PRESIDENT ISAYAS’S NEW TARGET 

Ezana Sehay Sep 13, 2013

President Isayas is mad at the Eritrean people. According to him they are not up to his standards. He is disappointed by the constant demand for better living standard, and freedom. He is not at all pleased about the things they read, listen to, or watch in the internet.

He offered his critique of the Eritrean people last week, in his customary long and nonsensical lecture aka interview.  As usual, it was mostly monotonous, elementary, and gibberish. But there were also some surprises.

Surprise one: for the first time Isayas explicitly acknowledged what the world has known; the economy is in tatters and the future is as bleak as ever. He is reduced to saying that the economic success story being told by his cronies is actually a hoax. He admitted, he doesn’t see the country getting out of the sink hole anytime soon. And He doesn’t seem cheery about the social environment either.

Surprise two: and it is not Weyane’s or CIA’s fault. That right. This time none of Eritrea’s problems is apportioned to his favorite nemesis.

Unfortunately, Isayas failed to take responsibility for the sorry state of the country or offered a concrete plan to deal with all the problems the country is facing. Instead he sounded resigned and cynical.

In addition to the aforementioned economic and political problems, his foreign policy is shaky at best, calamitous at worst. Evidently the people blame Isayas for adhering to policies that have ruined the country – just as he implied they would. In the old days, he used to blame foreigners for his inadequacies, but as that excuse wears thin he has now found a new target: the people. That right. The Eritrean people are now his object of scold.

Their crime: after so many years of resilience they are tired of waiting. Consequently, have started to demand the bare minimum necessities; such as sufficient water supply, electricity, transportation and basic goods. Nothing more.

When he assumed power, Isayas made it plain that he would make Eritrea prosperous, democratic and all strong. He boosted he knew how to bring that about. He put himself in a position to take credit for a better Eritrea, however it comes about.  Now all the people are asking is “Mr. President, where is the beef”?

That is not going well with the president. He blames the people for their impatience and their failure to understand what he has been trying hard to teach them for the last decade … just listen to me. There is no one else in Eritrea who knows things as well as I do. So if I am unable to fix the problems, then they are not fixable. So stop whining!

Perhaps one can understand, a man of his age and mental capacity to turn in to a codger. He has become both physically and mentally one of those geezers who sit on the porch and reminisce about the days when folks were much more sensible. The days when he and his cohorts were regarded as heroes. When the people knew how to do with out and weren’t demanding.

In his way, he is trying to set the people straight. We are doing what we can without many resources, but at least we are secure and stable, and we have cars too, not fancy ones, but they get us around. Are there things that all of us would like to have? Sure.

Play it again, Isu!

In advertently, he is dreaming the dream of every Eritrean. A fantasy that now day ends as a hymn of praise to the good old days, when ever that was.

Isayas also recognizes the overwhelming negative public opinion of him. But, he blames it on the shift in the attitude of the people. Like a classic dictator, he attributes the fall of his popularity to the decline of the people’s psyche, which in his view is suffering from a malaise.

Like a typical dictator, Isayas is dealing with unworthy citizens. Like Berthold Brecht, the German play right wrote. In East Germany in 1953, anti-government riots spread and were finally put down by Russian tanks.  Shortly, the communist government issued a bitter statement saying that the people had forfeited the confidence of the government and would have to work harder to win it back.

Brecht suggested that the government simply dissolve the people and elect another.

Reading the fore going statement; Isayas uttered “what a concept – too bad it involves election”