Eritrea at crossroads: after two decades of tyranny and agony!

Farajat:   Editorial

The 24^th of May, 2011 marks the 20^th   anniversary of the Eritrean land liberation.   The Eritrean independence was achieved after a long and continuous struggle of the Eritrean people which lasted for decades.  Our modern political history started as peaceful and political struggle and when it was discovered that it was futile, in vain and fruitless, the Eritrean people resorted to armed struggle to demand for their legitimate rights for liberation and independence. It started in 1947 when the Al-Rabita al-Islamiya – the Muslim League (the first Eritrean national party) formally called for complete Eritrean Independence and rejected the unconditional union with Ethiopia as declared by the Unionist party (Andnetist).                        

 The Independence Bloc continued the same path of demanding Eritrean independence, followed by ELM (Eritrean Liberation Movement) then ELF (Eritrean Liberation Front) and EPLF (Eritrean People’s Liberation Front).  When the martyr and hero Awate declared the Armed Struggle for Eritrean Independence on September 01, 1961 and formed the ELA (Eritrean Liberation Army), the long path to Eritrean independence begun. The armed struggle started because the Ethiopian king refused any peaceful solutions and declared war on the Eritrean people by saying: “We need the land of Eritrea and not its people” thus, the Eritrean people were left with no other options except raise arms and wage armed struggle to demand and defend their legitimate rights. The Eritrean people fought bravely for long 30 years under different organizations such as ELF, EPLF etc… It took about five decades for the Eritrean people to get their long awaited, priceless and dear independence after paying very dear and heavy prices.

What are the achievements of the past 20 years since independence?

Unfortunately, today after 20 years of independence the situation in Eritrea is very gloomy. The Eritrean people are suffering under the hands of a despotic one-man rule (DIA). The unelected illegitimate tyrant is ruling the country according to his whims and made Eritrea “hell” on earth. After 20 years of tyrannical rule of DIA there is: no constitution, no rule of law, no parliament, no independent judiciary system…the country is ruled by gangsters and it is time that the Eritrea rise and struggle by all means to get their rights to live in a free and democratic country.  The human rights situation is miserable…the Eritrean economy is “zero” thanks to the “09” (Bado 9) economic body which reduced the Eritrean economy to “9 zeroes”.  Our sisters became house servants in the Sudan and across all over our neighboring countries. Our sisters are being kidnapped and raped…in Sawa by military officials…in the Sudan in the Sinai desert etc…Our youth became victims of smugglers and human traffickers…starting from the Rashaida, Sinai Bedouins…they are dying in the Sudan and Libyan deserts….imprisoned in Egypt, Israel, Malta etc…Our youth are dying in hundreds day after day in the Mediterranean sea. The majority of Eritreans want to escape and flee Eritrea, at any cost, from the hell of DIA. The continuous and unlimited slavery of youth under the name of national service is a nightmare to our youth especially our sisters and daughters. The Eri-Tv – serving the Dictator, continuously presents worthless programs of dancing and singing, to distract us…with no benefit to our youth and people. Dancing, making uncoordinated and unsynchronized funny movements like puppets do not serve our youth at all. We need educational developments, economic growth, human rights, rule of law, freedom of speech etc…dancing and singing will take us nowhere.

Is this what we fought for? Did our people deserve such a criminal and inhumane treatment from the despicable DIA regime? What went wrong and when? What is needed to get our real freedom and independence? What has to be done?

Unfortunately, the struggle and sacrifices of our people had been hijacked by a few “gangsters” who are ruthlessly torturing the Eritrean people and Eritrea became the hell on earth. Today Eritrea is ruled by an illegal and illegitimate tyrant DIA (dictator isaias afwerki) and his party PFDJ composed of a bunch of sycophants, yes men who are serving their lunatic master obediently without questioning. How did DIA come to power?

