Letters & Opinions

On Eritrea

Wedi Mahtsen

2008-07-03, Issue 385

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/49188

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There are 2 comments on this article.

A disturbing fact about most of the material that finds itself published by the so-called Eritrean opposition, such as Nunu Kidane's, is that it has an uncanny similarity to the anti-Shaebia and anti-Eritrea propaganda that we used to be bombarded and suffocated with day and night by the Ethiopian media – both during the former Derg regime era and the current Weyane regime ("Can an Ethiopian change his skin?"). Even the very wording at times seems to have been copied from there. Is this a coincidence? What is more disturbing is the fact that the so-called opposition groups are judging the Eritrean President and the ruling party not in terms of what works they have accomplished and are accomplishing but rather on their personality. This has a disturbing resemblance to the "inferiority complex" so prevalent in Ethiopian societies (particularly the Amhara and Tigrean groups). Is this similarity a coincidence or is "the friend of my enemy..." theory holding true?

Your "article" implies that someone who is apologetic to the woyane's propaganda machines, but apologetics do have their place and I'm not trying to diminish that fact. The problem here is that you see one pretty girl in a dress and think that another pretty girl with a different physical makeup can wear the exact same dress. You're viewing these so-called "problems" in Eritrea through glasses provided to you by your current dwelling's (be it America, Europe, etc.) seasoned and polished socio-economic structure.

When will the opponents of the Government of Eritrea realize – unless they have already done so - that they are fighting Ethiopia’s war against Eritrea by proxy. To the Eritrean people who are wondering which side to stand on, I offer my humble advice: look at history and learn from it! By doing so, you will not be condemned to repeat it. If the modern-day colonialists supports the so-called 101 opposition groups, which for your information hasn’t even published its political agenda and intent, then shouldn’t we be a bit weary of the motive behind all of this? If the modern-day colonialists are angry at us – because our democratic report card fell below their expectations, but at the same time ignore all the atrocities and human rights abuses conducted by suppressive regimes south of our border and pump millions there, shouldn’t we start worrying about their real motives?

One needs to only compare the US Government published Human Rights for Ethiopia with that for Eritrea to see the great disparity in Human Rights records between the two, yet one is punished and the other isn’t. What could be the reason for this double standard? Could it be because the other countries have already kneeled down and submitted their necks to the stiff collar of aid-dependency and Eritrea has not yet done so? Or could it be that our struggle to attain a just and long-lasting democratic system – one that is based on our own experience, tailor-cut to fit the needs of our people and not simply roughly modeled and based on western double standards – poses a threat to their hypocrisy? Perhaps, we are a bad example that could, if left unchecked, show other developing countries that life exists outside the IMF and World Bank walls! Or, as one of the blessed brilliant daughters of Eritrea, Sophia Tesfamariam, had wrote " Eritrea has become a threat - “a threat of a good example”, a beacon of hope in a continent filled with misery and despair, and where Africans, despite their abundant resources, because of corruption and greed, and most of all because of economic programs prescribed by self-serving external forces, have been relegated to live on handouts from the “generous” west."


Wasn’t it Socrates who said that intelligent people learn from other people’s mistakes? As Eritreans let us learn from both our own and other people’s mistakes. Let us judge our leaders not by the shoes they are wearing but by the distance they have covered in their shoes. For a look at the soles of their shoes will reveal not designer names but rather marks and tears of pebbles and stones not to mention thorns and bullets that can map trails of hardship, blood and toil from the highlands of Nakfa to the lowlands of the Danakil desert. Let us judge our leaders not by how they spend their leisure time but on what they do during the day running the country as best as they can and by their track record.

If Eritrea is indeed facing the calamity and imminent destruction that Nanu Kidane would have us believe, then why is inflation not running amok with the economy? Why is corruption still among the lowest in the whole of Africa? Why did the International Failed States Index listed Eritrea at number 44 ahead of countries such as Nigeria, Kenya, Syria, Colombia and Ethiopia (#16) ?
If the society was so rigidly controlled and there was no freedom of press, how come there are no less than Eight independent Internet Service Providers (ISP) while in "Democratic Ethiopia" – to site but an example - there exists one single government-owned and controlled ISP which is "restricted by it’s prohibitive price"? There are countless examples to bring forth that could easily show that the doomsday prophets have their conclusions sadly wrong. However, this is neither the place nor the time to go into that.

Eritrea faces a number of problems that must be addressed and top on the list is the very sovereignty and security of the country. Don’t we in the Diaspora realize that as long as that danger exists, all other discussions, arguments and cyber-warfare is meaningless? Or are some of us going to be among the enemy troops when they cross our borders again and head towards Asmara? I'm sure the author, Nanu Kidane, would definetely answer "Yes" to the latter.

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