Can You Believe Your Eyes?

The other day, I was perusing old issues of The Eritrean Newsletter that the ELF was publishing. In an autumn 1981 issue, I read what I could not believe.! The story was about a classified material issued as an inside instruction by the People’s Administration department of the EPLF that was headed by Haile Woldetinsae (Deru’e), one of Isaias Afwerki’s old comrades presently under detention.

According to the newsletter article entitled ‘EPLF Confesses’, the secret document carried the heading Self-Evaluation. It self-evaluation partly stated: “The arrogance, the unbearably conceited behaviour of our cadres and the contempt they harbour towards the masses are among the dangerous practices and tendencies prevailing within us."

This contributor and readers would be very grateful to any former EPLF member who has and would be willing to declassify or at least testify about the alleged secret document from EPLF’s old ‘People’s Administration’ issued a quarter of a century ago. If true, and I feel it is true, then it will show that Isayas Afeworki built the arrogant behaviour of his current staff long ago and that there were in the EPLF people like Haile Woldetinsae (Deru’e) who were at times opposed to Isayas Afeworki’s wild ways.

Following is the piece in the old newsletter item that presented condensed excerpts from the secret self-evaluation document of EPLF’s 'kifli hizbawi memihdar' in 1981. Quote -

Very dangerous tendencies are taking hold among the cadres of the People’s Administration Department... Instead of winning the love and respect of the masses, our cadres are looked upon with suspicion and [keep the people] under fear. We cannot deny that members of the department have low opinion of the masses who in turn lost confidence in the former. The following are some of the tendencies and practices of our cadres in the department:

I) The masses are not receiving warm welcome in any office; petty chores are procrastinated and, the people are spending days and weeks before receiving any service from us. Nepotism is also raising up its ugly face: a relative or a friend of a friend can easily be serviced while others are kept at bay.

2) Too many orders are being passed on to the masses with little feedback. Questions raised by the rank-and-file are most than not ignored and laughed at; our cadres are treating the masses as ignorant subjects.

3) Most cadres are becoming too indifferent to their tasks and callous to criticism from below. These phenomena show that the quality of our cadres has declined in inverse proportion to the consciousness of the masses.

4) Cadres are taking very little care of the property of the people they are supposed to [protect] and seem to have little idea as how much the peasants depend on their beasts of burden and agricultural implements to scratch out their subsistence. Borrowed property is usually lost or not given back to its owner with proper gratitude. Those village elders who fail to collect the beasts of burden or other goods asked by cadres are subjected to intimidation and sometimes torture... Such practices are isolating us from the masses who may start casting doubts on our [being] genuine to serve their interests. In fact, problems hitherto unknown to us are arising. Mobilizing and organizing the masses is becoming [difficult] in many parts of the country.

5) Bureaucratic and corrupt practices are worsening in the service sections. It is an open secret that a rich merchant can cut the red-tape easily while the poorer traders and merchants can [remain un-served] by us... The people are watching and passing judgment!

6) The confiscation measures; imposition of unstudied price controls; orders for changing or establishing new market centers over crop-lands without consulting the people [concerned] are also causing credibility gaps between the front and the masses..."

The EPLF self-evaluations also mentions some other truths known to the outside world. For instance, the paper states:" Falsehoods and exaggerations in our reports are touching unbearable levels. Cadres have learned to multiply things ten-fold while the actual achievement may be [small fraction] of the plan. This is too much... The ELF is mentioned as an obstacle to and cause of every failure we encounter; this also is too much.

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