy in 2001 would have led us. Speculating about the future is totally fair.
We have a long way in shifting our political culture.
Similarly, people advocate for violent means to counter the regime. They argue that the regime is becoming increasingly repressive and thus must “do something”. These people are analyzing the “acts” but not the “intentions”.
The first question they should ask themselves is, “why is the regime being so repressive – and getting worse by the day”? The regime is resorting to this act because something is itching it very hard. It needs somebody or something that will scratch its itch. Those who advocate for violent means are reacting to PFDJ’s acts.
Instead, we should allow what is currently itching PFDJ, apparently very hard, should continue to itch it without any relief. We shouldn’t allow PFDJ’s intention of making us to scratch its itch.
VIII. Conflict with Ethiopia
"Ceterum censeo: Carthago Delenda Est," Marcus Porcius Cato “The Elder” [PIA substitutes Ethiopia]
There is much speculation as to what the next phase will be in the Eritrean-Ethiopian conflict. People are perfectly within their rights to speculate what should have happened in 2000 or 2001, or what could happen if there is renewed fighting. However, I hope they don’t take their speculations too seriously.
The outcome of any war is unpredictable, other than the sure loss of lives and properties. This is the dilemma for the two antagonists,
a. For PMMZ: PIA’s aggressive politics is undermining PMMZ, but launching a war against PIA will give PIA the specter of a political win.
b. For PIA: PIA is fully cornered and is itching for war against PMMZ. But launching war against PMMZ will have no hard military objectives, and instead will rally the Ethiopians while the world will condemn PIA for commencing a second conflict with Ethiopia. This may lead to embargoes, and even possibly being hauled into International Criminal Court.
In the end, the side that launches the war will lose the war – not necessarily militarily but definitely politically, precipitating a collapse of the regime that started the war.
Plastering oneself on Al-jazeera summoning the forces of destruction to find another cause, or hoping to scrounge for pennies that may sustain a liberation front but can’t nearly keep a nation afloat, PFDJ’s fate won’t change. The end of the tragic chapter of Eritrean story is near its end – only a matter of few weeks.
The next chapter will require a significant shift in political culture, organizational capacity and our understanding of the big picture – the ability to put together a jigsaw puzzle called democracy. One shouldn’t get too excited because one found the corner puzzle – there are other 499 pieces to go.
“Haba’e Quslu, Haba’e Fewsu!”
Berhan Hagos
April 28, 2007

Thursday, April 19, 2007

What is the US Forgien Policy towards the Rouge Regime In Asmara?

