PART 1
My dear countrymen: lend me
your ears and you eyes for a few minutes and try to learn from
the unrecorded history of our revolution.
I
have been following the blunders and crimes committed by
Isaias Afwerki for the last thirty years.
Like most Eritreans, I was considering him a revolutionary and
a patriot and giving him credit he did not deserve. This is
natural because in our culture a well done job is attributed
to the leader or the helmsman. But it transpired at the end
that our (reputed) helmsman finally turned to be the king
without clothes.
The
bad thing is there are still many of my compatriots that never
understood the open secret that Isaias? political life did not
depend on his merit but the collective skill and endeavors of
his colleagues: the Martyred ones in the field and the G15
after Liberation.
Starting
from the split of the EPLF in the seventies, Isaias never
wanted to be the second man. Therefore, if you have a careful
look, you can see the mysterious or suspicious disappearance
or death of our brilliant comrades.
The
death of Abraham Tewelde is a vivid example.
After Isaias consolidated his power in the Selfi Netsanet, he saw
that Mesfun Hagos was a contender since all
the rank and file admired and loved him. He was, for your
information, elected in both the Qedamay Wegen and Kal'ay Wegen. This was
bitter pill to swallow for Isaias. Therefore, he knew that he
should, by any means, lower that profile.
In
between this, Mussie's group arrived to the field after
hijacking an Ethiopian plane to Libya. Mussie
Tesfamichael was a genius and a revolutionary of a
classic type. He was the only person that opposed Isaias
boldy, and some eyewitnesses tell you that Isaias shrinked and
was shy in front of him. All prominent intellectuals who later
became members of the central committee of the EPLF supported
the movement and Isaias was helpless.
But
by combining a Stalinist cruelty and Machiavellian political
cunning, he discredited the glorious movement by putting a
traitor's tag on the revolutionaries. Out of fear or
opportunism all those that tried to lift Mussie's banner were
beaten by the same fashion. The sad thing is that Isaias, in
stark defiance, was able to do this technique repeatedly.
The
liquidation of the Yemin [?rightwingers?]
as compared to the Menka'es
[?leftwingers?] is so blatant that even an explanation was not
given. Shame on those that were able to stop it on time. As
the saying goes, "A revolution eats its children" and they
were to be hoisted by the same petard. Id shenahit tsenahit iyu
eti neger.
Look
at our history:
Isaias
destroyed the Menka'e (left wing) with the help of the Yemin
(right wing);
Isaias
destroyed the Yemin with the help of the G15 (members of the
Central committee).
Isaias
destroyed the G15 with the help of the would-be-G20, or the
Gang of Generals. And yet, no one really understands.
The
systematic liquidation of any contender to power is a purely
Stalinist method. Without going into the details, Stalin used
Berya as his henchman and finally destroyed him.
To
be continued?
PART 2
Stalin
used Lavrenta Berya Berya (A Ukrainian by
birth if I am not mistaken) as his henchman and liquidated
prominent leaders in the party and great generals in the Army.
Finally Stalin destroyed Berya with the weapon he polished
himself for long years.
Isaias
has been using this system ever after he came to power in the
Hizbawi Haylitat
[People?s Force.] He uses the dynamic persons or key figures
for a certain period of time. The moment they start to grumble
about the situation, he removes them from power
unceremoniously (midiskal or
?freezing?.)
If they seem to be dangerous and a threat to his power,
he tarnishes them as traitors and imprisons them.
Currently
he is grooming Tekle Manjus, Affan and others
by discarding the G-20 (the corrupt generals) which he used to
destroy the G-15 (the central committee members he had used to
destroy Yemeen and
Menkae.)
Filipos, Samuel China, Tewil and even the
bull Wuchu will soon be
powerless.
The
problem with the poor fellows (forget the ministers) around
the president is that they never understand
history. Sebhat Efrem is an
outright opportunist that betrayed the G15; Samuel China
is Sebhat's follower, for he was the one that brought him
to such a lofty position which in fact he never deserved.
