Fetsum: The current situation under the surveillance of the third-eye (PART II)

In my last article, I said “our people are now conscious enough to seek freedom and justice in Eritrea through their revolution without depending on the political groups.” By that, I meant only at organizational or mobilization level of the socio-political game because they are getting organized by themselves without parasitic attachment to the civic and political groups.

The Eritrean people have finally approached the end of dictatorship in so far as Isaias Afwerki as a system was concerned. We are approaching the end of the long tunnel, just a step away from making Eritrea one of the best democracies in Africa through universally crafted CONCEPTUAL UNITY on our immediate challenge (transitional government to democracy). We are  very close to close this chapter of our resistance and fully concentrate on his removal with confidence and security. I am not saying the people don’t understand this objective reality but we cannot afford facing the transition period without solid conceptual unity on the mandatory independence of the transitional government from the political parties.

The fact remains, that we have everything in place for correct democracy to reign in the country; decent, hardworking and obedient people, harmonious ethnic and religious groups, highly educated intellectuals and professionals and people that appreciate peaceful coexistence with our neighbors. We are also blessed with many civic and political groups that can in conceptual unison build democracy on the graveyard of dictatorship. Our society is conditioned to achieve sustained democracy from here on depending on how much we learned from our experiences and how wisely we utilize our resources based on the universal conventions of democracy. We need to scientifically face the incoming challenge to enjoy democracy forever because a slip out of its genuine process can drive the society to another chaos and dictatorship.

It is simple and here is the deal: Our struggle for freedom is impossible to succeed without tight conceptual unity between the civic and the political societies. Neither the interest of the people nor that of the political parties’ can be secured without this fundamental coexistence.

Dear Eritreans; we have gone through decades of experimentation to get to this critical final round of the fight. This is a playoff time where the people and the political parties must team up and work for the incoming transitional government by the book (clearly identifying their roles in the democratic process of the nation). This is the time where both elements of the society should initiate the foundation of the government by supporting each other and respecting their specific political roles to defend the nation from another disaster. The society needs security about its political future and the opposition camp should collectively deliver it by universal law. The people need strong political parties with good national programs and the political parties need rule of law from the people to create correct democratic ambiance by which they come to political power. The two components of the society are mutually interdependent in view of democracy and have a common enemy in dictatorship.

Then we have the Army, a  variable element in the equation that constructively or destructively serves society based on the quality of the relationship between the people and the political parties. The Sudanese people would never have achieved the current promising transitional government had the soldiers been the only actors of the change. Fortunately, the elite class and political parties were tight enough to substantially control the political future of the country behind the highly mobilized mass despite all attempts of the army to install another dictatorship, of course in the name of feck DEMOCRACY as usual. The political parties were in synch with the elite class and both sects harmonically performed their interdependent designated roles: for the people to manage the process of democracy through a NEUTRAL TRANSITIONAL GOVERNMENT and for the political parties to organize themselves for power strictly abided by the laws of the people. This was agreed upon by the elite class in the midst of the uprising and there was no confusion when they reached the pinnacle of the fight that toppled president Bashir out of the way. The political parties are today organizing themselves for election leaving the law and the transitional government for the people to manage. Once again, I will chronologically discuss the Sudanese journey to democracy somewhere in this series.

Our difference on what type of democracy we should have (liberal democracy or secular democracy) can wait till we arrive at the transitional phase of our history upon the devil’s dissolution, but there is only one condition for the harmonic relationship between the people and the political parties in our situation: Acceptance that the transitional government’s neutrality or independence is mandatory for its successful performance including managing free election with independent electoral committee observable by UN sponsored international forces without internal interference. Acceptance that the executive branch of the incoming transitional government be composed of NEUTRAL elements from the people independent of the political parties while its legislative brunch remains open for all citizens of the land with the people’s representation acquiring the majority of its sits by law.

I don’t know about other Eritreans but I believe the underlined points can produce the badly needed CONCEPTUAL UNITY that can swiftly diffuse the dictator in favor of genuine democracy in the country. We are in deep trouble, otherwise!!

In the meantime, few important events have developed today as a matter of necessity that we have to take advantage of shuffling the cards to win the game.

1. a)        The dictator has exhausted his intelligence and potentials as a function of time and circumstances. Space and time are fast shrinking for him at Adi Hallo where he spends his uncertain time coloring and twisting his mustache. Change will come one way or another!
2. b)        People at home are struggling in their capacities. The people’s movement (Yiakil, etc.) has created a favorite scenario for us to encourage its progress towards global unification under common leadership in Diaspora. The global leadership anticipated to be achieved through the movement will have to serve as the back bone of the revolution that instructs the people to simultaneously act (demonstrations, cultural events, discussions, etc.) through one global chain of command, depending on the situations. We hope to see an all inclusive organization of our intellectuals and professional to navigate the political (conceptual) dimension of the movement like the Sudanese people did in the ongoing revolution (to be discussed in detail in the near future).
3. c)         Direct communication link between the Diaspora and the people in the country has been highly upgraded thanks to Assenna and other channels in the category. The social media has produced quiet a few activists from within the young generation that are currently teaching the people from all angles of the planet.
4. d)        The final topic of interest is fast shrinking towards the most critical subject matter of the society; how to transit the society to democracy!
5. e)        BAYTO has opened the stage for everybody to exchange ideas without anyone dominating the show. It has also disclosed its CHARTER to the public for discussion.
6. f)         It has been a while since DENVER SINIT disclosed its MANIFESTO to the public for discussion. The group had recently announced its CHARTER and we shall together enjoy it with positive energy no matter what happened in the past.
7. g)        GI is discussing the matter and will hopefully disclose its position on the subject as soon as possible. I hope others will do theirs to this end obvious saying we can very, very, very much utilize the many professors in EGS in this prospect.
8. h)        There is a group of high caliber intellectuals and diplomats calledEritrea Focusworking on how to transit the society to democracy and we hope they will bring something to the table soon; needless saying their prompt contribution would play an extremely important role in this aspect.
9. i)          An extraordinary coincidence (Sudanese democratic journey) is taking place today under the very organized Sudanese intellectuals, law abiding political parties and the tightly unified mass at large. We can use their scientific revolution as our prototype or model for transition to democracy because of the similarities of our situations and also because they are executing the process by the rule! Once again, I will discuss this in detail!

Folks! Bayto’s and DENVER SINIT’s exposure of their respective CHARTERs is indeed a great opportunity that opens the door for other inputs to engage into a collective output that conceptually unites the people in Diaspora. We can now work on something materially concrete to positively enhance the vibrant environment transparently. As for clarity,  a CHARTER is a ‘written proposal as to how our country’s legislative or sovereign power, and its rights and privileges should be processed in the transitional period to democracy and far beyond. It is a document that describes the powers, duties and structures of a government and the rights of citizens.’ This is a golden opportunity to create a common understanding of the subject matter before we formally enter the transition stage at the expense of the dictatorship.

In conclusion, objective knowledge illuminates subjective logic and a universal impression centralizes scattered opinions of a concept in question. This is why, it becomes necessary for us to learn about other experiences of transitions to accept the constants (applicable elements such as universally accepted values of the subject matter), blend them with the variables (unique issues of our society) and arrive at legitimate transitional authority acceptable to the international community (UN, AU, etc.). I will present the Bayto’s and SINIT’s Charters in the next series and we will together at minimum compare and contrast with the Liberian and Sudanese transitional experiences. We can also include Somalia’s transition to democracy and even more, upon demand as few cases in the long list of points concerning the generic human experience of transiting a society to democracy through independent transitional governments. This is the voice of the people and please participate and enjoy the show!