Weekly Press Columns Digest
13 March, 2022
KHARTOUM (Sudanow) - Hereunder our honourable readers can find summations of press commentaries highlighting three of the week’s most outstanding events.
The three articles have tackled the storming and seizure by a security force of the premises of the legal committee investigating the bloody breaking of the sit-in around the Army H.Q in June 2019, the deteriorating political and economic situation and last week’s decision by the high-level economic emergency committee to float the national currency (the pound):
About the seizure by a yet to be verified security force of the premises of the legal panel investigating the June 2019 massacre ensuing from the armed breaking of the popular sit in around the Army Headquarters, wrote Mohammad Musa Heraika in the electronic publication Sudanile:
The value of the legal investigation panel emanates from the fact that it is concerned with probing a crime the like of which Sudan had not seen since 1898 when the British invaders, led by General Kitchener, killed tens of thousands of poorly armed Sudanese fighters in Karare district, north of today’s City of Omdurman here.
The independent investigation panel premises is seen as a living historical memory containing thousands of videos, tapes and verbal and written recordings of the testimonies of thousands of citizens who stepped forward to tell what they knew about the massacre in which hundreds were killed, hurt or considered lost. It also contains hundreds of testimonies from suspected persons or persons thought to be accomplices in the massacre.
And since the persons involved in that massacre (either directly or indirectly) are still free, facing no charges, and some of them might be in high government positions at the moment, the statement of the panel’s chief, Barrister Nabeel Adeeb, is indeed dismaying.
Mr. Adeeb is a man of the law. And by that capacity his legal mind should be one prone to finding clues, and full of suspicions and even evidences about “that unknown security unit” which stormed the panel’s premises.
Didn’t Mr. Adeeb’s legal sensitivity inspire him to copy down those audio and visual documents and treasure them in safe places outside the panel’s venue?
For us as Sudanese citizens the premises of that panel and what it contains is no less important than the nuclear reactors around which fighting is ongoing in the Ukraine.
Mr. Adeeb’s telling us that the panel has halted its work and would not resume its duties until the premises is evacuated from the occupying security force best serves the ultimate goal of the 25 October 2021 military coup.
By this the panel seems to have washed its hands from the coup resistance. Otherwise, it should have called the people to rush to protect the place, which is indeed a national, historical wealth. By so doing it could have made a repeat of what the masses had done during the 1964 uprising when the public rushed to barricade the roads, foiling a counterrevolutionary coup at that time.
The high-level legal committee assigned to investigate the corrupt legacy of Bashir’s Government and retrieve the properties the regime operatives have stolen was directly and immediately hit by the coup plotters.
And now the store of investigation results in the crimes committed during the breaking of the sit in had fallen to the hands of the coup elements.
We are told that the take over of the panel’s premises was because the building in which it is situated belongs to another government body, the political parties commission. But for sure the aim here is not a disputed building. It is a disputed history book. The aim is to tamper with the evidences and destroy them once and for all.
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On the impasse in the country’s economic and political situation wrote Mr. Osman Mirghani, the Editor of the daily newspaper Altayyar (The Current):
Nobody however well placed, be it General Burhan or General Dagalo, can convince the Sudanese people at this critical juncture that the country is proceeding along a secure path that could lead to a stable situation.
Contrary to that, the country is now like a sick person who refuses to take medicine while his pain and his condition worsen until when that medicine becomes of no use.
There is need to face the realities with courage. These two gentlemen’s insistence to stay in power regardless of everything will not give their power any longevity. History is full of examples of rulers who made a bet for staying in power until when the heavens gave its say and government power was taken away from those rulers in a way they had not expected.
A few days ago we saw an eyewitness saying he overheard a now “ousted President” telling the former Qatari ruler (Emir), Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa, that leaving government office is “stupid”.
And when the TV anchor asked this eyewitness where that President was at the moment, the eyewitness, who was speaking very reservedly at the beginning of the conversation, evasively said: “in jail!” The “President” referred to here is, sure, former dictator Omar Albashir.
History immortalizes those who take historical decisions that change the fates of nations, inspire their peoples and lead them on the road to renaissance.
Now there is an opportunity for our military rulers of today, perhaps for a short while, to immortalize their names with brave decisions that return the country to the path of democratic transition. The matter needs no more than courage and trust to providence.
Sadly, every hour that passes means the death of a sick person in one of the hospitals due to the collapse of medical services. It means thousands of children are left without education. Every hour that elapses means a mother dying at birth giving and a young man getting drowned in the Mediterranean Sea on one of the voyages of death to Europe.
More than that .. every hour that passes means the loss of foreign investment opportunities that could raise up our potent resources.
I hope the chairman of the Sovereignty Council, General Burhan, now recognizes that the situation does not tolerate hesitation. Previously he used to set the blame on the civilian officials. Now that he had removed those civilian officials by his military coup, the entire responsibility rests with him. He is now in full hold of the pen with which to write down the fate of the country.
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The economic emergency committee, chaired by the deputy chairman of the Sovereignty Council, General Mohammad Hamdan Dagalo (Hemaidti) in midweek liberalized the national currency (the pound).
About this serious move wrote Mr. Haydar Almikashfi in the daily journal Aljareeda (the Newspaper).
Mr. Mikashfi was reserved about the move, which he said if not supported with a good reserve of hard currency, it would not be of help to the economy:
The banks as of yesterday entered the wrestling ring against the black market dollar, announcing their free liberalized prices.
The question now is: Was the Sudanese pound nourished well and supplied with the energy that could give it enough strength to be able to “swim well” and battle the rough seas and overwhelm the dollar waves and find its way to safety.
By nourishment and energy we mean boosting the pound with enough reserves of foreign exchange and gold stocked in the central bank (the Bank of Sudan).
But because Mr. Hemaidti’s committee did not tell us about these reserves and their sum, it is possible that the Bank of Sudan does not have such reserves or (in the best of cases) does not have enough reserves to help the pound with safe swimming.
Also the question: Do the commercial banks have enough hard currency that enables them to meet the importers demands, anytime?
The definite answer is No.
For that reason, the black market will continue to triumph, cordially receiving the seekers of hard currency at the rate it pleases to charge them.
What is expected in this case is that Mr. Jibreel (the Finance Minister) and Mr. Jangoal (the Bank of Sudan Governor) will come to us (heads down) to apologize to that: “The black market has defeated us.”
It could be for this reason that General Burhan has left for the United Arab Emirates from where he will also fly to Saudi Arabia to ask for help either in the form of a big grant or a deposit.
God knows if these two could give him what he wants or not and how much.
What is important to say now is that the economy, in fact the entire country, are on their tip toes .. ready to fall down. The citizens are battling the hellish prices situation, without any social aid now that the military coup has halted the social protection program committed by the World Bank and other donors.
A simple but scrupulous citizen has told me that “I have no knowledge about economic theories and economic academics, but as far as I know, the economy cannot improve upon administrative decisions or security measures like the ones taken by the economic emergency committee.”
For sure, the economy flourishes with production and productivity.
Sadly, this was not referred to by the Hemaidti committee.
Such decisions like the ones taken by the committee are not enough by themselves. We have the suffocating political crisis, the political instability and the insecurity. All of these factors were not referred to by the committee, not even in hints, though the road towards economic reform passes through them.
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