"What is puzzling and becoming more difficult to decipher is America’s overt nominal reaction towards Isaias robust challenge. If America is undertaking covert actions to either bring Mr. Isaias back to his senses or induce his removal, with the minimum cost to the people of Eritrea, the result is still unnoticeable. What is undeniable is that US relationship with the Eritrean regime has hit rock bottom. Chances of it getting back on track in the immediate future are unthinkable. This offers the US a chance to do strategic reassessment of its role in Eritrea. There is two ways to do this: One to confine it to the meeting rooms and corridors of the administration experts and scholars or find ways to get the input of the Eritrean people to enrich the process. Combining both approaches will be more productive. "
What is US Forgien Policy towards the Rouge Regime in Asmara?
By Seyoum TesfayeAtlanta, Georgia, USA
April 19, 2007
If the USA has a clearly defined forgien policy towards the belligerent rouge regime in Asmara it is news to me. One can infer from the once in a blue moon fragmented articulations by spokesman for the Bush administration and meager statements that come out of the State Department that there seems to be no clearly defined comprehensive strategy on how to contain and checkmate the out of control regime in Asmara. Isaias’ regime has been pursuing an unrestrained overt anti-US forgien policy for sometimes. The stress is on an unrestrained. This is not confined to foul editorial statements by the regime’s mouthpieces or the periodic diatribes articulated by the president. It goes way beyond verbal attrition and confrontation. In coordinated actions and concerted efforts, the regime in Asmara has been advancing a well organized offensive attack on America’s regional interests and global anti-terrorist agendas. From Darfur to Mogadishu the regime is working hard to derail any and all constructive efforts by the American administration. America’s reaction to the regime’s hooliganism has been anemic and fragmented. Why? Only the US government can answer the question. But we as Eritrean-Americans and Eritreans in Diaspora have the right to raise the question.There is no doubt the Isaia’s regime considers US its primary forgien enemy. On the basis of an ideologically driven self- serving myopic conclusion it has been waging a multifaceted assault on America’s regional interest. From Darfur to Somalia Isaias’ intrusion is open and direct. No apology or no rational explanation is presented neither to his people or the international public. But this is an inherent character of a shameless tyrant without any sense of right and wrong. One doesn’t expect eloquent clarification and sensible argument from rouge regimes. Their brutal action speaks louder than their hallow words. Complied statistics of the dead, the disappeared, the exiled, the tortured, the banished, the silenced, disfranchised and the disinherited paints the real image of their handy work. Thanks to Mr. Isaias’ deprived leadership Eritrea is littered with tragic statistics. It will get worse before it gets better. No mystery here. The two puzzling questions are the low voltage American reaction and the meltdown of the Eritrean intelligentsia. The later should be left for future blogging. What is puzzling and becoming more difficult to decipher is America’s overt nominal reaction towards Isaias robust challenge. If America is undertaking covert actions to either bring Mr. Isaias back to his senses or induce his removal, with the minimum cost to the people of Eritrea, the result is still unnoticeable. What is undeniable is that US relationship with the Eritrean regime has hit rock bottom. Chances of it getting back on track in the immediate future are unthinkable. This offers the US a chance to do strategic reassessment of its role in Eritrea. There is two ways to do this: One to confine it to the meeting rooms and corridors of the administration experts and scholars or find ways to get the input of the Eritrean people to enrich the process. Combining both approaches will be more productive. A democracy with the stature of being the sole superpower in a highly volatile post cold war period has the duty and responsibility of clarifying its policies if it is interested in gaining the genuine support of the people of the world at large. No doubt the wide arrays of competing interests and issues make it difficult to devote equal attention and time to each cause. But since September 18, 2001 it has been 6 long years and the USA has not produced any discernable comprehensive policy statement on the Isaias regime. We are left to make sense out of fragmented reactive statements by various representatives of the American administration. Sure the State Department has been producing the obligatory yearly human right report and we are thankful for that. But that is not a policy statement or a clearly outlined policy articulation. In fact the gravity of the human tragedy as outlined by the consecutive yearly reports one would think will push the Bush administration to initiate a through review both by the executive and legislative branch of the American government and come up with a clearly defined plan by now. Unfortunately there is nothing to indicate that this has happened If and when the issue is presented it is done as an extension to the Ethio-Eritrea conflict and in the context of Eritrea's role in Somalia. This presentation smacks the cheapening and watering down of the Isaisa’s regime all sided destructive role. It pays measured attention to his external destructiveness without putting an equivalent stress to the unbearable destruction he is heaping on the people of Eritrea. What more damage should the people of Eritrea bear before the US government believes it is time to officially and publicly condemn the heinous regime and side with the Eritrean people?
How many more Eritreans have to be thrown into container jails before America will open its mouth?
How many more have to go to exile before it pronouns a different kind of policy?
What is the threshold: A massacre or the possibility of another war?
The struggle of the people of Eritrea for democracy must be supported as a matter of principle and on its merit.
If the USA has been perusing a diplomatic effort to address the Eritrean people’s concerns with the Eritrean regime it must be one of the most highly guarded secretes in Washington DC. Even then one can anticipate the result. This is not to say efforts might not have been pursued. But in the eyes of the Eritrean people we have no clue what the USA has been doing. Since no body has found it worthy enough to go on the record and offer us a glimpse of the effort we are right to entertain the question:
What is US forgien policy towards the rouge regime in Asmara?
What is the overall policy of USA towards Eritrea?
What is its attitude towards the Eritrean people struggle for constitutional governance?
What is its relation with the Eritrean opposition?
What is its view on the slowly emerging civic societies?
Is there any Eritrean who can go on the record and give us a compressive answer to these questions on the basis of knowledge?
I would not hold my breath. The US has failed to market its “policy” within the Eritrean community. Of all the governments in Africa it is obvious the present American administration has the worst relationship with that of the Isaias regime. One will think, after Asmara regime’s negative role in the Somalia’s crisis, the USA will have revamped its muted policy and start articulating a more comprehensive approach that will abandon all hopes of rehabilitating the defunct rouge regime; start building a direct relation with the Eritrean people and start helping the Eritrean people prepare the ground for peaceful democratic transition. Unless there is still a margin of illusion that the Eritrean regime is redeemable, on the basis of the facts on the ground, it is time for America to chart a different approach to the external and internal Eritrean reality. The people’s agenda must be pushed to front and center of the American policy towards Eritrea. Anything short of that will only add to the justifiable undercurrent of skepticism and doubt that most Eritreans have towards the USA. To loss the favor of a tyrant is a blessing in disguise but to earn the people’s doubt is a lasting challenge. Let us hope the present US administration will find its direction to the heart of the Eritrean people before it is too late. More concretely the Bush administration can implement the following reasonable actions to send a strong signal to the people of Eritrea that it is charting a different direction:
• Officially designate the names of the top 20 human rights abusers within the Eritrean regime
• Organize an exclusive and comprehensive congressional hearing on the extent of the suffering of the Eritrean people in the hands the tyrannical regime.
• Extend a blanket amnesty to all Eritreans seeking political asylum within the USA
• Accept more Eritrean refugees that are presently languishing in refugee camps in the Sudan and Ethiopia
•Work in cooperation with EU to find ways to help Eritrtean refugees arriving in Europe
• Use its good office to ask the Libyan government not to deport Eritreans back to Eritrea
• Find ways for US Embassies in Egypt, Ethiopia and Kenya to help facilitate the transition of legitimately approved Eritreans to USA
• Expand the Voice of America Tigrinya program to an hourly show and remove the unofficial gag on Eritrean opposition’s representatives and personalities from frequently being guests on the radio show
• Find ways to help the establishment of a robust Eritrean free press by extending management and technical training to the internet based medias
• Open a direct and open contact with the democratic opposition, civil societies and Diaspora media outlets.
• Break the taboo and meet with the Eritrean society in the USA directly and start an open dialogue. Find ways to organize some form of platforms to directly get a feed back from the Eritrean American community in Los Angeles, San Diego, Dallas, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Washington D.C, Boston, New York City etc.
• Vigorously move to cut of all illicit financial transaction between the regime(ruling party) and its undeclared and unregistered agents and carders in the USA
• Identify Eritrean Americans who have chosen to openly serve and advance the regime’s anti-American policy and strip their American citizenship
• Set up a system that will allow Eritrean- Americans( who build houses in Eritrea) to register their property title and its value in dollar so that should the regime confiscate their property for whatsoever reason the American government can demand a proper repayment in American dollars
• Eritrean- Americans who have business ventures in Eritrea must be given the option to do the same like those owning house. Due to the arbitrary nature of the regimes behavior anything is possible. If the owners have taken a US citizenship they are entitled to the protection of the US government when and if their properties are unduly confiscated by any tyrannical regime
• All Eritrean Americans who are presently residing in the USA but periodically act as designated delegates of the regime must be asked to register as agents of the regime and be asked to explicitly define their designated role
• Deny legal status to all Eritreans who still profess loyalty to the regime and are still holding full membership status in the ruling party while applying for political asylum in the USA.
• Be willing and receptive to find ways to economically, socially and politically empower the Diaspora Eritrean community so that it can be a more productive segment of the American mosaic.
• Open a 1-800-000-0000 number for Eritreans in America to call if any member of their family has been arrested or killed by the regime.
These positive ideas are forwarded with the hope that some of them will resonant the right note in the eyes of some caring decision maker somewhere within the vast bureaucracy of the American Administration. True enough the economic relationship between America and Eritrea is one of almost non-existent. Eritrea’s export to USA is too marginal to even mention or to be used as leverage to solicit some sense of civility from the Eritrean regime. At this juncture Eritrea doesn’t have strategic raw materials that would have propelled its issue to the front page of policy debate. If it were not for the remittance by the expatriate community mainly living in the USA the present regime in Eritrea would have collapsed by now and that would have brought some kind of closure to this dark period in Eritrean history. Unfortunately that is not the case. But the absence of strategic raw material, a robust trade relationship or a highly organized Eritrean- American constituency is not an excuse to sideline the 4 million people of a small nation. Nor is it acceptable to treat the Eritrean people as auxiliary to Horn of Africa’s politics. The Eritrean people have earned their right to be treated with respect and dignity independent of all subsidiary issues. Those who choose to bestow this kind of honor on the Eritrean people at their darkest hour will earn their undying gratitude. Those who marginalize them will deepen their distrust of forgien powers.America can play a very constructive role if it chooses to take into account the voices of the Eritrean people. It already has a historic deficit in the hearts and minds of the Eritrean people. There is not a single Eritrean who does not believe that the interest of the people of Eritrea was put on the auction block when the federal status with Ethiopia was abrogated with the blessing of the US government almost 50 years ago. Its silence can again be misunderstood and misinterpreted. Why is taking so long to directly approach the people and offer a moral, political and even material help to assist them to frame the peaceful transition to democratic governance Now we are looking for a clue: since the choice is between the tyrannical regime and the people of Eritrea, what will the US do? Will it take cover under diplomatic nuances and hope the megalomaniac tyrant will somehow rehabilitate itself or put its trust on the Eritrean people and find ways to connect with them. The choice is simple but in the political and diplomatic world nothing is so simple. If there was ever a time for the US government to make a breakthrough with the Eritrean people this dissenter believes it is the right time. The key component for direct dialogue between Eritrean-Americans and Eritreans and the US government will the willingness of Eritreans to break through their morbid fear and step up to the plate and be willing to engage US policy makers in a fruitful conversation. For Isaias and his cohorts those who dare to defy his demonic control and express self- generated views is the definition of treason. Some within our community have subconsciously internalized this unhealthy fear. They will come up with thousands of excuses why they will not break the fear threshold. The brave ones will call, push, struggle and go the extra mile to break the pattern of fear. Should the US administration be willing to open a direct dialogue with our community I hope there will be thousands who are willing and able to stand up and articulate the demands and concerns of the voiceless million suffering under the brutality of the Isaias regime.
Disclaimer: the view expressed in this Dissent conveys my perspective and view only.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Two Eritrean Journalists Captured Held With 'Foreign Fighters'

