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Our Independence Day must echo democratic changeThis month the Eritrean people celebrate the 17th anniversary of Independence Day. The year of 1991 marked as number one, is the year that heralded the end of colonial rulers in Eritrea. The very first year was supposed to be the beginning of nation-building anchored on democratic principles with the Eritrean people taking control of their own government. It did not happen. After decades of guerrilla war against colonial rule that earned Eritrean its hard-won independence, the Eritrean people never thought their own sons would go to the extent of denying them the basic democratic and human rights. In fact, it took the Eritrean people some time to digest, understand, and admit that their own sons have indeed turned into killer beasts. The Eritrean people knew late that they wrongly put their trust on their own sons who have become enemy of their own people. Now, the Eritrean people know for sure the repressive government is taking the country downhill. They know the repressive government turned the entire country into jailhouse, bankrupted the country’s economy, made thousands of youth to flee their homeland, and institutionalized military dictatorship. Therefore, what is it with the Independence Day Celebration? Yes, we celebrate our independence day. It is the noblest anniversary in our history. However, we celebrate it with grief and sadness. We celebrate our independence with the understanding that the repressive government stole our hard won freedom. We celebrate this year’s Independence Day with firm determination to reclaim what is ours. We celebrate this independence to stop the repressive government who is terrorizing and torturing every breathing soul in Eritrea. Above all, we celebrate this independence to make a deep soul searching as to why the whole society of Eritrea is silent and unwilling to rise up and dismantle the repressive government. What happened? What went wrong? The culprit of all this is the armed struggle legacy and culture: we have created a society that is scared, fearful of authority, and resistant to change; we have created a society that refused to break away from the negative liberation era culture and fight for its own rights. We have a society that thinks fighting for democracy amounts to losing Eritrea or discrediting the entire history of our armed struggle. We have become a society unable to recognize for our own sake that democracy guarantees strong Eritrea. As a result, the state of democracy in Eritrea is very much uncertain unless the forces of change rationally overcome the obstacles that are challenging us all. In the midst of all this, the dictator continues to outsmart the whole society by fomenting uncertainty and confusion. What exactly do we do in this Independence Day? Well, we should change is the easiest answer. But where does one start to do that. As usual, we will gather and deliver speeches after speeches. Is this helping our cause? I do not believe so. · Gathering and reading statements and delivering speeches: all intended against the repressive government. Does it really matter? · Opposing and condemning the undemocratic government? Well, we have done that a million times. We have done that last year, the year before, and the year before that …etc. Have we tried to talk something that we have not said before? What we have not done is changing ourselves and promoting democratic change. For the last sixteen years, we celebrated our independence day with the same tune; we controlled and directed our speeches and statements towards the repressive government in our country. And we have not made a dent on the regime. In my view, let us make the opposition forces our main audience; let us face our armed struggle culture that has become the biggest obstacle to democratic change: · Our audience on this Independence Day must be us, the opposition. Let us ground the speeches and statements that we are about to give in this Independence Day on democratic change. Focus on how we can convince the opposition to renew itself and rally around a democratic change. · Let us use this Independence Day to recognize that our problems have become a replica of the armed struggle: domination, disagreements, conflicts … etc. Introducing change by challenging our liberation era psyche would definitely put us on the right path. No doubt, the culture we inherited from our liberation era is stifling our democratic change and prolonging the power of the dictator indefinitely. · Most of us do not question, majority of us are threatened by change, we are experts on creating splinter groups, we value democracy less … etc. I believe those are some of the issues we ought to address in this year’s Independence Day. Change is for our own sake and interest. · Use the Independence Day occasion to raise many fundamental problems that cannot be brushed off: for example, why are the Eritrean youth, the Eritrean women, and the majority of Eritreans absent from the opposition. Who is changing or not changing: is it the youth or the opposition; is it the women or the opposition. All in all, both the opposition and the undemocratic and dominant political culture of the present regime in Eritrea are the product of the liberation era; they are from the same template. Both groups are suffering from the same culture, a culture devoid of rationality, compromise and negations, democratic practices, accountability…etc. Both groups are resistant to democratic change. It is within this state of uncertainty and unwillingness to introduce democratic change that we celebrate our 17th anniversary of Independence Day. Yes, democratic change has begun to set foot in the opposition. However, our country’s problems are vast and complex. Change requires the Eritrean people to support it, to own it and to sustain it. This is why I believe we should advance and echo democratic change as the main theme of our speeches and slogans in this year’s Independence Day. Again, the change must begin within the opposition forces for they cannot promote democratic change if they do not believe in change. The example of ELF-RC to dissolve itself and participate in the formation of an all-inclusive political party is a breakthrough in our efforts to introduce a new democratic change in Eritrea. This is the type of change we need to echo in our anniversary of Independence Day. Kahsai G/kirstos May 17, 2008
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