I discussed the ELF party in the last article and this is a continuation of that material and hopefully the last one as far as this party is concerned.

Sarah: “We need to do more research into each one of these groups and see what they stand for. Strong and blind nationalism can breed fragmentation because we all need to do research [for] one [t]hat brings us together and see if we can compromise. It seems that one of the things the opposition has inherited from EPLF/PFDJ’s is ‘no compromising’ arrogant mind set. Just because we are fighting for justice, it does not mean that we have the right to decide for our people. We are not in any position to talk, decide or fight about now. All we need to do is free the people and give them/us a chance to talk and discuss and decide what our future should be. We should stop being control freaks? It is killing the opposition camp”

Zufana: “A resistance movement can’t achieve much without a high dose of confidence, enthusiasm, and belief in its ability to succeed. In the case of Eritrea, the opposition’s lack of confidence has its origins in hgdef’s vicious, cruel, and sustained propaganda against it which the latter unfortunately seems to have internalized over the years so much so that the regime need not do anything anymore because the opposition is doing a marvelous job all by itself.”

Meretse Asmelash: “Sister Genet, Eritrea is a country which belongs to every one of us. I’m sorry to say that but I think all these old and new organizations are a done deal. Zero mission accomplished. If they want to keep their names so be it but what they should realize is it is outdated.”

Genet-orginal: “Dear Meretse Asmelash Thanks for the info. “Zero mission accomplished” Precisely! If they want to be known by name only, they will only diservice our people. Coming out as oppositions and going for more than 15 years, without any tangible outcomes is questionable. I feel everyone of us have responsibility to help sort out the mess. After all, it is everbody’s problems now. Answring the question of “WHO ARE THE OPPOSITIONS?” to me is the best way to start. Thanks”

Comment: Political parties periodically amend or modify their programs according to changes in society but our parties keep on changing names for whatever may be in their minds. You may select the sexiest name for your group but you cannot be a legitimate political party without substance. The last two Eritreans see Zorro mission accomplished by the imaginary elements within EDA but assuming 15 years since their static existence as political parties without any documentation mathematically translates into pulling the struggle back to (-15) years in psychological time. We should then maximize our collective effort to correct this problem and compensate the damage done all these years, so that we can start from ZERRO. I hope every element in the resistance understands this emergency situation into acting up in unison to either fix the EDA or trash it out of the way! EDA must react by openly admitting its problems to get another chance of survival. It has to prove from now on that it can represent the society through action and open communication and transparency. This, I think is also time sensitive for Eritreans!

As you know we have tried hard to respect the EDA in the past. We have openly defended it from many Eritreans that gave up hope from, expecting some change as a result. EDA has, however, refused to cooperate by ignoring our messages. I don’t think they read us; they seem addicted to isolation and fruitlessness. Their creativity appears to have dropped to the point of nothingness through years of mental stagnation: the mind has rusted as a result of inactivity that I sometimes imagine immobile and silent dolls around a table when I think of the EDA politicians. You sit down for ever without any productivity and yet you are not ashamed of yourself enough to get out of the way. I don’t understand how they confront the humiliation for uselessly sitting this long within a society that once highly respected Eritreans and in a country where massive Eritrean people and refuges insecurely reside. The EDA is identical to the Eritrean regime in that they both don’t believe in communicating with the people, no documentation to show and they park on the society without any tangible input. A brother puts it as ደምበ ተቓውሞ፡ ጉዕዞ መርከብ ብዘይ ኮምፓስ: get me out of that ship before I end up in Chechnya!

In my last article, I discussed the ELF Party within the EDA that was diagnosed to be as “healthy and sane” as the seven parties we discussed earlier. So far, all of them have few things in common: they are Eritreans for democracy theoretically and have no political/national program to show justifying their POLITICAL PARTY status. Going on with the ELF;

What does a decent society need to develop and live peacefully?

Decent society’s priority (DSP) =Independence + freedom;

You either have independence or not, this makes Independence a variable element (yes or no) in the equation

Likewise, you either have freedom or not, this makes Freedom a variable element (yes or no) in the equation as well

Freedom is, however, a function of independence and this relationship makes independence prerequisite for freedom. You can have independence without freedom but you cannot have freedom without independence (Eritreans are my case in point here)

Freedom should then be a derivative of or dependent on independence.

