NHARNET ARTICLES

Eritrea Today

Consistency, A Message of Hope:

In the not distant past, The Nharnet Team shared with you some of the qualitative ingredients of a leader. Now, we share with you some ideas about the importance of consistency in the message of a leadership. We said that the leadership has to have vision, integrity and courage among other things. The vision of an entity needs to be disseminated in a consistent manner with a message of hope. That message of hope delivered with credibility and consistency resonates with people. When the message of vision is heard with consistency, people tend to accept the entity and get mobilized and organized.

We need to understand the meaning of consistency and distinctly differentiate it from arrogance and rigidity. The message has to be flexible enough to address current burning issues that the people care about. However, the underlying message should be consistent with the programs and stand of the organization. One such message that should have been consistently conveyed to the people and challenged against the dictatorial regime is the ownership of land in our country.

ELF-RC was almost the sole voice condemning the decree of the lawless government to make land of the government for a long time. It is refreshing to see organizations like MDC take a stand and condemn it vigorously. The people of Eritrea live an agrarian life style with 95% of them depending on land to be tilled. If land is taken away by the government, the whole population immediately becomes dependent on the government for its livelihood. The more the people are dependent on the government for their survival, the less likely they are to stand up against the tyranny. Survival is inherently the primary goal of any being. The people cannot be rationally expected to revolt against a force which can take away their livelihood within a split of a second. That was the very policy that clearly showed EPLF as a front and PFDJ as a party are headed to march of no return towards dictatorship and tyranny. That act and many other similar policies proved ELF-RC right in declaring that the provisional government was a dictatorship back in 1994. Parallel to the question of land, business licenses were denied to most people who are not PFDJ collaborators. Many who went back to their country from the west for good ended up either establishing business in Ethiopia or coming back to the west disappointed.

We do not want to bore you with what PFDJ did or did not do. Almost everyone knows what PFDJ did and is doing. The point that we want to talk about and a question needs an answer is the action or inaction of the Eritrean educated and the opposition camp. In our opinion it is not even debatable that this issue should have been the most talked about and a point of vigorous contention and challenge against the government. Our people did not fully comprehend the ramifications of that policy. It is an economic terror where the people understand they have nothing to eat if they stand against the regime. Once it owned the land, then it will sell it to who ever it chooses. It is a tremendous source of income. It has been a way of keeping the Eritreans in the Diaspora in line. It created a competition as who built a house at what price and what size. Where were the educated Eritreans? Was this a complicated concept that they missed it? Is it an opportunism that lends itself to the "why should I "attitude? Why didn't the opposition camp do all they could to stem it or did they and they were so ineffective. Either way, it does not look good.

Our people inside the country are living under tyranny that is ruling by unjust imprisonment, kidnapping and pure terror. So, it is not likely to expect them, not yet anyway, to demonstrate against the decree that makes the people welfare recipients of the state instead of rightful owners of their village land. The fate that would await them if they dared to voice their disagreement is known to the world except to those who want to close their eyes. The Eritreans in the Diaspora consider buying land from the government and building houses a privilege that they did not deserve. They sell their morality and soul to the privilege of buying land. They forget that it is them giving the outlaw government a privilege with their investment and influx of funds to oppress the people. It is a historical betrayal of our people to pay the brutal government their hard earned money for the land taken away from the people by unlawful decree that is being used to keep them voiceless and right less. The opposition needs to send a consistent message of deploring and condemning displacing our people for the convenience of those in the Diaspora who support the government blindly. The youth who are spending their precious days at the trenches fighting unnecessary and avoidable wars while those in the Diaspora are building on land that belong to them. Some of the land that is being sold by the tyranny and bought by the Diaspora belongs to those who paid with their lives during the struggle and in the avoidable wars after independence. It is rather obvious the kind of life their loved ones leading. Couldn't the dollar from the sale of their own land help to ease their economic pain? The buyers are the same people who supported the war that killed thousands of our youth while they have their own children in universities and colleges. They cannot pretend that they do not know right from wrong. They should know that the land that they are buying from the outlaw government belongs to the people of the perspective villagers. They need to understand that the people of Eritrea never gave the mandated PFDJ to take away their land. They are taking away land from those who are at the front line with out their will and can't afford to pay the dollar required by the brutal party to suppress the people.

A consistent and strong message needs to be sent on this and other issues that affect our people in entirety. The opposition needs to articulate the changes that they strive for. ELF-RC has issued statements and condemnation since the decree and the others need to follow suit so that we can give our people a consistent message of hope. We applaud the Europe-wide ELF-RC seminar attendees of making this one of the most important pieces of their discussion and taking a clear stand against it.

It needs to be clear that we are not against development in our country. We do not have any issues for people to establish businesses and residential facilities. We understand cities expand into surrounding areas. However, the need must be compelling and the owners properly compensated for their land and the hardship they face if displaced. Those who are looking for any excuse for what they are doing may attempt the expansion as an explanation. However, taking the land away by decree and compensating owners for land used in expanding cities are as opposite as nights and days are.

The Nharnet Team