Now in its 18th year of independence the State of Eritrea finds itself suspended in a moment of no war no peace characterized by repression and severe human rights violations, religious persecution, stagnating economy, chronic food insecurity and abject poverty. The youth, the future of Eritrea are forced to work in farms and construction sights for an indefinite period of time and are denied to exploit their potential for education and employment. Their only hope is to go to exile is search of freedom to build their shattered life. In the process they face many dangers. They are drowned in the high seas, shot at when they cross from Egypt to Israel and face imprisonment in Libya. The crime against them is endless. Their fulfilment in this life today and tomorrow is at stake. On the other hand there are thousands of refugees in the Sudan who would like to go back to Eritrea, they should have been back right after independence in 1991, but they too have no right to return because the PFDJ failed to facilitate their return. Being absent from Eritrea through out the years of armed struggle they may not realize the extent of the brutality of PFDJ as to want to return now when the youth, building contractors and various business men and women are leaving the country in their thousands.
Primary Contradiction in the society of Eritrea:
All these made stark clear that the primary contradiction in present day Eritrea is between the Government/PFDJ and the people. In such situations one may ask what do the Eritrean people expect from the Diaspora. What the Eritrean people want at this moment in time is any help towards ending their misery. They would like to see the PFDJ go root and branch and the system that is oppressing everybody including the members of PFDJ.
The people are least interested about the past. For them the ELF and EPLF are history and more often than not many express disappointments of them? Yosief Ghebrehiwot is an example of the extremes; he has nothing good to talk about the struggle which is the past. For the youth the mantra is (Zei tekelese Tzebhi keribkumulna) [you have provided us with half cooked stew) which implied,” there is an unfinished business”. Yes our generation have brought independence from outside rule but failed to empower the people. For the people in Eritrea talking about Muslims and Christians does not solve their terrible situation. For them whether the PFDJ is dominated by Christians or not is irrelevant. The PFDJ is subjecting the whole population to extreme repression, and that is their primary concern.
Secondary contradiction among the people of religious, ethnic and regional denominations needs to be addressed when the time comes:
In principle those who would like these contradictions to be discussed and resolved are right but there are two things which would make these issues to wait. First, they are secondary contradictions and can be addressed only if the primary contradiction is resolved.
Second, it is derailing the course of the struggle for change. It may put Christians on the defensive because they would not understand why they are subjected to attack while everybody knows that they are victims of repression and not perpetrators. It doesn’t make any sense. More than that by default it benefits the PFDJ because such accusation would create suspicion among people of different religious denominations and weakens they resolve to struggle for democratic change.
Ali Salim in his article “within Arm’s Reach” dated Aug 19, 2009 in Awate.com wrote, “My absolute Hero of the week (in the Hall of Shame) was no other than Abdurrahman Alseyed (commentary on two Trends, Awate, August 05, 2009) the most active advocate of CDRiE; the organisation of Tigrinya intellectuals conspiring to put the Tadamun out of business. “ Ali Salim embarked in a new agenda that foments hatred and hostile among Christians and Moslems. Abdurrahman is a founding member of CDRiE and he is his own man. Ali Salim resented him for his inclusive approach working and lobbying for the benefit of all Eritreans irrespective of religion, ethnicity or region.
In reality the politics of Ali Salim is a politics of exclusion and it is a strategic mistake in the present crises. His ideas do not embody a yearning wish of the entire population to get rid of the oppressor so they can get on with their life freely. This shows that he has an ulterior motive and does not share the pain and suffering of the entire Eritrean population now and at present.
In addition there is an element of distortion and dishonesty in the way Ali Salim &Co. are describing the past in order to justify their sectarian politics in the present. It is true that there is an unequal development in Eritrea. This is the legacy of Italian colonial rule and not a deliberate doing of Christians.
The Italians built cities and modern amenities in the highlands. They build industries and modern facilities and made Asmara their capital and the seat of their centralized administrative system. These brought about the birth of the working class, administrators, lawyers etc. that brought about more development in the highlands for both Christians and Moslems. While the way of life in the lowlands remained unchanged for generations and nomadic mode of life is dominant. To attribute this unequal development to Christian Highlanders is not true, it is absurd and emotional.
