Fetsum: The opposition camp in examination II
Fetsum: The opposition camp in examination II In my last article I discussed how brittle the EDA has been in communicating with us the people it claims representing let alone with the international politicians living in
Fetsum: The opposition camp in examination II
In my last article I discussed how brittle the EDA has been in communicating with us the people it claims representing let alone with the international politicians living in the same City called Adiss Ababa. If you are one born and raised in the Diaspora, you suffer the consequence of your Eritreawinet with no idea about what the heck is going on. But what would an international politician eager to learn about the EDA in the face of the universal voice against the Afwerki regime confront in its Website that does business in Tigrigna and Arabic? I guess he buys an interpreter or learns one of the languages to do this until he wakes up finding time expiring the EDA from relevance because of over-napping.
You cannot get closer to international politicians concerning universalizing the Eritrean issue than chilling in Addis within a bike-riding distance from them. Most of the homework for the EDA to impact international politicians within immediate reach has been done by the regime itself and the rest by the Diaspora. Girma Asmerom is a decapacited mouth-peace of the unanimously rejected president specially by the IGAD and the African Union. I don’t even know how he is surviving the humiliation for this long? What a courage; but I don’t think any politician in that city would waste time with this loner gravitating on the Eritrean chair for nothing than the symbolism gesture achieved by the blood and sweat of our martyred family members. The African Union chair that this Ambassador is uselessly sitting on could have been equated to by EDA sitting on the opposite guest-chair watching that desperate dude in the eyes at AU meetings. EDA could further have a spot in the IGAD where Eritrea does not exist even for emblematic pretension.
This stationary or static representation has been going on ever since EDA’s inception with no sign of evolution despite the people’s persistent protest and willingness to assist; to the contemplation point of ignoring it all together in search of another remedy to the Eritrean socio-political disease. I am not sure what I am talking about but EDA must wake up immediately for its own survival. I tried to comment on its latest ህዝባዊ እኼባ ንመሰረታት ኤዲኪ ኣብ ኣዲስ ኣበባ ተኻይዱ at ASSENNA but could not understand it at all so I chose to shut up. EDA must do something impacting at this point in time or else get out of the way. We don’t have time to wait any longer and we will either make it together this year or break it good bye for good! That is all I can tell you. Find someone who can write English if you cannot do it yourself or find some people out there to impress with your Tigrigna and Arabic but we Eritreans who understand English better cannot understand you.
There are many things developing in favor of the resistance that I will update our people promptly and I know that the opposition camp will be directly responsible for not taking advantage of them. We will notify them ahead to do their role and they will be responsible for inaction. We will check and balance our struggle through courageous intervention from now on and teach our people who is who in this struggle for democracy. We have now the power as people to reject or accept individual parties based on their democratic essentialism.
I will try to continue discussing the elements within the EDA leaving the rest for the readers to participate.
“The Eritrean Democratic Alliance (EDA) is an Eritrean opposition umbrella composing of 13 political Organizations. It uses all the available means of struggle to topple the current Eritrean regime. The EDA Charte also states that the EDA respects the autonomy of the member organizations which occasionally results in dynamic tension among them.” Here are the member parties of EDA.
- Eritrean People’s Democratic Front-EPDF
- Eritrean National Salvation Front-ENSF
- Eritrean Peoples’ Party-EPP,
- Eritrean People’s Congress-EPC
- Eritrean Federal Democratic Party-EFDM
- Eritrean Peoples’ Movement-EPM
- Eritrean Democratic party-EDP
- Eritrean Liberation Front-ELF
- Democratic Movement For the Liberation of the Eritrean Kunama-DMLEK
- Red Sea Afar Democratic Organization-RSADO,
- Eritrean Islamic Congress-EIC, and
- Eritrean Islamic Party for Justice and Development-EIPJD
- Eritrean Nahda Party-ENP
In discussing the EDA members individually, I will deal with the first seven democracy seeking groups this time and proceed forward depending on what comes in the way with all of you in the forum.
