WHERE DO WE STAND ON THE STRUGGLE FOR DEMOCRACY?
Careful Analysis and the State of Affairs in Eritrean Politics!!

Dr. T. A. Taddesse

The old era is ending. The old ways will not do. If we open a quarrel between the present and the past, we shall be in danger of losing the future. So, let's begin anew - remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let both sides explore what problems unite us, instead of belaboring those problems, which divide us.
John F. Kennedy, 1961

THE POWER OF ZERO
Well, every reader knows that zero is a number that has no value. Every reader also knows that negative numbers, zero and positive numbers make up the universe of all the numbers known to the average person. In our daily vernacular, we also talk about negative people and positive people. There is a possibility for people to change their ways, if they are willing. But, sometimes change could also be induced externally. The key question, nonetheless, is "how do you change a person from being negative to being positive?" I say, you have to neutralize him first! Neutralize is another name for zero. In other words, if you could walk a person from being negative to a state of zero, you have made a quantum progress. The real question is: How do you neutralize a person? This is a question that has taken me on a tour to the non-rational, irrational and the rational world in search of its answer. I think I have finally gotten the answer right. For purposes of this article, however, let's stick to "The power of zero."

What kinds of friends do you have? I will tell you bluntly: Your friends are negative, zero or positive. The negative friends bring the worst in you, the positive people bring the best in you, and the "zero" friends don't influence you one way or the other. This concept also applies to spouses. You can't find this concept anywhere. This is my own personal analysis of people. If anybody could challenge me on this, I am willing to be corrected.

Let me tell you my favorite story. It is said that the Clintons were once driving in a country road in Arkansas in the 1990's when Mr. Clinton decided to stop at a country gas station. At a distance, Hillary sees a a ruggedy homeless man and runs towards him without giving any explanation to the president. She hugged the homeless man passionately and continued to inquire about his health and overall condition. After instructing the homeless man to wait for her, she run to the car and gets her purse. In the mean time, the president, who was confused about what his wife was up to, asks her for an explanation. After saying, "I'll explain everything," she runs back to the homeless man and gives the lucky man ten $100 bills. Now, the president is getting more confused. He could not wait too long for an explanation.

Finally, Hillary comes back. Right away, Bill Clinton says, "What was that all about?" Hillary shot back,"Did you see that homeless man?" He said, "yes," emphatically. She continued, "Well, that was my first boy friend! If I had married him instead of you, he would have been in the White House, and you would have been a homeless man like him." When I first heard this story, I was elated; I think it is a neat story. This story is so powerful, it speaks to the power of a positive friend or spouse bring the best in you.

ERITREA IN 1991 - THE BAD NEWS
Eritrea started its nationhood in 1991. Unfortunately, the military dictatorship grabbed power with the barrel of the gun, without any popular mandate. Since independent Eritrea was rightly the outcome of a "war of liberation and revolution," the people and most of the liberation fighters expected the rightful owners of of the new government to be the people. The dictator in Eritrea had a different idea: he was the owner of the government and the people were his serfs, only good enough to offer their slave-labor.

This reminds me of a story I heard in Southern Shoa, when I was doing my university national service in Ethiopia. It was a story about the father of this old man I met personally. Gardening was his forte when I met him. Apparently, gardening was also what his father did best before he died. He had a large plot of land that he turned into a paradise in the middle of vast and unteded, but potentially fertile land by the river. In his young days, it so happened Emperor Menilik visited his garden and sincerely expressed his appreciation of the garden. To which the man retorted, "Your Highness, if you like my garden that much, I offer it to you as a gift. I can always duplicate a similar garden adjuscent to it."

The emperor left in anger! The emperor's deputies asked the man, "who are you to give the emperor his own land. Don't you know the whole country of Ethiopia is his and that everyone is at the mercy of the emperor?" The man had no answer. He could only silently remember that he sacrificed a lot of sweat, blood and tears to make the garden what it was - a paradise. They finally incarcerated and flogged the man until he was left almost lifeless. There is no difference between the Byzantine mindsets of Emperor Menilik in the 19th Century and Emperor Isaias in the 21st Century. As his latest interview with Al-Jezeera confirmed, the dictator in Asmara thinks that Eritrea with everything in it, including the people, is his personal possession. That is a shame; needless to state Isaias is that ignorant and his knowledgebase that barren.

Back to our story of 1991. The feud between the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) and the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) begun to be unleashed way before 1991. Obviously, the small country of Eritrea could not afford to be an arena of violence in perpetuity. one way or the other, something had to give. Since the EPLF was in a position of strength, it ended up forcing a military solution on the ELF. Strange as it may seem now, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) fought on the side of the EPLF in order to tip the balance of forces in favor of the latter. Brothers and sisters fought each other in this fratricidal war between the ELF and EPLF in the early 1980's. The end result was that the EPLF "won" and the ELF "lost." The EPLF awarded Badme and its environs to the TPLF as a reward for its contribution to the demise of the ELF, without thinking for a moment that it was planting a seed of future conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Besides being characterized as ad hoc, the problem with an unjust military solution like this is that the losers regrouped to haunt the winner in the long run.

