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EPDP Editorial

Part 1

Issais Afeworki made himself a laughingstock overnight again in his New Year interview with his egotistic and misleading accusations/claims that because of the external challenges, provocations, and plots waged against Eritrea, his regime was unable to implement the constitution of the 1997 and that the constitution is now dead, end of history. Issais said, “As everybody knows, there is no constitution, I cannot say there was a constitution that existed or died, the constitution could be taken as an already dead document before it was declared; since we have learnt too much in the last 15 years, the new one should be better and that serves for the future (Eritrea Profile Saturday 10, 2015 edition). What Issais told us was that the 1997constitution is no longer useful; it is dead; a lot of things changed over the last fifteen years; the constitution does not reflect Eritrea’s reality today; we have gained a lot of experiences that we did not know when we wrote the constitution …etc.This is not the first instance of Issaisostracizing the constitution.Back in Independence Day in 2014, he echoed the same thing, and on numerous occasions he has oozed his deep-rooted disrespect to the collective wisdom of the Eritrean people.

Reading his interview, the dictator did not give a reason as to why the constitution of the 1997 is dead, or the reason why it was not implemented, or what specific experiences of the last two decades contributed to trashing the constitution. Nothing, what the dictator spewed was a confused, mismatched, and disorderly speech to justify something unjustifiable, with one idea in mind, and that is to systematically continue to impose his tyranny and assault on Eritrean people on the account of drafting a new constitution. After all, Issais could not tell us why because he did not have one. The fact is history shows that there is no constitution that gets discarded in a span of less than two decades, but in the worldview of Issais it does. Not only that, how could one scrap an entire constitution even before it gets implemented? Only malignant narcissist dictators like Issais who are drunk with power and tyranny do.  

In his interview, Issais was not only denying reality but also pathetically lying. His message was one of manipulating the public, camouflaging his malevolent agenda, and even sometimes appearing to be very normal and seemingly a loving person. And yet, he is very skilled both at entrancing and putting others under his spell, not to mention portraying every trait of a narcissist leader such as lying, creating false propaganda, presenting exaggerated and dubious claims, and instilling fear into the minds of his followers as a ‘controlling techniques’.                           

The reality is that, despite some limitations/controversies and this is normal because no constitution is perfect, to the majority of the Eritrean people, still the 1997 Constitution is democratic in content, nationalist in vision, and secular in its politics, not to mention that the constitution contains an amendment provision in it. It has a ballot box, too, which scares Issais to death.

The other far-reaching historical ramification that needs to be emphasized here on discarding the constitution of 1997 is this: the erosion of the ideals of the EPLF as a nationalist organization. As we know the constitution of 1997 reflects EPLF’s vision for Eritrea, and if it had been implemented, it would have been the living legacy of the EPLF as a nationalist force in the Eritrean liberation history. But Issais has no history and by declaring to bury the constitution, he has reached the final stage of eliminating the “foot print” of the EPLF, including the Eritrean people, and its fighters. PFDJ members have the opportunity now to turn the page and stand against their vicious and cold-blooded tyrant who is betraying Eritrean people by stacking up lies on top of one another. For example, compare the following quote with that of Issais’ New Year 2015 interview: The constitution is the supreme law of the land and the government is implementing it, including the holding of democratic elections at the local, sub-regional, and regional levels…national elections will be held once the threat to national security and the country’s sovereignty is irrevocably removed (Issais regime response to UPR on Eritrea, Geneva, 2009).For PFDJ members, this should spark frustration if not opposition against their boss.

If people can decipher, and we are sure most can, there is no qualification in his latest interview on the constitution except a chain of lies: everything is him, everything is right, everything is absolute, everything is PFDJ; and everything is positive in Eritrea and that Eritrea is high on the top. Whether exploiting foreign forces or other entities, Issais throws passion over reason and emotion over reality, a stratagem dictator Issais perfected over the years on how to condition Eritrean people into his own reality - a reality of fear and conformity that would allow him to control and enslave the Eritrean people for eternity.          

The fact is that the call for drafting and adopting a new constitution is irrelevant for the Eritrean people. Eritrean people know the constitution has been swept into the dustbin of history by Issais a long time ago, but it does not mean that the constitution is not a living document; it is. What is relevantis the motivation of Issais. You see, Issais does things that can be best described as manipulating the public by pretending that change is going to happen in the lives of Eritrean people by drafting a new constitution while beneath all these efforts lie the maintenance and perpetuation of his fate and power. What is different now is that Issais is at the end of the road and he has to distort reality; his power is increasingly being threatened, and he must come up with something that he thinks should slow down the threat to his power. You might call this: Issais’ hodge-podge of winning strategy by hiding behind the wall of Eritrea’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. We want to leave you with following crucial messages:

• Eritrean people must continue on opening their eyes, and own an accurate reading and understanding of Issais’ lies when he uses, for example, patriotism and nationalism as a method to manipulate the public into serving his tyrannical government, and not to the interest of the people. Remember, Issais knows what patriotism means to the people and Eritrean people must distinguish between patriotism to their nation and patriotism to the service of Issais’ tyranny. We have seen this for two decades and continuing.
• Drafting new constitution is being presented by Issais as a development and potential change in the lives of Eritrean people. But remember Issais and his elites have been telling Eritrean people all along that they would not implement the constitution until the border was demarcated. Now, what has changed? Nothing, the border is not demarcated and the status quo of “no war no peace” continues. The fact is we know whether the border is demarcated or not, the constitution could have been implemented and an elected democratic government could have been established in our country. There are many countries that have border problems, and yet they are democratic. For example, India and Pakistan; Israel and Palestine; Cameroon and Nigeria, Senegal and Mauritania...Etc.
• Eritrean people must understand the doublespeak and detachment of facts that the Issais regime is spewing to control the thinking of Eritrean people. For example, when Issais says we have to continue to have over 300,000 youths in the trenches to protect our sovereignty and independence and to maintain our liberty and freedom, it is all a complete fallacy to keep the people united under fear of war and never questions his power. We must ask: where is the liberty and freedom that he is talking about? We need to stop Issais from rewriting our history and controlling our future every New Year.

Second Part will follow.