Weekly Press Columns Digest
20 September, 2020
KHARTOUM (Sudanow) - Below is a digest of the most noted three press columns of the foregoing week, that focused mainly on the declaration by the Sudanese transitional government of a state of economic emergency all over Sudan in a move to control illegal speculation and overbidding in hard currencies, especially the US dollar; the linking by the US administration between the normalizing of Sudan’s ties with Israel and the delisting of Sudan as state-sponsor of terrorism; and finally the recent rainfalls and the River Nile over-flooding of its bank, and how to best utilize the situation to the common benefit of Sudan’s agricultural economy.
Columnist Faisal Babikir of ‘Al-Hurra’ e-newspaper wrote about the last-week declaration by the Sudanese government of a state of economic emergency as counter-measure to curb the exaggerated overbidding in hard currencies that lead to a sharp unprecedented decrease in the value of local currency.
The writer quoted the Sudanese minister of finance, Hiba Ahmed Ali, numerating a number of procedures imposed to protect the local economy where she said, “It has been decided to form a joint force to implement a number of incumbent legal provisions that are enacted to protect the Sudanese economy, and to this end, certain ad-hoc emergency prosecution and court circuits are formed”. The finance minister also added that “The irrational hike in the dollar exchange rates in the black market against the Sudanese currency, over the last weeks, was totally unjustifiable and is definitely not induced by any structural changes in the Sudanese economy; but rather represents a deliberate and methodological act of sabotage against the local economy in a bid to strangle and suffocate the transitional government.”
The declaration of the state of economic emergency was immediately followed by a sharp decrease in the dollar exchange rate against the local currency in the black market, which is clear evidence that the hike in the parallel market’s exchange rates was not real. Yet still, the writer states that policing and legal procedures are not a sustainable way to solve the situation, as there is vital need for economic reforms that are realistically based on deep-rooted and rational fiscal and monetary policies. Columnist Faisal also drew attention to many recent shocks that added to the already-deteriorating economic situation in Sudan such as the lockdown induced by Covid-19 prevention measures, and the unprecedented rainfall and flooding of this year.
Within the same perspective, the writer made reference to the trade balance deficit in the first half of this year which was quoted at USD 2.493 billion, coupled with a high inflation ratio of 143.78% as reported in July 2019, which is one of the highest inflation rates worldwide.
However, columnist Faisal hailed the great efforts made by the transitional government to reinstate the country’s status within the international community, including it’s strive to delist Sudan as state-sponsor of terrorism, numerating the ensuing economic benefits of such delisting. He also hailed the convention of Sudan partners’ conference in Berlin that garnered US 1.8 billion in pledge of support to Sudan’s economy. But the writer also remarked that all these transitional government’s efforts are yet to bear fruits.
In conclusion the writer attributes the economic crisis in Sudan to the lack of a clearly defined economic vision, where the transitional government appears to be hanging in the balance between two conflicting schools of economic thinking. The first school is represented by the ex-finance minister Ibrahim Albadawi who resigned office last July. Albadawi preached structural adaptation including the lifting of subsidies to basic consumer goods and the adoption of free market and floating exchange rate coupled with institutional reforms.
The second school of economic thought is adopted by certain parties within the forces of freedom and change (FFC), which constitutes the political incubator of the transitional government, where those parties reject any move towards the lifting of basic goods subsidies or the adoption of free market and floating exchange rate policies, on the premises that such policies, if imposed, would definitely jeopardize the wellbeing of most Sudanese people.
In view of the arguments presented above, the writer believes that the main objective of the forthcoming national economic conference to be held on the 26th of this month should be the formulation of a clearly defined and approved economic vision that deals with Sudan’s economic crisis at grass-root level, and set solution priorities accordingly.
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In his column at ‘Aljareeda” newspaper last Monday journalist Zuhair Alsarraj commented on the revelation made by the American “Foreign Policy” magazine that during his visit to Sudan, the US secretary of state Mike Pompeo blackmailed the Sudanese prime minister Abdalla Hamdok, at their joint meeting, urging him to make a phone conversation with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a token for normalizing Sudan ties with Israel claiming that such telephone conversation would make it easy for him (Pompeo) to convince the American congress to delist Sudan as state-sponsor of terrorism. However, Dr. Hamdok declined the offer and apologized that he has no mandate, as transitional prime minister, to normalize ties with Israel, reminding the American state minister of the US’s firm commitment to strike Sudan off its list of state-sponsors of terrorism.
In his column, Zuhair further stated that the main subject of the US secretary of state’s visit to Sudan was actually not to review the Sudanese-American relations or to discuss the economic boycotts on Sudan as imposed by the US administration in consequence of the defunct regime’s policies, or to commend the democratic change in Sudan, but the sole purpose of the visit, according to Zuhair, was to pressurize Sudan into normalizing its ties with Israel.
Zuhair proceeded to add that, “It is therefore not surprising, at all, to see such type of blackmailing and pressure by the US minister of state on the Sudanese prime minister, taking advantage of Sudan’s harsh economic and living situation, and its succumbing to previous requests by the US administration to pay millions of dollars in compensation to the families of the marine victims of USS Cole destroyer in Yemen by two suicidal operatives of Al-Qaeda”.
As the defunct regime has opened Sudan’s gates to all sorts of terrorist organizations including Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden, it has become incumbent upon the Sudanese transitional government, as provided by Trump administration, to pay damages to the victims of terrorist attacks launched by operatives of this terrorist organization upon US targets in Kenya in 1998, and later in Yemen against USS Cole, as condition for delisting Sudan as state-sponsor of terrorism. The transitional government has no option but to agree to such payment condition in a bid to reinstate Sudan’s position within the international community although it bears no responsibility for any such acts of the removed regime. The writer expected the US government to act differently with the new transitional government in order to help the democratic reforms in Sudan, rather than exercise such pressure tactics of blackmailing and pressure to illegitimately achieve non-mandated ends, just for the sake of securing another four additional years of rule to Trump administration.
In conclusion, Zuhair Alsarraj called upon all Sudanese people to stage lobbying campaigns and to organize protest stands in front of US embassy in Khartoum and before other US embassies worldwide as well as in front of the White House and US congress to reveal to the whole world the volume of blackmailing and pressure exercised by Trump administration against Sudan.
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In response to the recent flood crisis in Sudan, columnist Abdel-Latif Albooni presented certain proposals in his column at ‘Al-Sudani’ newspaper last week where he suggested that everybody should think out-of-the-box in order to come out with a new shift of paradigm in dealing with the flood issue, especially in light of the great local, regional and international attention paid to this year’s unprecedented flooding rates.
Albooni numerates many positive aspects of the River Nile flooding, stating how Sudan’s economy has traditionally been, and still is, mainly dependent upon the River Nile flooding, especially that Sudan is home to millions of acres of fertile agricultural land. But on the other hand he also mentions many negative human-made factors that adversely affect the River Nile course and contribute to such disasters, such as people trespassing of the Nile natural flow basin by constructing houses and permanent structures close to the river banks.
As a permanent solution to the crisis, Albooni proposes the launching of a national-project campaign under the logo ‘From Over-flooding to Construction’ with a core theme of planting Acacia trees and cultivating millions of acres along the River basin throughout Sudan to preserve the river course, while at the same time relocate destroyed and over-flooded households to more safe areas away from the river flow basin subject to carefully-studied housing plans and policies to secure more fertile land space for agricultural purpose along the river course in both urban and rural areas.
Albooni believes that such national project campaign, if adopted, is capable of transforming Sudan into a powerful, wealthy and self-sufficient country.
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