By most measurements, the current state of Eritrea is deplorable and this state of affair is getting worse by the time. The struggle for justice in Eritrea has grown long while the horrific events in our country are increasing tremendously. While some Eritreans are expressing their discontent openly, others are not. Each of these have a reason of their own for their actions. One of the reasons why some keep quite might be the unity and representation syndrome in the diaspora Eritrean struggle for 'Justice'. No one doubts what is missing in Eritrea is justice. But, I am not sure if the struggle for 'justice' in the diaspora is really a struggle for justice. It appears a struggle for fulfillment of some narrow religious, ethnic or other interests. This is a very important point, as it is the reason why someone sacrifices time, money and energy. It may be a waste of time if someone struggles open heartily for justice for many years to only later realize that the person on his side was struggling for his/her narrow ethnic, religious or other interests.

The opposition political groups have not been able to bring most on board as they have been more engaged in discussion among themselves, usually about unity. This intra-political parties discussions so far have not brought the desired results. That is why we have more than 35 political parties in a country of about 5 million. This is because the respective parties are missing the main point, justice; they are more concerned about power and influence.

This dangerous trend is now getting its way to our youth organizations. We saw the formation of the EMDHR (Eritrean Movement for Democracy and Human Rights) by brave Eritrea intellectual youth in South Africa. We then observed the formation of the Eritrean Youth Global Movement (EYGM) in the USA. There is the EYC (Eritrean Youth for Change) of the US Bay Area, who have been doing tremendously good activities in their region. Following the Arab Spring, we saw the formation of the EYSC (Eritrean Youth Solidarity for Change) who are using social networks like facebook for their struggle. We also have the Smerrrrr youth group, mainly active in paltalk.

After these youth groups were formed, one after the other, in a span of about 10 years, they are now engaged in unity talks. This seems like 'Raza nay abuu haza', 'the son follows the deeds of his father'. Unity is always power as long as the uniting factor is the speeding up of the struggle for justice, as opposed to power and other narrow interests. I thus fear that the unity and separation talk we witnessed happen in Eritrean diaspora political parties over the past years might be getting their foot in our youth organizations. 

Representation of members of some religious, ethnic and other groups has also been a stumbling block in the struggle for justice in Eritrea. While representation of every group is necessary, it appears to me that we are a step backward in our struggle for justice. If the reason someone is struggling is to restore justice, then the main rallying point should be the quest for justice as opposed to the quest to include and/or exclude members of certain groups. If a call is made for Eritreans to join hands in the struggle for justice, who ever heard of the call has to come on board. However, if those who came on board are prevented from moving forward because members of certain groups did not show up, then we are still far in our struggle. Hence, we need to ask ourselves, is our struggle a struggle for justice or it is about including particular ethnic and religious groups? Do we have to go out and campaign to bring PFDJ supporters on board for struggle for justice or do we have to go out to awaken members of particular groups because they chose to keep silent when they were called to come on board? This representation syndrome has negatively affected the development of opposition groups in the past. It has also negatively affected the development of some community organizations.

What is needed is a struggle for justice that smells nothing but justice. Justice has no religion; justice has no ethnicity; justice has no regional boundary; justice is universal and should be for all; this should be the only rallying point in our struggle for justice in our beloved homeland Eritrea.

Nitsuh @ This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it