Order of the moment: “In Dictatorship, few individuals in power dictate the people by force. In any democratic ambiance, however, no political party or a group aiming at political power has the right to instruct the people how to manage their political situation but the people have exclusive and full right to instruct their potential leaders without their destructive interference. The politicians should only comply with the people’s instructions in respect of their supreme power status in society. The Eritrean political parties can suggest ideas as to how the two elements of the society can work in cooperation but must immediately stop meddling in the people’s business from now on”

The Eritrean people gained their independence because of exclusively focus on INDEPENDENCE irrespective of their ethnic, religious and ideological differences. But we have been suffering under the dictatorship because one group dominated the political environment with no tolerance to other opinions of the society. Our exclusive focus on independence compromised our freedom because we had no simultaneous vision on how to transfer power to the people. We shall now earn our freedom only through unity based on democratic values guaranteed by prioritizing the interest of the grassroots rank of our society. Power to the people is a theory that can only be secured through the people’s election of their leaders. No individual or group has the right to dictate our political terms alone and we should not allow it anymore. We should always remember that any entity with a tendency of being exceptional cannot help being a dictator and must be resisted without hesitation. Our mission is not to replace the dictatorship with another but to empower the people for justice to reign forever. The next destination of our people should never be compromised for any thing less than SECULAR DEMOCRACY!

In the mean time, opinion or ideological difference is not only normal and natural but necessary for society’s wellbeing that any democratic minded person should accommodate. Challenging our brothers and sisters on their rejectionist position does not mean criticizing their outlooks, needless to say we need constructive criticism to improve our collective performance. That is why we repeatedly stress on working for a hybrid solution to the common problem with all our differences intact. What is frustrating is ignoring each other, quietly watching events and dismissing others in favor of our individual thoughts, yet without effective information and progress report.

Events in brief:

ተስፋይ ተኽለ ሳንድየጎ: “ምትእምማን ዘይብሉ ቃልሲ ፍጹም ክዕወት ማለት ዘበት ኢዩ።ብወገነይ እቲ ሐደ መዋጽኦ ዝኸውን ኩሉ ሸነኻት ዓውደ ተቓውሞ ኤርትራ ነቲ ኩሉ ዝሐለፎ ዳግም ገምጊሙ፣ ንአሉታውን አወንታውን ሸነኻቱ መዚኑ፣ ሐዲሽ መዋጽኦ ዝኸውን ርእይቶ ሒዙ፣ ጊዜ ከይወሰደ ዳግም ክልዓል ይግብኦ። ስለዚ ሕጂውን ብሐዲሽ ጻውዒት፣ ንኹሎም ደለይቲ ለውጥን ፍትሕን ዝኾኑሐይልታት ማለት ውድባት ፖለቲካዊ ሰልፍታት፣ ናይ ሲቪክ ትካላት፣ ምሁራትን ዓበይቲ ዓድን፣ መራሕቲ ዝተፈላለዩ እምነታት፣ መንእሰያትን ደቀ አንስትዮን ዝሳተፍዎ ዳግም ሰፊሕ ሃገራዊ ዋዕላ ምክያድ መማረጺ የብሉን። ካብ ምስንዳዉ አትሒዙ ክሳብ አፈጻጽማኡ ከአ ናይ ነብሲ ወከፍ ተሳትፎ ግዴታ ኢዩ።  ነብሲ ወከፍ አለኒ ዝብሎ ንዋዕላ ሐጋዚን መወሃሃድ ዝኾነ እማመ ናይ ምቕራብ ነጻነትክውሃቦ አለዎ።ቀጺሉ ጉባኤ ዝተመሰማማዓሉ ማእከላይ መትከላዊ መምርሕን መቐየዲን መወከሲን ዓውደ ተቓውሞ ክኸውን፣ ክሳብ ውድቀት መላኺ ስርዓት ከአ፣ መላእ ዓውደ ተቓውሞ ኤርትራ ብእኡ ጥራሕ ክምራሕን ክቕየድ፣ ምርጫ መሪሕነት ንመላእ ሕብረተሰብ ኤርትራ ዘንጸባርቕ፣ ብውክልና ውድባትን ማሕበራትን ዘይኮነ ብሃገራዊ ንጽህናኦምን ብቕዓቶምን ዝተመስከረሎም፣ ንኹሉ ከአ ቅቡላትዝኾኑ ካብ መላእ ተሳተፍቲ  ጉባኤ ብቐጥታ ክመርጾም። እዚ እቲ ሐርፋፍ ውልቃዊ ርእይቶ ኮይኑ፣ ናይ ብዙሐት ምኩራትን ምሁራት ሐሳብ ምስ ተወሰኾ ዝህብትምን ዝዓሙቕን ኢዩ። ብሐጺሩ ብሐደ ጓሳን ሐደ መጓሰን ዝዓይነቱ ናይ ቃልሲ ጉዕዞ ክካየድን ናብ ጐደና ዓወት ምምርሻንን ኢዩ እቲ እንኮ መዋጽኦ። ብሕጂ ህዝቢ ኤርትራ ናይ ውድበይ ውድብካ፣ ጉጅለይ ጉጅለኻ፣ ወገነይ ወገንካ ፍንጡሕፖለቲካዊ ተዋስኦ ጸወታ ናይ ምጻሩን ምሽካሙን ፈጺሙ ሸውሃት የብሉን።  ንሱ’ስ ናብ ጥፍአትን ምብትታንን ዘምርሕ ጐደና ምዃኑ ጽቡቕ ጌሩ አስተውዒሉሉ  ኢዩ።”

