Weekly Press Columns Digest
03 November, 2019
KHARTOUM (Sudanow)—In a column published by Al-Sudani daily newspaper of Sunday Abdul Hamid Awad has compared a current row by Sudanese Islamists against an intention by the transitional government for endorsement of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (SEDAW) with their consent to the same intention by their former Beshir-led regime.
Awad recalled that on 28 May 2018, the former regime's Minister of State for Justice, Nimat al-Hiwairis, announced in Parliament her government's intention for approval of SEDAW with reservations on some articles following of Saudi Arabia.
No objection was made by the MPs of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP), the Reform Now Movement (RNM), the Popular Congress Party (PCP) nor the Sudanese Islamic Movement (SIM), while the minutes of that session did not include any objection and no MP accused Hiwairis of infidelity or demanded her dismissal from office, the columnist noted.
He added that the same intention by Omar al-Beshir's regime was announced eight days later by Minister of Social Security and Development Mashair al-Dwalub calling in a public meeting for endorsement of the agreement, while Mubarak al-Fadil al-Mahdi, the Deputy Prime Minister in the Ministry of Bekry Hassan Salih, announced that his government agreed to the signing of the convention on recommendation by then Justice Minister Mohamed Ahmed Salim.
In contrast, the declaration by the present government of intending to sign the agreement was met with a heated opposition by the Islamists, said Awad, suggesting that most of those opponents made their opposition just to score a winning goal in the net of their political rivals, forgetting that trafficking with the religion and playing with the people's religious sentiment, if effective, would have been of benefit to the NCP and its Islamic movement.
Hiwairis, Dwalub and Salim should be conscientious enough to appear in public and declare the position of their previous government, while the decision of Bekry's government, as revealed by Mahdi, must be published, the columnist said.
----------
Columnist Asma'a Juma'ah has unleashed frightening figures on malnutrition among children in Sudan, indicating that the disease claims millions of minor lives.
She said in a column that was published by Altayyar daily newspaper of Monday that the children in Sudan have been suffering the problem of malnutrition in decades and that the defunct regime did not respond to warnings by international organizations until the problem developed into a catastrophe.
Asma'a said in 2018 UNICEF disclosed that the Sudanese children with malnutrition problems made up 13% of similar cases across Africa while the federal Ministry of Health in the same year indicated that 30% of the Sudanese children were inflicted with malnutrition which it said would lead to mental deficiency.
The columnist said the National Council for Child Welfare, in a study it conducted in cooperation with the African Union and the World Food Organization, revealed that 18% of the children were suffering anemia due to malnutrition, that the malnutrition causes a low-learning capacity during school-age and brings down the production capability when those children grow up as adults.
She quoted the joint study as revealing that 45% of the work-power in Sudan suffered malnutrition when they were less than five years old and that the Sudan has lost millions of children due to disregard by the obsolete regime with the appalling situation and instead, used to expropriate the resources allocated for the children.
The transitional government must abide by the recommendations of this study and place this catastrophic situation among its priorities and has to urge the businessmen into investment in the field of child nutrition so as to check the catastrophe as soon as possible.
----------
In a column carried by Alwatan daily newspaper of Tuesday, Yassir Mohamed Mahmoud wrote about senior officials of the extinct regime who shamelessly demanded participation in the revolutionary authority that put an end to that regime.
Citing as an example, the columnist commented on a recent "fiery" threatening statement by the chairman of the Watani (National) Umma Party, a splinter of Sadek al-Mahdi's NUP, Abdulla Ali Masar, a former minister and senior Member of Parliament during the former regime, demanding participation in the present government, otherwise he would stage a demonstration of thousands in protest.
Masar demanded partnership in the transitional government, although he criticized it for including "suitcase" ministers who, according to him, came from abroad and knew nothing about the situation in Sudan, said Mahmoud.
He remarked that Masar is a sort of person who wants to be in power, in any position, even if a classroom monitor with constitutional appropriations, only to be present in the political scene.
