BASHING EPDP WON’T MOVE THE OPPOSITION AN INCH FORWARD

That being so, the fallacy of the above notion that America overlooked the regime in Eritrea because it is a Christian dominated junta begs to be deconstructed. As Ghazae himself knows it so well, regardless of religion, ethnicity or geography, American foreign policy always prioritizes interest above all else. Let me walk him through a couple of examples. Why did the U.S. punish Serbia? Was it not primarily to save the Muslims in Bosnia Herzegovina? Why did America allow Turkish fighters penetrate into Iraq to suppress the Kurd rebels? How about invading Panama, Granada the list goes on and on. By the way who are the allies of the US? Are they all Christians? They are not. Therefore, the reason Isayas was not taken out by the US is because he is not a big threat. But if the Iranians mess up in and around Assab in a significant level, watch the head -lines of the New York Times.

Back to my subject: with the exception of some who could not see beyond their own short term gratification, the wish of Eritreans wherever they may be was and still is to see the opposition moving forward strengthened through unity and co-operation. When I say opposition, it means any group political or otherwise organized to oppose the illegitimate system in our country. Even though their wish is not yet fulfilled, one can say with optimism, unlike the opinion polls on the awate website, the progress is on the go and it is on the right track. Clearly, there is much more to be done. For some weird reason though, “democracy and unity” have become buzz- words in pockets of our society. Will touch on the issue in the ensuing paragraph or two.

That being the fact however, there is a group whose specialty is neither in opposing the dictator nor in supporting the opposition. This group feels it is immune from any responsibility and believes it has the license to say anything to anyone at any time. They think they are the Alfa and Omega. To me this kind of thinking is down right dangerous and shows the height of hubris. In case you missed it, read the following commentary on the newly united party on Jan. 8, 2010 at awate.com. “Speaking of wolves, let me congratulate the formerly “Uniting Organizations” for finally achieving their “historic unity” and then for making our lives easier by giving us one single name: the EPDP. The reason I loved the new name was because it rhymes with some of my favorite expressions including halewlew and hasewsew.” Can you imagine the disregard this self- centered individual has for the largest unity event the opposition has ever seen? Guess what, some times you realize human beings have the capacity of shutting off their faculties and refuse to deal with reality. Wolves? Lambs, be careful from the wolves!

According to this human being, the time, the courage, the skills, the patience and treasure it took to bring organizations of different backgrounds under one program, one leadership and one name (EPDP) is summed up as “halewlew.” The only thing I can say is blared assessment comes from blared thinking. Any conference on national matters in and of itself is positive let alone dedicated people from all corners of the world hold conference and seal a deal for unity. Hey, what is new with this indifference anyway? Nevertheless, however the pounding may intensify to break the morale of the doers, step by step the progress will continue kem Aqmom, not kem afom.

For your information, EPDP will not rest from halew and hasew until the dream of our people, irrespective of their region and religion, is materialized. You claim to have solutions for the opposition but other than building road blocs to stifle progress and unity, you never offered an iota of a constructive idea. Perhaps trashing others hard work is much easier than actually doing the same. So, why don’t you please give them a space to do the peoples job. In the mean time, there is one thing that never ceases to amaze me about a few like- minded elements. Just mention two words: “unity and democracy” their heads will spin! Absence of the two is a call for a different dictatorship. Unity is not necessarily becoming one party damn it. You can unite with whomever you wish to but there is what we call the central goal. And that is taking away the suckers. If all parties agree on that, then that is co-operating and coordinating. That translates to the unity of the opposition. You don’t have to go through some sort of chemical reaction in order to be united!

The same but in different skin he comes swinging against EPDP this time with an altered subject. May be he sensed that the business of dividing our people by religion eventually is not profitable. In his “Ufficcio Lavoro” article of Feb. 8, 2010 awate.com, he traces back bits and pieces of dead history to relate it with EPDP members and leaders. You see the whole idea of creating the new party was to bury the hatchet and start anew. From now on out, the slogan is “We Learned From Our Past Mistakes. In Tigrigna: Kab ghegatatna temahirna lebimna.” No more looking back, no more clinging on the past. How about that? In his world if uniting four organizations: Gash Setit Movement, EPM, EPP and EDP is halewlew, hasewsew, we will wait and see what he is going to name the next uniting organizations. May be geldewdew, kerewrew?