Reaction: Very well said my brother and the message is productive enough for all of us to go for. We need modesty, internal peace, confidence and humility to positively influence each other. To implement the idea, however, our people need to elect their local leaders (Country or State wise), the local leaders to elect their regional leaders (Continental) and the regional leaders to elect global leaders that represent us all internationally. This is the mission of the grassroots movement that we are working hard to transmit across the globe. The political parties can not legally do this of course, without conflict of interest because they want to lead the country; and the civic and humanitarian groups would not legally do it because they don’t represent the people except their groups. They can counter argue the postulate but they cannot prove having been elected by the people beyond group affiliated individuals. The global leadership would then have the authority to manage the struggle and temporarily run the country after the dictatorship, drafting case laws and legal conditions by which qualified political parties eventually compete for political power through democratic election inside the country. The theory should obviously be open for all of us to develop with creative ideas but the people’s exclusive right to facilitate and elect their leaders should be something basic we all have to agree on.

ማሕበር ምጥርናፍ ኤርትራውያን ኣብ ኣምስተርዳምን ከባቢኣን:: “ሓድነት ህዝቢ ኤርትራን ልዕላውነትን …ንምዕዋት ፥ ናይ ኩሉ ደላይ ፍትሒ ፖለቲካዊ ኣረኣእያኡ ብዘየገድስ ፥ ኣብ ፖለቲካዊ ውድባት ይኹን ስቪካውያን ማሕበራት ዘሎ ወይ’ውን ብውልቁ ፥ ነዚ ዲክታቶርያዊ ስርዓት ዝቃወምን ዝቃለስን ፥ ኣብ ሓደ ጽላል ተጠርኒፉ ሓደ ዓብን ሰፊሕን ምትእኽኻብ ብምምስራት ጥራይ እዩ ኣድማዒስራሕ ክሰርሕ ዝኽእል ። ማሕበር ምጥርናፍ ኤርትራውያን ኣምስተርዳምን ከባቢኡን ብዕለት 28-05-2017 ብዝመደቦ መጸዋዕታ ምኩራትን ፡ ሰብ ሕልናን ደለይቲ ፍትሒ ፥ ነዚ መጸዋዕታ ኣኽቢሮም ካብ ዝተፈላለየ ከተማታት ዝተሳተፍዎ ዕዉት ኣኼባ ኣካይዱ ። ንፍትሕን ንለውጥን ዝቃለስ ሰብ ፥ መጀመርያ ንነብሱ ሓራ ከውጽኣ ከምዘለዎንኣኼበኛ ፥ ነቲ ማሕበር ምጥርናፍ ኤርትራውያንኣምስተርዳምን ከባቢኣን ሒዝዎ ዘሎ መሰረታዊ ዕላማን ፥ እቲ ካብ ታሕቲ ናብ ላዕሊ ዘቕንዐ ፡ ብከተማ ዝጅምር ፡ ቦታዊ ምጥርናፍን ብልጫታቱን ቅኑዕ ምዃኑ ኣስሚሮሙሉ። ኣብ ካልኦት ከተማታት ብተመሳሳሊ መንገዲ ንክጥርነፋ ዘድሊ ምትሕብባር ክገብሩ ቃል 31-05-2017”