Masar was the MP who put forward a proposal for amendment of the constitution for making former president Beshir the country's ruler for life, a motion that was "stupidly" tabled by then speaker Ibrahim Ahmed Omar and seconded by MP Ali Hussein Dousah who stated that each one of the first four caliphs who succeeded Mohammad the Prophet was in power till death, wondering why Beshir couldn't reign likewise, Mahmoud recalled.
----------
Alintibaha columnist Mohamed Abdul Majid has shed a light on corruption of the Islamists of the extinct regime beginning his column that was carried by the daily newspaper of Wednesday with the nickname kouz (reference by Sudanese to a Muslim Brother) which has become a stigma, noting that the defunct regime attempted to instill among the people that a communist was an unforgiveable criminal.
It now backfired and the term 'kouz' has become disgusting and unacceptable to the extent that an Islamist prefers to be called opportunist instead of a kouz, said Abdul Majid, referring to revelations of the corruption that was widely practiced by the Ingaz Islamists.
He said those Islamists squandered 167 billion dollars during their final 10 years in power detailed as follows: 83 billion in the proceeds of animal wealth and gold exports, 83 billion in custom exemptions and 1.8 billion dollars in proceeds of fees for flying over the Sudanese airspace, besides taking the oil proceeds before the secession and the fees of passage of the South Sudanese oil into their pockets.
The columnist noted that the corruption was extensively practiced with respect to land plots and real estate with suitcases so far filed against 10 symbols of that regime, including two brothers of former president Omar al-Beshir, with one found possessing 25 plots and the other 22 plots in the fashionable neighborhood of Kafory, eastern Khartoum.
A police case was also filed against former Foreign Minister Ali Kerty for possessing 400 plots and estates in Khartoum, said Abdul Majid, recalling that Kerty was the head of the Islamist Popular Defense militia that pretended to claim jihad and service of Islam as its slogan.
He said former Khartoum State Governor Abdul Rahman al-Khidir is facing a charge of mortgaging buildings of all police stations in Khartoum State to a bank in return for a loan.
The columnist said if Islamist Sheikh Abdul Hay was not aware of that corruption during the reign of his benefactor Beshir, doesn't he know that now? It seems his Islamic Sharia support organization is concerned only with the Women's Football League.
"He is a lion-like against Wala'a al-Boushy (the minister for youth and sports) and an ostrich-like against the corruption of the obsolete regime," Abdul Majid said, referring to the Beshir-supporter Islamist.
----------
Columnist Muzamil Abul Gassim, writing in his Alyoum Altali daily newspaper of Friday, has criticized and warned against individual acts by resistance committees, which are affiliated to the Freedom and Changes Forces (FCF), referring to attacks by those committees to government institutions on grounds they are run by officials of the extinct regime.
Abul Gassim said a number of those committees have gone to extremes and have crossed the red lines by seeking to impose their demands without consulting their parent organizations, referring to an attack by a local resistance committee that attacked and closed offices of the Locality of Al-Hasaheisa, Gezira State, and two government hospitals in Khartoum North.
Instead of carrying out such irresponsible and chaotic acts, those committees should report to their parent bodies for taking any required legal or revolutionary action against those institutions, as those acts could blemish the image of the FCF and the revolution, the columnist warned.
----------
Identifying himself as a secularist, Zuhair al-Sarraj began his column that was published on Aljareedah daily newspaper of Saturday stated that, contrary to what those who attack secularism as infidelity, the secularism emerged in the 17th century to protect the believers from persecution by the feudal and regal systems in Europe.
The feudalists at that time used to burn alive those who differed with in faith and therefore the secularism emerged to protect them persecution and homicide, Sarraj said, adding that secularism is not atheism, as many people believe, but advocates neutrality of the state in which everyone enjoys freedom of belief and thought and non-infringement of the freedoms and rights of others.
The separation of belief from the state phrase does not mean separation of belief from life, said the columnist underlining that secularism guarantees freedom of belief and provides a haven for those who suffer religious and political persecution.
E N D
MAS/AS
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