Constitution amendments in Sudan nothing but distortions
By Mahmoud A. Suleiman
January 18,2014 – This article comes against the backdrop of the unprecedented news that the National Congress Party (NCP) National Council/Assembly – the Parliament has gone ahead undeterred and made drastic changes to the 2005 transitional – interim- Constitution on its meeting on Sunday January 4, 2015. It is clear that The One-Party Regime circumvents the Interim Constitution for Rigging the Will of the Sudanese people.
In the New Phase of Autocratic rule of the NCP regime began on Sunday 4, January 2015 by a ground breaking oppressive and arbitrary constitutional changes in the 2005 Transitional Constitution issued under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the National Congress Party (NCP) Government in Sudan and the South Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement Government (SPLM/A) in Naivasha, Kenya. Of the other objectives of the Constitution was also to enable the Transitional National unity Government to strive achieving its mandated goals, in particular, making Unity of Sudan attractive for the people of Southern Sudan. Sadly, that did not happen and when the Unity project became repulsive making the Southerners preferring secession after sweeping referendum to establish their own nascent state of the Republic of South Sudan.
The difference between distortion and amendment of a constitution is as clear as a sun at midday. Political observers said what the NCP Parliament has done to the Constitution was a Constitutional Deformation rather than amendment.
The Constitutional distortions announced by the National Congress Party regime’s ‘National Assembly, Parliament’ and called them constitutional amendments are blatant violation to the 2005 Interim Constitution based on the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) AKA Naivasha Agreement between the former Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A and the Government of Sudan (GoS). The Khartoum regime’s announcement of the renewed dictates of authoritarian and totalitarian distortion and called it amendments are unconstitutional in spite of the approved by the thumbprint congress with the usual cheers, lullaby and Alleluia is considered constitutional violations committed without the legitimate right. It meant to reinstall a more totalitarian dictatorship clutch par excellence. News reported from inside the parliament session that the speech given by Ali Osman Mohamed Taha, the former first deputy president of the republic had the greatest impact on instigation of the representatives/ deputies to turn out and vote without deliberations. Ali Osman Mohamed Taha, the former first deputy of Omar al-Bashir Said that the constitutional amendments meant to allow free space for the security services work freely! Thus, the Witness comes from within the family, as the popular adage’ saying’ goes. Moreover, the House Representatives contented themselves with cheers and Good Great and passed the amendments overwhelmingly! The Parliament did not face any difficulty or objection in passing the constitutional amendments because the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) is in control of ninety percent of the membership of the parliament’s 450 number of seats. The Representatives of the Popular Congress Party (PCP) led by Dr. Hassan Abdalla al-Turabi have missed the Parliament session, reports said!
The NCP National Council -the Parliament -seems to have carried out a Coup against the 2005 Naivasha – Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) Constitution. Not only that but it distorted the constitution making it deformed to commensurate with the alleged illegitimate elections scheduled for early April 2015. The elections scheduled under the auspices of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) regime to win it alone because the main political parties with heavy and credible public support would boycott any such fraudulent elections the outcome of which is Known in advance! This becomes clear when we take into account the regime’s known infamous history of electoral fraud. The international, regional and local media during the 2011 elections documented the poll rigging well. This happened when journalists secretly filmed rigging elections process where NCP regime affiliates unload ballot papers from one ballot box to another ballot box during the night. It is noteworthy that the main political parties boycotted the participation in those elections for their futility and the prior knowledge of the results. Omar al-Bashir won in those rigged elections, as expected, and it was a foregone conclusion. To have free, fair and transparent elections in the NCP Sudan is the impassableness, such as a Phoenix and a loyal Ally! The so-called amendment to the constitution in Sudan is nothing but a constitutional coup in broad daylight to legitimize an act originally lacking and missing legitimacy by the Insurrectionists and gang of putschists.
The National Congress Party (NCP) regime, after firing the bullet of mercy – coup de grace – at the January 2014 National Dialogue project, arrested a group of political opposition figures arbitrarily, declared a renewed war nicknamed the ‘Crucial Summer’ for the liquidation of rebellion in Sudan, decided to get rid of the only legislation that remains the through distortion of the clauses in the Interim Constitution. to enter the alleged elections solo in April 2015. The regime adopting process of forgery and misappropriation which carried him to what is named the ‘Constitutional amendment’ for the sake of upgrading and promoting further the fugitive from the international justice the genocidal criminal Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir. Al-Bashir became the only authority and the absolute power, to replace all the three powers recognised for a State, which are the Legislature, Executive and Judiciary Authority. To add insult to injury, the NCP regime has gone ahead with its plans of ‘Constitution Amendments’ to facilitate plans for going around the laws and amend to justify actions committed illegally! Falsification of the will of the people has fermented at the one-party parliament in Sudan.