Eritrean People’s Democratic Front
“Eritrean People’s Democratic Front (in Arabic: الجبهة الديموقراطية الشعبية الإرترية) is an Eritreanopposition group. EPDF was founded in 2004 by the People’s Democratic Front for the Liberation of Eritrea (SAGEM) and a group who left the ERDF. EPDF is led by Tewelde Ghebreselassie. “
You see “DEMOCRATIC FRONT for ERITREAN UNITY” in this party’s website and quite a few articles in different languages as well. When I pressed the “about us” button to learn more, I got the following.
ብዛዕባና About Us
Written by ኣመሓዳሪ ደሞክራሲያ ኦርግ Published: 02 December 2013 Last Updated: 03 December 2013
©N‹V]¥.‡X´ {oñ mk[}‰ï ªï‹prX¥gñ ]X–q B´©Ï B›mk| Kl†pgñ [mk…‘é} ©N‹V]¥‘é} K[Eoë o»ÏDïchë: VBg} [EM} ©N‹V]} HXkïqÈ: M†}oñ [mk…gñ ‹mkT} K}{oë} ‹mkF Šmk ‰êDê KF‹–q ¿f| HV }M‘éĆ …mk ›²mkY sD÷ o³©öD÷: …mk ÔDoñŠ‘é} sò|‘é} —¨ †®L ‰okX‹q ›oK]Soq ‘mk \§q †¥;
Comment: The whole content of the Website’s “about us” was in this format and I don’t know whether this is Japanese or Chinese. I don’t read and understand this language.
Eritrean National Salvation Front (ENSF)
“Ahmed Nasser – Chairman of Eritrean National Salvation Front
Ahmed Nasser is the chairman of the Eritrean National Salvation Front (ENSF) today and was the chairman of ELF from 1976 to 1981. Head of Eritrean Liberation Front-Revolutionary Council (ELF-RC) from 1982-2002. Ahmed Nasser is one of the most tested, secular and multi-lingual (Tigre, Saho, Tigrinya, Arabic, English and Amharic languages) Eritrean leaders. Of Saho ethnic background, Ahmed Nasser has devoted all his life to the struggle for liberty and democracy in Eritrea. Ahmed is now leader of the Eritrean National Salvation Front which is dedicated to the immediate dislodgment of what he calls Isaias’s shameless despotism. “
Comment: I could not find anything more significant than this about this party to discuss it further except learning that the brother was a distinguished figure during the struggle. He is a multi-lingual individual who spent his time for the Eritrean cause with a little hick-up in democratizing the country. What does the character aggrandizement do here when the question on the ground is democracy rather than biography?
Eritrean Democratic Party-EDP: “We feel that the paramount crisis confronting our country is the question of how to move away from the one party dictatorship to a constitutionally anchored multi-party democratic political system while still keeping our attention focused on maintaining and consolidating our national sovereignty. This is a formidable national task that needs and demands the input of every single individual Eritrean. Without the full and total commitment by all of us to find a peaceful, inclusive and creative way of managing our differences we will not be able to build the just and prosperous free nation for which our martyrs gave up their lives and which Eritrean Democratic Party are striving to build. Getting rid of the regime might be easy compared to establishing perpetual peace, stability and democracy. This can only be achieved when each and every Eritrean feels that they belong and is part of the action that determines her/his life.”
Comment: The phrasing tells that this group wants democracy in Eritrea and encourages every Eritrean to work for it. It may have proven its words in practice by joining the EPDP along other three groups to be discussed in relatively better detail in the go. But again it is confusing how it can be with EPDP and the EDA at the same time and I don’t know anything about what is going on at the moment. In any case, I believe this party is similar to the other democracy seeking parties in the category.
Eritrean People’s Congress-EPC and Eritrean Federal Democratic Party-EFDM
I am sorry but could not find anything about these parties goggling the net around. I don’t know another search engine that can help my situation better, so I gave up. Please teach us here if you know these parties!
Eritrean People’s Movement EPM
Comment: I received this message when I goggled for this party:
“Your search did not match any documents, or server error has occurred.
Suggestions:
- Make sure all the words are spelled correctly, try using auto complete
- Try more general searches.
- In case of server error, try a few minutes and retry”
Eritrean Democratic Party (EDP)
“About EDP
Eritrean Democratic Party feel that the paramount crisis confronting our country is the question of how to move away from the one party dictatorship to a constitutionally anchored multi-party democratic political system while still keeping our attention focused on maintaining and consolidating our national sovereignty.