Filipos
trusted Mesfun Hagos but not enough to talk his mind; he
wasn?t bold enough. Umer Tewil is a hedonist and is nowhere in
the picture. Wuchu knows only implementing military
orders. In general all these persons have become career
people and never care about the livelihood of their soldiers
or the plight of the masses. All the principles and slogans of
the liberation movement have become forgotten in the dusty
memory of the Generals. Gone are those days.
In
1986, in the halefatat seminars, [a
special purging campaign against what Isaias then called the
Three Privileges of corruption] Isaias told EPLF combatants in
the trenches, "You should be aware of your leaders as of
now. Because,
unless you struggle for your rights now, after the liberation
of Eritrea, these same people will spit upon you from
palaces in Asmara. Therefore you should be bold enough
to speak out and criticize them now." Of course the
combatants were afraid and retorted by saying, "If we speak
out now, we will suffer the consequences immediately
after you leave this place," and Isaias replied, "Ajokatkum xnxya aynekum
zenfirelkum yelen" [Fear not! Nobody will dare touch you.]
What
happened next some think it is Isaias prophesy being
fulfilled, but in actual fact,it was the combatants prophesy
fulfilled.
Because the masses became confident and talked and
talked disclosing the corruption that was rampant in
the trenches and the Offices of the Battalion, Brigade,
and Division. A typical example was Filipos?s
Division. When every one criticized him, Isaias insulted
and scolded him as a Seraqi [thief] and Metefafi'e [a chieat.]
On the third day, those combatants that talked their mind
began to be demoted and downgraded. Of course some were
successful in reaching Anberbeb Wetehaderawi biet
xhfet [military office], whose chief then was
Asmerom Gherezghiher and transferred to other
Units.
Now
Isaias will never hold such meetings because he is afraid he
will be punished by severe criticism of the combatants and he
knows that he will lose the loyalty of the corrupted generals.
The
main concern of these generals now is their land cruisers;
that the diesel shortage does not affect them because their
children will be late for school and, finally, the gardens in
their villas. The villas for which they don't have ownership
title "libreto" and for which they never paid rent. Some time ago, some
generals were sitting at the house of a veteran who had passed
a way, paying their condolences. All of a sudden
General Wuchu said,"Ente vila tewahibna alena
nay dahray gn endi'e" [Villas we have been granted; what
happens next, who knows?] and laughed uproariously.
As
for Asmerom Gherezghiher, now Brigadier General, and the Chief
Financial Officer of the Eritrean Defense Forces, he has been
on deterioration path since the 1st organizational
congress of the EPLF, when he attended as one of the leaders
of Shewate
Hade. He was
a selfless person of peasant origin and always sided with the
masses but now, like everybody else, he is totally
compromised.
My
compatriots! What does one await from such people? They are
afraid not to be imprisoned while they are under prison; they
are afraid to die while they are already dead. They are in
prison because they don?t ever get out of Eritrea and are in a
fence without barbed wire. They are dead because they can
never talk their mind but only gossip and say, "Ezi Seb'ai texelilu iyu
ymesleni! Entay iyu zegebir zelo?" [The man has lost his
mind! What is he doing?] If someone can't talk his mind or if
his conscience is blaming him and he is afraid to take a
principled action, then he is dead.
On
the opposite, those that are in prison are free for they
talked their mind and are still free to talk. But on the other hand,
the families of the imprisoned are the ones who actually pay
the price because they can?t ask the whereabouts of their
brothers or children or fathers.
To
be continued.
PART 3
Isaias
vs Isaias: the Puritan vs the Lustful
Starting
from the field, Isaias always kept a low profile. This was a
deliberate and a well-planned means to mystify him and
increase his popularity and he capitalized on it to the
maximum. He portrayed an image of a puritan and an exemplary
and selfless Marxist. It worked marvelously: "Don't you
know that Isaias carries sacks of wedi Aker [lentils]
with his staff? He is so selfless and workaholic that he eats
only once a day but drinks a lot of coffee so that
he could work for a minimum of 18-20 hours. Unlike Mugabe
and Museveni, he even washes his clothes himself, and carries
water from the well and does his chores in the
migibina?? The wudasie
mariam [excessive praise] of his cronies are
endless.