Ali Salim’s writing is quite misleading particularly for those Moslems growing up abroad that are exposed to fundamental Islamist ideology. Their analysis is not deep enough to explain the root causes of unequal development and seems good enough only to hoodwink the opinion of gullible Eritrean, to anger Christians and conscious Moslems.
Let us say there is resentment of the lowlanders towards the Christian highlanders but how about the resentment of Moslem Lowlanders to Highland Moslems who have benefited from modernization and succeeded in building communities of traders, tailors and merchants and are relatively well off people. They are mostly Tigrinya speakers and they teach their children to use Tigrinya in the Diaspora. Does Ali Salim know about this?
There is another conspiracy theory from a person I have high esteem. He is Saleh (Gadi) Johar and I quote his article at Awate.
“Almost every English-language book written about Eritrea over the past four decades- the most recent being Michela Wrong’s I don’t do it for you- is the history of Eritrea as seen by people who belonged, or were sympathetic, to the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF).”
Saleh Johar has become paranoid. He has indulged in a denial he can not defend. He is attacking historians and evidence based political analysts, activists and several outside observers who had seen and studied events at first hand. All the writings cover a range of the crucial questions about Eritrea and its people. They touch on all the major historical stages including the political and military experiences of the struggle. The struggle of the Eritrean people is brought home to the International community by writers reflected in history books and there is nothing Saleh can do to rewrite it in his own subjective perspective.
The legacy of Italian colonialism was perpetuated by the divide and rule policy of the British and Ethiopia and is deemed to be secondary contradiction that is going to be solved by both Christians and Moslems. Unless people are able to differentiate between the oppressors and the oppressed they can not rise up and stand up in unison to the challenges presented to them by PFDJ. The fight against injustice and all forms of human rights violations is fought by people who shared the same values of justice and humanity. Eritreans who opted to rise to the challenge PFDJ have to change themselves first by internalizing the value of justice and democracy. That would be a common denominator for all people who are divided along the lines of religion, ethnicity or region. They can be able to translate this principle into action with passion and commitments and love for each other. In the final analysis principle without action is useless.
When I read Saleh Johar’s article and successive articles by Ali Salem, and Semere T. Habtemariam my belief in all the conspiracy theories is stronger than ever and I realized that it is widely spread
Dr. Patrick Leman, a psychologist from Royal Holloway University in the United Kingdom and a leading figure in the study of conspiracy theories, said that there are two main reasons.
- First, they see a gap in their understanding and fill it with ambiguity rather than a trusted account. This is because there is a human need to associate major events with a major cause.
- Second, conspiracy theories are highest among those on the peripheries of society. Those are more likely to engage in conspiracy theories as a way of being part of something.
The second seems more applicable to Ali Salem and Co. Because by living abroad they are on the periphery vis-à-vis the people inside Eritrea, who are experiencing the hardship and brutality of the regime first hand, they wanted to be part of the struggle by bringing a new political agenda alien to the people of Eritrea without sharing the pain and suffering the people are undergoing.
Their idealism in no way embodies the yearning wish of the entire Eritrean population, which is to end the system that is oppressing them. The people inside eventually will be on the front line to bring down the repressive system and not people like Ali Salem who would saw the seeds of division from their comfort zone outside of Eritrea. The Diaspora does however play a pivotal role by engaging in many activities that boosts the moral of the people inside, in advocating and agitating for democracy, in being the voice of the oppressed by publicizing their predicament, and in making the new refugees visible in the country they seek asylum by writing about them in the media of the host countries so that their settlement can be successful. Once democracy is achieved all secondary contradiction can be addressed.
Most modern political philosophers are concerned with finding the right rules, institutions and social contracts for a just society. For Amartya Sen in his book titled “The idea of Justice” has this to say, “democracy is not only, a set of institutions and rules. The working of democratic institutions depends on the activities of human agents”.
And it is precisely what EGE and CDRiE and the Youth Movements are trying to do in this moment in time. They are putting themselves as agents that would build an institution around which people could participate in activities that would shape the destiny of Eritrea.
To be continued under the title of:
The voice of reason and maturity.
There are many writers who present ideas relevant to the path Eritrea has to go in order to achieve democracy, peace and prosperity. Among them the one standing tall is Omer Jabir – whose article is titled, “Eritrean Opposition: All Are Secular” Awate- Sep 07, 2009. And that of Yoel Alem article titled, “Governing Eritrea: Battle of two conflicting ideas” Awate Sep 9/09.
