Eritrea: The Art Of Perpetuating Tyranny

Commentary

21 January 2008

It is emblematic of all dictators and tyrants of the world to use even minute social malaise and maladies to perpetuate their tyrannical grip on the nation. It is also equally emblematic of all dictators and tyrants to project even the slightest criticism of tyranny and dictatorship as an attack on the nation in general and national sovereignty in particular. But no one has turned this tyrannical modus operandi into an art like Eritrea tyrant Isaias Afewerki, the self-styled president of Eritrea.

There couldn’t have been any better opportune time than the last month of November for tyrant Afeweki and his ruling front (PFDJ) to use the border issue once again to perpetuate their tyrannical grip on Eritrea on the hand and to turn it into a surefire moneymaking scheme on the other hand so artfully to the extent comparable to a cult movement whose followers must join lest they be excommunicated or in this case be ostracized from their community even as we speak.

For that, they pulled the sovereignty bugaboo and launched a worldwide campaign dubbed Hizbawi Mekhete (kind of a call for popular resistance) that was masterfully orchestrated and choreographed by party functionaries. This was then executed exactly as prescribed and delivered uniformly by diaspora sub-functionaries and wannabe functionaries whose sole assignment has been to bamboozle their gullible audience by regurgitating same pre-set and hypnotizing talking points laced with a mega dose of fear mongering demagoguery. Once the audience has been so hypnotically entranced, there comes the ultimate clamor: ‘Are you with us or against us’? A mere show of hands in support of being with ‘them’ is not enough; the unwary audience is fleeced of its savings: Solidarity is not enough, attendees are called for to make pledges for cash, reportedly $500.00 each in the US.

The Sovereignty Bugaboo: The theme of the Hizbawi Mekhete con was ‘First Sovereignty’. There is nothing we Eritreans value more than our national sovereignty because we wrested it the hardest way and after paying a heavy price in life and limb. Mention this ‘s’ word and you get all the attention of Eritreans you need. Knowing that, the ‘s’ word is a routine ploy that Eritrea tyrant Afewerki pulls to defocus the ever increasing calls for democratic governance. Other than that, there is no and there will never be any question about Eritrea’s sovereignty today or ever again. Eritrea is there to stay.

The Invasion Dupery: At the end of last October, Afewerki’s tyrannical regime duped the nation into believing that Ethiopia and its ally US were out to invade Eritrea first week of November. To prove that, Eritrea rulers pulled the Chicken Little fable, the story of a chicken that believed the sky is falling after an acorn fell on her head. And what was the ‘acorn’ that fell over the head of tyrant Afewerki that made him believe the sky is falling over Eritrea? To make their case, Eritrea rulers duped the nation with the report of a French journalist supposedly well versed with US intelligence activities that Ethiopia’s invasion is imminent. Then they added the report of an international think tank, ICG that even dared to claim that war would surely start; all that is left is a date certain. All that was proven wrong, for the first week of November came and went without a hitch and even the last day of November, the day the boundary commission declared its job ended, turned out to be nonevent and with it the invasion dupery was deflated.

The Pre-independence Demagoguery: That the west spearheaded by the US waged vigorous campaign to thwart Eritrea’s legitimate disposal as a politically independent and self-governing sovereign nation at the end of Italy’s colonial period, just like every other so established colonial territories, is an open secret but it is no more real and has no validity beyond demagoguery and fairy tale. That policy has been defeated militarily in 1991 to no recognition and irreversibly when the west and the US had no other option but to accept Eritrea as we have seen it thenceforth and forever. Yet, the Brigade For PerpetuatingTyranny, Afewerki’s footsoldiers, rehash the horrific machinations of the west at the time, like the Italo-British scheme (the Bevin-Sforza Plan) to split Eritrea between Ethiopia and Sudan and the push of some sold out Eritreans for Union with Ethiopia, as yet another ploy to drum up support for Afewerki’s regime and thereby perpetuate tyranny by scaring the people into believing that otherwise history would repeat itself. Truth is: It is all fiction. Eritrea’s national independence, territorial and national sovereignty cannot be undone no matter what.

The Occupation Shenanigan: Eritreans in particular and the international community at large accept and support the decision of the boundary commission as final and binding unconditionally. Yet, nearly 6 years past this decision, there is neither palpable nor consequential outrage over the lack of its implementation, nationally or internationally. Finally, on 30 November 2007, the boundary commission threw the towel in: It demarcated the border on paper and declared its job done thereby ending its raison d'être. Soon after, dictator Afewerki declared the border demarcation done, the Algiers Agreement implemented, and dubbed Ethiopia’s rejection of the ‘virtual demarcation’ as ‘now the issue is occupation’. While it is inevitable that sooner or later Ethiopia rulers will have to abide by the demarcation decision, virtual or otherwise, it is far fetched to consider their refusal to do so immediately constitutes occupation per se. Afewerki knows that as well. He is pulling the occupation shenanigan only as a ruse to generate national outrage over perceived occupation/invasion of the motherland on the one hand, and as yet another trick designed to defocus the ever increasing calls for democratic governance on the other hand. This lazy strategem failed to materialize too because Eritreans are getting smarter by the minute.

Afewerki Is Only One Person Gimmick: The Brigades For Perpetuating Tyranny, Afewerki’s foot soldiers, are in overdrive to spin the mounting attacks on Afewerki’s tyrannical grip on Eritrea as hatred for one person. What a joke. Afewerki is indeed one person. But there is also Afewerki the one person that is a big time symbol and symbolizes ever thing that is wrong, bad, worse, and worst that is humanly imaginable Eritrea has ever seen since re-claiming national independence in 1991, to say the least. I have no axe to grind with Afewerki the one person and have no reason to hate him as such. But I have a lot of axe to grind when it comes to Afewerki the symbol and all that he symbolizes. Afewerki, inter alia, symbolizes textbook tyranny. No one love tyrants, and I ain’t exception to that.

Afewerki’s Hizbawi Mekhete Buster Interview: On his 5 January interview, Eritrea tyrant, Isaias Afewerki, took the air out of the fraudulent Hizbawi Mekhete campaign reducing it into what it was designed for in the first place: Moneymaking scam. Much to their utter dismay, he told the ‘Demarcation First’ crowd to rest their case in peace for the demarcation has been completed in a way even much better than marking it on the ground. And to the crowd that was mobilizing the nation for war as a means to claim sovereignty over territories adjudicated to Eritrea, he told them to bury their warmongering insanity now, then and there and to settle for legal means to claim whatever has been adjudicated to Eritrea, all the way. Yes, it is the rare case of a tyrant-all-of-sudden-turned-advocate-of the rule of law! Welcome aboard, sir! Better late than never! But The Brigades For Perpetuating Tyranny won’t go down quietly. It is still in denial about the tyrant’s declarations. It is spinning Afewerki’s revelations as mere rhetoric. Well that is bad news too. This only proves what Eritreans have long known and the world has finally learned from: No one can take Afewerki serious.

“Woyane bHaile AyniwetsiEn intebelu ke? Haili nHigawinetin Fithin aye-ee-nuwon iyu, nai Gize hito trai iyu zikewin” Afewerki on 5 January 2008 swearing that might will not prevail over justice and the rule of law, it is only a matter of time, thereby ruling out the use of force to settle border issues. Hallelujah!