Exit the Tyrant

Exit the Tyrant

(An Example of Conspicuous Failure)

          By Seyoum Tesfaye, Atlanta, Georgia. - Nov 03, 2003

I am reposting my 2003 article under a different title: Exit the Tyrant. This title I feel conveys the central most focused and most practical agenda for the present condition.  

As we approach the 20th Independence Day of Eritrea each of us has to devote a reasonable amount of time to review the last 20 year and come to a rational and logical conclusion about the true nature of our national crisis. We must face the truth by shading all forms of wishful thinking. Pretending or rationalizing will only be an exercise in self- deception. This will only add another temporary veneer to our catastrophic national crisis. It is time that we peel away all excuses and loudly Tell the Truth to the power holder: 20 Years of tyranny is enough. It is time for Isaias to Go.   

As we are witnessing in Yemen, Syria and Libya and as we witnessed in Egypt and Tunisia the top architect of the authoritarian system has to be pushed out of power if real and true change is going to take place in a country “governed” by a brutal regime.  Few years back demanding that Isaias resign or be moved out of power was considered a cardinal sin. Fortunately most Eritreans, through their own direct experience, have become more comfortable with the very idea and are ready to demand the removal of the top tyrant. The debate now is on how to do it. That itself is a big progress.  

When I wrote this article 7 years ago and posted it at Awate.Com, the youth who will turn 20 on May 24, 2011 were merely around 13 years old. They are now the direct victim of Isaias’ regime. They are bearing the full brutality of the regime in power. I hope their demand for change will start by recognizing the root cause of our national crisis is distilled down to one man and few of his cronies. Their political struggle hopefully will start by unconditionally demanding that the tyrant Isaias must exit.  The democratic elements within the ruling party, EDF and the youth wasting their lives in the so-called National Service have the primary duty of forcing him out of power. The only agenda that matters at this stage of the game is exiting the tyrant through our own vigorous youth based national effort.  

The latest barrage of ambiguous rhetoric by various Ethiopian government representatives asserting to go on the offensive, to work on regime change in Eritrea etc, while it could express the genuine frustration of the ruling Ethiopian party in dealing with the ongoing proxy war with the Eritrean regime, if this change in strategy includes direct war or direct intervention, there should not be any ambiguity, on the side of Eritreans who are working to bring an end to the Eritrean regime through the effort of our own people, about registering in the strongest term possible our objection to another war or direct intervention. We are and must continuously oppose, condemn and struggle to remove the Eritrean regime but we should not be willing and ready to endorse any semblance of direct war by Ethiopia.  

Our struggle to democratize Eritrea should not fall at the altar of Ethiopian expediency. We should not be maneuvered to accept the simplistic notions of if you oppose the Eritrean regime you should be willing and ready to support everything and anything Ethiopia does when it comes to the Eritrean issues. This is not being anti -Ethiopian or the ruling party of Ethiopia. It simply the most independent and critical posture to assume under the No War NO Peace circumstance. We cannot be the extension of the Ethiopian or Eritrean foreign policy. Opposing any and all talk of war and struggling against a brutal tyrant are mutually inclusive. Ethiopia has only created more confusion by its diffused “articulation” of the so-called new policy. It will serve itself better if it speaks with one voice and precisely define its, new policy and intentions as well as all other derivative questions.   

The Eritrean xenophobes and ultranationalists who want to use the so-called change of policy by Ethiopian government to try to shore up the collapsing support base of the brutal tyrant in Eritrea deserve our scorn and condemnation. They rap themselves by the flag without calling for change in Eritrea. They have yet to openly endorse or appreciate the struggle of the people of Egypt or Yemen and ask the people of Eritrea to take their destiny into their own hands. They are afraid to offend their benefactors in Asmara. They waste website space opposing and worrying about what is going on in Ethiopia than exposing the suffering of their own people just like TV –ERI- the Graveyard of the Truth does every day.    

