Sudan’s ex-presidential adviser publicly adopts reformist agenda
July 24, 2013, (KHARTOUM) – The former Sudanese presidential adviser and ex-head of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) parliamentary caucus Ghazi Salah al-Attabani released a memo on Wednesday in which he outlined his vision for “reformist drive”.
The longtime Islamist said that change is part of life’s dynamics suggesting that resistance to reform might makes matters worst in Sudan.
He diagnosed the issues facing the country as dating back to the weakening of the state since independence and abuses committed by politicians and governments that resulted in an economic, social and political crisis.
“The state’s institutions are lacking guiding strategies with a weakness in its commitment to the rights and freedoms of citizens particularly the freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and association; justice has been disturbed whether political, social or economic; the infectious disease of financial and administrative corruption has become a trend not only committed by some individuals but an approach taken by institutions and bodies in the name of law and extraordinary procedures,” the memo read in part.
Al-Attabani expressed particular worry about the use of tribal power in political battles “at the expense of the nation” calling it the gravest threat to Sudan.
While noting that foreign conspiracies against Sudan contributed to the current situation, he empathized that any external plots would not have succeeded “If it wasn’t for lack of confidence in the community and disintegration of the elements of internal resistance”.
“Therefore, the moral responsibility mandates criticism and review without fear or equivocation, not only in practice, but at the level of intellectual and political treatises so that a real reform project is launched that has enough safeguards so as to not reproduce [past troubled] history”.
The memo stated in conclusion that it only listed the arguments for reform without making any practical proposals which could be made at a later stage.
It stressed that this document is open to debate and amendments.
Al-Attabani is widely known to be a leading figure in the reformist faction within the NCP and people close to him say that he is privately fiercely critical of the ruling party and its policies.
He has fought silent battles to initiate structural changes in the NCP and the underlying Islamist Movement (IM) but the party’s old guard has effectively shot down all his initiatives.
Abdelwahab El-Affendi, an Islamist university professor based in Britain, said in an op-ed last April published in al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper that Al-Attabani has miscalculated when he believed that the NCP leadership would accept change that could only come at its expense.
Al-Attabani was removed from his post as NCP majority leader in the national assembly which many said was in response to his assertions that Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir is constitutionally barred from running again for presidency.
“There is no doubt that I envy Ghazi on his continued optimism that the president, who sacked him [from NCP parliamentary speaker] because he reminded him of the constitution, will listen to this sincere advice” El-Affendi wrote.
Last year al-Attabani withdrew his candidacy for Secretary General of the IM and left its convention last year due to what he saw as interferences by influential government figures who pushed through amendments he opposed.
At the time an NCP figure who closely followed the workings of the convention told Sudan Tribune that Al-Attabani pulled out after finding out that the NCP leadership has determined to choose someone else for that position.
But many reformists in the NCP and IM are critical of Al-Attabani saying that he is unwilling to take a firm and unequivocal stance against the government in his push for change and is only talking of change in very general terms.
A political analyst in Khartoum however, told Sudan Tribune that this memo represents a new and bold phase in al-Attabani reform agenda.
“He laid out, for the first time, what he sees is wrong with the direction of the country. It also does seem to be a subtle warning bell to the [National] Congress Party that he could seek reform by leaving the realms of the party,” said the political analyst who asked not to be named.
The NCP is under increasing pressure from its party base and even some of its longtime supporters who complain that people at the top have grown too old and stagnant.
Most observers however, believe that the party leadership has little appetite for change.
Last year the Sudanese authorities thwarted what it said was a coup plot planned by pro-NCP figures in the army and security apparatus including former spy chief Salah Gosh.
(ST)