Our fight to mold the resistance towards SECULAR DEMOCRACY is equally important to our interest neutralizing the dictatorship for we don’t want to re-experience the darkness we have been experiencing since independence as of today. We cannot trust anyone anymore without merit for we dearly paid the price of it through the dictatorship. This is not the right time for us to shy away from saying our feelings about the society but standing firm and spitting it out for clarification and mutual understanding in between. Remember that we are not here because we are in love with each other but because our country is in the middle to be equally shared by all its kids without ethnic, religious and intellectual discrimination. We should never leave any room for deception and illegal representation for we have clearly seen their destructive result on our society. The era of cyber-representation or assuming representing the people without contact and mutual communication like how our brothers in EDA have been doing has expired and we will fight to make sure that representation at minimum is only justified through willingness to contact the people, listening to their ideas and feed-backing on.

I strongly warn the group to never personalize this constructive opinion from a fellow brother activist but rather to use it as positive engagement for stronger intellectual interdependence between us in this rough journey to freedom of the Eritrean people. Please use this communication as stepping ground for more effective relationship between us so that we can help you help us at equal significance of input for the sake of the Eritrean people’s bright future as you professed focusing at in this wonderful episode.

I found three important things (self-exposure, history and transparency) to discuss about the group called OUR VOICE that so far has done a great job writing two excellent articles on solving the current Eritrean nightmare in very commendable linguistic capacity. Their academic exposure was timely and optimistical because the struggle was in dire need of intellectual intervention as such needless saying that our people were craving it like a thirsty person thinking of the next water drop in the mouth. It appeared as though this would be the beginning of serious reconfiguration process of the confused resistance through potent intellectual substance towards producing the critical STRATEGY for transitional government in our depressed country. I feel like every Eritrean in any part of the world has the responsibility nurturing the effort as much as possible via honest dialogue or debate in the condition OUR VOICE carries its responsibility of addressing the people’s issues through appropriate feedback mechanism. One has to respond to the people to claim being OUR VOICE or else must be willing to remain being THE VOICE of the members of that specific group for life is about giving and taking. In this communication, I will discuss my opinion on the first issue “SELF-EXPOSURE” keeping in mind that I will discuss the remaining issues “HISTORY and TRANSPARENCY” in my next appearance.

Self-exposure: In this topic, I saw an exceptional comment in the forum in favor of OUR VOICE’s approach of self-exposure:

Gabir: My Message to Our Voice initiators. Please do not reveal your names until all the groundwork has been finished. This may seem strange, but from our experience in the last 10 to 15 years, Eritreans concentrate who the author is rather than what the idea he/she is providing. As a result of our backwardness and so called transparency, many initiatives fail before they start. The PFDJ is very clever on this. Once you reveal your names, it is easy for them to vilify your good will. Do not call for a public meeting until you find all potential supporters of the initiative all over the world. Do not do any interviews with media outlets but try to convince all justice loving media outlets to support your initiative. The structure of the movement must be well crafted in terms of the chemistry of its members.

Comment: Wow, I did not know “finding all potential supporters of the initiative” without directly contacting the people was possible as this brother suggests. I used to think representation in veil without the people’s participation and knowledge of their leaders was direct duplication of or correlation with how the dictatorship and EDA’s dominant political parties do their socio-political business with the people. An activist cannot hide from the dying dictatorship and defective politicians in the opposition camp but facing them mind to mind and spirit to spirit looking directly in the eyes unless there is something wrong with the person’s confidence and determination. You cannot hide yourself from the people yet leading them to freedom if you don’t have the capacity and confidence to overcome PFDJ’s infiltration and consider yourself mentally inferior to its navigators of destruction.

Irrespective of how shallow some individuals may suggest otherwise, material (by blood), psychological (by circumstance) or hybrid (by both) based identification according to the constitution is all one needs to be Eritrean for the gallant participation and sacrifice of our citizens from all of the identity classifications caused our independence from colonialism. Any Eritrean defined by one of the three criteria for citizenship should therefore neither have a doubt nor be afraid of publicly testifying about one’s ERITRAWINET in this fight for freedom in Eritrea.

Whatever the reason may be for the reluctance of OUR VOICE elements telling their identity, the fact remains, that an activist cannot accomplish one’s social responsibilities and objections without exposing the self to the public and to the enemy, for the first implies insecurity and the second, fear; two contradictory factors to the concept of genuine activism. Self-exposure is the basic requirement for constructive activism needless to say it is also the most fundamental democratic value an activist must fulfill to be classified democratic-minded in view of the doctrine and reliable ortrustworthy in view of the target society for transformation. You need to tell who you were for me to trust and support you because I want to be sure that I am only communicating with fellow Eritreans concerning the situation of our people.

Accountability: I believe I have to be accountable for whatever I have been writing in this experience. I must give the chance for the audience to freely express their opinions to my ideas and carry my burden of feed-backing as well for the risk of writing in public is impossible without accountability on the associated topics of the act. The only way of doing this is by clearly spelling my name and my identity behind my messages. You, our intellectuals must therefore tell who you were for us to hold you accountable for your outstanding contribution and to help you help us with unhesitant confidence, something unachievable without your confidence to challenge the dilemma face to face under any condition and associated risks.

