PFDJ and the Lampedusa Tragedy

Two months on and the aftershock of the Lampedusa disaster still continues to reverberate across the Eritrean society. Eritreans were the Victims, survivors and ultimately the orchestrators of the forced migration that led to the disaster.

Although this is not the first of its kind it did attract the attention of many in the international community including the EU and the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, Pop Francis. This could be the probable reason why all members of the Eritrean Community in the diaspora including those who have been supporting the regime and the primary engineer of all this misery for the last two decades were touched by this man made tragedy.

Yes, Eritreans outside of Eritrea have reacted to this tragedy in the strongest terms possible.  Those who have been opposing the dictatorial regime have called for the down fall of the dictator louder than ever before in the many candle light vigil that were held in memory of those perished throughout the western world. This time the Leaders of Eritrean religious institution both Christian and Moslem have played their role to an extent that was never seen or heard before.  Even the Eritrean National Television was forced to serve some truth (and for once get slightly closer to its strap line of ‘serving the truth’) in a dramatic a U turn move in information management.

The incident was also very instrumental in exposing those who hold the totally untenable position of supporting the regime against their own better judgment; they were caught between their human needs to do the right thing by their fallen brothers and sisters and their non-human needs to pander to dictatorship.  The surest sign of damage to their humanity was actually evidenced by those who were not shy to go out dancing even as the world watched aghast the corpse of their countrymen, women and children was waiting boxed in nameless coffins only identified by numbers in an airport hangar so far away from home.

On the other side of humanity many finally decided enough was really enough and cut off from the regime in response to the call from their conscience: A well-known business man Dr. Tewolde Tesfamariam (Wedi Vaccaro) called for the immediate stepping down of the dictator and his clique and to let the people elect their own leaders. Wedi Vaccaros’s call was unique in the fact that he is the first one to make such a direct call to the dictator in public domain from the many who have cut ties with the dictator after serving him for so long.

The trend of cutting ties off the brutal regime was non more dramatic in the defection of Wedi Tikabo, subsequently dubbed Eritrea’s Bob Marley. Inevitably the above two and many similar acts are inspiring others to take similar actions causing the regimes support to shrink like never before.

The distinct messages of unity, from the two individuals have also played its part in changing the balance of power between the opponents and supporters of the regime. The Hadnet meetings called by Wedi Vaccaro were attended by unprecedented numbers in the opposition. The single song that was release by Wedi Tikabo on November 17, the day of the Washington DC Hadnet meeting got sixty thousand Hits in less than 48 hours.  This is a testament to the effective role the two individuals played at a time when the call for change in Eritrea is more prominent than ever.

The challenge for the opposition is growing enough to accommodate these and other similar efforts from many who are ready to finally do their share for change in Eritrea.

The petition from the G-22 in regards to this tragedy is also good news to the opposition which is exposing the YPFDJ and PFDJ supporters as they resort to making more nonsense noises in response.

In his article titled “The Real Cause of the Color Revolution” published in the Journal of democracy, political scientist Lucan Way mentioned the strength of the ties authoritarians have with the west and strength of the incumbent regime’s autocratic party or state as the two primary factors that affect the stability of authoritarian regimes.  In his essay he clearly explained that regimes like that of ours who have weak or almost no link with the west but a strong and dominate party in the nation have the possibility to stay for longer than those who have strong ties with the west and a country where there are opposition parties and civic organization. However, in our case this time around one from these two pillars that have supported our dictator for so long is being tested and that is the strength of the PFDJ party. It seems to me that the party is at its weakest and is does not stand a chance of returning to what it used to be. Hence, we ought to take advantage of this exceptional opportunity and make its inevitable downfall a reality.  We need to work hard in creating strong positive ties with the international community and ensure that any support for the regime is countered.

Therefore, it is the responsibility of every one of us to either maintain the momentum or even better to contribute to its increment and realize the removal of the dictatorial regime in Asmara. Otherwise, as newton’s first law of motion states if we fail to create a force that changes the direction and speed of the mad man’s system he will be there for more years.

Ghezae Z Kidane