But
secrets get out slowly. The fitewrari that were with
him were not all of them foolish after all. There were
some who were watching all his movements suspiciously and were
smart enough not to be tantalized by his affection
or their position with the helmsman
in Anberbeb. They finally knew that the man was not as
they guessed, the Che Guevara of Eritrea, but a second
rate revolutionary.
Let
us look at the events closely.
While
the other members of the Central committee and Politburo were
marrying and remarrying, drinking and having fun with their
comrades, Isaias did not marry and did not join in late night
drinks of dimu dimu
[moonshine.] The poor Tegadelti including myself
were saying that Isaias will not marry, because "Abey kerkibelu ilkayo
miskinay! Bsrah Libu tefi'uwo zelo!" [when will he ever
find the time to marry; he is so overworked!]
But
around 1984-85 there were leaks about his marriage. People
were saying that Tewil has finally married, but unlike the
others he married Saba a member of his staff in an almost
invisible ceremony. "Aye
seb'ai, Beqa neza mesri'e xewi'e abilu, 'Belu lomi ms bxeyti
Saba qal kidan ne'aser alena,' iluwom. Hoy hoy yele dewsha
yele abalatu tray xewi'u ba'elatom sewa xemiqom be xebhi ades
ahlifuwo mera'u" Tebahilu."
But secrets can not be kept long and people are not as dull as
they seem. The facts as told by eyewitnesses are as
follows.
[Paragraph
deleted.]
After
his marriage he went to Somalia twice and committed a scandal
on both occasions. The woman in Mogadishu was the concubine
of a well-to-do Somali, but our helmsman nevertheless
wanted to have her. There was disturbance and scuffle until
hajji Saleh settled the matter. This action was repeated by
our reputed leader in his second leg. This
happened circa 1986-87. Therefore, while in
Sahel, the difference between Isaias and his
colleagues was that they were doing these
things openly; he did it secretly at least for the time
being. I should
add here that there were some who had a clean
record.
After
the liberation of Eritrea, people began to talk about the
social behavior of Eritrean ministers. While the man was,
as usual keeping, a low profile and abstaining from
public liquor houses, the others were normally mingling with
the populace. Of course some of them were going astray and
needed some castigation. Anyhow, this was working for the
benefit of Isaias because he wants something that he can
exploit. These and other questions were asked at the then
fashionable Bahti Meskerem, "Rikib Hizbin
presidenten."[annual town hall meetings with the
president.]
The
man answered that it is high time for the government to
introduce a code of conduct for senior government
officials, ministers etc. But he never did anything of that
sort. Because by not doing so, he kills two
birds with one stone. First, he will always have the chance to
exploit the mistakes of his colleagues (their excesses, if
any); secondly, if he introduces a law concerning the
code of conduct, it will be difficult for him to be the
Gringo of the Expo at a later date. In short he will be
accountable to the law.
True
to his character, Isaias started to dine and wine after
the incarceration of the G15. After 18/09/01, there was no one
of significant caliber who could challenge him.
Therefore, the all night dances and brawls became common.
Isaias practically became the squad leader of the Asmara youth
in the nightclubs. Ab
leytawi tlhit zerekbuwo Deqi asmera ?merah mesri'ena? ybluwo
neyrom. [In the nightclubs, the kids used to call him ?our
squad leader.?] Now lets look at some of the
samples.
- About four
years years ago, while Isaias was high and dancing with
a certain lady at the Shamrock nightclub,
he lost his special (global) mobile phone. The moment he was
aware it is not with him, he started roaring like a lion and
the security began harassing the clients of Shamrock in a
gestapo fashion. Everybody was locked and the searching
started. Of course, the people in the hall were afraid that
they might either be killed or dragged to the police
station. Finally, to the delight of everyone, the set was
found in a corner inside the hall. The man was simply drunk
and never knew were he put it.
