Unfiltered Notes: There must be a better way to disagree

December 8, 2015            

Along with few friends, I make very modest monthly contributions to encourage the work assenna.com is doing. I do this with the spirit of “if I cannot lead, at least I should support those who do”. And there is no doubt assenna.com has been relentless in the fight against the regime that is oppressing the Eritrean people.

Overall, assenna is doing a necessary job and deserves the support of all justice seekers. And that is why I will continue my modest support. But I do have my disagreements with some of its approaches and I felt this recent article¹, does not advance the cause of justice that assenna.com itself has been a central part of. For me,

1)      Succumbing to mockery and inflammatory language disempowers us all. We have been doing this for over half a century now and it hasn’t worked in our collective favor at all. As a result, Eritrea has lost its best people fighting against itself than against any other enemy. Isn’t it time to overcome this destructive culture?

2)      Ruling each other out only provides comfort to the regime we all claim to be fighting against. Why would we need over 30 political parties otherwise? Some are even rumored to have single digit membership.

3)      The tone with which we express our disagreements is crucial. The wrong tone, encourages more divisions and discourages those sitting on the fence from joining the struggle for justice.

 “But what Amanuel said is the truth”, some may argue. As I heard someone wise say once though “if the truth is used as a sword”, what good is it? If we use “OUR truth” as a sword - and not as an instrument of enlightenment as it ought to be – all we will have left is a mess of bodies with severed limbs; unable to push off a feudal regime that should have been dead a long time ago.

Like many, I have my disappointments with those who cannot tame their unproductive egos. But I would much rather take my revenge with my vote later. For now, we need everyone to do their part – no matter how small – in ridding Eritrea of its worst enemy.

Some argue – plausibly - if we don’t weed out the bad apples now, what guarantees do we have they won’t come to power and mess things up again? If we continue to rule each other out with such speed as we have done so far, nothing. But hoping we have learned enough from half a century of petty infighting, there is a better way we can choose to adopt.

1)      Let’s cooperate now, even with those we don’t agree with, and make sure we vote later. This does not mean we don’t criticize each other now. But let’s do so without personalizing things or by resorting to inflammatory and condescending language as this piece did. Better to challenge ideas with better ideas.

2)      We have been shouting to point out the wrongs others are committing for over five decades. Unfortunately, that has not gotten us anywhere. We need to show why our way is better by example. If that is done consistently, people will hopefully remember it and cast their vote for you or buy your newspapers later.

3)      The objective should be to create a future Eritrea with leveled playing field where no one is above the law. If we truly stick to that, then it will be a battleground of ideas. That would be a huge success because people with better ideas will be more likely to win. If the ones with bad ideas win, it would have meant that we didn’t stand up against injustice together again. And history will have repeated itself, as it has for over half a century already. And the shame will be on all of us. Again.

Human life is the cheapest commodity in Eritrea today. Does such a country have a right to exist? Not until those who claim to be justice seekers start creating broad alliances that can speak with unified voice to transform Eritrea into a place where human life is the most precious commodity instead.

At times, our ignorance (or is it callousness) knows no limits. I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Daniel Rezene recently. By far, I found him to be very  passionate about the cause of justice – intelligent, humble, articulate and uplifting. Yet, instead of embracing his inclusive message or presenting better ideas, it is sad to see some have succumbed to ugly ethnic divisiveness. For me, I can’t think of Eritrea without also thinking about Woldeab Woldemariam. Do we really not know our heritage? 

The point I am trying to make here is similar to this blog from a year and half ago2 where Medrek and assena where at odds then as now.  A year and half later, I was hoping we will have been wiser.

I hope, in its promised second piece, assenna's tone will be better than the first.

¹ http://assenna.com/%E1%88%85%E1%8B%9D%E1%89%A2-%E1%8A%A4%E1%88%AD%E1%89%B5%E1%88%AB%E1%8D%A3-%E1%88%88%E1%8B%8D%E1%8C%A2-%E1%88%B5%E1%88%AD%E1%8B%93%E1%89%B5-%E1%8B%B0%E1%8A%A3%E1%88%9D%E1%89%A0%E1%88%AD-%E1%88%88/#comments

² http://unfilterednotes.blogspot.com/2014_04_01_archive.html