In the first place, the border should have been open after sorting out the necessary nitty-gritty matters. I hope a more serious approach will come out of the recently reported border regulation.
What’s missing, however, is an official word from the Eritrean government. It’s disappointing to see stories such as this one are let to go without official comments while benign reportings by newspapers are responded to forcefully. It’s to the interest of the government and the nation that the government gets its acts together in matters related to public relations. WE THE PEOPLE HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE INFORMED.
How is General SebHat doing? Why wouldn’t the government say something about it? How could you brush off the assault on one of our ministers in broad daylight? It is to the interest of the public that the government must issue a statement about it.
The Arabs say: enta fi a’ssandooq wo kheberek fi assooq….(You are in a box while your news/story is talked about in the market). How could you try to keep mute about an assault on one of our giant elephants?
There is also the tigrigna saying: ገመል ሰሪቕካስ ጉምብሕ- ጉምብሕ ምባል( stealing a camel and trying to move out by bending your posture low, not to be discovered, or move away stealthily along the stolen camel.
These behaviors touch philosophical and practical realms.
On their philosophical aspect, the question of people’s rights comes to the front. In short, people have the right to know basic information. Although they did not elect the current government, by taking the role of governing, a tacit obligation is incumbent on the government to share vital information with the public.
On the practicality or utilitarian aspect of the matter, it actually benefits the government. If the government fails to set the tone and pace of such vital information (if it fails to control the flow of information), others will fill in the role of the government. At the end the masses will be the victims of myriads of badly patched-up accounts by faceless entities. Nevertheless, we should blame the government. All that the public wants is reassurance from the government, general statements of facts.
ማሕሙድ ሳልሕ (MAHMUD SALEH)
arhebo.com 