03-December-2024

Weekly Press Columns Digest

Weekly Press Columns Digest

KHARTOUM (Sudanow) — Some of the most outstanding issues that preoccupied the public and, consequently, the press and its commentaries, were the reported failed military coup attempt, the rash lockdown of the Eastern Sudan by a tribal leader (a remnant of the ousted regime) and the state of education at the beginning of the new acdemic year in the country’s schools.

Under the title “The So-called Military Coup”, wrote Dr. Mutasim Bukhari in the electronic publication Alrakoba (the ShacK):

The local and international media was awash Tuesday mourning (21 September) with a breaking news about a coup attempt in Sudan.

Then there appeared the (interim) chairman of the Sovereignty Council, General Abdelfattah Alburhan, speaking to the troops at a military location. As usual he  poured his wrath upon the civilians, holding them responsible for what has happened, speaking about the transitional period as if he were a political analyst from a foreign country, not the country’s head of state.

For his part, Burhan’s deputy, General Dagalo (Hemaidti) very soon emerged before the cameras, lashing at the civilians and the political parties, holding them responsible for the shortcomings and the damage in the country and that they were just after power and government positions

Everybody knows that the military chairmanship of the Sovereignty Council was about to elapse after which a civilian will take over as the head of state. That is according to the guiding charter, the Constitutional Document. That means the power of the military will come to an end, and  it looks they are fearful about the consequences of that. They know that leaving power in the hands of the civilians will open windows of hell at them, an opening towards the unknown they do not know how to deal with. That is because they have debts to pay and there is blood on their hands. Heavy dossiers of sorts that can overwhelm the strongest of mountains await them. We know that time is up for them. Death rattles in the throat and the agony of death is hard to bear. 

Military coups have rules, fundamentals and conditions for success. Sudan is infested with this pest. The people of Sudan are well aware about this pest, know about its facts and its symptoms. For that this tasteless, poorly directed, poorly acted game is not new to many of them. That is why they (the people) started to ask: Who is this lunatic who stages a coup after the evil thirty years of Bashir’s rule. He must be insane,  even if he were from the clique of that “dumped” regime. That clique of the defunct regime has the worst of descriptions, and sins, save of being stupid or suicidal. They know very well that the Capital Khartoum is ringed with the forces and militias of the armed movements. These are their enemies. They also know that the pubic will unleash a volcano of fury in their faces if they do this evil again. The high committee assigned to trace and retrieve the money and properties they have stolen has rendered them faceless before the angry public.         .

Then.. I have some questions and queries to put forward:

How can’t a coup plotter who wants his adventure to succeed first put under arrest all the political and military leaders before making his first announcement?

How can a coup succeed without complete control of the Army General Command in the first place. whether with coordination or with force?
Then, is it reasonable for the coup leader to send two officers to the radio station to broadcast the first statement of the coup without an accompanying fire power and when the transmission operator “refuses" to broadcast that statement, the two officers pull out as if they were “delivery” workers who knocked the wrong door?

How can a coup succeed without securing the vital utilities: the airport, the TV Station, the telecom facilities and the rest of the bridges around Khartoum?

What has happened signals that something is being conceived in the thick dark, that there is an intention to do something?

The remnants of the ousted regime have exercised all sorts of pressure upon the people of Sudan to force them to lose faith in the Revolution and thwart people’s hope in change. All those attempts were doomed to failure. And when the dateline for the expiry of the Bashir Security Committee’s tenure at the helms of the highest authority in the country is drawing closer, they moved to drive the country towards the precipice, in the hope of a miracle that could extend their stay in power.   
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About the lockdown of Eastern Sudan by persons loyal to the Bija tribal chieftain Sayyid Mohammad Alamin Tirik to press for some demands, wrote Dr. Haydar Ibrahim Ali in the daily newspaper Aldemograti (the Democrat):

We have been calling and preaching a modern democratic and united state based on the rights of citizenship, in rejection of all forms of tribalism and racism.

But out of the procession of the Revolution, there emerges a Sheikh of a tribe that, ever since the days of the legislative assembly formed by the colonial rule in 1948, has been part of the political power in Sudan. This tribal leadership did not give its people anything that could take them from the circle of backwardness, leaving them at the mercy of ignorance, disease and poverty.

And now comes a member of this chiefdom to impose a closure of the East, in other words a prelude for region’s secession from the one country. We are to blame the transitional government that revived the native (tribal) administration, creating a place in the political space for the tribal mayors, sheikhs and monarchs without any change in these leaders’ outlook, programs and plans for regaining their political and economic influence. This odd drive has appeared within the phenomenon of the tribal and geographic peace tracks created by the Juba peace process that won an undeserved legitimacy, making of them the spoke persons of the wronged minorities.

That was the biggest of mistakes of the Juba peace process.

Now the leaders of these peace tracks speak in the names of those areas, without any public   authorization from their respective regions.

I seize this opportunity and call for the reformation of the hole-riddled Juba peace process that encourages new conflicts.

We have to differentiate between a ceasefire and a durable, just peace.

The outcome of the Juba peace process would not achieve any peace, but plant mines that can flare up anytime.

We can notice a retreat in the national spirit and unity.

Many no longer feel that Sudan is a united national country that seeks to lift grievances off some areas and ethnic groups via the slogan of justice and equal development. Here the ideology of the center and the periphery needs revision and to be changed from a provocative slogan into a scientific idea backed with information and history. It is now a racial slogan devoid of any social dimension. I hope the promotion of the periphery not to be approached from a geographic, ethnic perspectives;  presenting new, scientific, and realistic concepts to the youths,  instead of exploiting their zeal with empty slogans, uttered just for the sake of excitement.
Finally..sirs…Chieftain Tirik and the Ja’aliyyeen, the Jumooiyya and the Messairiyya chiefs have to return to the idea of “unity in diversity”, and work for the unity of this country, respect of its diversity away from threats of secession and the temperament of civil war. They will then be the first to benefit from the united, progressive Sudan whose bounties are fairly distributed.

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Writer, Ms. Shama’il Alnoor has pondered the current situation in the country, giving proposals for the creation of better, inexpensive tuition in the schools:

Striking figures are being published here and there about the fees imposed by private schools on the pupils, starting from the nursery up to the secondary school level. We know that the private schools have in recent years become a resort for most the sectors of the society, those  who can pay and those who cannot.

That was due to decline of education during the years of the Salvation Government in which education became an investment, just like the case with health services.

A few days ago, a number of private schools reportedly went out of service with reports that 17 thousand pupils have moved from private to government schools. The number is expected to rise. Pupils are fleeing the expensive private schools under the generally deteriorating living conditions. After the December Revolution, the officials have entertained us with speeches  about free education until at a time when the public was shocked that the school books haven’t been published because the Finance Ministry did not commit to free education.

The situation does not need argumentation.

This situation can allow the government a good opportunity to restore confidence in government education, without false slogans like free education .

It is certain that the government is unable to commit to free education. It is my belief that all should face this reality away from impractical hopes.

Time is now ripe for a return to government education, even in a better way if this opportunity is seized and well employed.

To do this the government schools–though not all of them- can be converted into semi- private schools when the families bear half or a third or a fourth of the cost they pay to the private schools in return for a qualitative schooling service, starting from the school environment up to the proper preparation of teachers.

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YH/AS

 

 

 

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