Al-Bashir behavior already ditched the United Sudan
By Kong J. Toang
August 27, 2006 — In fact, I have come to realized that South Sudan government political landscape has been delayed in large, partly because of a debate over whether the state should be one or two in at the end of fours to come. South Sudanese citizens perceiving that, federal system is the only granting and a reasonable amount of regional autonomy if Sudan has to remain one. However, the federal experiments have not yet succeeded in history of Sudan. Sudan earlier attempted the federalism, from 1972-1983 but, collapsed after the central government essentially reneged on the deal, the then President, Colonel Jaffer Mohamed Numeiry ditched the system without shame.
There is t too much fear of federalism, northerners elite think it would undermine the unity of the state and may exclude them from sharing the oil revenues from the field’s located in South Sudan regions.
I am not certain whether, the federally structured in which the country constitution may resembling of western European norm or else. If that is the case, this constitution remained on a paper and none implemented at all. The existence is that, the regimes has pitted several ethnic group against the others, allotting villages to adjacent ethnic group which caused unnecessary blood-shed
The plan which gives South Sudan the right to secede in six years if the federal system does not work is being processed. What come in everybody mind is the question of what would differentiates this plan from 1972 Addis Ababa agreement which ended the civil war, the south was granted autonomy. In fact, the Accord of Addis Ababa Agreement came as a surprise; it was for the first time in the political history of the country, that Sudan was given recognition to itself as cultural diversity, multi-religious society and was politically recognized publicly. In side the box, there were unforgettable military dictatorships since 1956; the Sudanese government acquired a strong Arab characters.
The resistance against the Arabization governments by mostly non-Muslim population of the southern Sudan began to contempt long before 1972 Addis Ababa Accords. Some southerner’s politicians were not surprising that the Accord only remained on the papers. As result of dishonoring the agreement from the government side, sacrificed men in uniform who had taken extra miles to defend the right of marginalized people, indeed were disappointed. Many of them were dismissed from their jobs, finally found their way to rebelling and ended up forming the SPLA/M.
The current government had tried to adopt the federal system. In March 1994, president al Bashir announced a further decentralization of government, through the creation of 26 federal states to replace the previous nine. The reasons for further decentralization included a desire on the part of the Khartoum government to enhance coordination policy of NIF in the federal and state levels, facilitate governing interest, promote Islamization and Arabization, enhance El-Beshir security, and contribute easily to continuing ethnic conflicts.
I must commend the blacks African lived in Sudan; they are dramatically regretted from ideology of last 50 years. Many have come to realized that Sudan has been under the subjugation of different systems of rulers or dictatorship. All these dictatorship have a lot in common characteristics despite of their government styles and terms. They all had have ascended to power by force and rule by force from General Ibrahim Abboud to Omar Hassan ‘Ahmed El Bashir. Since each systems have ethnic vanguard and beneficiaries, black Africans have been marginalized, oppressed, and have become second class citizens in their own country for their life time. Each system ruler never seems to learn from history of the country. In fact, the political culture could remain unchanged and could be much more worst if several actions were not taken.
Is Multi-cultural recognized in Sudan
Up to date, many convinced that Sudan is multi-cultural society figures, among
other African states; at the same token the notion of culture assimilation and political domination are the only ways of achieving national unity is existing. Moreover, it widely known that, the participation of southern politicians or black Africans in general in the national political spectrum was underscored, if not non-existing. Fifty years a go during the euphoria of independence of Sudan, Ali Abdel Rahman, then Minister of Interior of the first independent government had made it clear in his speech in the parliament, “Sudan is an Arab country and whoever does not feel Arab should quit”
The Rahman’s statement was proved by the first military regime which started in 1958, it then had launched an unprecedented campaign of diffusing Arabic language and Islamic religion. Missionaries activities were banned, mosques were built in the South Sudan, Friday was repealed. Dr. Gordon Bob, Eleanor Vandevort, and Arlene Whitman all are US citizen’s missionaries based in Nasir, and all are living today, and too are the witness of the acts.
The disclosure of the agenda buried did not take very long to exhume; The President Numery himself declared Sharia law in the South which was totally dishonor of agreement he had signed. Such an act caused the longest civil war in Africa and ended up with Comprehensive Peace Agreement 2005, under which state revenue, oil money in particular would be shared between the government and the southern rebel groups. The implementing of that agreement remained in doubt as year and half gone by.
Is the Genocide happening in Darfur?
The buried agenda come to exhume, separate conflict erupted; two distinct groups in the diverse Darfur population: non-Arab black peoples like the Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa, and Arab tribes collectively termed Baggara which were settled in region of Darfur west of the country since 13th century were against one onther. The NIF regime is believe to be masterminded. The main roots cause of the war is related to long struggle in South Sudan.
The U.S. government did a tremendous job in term of caring about innocents lives in Darfur, the then US Secretary of State Colin Powell traveled to the refugee camps of Darfur escorted by Sudanese government. On September 9, 2004, then US Secretary of State Colin Powell declared to the US Senate that genocide was occurring in Darfur, for which he blamed the Sudanese government and the Janjaweed. Due to the guilty acts from Government of Sudan, the position was strongly rejected by the Sudanese foreign affairs minister, Najib Abdul Wahab. What giving government tips are the United Nations, African Union and European Union, they did not declared the Darfur conflict to be an act of genocide. And that blocked the involvement of United Nation troops in trouble region.
