Weekly Press Columns Digest
17 October, 2021
KHARTOUM (Sudanow) - The issue of the day in Sudan last week and the week before was the relationship between the military and civilian components of the transitional government, with writers leaning towards the idea that Chairman of the Sovereignty Council, General Burhan and his deputy, General Mohammad Hamdan Dagalo (Hemaidti) have the intention to return the country to military dictatorship:
Wrote Mohammad Musa Hiraika in the electronic publication Sudanile, after citing an early revelation from General Burhan that his father had predicted for him to be one of those who would rule Sudan,
In that revelation Burhan said had performed the religious estikhara prayer (invoking God’s permission) before meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Uganda two years back
“We are about a personality that employs its dreams and illusions to rule this country that passes through the most complicated periods in its history.
He has nothing other than that. That is because he did not come out with a manifesto, nor does he have an intellectual vision.
He just employs the existing complications and the rules of the conspiracy age and playing on the ropes of politics in a country caught in storm and which is just coming out from three decades of bloody civil wars, impoverishment and tyranny.
It is no wonder that Burhan himself was a gear in that set up, very effective in it to the degree that he once called himself “The God of the Furs”, in reference to the Fur Tribe of Darfur.
Later on he became member of Bashir’s security committee that continues to gear the revolution towards its interests.
Then he became chairman of the Transitional Sovereignty Council.
So, there is no wonder when Burhan states that “There is no solution other than dissolving the present government and that the Armed forces would not accept any power sharing and will succumb only to a government to be chosen by the people.”
He is forgetting that it is a case of power sharing and that it is the tactics of the stage that brought him to office at this critical juncture of Sudan’s history.
He should also remember that he is not the people’s choice. This is the sweeping truth which he had been striving all through this transition to overstep, looking for a popular mandate that carries him towards realizing his father’s prophecy to become ruler of Sudan.
Burhan has no desire to believe that he and Bashir’s security set up are just a stage in that settlement which was just a chapter in the chapters of the December Revolution.
He did not ask himself about those legislative projects that rot in the files of the sovereignty council, locked down by the council’s military team.
Where is the ICC dossier endorsed by the Council of Ministers?
Where is the legal project for the state security and police that sleeps in the drawers of General Kabbashi?
Why does the Sovereignty Council impede the formation of the Legislative Council?
Where is the Constitutional Court?
Where is the office of the Chief Justice?
Why is the country being suffocated by the lockdown in the East in which Burhan and General Kabbshi are in complicity to the degree that Kabbashi has informed the Bija protesters in the East that the talks were shelved at a time when a breakthrough for removing the lockdown loomed on the horizon? Burhan is the maestro of all that happens now.
He masters the distribution of roles among his players (the Hemaidti-Kabbashi axis), all done to the sounds made by the drummers behind the scene and the remnants of the defunct regime (the fulool).
From the very start, Burhan was looking for a mandate in earnest.
He sought this in the rubble of the native (tribal) administration, the fires of the religious schools, the tribal blocs, doing all he could to frustrate any possible success that could be scored by the civilian component, a success which is a personal complex of his (Burhan).
Here we are witnessing those disparate attempts to seek the sympathy of the international community with that terror scarecrow called Daesh and, further, the scarecrow of democracy in the nearby regional axis.
To me, the solution for Burhan is to contemplate the pages of Sudan’s history, in conjunction with the October 1964 Revolution, then the April, 1985 popular uprising down to the current December Revolution, and to totally depart from that prophecy of his father and his total succumbing to his estikhara (prayer).
He has to succumb to the reality of the December Revolution: the necessity of the transition towards a secure country and sustainable democracy and the peaceful exchange of power.
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On the same issue also wrote Dr. Murtada Alghali in the Aldemgrati (the Democrat) newspaper:
It has become certain that Burhan (from what he says) has aligned with the enemies of the Revolution, backs the conspiracy lead by the remnants of the Bashir regime (the fulool).
This has become very clear, confirmed by recurrent evidences.
Here is Burhan, reaching the point of seeking to dissolve the government in a move of dangerous escalation.
We do not know who from his domestic (or external) advisors has inspired him with this arrogant idea that is sure against the interests of the country and its safety and stability.