The role of ambiguity in diplomacy is an old and acceptable tradition but when it comes to openly stated policy of the possibility of going to war or “implying” going war in region that is besieged by war, violence, insurrection and guerrilla warfare those of us who are dedicated to nonviolence path to change have the responsibility of challenging all talk of violence irrespective of its source and asking for an explanation. Welcome to the new world of public diplomacy. In the information age diplomacy is not confined only to the actors who hold and manage political power through election or dictatorial usurpation or journalists who at times mange their Q/A as if they are embedded and do not want to lose another opportunity for future interview. The stakeholders have the direct responsibility of questioning the pronounced policy and its implications without the confinement of protocols.  We are aware of the fact we might not get all the answer but we have the right to ask all pertinent and relevant questions. This time we will ask all questions before bullets start flying. We do not want second hand interpreters or spin masters to package it for us.        

The best Ethiopia can do is work on an internationally and regionally coordinated   “Hard Containment” policy as I had tried to advocate in my article: “It is the regime: Stupid”. It can create the conditions for the removal of the Eritrean tyrant by the people of Eritrea. With Mubark gone Gaddafi and Saleh of Yemen on the brink of being ousted the Isaias regime stands exposed, isolated and without any allies. Ethiopia should work to further strengthen the isolation of the ruling clique in Asmara, create conditions for some of the top actors in Asmara to strategically (clandestinely) disassociate themselves from the Isaias and encourage the people of Eritrea to rise up. To these end Ethiopian handlers of the Eritrean opposition should permit Eritrean opposition TV programs, in Addis, to continuously broadcast the ongoing people’s uprising in the Arab world- unedited- so that the people of Eritrea can draw the correct conclusion on how to get rid of their own tyrant.  This is more cost effective way to change. To go to war to expedite Ethiopia’s spectacular economic development by directly intervening to remove the Asmara regime is impregnated with unintended consequences.    

The US with all its soft and hard power has invested almost a trillion dollar on its Iraq intervention to achieve what the people of Egypt did flawlessly, in less than a month, and with less stellar achievement. Ethiopia should learn from the American experience.  

The opinion expressed in this article represents my view and perspective only.  

    Seyoum Tesfaye

    Atlanta Georgia

    April 24, 2011   
     
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Exit the Tyrant

Eritrea's un-elected president has failed beyond what any nation should tolerate or accommodate at the level of national leadership. He has become a national liability. Nothing can justify his hold on the highest position in the country. It is high time for him to exit.  He should resign.    

He has squandered his liberation year's political dividends. He has exhausted all goodwill accorded to him by the people of Eritrea. His legitimacy as a national leader has evaporated. His credibility is totally depleted. His influence has waned. Like all dictators he has outlived his usefulness. He is now an unacceptable liability and a heavy burden on the nation. It is time for him to exhibit, for the first and last time, an act of immense generosity by gracefully exiting from the national political scene and eases the way for the Eritrean people to transition to constitutional self-governance.   

There is failure and then there is spectacular-conspicuous- failure. President Isaias' failure belongs to the latter category. It defies rational logic and reasonable elucidation. In the fundamental sense, it represents an abdication of national responsibility and the trashing of the collective trust deferred to him by generous and trusting people. He has failed the people and the State of Eritrea. He has miserably mismanaged the two strategic national agendas: consolidation of sovereignty and transition to democracy. He has neither consolidated sovereignty nor exhibited any sense of democratic behavior. It is time to bring this tragic episode in Eritrean history to its logical conclusion. He must be eased out of power before he does more irreparable damage to Eritrea's fundamental nation interest.  

History will judge his gross dereliction of duty in the harshest terms and still be puzzled on why a president of a very promising African country was unable to transcend intrigue driven power politics and evolve into a worthy statesman. Silence in the face of this kind of wholesale failure and political treachery will amount to a tacit endorsement of a failed agenda and unrepentant and caustic authoritarian leadership.   