Nhnan Elamanan (DIA)   à EPLF   à    PFDJ  à  DIA and his gangs   à  “Failed State”

At the beginning it was called EPLF, then became PFDJ and at the end became DIA (one-man totalitarian regime), which led Eritrea to became a “failed state” with distinction. If closely observed from 1971 until now (for 40 years) Isaias was the strongest man in EPLF and now is a totalitarian dictator ruling Eritrea as a “gangster”.

Seen in its  proper historical perspective and context (taking into account the political atmosphere of that specific period) the  notorious document “ Nhnan Elamanan” authored by Isaias and 13 others in 1971,  is full of: wrong information,  lies, dogmas, hypocrisy, divisive, sectarian and venomous ideas, which are still alive today. At the 3^rd congress of the EPLF in February 1994, the EPLF was officially transformed into a political movement, the People’s Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ). After the imprisonment of the G-15 the PFJD was practically dissolved and DIA became the absolute one-person despotic ruler of Eritrea and Eritrea became a big prison for the G-4M (Group of 4 Million) the entire Eritrean people inside Eritrea.

The DIA and his failed leadership are responsible for all our sufferings!

What are the main characteristics of “tyrants”? Isaias and Qaddafi as example:

Dictators suffer from symptoms of megalomania and grandeur psychological traits and they think and believe that “the countries are impersonated in them”, they are the nation and the nations are them.  Any demonstration or malcontent is against the nation and it endangers the national security etc…and the peaceful demonstrators are either agents of foreign countries, traitors or terrorists. Undoubtedly Isaias is a tyrant and as such he believes that “he is Eritrea and Eritrea is him”, then “who are we to criticize him?” He believes that he is the source of power…from him emanates legitimacy, nationalism and bravery. Dictators have false impression that they are indomitable. They look at their opponents with contempt and arrogance and call them names such as: mice, traitors, criminals and all vulgar names that reflect their true nature. One can easily see and identify DIA megalomaniac behavior in his interviews and it becomes apparent when he ventures into exploring and explaining world politics, ideologies and starts rumbling, grumbling and fumbling unintelligible and uncoordinated ideas for long boring hours.      He deliberately mentions names like: Samuel Huntington, Francis Fukuyama and political views like “creative chaos” on order to show and impress people that he is a learned and intelligent person. On the contrary it reflects and exposes his shallow analysis and sick mentality.    Is he a foreign policy expert, political strategist, east Africa expert or world encyclopedia?  Really it is astonishing and frustrating to listen to DIA interviews for they are long, boring and with no clear message.  He talks about Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Southern Sudan, Darfur Djibouti etc…in details. His speeches reflect his neurotic nature, he like his mentor is a lunatic and arrogant sick person. The DIA doesn’t know his job and responsibility…I expect him to talk about Eritrea, current developments, failures, future plans etc…most of his time (80% or more) should be spent talking about Eritrea as an Eritrean president. . DIA like his lunatic mentor “king of kings of Africa”  wants to imitate him and become “king of kings of East Africa” that’s why he spends most of his time talking about his protectorates. The supercilious DIA, as usual, was unable to give ideas or opinions that have any profound meaning and his absurdity were manifested in all his three nonsensical interviews.     All the boring interviews don’t make the tyrant cultured and educated as he tried to present himself. He is a first year university drop out with limited mental capabilities. The main problem of the Eritrean people is that he is the absolute ruler with limited capacity and with no advisors. The interviews he conducts, exposes his real personality and capacity. It is not strange, our world recently was “cursed” with dull and with below average mental capacity world leaders, such as: George W. Bush, Qaddafi, Mubarak, Ali Saleh and Isaias. It is always funny to listen to their interviews and speeches…they bombard us with a lot of funny, stupid and laughable remarks and comments which are funnier than most comedy shows and programs.

When I saw the Libyan mad dog interviews, where he was feigning sarcastic forced arrogant laughs, I remembered his junior mad DIA feigned repeated laughs when squeezed in his famous Al-Jazeera English-channel interview with Ms Cristina. Dictators do not accept criticisms and they think and believe they are faultless and infallible. They think they are smarter than the whole world, while in fact they are dull ignoramus people. DIA is a stigma to the Eritrean armed struggle history. He is queer like him mentor Qatafi and both cause revulsion and pity.            Dictators are detached from reality and live in their illusionary world. They abnegate, negate, reject…incontrovertible facts. This easily reveals their sick nature and many decent and naive people take a very long time to discover their intrinsic nature.