- Around
the same time he was dancing as a clock at his house,
the Shamrock. In the midst of this he saw a gorgeous lady
dancing with a man. He wanted to have the lady, which he
considered glamorous and probably husband-less. He gave a
tip to his security and the dogs began to snarl at the man
who was with the lady and overpowered him in no time. The
poor lady never knew what happened until she found herself
with our great hero Isaias in a room with a bed. She was
shocked at his approach and told him, "How can you do
such thing to me? Don't you really know that I
am the wife of [so and so]!!" He replied that he did
not know and let her go her way. The woman was really the
wife of an acquaintance of him, though Isaias never cared
about friends or comrades in
arms.
- While
he was visiting Europe on organizational or
governmental affair, there were the always obedient
sycophants and boot-lickers who provided him with
choice ladies. This happens on every visit. The
hafash widibat deqi
anistiyo in Europe were afraid for the life of their
(beloved) president and tried to do something to
protect him. Since they don't have access to him or his
office, one of them was chosen to ring the bell by any
means. When this certain lady came to Eritrea, she contacted
a general who was her relative and told him the
following information. "This is a
strictly confidential message of high importance and
you should promise that you will transfer it to the
concerned authority. Our leader, as any man, can have
an affair with any lady he chooses, but he is
making love to ladies who are street girls and yet
without a condom. We are afraid he could contact the virus.
Please try to give him your council, otherwise we will
lose him." The woman was speaking earnestly and out of
concern for the life of an indispensable and charismatic
leader, a Kim IL Sung or a Castro. But unless he was in a
hurry to lose his job, the General could never tell him so.
But the story was circulated in high circles
during late night hours.
- There
is general information in Asmara that when the man
meets ladies he never uses condoms. Another Jacob Zuma. But
no one has the power to bring him to justice. Jacob's crime
was on sexual matters,... Isaias's crime is
something that deserves more than mere capital
punishment.
These are
some of the examples on the conduct and behavior of our great
president which some people glorify and consider like a
smaller saint. The message is: He is a drunkard, an impostor
and a sexaholic.
To
be continued
PART 4
Killing
Out Of Fear
While
in the field Isaias liquidated countless innocent and
brilliant comrades. One may ask Why? Because Isaias never
wants the brilliant and the dynamic near him for long: he uses
them for a certain period of time and discards them either by
liquidation or midiskal [freezing.]
This was the case with ?Menka?e?, who included
Mussie, John, Tewelde Eyob, Tesfaselassie, Bxay
Goitom, etc and ?Yemeen,? [so called
right-wingers] like Haile Jebha, Mehari Ghirmatxion,
Wedi Semere, Wedi Arbae?ete. The list is endless, the
list is long, they were liquidated for no reason
unceremoniously. Nobody (including the G15 of course) helped
them. People can be incarcerated if they commit a crime and
can even given capital punishment. But these people
never happened to kill or try to kill others, even the
dictator himself. Their only aim was to be elected in the
organizational congress and introduce democracy in the
autocratic clique. Isaias was not confident that he could win
a majority and found it easier to liquidate them as Menka'e and Yemeen (right
wingers).
Isaias
is the cruelest of all because he kills out of fear and
is accountable for the death of countless intellectuals and
revolutionaries. This did not stop after
liberation.
A
"Family Affair"
After
liberation, thinking we have a free Eritrea, some of the
novices (recruits of 1988-1990) demanded that they get paid
and temporarily occupied the airport, the bank etc. Seeing
that the situation was out of his hand, the man was nervous
and he capitulated when ordered to go to the stadium. In the
stadium, he was asked so many questions which he couldn't
answer and when someone told him that he is living
comfortably while the tegadelti [combatants]
are living in the cold, he became very nervous.
Isaias is always nervous whenever he hears the truth. Haqi kesemi'e kelo xehay
kem zeharemo lekay cha'e cha'e iyu zibil. Finally, he
reluctantly agreed for the payment of salary to the
fighters.
A
week later, when asked about the uprising on TV, he
belittled it by saying Na'ebi zeykone nay sidra
biet guday iyu eti neger [this is not an uprising but a
family affair] and that he would have even reacted the
way they did if he had been in their place.
