HOW TO PASS POLITICAL POWER TO  THE YOUNG GENERATION?

BY EAIM

   OVERVIEW

    Eritrean struggle for erecting nation-state has been going for years on various strategies and tactics and we believe it is finalized in 1991 with the painful scarifies of its sons and daughters for ever to no return. Nowadays the complex articles by Yoseph Ghebrehiwet ROMENTICIZINGGHEDLI (1): THE EXCUSES and IDENTITY BY” SUBTRACTION” and the responses, rebuttals, views and concerns of many Eritreans some genuine, others hotchpotch we believe should gear us towards the discussion, communication, interaction and plan of action on how to pass the torch (political power) to the young generation. The concerns and suspicion of the Eritrean people that political power or the system of governance will remain with those who romanticize armed struggle (GHEDLI) for a long time to come, whether it is the dictatorial PFDJ or the armed struggle era dominated opposition is highly probable and to some extent real.  We say probable and real “if seeing is believing”, we see it in Cuba, Vietnam, Zimbabwe, Uganda, etc. But politicians say” Political Power is not given, but taken”. Here is our view on this issue and hope will be refined through your participation in the discussion.

    POLITICAL POWER

      Power and politics are ever-present and necessary features of organizational life. With out power and politics, much of what is done in an organization, nation could not be accomplished. Power is interpersonal or inter-group relationship in which one individual or group can cause another individual or group to take an action that he or she would not otherwise take. Power involves changing the behavior of another using force or dialogue, influence and communication. Political power can be coercive like that of dictatorial PFDJ or legitimate that is give to the group through democratic process.

    GENERATION GAP AND LIFE GOES ON

        It is fact of life that generation gap is something that has existed and will continue to exist as long as man exists on this earth. It is not restricted to certain parts of the world, to certain times of human history or to certain cultures. It is fact of life accepted by all generations, all over the world. The inevitable progress of time and technologies makes the introduction of new ideas, new believes and new values unavoidable. It is the above fact of social development in mind that Eritreans have to interact on how to pass political power to the young generation. Eritreans both old and young generation should be careful in analyzing the good and the bad times of our struggle for erecting our nation-state and how to reconcile them specially the era of our armed struggle. In our opinion the positives out weighed the negatives because victory of Eritrea’s freedom justifies that. Martyrdom was not in vain even though unfortunately ended up with dictatorship.

     HISTORICAL WATER-SHEDS AND THE RESPONSIBILITY TO ERECT DEMOCRACY

Three major water-shed historical eras occurred in our historic struggle since the Eritrean entity was clinched in the nineteenth century.

·        The heroic struggle of our fathers and mothers for the independence of Eritrea which ended up in federal yoke.

·        Our historic armed struggle that enabled us to snatch our independence.

·        The presented day struggle for democratic and human rights, for national liberation and economic development.

        Today Eritreans have the task of liberation which voluntarily and enthusiastically have chosen to undertake. Eritrean revolutionaries have the obligation to erect stable Eritrea by putting an end to the grip of the dictatorial regime. The eventual goal is to turn to political, social and economic reconstruction to make it the pre occupation of all Eritreans, where we can create growth and development, so that injustice vanish and just distribution of resources and power prevail and people will employ in fruitful production.

     Even in peaceful and stable Eritrea people will differ in their political, social and economic approach. People differ in their approach in accordance to their need and aspirations. That is why Eritreans are trying to get rid of dictatorship and establish multi-party democracy. Some people confuse the contemporary political stage we are at in the opposition camp with full fledged political system establishment. In many political gatherings and seminars we see and hear some people saying “we form committees representing the people. The leaders of political organizations must be accountable to the Eritrean people”. We say this is like putting the cart before the horse.  We are not there yet. Political organization leaders are accountable to their political program; united front leaders are accountable to their charter. We are at the era of revolutionary struggle where organization members serve their political program and the mass follow the one which they think will serve their interest. This is the era where political organizations may contemplate transition to political parties, form alliances, united fronts etc. It is crucial that all revolutionary organizations unit on minimum national program which enables us transition to provisional national government. 

    In Eritrea today we have short- term and long- term political objectives. The short- term objective is to get rid of dictatorship and the long term is peace, stability and prosperity. The alliances and unity for the short term should be based on minimum national charter which already exists known as the EDA charter. This charter could be strengthened and broadened with new ideas, but should not be abandoned. Eritrean opposition organizations which have similar political programs may discuss and stride towards forming political parties which is one of the long term Eritrean National Program which is healthy and acceptable unity.

 PASSING THE TORCH TO THE YOUNG GENERATION

    The contemporary political situation in Eritrean is the dictatorship scourge and the opposition to get rid of dictatorship and erect democracy. We would like to treat these two political activities separately.

     A)  THE SCOURGE DICTATORSHIP-The EPDJ regime knows no rule of law, is brutalizing his opponents, the regime is using all means under its disposal to eradicate any political opposition, human, religious and individual rights violations are rampant. Our country’s finances, natural resources and production capacities are being plundered to support the dictators’ will. Every able to work is serving the regime’s whim with out pay. Dialogue and negotiations are alien to the Eritrean regime. The regime listens to no one, but himself and has no history of solving internal (domestic) or external conflicts or crisis peacefully, but only violently. Dictatorship is the well known example of poor leadership and man’s greatest scourge and the most significant cause of death. Here is some of what is happening in Eritrea right now.

·       Enslave Eritrans in the name of national service and defense of the mother- land.

·       Massacres people.

·       Herd Eritreans in prisons of unknown locations.

·       Open accounts and invests in places like China while Eritrea is deprived of hard currency.

·       Practice corruption and bribery in governance.

·       Divide and rule.

·       Cause human suffering of mal-nutrition, hunger, illness, and ignorance.

·        Cause economic destruction by governing the country with no economic plan.

·         Cause severe bodily and mental pains on the people who govern.

·        Creates flood of refugees.

·        Reins on one-party dictatorship the negation of our armed struggle and the Oath of independence.

We believe the young generation who should inherit the torch has no alternative, but to work hand in hand with the opposition in alliances. There is no way you expect the dictatorship to pass the political power in a smooth transition. The EPRP political party of the EPLF leadership changed its name to PFDJ just to confuse the people and who knows they might change the name again, but the only way to rescue the people and the country is to get rid of PFDJ and dictatorship once and for all.

B)THE OPPOSITION AND THE PARTICIPATION OF THE YOUNG GENERATION-We said that political power is not given, but taken and when we say that it does not mean smooth transition cannot take place once victory is achieved in this democratization process. The young generation should be vigilant and careful in working with the organizations romanticizing GHEDLI. We did not forget and forgive the ills of the labor party LP within the ELF’s    armed struggle like that of EPRP of the EPLF. Our observation and interaction with the opposition do lead us to suspicion that the labor party might be morphed and emerge under disguised name. This does not mean participation of the young generation with the on going struggle for democratization is not crucial if smooth transition of political power is to happen after we get rid of dictatorship. Criticizing the weaknesses of the opposition is not action, but lame excuse to drug ones feet from participation. 

     We are encouraged by what has started at SHIMELBA camp and we hope joining the opposition alliance will happen soon.

  We struggle we succeed             comments > ama766@comcast.net

  Glory to our martyrs