Sudan unity requires secular state
Unity seemingly unattractive; Old Sudan ideology is vehemently failing to transform before 2011
By Bor Gatwech*
May 23, 2006 — On his speech in 20th Anniversary of the SPLM, Dr. Garang explicitly lashed out that the notorious National Islamic Front (NIF) is ?too deformed to be transformed’.
National Islamic Front recently branded as National Congress Party is known to have bowed to carry out, in coordination with other Islamic extremist organizations, a divine mission from Allah: to arabize Africa and Islamize America, which has made it exclusively exceptional to other parties that have existed in the Sudan.
NIF seized power by ousting a democratically elected government through a conspiracy that Sadig el Madi, the then Prime Minster of the Sudan was planning to negotiate a just peace with the rebels of SPLM.
NIF has transcended Islamic agenda in its policies leading it to shape an ideology of convert or destroy (infidels) in which it succumbed to segregation, discrimination, racism, inequality, marginalization, and most dangerously a religious extremist theology to a far greater extend.
Recently, after a break away though, the former high profile ideologue of NIF, Hassan Al Turabi, seems to be rewriting history in denouncing the failures to control the Sudan through old Sudan ideology. Choking on his words, he explains that the absence of democracy is the main reason behind conflict. “There is no notion of consensus (shura), as Islam enjoins, nor an imperative to democratise… “I am against the enforcement of Sharia law on non-Muslims. The Christian southerners must not forcibly succumb to Islamic Sharia law. “The Jews of Medina were not subjected to Sharia law during the days of Prophet Mohamed. Why should we Muslims, today, force Sharia law on Christian subjects?” (Al-Ahram Weekly May 2006). Here he is imperatively confessing that he was against the enforcement of the sharia law only when he is out of the implementation circles. Hassan al-Turabi also recently declared that women were equal to men and had the right to marry a Christian or a Jew and could even lead prayers, denounced as apostasy by his Muslim scholars.
But who is Turabi now in the Sudan to transform the old Sudan ideology that he was once the author, in case he was unknowingly converted by the Lord on his way to Damascus? Can Turabi reverse or recreate policies of the party he help formed and now dismissed from? Will he manage transform old Sudan ideology over the media or in Friday prayer meetings in the mosques? Hassan Al Turabi, same as other fundamentalists in the Sudan, knows what can keep this country in unity, but out of decision making circle at the moment. However, it is not far for one to suspect that he just want to win the 4 million Sudanese who welcome the Mandela of Sudan in Green Square last year on support of Sudan must be new.
On his signing of the CPA, John Garang was dispensably criticised by his critique and challenged on how he will possibly transform a deformed religio-political ideology of the old Sudan through the peace agreement. Consequently, there has never been a show down between the new and old Sudan ideologies then in the implementation of the CPA.
Omar Bashir, the chairman of NCP and key player in old Sudan ideology impetuously announced on his visit to new Sudan capital, Rumbek, last year that the North will join the South for Jubilant celebrations in 2011 if southerners decide to succeed.
Also, during the standoff in ministerial allocation last year in formation of the GONU, Salva Kiir cautiously urged Bashir to give one economic portfolio to the SPLM so as to make unity attractive to the people of southern Sudan. However, the unexpected response from the president Bashir was that southerners will definately vote for separation though given any portfolio in the government.
The ordinary people in southern Sudan may have mixed reactions on regards to these statements by the head of state commissioned to champion the test of Sudan unity by these six years. However, it could also be regarded as stiffness of the regime to change fundamentally from its old Sudan ideology.
Northern old Sudan ideology is stiff. It is like a dry stick which cannot be bent; it’s rigid, not relaxed or friendly. It neither compromise with its fundamental objectives nor keep promises. It is usually one way traffic, and is like a car with no reverse gear. It believes in cunningness; and never change its mission but insists on confusion and making of new strategies during hard times. It doesn’t conform, nor be transformed which is why the President Bashir chose to just bit farewell to the south in 2011 than transform and conform to new Sudan ideology.
Another element of the old Sudan stiffness is manifested in the government actions to disrespect the regional geo-political bordersaccording to 1/1/56 of the country. Since they know that they can rather break if bent by the current political storm, they have just chosen to get new territories by force before 2011 so that they have something to eat after their food store(south Sudan) is out of their sight.
The time is now to make Sudan a one and united nation which could be achieved only if the northern brothers with their successive governments change fundamentally from their perception of arabizing and Islamizing the Sudan. This country is vast in land, people and culture. We have to agree in its diversity and should not succumb to false notion that it is Islamic and Arab country. We have to unite in our diversity to make this country a prosperous, democratic, and secular that belongs to every human being whether he be yellow or red; white or black; green or brown; Arab or African; Muslim, Jews, Christian, atheist, or pagan.
* Bor Gatwech is a Sudanese residing in Australia and currently an undergraduate student studying Environmental Science in Monash University. He can be reached via emails: [email protected]