This is a formidable national task that needs and demands the input of every single individual Eritrean. Without the full and total commitment by all of us to find a peaceful, inclusive and creative way of managing our differences we will not be able to build the just and prosperous free nation for which our martyrs gave up their lives and which Eritrean Democratic Party are striving to build. Getting rid of the regime might be easy compared to establishing perpetual peace, stability and democracy. This can only be achieved when each and every Eritrean feels that they belong and is part of the action that determines her/his life.”
Comment: this party is clearly for democracy based on this description. It further asserts the notion through the following phrasing: “The regime in power is unconstitutional and has been struggling to prolong its grip on power at the expense of the Eritrean people. In today’s Eritrea , rule of law is absent and the regime is the law by itself; citizens have been denied their basic rights and been arbitrarily arrested and detained unabatedly in undisclosed locations. Citizens have been denied of their constitutional rights of free expression of their opinions.”
Discussion:
A source of information says: “Political parties: In every modern democracy the will of the people is represented by elected members of parliament. These representatives organize themselves in political parties. Parties do play a central role in the process of creating andnegotiating working solutions for public affairs. The political parties in Europe and North America are basically oriented according to ideological and social (class) criteria. Their platforms reflect different views on how society could work at its best and different interests (entrepreneurs, farmers, workers, …). As long as everybody – party leaders as well as the electorate – is aware of these basic facts and if the interests of parties and members of parliament are made transparent to the electorate in some detail, democracy will work fairly well. “
Comment: A political party must have a unique program that differentiates it from other political parties to justify its claim of representing the people more efficiently. It must have an ideology: unique economic vision, foreign policy, business, social welfare, gender issues, education, medical, housing and taxation, etc. and should be able to fully expose its program to the people in order to attract them for election.
The US democratic party differs from the Republican in social welfare issues (food-stamps,etc), gay/Lesbian issues, foreign policy, Medicare issues, education (student loans, financial aid), etc. to say the least. Political Party is a function of serious visionary socio-political issues and not a HOBBY! I did not see our parties’ political programs to learn their difference and for people to support them accordingly. The only thing I know so far is that all of them want democratic change in Eritrea and this alone cannot justify the independent existence of a political party because it cannot replace the program that defines its socio-political essence. Had that been the case the American society would not have needed the two most popular parties because they both support democracy.
Religious or Ethnic Parties:
“On the other hand there are many countries where the political parties deliminate with respect to ethnic or religious groups. There is no doubt that belonging to an ethnic or religious group is one of the strongest and most binding feelings human beings are capable of. Culture isimportant for orientation and it will always be based on some traditions. But history shows that these strong feelings of belonging have often been abused by individuals (leaders) to gain power and wealth on cost of the very people that trust them as ethnical or religious leaders. Many people will not ask themselves why they belong to an ethnic and/or religious group. As a consequence, it is almost inevitable that the interests of party leaders become quite hazy behind strong ethnic or religious party labels [] needless to say that this fact is a downright invitation for party leaders to abuse of power and corruption. Modern democracy is not compatible to any cultural tradition” nor is it religious or ethnic affiliated. An ideology based on these elements is not democratic and cannot be one under any circumstances.
Conclusion: I cannot see any fundamental difference between the seven political parties in discussion. I cannot see their programs to compare and contrast where they may differ from each other in political vision. Even if that was the case, there is no reason for them to stand alone within the EDA before bringing democracy in unison. Their difference can only materialize in democratic Eritrea upon proving a visionary value that theoretically differs from others. The Eritrean society as it stands today cannot accommodate their division with no concrete visionary variation needless to say that this is too premature for us to do in our current broken and damaged sociological fabric.
Name does not mean anything without justifying it through a unique political program. Apparently, the political parties did not clearly show their difference in managing the socio-political structure of our society beyond reasonable doubt.The conclusion here is that the seven Eritrean parties under this thought experimentation equally advocate democracy without any visible vision differential.
Nothing is visible about their policies to appreciate their diversity to convince us into justifying their autonomous relationship within the EDA. We did not see this to approve the independent existence of each of the seven parties in the EDA.
