By Fesseha Nair

A New Year’s Resolution is a promise to do an act of self-improvement or something better than the past. I will here deal with The properties( both physical and chemical) we have failed in the past and start act to improve.

1. 1. Building cooperative relations: ምሕናጽ ሓባራዊ ዝምድና/ To be successful you must build a cooperative network among a diverse set of allies. The Eritrean Opposition forces in Diaspora failed in the past to build a cooperative relationship among different groups both locally, regionally and globally. Let us renew our relations with special attention and devotion that we missed in the past.

2. Building Trust:ምሕናጽ እምነት/ The absence of trust in the opposition has been seen many times in their actions. The concept ” trust” is difficult to define but one way to understand trust is to see it through character and competence. Character focuses on personal motives ( i.e, does he or she want to do the right thing?), While competence focuses on skills necessary to realize motives ( i. e., does he or she know the right things to do?). Stephen Covey has clarified in his book ( Seven habits of highly effective people)

The traits of character are consistency, openness and purpose.

Consistency/ምእዙዝነት is when people are guided by a core set of principles, they are naturally more predictable because their actions are consistent with these principles.

Openness/ ግሉጽነት when people have a clear sense of who they and what they value, when they are more receptive to others. This trait provides us with the capacity to emphasize and the talent to build consensus among divergent people.

Purpose/ናይ ሓባር ዕላማታት is when leaders are driven not only by personal ambitions but also for the common good. Their primary concern must what is best for the people not the organization. This willingness to subordinate personal and organizational interests to higher purpose, in our case saving the Eritrean people from the oppression of the dictatorship garners the respect, loyalty, and trust of the people

3. Creating A shared Vision:ምፍጣር ናይ ሓባር ራእይ-What is a vision? A vision is a dot on the horizon at which all subsidiary actions and efforts are directed. In the Eritrean opposition forces what is that dot in the horizon? Are all have the same understanding about this dot? Have we directed our main actions towards this dot? No, not at all. A vision is not simply sloganeering but it must be effective. There are four essential qualities of creating a common vision. A vision must be communicated. A vision must have a strategic sense. A vision must have passion. A vision must  inspire others. The opposition lacks a shared vision that fosters the common good. Let us promise to act build a shared vision by working together instead of negation and defamation of each other.

4. Managing conflicts:/ ኣፈታትሓ ግርጭታት/ Disagreements and conflict emerge at any time in the life of any work. The Eritrean opposition have been disagreeing over solving problems internally and externally. The Eritrean opposition has been pursuing an adversarial conflict management in the past years. Let us change this trend and adopt an integrative conflict management that fosters trust and mutual respect.

5. 5. Partnering:/ ምሕዝነት Partnering is a state of mind, a philosophy on how to conduct business with others. Partnering represents a commitment from all the participants working on the project to respect, trust, and collaborate. Let us promise this new year to have a mind and philosophy that can help us build respect, trust and collaboration.

6. Learning to separate the people from the problem:- ምምሃር “ጉዳያት ካብ ሰብ” ፈሊኻ ምርኣይ What is learning? Learning is commonly associated with a change in how we understand and interpret the reality that surrounds us. We have been focusing on personalities instead of focusing on issues. Let us promise this new year to focus on issues instead of personalities. Our life is always learning. Those who think they already know will never learn. Some elements in the opposition specially in the social media think that they already know and never learn their real surroundings and the issues that need to be focused. Let us promise to create a learning environment. Positive lessons can be best derived from an environment free of suspicion and mistrust. Let us create an environment that is free of suspicion and mistrust.