Reporters sans Frontières (Paris)
PRESS RELEASE
April 16, 2007
Posted to the web April 16, 2007

Reporters Without Borders has called on the Somali and Ethiopian governments to explain why two Eritrean state TV journalists have been held in secret after being arrested late last year along with several Somalis and foreigners near the border with Kenya.
"Like many other foreign journalists, they were reporting on the situation in Somalia and were not foreign fighters, as those arrested with them appear to be," the worldwide press freedom organisation said. "They were journalists from one of the world's most closed-off and repressive countries and we fear for their safety, whether they continue to be held or are returned to their own country."
"The Ethiopian and Somali governments must explain why they are not giving any information about them and must intelligently handle this dangerous situation for both journalists."
Saleh Idris Gama, of the Eritrean state-run Eri-TV, and cameraman Tesfalidet Kidane Tesfazghi vanished in Mogadishu in late 2006 while covering fighting between the Union of Islamic Courts and the federal transitional government. The Somali government did not reply to a Reporters Without Borders request in February as to whether they were being held or had been killed in the fighting.
The Eritrean Foreign Ministry asked Kenya on 5 April 2007 to speedily obtain the release of three Eritrean citizens and send them home. It said Kenya had handed them over to the Somalis on 20 January after arresting them in late December and detaining them illegally for more than three weeks. It did not say what they were doing when they were picked up or where they were.
The third Eritrean, said by Eritrea to be Osman Mohammed Berhan, is not an employee of state-run Radio Dimtsi Hafash, contrary to earlier reports. In a letter to the opposition website Asmarino.com ( http://www.asmarino.com ) from prison in Kenya on 18 January, he said his name was Samson Yeman Berhan and that he had been sent to Somalia by the Eritrean government under a false name along with other Eritreans.
Reporters Without Borders asked Somalia's National Security Agency on 4 April for information on the Eritrean journalists and for a phone number to call them, but the request was refused. They and the Somalis and foreigners arrested near the border have reportedly been transferred to a prison in Addis Ababa.