The wish of the Eritrean people for the president to mend his way and democratize the nation has been irretrievably dashed. Before the citizen's rejection of a tyrannical leader leads to an endemic cynicism about the whole idea of governance and afflict Eritrean national politics for generations to come, this president must be contained and convinced to leave the national stage.  

Great leaders take responsibility not only for their own failure but also for those assigned to implement their policies and plans as well.  The famous statement "the buck stops here" was coined for leaders who understand and appreciate explicitly this sense of responsibility.  Citizens can forgive and excuse a leader who is willing to own his shortcomings and ask for understanding. To a certain extent mistakes, even major ones, by a seating president can be understood and excused. It is natural to flounder and commit serious mistakes in the process of governing a new nation without established institutions. Allowance are made, by unwritten reciprocal understanding, between the governing and the governed about mistakes in the process of constructing new institutions. The learning curve will facilitate a genuine give and take inducing the necessary level of adjustment on both sides.  This understanding itself is constructed upon another fundamental premise: The leader at the helm of the nation has an explicit awareness of his fallibility and walks on earth as a non-alpha- omega persona. He knows he is mortal and earthbound.   

Leaders with messiah complex are as far as you can get from this earth and carbon-based humanity's understanding of leadership. They are dangerous and destructive. They have pathological need to be obeyed unconditionally. They like to be feared instead of lawfully and culturally respected. They distort the national character and culture to a point of no recognition by trying to impose their tormented and debased style of politics on the national fabric. The cost of bowing to them will be the destruction of whatever is good and dear about any people and culture. No tyrant deserves to take this much out of a given national soul and contaminate the collective spirit any people. We are not the exception. We do not need the guiding hand of a self-professed messiah. We need the leadership of ordinary men and women with vision, humility and the willingness to say I made a mistake.    

An omniscient leader who never accepts his mistake and considers himself the epitome of righteousness cannot govern ordinary men and women who accept human frailty as a matter of fact. A leader's attitude toward his mistakes is the fundamental barometer of his overall disposition. Is he susceptible to suggestions and midway course adjustment in the face of mounting failure or does he get a pleasure in taking a nation to hell just to prove himself right?  Does he equate critics with oppositions? Opposition with enemies? Question for criticism? Criticism for defamation? Silence for betrayal?  Suggestion for affront?  Speaking out for accusation?  Respect for fear?  What is the leader's core disposition? Secure enough to respect others or insecure enough to suspect his own shadow?  At one critical time the discussion among the oppressed and persecuted people has to go to uncharted but unavoidable territory of asking tough and unavoidable questions about the very persona of a given leader in relation to his skill as a national leader.    

What is the general orientation of a given national leader at helm of the state power? Sooner or later citizens will ask this quintessential question and make up their mind on wither to give the benefit of the doubt or withdraw their support to a given national leader.  The time has come for the whole nation, the ruling party, the Eritrean Defense Forces, all religious leaders, teachers, students, labor union leaders, Eritrean intellectuals to openly and publicly take a stand demanding that the Eritrean president relinquish power to reasonable men and women within his party and open the path towards a smoothly negotiated transition of power to a legitimately elected government and a badly needed national healing.  

Those who believe that the president represents their specific interest and are blindly backing the mercurial autocrat must review their perspective and look for an alternative way to have their perceived interests represented. The president is a spent force. He does not represent the overall strategic interest of the nation, of his own political party or any segment of society. The president and his immediate functionaries interest is preserving power at all cost, nothing less and nothing more. It is a mistake to think that the president represents a certain political ideology, party, religious followers, ethnic groups or national agenda. He does not represent democracy or Eritrea's sovereign interest or any section of the Eritrean people. His agenda has been melted down to one subject: power.  He has evolved into a typical autocrat who will use all subterfuge including dividing the people on religious and ethnic line to merely hang on to his power. His presence in power will only further divide us and deepen the polarization of our society.  

Those who support the president must ask the unavoidable question: how much of its soul does a nation owe a leader? Another boarder war?  Extra 40,000 martyrs? How low must a nation sink before reasonable men and women understand that not only is the long-range interest of the nation at risk but even their own immediate interest as well?  Blind loyalty to a leader who is completely out of synic with the wish of the people is difficult to comprehend in the face of overwhelming evidence.  