Therefore; Freedom = d(Independence)/dt. (Mathematically it is a derivative of the changes in the quality of Independence in relation to the society per time)

[by substitution];  DSP = Independence + d(Independence)/dt

Our question of freedom was premature before our independence. We really could not have rationally expected freedom from the armed struggle at priority level of the relationship because the immediate question was independence and its immediate consequence, dictatorship.

Once we achieved independence, however, the question of our freedom becomes our utmost priority. Independence should be YES then in the equation. Again by substitution we get;

Independence disappears from the equation after its actuality in the Eritrean society and only its derivative remaining there ending up being a decent society’s priority.

In conclusion, our priority is freedom not independence though our independence did not qualitatively improve the Eritrean life because it produced dictatorship. We don’t want a liberation front to liberate us from ourselves but the “liberators” have the right to liberate themselves from whatever.

I declare every Eritrean that supported the struggle at any stage of its survival was a direct or indirect member of the ELF; so were the supporters of EPLF including me because they were related as a mother and child with the same destination; the Eritrean Independence. I declare both fronts had no ambition to democratize the country after independence similar to all armed struggles for liberation in the third world. They had no democratic vision for independent Eritrea and this is easy to prove: they did not expose it to the people. Neither the regime nor yesterday’s or today’s ELF has had a visible political program to date to convince us otherwise, meaning that the objective of both fronts stopped at independence level of the socio political game. ELF was then likely bound to control the Eritrean political life after independence (had it brought it winning the war again the EPLF and the Ethiopians) probably with a better version of dictatorship than the absolute on the ground but certainly through dictatorship.

Based on this thought entertainment, both fronts were equally significant to the Eritrean people in as far as our question for independence was concerned and despite who actualized it; but equally useless or destructive in view of our quest for freedom and democracy.

In today’s ELF situation, a mother should be satisfied and let go grudges if her child accomplishes her mission at the end of the day. The mother should not insist to recycle or re-do what was already done by her child! ELF has accomplished its mission through her child and thus not qualified to stand as a political party with that name and without a program according to the books. Yet, there is another obstacle in the way of this party that severely challenges its democracy oriented contradiction.

Assuming there were about 100,000 Eritreans under the ELF’s entire experience between 1961 (its birth-year) and 1990 (Eritrean independence) and that, many of them have died and many others left it since independence, one wonders how many people may be within today’s ELF political party. As you know, approximation is a function of circumstantial observation and that is all we can do here in the absence of material on the subject matter.

Say that the ELF Party today has about 10,000 members or sympathizers, which is still a huge number compared to the 5 million Eritrean people. Now, this number accounts to 0.2% ((1/500) * 100) = 0.2)) of the Eritrean population. What seems to be going on is that this party which potentially represents the interest of about 0.2% of the population wants to lead Eritrea democratically; yet without a national program. I don’t think the gamble is worthwhile looking at the cost/benefit relationship of the matter because only a miracle can make one a winner in fair election against 99.8% percent of the odds (the percentage of people not represented by this party).

The verdict: With all respect to whoever may be affected by this conclusion, my verdict says that the ELF PARTY cannot be popular in today’s Eritrean reality representing only 0.2% of the population. This number cannot rationalize the party’s drive for political power in the country. Further, its liberation objective neither makes sense nor is it applicable in today’s sovereign Eritrea that was liberated many years ago. ELF with its current name is, therefore, 23 years behind the clock and cannot rationally aim at re-liberating Eritrea without creating a colonizer.Based on these important points and in the absence of the part’s defense on the open I believe that ELF PARTY should reorganize itself under ELF SOCIETY or something like that, sentimentally and permanently closing its dignified case with the people after effectuating the process of RECONCILIATION in post Afwerki Eritrea. Should it choose staying as a party, I suggest it should change its name removing the term “liberation” and join the other seven parties to collectively merge into a single party, still under a common political program but not without. Please stay tuned for my next guest (9^th in the list) in this project, the Eritrean Nahda Party-ENP.

Note: I am alternating work between the two projects (this and EGS symposium) and I plan to complete them as soon as I can so that we can move on to the next agendas in line. There is something very important I want to disclose after we finish discussing the two projects and your continuous attachment to this forum is appreciated for better result. See you soon!