”We are all one - or at least we should be - and it is our job, our duty, and our great challenge to fight the voices of division and seek the salve of reconciliation.” Roy Barnes.

National reconciliation has to be at the center of the quest for democratic development and building of a united national identity for the Eritrean nation or at least have to have been the goal of the Eritrean opposition since independence. The process to hold a conference has been in discussion and taken root ten years ago with the central idea as perceived by most people being to promote the reconciliation of the nation and challenge the mafia regime in Asmara by unifying the fragmented Eritrean opposition.

However, after holding the two conferences in Addis Ababa and Awasa, the idea of uniting on a goal and the path to such unified goal is yet to bear fruit.  The opposition remains paralyzed as the country and people going through a historical proportion pain, destruction and loss of life, its young perishing in deserts and high seas in an odyssey to run for their life and the country on slippery slope of a becoming a failed state.

Those who wished success for the ENCDC, in the absence of answerability and transparency of the process in the way it was handled, but by miracle, it is a lesson miracles do not happen in politics. The process and idea of national conference that started many years before, was compromised in spirit and letter as the time was progressing. EDA and other forces in the opposition joined hands to undo the rules and guidelines set forth during the original planning of the national conference.

The bone contentions, leading up to the Addis conference were, between taking the necessary time to sort out existing problems in the sponsoring umbrella organization EDA, so as to come up with a cohesive guidelines, and taking the time to collect study papers and ideas from as many nationals in order to make the conference inclusive and transparent, (EPDP, some civic societies and individuals with similar ideas) on one side; and the hurry up, there is no time to waste for dialogues, differing opinion, one side opinion is enough (EDA and some civic societies) on the other side.

The notion of violent and non-violent means of challenging the dictatorship was wrongly defined and explained as a reason of the fallout between EDA and EPDP. This is not true. Without going into too long explaining here, Dr. Angesom has briefly answered this question in his recent interview with Radio Assena. He aptly explained that the non-violent means does not exclusively mean not defending oneself. That it cannot be a reason of not cooperating and working together to remove the Dictatorship.

There are also claims that the non-violent group will slow-down the chances of quick change. It is time to inform those who have been promising quick change only through the guns and bullets, two years have passed by and they have not entered Asmara. On the contrary standing on two contradicting positions between reconciliation, and change by war and violence is an obstacle for the democratic change the people aspire.

It is time to go back to the drawing board. To learn from experience is better than to repeat bad history.

Bearing in mind, the process EDA was found upon is of importance at this juncture. Key compromises that brought confidence to form the umbrella organization were, a. dropping the ethnic and religious maximum programs, b. the article in the charter to pass major decision by consensus of all parties. Some political organizations had a change of heart about the articles and charter and decided to abandon the contract that brought them together. EPDP did not boycott the Addis conference, but was forced to leave the umbrella organization. EDA leaders as the main figures of the ENCDC supported by our neighbors showed no commitment to the principles and the goal of the conference as it was conceived to include all stakeholders and the charter EDA was founded upon, which suppressed many of the polarizing programs.

What did the Addis Ababa and Awasa conferences offer to upgrade the EDA and its charter?  Instead of reducing the number of political organizations by unifying the organizations with similar programs, it inflated it four fold. It further encouraged more Ethnic, religious and regional organizations to form. On the other hand, EPDP stood on the principle of bringing the number of political organization down through merger and unity by consummating the unity of four political groups into one.

Through the one-year lifespan of ENCDC, and at the Awasa conference, making the project independently Eritrean, transparent, ruled by guidelines and being inclusive remained the main concerns for majority of the opposition. However the ENCDC failed to convince the main forces in the EDA or those influencing it, to make the process transparent, inclusive or unifying. Instead the only common ground for the ENCDC forces has been rejecting and negating the groups outside of the ENCDC.

Lack of binding rules and adherence to common guidelines dominated in the, everyone for it-self competition. Many acted fraudulently engaging in illegal selecting, appointing or stacking of the representatives to the Awasa conference. This effectively limited and paralyzed the share of the civic societies and the public representatives against the political groups.  Daniel Tewelde an elected executive member was fired at the last minute, many are now feeling disenfranchised. As mentioned above this was the main concern of those who advised for transparency in the process as key to success or failure.

On the positive note, we believe there were many of our nationals who have genuinely joined and worked hard to make the Addis Ababa and Awasa conferences to make them an Eritrean and successful projects. We believe these genuine nationals have represented the interests of their people well, and saved the day for the Awasa Waala from making too many and too far reaching damage for future efforts unifying the country.

This gives all of us an opportunity to evaluate, to consider our experience to look for a working formula, which can heal the pains of division. Bearing in mind the role of our people in the country as the key force and a goal of unifying the Eritrean people is important. We should summon our collected good will to heal the pains and destruction caused by the dictator and his system through reconciliation of the people inside and outside of the country.

Last but not least, the year 2011 has been of great progress and a year full of actions by the Eritrean youth in the opposition. The bold and decisive actions of the youth, challenging the dictatorship, wherever its ugly face existed is inspirational and hopeful.

We solute the Eritrean youth newly found energy. They have given our people hope by giving the dictator a taste of his own poison by instilling fear on him for the first time. We hope such actions to intensify, get stronger and not slow down to give the dictator a chance for counter plans. More organization and planned actions are needed to make the gains and progress sustainable.