It is a blatant opposition of the requirements of the Revolution and the terms of the Constitutional Document.
This move is meant to hamper all the institutions of the transitional process.
It is a malicious drive seeking to say that the people and the civilian component are against the army, as if a criticism of generals Burhan, Hemaidti or Kabbashi is a criticism of the army.
This is a dangerous approach that requires vigilance on the part of the revolutionary forces (the Forces for Freedom and Change), the political parties, the entities of the civilian government and the entire society, in particular the youth and the resistance committees.
These forces should stand on the vigil to peacefully protect their country and its revolution and challenge any attempt to abort the revolution.
We cannot separate what happens in the country’s East, when an individual defies the state and the law, from the statements of generals Burhan and Hemaidti and the leaders of the rebel movements.
One now also hears the country’s finance minister Jibreel Ibrahim and Darfur Governor Minnawi competing with Burhan and Hemaidti in chewing a false demand for “expanding the government base.”
In this bid these persons seek nothing other than accommodating the fulool and the return of Bashir’s elements to the state’s political and executive institutions.
It is an irony that Hemaiti is telling us that they will not permit the civil authority to supervise the security and police, while the Revolution’s charters (he himself had signed on the part of the military) say that.
.What is the aim behind these hostile claims other than a coup against the Revolution and putting the country on the precipice of danger and chaos, opening doors for adventures whose fuel would be the blood of Sudanese, after the Revolution has laid the foundations of peace and opened avenues for the launch of the state of freedom, peace and justice?
Do Burhan, Hemaidti, Jibreel, Kabbashi and their fellow Tirik, who is leading sedition in the East, realize the end product of this dangerous path and the harm it could bring upon the country ?
This is the behavior of the remnants of the Salvation Government (Bashir’s) who put it thus: we sit on the heads of the people, killing and looting or else spread chaos and place the country under the sward of terrorism.”
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Also wrote Mr. Mohammad Abdelmajid in the daily newspaper Alentibaha (the Awakening) on the same issue:
If the struggle over power between the military and the civilians ends up in the victory of the military and the removal of the civil component, the country would delve into a chaos immeasurable and the struggle will move to other theatres where firearms decide the rules of the game, because all the parties to the conflict will then be armed.
The ruling authority and the army should know that it is the people who shield them now and if the civilian component is removed from government, the struggle will be between the army and the Rapid Support Forces who have nothing in common other than distancing the civilians from the scene.
The military component was part of the defunct regime and after that it became the ruling authority (as represented in the Military Council) .
Then it came to share power with the Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) as provided by the Constitutional Document.
It is sad that the military component, after its failure in all the previous stages when it was part of the authority or the sole ruler, wants to unilaterally rule the country to repeat the follies of the Salvation regime.
We have no animosity with the Army and the security because these bodies are made up from the citizens of this country that pays their wages.
According to the oath they have taken, they are responsible for the protection of the people, the land and the constitution. That is an honor the civilians do not have. Protecting the land, the constitution and the people is better than ruling the country.
So, what honor does the military want other than that honorable, sacred job?
The absurdity of the fulool and their machinations is driving them to believe tribal conflicts can undermine the civilian rule.
And when that failed, they tended to spread chaos and lawlessness.
Then they headed towards the culture of terror cells, a culture unknown to the Sudanese.
They shut down the national highways for more suffering for the citizens.
It is a wonder that a partner in government would put its hands in the hands of those who break the law and jeopardize the stability of the country.
They do all of this to scare the people from civilian rule, although all this country’s crises are the making of the military component of this government
Ever since the signing of the Constitutional Document, the military component had used to hold the civilian component responsible for all crises and failures.
Is the military component in the government just a fellow rider although all the crises were mainly of security and military nature? .
If the military component does not respect its partners in the government, it should at least honor the oath they have taken and the Constitutional Document the entire World has witnessed they had signed.
Why does the military component want to return us to the age of darkness, corruption and isolation we lived in during the defunct regime?
Burhan and Hemaidti now have a historical opportunity to become part of the country’s success, if they forget about personal successes. What can a personal success give you if it were at the expense of the people and civilian rule?
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