Two common elements are obvious though: they all claim to work for the disposal of the dictatorship and for a multi-party democratic system in Eritrea. This is easy to prove: they are all members of the EDA (Kidan) that believes in democratizing the country. We appreciate this very much and thank you. This, however, is not enough for a political party to swim alone in the EDA’s global political pool and in fact has nothing to do with the requirements by which political parties should be erected.
My neutral VERDICT therefore states the following:
None of the seven political parties under examination have a unique political program to justify its difference from the others. The parties could only have been organized in terms of familiarity/ethnic/religious affiliations in the absence of a unique program that globally serves the people. But we have seen the problem of this setup in many countries of the world (Iran, Afghanistan, Somalia, Egypt, etc.) and we should discourage any party that prioritizes one’s ethnicity/religion to other all inclusive national agendas. Human experience is to learn from not to duplicate or to camofludge a weakness behind, as Rezen put it in the last forum stating that “history is indeed only a lesson to humanity but definitely not a consolation. Societies, in their own atmosphere, should — first and foremost — be fully responsible for their action, without searching for crutches to lean upon. Without this deep awareness and acceptance of being fully responsible for one’s action, the struggle ahead is indeed simply a “circular journey””
We cannot continue marching through the common road to democracy like this and we have seen the problem of this choice and certainly do not want to repeat or recycle it in this walk. We need to learn from other societies rather than justifying failure based on their experiences, a very important point Rezen brought to the table.
We cannot say we are okay thinking we were not the only sufferers of misunderstanding the concept of democracy. Misery looks for company and we don’t want to be that miserable looking excuses for failure.
If we know other sufferers of this, then we should learn not to suffer the consequence of committing the same mistake. The best example of this crisis for us in my opinion is the Eritrean experience!
Now we saw the light that there is no substantial difference between the seven parties, one may argue that they may differ on the METHODE OF OVERTHROWING THE REGIME (peacefully, violently or both). Few may stick with the first and others with the second while a third group may advocate for a hybrid of both methods depending on the situation and other conditions. This, however, is opinion difference equivalent to two riders arguing which way to go to more efficiently reach a destination like from New York City to Atlanta Georgia out of the available Express-Ways. It is like two kids arguing whether a hamburger or hot dogs would be good for dinner, the end result been satisfaction. You cannot form political parties based on this!
This difference cannot justify the division hitherto presented by our brothers and sisters in question for a very direct reason: the issue is not vision or political program oriented to begin with. This is not an economic, medical, social welfare, foreign policy, philosophical ideological, educational, sexual or gender oriented approach to justify the division at forming a different political party level of the relationship.
With all respect and humility, the seven political parties in discussion can and should then merge into one Political Party based on their common ground (democracy in Eritrea) for they have not otherwise proven to be substantially different in vision from one another through material proof (political program) to justify their individual autonomous existence within the EDA. See you soon!
selamawit2 March 5, 2014
Thank You Fetsum for this very interesting information!
selamawit2 March 5, 2014
sorry, please read “these very interesting information”.
Redi Kifle (bashay) March 5, 2014
Fetsum,
I appreciate your hard work and brilliantly written articles, but I would have liked If you go deeper to analyse the situation in the context of fundamental change for democracy and reformist tendencies rather than the choice between hamburger and hot dog. We are suffering the consequence of poor ideological understanding and weak know how of the nature of contradiction of the project we are dealing. For sure, your efforts are exponentially commendable.
Redi Kifle (bashay)
Said March 5, 2014
Mr. fetsum, I’m sticking was blah blah the reason, is don’t ask what your country can do for you but ask what you’re going to do for your country, as a opposition we are facing was many climate, we make money we don’t know was gone, from claims they are Eriteans and then we find a knot or second generation with many reservations, and and nobody responsible enough to take in charge, by saying skillful person, accommodate anybody and everybody, meaning by speaking Tigrigna, Arabic it doesn’t mean that they have to speak eloquently, that mean to hold the higher position, I can care less if you speak Chinese I want somebody taking in charge and then so many up position and that make me so sick you bringing me any opposition party, but you cannot bring me a leader, I know you’ll a good man, but you look like you out of touch with reality that we facing, you need to come down and see who’s doing progressives not, like I said before dancing Tigrinya style, going around the circle, believe me. I am tigrigna spoken person even doe I left my country when I was young, like anybody else I don’t even know Eritean we sit down on those places that we supposed to meet, or we don’t even who thay are except know they speak to tigrigna language . it will be easier for us we know who the leader who is not. instead of going to square one every time. wedi vaccaro, dr. yousuf, they need to step aside. like I said before I’m done with a man. I apologize for my ignorance. thank you.united against dictator.
selamawit2 March 5, 2014
sorry Said, we already analyized the blah-blahs of the regime supporters and the following blah-blah is very good known as the main literally blah-blah of YPFDJ:
“don’t ask what your country can do for you but ask what you’re going to do for your country”
by the way, in the language pfdj/ypfdj you don’t need to know the meaning of words, you just have to take order and repeat!
p.s.
