President Isaias' speech on the occasion of the 18th anniversary of Independence Day
May 24, 2009
Dear Compatriots inside Eritrea as well as abroadDistinguished Participants and Guests
Allow me to extend my warmest congratulations to the entire people of Eritrea on this auspicious day. Let me also express my profound gratitude to all those who contributed to the exuberant festivities that have been going on throughout the week and that have amplified the boundless joy and pride we all feel on this special day.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
You may recall the observations I made on a number of issues of paramount importance in my speech during the celebrations of our independence anniversary last year. One of those issues was the question of "virtual demarcation" and the impediments and misinformation perpetrated at the time by the outgoing US Administration. All those ploys have failed and are almost forgotten now. What remains, and which does not perturb us much, is the simple matter of ascertaining our inviolable rights to the liberation of our sovereign territories that are still occupied.
In my speech last year, I also elaborated on the observations I had made previously during our independence anniversary in 2005 in regard to the prevalent international developments. As I stressed last year, the reckless policies pursued by a "special interest" group in the United States who believed that they were entrusted with a "providential mission" to shape "their own world order" had given rise to the eruption of violent conflagrations in various parts of the world. This had, in turn, entailed immense destruction, spiralling economic crises and an overall bleak trend that was fraught with dangerous consequences.
Although the broad contours of the change have been indicated, and the prevailing good will pronounced, its specific contents have not yet been clarified. The most critical questions are: how will change be effected? And, will it be at all possible?
The "special interest" groups are frantically employing the clout and influence they had, and still possess, to prevent change from occurring; to obstruct and roll back change; and above all, to mislead the new Administration and influence it to advance their interests. To this end, they have unleashed a new war by deploying all the weapons and ammunitions in their arsenal and by altering their colours, methodologies and "lobbies". Whether the goodwill of the new Administration will succeed or not will indeed be determined by the outcome of the struggle. One of the factors that will compound the challenge is the enormity of the global crisis and the formidable hurdles it poses. The theatre where this confrontation is waged is not also situated in the United States alone but in vast areas in the world as well as in several fields. These additional dimensions of the problem only accentuate the depth of its severity.
If we scrutinize the acts of the "special interest" groups in our region, they have unleashed an intensive smear campaign by peddling lies through their multiple media outlets and lobbyists. They have been very active throughout spring to stifle the policy "changes" that may be embarked by the new US Administration and in order to mislead it and derail any possible positive action. They are misconstruing the "threat of terrorism" that they deliberately fanned in the first place, as a convenient pretext and instrument of intimidation, in order to divert attention from, and prevent the resolution of, the main problems. They had refined this tool as an internalized habit for decades and the old trick is being resuscitated vigorously these days. The various acts and campaigns that they are instigating outside our region hour by hour are not different either, in substance, from the pattern described above.
Ladies and Gentlemen,On propitious occasions of our independence anniversary, it is appropriate for us to examine in depth critical international developments that may impact on our domestic and regional realities. The purpose of the exercise is to take stock of these trends and formulate policies and plans that shore up our endeavours. Trying to gauge today whether present international realities correspond with our profound desire for change is thus rooted in this perspective and practice. Our hope is that the change promised on a global scale, and especially in the United States, is genuine indeed. This is also a universally shared hope.
Hopes and aspirations are however subjective dispositions and cannot be assumed as realized unless and until they are accompanied by tangible and quantifiable changes on the ground. To give hasty and emotional judgment on the grounds of promises and trends and to raise high expectations on a process which is barely starting will also be imprudent and unrealistic. We shall not thus expect miracles or solutions on a silver platter in an unrealistic fashion. We shall follow developments with the necessary patience and caution.
To follow developments with patience and caution does not mean that we shall remain in a passive mode as bystanders with folded hands. The policy of "constructive engagement" that we have publicly announced indeed means an active, constructive, engagement. This active initiative will be direct. It will not be conducted through intermediaries and lobbyists. Furthermore, we must be wary that our sincere disposition for constructive engagement is not misconstrued and taken for granted to lead to "blackmail," or used as a bargaining chip for imposing pre-emptive conditionalities.
