Why Does Eritrean Dictator Fear Organisation So Much? By Ahmeddin Osman
There is a question that every Eritrean should ask.
Why was the Constitution frozen?
Why was the National Assembly abandoned?
Why was the University of Asmara shut down?
Why were independent newspapers silenced?
Why were businesses suffocated?
Why were religious institutions repeatedly pressured whenever they appeared too independent?
Why has Eritrea spent so many years isolated from regional and international organisations?
At first glance, these may seem like separate events. They are not.
They are pieces of the same puzzle.
The regime’s greatest fear has never been opposition.
Its greatest fear has been organisation.
Think about it.
A journalist sitting alone is not dangerous.
But a newsroom is.
A businessman is not dangerous.
But an independent business community is.
A student is not dangerous.
But a university full of students and professors exchanging ideas is.
A believer is not dangerous.
But a religious institution that commands respect and loyalty beyond the state is.
An individual elder is not dangerous.
But a community that organises itself through its own traditions and values is.
What the regime fears is not people.
It is people coming together.
It fears anything that allows Eritreans to cooperate without permission, think without supervision, and act without instruction.
That is why the attack was never limited to politics.
The attack extended to every sphere of national life.
Politics.
Journalism.
Education.
Religion.
Business.
Culture.
Community.
Even the Constitution itself.
Anything that could become an institution had to be weakened.
Anything that could develop roots had to be uprooted.
Anything that could outlive the ruler had to be prevented from growing.
The tragedy is that many Eritreans have become so accustomed to this reality that they no longer see how abnormal it is.
A country without a functioning parliament.
A country without independent newspapers.
A country without a genuine university.
A country where even the simplest civic organisation struggles to exist.
A country where every institution eventually leads back to one office and one man.
This is not strength.
It is fragility disguised as strength.
Strong leaders build institutions because they know institutions make nations stronger.
Weak leaders fear institutions because they know institutions limit their power.
That is why Eritrea’s ruler spent decades dismantling every independent pillar of society.
He understood something that many Eritreans still underestimate.
An organised people are far more powerful than any dictator.
A university creates thinkers.
A newspaper creates informed citizens.
A business community creates independence.
Religious institutions create moral authority.
Civic organisations create solidarity.
A constitution creates limits.
Together they create something every dictator fears:
A society that no longer depends on him.
And this is where the regime’s greatest failure becomes clear.
It succeeded in closing newspapers.
It succeeded in freezing the Constitution.
It succeeded in shutting down institutions.
It succeeded in driving hundreds of thousands into exile.
But it failed to destroy the human desire to organise.
That is why Eritreans continue to build communities across the world.
That is why they establish media platforms, civic groups, charities, cultural associations, professional networks, and political movements despite endless division and intimidation.
The instinct to organise is still alive.
The instinct to cooperate is still alive.
The instinct to build is still alive.
And that should give every Eritrean hope.
Because dictators can destroy institutions.
They cannot destroy the human need for institutions.
They can close a university.
They cannot kill knowledge.
They can silence a newspaper.
They cannot silence truth forever.
They can freeze a constitution.
They cannot freeze a people’s desire for justice.
For more than thirty years, the regime has waged war against organisation itself.
Yet the future belongs to those who build, not those who dismantle.
And sooner or later, Eritrea will have to be rebuilt by the very thing the regime feared most:
Eritreans working together