Eritrea: Thirty-Eight IFEX Members Demand Justice for Jailed And Murdered Journalists

International Freedom of Expression Exchange Clearing House (Toronto)
NEWS
April 17, 2007
Posted to the web April 18, 2007
By IFEXToronto

Thirty-eight IFEX member organisations, led by PEN Canada and the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), have called on the Eritrean government to publicly account for the death of four journalists in custody and to unconditionally release all journalists remaining behind bars.
In an appeal to President Isaias Afwerki in IFEX's largest joint action to date, IFEX members said that "the human rights situation has deteriorated to such an extent that your country now ranks among one of the world's worst offenders."
Four independent journalists have reportedly died in prison in the past two years. Most recently, playwright and founding editor of the defunct popular weekly "Setit" Fessehaye (Joshua) Yohannes was found dead in a military prison in January. He was reportedly tortured while in custody since his arrest in 2001 - he was paralysed in one hand and had been walking with difficulty for years.
Other journalists who have reportedly died in custody are "Tsigenay" editor Yusuf Mohamed Ali (June 2006), "Keste Debene" editor Medhane Haile (February 2006), and "Admas" writer and editor Said Abdelkader (March 2005). But the Eritrean government has neither confirmed nor denied their deaths.
Ten state media journalists have also been detained - in a wave of arrests that began last November - on suspicion of maintaining contact with leading journalists who had fled the country, or of themselves trying to flee. Several of them remain in custody, although the exact number is not known.
In September 2001, President Isaias Afwerki cracked down on the opposition and independent media, closing all privately-owned newspapers in the capital Asmara, and arresting leading politicians and independence war veterans who had signed a petition calling for democracy.
In another development, two Eritrean journalists are still being held incommunicado after being captured along the Somalian border late last year along with more than 80 Somalis and foreigners, say Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF) and Amnesty International.
Journalist Saleh Idris Gama, from the Eritrean state-run Eri-TV, and cameraman Tesfalidet Kidane Tesfazghi, vanished in 2006 when covering fighting between the Council of Somali Islamic Courts (COSIC) and the Ethiopian troops supporting the transitional federal government in Somalia.
According to RSF, Eritrea was the third worst violator of free expression in 2006.

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

M7 woos Eritrea over war in Somalia


Publication date: Monday, 2nd April, 2007

Aforwerki denies backing Islamists

By Emmy Allio and Agencies President Yoweri Museveni returned from Eritrea yesterday on a trip one of his officials said was intended to persuade Asmara to drop backing for the Somali Islamists. Asmara, which opposes Uganda’s mission in Somalia, denies arming the Islamists. “President Museveni is attempting to bring President (Isaias Aferworki) on the same page as other regional leaders,” Uganda’s state minister of regional cooperation Isaac Musumba said. “Aferworki wants leaders to recognise the Islamic Courts Union as the legitimate government in Somalia but other leaders recognise the Transitional Federal Government,” he added. Museveni on his way back from Asia spent a night in the Red Sea port city of Massawa in Eritrea to discuss the worsening situation in Somalia, which saw the first Ugandan peacekeeper killed on Sunday. The body of Lance Corporal Wilberforce Rwegira arrived in Mbuya military Hospital in Kampala yesterday afternoon. Rwegira was killed by a mortar while guarding the Presidential Palace in Mogadishu, called Villa Somalia. Five other Ugandans got wounded in the attack. They are being treated in Nairobi Hospital, which has a partnership agreement with the African Union to treat injured soldiers evacuated from Somalia. The wounded soldiers are identified as Maj. Dancun Kahoma, Lt. Martin Okello, Lance Cpl. Fred Mayende, Cpl. Frank Mugume and Pte. Michael Bamutende. Meanwhile, Mogadishu residents buried their dead and ventured onto the streets for the first time in five days yesterday during a lull in battles pitting Ethiopian and Somali troops against Islamist and clan insurgents, Reuters reports. One landmine exploded in south Mogadishu as a government convoy passed, while four civilians were shot dead by Ethiopian troops after ignoring an order not to cross the road. But the capital was generally quiet after four days of ferocious fighting that residents say killed several hundred people, while the hospitals were overwhelmed with the wounded. The United Nations said 47,000 Somalis have fled Mogadishu in the last 10 days, bringing the total to 96,000 since February. International reaction to the flare-up in Somalia has been muted, with little from Western capitals beyond vague calls for reconciliation and condemnation of shelling of civilian areas. The International Contact Group on Somalia, which includes the United States, European and African nations, is due to meet in Cairo today. But analysts said foreign nations were increasingly at a loss how to handle Somalia. “They’ve supported African peacekeepers, but that’s made no difference. If anything, it’s inflamed the situation by giving the Islamists a sitting duck target,” said one diplomat. “Now they’re pinning their hope on a reconciliation meeting that looks doomed before it’s started,” he added of a planned April 16 meeting of elders, politicians and former warlords. While the massive shelling across the city of recent days had stopped on Monday, a landmine hit a convoy including the government’s chief of military staff in south Mogadishu. Military sources said there were no injuries. Leaders of the city’s dominant Hawiye clan said they had reached a ceasefire on Sunday with Ethiopian troops, which had sent in reinforcement over the weekend. Hundreds more Ethiopians were seen arriving in the city. With dozens of rotting bodies still in the streets, it was impossible to calculate an exact death toll from what the Red Cross called Mogadishu’s worst fighting in more than 15 years. Somali reporters have seen scores of dead, Ethiopia says it has killed 200 insurgents, and residents say they believe several hundred people - mainly civilians - have died. As Somalis stepped cautiously out of their homes to check on damage, stock up on food, and see friends or family, some began burying the corpses virtually where they found them. “They are digging shallow graves by the road,” local reporter Mohamed Noor Sharifka said. While Addis Ababa seems determined to finish off the rebels in Mogadishu, many experts say the attacks could have the opposite effect, turning Somalis further against their Christian-led neighbour, or drawing in foreign Muslim jihadists.