Response: This is the only way to go and I hope our citizens in Holland will accomplish what those in England accomplished electing their local leaders as the best role models of the grassroots movement. As you said, one has to free oneself first before freeing the people. The reason the dictator fumbled big time was because he did not free himself, the only proof of freeing the self being accepting others as equal partners in the common struggle with absolute willingness to dialogue minus the tendency to dictate with illusive self-understanding as the sole liberator of the Eritrean people, needless saying one cannot claim of fighting for equality and freedom without adapting democratic values in practice. Any dismissive activism on “join my group or else” school of thought is, therefore a dictator by default logic. Thank you for accepting the grassroots movement and we politely suggest that you follow the England prototype electing your local leaders that would eventually elect the leaders of Holland based Eritreans as soon as possible. With Germany, Holland and Norway following the trend, things should fast change everywhere including in Canada and here in the States.

“The Eritrean-Canadians Festival for Unity, Reconciliation and Justice” scheduled to be held on July 1-2, 2017 in Toronto, Canada is the first of its kind and is expected to be a major attraction for Eritreans and friends of Eritrea. To promote unity and strengthen bonds between diverse and multi-faceted Eritrean Diaspora and highlight the need of participation of all Eritrean stake-holders in every facets of Eritrean life in the spirit of democracy, equity and social justice.

Comment: Good job at the right time when we are working hard for unity all over the place. I hope the event will pave the way for electing local leaders towards eventual leadership of Eritreans in Canada and global leadership in the long run.

ቤት ጽሕፈት ዜና ሰዲህኤ: ሰልፊ ዲሞክራሲ ህዝቢ ኤርትራ ኣብዚ ቀረባ መዓልታት “እማመ ንሓባራዊ ዕዮ ተቓወምቲ ውድባት ኤርትራ” ኣውጺኡ ኣሎ። ሓይልታት ተቓውሞና’ውን በበይኑ ቀያርን ተካእን ሓይሊ ክኸውን ከምዘይክእል ተገንዚቡ ከብቅዕ፡ ዓቕሙ ኣወሃሂዱን ሰፊሕ ጽላል ፈጢሩን ብሓባር ክሰርሕ ኣብ ዘይበቐዓሉ መድረኽ ኢና እንርከብ። ብመንጽር እዚ እማመ ሓባራዊ ዕዮ ሰዲህኤእዋኑ ሓልዩ ዝመጸ እዩ ምባል ካብ መስመር ሓቂ ዝወጸ ኣይኮነን።ናይዚ እማመ ትሕዝቶ ማእከሉ “.ምውዳቕ ዲክታቶርያዊ ስርዓት ህግደፍን ምልጋስ መሓውራት ጭቆናኡን” ኮይኑ ኣብ ኣርባዕተ ኣገደስቲ ነጥብታት ዘትከለ እዩ። ካብዚ ሓሊፉ ማእከሎም “ምቛም ህዝባዊ ስርሓት ዝከተተልን ዘካይድን ኣካል” ዝብል ሓሳብ ዝማእከሎም ብሓባር ዝስረሓሎም ኣገደስቲ መዳያት እውን ኣለልዩ ኣሎ። እዞምሰዲህኤ ኣብ እማመኡ ጠቒስዎም ዘሎ ነጥብታት፡ ናይ “ሓቢርና ንስራሕ” ጭርሖታት ዝመሳሰሉ ስለ ዝኾኑ እቲ እማመ ባይታን እዋናውነትን ኣለዎ ዝብል እምነት ኣለዎ።ብኻልእ ወገን ነዚ እማመ እዚ ከቕርብ እንከሎ ኣብ ምምዕባሉን ምንጻሩን ብመትከል እንካን ሃባን ናይ ዘተን እሂንምሂንን ኣፍደገኡ ብምኽፋት እምበር ናተይ ጥራይ ተቐበሉለይ ብዝብል ዓጋቲ መንፈስ ኣይኮነን።ካብዚ ሓሊፉ ነዚ እማመናብ ርትዓዊ መረዳድኢ ሰነድ ንምምዕባሉ ካልኦት ውድባትን ሰልፍታትን እውን፡ ውልቀሰባት ወይ ውድባት ዘይኮነ “ኩሉ ዓቕምና ኣንጻር ምልኪ ይቕናዕ” ከም ማእከላይ ነጥቢ ወሲዶም ክዓምዎ ይግበኦም  ዝብል እምነት ኣለና”