The isolation of Eritrea in the international arena is total and complete.  Our country has no leverage to convince even few critical nations to unconditionally push for demarcation. The diplomatic failure under the guidance of the president is so stark that no amount of bravado rhetoric and declaration by the regime and his intellectual mouth piece can correctly and reasonably explain why our country's diplomatic good will reserve is so low and our plea for fairness falling on deaf ears. Why is our government's diplomacy so ineffective? Lack of qualified leadership is at the center of our national crisis, be it diplomatic or political.   

Two years after the signing of The Algeries' Agreement, the president still continues to be destructive and divisive. Instead of moving to implement the ratified constitution, release all political prisoners, un-ban all independent newspapers, accept the inalienable right of Eritreans to have a different political perspective and start meaningful dialogue with the oppositions, he utilized the extended time to further divide the people of Eritrea and weaken the diplomatic posture of the nation with his ill conceived and offensive rhetoric. In a period of two years he has not exhibited any gesture of reconciliation or kindness towards the people of Eritrea. Instead he is working overtime to deepen the conflict with his contemporaries and to expand it to another generation.   

From South Africa to SAWA a new generation has learned how the president is disrespectful and mean spirited and that he has no sense of magnanimity. He is forcing another generation to swell the ranks of the Diaspora. Does he really care if Eritrea suffers from a massive brain drain?  Does he want Eritrean youth educated and empowered?  Judging by his articulation, action and policies he does not give a damn if the youth are exiled or turned into an unpaid labor force to build house for his rapidly multiplying generals and security chiefs. He is the primary reason why we have become a divided nation. We know it and what is worse is our enemies and adversaries are aware of it. Now it is time for his die-hard supporters to bury their illusions and come to the side of reason and take firm stand and find reasonable voices to present their perceived interests.   

A divided nation with a reckless leader at the helm cannot face a belligerent neighbor who has taken into account our division and chosen to take a defiant posture on the demarcation issue. Our division has emboldened our adversaries. What has the president done to narrow the difference within our community and to rally the people except continue in his underhanded and divisive, insulting and belittling political machination? Did he even at the minimum let the political prisoners be visited if possible by their families or the representatives of Red Cross and Red Crescent?  Did he release elders and ask for their advice and help? No! To do this one has to know humility and have a self-effacing personality. When he knows everything why should he ask for advice. He does not need anything from the people but obedience and total submission. For him and his clique Eritrean national unity is a just a utilitarian slogan - a means of manipulation and a control device.   

When it is convenient to the leader we are to be reminded that we are one people. When we ask true unity based on recognizing our individual rights, constitution and rules of law we are the enemy and non -Eritreans. As far as our president is considered there are only two kinds of Eritreans: those who support and obey him and the rest- enemies who oppose him. The logic of simplistic thinking serves tyrants well. It easily divides the world and the people into manageable blocks. Our president excels in this logic. The world starts and ends with his self-preservation at all cost.      

Why cannot Eritrea convince the global- powers- to -be to solidly back the demarcation process and bring the necessary pressure on the Ethiopian government to live up to its officially articulated acceptance of the verdict before the new demand for revision? This time if Eritrea has become a diplomatic orphan it is our president's making. We cannot blame the whole world for the conspicuous failure of our ill prepared leader.  Why we are diplomatically isolated? Could it be because we lack independent institutions and public servants who can freely articulate the interest of the nation without undo interference by the president and his kitchen cabinets? Could it be because the president lacks the basic skill of diplomatic articulation and is prone to throwing tantrums and irrational diatribes instead of presenting a well thought out and systematically crafted diplomatic presentation?  Could it be because our president has failed miserably to unify and rally his people? What exactly has the president done to rally his people since the war ended except expanded the list of enemies for Eritrea and multiplied the number of political prisoners and refugees? Did he mend his way by being sensitive and carrying for the views of the people and individuals and political groups with different perspective? Did he exhibit any sensitivity to the families of the Bademe martyrs? Did he curtail the persecution of religious minorities? Did he return the political refugees from Malta to their parents and families?     