The dictators are encircled by sycophant, entourage ….who give them wrong information, idolize and glorify them. Look at the people who work and serve any tyrant…you will discover that they are cheap, worthless and contemptuous people. They are ready to serve their master and are very careful not to make mistakes to avoid the anger and furor of their master and are obedient and submissive to their masters.

The tyrants are unhesitant and ready to destroy everybody and everything, even the entire country in order to stay in power and at any price. They are very dangerous people and like a chronic cancerous gangrene they have to be cut off as soon as possible because they are not curable and are destined to perish.

In all countries led by dictators there are: no rule of law, human rights, free press, social justice etc… There is nothing salvageable in the surreal and bizarre world of the gangster DIA regime in Eritrea. He succeeded to make Eritrea a “failed state” with distinction. Therefore, he has to go “now” enough is enough, people cannot tolerate him anymore.

Social justice, rule of law and …and democracy

Eritrea is multicultural, multi ethnic and multi religious society and a culturally and economically developing country. In order to build our nascent nation we badly need more of justice and rule of law than democracy, at least at the first stages of our nation building.    What is the most important and valuable asset in any country?    The simple and logical answer should be: “its people”. However, in all totalitarian and despotic regimes, the most important asset is the despot, his family members, his sycophant entourage and the security that guards and protects the tyrant and his kingdom.                 

We have a big problem in Eritrea…in the past we had people who worshipped and idolized the king of kings Haile Sellasie and took decades of political and armed struggle to liberate these people and make them free Eritreans. Similarly, now we have diehard DIA supporters…blindly supporting oppression and dictatorship and without any logical reasons and justifications. How can a person support a criminal and illegitimate self declared ruler? We should entertain the ideals of democracy where every man to be respected as an individual and no man idolized.    The norm is for a country, state or government to have an “army” that protects the country, but in the case of Eritrea and several dictatorial regimes, the “army” is represented in the person of the tyrant who has complete possession of the army through loyal army generals who have complete allegiance to the dictator.

Popular uprising and Eritrea:

The tsunami of popular uprising against all dictators in our region is gaining momentum and leverage and Eritrea will not be an exception. Is Eritrea ready to raise and demand for its freedom from the yoke of the tyrant!?!                                                                                           

  We express gratitude and support for the Eritrean “Youth” to play their historical roles while urging all the Eritrean political parties and people to provide them unconditional support and encouragement to continue their struggle against the  criminal dictator let by the ignoramus and despot DIA, his bestial half literate generals and perishing and crumbling PFDJ party. Also we call upon all Eritrean Civic Societies to play their historical roles in order to serve their people at this critical stage of our history in Eritrea.

Looking forward for a better future!

We have to look forward beyond the realities of today. We have to plan and think beyond DIA’s Eritrea. How do we want our Eritrea of tomorrow to be? We have to “forgive and forget” the small nuisances, mistakes committed in the past and plan properly for the future. Do we want to have a brighter future for our children? Do we want to inherit them all the oddities and grudges of our past mistakes and failures?  Are our vision and intentions clear and they are to get a modern a prosperous country and people and get out of the current muddling and paddling?      To materialize all the above “wishes” political will and determination are needed guided by politically mature and nationalist leadership able to lead people and the country to the shores of the Promised Land.

Leadership is needed to salvage Eritrea!

Albert Einstein said: “You cannot solve the problems of the world with the same thinking that created them.”  We need new, young and talented leadership to take its role and responsibility, a leadership that thinks “Out of the Box” and is able to lead us towards the designed objectives. First we have to make comprehensive studies and identify “why” the Eritrean people are suffering and Eritrea became a “failed state” under the leadership of DIA? Then we can identify “what” are our real problems and their causes?   Once we identity the true causes of our problems, then we can look for “how” to solve them.    We need leadership that “practice what they preach”. We need “group leadership” based on institutions and who are accountable and transparent. We must get rid of the idea of “king” president and we should talk of responsibilities serving our people and not crowning as “kings’ to have absolute powers.

