United We Stand

To bring lowlanders to an equal footing with highlanders Ali Salim and his pals urge lowlanders' to start a revolution and to struggle for their fundamental rights as citizens of Eritrea. They want to see all Tygrinas evicted from territories that they call are "ancestral" lands of the lowlanders and stop any current and future settlement programs of highlanders in the Gash/Barka region if justice and peace is to prevail in Eritrea.

Many readers are deeply concerned by Ali Salim's extreme and insensitive remarks and are wondering why he was allowed to have his hate literature published by awate.com. But in spite of strong protests Ali Salim's venomous articles seem to always make it through to final print under the guise of freedom of speech. As a matter of fact, awate.com's webmaster, defending Ali's views writes,

"If some people think that Ali’s thought are minority thoughts, they are dead wrong. Many more share his views. .....Anyone who thinks that Eritrean national unity would be undone because of a citizen pleaded for justice, as Ali Salim lamented, is a person who abhors the ideals of justice. I beg the few writers to stop sounding the alarm every time a serious discussion is initiated. There is nothing more annoying than the abused hollow cry of national unity."

This webmaster, (who some suspect is Ali Salim himself) seems to overlook the fact that the question is not whether or not Ali is right. What people are finding shocking is why is Ali Salim "pleading for justice" by insulting and offending Christian Highlanders? Why is the webmaster patting Ali's back when he knows fully well that Salim's is using inappropriate and hateful language that could potentially spark ethnic tension and enmity in Eritrea?

Even in the most democratic nations, freedom of expression has its limits and responsibilities. Publishers and editors often exercise caution not to cross the gray line and publish any written or electronic material that denigrates peoples' religion, race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, nationality and etc. So, any responsible editor or webmaster would definitely think twice before publishing prejudicial and inflammatory literature.

Ali has shown his true colors in his recent article, entitled, "Within Reach". He first praises and applauds all those who agree with him in order to lock-in their future support. He then unashamedly tones down his rhetoric and makes an emotional appeal to Eritrean Highlanders, who until very recently have been the effigies for his target practice. And he threatens that if highland intellectuals particularly do not heed his advice and take timely action, it will be Armageddon in Eritrea. He writes, “The only ones, who can stop the incarnation of this scenario in a nation where only nightmares seem to turn into reality, are Highlanders, intellectuals in particular. The ball is in your court.”

What is the nightmare that Salim is talking about.? You have only to read this. “Times have changed and the beauty we used to know is no more. It was friends, and neighbors and classmates that slaughtered one another in Rwanda and all people in an instant of anger needed to induce total amnesia of anything beautiful was hours of radio time. If this nightmare does [not] happen, by the time Awate publishes the bad news on Gedab or a curious journalist sends pictures to CNN, the clock will have gone too far to be reversed and the Eritrea that we know will have change beyond recognition”

Ali's impending apocalypse for future Eritrea is no less graphic than the biblical description of the end of times. Ali and his dream team of admirers want us to believe that the PFDJ-run government is a banner carrier of Tygrina Eritreans. They tell us all laws enacted by the PFDJ, be land laws, conscription laws and others are designed to favor the Tyrgrinas and harm other ethnic groups. Some of the straw man arguments they are advancing to inflame the people are as follows:

1. That the regime is settling highlanders in the lowlands by uprooting lowlanders from their ancestral lands,

2. That the regime is planning to hold the Eritrean lowland refugees in the Sudan in order to buy more time to allot their land to Tyrgina Eritreans a la Israeli settlement policies in Palestine

3. That the regime willfully marginalizes Eritrean lowlanders from being an integral part of the political and social process in Eritrea.

4. That Tygrina Highland Christians party to whatever injustice the government inculcates on the lowlanders.

These are all straw man arguments because they are based on the worst case scenarios. The Eritrean regime's land tenure system is adversely affecting highlanders and lowlanders equally. For example, the land holdings of the peasants around Asmara is being sold for billions of dollars to the highest bidder by the government just as large swaps of low land areas are being cultivated by the economic wing of the PFDJ - the 09. Ali Salim cannot point a single law that targets lowlanders specifically. The regime has a rigid law that demands for the conscription of people whose age range from 18-50 to the so called national service. All Eritreans regardless of their ethnic origin are bearing the brunt of this law.

We can go on and on showing that in Eritrea, a country that is being described as the biggest open prison in the world, no body is being spared from one form of injustice or another. So, the opposition groups need to address issues soberly if they are to establish their credibility. So far they have not been able to expand their support base because the Eritrean people are very skeptical of the motives of these groups. There are many Eritreans who say, if not Isayas, then who? Thanks, to the likes of Ali Salim many Eritreans will not get over this kind of skepticism for a long time to come. So, let's have a vision of Eritrea based on wisdom, tact and farsightedness and work for the best interests of our people. We should fight against anything that endangers our unity. We should put pressure on the so called opposition groups to change the tone and objective of their political campaign instead of poisining the well.