‘PIA and PFDJ are digging Eritrea into a deep hole.  We can allow them to turn that hole into Eritrea’s burial ground, or we can use the hole to build solidfoundation [meseret] upon which to build the future Eritrea.  The choice is ours to make.’

 

In a switch to my normal writing style, I will present a serious of short articles aimed at raising the most fundamental questions, or meseretawi hitotat.

 

What are the basis of healthy, vibrant, and viable societies?  Are we on that path?

 

At a time when every news coming out Eritrea is disheartening, it becomes that much more important that the rest of us, especially those of us fortunate to be in Diaspora, remain ever prepared to resuscitate a nation that is being battered by a brutal regime.

 

A society is made up of a group of individuals who consent to abide by well-established and widely accepted rule-of-law.  One individual or group of individuals [Higdefawiyan] have no right to dictate the majority of the population by which rules the majority must be governed.  No individual or group of individuals are vested with infinite wisdom, nor possess divine blessing to override the wishes of the majority. 

 

There is no justification whatsoever for few individuals within the PFDJ to hold the entire country hostage to their ruthless political games.  PFDJ sympathizers subscribe to every anti-democratic and anti-justice beliefs.  It is ironical and hypocritical when those who espouse these anti-democratic and anti-justice beliefs are the same ones who live and enjoy the fruits of democracy – justice and liberty – in the West.  None of these PFDJ sympathizers will dare to return to Eritrea to live under the tyrannical government.

 

When G-11, journalists, and many other brave Eritreans were arrested throughout 2001, PFDJ campaigned to discredit the political prisoners without a single shred of evidence.  To PFDJ’s dismay, we heard many stories how the wise people of Eritrea refused to condemn the political prisoners without fair trial.  The wise people of Eritrea said, ‘As our forefathers wisely said, ‘listen to both sides before judging’.   PFDJ bit a bitter pill and proceeded to punish the very same people who offered these wise words. 

 

In contrast, and unlike our wise forefathers, PFDJ sympathizers condemn fellow Eritreans without ‘listening’ to the other side.  Any group that reaches judgment without seeking facts, evidence, and proof become part of a any problem - and are never part of a solution.  These are the same groups that destroy societies and nations.  Africa, in general, is suffering because of the likes of PFDJ sympathizers who subvert everything requisite for the survival of healthy and vibrant society.

 

For the rest of us, we should NOT be discouraged because of the few subversive elements within our society.  After all, in life, the good comes with the bad.  Every nation in the world has its extremely few group of individuals who attempt to subvert everything the overwhelming majority believes in.  In every nation of the world, there are ruthless group of individuals capable of meting out severe punishment on their people.  The success of a society or a nation does NOT depend on what extremely few individuals do to destroy a nation, but what the majority of the population do to protect their liberty, justice, freedom, and everything they hold dear.    As long as we don’t understand this unfortunate reality, our nation will continue to suffer not only under PFDJ, but also under its successors.  

 

The majority of us must accept the fact that there will always be dictator sympathizers.  We should never be discouraged by them.  Like a farmer who must cope with weeds to grow his crops, we must concentrate on tilling, then weeding out, and then harvesting in order to bear the fruits of our labor.   That is the law of nature!

 

 

Family

 

Some wrongly believe that a vibrant economy is one that is engaged in superficially developing its physical infrastructures. The single most important factor for dynamic and stable society is the well-being of family units.  Protecting and nurturing family units is just as critical as striving for individual liberties. 

 

PIA, PFDJ, and its sympathizers have waged blatant war on Eritrean families under the pretext of national security and national development.    Few examples include,

 

  1. Young fathers are stripped from their wives and children, leaving households without income and heads of households.  Children are growing up in, what amounts to, single parent environment with its adverse impact.  This is PFDJ’s economic war on Eritrean families.
  2. Parents are imprisoned for actions of their grown siblings, leaving the rest of the family members without fathers and/or mothers.  Conducting round ups during rainy seasons when farmers are engaged in growing foods is purposely carried out to debilitate sources of revenue for the majority of Eritrean families. This is yet again PFDJ’s economic war on Eritrean families. 
  3. Young Eritreans are being stripped from their parents under the pretext of completing high school education, and instead are being fed to Sawa wolves masquerading as military trainers.    This is PFDJ’s blatant campaign to corrupt Eritrean values, tradition, and culture.

 

Ethiopian regime’s potential external threat is significantly less damaging than Eritrean regime’s blatant internal war on Eritrean values, tradition, culture, and sense-of-justice.

 

Next:  Meseretawi Hitotat Part II:  PFDJ, Antithesis of EPLF

 

Berhan Hagos

August 7, 2005