“Youth…means the time between childhood and…maturity. An individual’s actual maturity may not correspond to their chronological age, as immature individuals can exist at all ages”(wiki). So it is o.k. when you call yourself “Young”PFDJ even if you are grey.
Said March 5, 2014
Selamwit ,What ,wedi Hassen how dear you call me pfdj I don’t even like the name this is one thing,
Said March 5, 2014
You don call me.
selamawit2 March 6, 2014
Said my brother, i am very sorry!!!
I mistook you for somebody else.
Of course you are not a YPFDJ member!
jikreta!
Semhar March 5, 2014
Fetsum! Fetsum! Fetsum!
TALK IS CHEAP WE NEED ACTION like ጅግና፡ ኤርትራዊ ስዉእ ስዒድ ዓሊ ሕጃይ (ወዲ ዓሊ and his courageous comrades who marched from Sorona, Akeleguzay to FORTO, Asmera to liberate our land and our people.
Let’s fallow his foot stapes and liberate our land and our people!
Semhar March 5, 2014
Fetsum! Fetsum! Fetsum!
TALK IS CHEAP WE NEED ACTION.
The best solution to victory is to untie all our original provinces, our nine nationalities and raise our original National Liberation Flag.
(Semayawit Banderana, the flag of our martyrs).
We did it in our struggle for independence and we succeeded.
We must do it again!
Our victory is certain!
Said March 5, 2014
Mr. fetsum, I’m sticking was blah blah the reason, is don’t ask what your country can do for you but ask what you’re going to do for your country, as a opposition we are facing was many climate, we make money we don’t even know were was gone, same claims they are Eriteans and then we find a knot or second generation with many reservations, and and nobody responsible enough to take in charge, by saying skillful person, accommodate anybody and everybody, meaning by speaking Tigrigna, Arabic it doesn’t mean that they have to speak eloquently, that mean to hold the higher position, I can care less if you speak Chinese I want somebody taking in charge and then so many upposition and that make me so sick you bringing me any opposition party, but you cannot bring me a leader, I know you are a good man, but you look like you out of touch with reality that we facing, you need to come down and see who’s doing a progressives or not, like I said before dancing Tigrinya style, going around the circle, believe me. I am tigrigna spoken person even doe I left my country when I was young, like anybody else I don’t even know Eritean we sit down on those places that we supposed to meet, or we don’t even who thay are except know they speak to tigrigna language . it will be easier for us we know who the leader who is not. instead of going to square one every time. wedi vaccaro, dr. yousuf, they need to step aside. like I said before I’m done with a man. I apologize for my ignorance. thank you.united against dictator.
selamawit2 March 6, 2014
Said my brother, i am very sorry!!!
I mistook you for somebody else.
Of course you are not a YPFDJ member!
jikreta!
Said March 6, 2014
Selamwit , what’s jikreta ??? Believe me I’m hardcore Eritean apostion. Well I forgive you.
selamawit2 March 6, 2014
Said Hawey, “jikreta” means sorry in Tigrigna.
Sorry again, it was my fault!
Dala ksha March 5, 2014
Hi Futzing
You forget to mention 1.Eritrean.Christian party
2.the bhere Tigryna party. To tell you the truth all the parts you mentioned are there to serve the dictator. We call them professional opposition. if there is change it is going to come from inside we are hoping some body Will come to finish what Wed I Ali started.
Dala ksha March 5, 2014
Sorry I mean Futsum .
Zere Gabir March 6, 2014
Fitsum, you are writing to Eritrean who know the Eritrean situation because you are writing it in English makes it a candle in a pot. Please try to write your articles in TIGRIGNA.