Eritrea’s Authoritarians Attempt Totalitarianism

Eritrea’s sole legal party vision for its economy has been a “mixed economy.” This, of course, means nothing. “Mixed economy” means nothing because it means everything. In theory, it is a system where there is a role for the private sector to own the means of production and the public sector to regulate it while, in some cases, classifying entire sectors as sensitive to national security and exempt from private ownership. That is: whether the mix between public-private is 70-30 or 30-70, one can call it a “mixed economy.” Of course, when it gets to 90-10, it is a command economy: where the government (public) dictates everything. Control of economy is one of the factors distinguishing totalitarians from ordinary authoritarians, and it is a destination Isaias and his enforces hope to reach.

When we talk about Eritrea, the “public sector” is one person: President Isaias Afwerki. Although he has never had any training in economics, because he is an expert in every subject, he is also an expert in economics. Thus, his rumination (explained in rambling interviews with terrified interviewers of State TV) become State policy enforced at the point of a gun.

At this point, you are saying, “oh no! Here it comes! He is going to share with us video clips of Isaias Afwerki not aware that his very face, his very voice triggers a headache and a reminder of all the hell Eritrea is going through.” No worries, I got you. Yes, I have to share his video clips, but I am going to make you laugh first. Because if you are too busy laughing at the absurdity of Isaias Afwerki, you will forget he is the angel of misery:

Of course, this funny guy is saying what he is saying from the safety of Ethiopia. You know: that country we fought for 30 years because it posed an imminent threat to our safety. He couldn’t possibly say this in Eritrea because all dictators are humorless and have no capacity to laugh at themselves.

Eritrea: Too Poor To Be Totalitarian

All despots wish they had the power to be totalitarians but they end up just being pathetic authoritarians. Many scholars have attempted to itemize what makes an authoritarian regime totalitarian and, in my view, the simplest to comprehend is the one put by Friedrich and Brzezinski:

1. An elaborate ideology with a doctrine that every man, woman and child is supposed to adhere to, even if passively;
2. A single “mass party” led by a dictator, whose members are no more than 10% of the population, and which includes loud true believers willing to do anything to advance its cause;
3. A system of terror, physical or psychological, directed not just at the masses but members of the party, including its elite;
4. A near-complete control of mass communication including press and motion pictures;
5. A central control and direction of the economy

Where the PFDJ and its boss have struggled in transitioning from authoritarianism to totalitarianism are in items 1, 4 and 5 above. Not for lack of trying (all the censoring, and disappearing, and sloganeering) but for lack of resources, including human.

Yosief Gebrehiwot has written often that the PFDJ (and formerly EPLF) has no ideology except what he calls “vulgar pragmatism”: say what you have to say, do what you have to do, but get what you want. But I don’t think that is right. EPLF/PFDJ has always been a leftist organization. There is no amount of “vulgar pragmatism” that will, for example, ala Putin, allow for a nouveau riche class to emerge. Its brand of lefty “Hasadism” can never, and will never, allow it. So it has an ideology it dogmatically holds on to: some call it “Saktism” (whatever, man) but I call it “Hasadism” (more happy by the misery of others than its accomplishments.)

At the same time, with the exception of Elias Amare and that self-satisfied kid in Facebook, I don’t know anyone (ok, maybe Zemehret Yohannes, too) who believes the PFDJ is serious about ideology or doctrine. It is not even loyal to the “anti-colonialism” and “anti-imperialism” and “anti zionism” and “pan Africanism” that every African lefty is committed to. When Julius Nyerere came up with his version of “self-reliance”, he at least bothered to give it a name (ujamaa) and gave it a quasi intellectual African mooring. The PFDJ version of self-reliance is just a phrase attached to nothing. Sure, occasionally—the drafters of Eritrea’s 1997 constitution and the drafters of the 2015 Civil/Penal Code and Civil/Penal Procedures, for example–will pretend that this “self-reliance” translated into incorporating Eritrea’s traditions and customs (the so-called Hgi Endaba) into laws. Check out, for example, Fozia Hashim and her sidekick make same claim at their meeting in Washington, DC recently. But I will loan you a miner’s flashlight, a chemist’s microscope and an astronomer’s telescope and you will find only two things (diddly and squat) about Hgi Endaba in either the constitution or the new codes. Go ahead, I will wait.