This article can be found on-line at: http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/13/557481

© Copyright 2000-2007


The New Vision.


All rights reserved.

Democracy of Destitution

By Berhan Hagos

As much as we pounce on each other’s words within the opposition camp, it is equally important to address and refute propaganda emanating from PIA and PFDJ. The primary purpose of “opposition” is to counter every propaganda emanating from the regime. The opposition camp in general and opposition leadership specifically can’t simply ignore the propaganda emanating from PFDJ, assuming that the general public will automatically ignore it. The purpose of PFDJ propaganda isn’t to win converts overnight, but to slowly sow the seeds of doubt and erode the public’s convictions towards their own beliefs and views. PFDJ is intensely engaged in propagating its agenda, either by plastering the pictures of its leader or using every opportunity to promote its illusionary socio-economic growth.

Effective political campaigns are the ones that manage to leave their messages seared in people’s heads the longest. When PIA conducts an interview, there should be an avalanche of responses from the public refuting every statement made during the interview. The avalanche of responses should begin to flood within hours in order to ensure that the opposition has the last word. If such interviews aren’t addressed immediately, listeners could be more influenced by the last statements and arguments (made by PFDJ). To do nothing is to abdicate our responsibility.

Although many would dismiss the illusionary socio-economic successes, the subtle and sometimes open PFDJ propaganda is to link dictatorship as being requisite to forestall ethno-religious conflicts in Eritrea. During PIA’s latest interview with China Daily, PIA made such connection by alluding to ethno-religious strife, economic destitutions and unstable democracies in Africa.

Although most of our quarrels with PIA is his gross human rights violations of our own brothers and sisters, and beyond that our doubts with his political judgment and question of trust, we can’t outright dismiss his concerns, which might be shared by many, that democracy in an infant nation may encounter many challenges. But the questions are, “Is imprisoning, torturing, execution and exiling your small population the only way to develop a country? What are the experiences of other people and countries around the world, not just Africa? Etc…”

“It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.” Sir Winston Churchill



PIA’s Interview

First of all it is interesting that PIA would address foreign issues with domestic audience, and domestic issues with foreign audience. I guess it is probably safe to discuss issues that you hope your audience isn’t that familiar. PIA refused to give answers regarding the mining sector with local media and thus Eritrean public, and yet addressed the mining sector and many other socio-economic issues with China Daily, which is primarily targeted at foreign audience.

That is to be expected! Imagine what would happen if PIA was to repeat his China Daily answers to Eritreans in local media that there are no bread line-ups and that Eritrea will be one of the richest in the world very soon as PIA alluded to or said during his interview. At the very least, people would throw out their radios and televisions out the window, and at the worst, you could have a riot on your hand.

The interview contains many inconsistencies that would take the size of an encyclopedia to address. But for this article purpose, I will point out some of PIA’s arguments and quick refutation,

1. PIA said, “When a small minority is benefiting from the resources available to a country and the bigger majority is living in destitution, how can we talk about democracy?”

There are differences among rights & freedoms, rule-of-law and democracy. One may have rights and freedoms or rule-of-law without democracy. Democracy is only one system for governance. Some may choose stable monarchial system such as Jordan or Morocco, and yet maintain rule-of-law and protect rights & freedoms. However, based on historical experience, democracy is the best system of government that offers the best possibility of maintaining the rule-of-law and rights & freedom, and thus the automatic association among these different terminologies.

The question to PIA shouldn’t be whether there is democracy in Eritrea or not, but why PFDJ is blatantly violating basic human rights and why it is engaged in severe breach of the rule-of-law. In other words, the issue isn’t necessarily democracy, which is the next level issue, but the rule-of-law and human rights.

Is PIA suggesting that imprisoning, torturing, executing and exiling Eritreans are the only ways to achieve economic success, which will then enable democracy?


2. PIA said, “The socio-economic transformation is very important. Unless you live at a higher level of assimilation, if you live in a tribal society, and you go for democracy in a tribal society, you get divided in to hundreds of political parties and vertical polarization is not good at all. So we need to have participation, when you have 80%, 90% of the population living below the poverty line, how can you talk about democracy?”

The stepping stone for democracy is the respect for rule-of-law. Although “modern” democracy is rooted in Greek philosophy, ‘limited form’ of form of democracy evolved and was practiced by Greeks, Romans and later by Anglo-Saxons. On the other hand, the rule-of-law has existed throughout history in various ‘tribal’, multi-ethnic and multi-religious societies. Eritrean society has lived under rule-of-law for centuries. PIA uses ‘tribal’ and not multi-ethnic and multi-religious societies. He uses a specific terminology, and it would be counterproductive in our search for answers to purposely confuse issues for propaganda purposes. There are ‘tribal’ issues in such countries as Somalia, Yemen and Afghanistan. The question is, ‘Is Eritrea primarily a ‘tribal’ society, as PIA is insinuating?’ Can higher level assimilation be achieved through Sawa? What are the side-effects of Sawa, with its worse adverse effects?

