Weekly Press Columns Digest
07 July, 2019
KHARTOUM, (SUDANOW)—Columnist Zain al-Abdin Salih has stated that a number of media outlets in Sudan have once against returned to their previous role as a tool for the defunct regime and have come under the service of the Transitional Military Council (TMC) and against the Freedom and Change Forces (FCF).
Writing in Aljareedah daily newspaper of Sunday, Salih said journalists of those outlets during the first days of the popular revolution showed mild support to the revolution like the TMC which at that time pretended to support to the revolution.
But when the TMC turned against the FCF and began to rally supporters from segments and followers of the former Ingas regime to counter those of the FCF and made use of the media executives and journalists who were happily willing to serve the TMC as they were used to serve the former totalitarian regime, the columnist said.
Those media executives and journalists mostly Islamists and belonged to the formerly ruling National Congress Party (NCP) which has now reappeared on the Sudanese political scene, either through restored trade unions, associations and individuals, in support of the TMC and manning a counter revolution, Salih said.
He noted that, as an act of recruiting the media on its side and strengthening the counter revolution attempt, TMC Vice President Mohamed Hamdan Daglo (Hamidaty), has dismissed the Director of the National Radio and Television, Jamal Mustafa, who was known as an honest career and professional media-man, for no reason other than his refusal to function on TMC orders and replaced him with one who is willing to comply with those orders.
----
If time reversed and President Omar al-Bashir was still in power on Sunday, June 30, and was asked to choose between stepping down and remaining in power to confront the revolutionaries, he would certainly choose abdication, wrote Ahmed Yusuf al-Tai in a column that was published by Alintibaha daily newspaper of Monday, referring to the multi-million demonstrations staged in the Sudanese capital and other cities across the country on Sunday.
The columnist advised the Transitional Military Council (TMC) to take up the message and reconsider its position of confronting the Sudanese people and their legitimate aspirations for freedom, democracy and justice.
The processions of millions should convince the TMC that all the Sudanese people are rallied behind the Freedom and Change Forces (FCF) which has a tremendous influence among the masses of the people who took to the streets in response to a call by the FCF, Tai said.
The TMC should understand that the FCF-led revolution is still aflame and should abandon its attempts of trifling the revolution as an effort being made only be the Communist Party and of fabricating parallel bodies of supporters of the defunct regime as a counter-revolution element, the columnist added.
He believes that the escalation by the Sudanese revolutionaries is due to mistrust by the public in the TMC which Tai said has arrested a number of FCF leading figures and has banned political panels and press conferences.
-----
Dr. Muzammil Abul Gassim seems optimistic in a column published by Alyoum Altaly daily newspaper of Tuesday in which he warned that the Sudan is heading towards further violence and instability, citing the recent demonstrations in which he quoted health officials as saying that more than 10 demonstrators were killed and 181 others were injured, 27 of them sustaining bullet injuries.
He seems certain that the casualties were more than what was announced, saying that while an account of the casualties of the sit-in massacre has not yet been finished, new blood was shed, showing that the Sudan is no longer a safe country and that the situation is worsening.
Gassim has described the Transitional Military Council (TMC) as lacking in objectivity, referring to its statement in which it held the Freedom and Change Forces (FCF) responsible for what had happened whereas it should have blamed itself as it is the reigning authority and is therefore responsible for maintenance of the security in the country.
It is illogical that the TMC every time attributes firearms killings in demonstrations to clandestine elements and fails to apprehend them, said the columnist.
Referring to a statement by Vice President Mohamed Hamdan Daglo that armed elements attacked his Rapid Support Forces (RSF) at the entrance of the Medical Corps in Omdurman, Gassim wondered whether the TMC that is unable to protect his own men could maintain the security nation-wide.
In another column that appeared on the same newspaper's back page, Adil al-Baz hailed the FCF for successfully organizing massive rallies on Sunday and for an equally successful delivery of three messages to concerned parties.
He said the first message was directed to the TMC informing it that it cannot ignore the FCF and cannot form a government in absence of the FCF which depends on the invincible popular power.
The second message was to assure the international community mediators of the influence of the FCF on the public to urge them to exert further pressures on the military council into responding to the demands by the FCF which has now gained more sympathy from the Western powers, said the columnist.
He added that the third message was a humanitarian gesture directed to families of the martyrs, visiting them at home in huge numbers, to reassure them that their sons have not sacrificed their lives in vain but for an honorable purpose.
----
Columnist Shamail al-Nour has stated in a column published by Altayyar daily newspaper on Wednesday that the Transitional Military Council (TMC) is spending millions of dollars to improve its originally deformed image.
Quoting a news report by the BBC, Shamail said the TMC has concluded a six-million US dollar contract with a Canadian company specialized in public relations and public opinion mobilization for the purpose of improving its image.
She said the manager of the company reportedly said the contract provides for gaining support of the United States of America, Saudi Arabia and Russia to recent developments in Sudan and to the political objectives of the military council and later on, the company would seek to make available funds and military equipment to the council.
The deal is also aimed at gaining global recognition to the TMC as a legitimate interim leadership in Sudan, the columnist remarked.
She wondered how could a council that has perpetrated the worst ever massacre to disperse a peaceful sit-in after which it continued to kill unarmed demonstrators have its originally deformed image be improved?
This practice has been tried in vain by the defunct regime which, in addition, was in full control of all the local media outlets but could not compete the social media that was used against that regime, Shamail said.
---
Renowned columnist Al-Tahir Satti has greeted as wise an agreement by the Freedom and Change Forces (FCF) movement to sit down for direct negotiations with the Transitional Military Council (TMC) for settlement of the differences between the two parties.
In the column that was published by Al-Sudani daily newspaper of Thursday, Satti said, now that they have hopefully approached the statehood phase, the FCF leaders have to switch from revolutionary activists to statesmen and politicians who can run the affairs and find solutions to problems of the state.
It seems that the FCF has been incapable of changing the revolutionary spirit to politics and has therefore missed tremendous gains it has obtained before the violent dispersal of the general command sit-in which included 100% of the council of ministers and 67% of the legislative council besides recognition as a representative of the revolutionaries and the Sudanese people alike, Satti said.
The FCF has lost those gains, which constituted 95% of the entire deal, when it unwisely applied the revolutionary spirit instead of shrewd politics, the columnist reasoned.
----
"Congratulations, But…" This was the headline of a column that appeared on Altayyar daily newspaper of Saturday in which Asma'a Juma'ah said the deal was reached after three months from the removal former President Omar al-Bashir in which the Transitional Military Council (TMC) attempted to control the full powers while the Freedom and Change Forces (FCF) wanted to have all its demands fulfilled.
The deal is not the end of the road, Asma'a said, adding that the upcoming task is more difficult and that the country has to start from scratch for building a newborn state after the defunct regime has destroyed all the political, social, military and legal institutions, besides rehabilitation of the Sudanese people to recover from three decades of oppression and humiliation and restoration of their economic, social and political rights.
She said it is required of the Sudanese people to act as a monitor over the civilian government and the Sovereign Council to check any symptoms of corruption to immediately confront it in popular pressures till the fall of the corrupts and addressing the corruption.
E N D
MAS
Post your comments
Photo of the Week
Everybody alive today came from one African country (The Independent) Ariana Baio Khartoum, Jan.1 (Sudanow)-It is well known that all humans alive today can be traced back to a common ancestor but a study may have found where that ancestor originates. Researchers at the University of Oxford’s Big Data Institute mapped the entirety of genetic relationships among humans t...
More-
01 January, 2023
Phone battery killed nine persons, injured twelve
Zalingei, Jan.1 (Sudanow) - A dispute over a phone battery, in Marin Market, Central Darfur, led to the killing of nine persons and injuring of another twelve. The Director of Central Darfur Police, Salah Omar Al-Tayeb told SUNA last Thursday that main reasons behind the events in Zalingei began with a dispute over a phone battery, where one of the citizens stabbed to death. The police official added that the police forces moved to th...
Contact Us
Address: Sudan News Agency (SUNA) Building, Jamhoria Street, Khartoum - Sudan
Mobile:+249 909220011 / +249 912307547