I thank the individuals that welcome me back to the home base Assenna. I also thank Assenna for accepting my reconciliation drive and posting my last article in the website. I must admit, however, that reading the reaction of forum participants makes me wonder sometimes. Few individuals insist that the discussion at hand was monotonous and sensitive; they want to see me change the topics as much as possible. Others seem to see the importance of the discussions and keenly participate in the forums. The shallow and the deep, I don’t know but I wonder what else I should then write about if not the future of Eritrea vis-à-vis our political leaders. I stand confused!

I tell my people in the first state of mind that we cannot avoid the Eritrean reality specially when some religiously organized groups are trying to lead the nation in terms of their religion. I say to the people to really concentrate on the subject matter we discuss because it is our today’s concrete reality that will produce our tomorrow’s tangible actuality. If we are concerned about the current destructive Eritrean political navigation, the main cause of out communication in this media cannot be otherwise than focusing on changing the situation through democracy. If this was the case, how can we achieve our goal without checking and balancing, challenging so to say the political groups that want to lead the country? How else can we do it unless we become aware of them and monitor what they are trying to do to us before it is too late?

Do you think I wish being in this situation? Do you think I am here discussing our religious differences with you or that I care about ethnicity or religion? I wish I was in a different situation but I am here with you struggling for freedom and equality in Eritrea, a task that is impossible to do without respectfully challenging the brothers and sisters that want to lead us on the merit of their inclusive and democratic integrity; only based on the universally understood doctrines of democracy.

You cannot avoid the natural contact between leaders and societies similar to the fact that you cannot help sustaining the contact between yourself and your parents. Westerners have direct contact with their leaders because of democracy and we have indirect contact with the regime because of dictatorship. That is why we are here in the forum. You may not see this but we certainly have a solid unavoidable relationship with the regime except that it is indirect. Neither Afwerki nor can we avoid that inherent mutual contact beyond our control no matter how we may ignore it. We would not have been here without that common contact. Either way, a contact as such is mandatory and necessary that no human nature can avoid with one’s political environment.

You may leave ordinary people that you come across behind and move on in ordinary human life but you challenge those who stand in the way of your life to just leave you alone in that of the socio-political. This is the difference between ordinary human relationships (you and Kidane) and that of between leaders and societies (President Afwerki and you) whoever Kidane and/or you may be. My contact with the Eritrean potential leaders specially in the EDA as an individual from the Eritrean society is therefore an unavoidable happenstance that I am blessed or condemned to live with as a matter of destiny: So this applies to you!!

You cannot achieve your goal of democracy without using the right to investigate the non-mandated political parties that claim to take you there. This is not about the personalities of the leaders of the political parties or their beliefs but rather about where they are trying to lead us and on what socio-political grounds. They cannot lead us without our mandate and this privilege gives us the right to question their integrity in full. Any group with intention to lead the country therefore must be grilled to the limit for striving to decide the future of the society upon success.

Nothing can be more relevant to the Eritreans than the political parties that want to lead them; tell me if this is wrong. I believe focusing on the next leaders is equally important to focusing on the current regime because the next man will sit on the chair of the dictator that changed the Eritrean dream for the worse. It would then be none of my business discussing the future leaders of the country had they kept their mentality in privacy but trying to impose it in the society makes it our business because it affects us directly.

It is an inherent right of every Eritrean to challenge our potential leaders for losing this fundamental right because of the dictatorship is what got us in this situation. Once one decides to lead a society, the person has to accept any challenge from the people that one wants to lead, for the two abstractions are mutually inclusive! We should not recycle our situation anymore because we don’t have to if we understand this.

What is clear is that no democratic affiliated group would name the self ISLAMIC or CHRISTIANIC because this would isolate other Eritreans strictly applying to either the Moslems or the Christians only. Parties as such are exclusive but Democracy is all inclusive and I have no idea why they even talk about it standing in this segregationist position. Therefore, they must be challenged on the merit because challenging Mr. Afwerki’s system would not make sense otherwise. No one would be justified discussing Afwerki had he been an ordinary citizen but the fact that he is a leader changes the whole situation in terms of said contact. So works like in our natural contact with those that want to lead our society.

