Weekly Press Columns Digest
13 September, 2020
KHARTOUM (Sudanow) - The most outstanding of the week’s developments that attracted press columns were the declaration of principles reached by Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and Abdelaziz Alhilu, Chairman of the rebel SPLM/North according to which the latter has agreed to return to the peace talks, the noteworthy disciplinary conduct of the police force under its new general director, the river and flash floods that affected most of the country’s regions and repeated attempts by unidentified demonstrators to stage a demonstration to the Army H.Q urging the military to seize power.
Commenting on the recent declaration of principles adopted by PM Hamdok and leader of the SPLM/North Abdelaziz Alhilu, writer Ahmed Jalal, writing in Alrakoba electronic publication, likened the tactics of Alhilu to those of the late Leader of the SPLM-Proper John Garang that eventually led to the separation of Southern Sudan from the mother land, Sudan:
History repeats itself. This declaration of principles is ominous of a new break up of the country’s territories. As in the case of John Garang, we are about a new hero, a new leader, Garang’s disciple, Alhilu.
In the Kauda extraordinary meeting in 2017, the meeting that saw the split of the SPLM/North into two factions, one led by Alhilu and the other by Malik Agar, Alhilu had hinted to the need for a secular Sudan or the right to self-dtermination for the two areas.
Alhilu was seeking recognition of the right to self determination for the people of the Blue Nile and the Nuba Mountains. He first signed an agreement with the Democratic Unionist party and then the Association of the Sudanese Professionals. In the latter agreement, signed in Juba in June 2020, the Association and Alhilu agreed that the Sudan”is an independent, sovereign, multiparty, decentralized and democratic state based on the separation between religion and the state.
Now the head of the executive, PM Abdalla Hamdok, had signed a declaration of principles on 4 September in Addis Ababa whose third article says: (A democratic state must be established in Sudan. For Suda to be a democratic country where the rights of all citizens are enchrined, the constitution should be based on the principle of “separation of religion and state” in the absence of which the right to self determination must be respected. Freedom of belief and worship and religious practice shall be guaranteed in full to all Sudanese citizens. The state shall not establish an official religion. No citizen shall be discriminated against based on their religion.)
The writer considers Alhilu’s insistence on secularism a pretext to obtain the right to self-determination for the two areas because he knows it is impossible to force the Sudanese society to accept secularism.
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About the river and flash floods that sweep the Sudanese territories nowadays, wrote Editor of the daily newspaper ‘Alsayha’ Altahir Satti:
As usual, and like what happens every rainy season, the Khartoum Airport has started to receive air shipments of relief materials. The first of these came from Qatar which will be followed by others as part of an air bridge the Gulf state has embarked on. Similar shipments will follow from the United Arab Emirates that rushed to aid the affected citizens. Saudi Arabia is on the line. Similarly is Egypt that sent food substances and medicines ..etc. There is nothing new, all the time and under all regimes: military or civilian. Relief air bridges are part of our human and political history.
Rain water is a blessing which mismanagement turns into catastrophes and disasters that call relief assistance. Where are the economic and agricultural and economic agencies which can exploit these rain waters into farming that benefits the people and the country and saves their faces from the shame of loans, grants and (begging)?
A commission was set up to receive and distribute relief aid. Did the authorities launch a commission for agriculture that exploits these waters in increasing the cultivated land in the victimized states? Sadly, the answer is (No). We will not cultivate lands with these waters.
Today they have set a commission for relief aid. Did they launch a commission for water harvesting to keep these waters for agriculture, forestation and pastures? Sadly, the answer is (No). We will not harvest these waters. It is our fate that the waters harvest us. Based on this, we say: Good for the people of Egypt. Water from these floods, flash floods and rains, all of it, goes to them. The misters in our governments (both military and civilian) have no plans to exploit the bounties of the rainy season other than those for receiving relief aid planes.
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Under the title “We Have Been Looking for You”, wrote Abdellatf Albooni, in Alsudani daily, about the firm performance in crime combat of new Chief of Sudan Police, Lt. General Izz Eddin Alsheikh:
We have to appreciate the firm approach of Police Chief Izzeddin Alsheikh in the combat of all crimes, an approach extolled by many writers.
