Eritrean Civil Society And Political Opposition Organizations Reconstructing
By Fesseha Nair
This article will address the issue of participation and relations of the civil society associations and political organizations in the struggle from dictatorship to democracy in Eritrea.
The meaning of civil society and political organization in the Eritrean Diaspora is complicated but the scholarly definition of civil society is that,
” an association of people who act between the state and the market. Civil society is an associational sphere between the state and family separated from the state but enjoy autonomy in relation to the state and are formed voluntarily by members of the society to protect their interests and values.”
The participation of civil society in the struggle against dictatorship to democracy is an important factor in the struggle for democratization in Eritrea. Civil society is the force that can hold the government and political organizations accountable and is the base upon which a truly democratic culture can be built.
Looking at the Eritrean civil society associations and political organization in Diaspora one can see that the civil associations act as political organizations and contribute to increased ethnic and religious fragmentation and political violence in the camp of the opposition struggling for democracy.
The Eritrean Diaspora struggle from dictatorship to democracy in Eritrea has been a struggle for power between political organizations and civil society associations. The main argument of this article is,
What framework and strategy can we have to increase participation of civil society associations and build a strong working relationships with opposition political organizations?
It is necessary to support and develop societal organizations and strengthen the struggle from dictatorship to democracy increasing the possibilities of a successful transformation to democratic politics in Eritrea. In fact the civil society associations and political organizations in the struggle are interdependent.
Some recent studies show that civil society has played effective role in bringing social and political change and were instrumental in overthrowing dictators( recent Arab Spring) but how about the Eritrean situation? Are we towards playing effective role or weakening each other? Discuss and compare our situation with others.
The Eritrean civil society associations and political organizations flourished in Diaspora but how effective and united are they in their struggle for democracy. The Eritrean Opposition is pluralistic based on ethnic, religious and region if these identities are politicised lead to more conflict than to democracy.( See Studies from IDEA’s website) because they lack a framework and strategy of managing this pluralism.
The Eritrean civil society associations and political organizations are similar both in their organizational structure and their operations, thus their constituents are based on kin- and clientelist networks.
The main issue to be discussed is how can both the civil society and political organizations transform from such linkages to programmatic issues. I think this is the main issue to be discussed by the Eritrean scholars and practitioners.
The Eritrean civil society associations should not stand in contrast with the opposition political organizations but complete each other by uniting their efforts promoting democracy and development inside the opposition camp.
Reconstructing the weak Eritrean Opposition
The Eritrean political leadership in the struggle from dictatorship to democracy must come out from their isolated caves and come together and perform political dialogue building a broad united democratic front that can regain the trust of the Eritrean people and get legitimacy both at the national , regional and international level.
The Eritrean civil society associations in the struggle from dictatorship to democracy must also come out of their isolated caves and come together discuss on the misperceived assumption about the relationship between civil society and political organizations now at this time of struggle and after the fall of dictatorship. The civil society associations can make their values and interests from now clear.
I think the focus at this time must be building a united umbrella partnership of all civil society associations locally , regionally and globally.
After reconstructing the political organizations and the civil society associations separately then these two can join and build partnership of cooperation locally, regionally and globally against the dictatorship in Eritrea and lay foundations of democracy in the post-dictatorship Eritrea.
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