Although Eritrean economy is still in its infancy, its society is significantly more advanced than many nations in the world,

Ø The various Eritrean ethnic, religious and regional areas have interacted with each other for centuries. Each group had its own traditional laws that allowed non-members belonging to other groups to settle and live in peace as part of that society without requiring individuals or groups to convert religion or change costumes to assimilate. What makes Eritrean society unique is our centuries’ old respect for rule-of-law, which can be used as the springboard towards creating a democratic system of government.

Ø The second factor that allowed the Eritrean society to evolve is its thirty-year armed struggle for independence.


The Eritrean struggle did expose some of the challenges of multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-regional society. PIA and some of his ideological supporters might be partly influenced by the experiences of early Eritrean struggle, which may have accentuated some of the differences within Eritrean society. But for astute observers, one can derive more positive lessons than negative lessons from the early times of our struggle. When one examines the Eritrean political struggles of the forties and fifties, it was about how wise elders belonging to every segment of Eritrea came to an agreement on many issues and waged their united campaigns on this basis. The lesson of Eritrean armed struggle is also about how Eritreans quickly overcame regional structure to wage its liberation struggle. However, it would be fallacious to simplistically argue that the fact ELF was initially structured along ethnical/tribal basis is itself indication of Eritrean society still being ‘tribal’. Needless to say, starting an armed struggle is never easy, and thus requires “natural alliances” to ensure that the struggle for liberation gains tractions. PIA didn’t start the armed struggle. Had he started the armed struggle, and especially if he was from the regions (and not from Asmara), he would have sought his “natural and immediate allies” to form his organization. What is important is how an organization evolves with changing realities. ELF was quickly evolving, which eventually begat EPLF. By late seventies, there was even convergence of ideologies. At the level of rank-and-file of both movements, there was little difference in terms of ‘integration’ of various segments of Eritrean population. The Eritrean struggle is evidence of Eritrean people’s maturity.

Moreover, ‘tribal’ society puts its tribal interests ahead of national issues. By insinuating that Eritrea remains a ‘tribal’ society, he is negating the heroic acts of Eritrean struggle for independence. Over 120,000 Eritreans sacrificed their lives, and some 200,000 lost their limbs or other parts of their precious bodies for Eritrea, not for their tribes. If there are a couple of nations in the world with its population exhibiting fervent nationalism, it is Eritreans.


Just as PIA is probably extrapolating his experiences of the 1960’s and the experiences of some other ‘tribal’ societies in Africa and elsewhere, Diaspora opposition must be cautious of extrapolating their politics of Bay Area, Frankfurt or Jeddah into Eritrea. Just because one has reached certain conclusions on lab mice, it doesn’t necessarily mean it will or it won’t work on other animals or humans. One can only reach a conclusion once one has tested a system on actual or very similar conditions.

PIA is prescribing a medication for an illness that may not exist or is misdiagnosed. Worse is to prescribe heavy doses of medication that may endanger a healthy person’s life in anticipation that this person may protract a specific terminal non-communicable disease in the future because his distant cousin or his neighbor has that terminal disease.



3. Continuing with the quotation in part (2) above, the second part of PIA’s assault on democracy is that poor people can’t practice democracy. This raises a whole slew of questions,
Ø How is a country like India, with utter poverty, continues to practice democracy?
Ø How does a country with massive defections, imprisonments and other human rights violations able to embark on economic prosperity?
Ø Although democracy might be an evolving campaign, rule-of-law is directly experienced in one’s every day life. Isn’t PFDJ pulling the rug under Eritrean democracy by trampling the rule-of-law, which in turn worsens and perpetuates poverty in Eritrea, and then to claim that Eritrea isn’t ready for democracy? This is like creating a circular argument.


PIA’s convenient economic policy is based on using internal resources to build infrastructures, which they tell us is then used as springboard for more vigorous economic ventures in the future. But the most important “infrastructure” for domestic and foreign investors is the rule-of-law and stability. “Physical infrastructure” is just money – and the world is awash with it. The most precious commodity in the world today is the “intangible infrastructures”, which includes enthusiastic and skilled human resources, rule-of-law and stability, and vibrant domestic business sector.

PIA has been harping infrastructures for the last 15 years. Yet, cell phones and internet were introduced in “lawless” Somalia before Eritrea. One berth in Port of Massawa has been expanded in a decade and half, while Djibouti has built a dozen more berths during the same time by tying up its activities with Dubai Ports. A total of 300 Km of roads have been built over a decade a half, most of it over pre-existing Italian road structures. That is only 20 Km a year (or 50 meters a day). Examining all the other projects, the total investment is less than $15 per Eritrean per year. At this pace, we will be left in the dust by the rest of the world.

What is perplexing is when PIA stated that “natural resources” have been a curse to Africans. If poverty is a curse and if sudden wealth is also a curse, what type of economic path is PIA charting for Eritreans? In reality, the only curse for Africans has been self-serving and egotistical leaders who are turning their subjects into experimental guinea pigs while they live lavish lives.

What is even more perplexing is for PFDJ and its media to exhort ‘hard work’. How do you tell a purposely impoverished Eritrean to work harder while his ‘army superiors’ are living lavish life? In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, one has the Alphas, the Betas and the Deltas (if memory serves me right). Basically these are genetically engineered people, with the Alphas being basically the masters and the Deltas being the exploited workers. Everybody accepts their roles. PIA’s Brave New World doesn’t work in Eritrea.

In late 20th century and beginning 21st century, countries in Latin America and Asia are pursuing the same economic path as Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea and other countries did over a half-century ago. Even China, the mother of all communist ideologists, has opened up all its doors for Western multi-national companies – the modern day imperialists. In his interview, PIA says that China’s products are gaining on quality, as if the Chinese themselves are achieving these successes. In reality, Western companies located in China and receiving supplies from China impose quality standards, and thus teaching the Chinese on quality. However, PIA makes his statements as if the Chinese have reached a critical stage of assuring quality on their own and to Western’s detriment.