Lacking an elaborate ideology, but still wanting to set a role for every man, woman and child, it has resorted to the only thing it learned and has memorized from the armed struggle: militarism. Everybody must be in uniform, because a uniform magically transforms a citizen into an obedient order-follower. Old people must carry guns to protect government offices; middle aged people must carry guns to protect the nation (in peacetime because that’s when war will come when you least expect it; and also in war time, because that’s when you are at war. So, all the time), and young people must carry guns because they will soon be middle aged. Every government in the world, including the democratic ones, are closet authoritarians and they admire the efficiency of an entire population mobilized and following orders. For many of the Westerners who arrive from the chaos of the Third World, Eritrea must be like watching choreographed dance (well sure the coach likes the stick and the dancers look miserable but what a choreography!) Many of our own Ghedli and even Sawa generation, no matter how cocooned they are, get all teary-eyed when they watch barely legal girls in shorts marching and saluting the chief commanding officer. Such discipline, they say tearfully: it turns out I wasn’t the only one who gave up his entire youth: a new generation is! What grand values! Clearly, this is what I fought for! Some even write odious pieces in Facebook and get a pat on the head for being “Hagerawian” and whisper, all is well with the world.

This takes us to the central control and direction (command) economy.

The challenge authoritarian Isaias Afwerki has in transforming to a totalitarian man is that besides mining (which he fully owns) there isn’t an economy to command. But perception is much more important than reality so, every year, he has to tell the people that he knows what they are up to (smuggling dough when he banned transfer of grains to the cities! selling milk, water, cow-feed for more than they should!). He has his revenge: you may say I know nothing, but I know nothing about EVERYTHING, so who is sorry now?

It’s not all fun and games, of course, so the party (which is intellectually bankrupt and has no mechanism to challenge its Mad Man) frequently comes up with directives to implement the policies of Isaias Afwerki who invariably rewards its loyalty by telling the whole world, every New Year’s Eve, that everything is fucked and nothing is working “in this country.” So, let’s look at this year’s directive, courtesy of our friend Tesfaldet Meharenna:

And here is a passable English translation for the above:

Remember the long lamentation of Isaias Afwerki about the price of milk? Sadly, we don’t know its fate: what are the government’s dictates, since 20 Nakfa per liter/kilogram was considered unacceptable by El Presidente? (Tes, is there another directive on dairy products you are not sharing?) What we know is that the government is most likely thinking of putting the private producers and dairy farmers out of business because it has already started a campaign against them (in State TV it controls, of course): that the milk’s prices are too high and milk’s safety is unknown. And what is the one entity that can guarantee food safety? Exactly.

As for the prices of fruits, vegetables and meat, it was announced in the bulletin you see above. Because it was a government bulletin, and the government is PFDJ, it applied its characteristic language: (a) because we are too kind, we have allowed you to dictate your prices throughout the holidays (the September Habesha New Year, which has since been re-baptized “Geez Calendar” New Year) but now (b) punishment of varying harshness will be meted out on violators. And who are the recipients of this dire warning? Mostly women, mostly mothers of martyrs, mostly wives of men in indefinite national service, and all practically (or actually) poor single mothers. But it is all good because the directive had a stamp which said “Victory to the Masses!” So, by definition, it is pro-poor! And pro-women!

So, that’s the tragedy. And, as Karl Marx said, “history repeats itself: first as tragedy, second as farce.” And the farce will come in December when President Isaias Afwerki, in an interview (year-in-review) with his obedient media, will tell us that nothing works and everything is fucked up. His survival instinct is to pretend he is an auditor reviewing the work of the government and not the organism presiding over the whole edifice of decay.

Bolokh is coming.