http://ascenteq.com/project/epdp

EPDP Editorial

We celebrate Eritrea’s Independence Day because it is the single most important day for Eritrean people, a day of commemorating the anniversary of the declaration of our Independence. On May 1991, Ethiopian colonial occupation came to an end, heralding the birth of Eritrea as a sovereign and independent nation. This is the day in which Eritrean people achieved and declared their destiny in one voice: to govern themselves as an independent and sovereign people. This is the day in which Eritreans stood on their own two feet. It is a day we pay tribute, pay homage, and commorate the hundreds and thousands brave Eritrean leaders, legends, and heroic fighters who fought and died to ensure our independence and sovereignty. This Independence Day belongs to Eritrean people and has equal weight for every Eritrean regardless of religion, ethnic, highlander or lowlander.

But the meaning of celebrating our Independence Day is not only about Eritrea becoming independent country. Nor is it about flag waving, marching bands, speeches, historical reenactments, singing national anthem, or singing patriotic songs. It is about answering the hard question, and that is whether the principles of democracy and freedom for which Eritrean people fought for over half a century has been achieved. The answer is: it has not been achieved.

In the wake of independence and after Eritreans freed themselves from the colonial bond, they had a dream to build and democratize their nation that had been devastated by successive colonial powers in the past century; they had envisioned liberty that guarantees economic, social, and political freedoms. It did not happen.

Over the last twenty three years, Eritrea’s Independence Day has been celebrated without Eritreans enjoying their hard earned freedom; it has been celebrated while Eritreans were and are fleeing their country in droves, drowning in the Mediterranean Sea in hundreds, and becoming victims of human traffickers.

Today, the challenge of our struggle is not only against the PFDJ tyranny, oppression, and persecution, but against a total destruction of our country and against the threat of our very survival. Our struggle is to exist, and to survive and live on both as a country and as a people.

The 24th anniversary of our Independence Day is unique, in that it is being commemorated at a time when our country is at the edge of a failed state; it is being celebrated at a time when the country is at a crossroad. And this crossroad is between securing and maintaining the survival of Eritrea as a sovereign, independent, united and democratic nation, and or losing it altogether. The latter is not an option.

The question in front of us (opposition) is either we press forward collectively to create a viable and democratic opposition, or leave the future of the country to the PFDJ regime and let it bleed to death.

Since the birth of our country, the absence of a credible opposition has been a fertile ground for PFDJ regime to continue its tyranny virtually unopposed. The opposition has largely forgotten the primary goal of removing the PFDJ regime because of its myriad differences that continuously undercut its ability to become a legitimate opposition. EPDP believes that it is this state of affairs of the Eritrean opposition that frustrates and alienates Eritrean people from the opposition even though Eritreans seek freedom and justice.

The opposition must understand that it cannot go on and on from one type of consultation to another, be it bilateral or multilateral meetings/forums only to find itself in a situation of digging a deeper and deeper hole. We must break this cycle. The opposition can no longer operate on hollow promises and inactions that keep empowering PFDJ dictatorship and undermining the national opposition. Simply put it, the war against the PFDJ regime begins only when the in-fighting between the opposition stops.

As we celebrate this important anniversary of our 24th Independence Day, it is time as well as incumbent upon the national opposition forces to begin to come to grips with their disunity, and find some courage to produce a real change. The opposition must understand that the Eritrean people do not have a stake or interest to maintain the status quo of the opposition. The fact is the Eritrean people cannot pay allegiance to the opposition; nor do they have the sense to be part of the local, national, or global opposition against the PFDJ regime because they do not truly believe the opposition values freedom, democracy, and unity of the country. Hence, on this anniversary of the 24th of our Independence Day, let’s reflect on our responsibilities and obligations on how we can reverse the current trajectory of the Eritrean opposition, and become a credible national opposition against the PFDJ regime – let’s us also remember that it is our independence that defines us, and makes us who and what we are today, and that the torch of our independence that started on May 1991 will live on and cannot be faded or doused.