Exactly
two months later, he gave an order that the ones who
instigated the uprising (the novices) were to be demobilized
and any veteran who was remotely connected with the issue
(and even those with no connection but were not well liked)
should be given long prison sentences as a lesson to
would-be-mutineers.
It
is a very sad story. Most of those that were imprisoned
were only trying to protect government property and were
monitoring the uprising from a distance. Of course, like any
Tegadalay, they may
have been fed up with the system and the man, but they
never joined hands with the new recruits.
These
veteran fighters were picked one by one, some on personal
grudges and some on old vendettas and were taken to Dongolo.
From Dongolo they were taken to Adiquala and were imprisoned
with drug traffickers, robbers, outlaws, Isepas [members of
the defeated Ethiopian Derg party], and murderers.
After
a few months these innocent fighters asked
for due process of law. This happened to be the Achilles
heel of our man Isaias. He never wanted due process of law. He
is the law. The information was presented to him and he
boasted that he would teach them what ?due process of law?
meant to him. Naizghi Kiflu, who was then
deputy minister of security,
Afewerki Yemane, who was then and still is
with the fluy bet
firdi [special court], and a third man from the military
were sent to Adiquala.
The
?due process? was simple and short. A circle was drawn in
the floor and the ?Na?ebegna?
[?mutineer?] was told to stand in the middle of the
circle. He
then was read his sentence, by one of the three ?judges.? "The
accused so and so, your sentence should have been the death
penalty, but taking into consideration your service in the
field, we are showing you leniency and you will be imprisoned
for 15 years, 14, years, 13, 12, 10, 8, 5, years
etc.? Some of the victims collapsed; some queried, ?Do
you mean 15 months??
And
so it ended in such a horrifying and cruel way. According
to the sentences, some are still in prison. Mind you, a
noble fighter spends his youth in the field bleeding and
dying for the liberation of a nation and for a trivial
action, if any at all, he spends his precious life in prison.
Nothing is more tragic than such a fascist action. The
problem is, there are people who still never know that
there are fighters in prison because they demanded
their pay. Look, my fellow countrymen, these are the leaders
our revolution produced. These are the people who imprison
their citizens for ?family affairs.? These are the
leaders that sentence people for long prison terms for the
simple reason that they differed in their opinion. More is to
come; just wait.
Killing
Unarmed and Disabled Fighters
In 1994,
the disabled fighters were all taken to Mai Habar hostel. The
place was in very bad condition--without toilets, unhygienic
conditions, inadequate houses, (tents only) etc. The fighters
asked to be moved to a better place but nobody cared to
respond to their plea. They were discarded as banana
peels. Finally, they decided to go to Asmara on foot and
present their case to the UN and the US
embassy.
For
a government like the one in the State of Eritrea, this action
cannot be tolerated. It was tantamount to defection and being
a fifth columnist. The man sent his commando and the brutal
army fired at the unarmed and disabled fighters just before
they reached Seidici and
killed and injured a dozen of them. No body ever talked
and asked about the tragic incident. News trickled after days
but people could only say "What a cruel a government!
This is like the hyena eating its body, this is horrendous."
Etc.
Isaias
prefers to talk only about his successes and never wants
undesirable questions like, ?Who gave the order to
shoot?? But on
one occasion, when he held a meeting for the disabled, as if
he had not said "Hluwat
swuatna" on a different occasion, he told them,
to their face, "Sinkulan xegibkum alekum,
mengisti entay zeygeberelkum delikum?" [?You disabled have
been spoiled.
What more do you want the government to do for
you??]The man is notorious for his acrobatic skill. Today
something; tomorrow a completely different thing. The disabled
fighters are known for their boldness but at this
particular meeting they were as meek as
sheep.
To
this day, there are several unanswered questions. Who gave the
shoot to kill order? Was it necessary to shoot? Wasn?t
stopping or blocking them enough? Who is accountable for the
dead and injured? Can anyone not demonstrate for his
rights? Is this what the Eritrean people fought for?
