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‘WE REPEAT:
NATIONAL UNITY IS OUR CENTRAL OBJECTIVE’
By ELF-RC Office for Information and Culture
The inescapable truth is that the dictatorial regime in Eritrea is in
a mortal decline, which will definitely lead to its demise. There is no
doubt about that; thinking otherwise is sheer hallucination. With this
understanding, it is important to conclude that the priority task for
Eritreans at this time is to prepare the groundwork for a peaceful,
stable and democratic system that has to be built over the graves of the
PFDJ dictator and his narrow circle after successfully averting two
possible occurrences: 1. Another version of dictatorship, or 2. Chaos
and social disorder.
There are reasons to express fear of chaos or the emergence of
another military dictator in post-Isayas Eritrea because we already have
the seeds for such unwanted possibilities. The evil seeds already
existing in our setting include the following: desperation and lack of
mutual trust in the society; absence of rule of law; gross violations of
human rights; the lack of participation in the political life of the
country and the total denial and rejection by the ruling clique of the
principle of transfer of power through democratic process.
To correct this abnormal situation, what Eritrea requires is a mass
uprising. Such a popular uprising with the full support of the nation
must stand for the following:
·
The unity of the people and the land.
·
Equal rights of the different segments of the nation.
·
Ensuring peace to Eritrea and its neighbours.
·
Replacing the existing hopelessness with renewed
confidence and hope.
Promoting national unity should, therefore, be the topmost objective
of any individual, organization or a party that claims to be opposed to
the PFDJ dictatorship and to be upholding democracy. The practical
mission at this hour has to be the strengthening of the unity of the
people, reawakening their slackened morale and advancing the general
public interest. Any organization or party that does not itself possess
internal unity, stability and confidence in itself cannot for sure
deliver those values to the expectant people. Therefore, in order to be
able to deliver, peace, restore confidence and hope to the people, our
opposition organizations and parties must undergo transformation from
within themselves.
Until this day, the Eritrean opposition camp could not inspire mass
following and mass uprising because it failed to grasp the reality and
act accordingly. The ongoing phenomena of petty rivalries and
inappropriate splits do manifest the lack of correct understanding of
the current situation and the failure to provide the right and practical
response to the question of the hour: what is to be done?
Nowadays, it is possible to generalize that it has become an Eritrean
habit to try to cover up one’s mistakes and shortcomings by finger
pointing and exaggerating the ‘weaknesses’ and the ‘wickedness’ of
others. This habit is let to flourish by the continued state of
confusion in which good performers and evildoers are presented as one
and the same. We have already seen a few selfish elements pushing
forward their narrow agendas at the expense of the common good. To add
insult to injury, certain misguided elements, which pretend to be
defenders of one segment of the people, have of late joined the abusive
regime in widening social, cultural and religious gaps that were
satisfactorily managed by our people.
No individual or political organization that advocates advancing
people’s interest should be bent at harming national unity. If there is
no national unity, there will not be a country, or a people, or peace,
or security and order, or prosperity. On the contrary, failure to
achieve national unity shall mean war, displacement, and anarchy. The
law of the jungle will reign supreme. Therefore, national unity demands
considerable compromises, high sacrifices, absolute restraint from
premature competition for power – and doing all what it takes to secure
it. Safeguarding national unity lends meaning to patriots and
patriotism, to loyalty to one’s people and to being a democratic.
This is why we say the question of national unity should be the
central objective of all Eritreans as far as the ELF-RC is concerned. We
are of the absolute conviction that it is possible for Eritreans and
other peoples to live in peace and in harmony in spite of
multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-religious and political diversity.
When properly managed, all elements of diversity are national assets.
However, they are reversible by the absence of justice and good
governance to become factors of conflict and destruction. That is
exactly what we have in Eritrea under PFDJ.
The ELF-RC is of the conviction that organizations with similar
political programmes can merge without delay, and those with major
differences in their political programmes can still work closely on
their points of agreement while conducting criticism with civility on
the principles that they find disagreeable for Eritrea. Based on this
understanding, we vigorously support the existence of the EDA. However,
ELF-RC believes that there is no convincing justification whatsoever for
the presence of so many member organizations in the Eritrean arena. We
thus encourage mergers of organizations with similar programmes. At the
same time, ELF-RC expresses its willingness and readiness to consider
merger with Eritrean political organizations and parties that have
similar or related views and visions in their programmes for post-PFDJ
Eritrea.
At the same time, we take into account the negative outcomes of the
presence of several armies in the field during the liberation struggle
and what harm it can do in the future, and for this reason firmly
support the establishment of only one national army. ELF-RC believes
that the fragmented units of the opposition ‘armies’ will not be
effective tools of struggle for change and beyond. We therefore call for
the speeding up of the unification process of the armed units of the
opposition as a matter of urgency.
The PFDJ regime is seen following a policy of desperation – aprčs moi
le deluge; meriet dHrey sa’eri aytbQola! – by leading the nation down
the abyss with it. To reverse this diabolic scheme, every patriot is
called upon to play his/her part in defending the threatened unity of
our people. National unity can be obtained and preserved through
responsible dialogue, through understanding based on give and take and
not through threats and the use of brute force.
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