Weekly Press Columns Digest
08 August, 2021
KHARTOUM (Sudanow) - Here are the editor’s selections from the press commentaries on the outstanding events of the week. They are; A commentary about the economic liberalization policy and how it has fared so far, another about the developments in Tunisia and how they sound in Sudan and a third one on the US expressed pledge to contribute to the costs of the country’s coming democratic elections.
Economist-writer, Dr. Abdellatif Albooni, Alsudani newspaper, is of the view that the economic liberalization policy as represented in the floating of the national currency and the lifting of subsidies on fuel, is bearing fruit:
This policy, so harsh as it was on the citizens, has begun to give results. The price per barrel of gasoline in the black market was 75-80 pounds. Now and after the affluence created by the lifting of subsidies it dropped to 68 pounds a barrel, though it may be 75 pounds in some states.
The worst of the matter was that there were two prices for gasoline before the new policy. There was gasoline for agriculture and gasoline for transport. Those who used to take gasoline in the name of agriculture and transport had used to sell it on the black market. The result was a crisis in all sorts of transport.
After this affluence these gasoline black market dealers had no way other than to head back towards farming, of course despite the high prices of the other farming inputs. The vehicles of public transport are now quoin for commuters in the public transport terminals.
Another benefit of this is the low traffic on the public roads. It was an empty heavy traffic, with drivers burning cheap, subsidized, fuel for nothing. This has, in its turn, reduced fuel and spare parts consumption, except government consumption of fuel and spare parts, of course!
The transport crisis has turned from scarcity and high cost to just high cost. The farming crisis has turned from a scarcity in fuel to just a high price of fuel. And this is a step forward.
However, the worst thing in this is that inflation continues to strongly move forward. There was no backing in inflation rates. That is because there was no drop in the price of hard currency. The official value of the pound is still low. The grip of hard currency dealers is still strong and the performance of the banking system is still weak. Here the government has no way other than to keep pace with the market prices, with a few, limited, security arrangements.
Regardless, a stability in the price of the currency has occurred. Not that big,.. Just some limited drop has occurred on the dollar price, paralleled with a slight improvement in the value of the Sudanese pound. It is a guarded improvement that could not take the pound out of the intensive care. There is also fear of a possible setback.
In my view, the government – with the relative stability in the value of the pound and the affluence in fuel and the relative rise in export revenue – can take a step that causes a crack in the wall of inflation. That could be by the making of a very limited reduction in fuel prices. It may be helped in this in the international drop in the price of fuel, coupled with a few foreign grants (or even loans), if possible.
This could be a beginning of a drop in the prices of all commodities… It is a fact of life that any hike in fuel prices usually rises the prices of all other commodities.
@@@@@
About the political developments in Tunisia when the head of state, Mr. Gays Seayyid, dissolved the government and suspended the parliament (among other measures) and how these measures resonate in Sudan, wrote Mr. Alfadil Abbas in the electronic publication Alrakooba (the shack):
It seems to me that General Burhan is wetting his mouth and invoking his sixth sense while eagerly watching the developments in Tunisia, seeking to understand what has happened there, trying to find a similarity between what happened in that country and the state of affairs in Sudan and rehearsing a possible similar jump in the darkness like that of Mr. Seayyid.
The General has a proven skill in such daring jumps in the dark.
During the last two years we have seen him fly secretly to Kampala, Uganda, to meet the former Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.
The daring General is also of the conspiracy and coup-like sort.
He had taken part in the ousting of his former master Omar Albashir and also in the removal of the then Bashir’s supposed successor, General Awad Ibnoaf.
The General had also said it with his own tongue that he had taken part in the failed Baath Party coup attempt in the early days of Bashir’s rule following which 28 army officers were executed, saying he had escaped death just by good luck.
But the General is burdened with heavy weights and complications which are non-existent in the Tunisian example:
1-Our army is weak, exhausted and depressed under the mercy of the Rapid Support Forces that controls the army’s sensitive instruments.
2- Khartoum swarms with legal and illegal militias and the least spark of fire from the army will be met with heavy conflicting fires.
3-The Sudanese public is still suspicious about the General and his military committee. This suspicion is fed by what happened in the sit-in massacre when hundreds were killed or hurt under Burhan’s own eyes.
By his resistance of the possible extradition of Bashir to the International Criminal Court (ICC), his animosity towards the commission working to trace and retrieve the money and properties stolen by the Bashir regime and by fabricating the Juba peace accords to make new allies from the armed movements, it is clear that Burhan is intending a coup.
Temptations exist for an adventure similar to what happened in Tunisia:
Like in Tunisia, the economic deterioration is getting worse. The insecurity the Tunisian President had complained from is too little if compared to what happens in Khartoum and the rest of the country.
Many of the Tunisian protesters had let down their patient people. They did not keep up with their revolutionary spirit, selflessness and the Sufi austerity known among true patriots.
The same has nearly been repeated in Sudan.
Some despotic countries, historically and geographically close to us, are replete with petrodollars. And if Burhan would play the game of Abdelfattah Alsisi of Egypt, who cracked down on the 30 June 2013 revolution, may be he will get deposits and grants in their billions in addition to fuel supplies from those countries.
We can also (General Burhan may say) find a solution to the Rapid Support Forces, a solution that satisfies all parties. We can send these forces on secondment to the United Arab Emirates’ army and its police. We can also send the surplus to Saudi Arabia.
As a matter of fact these are just dreams that cannot build a state.
However good- willed and full of noble patriotic feelings the General could be, he will follow the same logic as long as corruption has become a way of life in our region saying: Why should I deprive my children and brothers from the gifts of power?
So, there is no model for a just dictator the naïve mobs propagate.
There is no way other than going along the patient, persevere approach under the shades of human rights and freedom of expression and organization.
@@@@@
Mr. Zahir Bakheet Alfaki of Aljareeda (the Newspaper) newspaper has cited what he called the transitional government’s negligence of the issue of the general elections, thanking the US for reminding the government of these elections after it (the US) last week said it was allocating sums for the election process:
We are now delving into our third year in transition and nobody is speaking about the general elections.
Those who rode the transitional government’s horse did not speed up to take us to the doors of those elections. They are enjoying power and do not make any mention of the elections.
They have even changed the timeframe they set for the transitional government, increasing its duration in response to what they called the wish of the signatories of the Juba peace deal.
Of course they will not object to extend the transitional period if they make an agreement with rebel Alhilu or rebel Noor. They have no reason to object to such an election as long as they are in government and their hands are in the cold water of power!
America has, thankfully, come up to awaken our government from its sleep in the honey of power and announced, according to Administrator of the USAID Samantha Power, that it was to give support to Sudan in the areas of health, rural development and the elections.
Ms. Power also said the USAID was also to contribute $4.3 million to the launch of the elections commission that works for the preparation and the holding of the elections after the country’s transitional period.
Sadly, the unsteady road the transitional government is moving through is very long and will not take us in the near future to the aspired elections. The politicians’ current squabbling for government offices and their benefits lead us to strongly believe that they are remaining with us because of their conviction that they will not win in the elections due to their lack of popular bases.
They also know that the voter in this time of enlightenment is difficult to reach out for and convince because this requires instruments these politicians don’t have. That is why they are keen to extend the transition’s duration.
The protesters did not go out in the streets and bear the harm and repression of the Salvation Government to bring this person or that into power.
They went out demonstrating to replace the Salvation Government’s repressive regime with a free, democratic system where the people rule themselves and where the citizen realizes his dream for freedom, peace and justice.
Anyhow, thanks to you, America!
E N D
YH/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