As we are witnessing with Dubai’s meteoric economic rise, as long as there is stability and rule-of-law, infrastructure growth and foreign investments can grow simultaneously at the same pace – in fact, reinforcing each other.


4. Eritrea’s future is partially tied to the fate of its neighbors. Eritrea can’t become an island of super economic prosperity and super democratic nation while its neighbors remain bogged down with internal strife. One of PIA’s efforts to dominate the horn region might be to become the invisible hand that navigates the entire horn region into socio-economic prosperity. But Eritrea’s choice for its future isn’t about attaining either everything or nothing as PIA would like us to believe. ‘Everything’ being the entire horn region prospers together or ‘nothing’ being that Eritreans must suffer through repressive Eritrean regimes or unstable horn region. In-between is a world where 4/5 of the world nations and populations finds itself – evolving democracy anchored in rule-of-law and stability, and comfortably living in the world of uncertainties.

The history of leaders throughout the ages is rife with those who began their quests with good intentions but at the end only bringing the worst misery ever to their subjects. When wars weren’t fought for religion or land, it was then fought to bring ‘civilizations’ to barbarians. PIA’s current quest in the horn is to bring ‘civilization’ to barbarians (i.e. tribal societies), which will in the end meet its historical fate.

As mentioned above, PIA might view Eritrean society as still being ‘tribal’. But more likely, he believes that Eritreans are ready for democracy, but that without tackling ‘tribalism’ at regional level, Eritrea’s democracy will stumble. Barely a month after gaining our independence in 1991, PIA was publicly claiming that he would entertain confederation with Ethiopia, and soon after was actively involved in the Great Lakes area. [Note: At ideological level, I am not against some form of closer political and economic relationships with Ethiopia and other countries in the region.] PIA may believe that strong arm is needed in the horn region, i.e. in Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia and beyond, to transform the ‘tribal’ societies in the horn region. For PIA, he is the modern day Roman Emperor or Genghis Khan that will conquer and transform the Horn region. Hitler dreamed of the day the ‘Arian’ race would rule the world – Hitler’s dream of transforming his society and beyond. Hitler embarked on conquering the world but only to lose after costing the lives of some 50 Million people. Stalin said that killing one person is a murder, and killing many is statistics. Stalin would proceed with social experimentation. Communism brought miseries and only to eventually fail by attempting to bring about revolutionary change through quick societal transformations. Similarly for PIA, his victims are only statistics in his futile attempt to transform the various societies in the horn region.

PIA needs to sacrifice Eritrean lives and finances to achieve this age old dream of all Emperors throughout history. In fact, the vast majority of these emperors or conquerors believed that they were chosen by God, gods or higher beings to carryout their murderous campaigns for the ‘good of man’ or ‘to civilize’ barbarians. Closer examination of history shows that they all ultimately failed. But there is a major difference between what PIA is doing and what other Emperors did. For instance, Roman Emperors pillaged ‘barbarians’ to benefit Rome. Similarly, the Spanish, the Portuguese and the British pillaged ‘barbarians’ to benefit their homelands. In contrast, PIA is pillaging Eritrea, a good prospect for working democracy, for the sake of his campaign in the horn region.

But unlike history where victors wrote their versions of events through their scribers, thus rationalizing or downplaying their atrocities, we live in an information age where every individual is empowered to put his/her thoughts on record and maintained for future generations. It is said that to date the Spanish Civil War is the only history extensively written by the losing side. But the losing side, the Republicans, would later find sympathy from the Allies because of the Nationalists’ opportunistic alliances with the Axis powers, which allowed the Republicans to publicize their cause through the Allies despite their loss. PFDJ will be judged by history through the voluminous documents that exist in the age of information.

Some 3,000 years ago Athenians had the law of ‘Ostracis’. Every number of years, some 6,000 Athenian citizens cast ballots naming the most influential person in their society. Instead of giving this most influential person a medal, this person was banished from Athens for ten years. Three thousand years later, for intellectual Eritreans to bow to the most influential person in Eritrea is to unlearn history.


5. PIA’s most fallacious reasoning is that economic prosperity is the only requisite component in a society to achieve democracy. It is already said that man can’t live with bread alone. As important or more important is a societal value system that ensures people are able to act in fair, compassionate and respectful manners. Some sub-Saharan African countries are gushing with oil money and have largely educated population, yet their societal values are so messed up that the prospect of democracy is slim.

Even countries like Pakistan which barely 50-years ago was largely free of corruption is now suffering from endemic and systematic corruption at all levels of government that it isn’t ‘tribalism’ or assimilation that is holding back full economic growth and democracy but erosion of values that will create obstacles for Pakistan’s future.

Of course, PIA’s beacon of hope is always China, which on the surface appears to be slowly and quietly fighting corruption. But China is now actively engaged in re-introducing Confucianism into its society to bring back social values. In fact, China is trying to export Confucianism to world by opening some 500 centers around the world. China is doing this despite the fact some 85% of its population still lives in utter poverty.

In Eritrea, PIA is waging his war against traditional Eritrean social values and replacing them with corrupt practices, cruelness and other destructive values. Sawa is the major vehicle for PIA’s social experiment and transformation. Emperors and conquerors throughout history have never succeeded to supplant traditional values with new values with success. In reality, they destroyed traditional values and unwittingly or conveniently replaced them with destructive values. PIA’s social experiment will surely meet the same fate, with Eritrea paying heavy sacrifice and even jeopardizing its long-term viability as a nation.