At liberation in 1991, the government of Eritrea should have been founded on the principle that each Eritrean has equal rights and responsibilities before the law, and that the government is accountable to, and derived its power from the people. For all practical purposes, no one was above the law. Isaias and his cronies missed the point when they forgot that government existed for the benefit of the governed, and not for the benefit of the governors or public servants. As Benjamin Franklin once stated,"In free governments, the rulers are the servants and the people their superiors and sovereigns."

ERITREA IN 2004 - THE GOOD NEWS
Careful analysis of the current events in Eritrea confirms that the fundamentals in Eritrean politics have changed radically and irreversibly. To begin with, the united front that was forged by Mesfin Hagos' EDP (EPLF) and Seyoum Ogbamichael's ELF-RC, on one hand, and Adhanom Ghebremariam's (EPLF) and Ahmed Nasser's ELF-NC on the other, is a clear testament to the fact that the ELF-EPLF pschological barrier is relegated to the dust bin of history.

The only other impediment between Eritrea and its democratic destiny is Isaias and his cronies. It is only a matter of time before he also falls off the Eritrean tree like a ripe apple. There is absolutely nothing Isaias or anybody else could do about it. Isaias has neither the knowledgebase nor the window of opportunity to play a positive role in the development of democratic Eritrea henceforth. When the paradigm shifted from dictatorship to democracy in people's minds, Isaias was automatically relegated to zero.

The slate has been cleared for Eritreans to write their visions of the new Erirea. That is the power of zero. It is about time each and every Eritrean steps up to the plate to write his/her vision for a democratic Eritrea. Out of the combinations of these visions will be born a new democratic Eritrea where we can:
Delineate a common ground on which multiple political parties of all shades could operate with ethical responsibility and a sense of shared accountability.
Build a framework of common democratic cultural values that will enable us to evaluate the behavior and performance of future Eritrean governments.
Create a positive environment for the establishment of democratic institutions in all spheres of Eritrean society.
Accelerate our transition from a one-man and one-party based governance to an open, process based, predictable, accountable and truly democratic governance.
Help unleash the creative energy of our people, businesses and professional community in order to accelerate the creation of wealth on a local and global level.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

We, as a people, have a choice of being reactive by letting things slide and continue to wish that some day we will arrive at a desired state of governance. We also have a choice of being proactive in articulating well thought out policies that will unleash the creative energies of all Eritreans. It is about time we should come together to define a common vision that our people find empowering in their quest for a happier and fulfilling life. Such a vision will also be the basis of establishing accountability with respect to the behavior and performance of our democratic leaders.

Eritrea is endowed with highly educated and professional people that are presently at the service of other developing and highly developed nations. They are good at what they are doing and are adding value for the nations they are working for. With the right combination of incentives and the implementation of democracy and the rule of law, these same Eritreans could be convinced to work side by side with their counterparts inside the country.

The present political impasse in Eritrea calls for a radical departure from the evil practice of dictatorship and tyranny. Any panacea advanced must of necessity provide a universal solution by adequately considering and balancing the interests of all Eritreans within the borders of the original provinces. This assumes the acquisition of skills to govern by consent as opposed to governance by vengeance. Any solution that emanates from a narrowly defined objectives or is arrived at by a process of a reductionist approach to the problem is tantamount to the continuation and maintenance of the same vicious cycle of violence.

Such a governance style assumes a determined defense for a multi-party democratic system, full freedom of the press, a firm stand against all human rights abuses, upholds the respect for free and open society and individual liberty, encourages full participation by women in major decision making processes, a free market system, the respect for private sector businesses and sensible policies which guarantee full support to the indigenous private entrepreneur, so vital to the development of Eritrea.

ADDENDUM

The creative potential of Eritreans everywhere is begging to be unlocked again. As stated above, the crisis of leadership that has failed to align (unite + lead) our people is the root-cause of our problem. The current leadership in Asmara, to whom the word democracy is a foreign language, is trying to maintain its grip on power by pretending to implement the very concept they are allergic to. Eritrea's problem is a structural one of epic proportions, requiring new visionary leaders who can think out of the box. We need to hear more from such leaders. Let us face it; we cannot build anything worthwhile on a structurally defective foundation.

So, it goes without saying that the crisis of leadership within the opposition is also just as rampant. The emergence of the group of 4+1, who are totally accountable to weyane, is a black comedy; every Eritrean knows Ethiopia's sinister designs in the region, and Eritrea's welfare have never been convergent throughout history.

Individuals like Dr. Tesfatsion Medhane should also offer an apology and an explanation to all Eritreans before they embark on any leadership role within democratic Eritrea. Isn't he the same person who declared that Eritrea does not deserve independence? Who proposed that Eritrea should forever merge with Ethiopia? In the early 1980's, Mengistu Hailemariam was so impressed with Dr. Tesfatsion's distaste for Eritrea's struggle for independence and his commitment to the now defunct Soviet Union's foreign policy perscription to the developing nations, "The Non-Capitalist Road to Development," he sent a special invitation to him to go to Ethiopia. I hear Dr. Tesfatsion is still a true believer of the same propaganda tool, long after the Soviet Union withered away without a trace. Why do such people take the Eritrean people for fools? I personally feel insulted by such arrogance!!

Dr. T. A. Taddesse , who is solely responsible for the contents of this page, contributes the above commentary. For any comments and civilized exchange of ideas contact Dr. T. A. Taddesse