10-December-2024

Weekly Press Columns Digest

Weekly Press Columns Digest

KHARTOUM (Sudanow)—The Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) has developed a habit of objecting to any step taken by the civilian transitional government in the course of completing the construction of institutions of this government as if the civilian rule that advocates freedom, peace and justice is not the one that the SRF has been fighting for.

This remark appeared in a column by Beshir Arbajy and carried by Aljareedah daily newspaper of Sunday, criticizing a statement by the SRF spokesman Mohamed Ibrahim on Saturday in opposition to a decision by the Transitional Government for appointment of governors for the Sudanese states.

This is not the first objection and will not be the last one and is similar to statements by the SRF during the ousted regime but must not be made after the revolutionary authority has taken over, said Arbajy, describing such statements as depressive, especially to the inhabitants where the SRF armed movements are active (Darfur and Two Areas).

The columnist wondered whether such statements denote hostility to the civilian government of Dr. Abdalla Hamdok who has recently visited the IDPs in their camps, listened to their demands and promised to place them on the peace schedule.

Everybody expected that instead of objections, the SRF would have taken up the peace glove that was thrown down by the civilian transitional government for building trust and cooperation for attaining peace, said Arbajy, warning that the SRF statements would feed and revitalize the counter-revolution forces.

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Columnist Asma'a Juma'ah spoke in her column that was published by Altayyar daily newspaper of Monday about the present traffic jam which she described as unprecedented crisis.

She said the crisis is a natural residue of the corrupt policy of the ousted regime which, according to the columnist, did not make any changes in the traffic roads throughout three decades and imported great numbers of vehicles inconsistent with the specifications by companies of the officials or supporters of that regime, without paying concern with the public transport vehicles.

Asma'a added that the problematic traffic congestion was further complicated with failure of the Ministry of Infrastructure, the Locality and the Water and Electricity authorities in building or repairing the roads by filling in the pits and restoring those roads to their original status after stretching new water and electricity supply lines.

In order to resolve the crisis, the columnist called for importation of suitable means of transport, widening and repairing the roads and opening new ones.  

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Columnist Amal Ahmed Tabidy has begun a column that appeared on Al-Akhbar daily newspaper of Tuesday by stating that the judiciary for any person who has done wrong during the former regime is the right option while avoiding it only adds to grievance by the victims of injustice.

Commenting on a statement by one writer that the slogan "We will trample down every Kouz (popular nickname for an Islamist)" chanted by the protesters during the demonstrations was a call for violence, she said the phrase was not meant literally but the trampling would be imposed by law in courts.

Amal said this would be contrary to the behavior by the Islamists who upon seizure of power in 1989 trampled on the majority of the Sudanese people, showing no mercy to any person, whether man or woman, old or young, firing thousands from jobs paying no respect to experience and qualifications, humiliating women with their public order law, holding unfair trials, arresting, torturing, executing persons during the holy month of Ramadan with no justification besides the massacres they committed in Darfur and Blue Nile.

The slogans by the revolutionaries was out of anger against the defunct regime and its violent conduct against the people, though tolerance towards those Islamists only adds to the resentment felt by the people who have experienced injustice by the Islamists, Amal said.

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Dr. Adel Abdul Ghani al-Fakki, an economist, has criticized a recent decision by the Sudanese Minister of Trade and Industry preventing non-Sudanese from exportation, importation and from practicing commercial activities within the Sudanese markets.

Writing in Al-Sudani daily newspaper of Wednesday, Fakki began his column by describing as well-intended the objectives of the Ministerial resolution which are aimed at ensuring that the export proceeds be brought back to Sudan as well as retention of the competitiveness of the Sudanese exports abroad and avoidance of the traditional international markets for those exports.

However, the columnist said the Minister should not have targeted the exporter or importer as an individual who should be, according to the resolution, a Sudanese of a nationality by birth and thus, according to Fakki, discriminating a Sudanese by naturalization or by marriage although all are Sudanese enjoying similar rights.

It is the policy that counts in this respect, rather than the individuals, said the economist, adding that the government can, instead, put in place policies that serve the economic interests and for this end it can oblige the exporter to conduct his transactions through the country's banking and taxation systems for maintenance of its economic security, including restoration of the proceeds of the country's exports for building up a foreign currency reserve.

The decision could have oblige the businessmen of any nationality to practice commercial activities in the local markets through stock exchanges, equipped with precise electronic systems, of commodity and crop, especially those intended for exportation, Fakki said.

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Dr. Muzamil Abul Gassim has called for stripping off the Sudanese nationality from foreigners who obtained the document illegally during the last 10 years in order to correctly implement a recent ministerial decision barring the naturalized persons from practicing exportation, importation and commercial transactions in the local Sudanese markets.

Writing on Thursday in Alyoum Altali daily newspaper of which he is chief editor, Gassim said thousands of foreigners have obtained the Sudanese nationality in a great organized crime in which a gang of influential Sudanese persons sold the Sudanese nationality for 10,000 US dollars and thus accumulating tens of millions of dollars to divide among the members of the gang.

He suggested to the Prime Minister to form a committee of the Ministry of the Interior, the police and the Attorney-General to go through lists of the foreigners who were naturalized during the last 10 years by using the computer of the civil register which shows all information on those individuals and evaluate this with the conditions required for obtaining the citizenship which provide that an applicant must be an adult, well qualified and resident in Sudan for five years or more.

Any naturalized person who proves to have given false information that contradict those conditions will have the Sudanese nationality stripped off, said Gassim, noting that some of those foreigners get the nationality even before arriving or just upon arrival in the country.

He felt certain that most of the foreigners who have bought the Sudanese nationality will flee from the country as soon as the authorities start vetting their papers and therefore he called upon Premier Hamdok to speed up formation of the committee for restoration of the missing respect for the Sudanese nationality and for halting the economic hemorrhage that is caused by the naturalized foreigners by purchasing sesame, gum Arabic and other commodities in the local currency for exportation but without bothering to bring the foreign currency proceeds back to the Sudan.      

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Writing in Alintibaha daily newspaper of Saturday, Abdul Hamid Awad weighed the advantages and disadvantages of Egypt and Sudan from the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the occasion of a meeting scheduled in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Saturday of the ministers of Irrigation of Sudan, Ethiopia and Egypt.

Awad said that Egypt intends to distance Sudan from negotiations on the Dam due to the latter's position siding with Ethiopia, fears of the loss of 7 billion cubic meters of the Sudanese quota presently being used by Egypt for nothing and which the Sudan will demand and sell to Ethiopia in return for electricity and, lastly an intention by the Sudan to sign the 2010 Entebbe agreement which will nullify the 1959 Nile Water Agreement which provides Egypt with its present 55.5 billion cubic meters of the Nile water.

Egypt prefers relationship with the World Bank to the Sudan because, according to the columnist, it is heavily indebted to the Bank and it will not be able to pay the debt in case its quota from Nile water is cut down.

In addition to fearing that its quota cut down, Egypt will lose the silt that fertilizes its lands, Awad said, adding that, in contrast, the Sudan will benefit a lot from the Dam as it can expand its farming acreage because the water will continue flowing steadily throughout the year in addition to averting the annual overflow of the Blue Nile which causes a heavy destruction of towns and villages on the banks of the river, besides having a stable electric-power supply from the Dam on arrangements with Ethiopia.

 

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MAS/AS

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