Comment: The Eritrean people gave you everything when you were leading the struggle for independence and you delivered at the end of it to lose the freedom of enjoying it with peace and serenity in the country you liberated. Your struggle against the dictatorship after independence may not have been popular in the beginning to materialize but we grew aware of the situation and were ready to give everything again for you lead us to freedom and you know what happened. The political parties collectively did not show up to take advantage of the opportunity. Congratulations for getting to this point after analyzing the past experience of failure. The time is indeed ripe for united action. Thank you for condemning the destructive “my way or the high way” attitude and for admitting you were part of the problem in the past. You can certainly contribute a lot with this transformed attitude and we are eager to consider your plan with great optimism. As you know deleytifithi are trying to do their best everywhere in the absence of any information from the quietist political parties but things can change for the better if you pursue your initiative to influence them one way or another. We are ready to hear your suggestion and help out as much as we can for its implementation with or without amendment. Be careful, however, respecting the exclusive roles of the political parties and the people to avoid confusion and unnecessary procrastination.

GI activities in brief

On Saturday June 3^rd, the GI community conducted its weekly discussion in paltalk media including its DC event with Araya Debessay et al. We discussed what we should do to have better attendance in future events, on the importance of intensifying our communication with the people in more efficient and transparent manner and on the need to improve our departments into carrying our respective objectives with effective division of labor. We also discussed the obstacles the movement has been facing from within the resistance.

On Sunday June 4, GI conducted extensive dialogue with the European taskforce on the upcoming HAGERAWI ZETE in Germany through the paltalk media and the mood was fantastic. We had the chance to exchange ideas as to how to work together ahead as part and parcels of the Grassroots Movement. They told us they were 100% in synch with GI and we shared ideas as to how to expedite the local elections in European countries duplicating England’s success story. We discussed the importance of the upcoming Zete in Germany (in July) and what we have to do to make it successful. They also asked for financial assistance to help cover their expenses and we promised to do whatever we can despite GI’s dire need of financial help from the people to perform its duties in different parts of the world. I hope the taskforce will further advertise the event as soon as possible for our people to carry their responsibility in this regard. Further, we agreed on solidifying our relationship through continuous direct discussions to expedite the process for Global Leadership.

Conclusion: It so seems that the hard working GI is achieving the most remarkable results since its birth in February, 2016. Our people’s tendency appears polarized towards the movement, with more work expected ahead on synchronizing our ideas through discussion. It is attracting many citizens because the people are tired of the monotonous situation, it is completely neutral and equally accommodating to any group or individual in the society. On top of that, the grassroots affiliates are part and parcel of the people with no interest in political power, although we have been approached by quiet a few Eritreans to reconsider this position. They are saying that highly educated individuals within the movement should not only be restricted to facilitating the process if they have the capacity to lead their local communities. It is an idea for a thought, but the GI ACTION PLAN suggests that we should only facilitate the process, stop and move on. Seriously, this is secondary and none of us seems to care about at this point in time.

In so going, we have been constantly asking all civic groups on working together to find a common denominator that satisfies our people and we will continue doing so, publicly renewing the request to keep the people posted about their political business. We have to do whatever it takes to work together so we can catch up with our people in Europe that appear to have accepted the movement as the only solution to our common problem. Part of the obstacle from our resistive civic groups, nonetheless, resonate around the following questions:

“Why do you challenge other groups in public?”, my subjective answer being because we want to transparently communicate with the people, empowering them with information about their future. We want to change the taboo oriented culture of secrecy and silence. We have no business in other outlooks of life but have interest discussing for common solution with our differences in place.

“Why don’t you keep doing your thing and leave the rest to do theirs?” my subjective answer being as simple as none of us, GI included has the right and the capacity or the mandate to resolve the common issue separately as proven from the past experience of failure.

“Who elected you to do what you are doing?”, the answer to this unfair question could be another question in “how about you?” but the most appropriate response in my opinion is that no political party or civic group was elected by the people. We have to start from this fundamental point of truth in dealing with each other my dear Eritreans. GI for instance could have elected its managers but the process was only made within its members and not by the people. So does the reality apply to all civic, humanitarian and political groups. Therefore, the question and its answer are generic to all Eritreans in the fight for none of us can claim of having been elected by the people and dictate terms based on the fallacious assumption otherwise. None of us can assume mandate of the people until the people elect their leaders in democratic fashion, the reason we are trying hard for global leadership based on grassroots based bottom-up electoral pyramid.