His motive is so transparent that by reminding what he perceives as the dark side of our armed struggle, though not everything was negative, is to paint the party as the flag bearer of the failed past to weaken the unity of the resistance. To entice the innocent reader against unity and democracy, he calculatedly mentions the code words like LP (Labor Union), yemin or yemanawian, falool, menkae what have you. I’ll tell what, they call this idea a fool’s errand. Nothing is going to change because of shopping around for people who can spread the propaganda against the achievement reached in Frankfurt. It is unexpected bonanza for the enemy and back stubbing the opposition. Ybel Qalsi!

On the other hand, our friend sounds like he is bored with the times we live in because he shows his yearning for the good old days. This, he says in the past when one is greeted by another party the response would be: egzabeher ymesgen; fetari ymesgen. In Arabic, alhamdulellah, nahmedu woneshkuru; on and on. These days he says, the usual response is: werki, lilay, entay kwozo, kullu Erruy. In Arabic, yahu Aishin, kullu bekher, kullu ala mayuram, mafi awaja etc. etc. Whichever way he may twist it, mentioning God or not, all of the above is totally appropriate and positive in our culture. As I said, this is a brand new tactic being tested by including Christian culture in his agenda in the hope to isolate EPDP. He rehashes the past about Jebha and Shabia and attributes all the dark side of the two to the new party. This is why he labels the party members as atheists or Godless group. And he claims that raising the Creator’s name every second as in the old days is over because of the alleged emergence of a communist party! His rule is: you are either a fanatic or a communist. There is nothing in between. In any event, his attempt to stick communism to EPDP is exercise in futility.

I don’t know what to believe in this person. Regardless what new issues he may come with, the fact remains that he is already losing traction. One would advise him to learn from the wisdom of Ustaz Omer Jabir who has the moral authority to speak up but chose to stay above the fray. He recused himself from the (Hacheq macheq) ChebreQreQ of the self- appointed keepers of our culture and religions. If he didn’t, it would make him look small. He knows that this attitude will not carry the day. Speaking of Ustaz Omer, because he sent a congratulatory message to the chairman of EPDP some students of the current brain washing kept his to the fire. Thanks to him, he gave them a good dose of straight talk. I do not hesitate to give credit where credit is due. Thus, I thank the Awate Team for translating Ustaz Jabir’s article from Arabic to English.

In his article, Change We Can’t Believe In, Jan. 17, 2010, Saleh Yunis laments about the lack of leadership in the opposition. He reminds me of a short story I had never talked about for a long time. One day a common friend of mine and another friend sat for coffee in Addis and started talking highly of the struggle in Eritrea. From what I observed, he wasn’t giving any comments for or against. After a while he suddenly says: forgive me guys I am not into your sewra. Historically, No good leadership had emerged from the North; and without leadership no revolution can succeed. Therefore, I am out of it!!

He touched on some past history like the weakness of Rasie Woldenkiel in the 17^th. Century, slipping away of the Eritrean Federal govt. in the late 50s, the civil war in meda, and he even mentioned how Aman Andom lost his power while he had the opportunity to lead Ethiopia. His bizarre attitude towards the struggle kept us speechless particularly at the height of the revolution when Eritreans were leaving Ethiopia in droves to join the independence war. That was in Dec. 1975 a few days before my friend and I left Addis for good. We never shared our secrets with him anyway. Now, the point is (a) we either believe like the friend in Addis and give up all together, or (b) join the resistance and share our leadership skills. If not, trashing the people in the game from your ivory towers is not fair in my judgment. The cause is everyone’s cause. No one is cut for leadership in order to do the dirty job for others. We have to be in it, and in the process we can all develop skills.

Let’s not complain but complete the remaining job,

Let’s share the burden for each of us belongs to the nation,

Let’s not leave the job for the third party and walk away from action

Through unity and democracy we will win.