I really think our good intellectuals should pay attention to this and immediately get rid of the bug by introducing themselves in their next article if not sooner before it gets too late to earn public credibility and trust, and of course to impact the Eritreans with their admirable effort. For now, the following remarks on the article stand the tallest in this regard whether justified or not;

Selamawi: Admittedly I have not read it through but from my bird’s eye-view I would like to see who are (or just is ?) the writers, where are they based on the ground?

Ogbai Ghebremedhin: Dear Presenters of [the article]; where are the names and faces behind the memo that can assist in the transparency and accountability. Some people would say names and faces are of no consequences. But actions cannot be separated from actors

ዝኸበርኩም OUR VOICE ኣነ ብስመይ ክቐርበኩም ከለኹ፡ ብድሕሪ መጋረጃ ኴንኩም ክትምልሱለይ ከለኹም ግሉጽነትከም ዘይሕብር፡ ስለዚ ኸኣ ክብሪ ዝከታተለኩም ህዝብኹም ተጕድሉ ከም ዘለኹም ክትግንዘቡዎ ኣድላዪ እመስለኒ። መሪሕሓሳብ ኣብ ቅድሚ ህዝብኻ ደው ኢልካ ብኽፉት ኣእምሮ ጽን ኢልካ እናሰማዕካ ምስ ዝኸውን ኢዩ ዘድምዕ። ሓቂ ከውሊኣይትፈቱን`ያ፤ ሓቂ ሒዝና ንህዝብና ከነገልግል እንተ ዓለምና ኸኣ ገጽ ንገጽ ደው ክንብል መባእታዊ ተደላዪ ኢዩ።

Our Voice: The movement is based in London. But, we have members all over the world.The names of those in positions of leadership will be announced at a later stage. Abu Barka,; Don’t worry, the identity of those in positions of leadership at Our Voice – Eritrea will be announced to the public in good time. Their qualifications and achievements will also be presented. We are here not to discredit anyone. We have a higher purpose which is way beyond that. However, the old ways of doing things have not taken us anywhere, and we are seeking solutions.

Comment: I tend to believe the identity of the group is more important than they qualification though information on both would be fantastic. They are saying that OUR VOICE is a well organized underground movement that has members internationally? Beautiful indeed and my appreciation goes to our intellectuals in the group for this extra-pleasant surprise and I hope they will succeed with God’s help. We, however, know that killing projects by promising to explain something “when the right time comes” without specifying it has been the modus operandi of the dictatorship to do nothing about them (the case of the prisoners, the FORTO crisis, the constitution, etc.). I don’t think “at a later stage” and “in good time” would resonate well in the Eritrean minds that are exhausted for decades with the connotation in this very direct and simple request for exposure of the elements in the group. When is said good time,and what may be the later stage of their project assumed to be completed without the knowledge and participation of the Eritrean people? Why don’t they allow the people develop the beautiful idea instead of monopolizing the venues of solving the common problems alone in disguise?

In this Eritrean experience where “the old ways of doing things have not taken us anywhere, and we are seeking solutions” as very well stated by our good intellectuals I consider activism behind the mask as one of said old ways of doing things that originated from the struggle’s culture of SECRACY. Said solution for this should then be unconditional exposure in accordance to the concepts of transparency and freedom of speech that our good intellectuals are projecting to establish in the motherland. People must immediately know the navigators of this promising mission to assist and follow for they cannot follow and assist an ideology without preliminary knowledge of the ideologists in this specific situation.

Abu Barka might have been and a little more emotional on this unnecessarily but I hope our intellectuals will fix the mess in their next appearance. The experience demands the immediate exposure of our intellectuals for our collective forward movement to accelerate. No Eritrean has more value than another in this journey to freedom for everyone is openly fighting the disaster in the streets of the world without fear of the regime or the society. We cannot rationalize fighting for freedom shielded from the people and the dictator, but only facing both directly without hesitation. The value of our intellectuals cannot vindicate their veiled leadership from the society and the enemy in the midst of our people’s open fight at the expense of anything from the dictatorship. No Eritrean life is more valuable than another for our intellectuals to think of leading the struggle for democracy in disguise, only to openly play their role in society.

In closing this subject strongly reminding the VOICE to immediately introduce themselves to the people to earn their trust and confidence; I appreciate the way they presented their political upshot in prolific articulation. I love their Mission Statement with passion and consider it as the right thing for us to do at this stage of our confrontation with the dictatorship.

The VOICE said of its role as being; “The mandate of the democratic leadership of the Our Voice – Eritrea movement is nothing else but to function as a preparatory body to bring about the establishment of accountable and sustainable constitutional governance in Eritrea in which all members of the society will have a full say. We are seeking no less than regime change and the transfer of state power to the people at the earliest” and I hope they will concentrate on the main agenda getting the bugs as soon as possible for us to follow them. Please stay tuned to my opinion on their concept of the ERITREAN HISTORY and TRANSPARENCY from the angles of the commentators and my understanding”. What a wonderful statement! May god help “OUR VOICE” to reduce the concept of democracy in practice! Good Luck.

Stay tuned for my opinion on the group’s concepts of the Eritrean history and transparency.