We have previously sent the alarm signal about the absence of the state (the bureaucracy that includes the public service (both civilian and military) and said that the chaos that hit these services could become a prelude to the disintegration of the state of Sudan. That is because the state, here, means the moral corner of the state sovereignty and the organic existence of this state. Thanks to Allah, the Almighty, that a strong light has appeared to us from the end of the tunnel, signaling that a new willpower has started to shape out on the body of the public service: The press has reported a fiery speech from the new police chief in which he warned the Kasala traffic police against any laxity in the dispensation of their duties. The Police Chief had noticed that the cars, the rickshaws and the motorbikes which were used in the recent state of lawlessness were not licensed, a matter that renders them unknown instruments in committing crimes. Licensing of vehicles is the responsibility of the traffic police that should have checked this misdemeanor. This police unit has to stop all unlicensed vehicles.
Seeing this laxity, Lt. General Alshekh said: I swear to the name of Allah, if this situation would continue, I will bring all this traffic police personnel, order them to stand attention and ship them on board the aircraft and take them to a place to remember! This applies to the rest of Kasala State police. I will not tolerate any loose conduct.
Reading these statements from General Alsheikh, my hair stood on end.
Where have you been all this time? And how great is this rich Sudanese language you used!
It is for sure that the sad events that occurred in Kassala are not the responsibility of the police alone. But it is quite sure that the police is a loophole that should be shut down. If all the other bodies would close their loopholes, nothing that had happened in Kassala could have happened. I wish the public service chiefs in Kassala, and the rest of Sudan, would treat their subordinates this way, without any laxity, hypocrisy or bias.
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On the repeated attempts by a yet unknown entity to stage a demonstration to the Army H.Q urging the military to seize power from the civilian-led government, wrote Mahjoub Erwa, Editor of the Alsudani Aldawliyya daily newspaper.
I was really amazed by the demand over the weekend by some unidentified demonstrators from the Army to seize power from the civilian-led government. I asked myself: are these sane people? And what are their objectives from this strange demand? And who stands behind them? And would the Army solve the country’s problems if it seizes power and the country turns into a military dictatorship, now that all the previous military governments had failed? And who are those crazy Army officers (the like of Nimeiri and Bashir) who embroiled themselves into two coups under the pretexts they would put things right and eventually failed to shoulder the responsibility? Can the would- be coup leaders face the present harsh economic and living conditions represented in the scarce goods and the high inflation and in the absence of peace in the country and the multitude of armed rebel groups? How can they face the collapse of the national currency and this economic recession?
Even worse: how can the coup leaders run the country under this vast number of civilian institutions represented in the banks, universities, the judiciary, health facilities etc… which would sure opt for civil disobedience? These civilian forces are the ones who collect taxes and customs and run the ports all of which feed the national budget and run the complicated government machine.
And the question; can the coup leaders guarantee the support of regional and international nations and organizations?
Another more grave consequence: what can happen if the Army would split up, with a major section of it disobeying the orders? The same disorder can happen if the rebel groups would reject this coup and stick to their troops as will do the revolutionaries who brought Bashir’s rule down. Can the coup leaders face all these problems, all of them? The answer is sure No, a million Nos. The situation today is not like what it was at the time of the previous coups.
If the Army would intervene as it did in the past would be a difficult job. The Sudanese people today are not like what they were in the past. The revolutionaries, in particular the youths who constitute 60 percent of the population, have learned how to face oppression and how to barricade the roads. More than that: They have learned how and why the previous coups had failed and how the rule that put on a revolutionary face at the beginning had turned into the rule of the despot. And that every coup is , in fact, a seed for a new coup and that the dictatorial rule that claims the creation of stability, firmness and quick achievement, is far worse than the democratic regime which, if not quick with achievements, is safer for the country and its people. The argument here is that many of the supposedly firm resolutions taken by dictators had turned into catastrophes, because they were thoughtless and meant for political propaganda. In fact those resolutions were meant for the dictator’s own protection and not for the development of the country. The dictatorial rule spends most of the budget funds on consolidating its power and not on economic and social development. The people have now learned that the dictatorial rule is just a comedy whose main characters are the ruler and his cronies who do not give him the right advice and whose aim is to steal public money and public posts.
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