As it goes, the EDA with all the problems it created to the Eritrean people 15 years into its existence since 1999 continues in the same destructive path today with at least 11 political parties delicately bonded in the pool. I believe it is a lot weaker compared to the past when it comprised about 15 political groups; but not by coincidence; rather by political corruption, exclusionism, visionlessness and dictatorial tendencies.

Apparently, I discussed the Eritrean Islamic Congress-EIC, of Ibrahim Malik in my last article like I did about ten of them in the Alliance and I hereby feel timely discussing the Eritrean People’s Congress-EPC– of chairman Tahir Shengeb and chairman Saleh Mohamed’s Eritrean Islamic Party for Justice and Development-EIPJD– in this opportunity because of the mandatory contact between them and the people provoked by their tenacity to lead the Eritrean society.

I wish I could see the political programs of the parties in question but I did not luck out this time finding something worth reading in the Net. One of the hardest problems in doing this was the absence of detailed information about the parties monotonously claiming to bring democracy in Eritrea with biased and contradictory projections. One must then present analysis based on different information sources, patching them up to make sense out of in a single article. But I found something relevant that I feel may give us an idea as to what has been going on in the Eritrean diary of resistance.

A very reliable source of my information says that the two political parties in the EDA, EEPC and EIPJD were originally within The Eritrean Islamic Jihad Movement (EJIM) before splitting to form their own independent parties. This made it important for me to go back in time and see how they view the future Eritrean life based on the political philosophy of their parent organization, the EIJM. The reason is simple; there is no enough documentation about them available in the planet according to my researching capacity forcing me to analyze our situation only by associative derivative.

A story to this effect reads as follows: “The Eritrean Islamic Jihad Movement (EIJM) began activity in 1975 when a group of Islamist-minded guerillas split off from the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) that had been fighting since the beginning of the Eritrean independence movement. The EIJM was formally established in 1980. Since independence in 1993, the EIJM (and its factions) have been the principal Muslim opposition group in Eritrea, seeking the violent overthrow of the government led by President Isaias Afewerki. EIJM claims to only target the Eritrean government and to establish an Islamic caliphate in Eritrea [“A caliphate is the traditional Islamic form of government, presided over by a caliph, either appointed or elected, who is considered the political leader of all Muslims. It also incorporates a shura, a body similar to a parliament, that represents the will of the people and may elect and/or advise the caliph. Though originally, and ideally according to some, a caliphate — or the caliphate — is a unique entity that unites all Muslims under its rule, there have been concurrent and even competing ones at some points in history”]. The group is based in Sudan and is made up primarily of dissidents from the ELF, conservative Eritrean (and some other Muslims from Horn of Africa countries), and a Muslim youth network. The group is also known by a variety of other names—the Eritrean Islamic Reform Movement, the Abu Suhail organization, the Eritrean Islamic Salvation Movement, and the Eritrean Islamic Party for Justice and Development—but many of these appear to be break-away groups that operate with some degree of autonomy. “

Comment: Controversially, EJIM does not exist any longer with one of the multiple names it acquired in its life cycle except the Eritrean Islamic Party for Justice and Development. I am not sure if any one of said break-away groups existing today outside the EDA pool but none of the other names is currently within in so far as my understanding is concerned. It, nevertheless, strongly appears that the EJIM was in experimentation stage until 1980 with different names as such till it firmly established its position since 1980. Further, this organization was found to support the Shura justice system (justice by consultation rather than by the constitution) like the Eritrean Islamic Congress-EIC, of Ibrahim Malik.

Comment: Please understand that I am learning about our history with you as much as I can but the two groups should have been formed at least 11 years before independence via referendum. Here, the inconsistency is the 2 years difference between the two information sources. May be we can assume that it was fully formed between 1980 and 1982.