Next, we have to properly plan to achieve our designated goals and ideals:

–          We should have “unity of vision”. We need to have a unified vision on “how” to rule Eritrea of tomorrow and “what” are the fundamentals needed to make it a reality.

–          We have to make use of our diverse talents to succeed…we should have a clearly defined organizations and “specialization of function” and work as a team in a harmonious way and not fight each other at the expense of our people and country.

Simple arithmetic’s shows that:

2 + 2 à 4        Also   2 x 2 à 4         But…    2 – 2 à 0

–          We need leaders that lead us to victory and who are able to raise our people to their potential.  It takes a leader to provide the motivation, empowerment and direction required to win and achieve our goals. We should look at the “whole” picture and get rid of historical and new divisive obstacles. We should look forward and be positive and always remember the sufferings of our people, the sacrifices of our martyrs and the situations of our refuges…It is not time for self aggrandizement, self-glory and self-interest. We all have moral and national responsibility to fight sincerely for the amelioration of our people and country.

–          We need our leaders to have influence…to make things happen…to see and seize opportunities which the laymen do not see. Above all we expect our leaders to be able attract, enlist and rally people to perform and join the opposition and resistance.

–          Leaders are expected to see what others don’t see…they should see beyond today’s frustration and bitter reality of our situation. They should our source of hope and direction.

–          Why did Somalia crumble badly although having one language and one religion? What are the reasons that led to the total decline of the Somali nation?

Why the Sudan is “a nation in the making” after more than 50 years of independence? Why the South in the Sudan fought and got their independence? What about the Darfur crisis? What about Somaliland? What about Djibouti? Is Ethiopia a democratic country as it claims? How is Ethiopian government run?

It is imperative to learn from our own mistakes and it is wise to learn from the mistakes of other nations (with similar history to ours and in our vicinity).

–          We have to make a thorough study of our modern history, to find out the reality of our people and its history. We have to know and study our society, culture,  norms, values popular psychology and disposition.

The Eritrean people fought one of the longest wars of liberation in the world, with marked courage, tenacity, patriotism and determination. The 30 years of heroism, bravery and self-asceticism…united the Eritrean people and created the spirit and identity of Eitreanism and Eritreaness. This created a united people of Eritrea and won their independence deservedly. The independence was a result of the Eritrean people struggle and hard work for decades. What the Eritrean people are lacking is “leadership” that can make use of our unity and lead us to prosperity.

I remember during the times of armed struggle, the slogans we raised, such us:

“Our struggle is destined to triumph”.

“Our struggle is long, but our victory is certain”.

Indeed the slogans were realized, thanks to the sacrifices of our best and supreme martyrs and fighters.

Every era has got its people, and in our new era, we want to have fighters and martyrs, but for the sake of building a strong and democratic institutionalized nation. It needs wise, educated and specialized people in all fields in order to plan and build a free and democratic Eritrea. Now we want martyrs for democracy, social justice, constitutionalism, institutionalism etc…

What has to be done? “We shouldn’t say: “What is in it for me?” We should say: What’s in it for my people and country!”

Be selfless and work for the benefit of our people and country…for better and brighter future of our children and grand children.

It is not easy…it is difficult but possible and it depends on positive contribution by all of us.

Since dictators use all “means” to stay in power, we have the right to use all “means” to get rid of them. However, prudence, wisdom and leadership are needed to make it a reality.

Happy 20^th Anniversary of Eritrean Land Independence

Let us fight united for the Eritrean People’s Freedom and Liberation

The Mission of our Freedom and Independence is not yet accomplished!!!

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Posted by farajat on May 23 2011 Filed under Articles, Editorial. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry