AN OPEN LETTER TO THOSE CONCERNED:
Although it may already be too late to do anything about it at this stage,
I am writing, to express my personal view that putting the 2% tax payment
as a requirement to be elected as a representative to the Constitutent
Assembly is not in the best interest of the constitution making process.
I am not totally discounting the arguments of those who say that this is
the law of the land, and anyone who does not respect the law disqualifies
himself/herself to be elected. Others have given counter arguments to
this, and it is not my intention to reiterate their points here.
My position is that the Government has not maintained a hard-line position
on the issue, by not disqualifing everybody who has not paid the 2% tax
from participating in the election process, for a good reason. I tend to
believe that is because the Government wanted to have a broad
participation by Eritreans in the diaspora in the making of their
country's constitution. It is obvious that the Government wanted full
participation of all Eritrean in the country as well as those who are
living abroad in the drafting of the constitution as manifested by the
opportunity that was given for all Eritreans to express their views on the
drafting of the constitution.
The Government has devised ways of enforcing the 2% tax payment, and an
attempt to enforce the 2% tax requirement by making it mandatory to being
elected, is the least effective and the most damaging approach, as I see
it.
In my view, considering the benefits of relaxing this law as it applies to
the contitution making process, versus the not so obvious gains of
enforcing it, the Government would be best served by lifting the 2% tax
payment as a requirement to be elected to the Constitutent Assembly. I
think the goverment should have been more flexible and lenient on this
issue, simply because, I believe, that the long-term benefits would
outweigh the short term gain of partially upholding a law, which is
proving to be controversial and divisive .
Sincerely,
Araya Debessay
** To UNSUBSCRIBE from dehai, send mail to: majordomo@primenet.com **
** with the following text in the body of your mail: **
** unsubscribe dehai your-email-address **