If Eritrea is isolated and without friends and our adversaries are trying to presser us it is because we are not being lead by a visionary and thoughtful president. It is because Eritrea has fallen in the hand of ungrateful tyrant who lacks the basic disposition to learn from his mistakes and still thinks he is the only insurance Eritreans need. It is because we have an individual at the helm of power that considers himself indispensable and equates Eritrea's survival with him being at the center of power. The survival of a nation, right or wrong, should never be identified with the ego and agenda of a single individual. This is too much power for a mere mortal. It only shows that we have not built institutions that can protect and advance the interest of the nation, locally, regionally and internationally.  Leaving the history of how we got to this tragic predicament for historians and for the reconciliation process, it is high time to correct this mistake and free Eritrea from the president's suffocating grip. It is time for the ruling party to totally divorce itself from his control and change direction. It is time for all worthy citizen to demand that the president must go and save us from the possibility of fratricidal war. The longer he stays in power the more the possibility of another civil or border war. We cannot afford neither.  

The responsibility of peacefully dislodging the president from power falls primarily in the hands of those genuine sons and daughters of a beleaguered nation who are members of the ruling party and Eritrean Defense Forces. The president and his henchmen have tried to corrupt and pollute these two institutions. Very few within PFDJ and EDF might have sold their soul. It will be absurdly foolish to believe that all members of the party and army follow the authoritarian tyrant willingly and unconditionally. Those who understand what is at stake must organize and mobilize diligently and tip the balance in favor of democratic forces within the two institutions. The army must be returned to serving the people and the party to its rightful owners: the rank and file members.   

The president of Eritrea must count his blessing. The people he has been abusing so carelessly are tempered, cultured and patient people. It seems he has grossly misinterpreted their patience for naiveté.  Their respect for the institution of the presidency might be unconditional and organic. But they are aware that the person occupying the office has failed to exhibit their cultural temperament or their devotion to justice and fairness.  The president was apparently not aware that the respect extended to him by the writers of the "Berlin Manifesto"- G-13- was an extension of this long established culture. The peaceful and respectful way G-15 crafted their demand for reform and transition to constitutionally governed polity was an enactment and advancement of the respect for lawful and peaceful way of resolving conflicts. It is not the office of the presidency that failed it is the president occupying the office that has fallen short. It is his affinity to Byzantine politics and inability to take responsibility for his blunders that is dividing the people and weakening the nation.

In short, the president is the one stumbling block that is standing on our path to implementing and amending our constitution, commences our national reconciliation, practicing free press and our religious beliefs as well as building our political parties. He is the very engine of our division and cause of our weakened national posture. He must be induced to relinquish his power unconditionally so that we can get started with a peacefully negotiated transition to democracy without endangering our national sovereignty and waging war on each other.    

To those who hope to take advantage of our temporary division and threaten to inflict war on our young nation or insight civil war to usurp power, the message should be clear: you will flatter and fail flat on your face for the people of Eritrea vehemently reject both sinister agendas. The people might be upset by their leader's treachery but it does not mean they are longing to live under Ethiopian hegemony or their aspiring surrogates. They are capable of peacefully putting their house in order by themselves.   

First thing first- exit the tyrant, unify the people, and consolidate our fragile sovereignty, implement the constitution, work on democratizing the nation and our national healing.  

N.B. As I finished rewriting this article I had a chance to read on Awate that Mr. Dan Connell has openly recommended that the Eritrean president should retire. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Connell for having the integrity to call it as he sees it. If the president has any political wisdom left he will take Mr. Connell's timely advice to heart.  The support base of the president is shrinking daily, locally and internationally.  

    Seyoum Tesfaye

    November 3,2003

    Atlanta, Georgia.

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