Claiming
to be a benevolent leader in the mass media is cheating the
people. Remember the Martyrs and the disabled whenever you
hear Isaias speak as a noble leader. How long does one
wait for such a megalomaniac leader!? He is living at
the expense of the Eritrean masses. His sole aim is his
power and his survival. The atrocities Isaias committed are so
many but let me end here for now.
To
be continued?
PART
5
A
Liar & A Thug
Isaias's
lies are countless. Starting from Sahel, he has been telling a
lot of lies and, as a byproduct, endless conspiracies against
his "comrade in arms." The problem is that he never
wants to be criticized for his blunders or crimes. He always
wants a scapegoat. He lies and tries to provide a different
image. In the Sahel days, the Tegadelti and hizbi could never
consider a "charismatic leader" like Isaias to make a mistake.
Therefore, they either bypassed it or danced to his tune. It
was sheer hypocrisy, just pretending the man is right. But now
everybody knows: everybody knows the blunders and the crimes
Isaias has committed and is committing but it is like
the gathering of the mice when they wanted to tie a bell
to the cat. None
is bold enough to speak openly.
The
End Of Presidential Town Hall Meetings:
It
used to be fashionable to have rikib president ms
hzbi [presidential town hall meetings.] But those have now
been abandoned after it became clear to Isaias that he is no
longer the relatively "respected president". He fears
that if he held such an open meeting with the people, he will
face more challenging questions.
But
when the meetings were held, Isaias had a style of answering
them slowly, then getting himself angry and using vulgar and
inappropriate language.
I
remember that in one of the earlier ones, elderly people asked
the man about the fluy
biet frdi [special court.] A certain man asked the
following question: "It was said that the fluy biet frdi's
verdicts will be announced and everything will be
transparent.." The thug started answering in a lukewarm
way at the beginning but step by step he became angry and
ended it in the
following manner:
?Fluy biet
Frdi was established to facilitate the process
of the cases and the delay in the civilian courts, and it is
doing its job properly. Is there any problem if it has not
announced its verdicts or are there suspicious
signals? It is only because accountability is the order
of the day that the Fluy bet frdi is
functioning. The tegadelti [combatants]
that have been sentenced are people with great contribution.
You simply want publicity because you want to say, ?enhelka yehalif eti
seraqi? [there goes the thief], or you wanted to know how
someone stole how much money using what technique etc."
A
head of state doesn't hold a meeting of Abeyti Adi [town
elders] and scold them in such a manner. This is the behavior
of thugs and bullies.
In
this same occasion, another man asked him, ?We heard the
closure of the Asab refinery through the foreign media. Would it not have been
better if our Ministry of Information disseminated the
information?" The man was angry as usual and retorted by
saying, "Nhna nay were
amel yebilnan, nhizbi zedliyon zeyedlyon nefelt ina, slezi ab
trgum zeyblu zena entetezarebna waga yeblun." [We
are not in the habit of passing on chitchat; we know what the
people need; it is pointless to talk about subjects that are
not relevant.] All of a sudden he changed his tone and said,
"Bun enaweQetkum
ketewriyu entedelikum eti were ba'elu kemexekum iyu
aytisekefu." [if all you need is something to talk about
while grinding your coffee, the news will find itself to you.]
There
was a hush in the hall. People never expected such vulgar
words from a "president" and the fashionable rikib hizbi ms
president became final.
The
Media & The Issue Of Corruption
Prior
to the Woyane offensive (sorry for the lack of precise
date), Asmerom Habtemariam was asking his
Excellency the president a question. He started by
saying, "Qdmi hji kemzi
ilka nierka , slezi mszi nay lomi.." [In the past, you had
said this, but considering what you are saying
now?] Instantly the man became angry and said, "abbey? meas?.." [where? When?] The
issue was forgotten as if there was no a question. After all
someone has to save his skin.