Comment: As you can see, different Islamic groups were formed at different stages and times in the eighties that merged to the EJIM in 1988. Yet, it appears that this organization still suffered from fragmentation within the few years after its birth in 1980 and until 1988. To this effect;

Comment: It appears that the EIJM faced quite a few internal disturbances from 1988 to 1993. Some of our people were condemned to fight with al-Quida in Afghanistan at some points in the experience. It further appears that the moderate elements in this union grieved the al-Quida’s connection and broke up from the EIJM to join the EDA at the end of the day. My research does not answer the whereabouts of Brother Khalil Mohammed Amer who master minded the break up to join the EDA because he is not the proclaimed leader of any one of the groups in today’s EDA (hopefully I am ok here). But the information says that “the Eritrean opposition group Harakat al Jihad al Islami (Eritrean Islamic Jihad Movement-ERIJ) reportedly changed its name to Harakat al Khalas al Islami al Eritrea (Eritrean Islamic Salvation Movement)” under his leadership. I don’t think any organization with this name exists in the current EDA as will be apparent in the go.

Comment: It is a little complicated for me to patch up everything from the limited available information but the Eritrean People’s Congress-EPC– of chairman Tahir Shengeb and the Eritrean Islamic Party for Justice and Development-EIPJD– of chairman Saleh Mohamed, both in the EDA are said to have originated from the EIJM. They focus on fighting the Christian regime and the hypocrites; God knows who the hypocrites may be. The two groups are among the strongest and most decisive elements in today’s EDA. They are very strong in the Alliance that basically maneuver it with few other political parties within to be discussed apparently. The question is if we can assume the two active parties in the EDA having a similar political philosophy as the parent group EIJM which did not stop at Eritrean turf of the mission but rather expanded its focal point at regional level of the political infatuation?

I found the assumption as partially valid in my opinion. The first question to my mind was why a democracy oriented group would call oneself ISLAMIC unless it intends to religiously dictate a society? This thought is directed towards at least the Eritrean Islamic Party for Justice and Development-EIPJD– of Chairman Saleh Mohamed. My information states that EIPJD is an active member of the International Islamic Jihad Movement like the diehard Islamic groups in “Egypt and Turkey with Sharia hidden agenda that does not allow Christians to hold power”. I don’t have material proof for this although I would not be surprised if this was the case. But what kind of justice is this man going to bring in Eritrea openly declaring only for our Moslems excluding the rest of the society? What may the development be in this divisive and dictatorial objective? What will he do with the Christian Eritreans and how may his constitution guarantee the harmonic coexistence of the Eritrean people within themselves and with the regional neighbors? Is he going to rule all the Eritreans based on his Islamic projection irrespective of the society’s ethnic and religious differences? Will he enforce the Jihad on all of us or only on the Moslem portion of the society? How many constitutions will he apply in the Eritrean society if his objective is merely to change the situation of the Moslems? If not, how then will he run the Christians with a single Islamic constitution that justifies Shura Justice or the Sharia?

There are many unanswered questions revolving around this dominant group in the EDA. But would this attitude apply to the Eritrean People’s Congress-EPC– of chairman Tahir Shengeb whose party does not use the term ISLAMIC in its name though mothered by the EIJM as well?

Reality talks more than words, says my most dependable source of information. In fact the source says, that EPC as one of the most influential groups of the EDA enjoys a special privilege that no other member does. It is supposed to be the political branch of the party and a member of the EDA but it is said to also have a dependent military wing calledEritrean Islamic Reform Movement that functions independent of the EDA. It does not have the term ISLAMIC using its name in the EDA but inserts it in its independent military wing, the Eritrean Islamic Reform Movement that functions under its direct control. Therefore, this group must be one of the most Islamic groups that want to religiously dictate the Eritrean politics upon power grab similar to its sister group EIPJD.

In conclusion, Eritreans must stay informed about who may replace the dictator in future Eritrea and on what terms. Only focusing on the current regime will give a chance to the opposition groups that aim at dictating the society illegally and undemocratically, meaning that the fruit of the struggle will end up being the same dictatorship we experienced through the years with greater potential to further destroy the country beyond its current situation. As it stands, there is no doubt that the EDA is heavily manipulated by dominant forces as such with few former members leaving it behind and watching the Drama from distance. Chances are the EDA will suffer breakups by renegade members should it fail to repair its legacy in the coming congress supposed to be held in Addis soon. See you soon with the current situation of the EDA and the renegade parties that are challenging it from the periphery.