NHARNET ARTICLES

Eritrea Today

Nharnet on its second anniversary, two challenging but defining years

Time is passing by fast. Today is the second anniversary of Nharnet. It is a common assumption that one is either having fun or extremely busy when time flies like that. Fun is out of the question given the circumstances surrounding our people and country. However, it has been interesting and challenging to interact with the public at large. Receiving praises, encouragements, and /or constructive criticisms has made it meaningful. We even learn from the insults and messages intended to intimidate us. We learn their frustration, their campaign lines, as well as misguided propaganda. We are hopeful that some of them are able to learn a fact or two from our correspondence.

For the first few months after its launch, Nharnet's challenge was the attempted hacking, relentless virus attack as well as attempted intimidation by PFDJ thugs. Nharnet brought you what is happening inside the PFDJ circles and inside the country on our Weekly News column until such time it was determined it was not worth the risk for our members inside Eritrea since our people and the world were well aware of the devastation being committed on our people by then. Nharnet brought you timely information about the plight of Eritrean refugees in Malta and all over the world. Now, a handful human right and civic organizations have stepped up to share the responsibility. Nharnet echoed the eloquent defense of the opposition camp by our leadership, the chairman in particular, from the different PFDJ labels including the one at the United Nations General Assembly. It has continued to expose the tragic and devastating decree that took land from its owners, the people. It has made abundantly clear the ELF-RC stand on the border demarcation. We argued that the opposition cannot remain indifferent in issues of highly national matters like the border demarcation and land ownership.

About six months after the launch of Nharnet, the Revolutionary Council (RC) of ELF-RC held its second regular annual meeting. A new leadership was elected at that session. The biggest challenge came from within the leadership of the organization. The Nharnet administration was the first one to be attacked by rumors and then later on the internet. Nharnet was led to believe that the organization came out in unison on the third regular RC session. The split was a very painful phenomenon that is behind us now. The split has been done and there is no gain from beating a dead horse and so we have moved on to our business of fundamentally changing the system in our country to a constitutional multiparty democratic governance.

For the last few months, Nharnet has been able to focus back to its main mission. Defending the organization from internal splinters and external enemies of our nationalistic unifying centrist programs is its natural goal. Its main mission though is establishing a democratic Eritrea where freedom, peace, justice, and prosperity is the norm by handing over the political power back to its legitimate owner, the people, as an organ of a democratic organization. We have been able to stay above the political fray of name calling, false accusations, out-right incriminating lies by some leaders of the splinter group using pen names that has no value to our suffering people or the opposition camp except divide it further.

We have been able to clearly show that ELF-RC opposes PFDJ and marches towards democracy without compromising its stand on the sovereignty of our nation. Nharnet has clarified that ELF-RC remains a very diverse but strong organization that defends the national unity of our people. Nharnet has called on all organizations to work together on the points they agree upon. Nharnet demonstrated that all segments of our people can enjoy equality without dividing our small nation as some circles advocate based on ethnicity or provincial boundaries. Advocating for provincial political organization is a proposition which leads no where but disaster. This is a political stand that led to a loss of our federation and by the same light our independence in the fifties and certainly destined to do similar damage on today's struggle of solving Eritrea's current predicament. It will not serve any purpose except quench the egocentric power thirsty of some figures that put their own roles and influence ahead of national integrity and unity.

Nharnet will stay its course of calling for cooperation within the opposition camp and unity in diversity. Nharnet will echo the need to establish rules of laws based on a democratic constitution. Circles that want to base their solutions on personalities or personal wisdom rather than institutionalized democracy have to learn from the empty promises of the PFDJ leadership that is in power now. Nharnet will continue to analyze the differences between preaching and practicing democracy. The true measure of a democrat is not how much you bash PFDJ or other leaders. It is not how much louder one voices democracy. The true yardstick of measuring of one's conviction to democratic principles is abiding by the outcomes of democratic rules and their results from a free and fair democratic vote. Those who run away from democratic results cannot champion democracy for our people.

The Nharnet Team will continue to bring you the ELF-RC leadership constant and abundantly articulated strategy for a victory. The calls that were repeated by the delegation composed of Mohammad Ali, Mengisteab Asmerom, Mohammad Adem Artaa, and Mohammad Aselo in their tour in the Sudan is part of that strategy. The change ELF-RC aspires to bring to the people and nation is fundamental. We will try to help people to realize that history does not have an example to offer where dictatorships hand over political power voluntarily unless they are forced by the will of the people. Its practices of the last 13 years has shown that PFDJ like any other dictatorship is capable neither of reforming itself nor of handing power to the people until such time the opposition camp gets its act together and map out a strategy of confronting it in an organized meaningful manner. We will continue to analytically clarify that the only choice the opposition camp has is to win the minds and hearts of the people. We will attempt to itemize critical points of bringing the people over to the opposition camp side in our future editorials.

Thank You for Reading

The Nharnet Team