Now
if Isaias wants something to be drummed in the news, he makes
an interview with our "reputed" TV. And the interview is
broadcast for weeks in different languages. It is as if a panacea
has arrived from heaven. In no time, people, and specifically
the sycophants, start reiterating his invented words and
phrases, Anxar
blshiwina kunatn jemirna alena etc [we are waging war
against corruption.]
In
the period just before the referendum and the uprising by
soldiers, Isaias held a meeting of EPLF cadres. The agenda was
"no payment for fighters and blshwina ab tegadelti
[corruption among
combatants]. In fact, the second topic was not an agenda
item but it happened that Isaias needed it anyhow because
he wanted to justify requiring combatants to work without
payment. Anyhow, he started by claiming that certain tegadelti have become
involved in embezzlement and corruption. He talked a great
deal on the meaning of corruption and its different facets. He
even said that if someone brings you an item as goodwill,
it is categorized as corruption; a gift is a type of
corruption.
The
strange thing was the tegadelti who were in
detention on charges of corruption still did not face the
court. It is wrong to talk about a case before the case is
finalized in a court. He was biasing the courts to penalize
the fighters to the maximum. It was a massive moral punishment
for the fighters in detention. The thug decided their case at
Cinema Capitol before a court could see the case and give its
verdict. It was a painful experience to the concerned
fighters and their kinsmen. As a conclusion, or meragodi as he says,
he told the audience, "gele tegadelti qenat
adi'om fetihom seldi zeserqu zneberu mkwanom knfelit
alena." [We should know that some of the combatants
had a history of snatching money from the purses of their
mothers.]
It
is a shame for a president to tarnish the glorious fighters in
such a manner. Those people who took some coins from their
mothers could number one in a thousand. Moreover, during
childhood so many things are done. There are many anecdotes
concerning his childhood behavior, such as, Ezi'a dukay iya tesi'uley
enabelka behwatka mshgarn mhramn [fighting with your
siblings because they are sitting on a chair you claim as
yours.]
But
the point is this: the ?corruption? charges and penalties are
not uniformly applied.
During
the good old days, someone wrote an article in Txigenay or Setit [private
newspapers that have since been closed], I am not sure which
one, which included the following story. Since the story is
very long I will concentrate on the relevant issue only.
When
the 09 members [09
is code name for Red Sea Trading Corporation, a party-owned
company] were asked if they were giving gifts to government
dignitaries, they answered yes. And this information was
passed to the man on how to handle the case. He answered,
"Everyone should pay the cost of the gifts from his salary."
But when the investigators found out that the 09 had also
given Isaias a 32 inch TV, Xa'eda taf [premium
flour] and Tesmi
[butter] etc, the issue was hushed as if it never
happened. Prior to this, he received two cars as gifts: one
from the Emir of Qatar and another from another Middle
East sheik. Is this not corruption according to Isaias's
dictionary? As the saying goes, ba'elika zeseberkaya
xahli, haxibka kem zeqemetkaya." iyu eti neger [if you
break your own plate, then (as far as accountability is
concerned) the act of breaking it is no different than the act
of cleaning and placing it on the cupboard.]
As
I mentioned in an earlier edition, Isaias is the super
acrobatist or Eti hiluf
misluy in Tigrigna. The only problem is we have not
found a child that could disclose his nudity. I mean like the
child who said, "The emperor has no clothes."
We
Eritreans are now almost free to gossip and talk our mind with
each other in a confidential manner. We are openly talking
about the shortages of fuel (kerosene), bread, cooking gas
etc. When we are fed with the daily broadcasts of
Darfur, East Sudan peace deal, Somalia, Oromia etc, we openly
say that these issues are none of our concern
etc. We are fed up with the year-in year-out
presidential speech of Tilul kramat [a
showery rainy season] and "Bzuh serihnakwa entekonna,
kemti zidle kem zeykone yridana iyu..." [We understand
although we have achieved much, it is not adequate.]
The
problem is that we are not bold enough to talk
when we have a meeting of the mimihidarat
[administration.] In such a situation, Isaias lies as he
pleases and his cohorts monitor the people for any "illegal"
action or talk.
We
need change.