We shall thus continue to undertake relentless action without undue haste, and, by refining our objective reading of the developments that unfold. This approach is vital as we do not also harbour any hidden agenda or have issues that we are particularly worried about.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I shall not dwell on burning regional issues. Indeed, I know that you have been closely following recent developments whose details have also been described extensively in the media in the past days.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
To closely follow and assess international developments will only help us to gauge the impact of external factors. It will not otherwise relegate the domestic situation to the back burner. Our primary task remains the identification of our domestic priorities and tasks and the carrying out of our homework.
In spite of the harvest shortfall that occurred in 2008, we shall continue to pursue the priority task of food security that we have embarked on. In this regard, we shall continue to pursue this year the policies of price subsidy as well as prudent patterns of consumption to ensure better outreach and equitable distribution. But beyond the issues of supply and distribution, and without ignoring the adequacy of rainfall which is not under our control, we shall redouble our efforts for agricultural development by subsidizing and rationalizing the supply of fuel. The new and extensive agricultural projects we had sought to develop this year in the Northern and Southern Red Sea Administrative Zones have been shelved due to input constraints and the re-arrangement of priorities. Nonetheless, we intend to undertake the necessary preparations this year in order to ensure the full implementation of these projects in 2010.
The development of our marine resources is another task that must be pursued in parallel with our agricultural development projects. We shall consequently improve the modest achievements of last year aimed at increasing supply of fish to the domestic market, and undertake the necessary preparations in order to increase the annual harvest as well as expand the marketing outlets towards the end of this year.
The development of our marine resources is another task that must be pursued in parallel with our agricultural development projects. We shall consequently improve the modest achievements of last year aimed at increasing supply of fish to the domestic market, and undertake the necessary preparations in order to increase the annual harvest as well as expand the marketing outlets towards the end of this year.In conjunction with the planned and ongoing agricultural development projects for the promotion of food security, we intend to install supply of electricity in most areas of the Gash Barka, Southern Red Sea and Northern Red Sea Administrative Zones. These grids will start in the most important centres and expand and become interconnected with time. The supply of potable water will go in tandem with these projects. All these projects, important as they are, mainly depend on thermal energy with its attendant, rather high, cost implications. The new approach is thus mainly hinged on the phased introduction and expansion of solar and wind sources of energy.
.There are evidently other important sectors that have not been put on the first category in terms of time-bound prioritization. Our educational programmes aimed at producing skilled and productive manpower and that will have tangible contributions in the effective implementation of all the projects described above, as well as, our health programmmes that have been rendering relatively excellent services, shall be expanded both in quantitative and qualitative terms as priorities that cannot be shelved.Ladies and Gentlemen,
Allow me to thank the Eritrean Armed Forces who have made memorable contributions to the achievements we have gleaned in the past 18 years of independence in all sectors and fronts, the Eritrean people inside the country as well as those who reside abroad, all the Ministries and Administrative Zones, the social associations, various companies as well as our friends and partners. At the present time, the challenges we face are less than the opportunities available. We must therefore increase our efforts and pace to a forward march.
May we be blessed with a good rainy season!
Glory to our Martyrs!
Victory to the Masses!
Happy birth day Abu and Babu
Ayoub mzee in our studios preparing to go on air
shock, sorrow greet Tajudeen’s deathKampala/Nairobi
A wave of shock and grief tore through Africa – and the world - yesterday following the death in a car crash of Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem, the secretary general of the Pan-African Movement, one of the continent’s most illustrious sons.
“It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing on of Dr Tajudeen in a road accident on Mombasa road en-route to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya,” Ms Sylvia Mwichuli, the communications coordinator for Africa Millennium Campaign, said in a press statement.
Fondly called by associates/friends as Taju, the Nigerian political scientist was the UN’s Millennium Campaign deputy director, working to “inspire Africans to become more proactive in engaging their leaders to the delivery of the Millennium Development Goals”.