EPDP Editorial

Why We Celebrate Eritrea’s Independence Day?

We celebrate Eritrea’s Independence Day because it is the single most important day for Eritrean people, a day of commemorating the anniversary of the declaration of our Independence. On May 1991, Ethiopian colonial occupation came to an end, heralding the birth of Eritrea as a sovereign and independent nation. This is the day in which Eritrean people achieved and declared their destiny in one voice: to govern themselves as an independent and sovereign people. This is the day in which Eritreans stood on their own two feet. It is a day we pay tribute, pay homage, and commorate the hundreds and thousands brave Eritrean leaders, legends, and heroic fighters who fought and died to ensure our independence and sovereignty. This Independence Day belongs to Eritrean people and has equal weight for every Eritrean regardless of religion, ethnic, highlander or lowlander.

But the meaning of celebrating our Independence Day is not only about Eritrea becoming independent country. Nor is it about flag waving, marching bands, speeches, historical reenactments, singing national anthem, or singing patriotic songs. It is about answering the hard question, and that is whether the principles of democracy and freedom for which Eritrean people fought for over half a century has been achieved. The answer is: it has not been achieved.

In the wake of independence and after Eritreans freed themselves from the colonial bond, they had a dream to build and democratize their nation that had been devastated by successive colonial powers in the past century; they had envisioned liberty that guarantees economic, social, and political freedoms. It did not happen. 

Over the last twenty three years, Eritrea’s Independence Day has been celebrated without Eritreans enjoying their hard earned freedom; it has been celebrated while Eritreans were and are fleeing their country in droves, drowning in the Mediterranean Sea in hundreds, and becoming victims of human traffickers.

Today, the challenge of our struggle is not only against the PFDJ tyranny, oppression, and persecution, but against a total destruction of our country and against the threat of our very survival. Our struggle is to exist, and to survive and live on both as a country and as a people.

The 24th anniversary of our Independence Day is unique, in that it is being commemorated at a time when our country is at the edge of a failed state; it is being celebrated at a time when the country is at a crossroad. And this crossroad is between securing and maintaining the survival of Eritrea as a sovereign, independent, united and democratic nation, and or losing it altogether. The latter is not an option.

The question in front of us (opposition) is either we press forward collectively to create a viable and democratic opposition, or leave the future of the country to the PFDJ regime and let it bleed to death.

Since the birth of our country, the absence of a credible opposition has been a fertile ground for PFDJ regime to continue its tyranny virtually unopposed. The opposition has largely forgotten the primary goal of removing the PFDJ regime because of its myriad differences that continuously undercut its ability to become a legitimate opposition. EPDP believes that it is this state of affairs of the Eritrean opposition that frustrates and alienates Eritrean people from the opposition even though Eritreans seek freedom and justice.

The opposition must understand that it cannot go on and on from one type of consultation to another, be it bilateral or multilateral meetings/forums only to find itself in a situation of digging a deeper and deeper hole. We must break this cycle. The opposition can no longer operate on hollow promises and inactions that keep empowering PFDJ dictatorship and undermining the national opposition. Simply put it, the war against the PFDJ regime begins only when the in-fighting between the opposition stops.

As we celebrate this important anniversary of our 24th Independence Day, it is time as well as incumbent upon the national opposition forces to begin to come to grips with their disunity, and find some courage to produce a real change. The opposition must understand that the Eritrean people do not have a stake or interest to maintain the status quo of the opposition. The fact is the Eritrean people cannot pay allegiance to the opposition; nor do they have the sense to be part of the local, national, or global opposition against the PFDJ regime because they do not truly believe the opposition values freedom, democracy, and unity of the country. Hence, on this anniversary of the 24th of our Independence Day, let’s reflect on our responsibilities and obligations on how we can reverse the current trajectory of the Eritrean opposition, and become a credible national opposition against the PFDJ regime – let’s us also remember that it is our independence that defines us, and makes us who and what we are today, and that the torch of our independence that started on May 1991 will live on and cannot be faded or doused.