Eritrea: Between Dissidence and Betrayal

Imagine an ailing man, wearing a tattered jacket underneath a shawl whose strands had turned into blackness. In a local meeting under a sycamore tree, he emerges from among the frantic audience and rants; "መንግስቲ ስጉምቲ ክወስደሎም ኣለዎ!", literary translated as, ‘the government should to take a measure against them.’ And waving his fly whisk and holding up his loose shawl, he descends into the crowd, still murmuring.

Such was a normal occurrence in many quarters of Eritrea in 2001, thanks to the relentless campaign of PFDJ’s officials in the wake of the public row among the higher government officials. One of the lasting impacts of propaganda machines in authoritarian regimes is the hypnotization of the masses to the extent that the whole country is seen as embodiment of one leader. The country is seen as his own creation and he/she is too divine to err and destroy his/her very creation for he/she leads with God's Providence.

Public debates on common problems, issues, priorities and interests are indispensable to building a sustainable democracy and holding a society together. A society that aspires to build a healthy social fabric needs to have the political space for generating new and fresh ideas in the form of dialogues, deliberations and debates which are realized through progressive literature and political agitation.

The nascent deliberative political discourse that emerged during the British Military Administration (BMA) in Eritrea was thwarted with the commencement of the armed struggle when the ELF began to hit hard on critics of the organization and structure of the front. But it was to reach its lowest point in the event of the EPLF's success in prevailing as a formidable opposition in the Eritrean field in the early 1970s.

Menka'e and the Stalinist Great Purge of 1970s

During the independence struggle, those with progressive and intellectual backgrounds were derided and vilified by the inner circles of the highest echelon of the leadership. Isaias Afewerki and his loyal cadres campaigned on a public rally among the soldiers to portray the critics as unpatriotic and selfish. Case in point is the MenkAe Movement of the early 1970s crisis. Many of those who defiantly questioned the leadership were ridiculed with smacks of regional and sub-national sentiments. But the real intention was to kill any possibility of its critics gaining readership among the fighters.

In the years that followed, many of the reformists and their sympathizers were liquidated in the notorious prisons of the Revolutionary Guard (Halewa Sewra) and their ideas rebuffed as negative attitudes that would hold the struggle back. The adverse impact of such ruthless military measures on the establishment of an open and tolerant space for political agitation and dialogue was aptly captured by former Central Committee member of the EPLF, Teclai Ghebre-Mariam (aka, Teclai Aden) in his interview with Ethiopian journalists in 1980.

In an attempt to stifle any possibility of political agitation and debate gaining momentum, the Isaias clique acted quickly and acted viciously to thwart the thriving of openness and accountability within the ranks of the front. To this end, as Teclai Aden testified, "the leading democrats were arrested, fighters who demanded their release met the same fate" and "the Esayas clique collected all the writings of the progressive movement and burned them at a military training camp."

The Mass Administrators (Jemahir) in the liberated areas also administered with maximum impunity there is. Many of our fathers still hold bitter grudges about the humiliations and mistreatments they and/or their village-mates suffered at the hands of the infamous Jemahir. Anyone who dared criticize the leaders in a local council (Baito) meeting was made to stand in the sun and before his/her people to inflict dehumanizing humiliation. With hindsight, the independence generation can infer now, those political suppression and physical liquidations set in motion, the 'do not ask do not tell' policy that has befallen today's Eritrea.

Four decades on, and the poignant reality is, anyone who mildly criticizes the regime is denounced as disloyal and 'anti the people.' And more painful is to know it is the very victims [the people] of the regime who lash out the most unkind remarks against those who yearn for change. 

G15: Defeatists and Conspirators

Have the Eritrean people mistakenly taken dissidence for betrayal and/or treason? In 2001, high ranking officials from the ruling party and the government demanded the President convene a meeting so that a retrospective assessment and evaluation of the 1998-2000 war with Ethiopia were made and reforms charted out. But instead of heeding to their demands for reforms, the President and his darling, the notorious Yemane Ghebreab, embarked on a new wave of vilification and defamation campaign. Nationwide meetings were organized and in a similar pattern to the tactics of denouncement of the MenkAe members, the group of G15 were subjected to the lowest possible public humiliation and condemned to the most inhumane prison treatments ever. The only difference is, the former was conducted in the field's front lines whereas the latter is implemented in an independent country and with a supposedly civilian government.

