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EPDP Editorial

Part I

The history of modern Eritrea is the history of a long and arduous struggle in search of statehood and national identity. Successive generations of Eritreans waged both peaceful and armed struggle collectively against their common colonial powers (Turks, Egyptians, Italians, British, and Ethiopians). Particularly, organized Eritrean national resistance against colonial rules got momentum during the 1940’s and the 1950’s, which overtime got transformed into an armed national liberation movement in the 1960’s. Thus, after struggling against successive colonial powers for almost 100 years that includes thirty years of bloody armed struggle against the last alien ruler, Ethiopia, Eritrea's de facto independence was realized under the leadership of the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) in May 1991 and the birth of the nation was formally legalized, de jure independence, through the April 1993 United Nations monitored referendum, which of course had its drawbacks regarding the representation of sister liberation fronts. However, as we know, independence was not an aim in itself but a means to an end - to have an all-inclusive democratic, political, economic, and social system with solid political and civil institutions. That is, independence was a necessary condition not a sufficient condition for establishing a democratic and prosperous Eritrea.

Indeed, the core objectives and aims of the Eritrean war of liberation were freedom, justice, democracy and economic and social emancipation. In this, it is well-evidenced that throughout our struggle for independence, leading Eritrean figures of the armed struggle constantly made solemn pledges and vows of the importance of the establishment of democracy, rule of law, and a society governed by democratic principles and institutions anchored on a constitutional governance that is accountable to the people in post-independence Eritrea. These pledges also continued during the first few years after de facto independence. The National Charter(adopted by the 3rd congress of EPLF in 1994) and the 1997 Constitutionfor example, pledged the birth/creation of a free, democratic and prosperous Eritrea with a constitutional political system that upholds the rule of law and respects the fundamental principles of freedom and human rights. Again notwithstanding the drawbacks of the constitution making process, the pursuit of these noble objectives, many of them included in the 1997 constitution, was the raison d’être for the Eritrean liberation struggle where generations of Eritreans paid untold sacrifices. Hence, the ultimate legacy of the Eritrean liberation struggle in general and the EPLF (as an organization that led the final phase of the Eritrean struggle to victory) in particular would have been the creation of a constitutional and democratic Eritrean State, which would recognize the legitimacy of a government that derives from the consent of the governed (the people) and that would become sustainable by an active citizenry engagement and participation in the governance of the country. It did not happen.

Because, not long after independence, the process of nation building and the democratization of Eritrea was hijacked by a group of ruthless predatory dictators and subsequently the noble objectives of the liberation struggle were subverted for personal power and aggrandizement of these few unscrupulous predators – by all account antithetical to what Eritrean martyrs and Eritrean people had all along struggled and envisioned for their country, meaning the establishment of popular governance and not a dictatorship. But, what we have now in Eritrea is the latter, which is the rule of dictatorship under one man with unlimited power that rules by decrees. With this, all the pledges and the concrete promises that were made during and after the liberation struggle were betrayed to the core by none other than Isaias and his henchmen elites who are anti democracy, anti diverse views, and anti Eritrean citizens’ sovereignty.

After securing power through the PFDJ Party, which is the nucleus of authoritarianism in Eritrea, this kleptocratic group led by Isaias went on a spree of purging and eliminating pro democracy elements among the ranks of the EPLF first and later against members of the PFDJ. Once Isaias took control of the PFDJ, he changed its structure and character, reduced it to a mere exploitative weapon, and made it a brute Party to suppress all political dissenters and oppositions. And over the past two decades, Isaias frozen public servants and military personnel, tortured opponents, outlawed press freedom, imprisoned and murdered hundreds of pro democracy movement groups who pushed and called for constitution governance in Eritrea, and put hundreds of others in incommunicado and solitary confinements. Needless to say, now two decades later, it seems that Isaias has reached the stage where he thinks he can have a free and smooth ride to his dream land – an Eritrea ruled by a person of his choice to maintain his “legacy”– even if it means that person is from his own clique or from his own family.History shows that some dictators succeeded or attempted in creating family dynasties such as the three generations lineage of the Kim Dynasty of North Korea and the Al-Assad Dynasty of Syria; and other dictators such as Mubarak of Egypt, Gaddafi of Libya, and Ali Abdella Saleh of Yemen - attempted to create a family dynasty but they failed due to popular uprising.

