One of the most strange and pervasive attributes peculiar to Eritreans – possibly, Eritreans only – is obstinacy: the stubbornly unyielding refusal to change an opinion or a course of action.  To stubbornly speak and write about its importance, even when your venue is discredited.  It doesn’t matter its feasibility.  It doesn’t matter how people view your course of action.  Not only that, but also the peculiar Eritrean character to magnify minor differences and chew the issue even further to the point of exhaustion.  What better way of doing a major disservice to the Eritrean people than this?  What better way of delighting the dictator and unwittingly immersing ourselves in his grand plan of destroying Eritrea?

If there are different routes from point A to point B, people may conceivably agree to take the shortest and least dangerous route; or, they risk losing the opportunity. Isn’t it?  Incidentally, If we agreed on the ‘eradication of dictatorship’ in our country, the bare minimum we could do is come up with a plan of action with has the best chance of success.  But sadly, cooperation and compromise are non existent in the Eritrean political parlance.  Stick to ‘your point of view’ is the mantra instead.

Just jealously guard your groupthink…….

That is exactly, in my opinion, what is going on with the group who blare the slogan ‘Eritrean Solutions for Eritrean Problems.’  Have you heard the phrase ‘softball questions’?  It means easy and not penetrating questions, Isn’t it?  Why the mere asking of the slogan’s meaning causes so much unease within this group is beyond comprehension.

“…..Why don’t you let people do what they think, and you focus on doing what you think works? …..” angrily wrote one, perhaps not so prudent chap, in his reply to my posting.  The fact that I am his potential ally – assuming his commitment to free Eritrea – , that we both are against dictatorship, that he should have felt the urgency to convince his sceptic, is off course beyond his scope.  Typical groupthink; Isn’t it?  If this guy is a representative of the group in general, then EYSC is hopelessly unprepared for its much vaunted slogan.

Recently, an attempt was made on awate.com to ‘enlighten‘ us, so the intent was, about the slogan’s meaning under the title: The Genius in a Lamp: ‘Eritrean Solutions to Eritrean Problems’.  Honestly, I read the post with unbiased mind and uncritical demeanor; with the express purpose of gauging where the ‘nationalistic political mantra’ is heading.  What I read instead was an essay fit for a college paper than a simple up-to-the-point clarification of the slogan.  The all too well known assertions, wordplays and semantics we heard before: peaceful change and so forth.  Just for the endless semantics, the author rumbled on and on and on…..

In fact, in the sub-heading, The context in which “Eritrean Solutions to Eritrean Problems” needs to be understood, the author wrote this: “…..our political discourse and adopted strategy should foremost be about the replacement of a system with something better (not merely its destruction).  Pay attention to the phrase in parenthesis, “not merely its destruction”.  The all too familiar TsiGena!  This is a clear  evidence that EYSC, with minor change, want to maintain a system which is the source of: misery, hunger, ignorance, slavery, brain-drain and migration and death in Eritrea.  In fact, If our fair dictator allowed them to, perhaps they would have the status quo instead, fair and square – or, for some canny individuals – minus the dictator would have been a perfectly acceptable solution for Eritrea – well, more palatable to export as an idea too.  Such prepositions fly in the face of the Eritrean people and hardly a solution for Eritrea.

But why, EYSC still thinks peaceful change in Eritrea as the only acceptable method, is indeed mesmerizing.  Why do [EYSC], for example, by the author’s own admission of the consequences meted out to all those ‘change seekers’ – the latest been Wedi Ali, – still ponder the possibility of peaceful change in Eritrea?  ‘The March of folly’, indeed!  The late Barbara Tuchman would have laughed in disbelief, had she been alive today.  Once folly starts, its ruinous path can’t be restrained.  We can not help but watch the group shoot itself in the foot.

Another aspect of EYSC’s Ethio-phobic thinking, which we knew all along, and made clear by the good author is, the dedication of half the article to this subject alone. Ethiopia…….

Where did EYSC get this phobia from?  The dictator kept the Eritrean people under perpetual Ethiopia fear – remember, ab Kunat ena zelena – and yet, repeating his core propaganda as their mantra is indeed strange.  Or was it a prerequisite of EYSC’s approval for  the presence of some Eritrean opposition in Ethiopia?  This they failed to clarify.  Regardless, how on earth does the presence of Eritrean opposition in Ethiopia translate into Ethiopian influence in Eritrean affairs?  Or more pointedly, since when has the presence of Eritrean opposition in Ethiopia become a political issue?  Certainly, it was never an issue when the ELF and EPLF had their semi-bases and offices in The Sudan at the earliest stages of the Independence struggle; not to mention in Egypt, in Yemen, in Saudi Arabia and Syria…etc  Think about it……….

But here is a question to the good author: So you wouldn’t have guessed in a hundred years “……how a nationalistic political mantra can cause so much unease and anger among our people who I have always known to be very nationalistic at heart…..”  So by questioning you, they are not nationalist anymore?  It should be self evident that in politics, there is no carte blanche acceptance of a proposition – only consensus.  If your political platform isn’t working, don’t you anticipate the skeptics to question you and show their nationalist fervor even more?  If you fail to grasp this, then it is safe to say that you are either patently unaware of political maneuverings, or you are deliberately ignoring the peoples’ concern to promote your point of view.  Either way, such an assertion smacks an insult.

Finally, with such a colorful title perhaps borrowed out of the “Arabian Nights”, “The Genius in Lamp…. someone, possibly behind the scenes architect of EYSC, is even suggesting that the slogan is a much sought after panacea of the Eritrean problem.  Really!!

I strongly suspect that the article is attributed to someone other than the name given – possibly the dictator’s lackey or a Higdef sympathizer.

As a reminder, while I don’t attempt to prescribe EYSC what to do, It doesn’t hurt to suggest that dictators can not be eradicated through meetings and dialogue.  In any recorded history, dictators met the sword they themselves used against their subjects.  Only this group sought to ‘eradicate dictatorship’ from Eritrea through a power point presentation.  I don’t have anything to add…..

Tesfamichael Kidane