Witnesses say Dr Tajudeen, 53, who was rushing to JKIA to catch a flight, lost control of his car at around 1am on Sunday night and then smashed
into the General Motors - Enterprise Road intersection. He died about an hour later on the way to hospital. In a cruel twist of fate that none of the continent’s best storytellers could have woven, Dr Tajudeen died on Africa Liberation Day which commemorates the date – May 25, 1963 – when leaders of 32 independent African states met to form the Organisation of African Unity, now renamed the African Union.
In Kampala, admirers led by President Museveni expressed sadness that Dr Tajudeen, a renowned Rhodes/Oxford University scholar in the early 1980s, passed away before realisation of a single African unity government.
“I extend my deepest condolences to the family of late Dr Tajudeen and the Pan African Movement,” the President said in a statement delivered by his Press Secretary Tamale Mirundi.
He added: “I enjoyed his skillful writings and never had any problems with him; his was an intellectual debate and criticism.”
Mr Museveni’s comments were apparently aimed to calm nerves amid reports that, although initially a comrade, he fell out with Dr Tajudeen over his strong criticism of the 2005 lifting of the constitutional term limits, enabling the Ugandan leader keep in power as long as he stands and is voted or rigs the polls.
Taju’s bond with Uganda was apparently deepened in 1994, when officials from Kampala in a Hollywood movie-style operation, rescued Dr Tajudeen from certain death in the hands of Gen. Sani Abacha’s henchmen.
Uganda’s current Trade Minister, Maj. Gen. Kahinda Otafiire and chairman of the Pan African Movement, who headed the daring mission, said they smuggled Dr Tajudeen from a Lagos jail and got him out of the country on a falsified identity “because those fascists ruling Nigeria then wanted to kill him.”
 RIP: Mourners at Tajudeen’s home in Kansanga, Kampala, yesterday. |
Gen. Otafiire said: “Taju’s death is a very big blow to the Pan African Movement of which he was the secretary general. He was an all-rounder; concerned about the welfare of all Africans and an unrelenting critic of bad governance on the continent.”
Indeed in his syndicated TAJUDEEN’s POSTCARD’ column for this week, (published on Page 10), he wrote, “the majority of Africans continue to survive not because of government but in spite of governments.”
“They eke out a living to keep body and soul together, provide for
their families, doing all kinds of dirty work with little pay or selling anything that is buyable hawking all kinds of household wares, fruits, vegetables and myriad of consumer items.”
On the fateful trip, he was heading to Rwanda to launch a campaign to promote maternal health, one of the eight Millennium Development Goals, and later meet President Paul Kagame.
In his condolence message, UN Millennium Campaign Director Salil Shetty said: “Taju was amongst Africa’s foremost voices for pan Africanism and social justice, both inside and outside the continent.”
He added: “His towering intellect, moral fibre and courage of conviction allowed him to speak truth to the powerful like nobody could. It is ironical that on Africa Day [25 May], Africa has lost one of its greatest voices and our most credible advocate.”
Mr Michael Khauka-Mafabi, the Uganda country director of the Pan African Development Education and Advocacy Programme, an organisation dedicated to the promotion of refugee rights and co-founded by Dr Tajudeen, said such intellect of Dr Tajudeen charmed critics and leaders as he worked to support the less fortunate and provide hope that “Africans were capable of solving their own problems.”
“He was focused that whatever the circumstances, all set goals must be achieved and he had the ability to find infectious humour in almost everything - that he provided positive attitude to life and made working with him less formal and more binding,” said Mr Khauka-Mafabi.
There was scheduled to be a vigil for him at his ‘exile’ home in Kabalagala, a Kampala city surburb, where friends and associates had begun assembling by last evening.
Among the mourners was Ms Fatoumata Toure, a strong Pan Africanist, who has worked closely with Dr Tajudeen in the last 16 years. “He worked with great dedication and passion to ensure that the dream of a united Africa is achieved; he didn’t keep grudges and was very clever.”
By press time, the body of Dr Tajudeen, was due to be flown to Lagos from where it would be transported for burial to Funtua town in his native Katsina State. He is survived by a wife and two daughters.[source : monitor]