In his 2015 New Year interview, after shelving it for 17 years, Isaias declared his own 1997 constitution as a ‘dead’ document. Not only that, but also he declared that he is planning to draft a new one. Will he draft a new one? What kind of constitution will it be? How will it be different from the 1997 constitution? If at all his hidden drafters produce one, it will be either a document that will allow ONLY One Party System or a NO-Party System of which both these systems pave the way for the continuation of his unholy “legacies” in Eritrea – the dream land of Isaias. In reality, Isaias is digging the last ditch to bury the legacy of the EPLF/the liberation struggle and with that comes the continuation of the denial of Eritrean people their right to have a constitutional political system that upholds the rule of law and respects the fundamental freedoms and basic human rights. Whether or not Isaias will be able to land in his dream land will depend on what the Eritrean people will do. But what is absolutely clear now through his recent interview is that Isaias has admitted that he has in fact been ruling Eritrea without a constitution (without the consent of the Eritrean people) for the last 17 years. For the brainwashed majority followers of the PFDJ, this should be a red flag that Isaias’ regime is illegitimate and that Isaias has neither a right nor a legitimacy to eliminate or declare the 1997 constitution as dead.

But in a reversal of fortune, as if the Eritrean history is not replete with betrayals, the Eritrean people have been betrayed once again by a homegrown predatory dictator. Because of this, almost 24 years after independence, Eritrea does not have a constitution, has had no elections and no contract between the governed and the government. The Isaias regime has failed Eritrea in all its political, educational, cultural and socio-economic policies. Instead, Isaias all along engaged in looting the country’s resources and distributing it to the ruling class and other selective minority groups as a means to maximize the power of his dictatorial regime. The use of the country’s resources as a form of patronage and favoritism is used to placate supporters and punish those who oppose the regime.

The brute fact is instead of establishing governance structures and resources allocation system that allows popular participation, the regime from the outset adopted extractive and exclusionary laws that allow it to capture all the benefits of our independence. As a consequence, many population groups in our country were and are marginalized politically, socially and economically. Ever since its inception, the regime has centralized the production and distribution of resources, established patronage and privileges at the expense of all other elements of the nation’s economy. We know, using this political power, the few in PFDJ have accumulated enormous wealth and resources of the state for themselves. In addition, the state power arrangement does not constrain the powers of the government: it does not guarantee economic freedom; it does not provide mechanisms for peaceful resolution of conflicting interests of various groups within Eritrea; it does not advocate for peaceful coexistence in Eritrea. What we have in Eritrea is a “failed state phenomenon” where the regime neither cares for the majority of the people or for the public good, nor for the people’s right.

Last, with the latest declaration of scrapping the 1997 constitution, Eritrea is being exposed to a bone-deep deficiency of statehood and representative political system, which is a major threat to the country and its people. And this is the final nail in the coffin of all the legacies of EPLF and of the struggle of Eritrean people for democracy and freedom. Where is the anger and fire of ex-EPLF fighters who paid blood and sweat to achieve free Eritrea, but betrayed by Isaias? Our question is, was not the basic precept of the constitutional process to establish rule of law and representative government in Eritrea? Is not it time that we say enough is enough and stop the evil minded Isaias from destroying and burying the legacy of our armed struggle and thedream of our people – a dream of democracy, rule of law, and constitutional governance that is accountable to the people of Eritrea? EPDP says “it is high time that we should” intensify our call upon the Eritrean public in general and all ex-EPLF fighters and supporters in particular to join hands and confront the evil intent and design of Isaias and save the “Eritrean Nation” from descending into political, social, economic and demographic abyss. Understanding the evil mind behind this unfortunate negative trend is relegated to the Part II of this series.