Fetsum Abraham: An Open Letter to Ato Kubrom Dafla

Dear Ato Kubrom;

I have been keenly following your activities for several years and have reviewed your very impressive resume in Assenna. Apart from your contribution since the struggle for independence, your most recent stunning victory over Higdef in Holland was a crowning jewel needless to say that your presentations at Radio Erena, in Paltak Rooms and other venues were equally significant to our struggle for freedom in Eritrea. I believe you scored big time and congratulations!

Recalling your dialogue with GI in the past on what method we should use to tackle the problem at hand as you stated in your recent interview with Amanuel Eyassu, and still recalling that the engagement amicably ended up without agreement, few important issues still remain obscure in my opinion that I feel productive sharing with you in this opportunity hoping that you would read this friendly letter with an open and positive mind.

Brother, I heard the impressive interview with keen interest and appreciate your capacity to calmly and eloquently address your upcoming extended tourism to discuss your plan for the Eritrean people. There is no doubt that the long document you prepared to share with the people must have consumed substantial amount of your time, although I cannot comment it on in this communication without carefully reading the material which I hope you will release soon. I, however, feel that you have not clearly explained what exactly it was about and what the final upshot of your tour may be. I can only hope that the purpose of your effort would be stirring up Eritreans in the US to wake up and save their people and their country, similar to what the late Wedi Vaccaro did after the tragic Lampedusa incident. Although you realistically said that GI’s grassroots movement would take a long time to accomplish, I hope we don’t have difference on the fact that it is the best way of empowering the people through which everlasting remedy to the Eritrean dilemma can be secured given we all nurture it together into a potent force that we expect it to be. In the flip, the time it takes to accomplish success depends on how intensely we participate and how much we work for it.

As you know, an everlasting solution to any social problem takes a lot of time to effectuate but the end result is always rewarding. The GI community clearly understands this reality, yet prefers doing it instead of taking a short cut that can eventually fire-back against the society as witnessed in many similar countries around the globe. Truly though, I cannot think of a short cut medicine to our problem considering the scattered resistance that remained ineffective for many years as of today; one thing we learned from the experience being none of the old methods we used achieved freedom and justice in our country. It is not only because of absolute pessimism on the opposition camp’s capacity to bring a solution that we took another path to freedom but also because we think it cannot bring lasting solution beyond overthrowing the regime at maximum stretch even if it makes it. We simply don’t want to experience another dictatorship in our country and the only guarantee to this effect is empowering the people to liberate themselves through nothing less than SECULAR DEMOCRACY. We cannot wait until the regime falls to work for this since human experience tells it loud that the cost of facing the future without a pre-arranged mechanism was dictatorship and it takes many years to remove it from any society conditioned as such. Any short cut to get rid of the problem will, thus make us dearly pay in the long run unless we solidly prepare ourselves through the mass movement at this slack time in the spectrum.

What we are missing is having legitimate leaders who can effectively represent the Diaspora Eritreans opposing the current regime responsible for destroying our country and subjecting our people to immense suffering. We need grassroots-based Global Leaders who can speak, act and represent all of us with one voice. With this understanding in between, I am hoping you are in the US to support GI’s efforts to empower the grassroots movement so that Eritrean justice-seekers in the Diaspora can expedite the process by following what their brothers and sisters did in the UK. I am hoping that you will encourage them to get organized, form their own local baitos and elect their local leaders as soon as possible. I also hope you will be an example to others by taking the initiative to form a baito of Eritreans in your locality, Holland. Leaving whatever we did in the past aside, I have no doubt the Eritreans in Holland will elect you among their leaders given your caliber, impeccable record, dedication and experience. And this will pave the way for you to be elected among the legitimate Global Leaders anticipated to come up with effective strategy to end dictatorship in our country and, in fact we encourage you to do so.

As for your said 70-page action plan, which is great, I believe it will make it easier for the elected Global Leaders to start with a document that they only need to refine. This will be the greatest contribution you can make to save the Eritrean people once and for all.

An extensive effort like yours, of course comes in a package deal with different rumors and opinions of the people and I hate to believe those who suspect thatyou are touring the US to recruit members for a new party that you are planning to lead. I seriously hope not, but if this is the mission of your effort, I sadly want to tell you that it is a big mistake. This is not the time to create a new party, we already have too many of them beyond the small society can endure. Not only Party No. 36 would add to the fragmentation and confusion of the opposition groups but also would elongate the agony of the people contrary to your assumption that it would affect the situation otherwise. It would be a serious problem to the badly needed unity of the people against the enemies, further contributing to the compulsive failure of the Eritrean resistance because of untimely division.

Dear Brother;

We should say enough is enough to division and focus on unified action. The enormous price we paid as a result must transform us in favor of what we have not tried yet; grassroots based unity for global leadership. The people don’t have interest in expanding the current political jam but rather in shrinking the existing many to reasonable dimension that the society can rationally manage. They are calling for temporary unity at this point in experience where anything else failed to resolve the issue at hand. We have the responsibility to energize the unity drive going on in Europe which has become the strongest momentum in today’s resistance against the dictatorship. Although you may form your own Political Party (only if this is the case) using your right, the priority of the people at this moment is grassroots based global leadership that badly needs educated and experienced people like you to accelerate. Organizing the existing political parties and creating new political parties can keep on going but only on secondary level of the struggle because we have to empower the people first to have the capacity of helping the political parties’ possession of power through democratic election.

I believe you can form and organize your political party and simultaneously support the grassroots movement to empower the people. To the alternative, you can assist the grassroots movement using your popularity and experience and pave the way for your goal of democratically “leading the nation” after we succeed removing the regime (again only if this is the goal). But I don’t think you will be effective only focusing on forming a new political party at this point in time when the majority is tired of division and asking for unified action against the dictatorship; yet through bitter experience of the past. Let’s first democratize the country, and then you will have your day to form a party as the best choice in my opinion, when Eritrea becomes a truly multiparty democratic country. Our ACTION PLAN is after all open for modification such that the restriction on GI members to only play their role of facilitating the process of global leadership can be lifted for those who want to politically lead the nation upon democratic election, although I don’t know anyone in the GI community interested to go beyond facilitating the process as part and parcel of the people. Therefore, you can achieve whatever you want even better by offering your resources and concentration on its success, specially in the place of your residence, Holland where our brothers and sisters there are trying their best to duplicate the successful UK experience. Once again, I am not saying that you are trying to form a political party but only sharing my opinion on the matter in case what few people told me to this effect was correct.

Please seriously think about it and good luck!!