The significant changes made in the Constitution amounted to eighteen Articles and Clauses. The amendments amounted to a declaration of a more authoritarian, tyrannical powers devoted sole for a stark dictatorship and autocracy for the survival of the War criminal genocidal and the fugitive from international justice Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir in power. Staying in the helm would protect him from the arrest warrant that remains hanging on his neck and issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC). The (ICC) wanted Omer al-Bashir to justice – transitional justice – and retribution and restitution for the oppressed and disenfranchised survivors in Darfur. Moreover, he is also required for justice to the kith and kin of the half million victims slain in cold blood during the war of attrition waged by the Islamist regime. The (NCP) regime exploited militias and mercenary bandits hired across the Sudanese Borders to execute the task of annihilation and extermination of civilian and the homeland citizens based on the principle of Ethnic Cleansing, Nazism – fascism style
The top three violations of the 2005 Transitional Constitution Violations included the change to the original job description of the National Intelligence and the Security Services (NISS), of change of the original job description, which was information gathering, analysing and submit it to the appropriate Government authorities. NISS responsibilities were upgraded to become equivalent to the Regular armed forces, where they function in the fighting, having power of the arresting people and trial in a blatant violation of the original duties sanctioned by the law. The second issue in amending the constitution relates to granting the power of appointing and sacking the eighteen governors of states to the NCP President Omer al-Bashir rather than elected by the people of the respective state. This is a blatant infringement of the Constitution to put all the power in the hands of one individual to wreak havoc the country with corruption and injustice against the population. It is more so, given Omer al-Bashir’s Serpentine temperament and his spirit of revenge against rivals and opponents of his miserable rule. Moreover, Omer al-Bashir gained notoriety for his incendiary speeches through which he orchestrated racial hatred and contempt to fellow citizens in the marginalised territories of Sudan. He acts as such in a calculated strategy to extort further his opponents. The third of the andirons in the constitutional amendment is the inclusion and addition of the defunct Doha Darfur Peace Agreement (DDDP) in the text of the Interim Constitution of 2005. The Sudanese army needs to focus on point one. This particular point is where the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) became a substitute variant of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) according to recent constitutional amendments. It requires the military leaders to accelerate the pace to join up the ranks and fight to address the battle, but will find themselves out of job according to the doctrine of being sacked in the «public interest» soon after being used by Omar al-Bashir who came from the womb of the Army by coup d’état . Bearing in mind that, the Government of the NCP proxies, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary unit comprised of the notorious Janjaweed militia, previously employed by the NCP to fight the Darfur rebels, is in fact dominates current NISS.
The constitutional amendments are considered by law experts as new coup d’ états to perpetuate authoritarian and military dictatorship and the security grip to continue the series of violations and the confiscation of the rights and freedoms that were originally missing over the past quarter century of ill-fated rule of Sudan the by the corrupt Muslim Brotherhood Movement.
Unfortunate for the people of Sudan that the (NCP) regime continues ploughing on with these damaging plans, which says: (keep your dog hungry for food to follow you) and if he obstinately disobeys, aim the Coup de grace towards him! This is the era of extremes of tyranny, abuse, Vanity Fair and arrogance. This seems to be al- Bashir’s means for wreaking his anger directed to the Sudanese people, who referred him to the International Criminal Court (ICC), which the criminal al-Bashir dreads and scared of more than anything else.
This is despite the fact that his likes and ilk of criminal despots are peacefully serving their sentences in prisons at The Hague, in the Netherlands, though followed by the curse of the souls of their victims and supplications of survivors calling them misery in this life and in the hereafter.
The Ruling National Congress Party (NCP) regime every day comes with a project that would break up the country along ethnic divide style and /or the owners of favour and riches – the neo- rich who choose to steal people’s money. The regime brought a draft project for transferring the capital of Sudan to Merawi or Kosti instead of Khartoum, which became swamped with poverty – stricken people who have been displaced from their regions of origin due to the wars waged by al-Bashir and his regime. By doing so, the NCP regime seems to have taken what happened in Nigeria, where the capital was transferred from the ancient city of Lagos to Abuja to move away from the destitute poor, filth and the Traffic Congestion! It is Noteworthy that most of the influential figures in the National Congress Party (NCP) have come from poor backgrounds and have become wealthy and affluent through looting people’s money and owning national economic projects such as the Sudan Airways, Sudan Railways, Gezira Irrigation Scheme, National reference Health Services and public Higher Education Institutions through privatization and corruption. As reported in the news that Salah Abdalla Gosh, former Director of the National Intelligence and Security Services(NISS) and representative of the Constituency of Meroe in the Parliament has preferred the City of Kosti in the White Nile to be the capital of Sudan instead of Khartoum and not Merowe in the north of Sudan.