PFDJ-China-Sudan
In Mafia circles, it is called protection money. A business located on the territory of a certain mafia boss must pay protection money to the mafia group lest ‘intruders’ break his legs.

PIA’s resurfacing advocacy for China has many reasons. PIA doesn’t want to be a small fish in a big pond, but a big fish in small pond. PIA’s call for ‘partnership’ is similar to North Korea’s arm flexing with its nuclear program or Iran’s multiple approach to be treated as one of the big fish in its region.

PIA is fully aware that as what Somalia is to the US for its security reasons, Sudan is to the Chinese for economic reasons. America wants the Ethiopian regime or whoever to become the foreign security contractors for American security needs in the region, and especially Somalia. Similarly, China needs long-term stability in Sudan in order to fully exploit Sudanese oil. Once China becomes fully reliant on Sudanese oil, China can’t afford for Sudan to become unstable. If it did, China will be forced to intervene to maintain its oil flow. But if another country, such as Eritrea, offers to become the foreign security contractor for Chinese interests in the region, China would be more than willing to delegate that responsibility.

In return, Eritrea would be viewed as ‘partner’ with the Chinese government. Whenever the Chinese don’t deliver on Eritrean needs, suddenly some ‘Sudan Opposition Group’ never heard of before throws a couple of bombs at some Sudanese refineries shutting down oil deliver for a couple of days. The next day, the Chinese would capitulate. That is called partnership. Instead of swimming in the big pond, make sure the giants are forced to swim in your small pond.

Similarly, ‘partnership’ would have been created with the Americans by creating and then controlling UIC government in Somalia.



PFDJ-Israel-US
PFDJ is waging his campaign against the US with the hope that he has a backdoor to the US – Israel. Although he hasn’t been able to play this card as he would like, PIA is sure that the US will tolerate his antics, including hosting UIC in Asmara.

It is suffice to bring to attention to my readers the manner in which PIA responds whenever asked about Israel. In fact, if there are two nations PIA respects in the world, it is China and Israel. The rationale is simple.




Organizational Challenges

‘Hade Libi, Hade Hizbi’ would be ideal, but is it realistic to expect such unison in thoughts and actions? Or even, one may wonder its impact on creativity, innovativeness and individual initiatives.

In my view, the continuous call for mergers of various types of organizations, esp. political, is a misplaced effort. There is a major difference between armed and non-armed organizations. Naturally, armies must be commanded through central leadership and chain-of-command must be strictly adhered to. But even with military, there are different types of organizational structures. For instance, during the war between Nazi Germany and Red Russia, Nazi Panther units were only given a mission and the field commander was responsible for achieving that mission. This flexibility allowed German troops to advance quickly. In contrast, Russian army officers had to wait for Stalin for every military maneuver which slowed down response time in a very fluid battlefield. Russia would eventually only win due to severe Russian winter and Russian people’s determination.

Instead of calling for and over-exerting efforts to create mergers, it is more productive for us to learn to work in multi-organizational environment. In a way, merger is an attempt to internalize inter-organizational relationships. By internalizing relationships, leaders attempt to reduce ‘external’ accountability and to avoid the grueling task of arriving consensus or compromise through negotiations. For instance, when PFDJ says it has 600,000 [forced] members (about 50% of the adult population), this is an attempt to internalize relationships which become instruments of its political game.

Our call should be for unity in principles and shared values only.

If one is to examine religious organizations throughout history, the rigid centralized or monopolistic structures keep their followers inline through strong-arm tactics either through ex-communication or worldly punishments. For Orthodox and Catholic religions are facing stiff challenges to evolve or possibly face declining followers. Islam is facing its own challenges. The Protestant and evangelical branches are based on loose relationships between parishes and its hierarchy. This allows individual parishes to cater its approach suited for local conditions. On the other end of the spectrum are religious/philosophies of Buddha, Shinto, Hinduism and other similar religions that are totally decentralized.

For instance, if the only three political organizations in a political institution merge, power is suddenly usurped from the members to the merged organization’s leadership. The merged organization may perform better for short time, but will succumb to its own inherent rigidity leading to splinters. The existence of multiple political organizations with the same or very similar platforms is important because leadership should always be under pressure to address the concerns of its members lest the disgruntled members jump ship to the other similar political organization.

Moreover, as stated above, Eritreans must learn the art of negotiation. Negotiation forces negotiators to prioritize their needs and then to settle to everyone’s satisfactions. It would be naïve to think that in democratic societies all issues are settled through majority votes. Instead, probably some 95% of the issues would be settled through negotiations and 5% of the issues settled through majority vote. Thus it is critical we learn this important skill. Moreover, when we develop negotiation skills with each other, we would be able to deal with the world where every (99.99999%) political and economic dealings are settled through negotiations.


Leadership Performance
The ostensible reason for EDA’s breakup is due to a crisis in selecting leadership. Everybody alludes to or states that the incumbent leader didn’t deliver on results or questions his performance. Nobody wants to discuss what these criteria are for evaluating performance.

Both blocs’ reluctances for stating these criteria for evaluating performance are understandable. No one wants himself/herself to be judged by the same criteria set for one leader. It always remains up to the wider community of political activists to set those standards and criteria, and for the inner political players to refine them.


As a wise king once said, “nothing under the sun is new!”
Learn from history!



I would like to express my much appreciation to Asmarino.com, which is a textbook example of how political campaigns should be waged. I hope that your absence will be very brief.


Berhan Hagos
March 30, 2007