The President and his Orwellian like propaganda apparatus have created a society that demands uncritical conformity and numbing consensus. And this has perfectly worked out for him in light of nurturing apolitical mass, easily manipulated in extricating the failures of his leadership. It has become a conventional wisdom, within the ranks of the regime, to back-pass any policy failures and ills to the 'ungrateful military officers and low ranking administrators'. That is to say, to talk in critical terms of the regime has now become a political taboo in the very sense of the word and the public has regrettably subscribed to that. Is not it common to hear people say: "ታሕተዎት ሓልፍትን ከዳዓትን ኢዮም እምበር ንሱ [ኢሳያስ] ድኣ ለይትን ቀትርን ይሰርሕ ኣሎ"?

It was in the context of mass hysteria that many Eritreans approved the political disappearance of those who criticized President Isaias in 2001. In a society such as ours, it takes a daring courage and undying principle to be a vocal critic of the regime. Many of us bore witness when many Eritreans were urging the regime to send the members of G15 into the darkness of political volcanoes in 2001.

UoA Students: Un-Eritrean and Unpatriotic

No time was more ideal than the summer of 2001 for the regime to stimulate a stormy wave of mass condemnation against the students of the University of Asmara. It all started as a trivial issue between the government and the students with regards to the regime's policy of the summer program. However, the propaganda machines of the regime took it to the next level by fanning 'moral panic' and public rage when the students' demands were deliberately associated with those of G15.

The public was made to hate and assume the students as 'opportunists, individualists and free-riders' who have the audacity to gnaw the public hands that fed them. And the hope and enthusiasm of the University of Asmara being a bastion for producing a legion of critical thinkers and public intellectuals was sorely dashed as the public condoned the regime's heavy handed measures against the students. In a disguise of summer work program, they were forcibly taken to the inhospitable parts of the country where the searing temperature was used as a tool to punish and teach them a hard lesson. That incident is also said to have marked the dawn of the dismantlement of the only university five years later.

Diaspora Opposition Movements: Sell-outs and Saboteurs

Many of the organized political parties and movements in the Diaspora are not the subject of this short writing. As a keen observer of the Eritrean political landscape, however, I am baffled to see many regime supporters, attacking the professional and personal integrity of individuals who advocate for their compatriots. Many regime supporters have shamelessly questioned the identities of some human rights activists. In recent years, the President's inner circle and his sycophantic hangers-on (mainly Diaspora YPFDJ) have adopted an unpleasant and unprofessional naming and shaming tactics to dissuade prominent critics.

Indeed, many others went further in demanding that their citizenship be revoked. They see them as sell-outs and UnEritrean who conspire against the people by joining with subversive forces that are hell bent on overthrowing the government of the people. Eyob Ghilazgi, a prominent Eritrean researcher and human rights advocate observes:

"This phenomenon is a manifestation of an utter failure from the part of the public to distinguish between the basic elements of a state and their respective mandates. The government has waged war against its people, without the people realizing it."

Dessale B. Abraham, Eritrean writer and journalist also shares similar views on the state of lack of political context and adds;

"It is for the first time in their history, the Eritreans are having a government of theirs, save, the much disputed Eritrean Assembly during the Federation period. For the first few years of post-independence Eritrea, this euphoria helped smokescreen the true nature of the leadership. This has been incorporated with the regime's deliberate distortion of realities, resulting in the incubation of brainwashed mass supporters with an understanding that the people exist to serve the government, not vice versa”

It is in this context that many Eritreans who manage to escape the country are advised by their family associates and friends not to speak out about the socio-economic and political malaise in Eritrea. How many of you have been reminded not to mess up with the government?

I was always inundated with cautionary reminders that there is a lot that I do not know about the Eritrean politics and that most of those who push me [I do not know who] into the misadventures are spies and/or Ethiopians. That is ridiculous! Have you also come across some people who request not to be taken as political? What is it that people understand as 'political' in Eritrea's context? Is it withdrawing into the darkness of uncritical mass acceptance and loyalty?

I hate it when people say: "there is nothing you can do about it. Just fool yourself around and let it go." To me, betrayal is when people choose to be indifferent of their fellow Eritreans suffering. It is inexcusable betrayal not to listen to our conscience and partake in public discussions and inform our people, that, it is the government that should serve them, not rein on them. What is betrayal to you?