Why the PFDJ Is Afraid of Us: The Strategic Threat of Nationalist Unity
The ruling People’s Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ) has not endured through popular consent. It has survived through an engineered system of fear, fragmentation, and narrative domination. Its silence toward nationalist movements is not indifference—it is apprehension. Unified, principled nationalists threaten the regime on every front: politically, strategically, philosophically, and historically.
Unity as Memory—and as Strategic Danger
Eritrea’s liberation was not the product of sectarian division. It was built on a shared vision of sovereignty, dignity, and collective sacrifice. Across regions, faiths, and languages, Eritreans embraced a simple truth: unity is survival.
Ironically, the PFDJ—heir to that legacy—has become its most determined saboteur.
While neighboring states often fracture under the weight of ethnic pluralism, Eritrea has remained an exception: a diverse society that, despite repression, has preserved a fragile but genuine social cohesion. This cohesion is not accidental. It is the residue of a liberation ethos and the deep blood, cultural, and historical ties that bind Eritreans together—ties the regime cannot fully erase.
Why, then, does the PFDJ work so relentlessly to undermine unity?
Because unity is the one force it cannot control—and the one force capable of ending its rule.
The Strategic Utility of Manufactured Threats
The regime does not fear fragmentation. It depends on the specter of fragmentation.
Ethnic and sectarian organizations abroad are not suppressed—they are instrumentalized. Their activities are amplified to sustain a narrative of perpetual danger. The message is clear and relentless: disunity equals disaster, and only the PFDJ can hold the center.
This is why the regime tolerates—or quietly encourages—identity‑based groups in eastern Sudan, Ethiopia, and elsewhere. Some advocate secession. Others operate under radical ideological banners. Yet all are allowed to flourish despite the regime’s extensive security reach.
Why?
Because they are convenient foils: foreign, fractious, and easy to fear.
They serve as symbolic threats that justify authoritarian control. They allow the regime to point outward to distract from its failures within. This is asymmetric warfare—not of weapons, but of perception. External threats are exaggerated to obscure internal decay.
Meanwhile, the true danger to the regime—principled, unified nationalist movements—is never mentioned. Not because they are insignificant, but because they cannot be caricatured, co‑opted, or controlled.
Nationalists: The Mirror and the Threat
Nationalist groups do not seek to divide Eritrea. They seek to redeem it.
They do not challenge Eritrean unity—they challenge the regime’s monopoly over its meaning. They embody the very values the PFDJ once claimed: dignity, justice, accountability, and unity rooted in shared truth. The regime abandoned those values. Nationalists still carry them forward.
That is why they are feared.
The targeted kidnappings of nationalist leaders—such as ELF‑RC’s Teklebrhan Ghebresadick and Woldemariam Bahlibi in the 1990s, and EPDP’s Mohammed Ali Ibrahim in the early 2010s—were not random acts. They were deliberate attempts to extinguish ideological rivals capable of reviving a liberatory vision from within the region.
These men were not merely political opponents. They were threats to the regime’s narrative monopoly.
Reclaiming the Nation’s Voice
At its core, the nationalist movement is a reclamation of Eritrean agency. It refuses to allow the PFDJ to define who is Eritrean, what patriotism means, or who may speak for the nation. That refusal is itself a revolutionary act.
Nationalists offer an alternative legitimacy—one rooted in justice, historical continuity, and a vision of a pluralist future. As diaspora‑led movements grow and transnational narratives take shape, the regime’s grip on Eritrea’s story weakens.
In this evolving landscape, the most powerful weapon is not armed struggle.
It is narrative sovereignty.
Memory, ethics, and history have quietly risen in revolt against silence and repression.
The Urgency—and Promise—of Unity
The PFDJ’s greatest fear is not protest. It is unity.
Not the unity of blind obedience, but the unity of purpose—built on truth, clarity, and a moral vision for Eritrea’s future.
If division is the regime’s strategy, then solidarity is its undoing.
As we enter a new year, many Eritreans—myself included—feel a renewed urgency. The opposition in exile must treat this moment as decisive. What matters is not simply the existence of opposition organizations, but the impact they have on the lives of ordinary Eritreans who endure repression at home and the indignities of refugee life abroad.
Unity is not a slogan. It is a responsibility.
Nationalist unity is powerful because it is inclusive. It does not demand uniformity—it invites transcendence. It offers a vision in which every Eritrean, regardless of background, can find belonging. A future shaped by collective memory, guided by political clarity, and compelled by the ethical force of history.
This is the story the regime cannot tell.
So we must. Together.
A Call to Eritrean Organizations
As we look toward 2026, my commitment is to think, write, and work toward a framework that can bring Eritrean organizations together—across ideological, generational, ethnic, and regional lines—to forge the unity that is a prerequisite for democratic transition. How we manage our diversities will be the true measure of our unity.
I invite all Eritrean organizations to share their vision of unity, their aspirations for the nation, and their ideas for building a durable, principled coalition capable of delivering meaningful change. We must understand why similar initiatives have failed in the past—and make a compelling case for why they can succeed now.
Eritrea’s future will not be written by the regime.
It will be written by those who refuse to surrender the nation’s story.
To Contact the Author: weriz@yahoo.com
Editor’s note: this week’s Perspective is a day late due to technical issues. Apologies.
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