Weekly Press Columns Digest
15 March, 2020
KHARTOUM (Sudanow) - Columnist Shamail al-Nor, writing in a column that was published by Altayyar daily newspaper of Sunday, has described as "a real catastrophe" the absence of a parliament that can control performance of the government.
Stressing the importance of having a parliament in the country, the columnist cited the futility of fact-finding committees, noting that before announcement of the findings of an investigative committee on the occurrences of a popular demonstration in support of sacked army officers, another committee was formed for investigating a dubious contract by the Ministry of Finance for monopolizing gold exports by Al-Fakhir (Luxury) Company.
She pointed to a report by a Kenyan newspaper on a secret visit by the Kenyan Vice President to Atbara, north of Khartoum in the River Nile State, returning home with his plane loaded with "big boxes" of unknown contents.
Shamail made reference to a report carried by Al-Sudani Aldauliyyah that quoted the Kenyan newspaper and noted that no investigation or a press statement was issued on the secret visit by the Kenyan Vice President "whose relationship with the ousted President (Beshir) is known".
Although its duty is to feed the public with the necessary information, the press is not empowered to compel a minister or any other official to give any kind of information for the sake of the respondents, but the parliament can summon that official and demand of him to provide an explanation of any issue, the columnist said.
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Ahmed Sherif Osman lamented a steep economic deterioration in Sudan with no economic programme placed by the six-month-old government to inspire hopes to the Sudanese people for checking this persistent deterioration.
Writing in Al-Sudani Aldauliyyah daily newspaper of Monday, Osman said the overwhelming majority of the Sudanese people were optimistic that the economist Prime Minister and his government would relieve them from three decades of living hardships, especially as they were reassured that all sorts of subsidies would be retained, no taxes of any kind would be impose while 250, 000 new jobs would be provided.
In view of this economic deterioration, the unprecedented downfall of the Sudanese pound, the severe scarcity in fuels, bread and drugs and the growing unemployment, the Prime Minister and the political incubator of the government have to do something to stop this economic deterioration, even if they have to substitute the economic team or the ministers and under-secretaries, Osman said.
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The recent attempt on the life of the Sudanese Prime Minister, Dr. Abdalla Hamdouk, for the second successive day dominated the press columns, analyzing the incident and mostly blaming the counter-revolution elements of the former Islamist regime.
Al-Tahrir online newspaper on Wednesday carried one column by Ramzy Al-Misry and a second one by Saif al-Duala Hamadnallah with the former accusing what he called "romance", meaning tolerance by the transition government towards the officials and supporters of the defunct regime who Misry said are still assuming former offices, especially in the Ministry of the Interior.
The present government of the December Revolution has not from the outset taken decisive steps to clear those offices from the symbols of the ousted Ingas regime.
The Transitional Government has even permitted Ingas journalists, naming, in particular, Al-Tayeb Mustafa (the uncle of former President Al-Beshir) and rigid Islamist Ishaq Ahmed Fadlullah, openly criticizing the present government on daily newspapers and other social media.
The identity of the organization to which the "actual perpetrator" of the attempt of assassination of Prime Minister Hamdouk is undisputable as, according to Hamadnallah, many affiliates of that organization (implying the former Islamist regime) have announced threats of assassination of individuals, some of them vowed to turn the country into "Hell".
There is no difficulty in detecting the persons who planned and participated in the terrorist crime and taking them to justice, said Hamadnallah, identifying, however, as the "branch Perpetrator" the "weak points" in the structure of the present government that made possible the occurrence of this incident.
Such crimes of assassination and bomb attacks should be terminated in a decisive manner before becoming a culture like what has happened in other countries, the columnist said.
He attributed the failure by the government in confronting this situation to placing the responsibility of tackling the security threats in the hands of the Ingas symbols who are still active in the Ministry of the Interior, the failure by the Attorney-General to speed up to courts of justice the leaders of the extinct regime on charges leveled against them or under the state of emergency law and also failure by the Attorney-General to submit to courts the issues relevant to the former regime which the Attorney-General has entrusted to committees of enquiry.
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Despite the ambiguity that shrouds the terrorist crime which reportedly targeted the life of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdouk was in fact targeting the abortion of the popular December Revolution, said Nour al-Dinn Medani in a column published by Al-Tahrir online newspaper that appeared on Tuesday.
The veteran columnist said he would not hastily accuse any organization, although it was reported that an Islamic group has claimed perpetrating the terrorist attack, because it was part of a criminal conspiracy that has been going on since the ouster of former president Omar al-Beshir.
It must be acknowledged that political, economic and security mess still exists but this situation must not be considered only as a leftover of the extinct regime because the chances of change still exist depending on the support of the masses of the people who have accomplished the revolution and who are capable of protecting and achieving its goals, Medani said.
He is of the viewpoint that the economic crises can be easily solved by applying the previously experienced economic rescue programme while the desired peace can also be achieved while the defects in structure of the armed forces can also be adjusted, despite resistance by certain groups and there remains "the security liquidity" that is responsible for such terrorist crimes, tribal disturbances and disputes, wide-spread corruption and economic crimes.
The solution to the country's problems lies not in a ministerial reshuffle but in application of the policies agreed upon in the declaration of the Freedom and Change Forces (FCF), Medani said, calling upon the government to take immediate and accelerated steps for implementation of the economic rescue programme. He also called upon the government to seek and accept assistance by the international community against the foes of peace and stability, noting that an external assistance is not rejected but what is rejected is the interference in the domestic affairs.
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In his regular column that was published by Aljareedah daily newspaper of Wednesday, Zuhair al-Sarraj has stated that it is regrettable that some people claim that the attempt on the life of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdouk was a drama to cover up the failure by the government in addressing the economic crisis, depending on the weak explosion and its poor outcome, apparently they were waiting for the death of Dr. Hamdouk.
He described this concept as a naïve "evil intention" by those who wish realization of the goal of the conspiracy, suggesting that they should have pointed out that the attempt was not properly carried out or the perpetrators were inexperienced in such deeds which were not witnessed in Sudan.
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Political analyst Mohamed Latif has drawn attention to an anti-Transitional Authority behavior of a main media out of the defunct regime, namely Belady (Arabic for My motherland) Radio which belonged to the former National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS). Going through the Ingas media institutions, the Transitional Government decided to retain a number of those institutions, including Belady, and recruited them in support of the goals of the December Revolution and the general policy line of the new state, Latif wrote in Al-Sudani daily newspaper of Saturday.
He cited an analyst that was recently asked by Belady Radio to comment on a report by a British newspaper on the attempt on the life of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdouk in which Standard Digital said that some forces are striving to take the Sudan back to the dark ages.
The Radio analyst used the word "dark" for bitterly criticizing Hamdouk government, referring to the recurrent power blackouts in the capital Khartoum and the queues at the gas stations and bakeries and what the analyst called as total stoppage of the process of production, accusing the government of failure in every aspect, Latif said.
He was astonished that the Radio broadcaster did not draw the attention of his analyst that his analysis was irrelevant to the report of the British newspaper that was on attempts by some forces to take the Sudan to the dark ages.
Seizing a question by the broadcaster on a declaration by Vice President Mohamed Hamdan Daglo (Hametti) of a plan for rehabilitation of a number of hospitals, the Radio analyst dwelt at length on what he called as deterioration of the health services in the government hospitals, avoiding reference to the decline of the hospitals during the extinct regime and hailing efforts by the former NISS for rehabilitation of a certain hospital in Khartoum and failing to explain the NISS relationship with hospitals, Latif said in conclusion of his column.
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