Now to get to the point, no one elected us to do what we are doing and we are doing it because it is our business as part of the people. We are not looking for political power and this attitude gives us the right to carry our responsibility as a portion of the people. We want to make sure the people elect their representatives because that is the only way they can be legally represented as the most important portion of the society. Although we don’t have the mandate to represent the people, we want to monitor the process by which the political elements take power in future Eritrea as servants of the people and we are the people. We don’t need any permission from any portion of the society to check and balance our future political leaders because that role is inherent to all Eritreans in the grassroots stratum of the society. It is the people, after all that have the exclusive right to ask the potential leaders all types of questions not the vise versa and the political parties can only answer and participate in fair election according to the doctrine of democracy. They cannot interfere on the people’s decision as to how to go about the process, as some of them are trying to do breaching the people’s rights in this regard. It is the misconception of ELECTION that makes some power ambitious groups direct the question to GI thinking they represent the people because their affiliates elected them to lead their groups. We represent our respective groups in this scenario but not the people. In reality, the Eritrean people have so far had no chance to elect their leaders, making all groups in the resistance equally important in their view, the reason we have to transparently communicate and address our common issues together at equal significance without fooling ourselves of having the mandate to dominate, dictate or isolate others on common matters of our society.

The future political leaders should, therefore concentrate on their groups leaving the people’s business to the people. They should also understand that they need to support the people’s movement without interference for the people are the supreme power with exclusive right to instruct them on how they can lead the society. We need to know that the potential leaders and the people are different with respective exclusive rights (one to facilitate and the others to lead) that both must respect.  

To further entertain the question only for the sake of clarity, there is no difference between the grassroots advocates and the people and we are doing what we are supposed to do as individuals in this classification but not as elected elements with full right to represent the people. Any group within the resistance including GI should, therefore have no reason to feel uncomfortable about asking, challenging and being challenged by the people. In the flip, the potential leaders must respect the exclusive right of the people to direct them to political power according to their interest which can only be SECULAR DEMOCRACY. The time we can talk about fully representing the people is only when we succeed having global leadership through grassroots based election process that we all should support for our freedom and basic survival as dignified people of the motherland. Any group’s perception of solution to the common problem remains to be the group’s outlook of the matter that can only be shared and developed with other Eritrean groups to qualify for objective solution to the common problem but not as absolute solution in view of the people that did not elect the group leaders in question. This reality forces us to replace the competitive mind with relative mind and to face the common problem together at the same level of passion.

GI is, therefore not a competitive entity to the elements of the struggle but an inductive entity to what we all are consciously or unconsciously fighting for (mandated representation of the people). GI welcomes every activist group or individual to work together for the common cause with respect and tolerance in exchange to similar attitude from others in the category. We want to entertain productive ideas and be challenged on the merit so that we can be more effective; to be included with equal significance because we have a common problem that we can neither solve alone nor let others solve it for us alone. When we say “let the people elect their leaders democratically” we mean “we want to elect our leaders” for we don’t see any difference between us and the people. Therefore, the expression “the people” should be well understood to mean “any element of the grassroots or the mass of the society” that we have no doubt of being. Our effort towards global leadership does not, thus make us legal representatives of the people. Nor does it make us different from the people but part of the cream of the society striving for justice through democracy; meaning we are doing it for the sake of our freedom with no interest in political power. We wish others could do it for us so we can enjoy the luxury of only supporting them but it is because the educated class has traditionally been the anchor of change in any society that we are here to play that role with other willing groups in the resistance.

“Why don’t you let Bayto do the job you are claiming to do now that it is trying to be more organized that in the past?”
GI would have been unnecessary had Bayto been still alive. The answer in my exclusive opinion is that Bayto does not believe in Democracy, is biased and dysfunctional as it stood from the day of its inception. We have given Bayto enough time to do its mandated assignment but have not seen or heard about it for years in the midst of our endangered society’s situation. It also had compromised its mandate by allowing itself to be maneuvered by few political parties in EDA and we don’t know if it is still around and what it is doing. It has to face the society with valid excuse on why it wasted our expectation and resources for this long with no information or communication. The first thing it has to do to earn our respect is formally denouncing its unfair verdict against our Kunama community, reversing its biased action and completely purifying itself from the political parties. It should also apologize to the Eritrean people in general for isolating the Kunama Democratic Organization from EDA, illegally serving the interest of few political parties instead of treating them neutrally in respect of our society. It violated the people’s mandate isolating Chairman Kornoleous for nothing more than expressing his view on his community’s experience with Idris Awate using his freedom of speech. Therefore, it does not respect freedom of speech rendering itself incapable of democratically representing the people and we have no intention to join it in its current immobile and biased composure, though willing to discuss common issues with for better result!!  Power to the people!!