Pride of The Nation: Complementary Power

In most countries of the world, even in the ones which boast they have “highly educated and developed people” it is perceived that political, media and diplomatic activities are reserved for the few, in fact for those who are thought to be the cream of the society. Most do not consider that the activity concerns the vast majority of the population.

In Eritrea as a result of the culture that was fostered during the long years of struggle for independence, is different from this common perception. In Eritrea the initiative and performer of all political, media and diplomatic activities of the country is the vast population itself.The stance of the Eritrean People’s Front that says “Political awareness instilled in the masses changes into strong material force” and the political work and agitation that has been conducted in light of this belief has been fruitful in increasing the awareness and participation on national issues of the Eritrean people.

Regardless of their geographical location, Eritreans seem to have similar view and outlook in regard of what goes in their country or elsewhere in the globe as a result of their wide participation in the politics of their nation. It is very hard to come by such or similar political culture anywhere.The shared belief that awareness is everything has enabled the people of Eritrea to gain confi dence on top of their fervent nationalism. As this is the case, during the struggle for independence, the people of Eritrea went on their day to day activities without waiting for any external help, and managed to create a network and organization to exploit our limited resources, and represented itself in everything. The people of Eritrea still follow this conviction even after independence.

The people of Eritrea, whenever there is propaganda or diplomatic smear campaign aimed at their government, they organize to give a suffi cient reply. In a world, where many governments spend a huge budget to form or infl uence lobby groups, Eritrea does not engage in such an activity. Eritrean citizens, who live outside of their country, without requiring any directive or help defend their country through personally participating at symposiums and forums of discussions, by contacting infl uential personalities and by launching their radio and TV stations and websites. Even our enemies have gone on record to claim that each Eritrean is an ambassador of his country.

The complementary power for Eritrea, besides its truthful and just stance and firm and alert people, is the personal initiative, strong participation of its citizens on political, media and diplomatic activities. This political, media and diplomatic activity that has developed during the unique historical situation of the country has to be protected and further developed for it is an additional power where the country relies and is proud of.