Why I Left the Eritrean Opposition
By Ermias G,
09/07/2014
After watching the Egyptian Revolution in 2011, I naively joined the
Eritrean opposition seeking a similar outcome in Eritrea. At the time, I
thought the opposition was an alternative group that genuinely worked for
the betterment of Eritrea and Eritreans. Unfortunately, from my experiences,
it is nothing more than a dysfunctional organization that has less to do
with bettering the country and people, and more to do about appeasing
Ethiopia.
>From the beginning, I was alarmed by the opposition's close ties to the
Ethiopian regime. In fact, most of the major political positions the
opposition has adopted over the years came from the Ethiopian government.
>From the anti- <https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/09ADDISABABA1201_a.html>
2% Diaspora tax to seeking federalism (regionalism) in Eritrea to supporting
sanctions against the country, these positions, and more, were hatched in
Mekelle first, and later became rallying cries of the opposition.
To give an analogy during this blessed month of Ramadan, Mecca is to Muslims
as Mekelle is to the Eritrean opposition. Every 'important' opposition
member must make a pilgrimage to Ethiopia to stay relevant. And it doesn't
matter if they are secular intellectuals seeking democracy or Islamic
extremists seeking to establish Shariah law; their common denominator is
their unyielding support for the Ethiopian dictatorship.
Moreover, another issue I have about the opposition is how they take their
name so seriously. Many of them literally seem to be in opposition of just
about anything Eritrean, including relationships.
For example, three summers ago, my friend, who isn't involved in politics,
met this lovely girl at an Eritrean event. When her father noticed she was
becoming serious with him, he asked for his father's name. After realizing
his father supported the Government of Eritrea, he told her to stop seeing
him and threatened to disown her if she refused. Long story short, he ruined
his relationship with his daughter and soon to be son-in-law, over his
demented hatred for the GoE that they had nothing to do with.
That might have been one extreme example, but it's not a stretch to claim
there is this perverse, schadenfreude feeling towards Eritreans that most
opposition members seem to have. They claim they support Eritrea and
Eritreans, yet the only time they celebrate is when something bad happens to
the country or its citizens. That's like claiming your a fan of one
particular team and only cheering when they are losing or performing badly.
And as any sports fans knows, that is not a fan; that's a rival.
In my three years as a member of the opposition, I can not think of one
instance in which we had civil debates that accommodated opposing ideas that
didn't end with insults in broken English. The conversation was always
limited to Eritrea is bad, Ethiopia is great, refugees, dictatorship,
Isaias, Isaias, Isaias and if we had more time, they took it back to Paltalk
to talk more about Isaias. We also didn't discuss helping Eritreans back
home. The conversation focused on ways to sabotage the economy, and on ways
to lure Eritrean youth to leave the country so self-proclaimed human rights
activists like Selam Kidane and Meron Estefanos can use their misfortune to
collect money on their behalf, and condemn the government for a situation
they helped create.
Ironically, some of the more intellectually stimulating conversations and
debates I've had about Eritrean politics have come from YPFDJ members. And
unlike the opposition, they were actively engaging in civil debates on how
the country should move forward, and were more than welcoming to opposing
ideas. They also had meetings on ways to help people back home. These
experiences and more with YPFDJ members made realize I was definitely on the
wrong team.
In the end, I left the opposition because they were more focused with
spreading gossip and mayhem than ideas and solutions. This isn't to say all
of those in the opposition are bad people, because there are some good
people who truly have good intentions. Unfortunately, these people are
silenced or ridiculed because their opinions don't harmonize with the the
shot callers in Addis Ababa.
Although I no longer consider myself an opposition member, I still want the
government to make much needed changes within the confines of national
security. If the Arab Spring has taught us anything, it is rapid change of a
government causes protracted instability and devastates the economy.
Therefore, we should continue to encourage the government to implement the
constitution as swiftly as possible, while at the same time, resisting
opportunist in the oppositions who want to remove the government.
As one Eritrean eloquently put it: "change must come to Eritrea but it must
come gradually. Heavy rain following drought does not nourish the plant but
instead erodes the topsoil."
Received on Wed Jul 09 2014 - 09:18:20 EDT