The synchronisation of the major plans including holding elections in April 2015 whether like it or not doctrine, amending the Constitution, planning of transferring the Capital of Sudan from Khartoum to other cities and the announcement of the so-called ‘Crucial summer’ to end the insurgency are all indicators for further fragmentation of Sudan and/or a planned separation of unwanted parts of it in a systematic manner, as happened to South Sudan two years ago, some analysts said. However, those desperate plans are doomed to failure because the Sudanese people, with all its components and its regions remain keen on the survival of the rest of the Sudan unified cohesive forcibly inspire of the evil intentions of the racist, corrupt, hypocritical and the good for nothing ruling National Congress Party (NCP) regime.
Through what is happening in Sudan, we can say that the Sudanese are probably waiting for Omar al-Bashir to declare himself king for the infamous ‘Hamdi Triangle’ or on the Pan – Sudan or to become the Grand Emperor for the First Empire of the Muslim Brotherhood Movement on earth in Sudan.
The changes made in the Constitution amendments amounted to a declaration of a more authoritarian, tyrannical powers devoted sole for a stark dictatorship and autocracy for the survival of the War criminal genocidal and the fugitive from international justice Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir in power. Staying in the helm would protect him from the arrest warrant that remains hanging on his neck and issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC). The (ICC) wanted Omer al-Bashir to justice – transitional justice – and retribution and restitution for the oppressed and disenfranchised survivors in Darfur. Moreover, he is also required for justice to the kith and kin of the half million victims slain in cold blood during the war of attrition waged by the Islamist regime. The (NCP) regime exploited militias and mercenary bandits hired across the Sudanese Borders to execute the task of annihilation and extermination of civilian and the homeland citizens based on the principle of Ethnic Cleansing, Nazism – fascism style. Omer al-Bashir believed he would live forever through the implementation of his dirty tasks, which are harmful to lives of people of Sudan in Darfur and in other parts of the marginalised territories.
The Sudanese opposition is left in amazement. There is no use any longer for the political tools of denunciation and condemnation phrases. They proved their failure during the more than the quarter century of rule by the so-called National Salvation Revolution (NSR). The former National Islamic Front (NIF), the Muslim Brotherhood Movement (MBM) to bear the responsibility for causing devastation to the lives of the people in Darfur, South Kordofan (Nuba Mountains), South Blue Nile , Beja of Easter Sudan, Nubians in the far North, who are abandoned by the International Community to become prey to the NCP regime.
IT seems the time has come to say Goodbye to the strong support the people of Sudan in Darfur used to receive from the international community at the outbreak of the crisis in the early years of the revolution of the marginalized and the oppressed and downtrodden against tyranny which robbed the rights in the Center of power in Khartoum. The International Community who remains busily preoccupied by its priorities for the competing and intersecting interests has abandoned the people of Sudan in Darfur and in other marginalised territories at the mercy of the Antonov fighter bomber raids. The aerial bombardment and the scorched earth devastation belonged to the blood thirsty National Congress Party (NCP) regime’s arsenal of weapons obtained from the countries with permanent membership of the UN Security Council (UNSC) who have the veto power and waving it when necessary.
The historical hypothesis, which, says in order to address deviations of history affecting the essence and values of the people, people can only enable themselves by addressing them with the same tools even if those tools seem unfamiliar, harshly severe or unusual to justify rectifying the distortions with the view to return things to their normal track!
Since the situation is as such, nothing left for the people of Sudan other than coming together with all of its components to work towards toppling the one-party authoritarian regime. They need using all the available previously tested effective means. Moreover, after dismantling the abhorrent institutions, the people of Sudan will build a virtually new homeland, which accommodates all the Sudanese citizens based on citizenship as an only identity. in a new Sudan on the ruins of the ruling National Congress Party and liquidation of repressive institutions.
The struggle will continue between the Sudanese people in the marginalized areas, and the centre until victory becomes an ally to them! They Lived free and will remain free! Rebuilding a free democratic Sudan where everyone enjoys a single identity-based on citizenship is the goal of the struggle.
If people do not resist the abuses of others, they will have no one to resist the abuses of themselves, and tyranny will prevail. Tyranny Law
There is no crueler tyranny than that which, is perpetuated under the shield of law and in the name of justice ! Charles de Montesquieu
Dr. Mahmoud A. Suleiman is an author, columnist and a blogger. His blog is http://thussudan.wordpress.com/