Brussels: Excuses worse than the Sin

Competent politicians advocate for diversity and are always among the diverse constituents of their people to win their hearts and minds; they abhor disguise, the attitude of failed politicians.

Many articles have been written in the past weeks that hurled stones in all directions and justified the secrecy that led to the Brussels conference. Most of the articles were full of inconsistencies and amateurish reasoning. It is inhumane to express self-exultation, in this degrading situation, for the issue is a seven- decades old tragedy of the people. Truly, I felt very sad observing those anticipated to be Salvationists glide down to such a horrifying extent of irrationality. 

This Eritrean chicken market condition strongly imposes upon us some question: what is the main problem of Eritrean? Is it an imported or homegrown problem?

Determining the problem will be the first step towards solving it. There are Eritreans unable to digest the demands of co-existence. They want the other without history, culture, religion, language, land and aspirations. This age-old problem should be solved because the issue has reached an unendurable stage. There should be a contract on the fundamental issues among the different constituents of the Eritrean people. Only such arrangements would rescue Eritrea from declining to a more devastating stage.

What we see in the chicken market is not the product of today. It is an expired 20^th century product marketed by our politicians in the 21^st century. The escape of our politicians from solving our main problems has become a culture that can be inherited by the new generation. This can be observed in the writings of some of our writers: we have to think how to topple the dictator; the other problems would be solved by the people of Eritrea. The same tone was taking place during the struggle era: we have to concentrate on liberating Eritrea from occupation, after liberation the Eritrean people will have a say. Now almost two decades elapsed without the people having any say.

What is the role of politicians if they don’t solve the problems of their people? Serious problems request competent politicians; this is the link the the Eritrean people are missing. Our politicians should quit the escaping culture and face our problems with competence and farsightedness.

After the long journey of escapism our politicians now stand face to face with our problems under the Eritrean umbrella. Some of our politicians are accustomed to privacy; they become panic stricken by the mosaic presence under the Eritrean umbrella, thus they attempt to walk back to the 20th century where there was no hard brainwork, to the disturbing modern communication technology, cyber media, and follow up by ordinary citizens. In this historic transitional period, solving the riddle of the Eritrean people requires honest and sagacious politicians with clean files from participating directly in the acts that cause bitter setbacks, splits or crimes that occured in the Eritrean political arena. Electing honest and competent leaders with clean records is the responsibility of the grassroots of the fronts, movements, organizations and parties.

The umbrella, as it is home for the EDA (Eritrean Democratic Alliance) members, it also invites all Eritreans without discrimination. This embracing umbrella is the right place where democracy should flourish. Endeavoring to weaken or destroy the umbrella is considered a transgression, the crossing of the red line. Swiftness or slowness is not the criteria with which the EDA is assessed; the EDA is judged by its position and direction of movement. The direction towards which the EDA is moving is the main concern of Eritreans.

The EDA members have constructed the umbrella, called for a national conference, held workshops and bound for convening the national conference. All these steps are to the right direction, and must be applauded. Of course, Eritreans aspire for a more active role of the EDA, and speed (though important) is not the main issue of our current democratic struggle. This time, Eritreans want to reach their destination safely. Arriving sound and safe to our destination is more important than arriving early, exhausted and without our luggage.

Undemocratic practices expose the practitioner’s undemocratic traits. ‘Question not the means, judge by the results,’ is a strange and shallow logic. This kind of reasoning is identical to the argument of a pirate, a prostitute or a drug smuggler who requests their friends or kin to be happy with the money they provided them with. For this kind of people, the means is unimportant as far as there is money with which to luxuriate. Do the people of Eritrea accept such kind of contaminated money which is gained with such unclean means?

For people who seek justice, the means is equally or more important than the result. Accumulation of undemocratic practices will end up with undemocratic results; and our history is the best witness.

The word clean reminds me of a story about an owner of a house and the regime in Asmara. The customs office in Asmara demanded the man to pay a big amount of tax for his house. The man found it impossible to pay such a big amount, therefore, he decided to donate the house to the regime. Happy with this idea, he went to the customs office and told them that he wants to donate his house to his angelic government. The customs office told him that that have accepted his donation of the house, but atsrikha habena (give us a house cleared of tax). The man was afraid to say he has changed my mind, thus he returned back home very sad not only for loosing his house but contemplating about the big amount of tax that he must pay or will end him up in one of the underground prisons of the regime. 

The people of Eritrea appreciate clean and transparent politics. Currently, there is no diverse organization, front, movement or party in Eritrea. The divisive policy that the regime practices has created the emergence of organizations based on ethnicity, region or faith. Most of them are in reaction to the attacks by the regime. Any wise person understands the reason behind their formation, therefore, doesn’t criticize them or feels any danger from their presence. The moment the reasons of their formation vanishes, the picture in Eritrea will be changed. The organizations that are formed along sect and ethnicity do not lie about it by being hypocrites and claiming that they are diverse or the most representative.

At the end of the day, I expect the political game in Eritrea will be changed and would finally result in the presence of only three or four democratic parties in Eritrea. This can be a achieved with the efforts of the knowledgeable and courageous politicians who are capable of facing and solving our problems, not by those introverted politicians who wish to cook our national issues behind closed doors.

Strategists, designers, managers, etc. are deeply concerned with specifications of the entire process that leads to results. Politicians scrutinize particulars more than designers; but Eritrea has some unique politicians who become happy by results alone. They would have been excused if the results achieved were novel. Our neighbors, our region, IGAD, the African Union, the Arab League, the European Union and the United Nations know more details about the regime than many. This reality is acknowledged by some of our politicians. The only thing that is required for the EDA to become strong and to benefit from the positive situation, but the task force decided to compete and get ahead of the EDA. The novel thing that occurred in Brussels is that the smart group presented themselves as a civilized group and they ended up in phrases in the dairy of Dr. Van Reisen. They have seriously damaged the picture of Eritreans in front of the Europeans; is this what some of our politicians hailed?

There is a point worth mentioning, I congratulate awate.com, Gedab news not for the information they have presented to their readers, but for their pursuance to reach the bottom of the story. This is the true task of journalism that should be followed by our media outlets. Publishing articles sent by writers is a minute portion of the work of journalism.    

Finally, scrutinizing issues from all sides would be appreciated; hasty and superficial assessments guide to devastating results. The means is as important as the result.