In addition, the opponent to Bush administration such as defeated Senator John Kerry also denounced the conflict as genocide. Despites of his thinking, in July of 2004, the U.S. Congress unanimously declared the actions of the Sudanese government and their proxy militias officially as a “genocide”. This has led to speculation of an anticipated international involvement, such as United Nations peace keeping forces being deployed to Darfur, and possible international community involment.
The United Nations also is tirelessly working, it unanimously passed a peacekeeping resolution for Darfur, without clearly stated the Darfur problems become “genocides” if it does constitute an act of genocide, international law should be considered to allow other countries to intervene without any hesitation.
Omer El-Beshir of Sudan = Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia.
Omer El-Beshir is currently insisted, “I swear that there will not be any international military intervention in Darfur as long as I am in power”; he blindly sees that what his government and Janjaweed are doing had categorized into the level of Rwanda and Yugoslavia’s Genocide. The dismemberment and killing of noncombatant’s young children and babies, are like ethnic cleansing used in the Yugoslavia Wars where the NATO was intervened without any hesitation or consulting the alike former President Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia.
If Liberian former President Charles Ghankay Taylor is being tried for funding Sierra Leone’s former rebels, the Revolutionary United Front by selling diamonds on their behalf and buying weapons, then Beshir of Sudan would face the same, he is using oil money to topple the neighboring governments such as supporting the Lord Resistant Army (LRA) of Uganda and recently apprising against Idriss Deby the president of Chad.
It’s clear that the Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir has ruled out any U.N. deployment in Darfur, he described the intervention of United Nation to protect his own citizens as neo-colonials. He also said he would personally lead the “resistance” if U.N. troops came to Darfur, which I believe its political suicides to Mr. President. If the UN objectives and mission statement are to imply correctly, then all the consequences one day will end up in his nose as President Mr. Milosevic and Mr. Taylor Liberia.
The Next Move
For the above reasons, it would be a waste of time, resources, and more importantly betrayals of martyrs and heroes who have fallen in struggle if united Sudan prevailed. The Sudanese rulers in the pasts and the acts of Beshir and his National Islamic Front already ditched the United Sudan. What are we talking about? Beshir who is kwon by his unionism does not believe in unity. He asks the freedom fighters to remains in inferiors in their own nation, instead of honoring them for accepting him as a president of the country for six years while he is not deserves to be. He is still believes in inferiority complex which has been existed among black Africans for long time.
It’s a wakeup call time for those who believe in CPA to make it come true as it was spelled in its booklet. Let proved it to Beshir and his government that CPA is not buying time as he may thinks; it is a real Comprehensive Peace Agreement.
Thank to Governor Mr. Mark Nyipuoch for initiative he took to fight the corruption, I hope many will follow. Let fight the corruption as it damages the economic and reduces the opportunities for economic expansion. We have to embark on increasing the quality of our economic to ensure that the development outcomes are effective and that is actually delivered on the ground.
The long mixed of social-capitalist system used by Sudanese leaders has entered a deep crisis which is causing convulsions at all levels, whether it is economically, politically, socially, or militarily. The contradictions that have built up for decades beneath the surface of society are now coming to surface. Let think back and confirms what we have said for a number of years, we have entered a period of revolutions, and counter-revolutions and finally peace. The intolerant system and decaying system of old Sudan must be abolish.
But out of the chaos of decaying system, order can and must arise to find all possible solution to any problem we may run into. It will not happen automatically. It will require the consciousness and organized struggle of people. In one war after another, history tells us that, there one day will be opportunities for the revolutionary people to seize the power struggle for and begin the process of building nation as dreamed. We can already see the example of building the dream nation through revolutionary process in Eritrea and others. But the fate of our revolution ultimately depends on what happens in Sudan. We must therefore learn from history, from the revolutionary processes unfolding and above all, we must prepare for the Anti-corruption.
Karl Marx a German Philosopher sees the road as a whole, all of its conjunctures ups and downs, without for a moment losing sight of its main direction, the catastrophe of wars, and the explosion of revolutions. We concluded that the political wish of the proletariat does not change automatically in one and the same direction. The art of revolutionary leadership is primarily the art of correct political orientation. Under all conditions, let prepares for the political vanguard and through political oriented people as is a whole for the revolutionary seizure of power and entering into era where the majority who are irresponsible will be responsible.
At this conjunction time there are a certain things that we should avoid, forget and ware off: 1) Diverting our attention from main objectives and see co-freedom fighter as enemy has no room. Defections and agreements amongst become daily order as result of NIF divide and rule policy. Calling your colleagues in the army as returnee or traitors is abusive language and one must judge in court of law if any find guilty.
2) Relaxing and laying back perceiving that the war is over, asking our men in uniform to evacuate the areas they seized from enemy because they are not belonging is obtuse and premature. We already have seen the consequences of it in Western Equatorial State when the tribal conflict arisen; many SPLM soldiers were evacuated in their destination, as a result, and the opportunist, Lord Resistance Army immediately occupied the area, killed our people and looted the properties.
3) There are communities who were victimized by war, these communities took the refugee near by, and are being called as nomads, occupiers, and settlers; this is unacceptable. Encouraging the Government of South Sudan to take the action against such communities without common ground will only exaggerated the situation and giving the enemy wide room to destroy us. There is already plenty of land left to enemy. South Sudan had never experienced any shortage of land in the history; therefore we must remain calm and patient.
4) The representations in transitional government should not be a problem since the Government of South Sudan is inchoate. Power struggle should be abandon until we secured our independent state.
Conclusion
Our political path and the way to success must be multi, while leading the struggle in one direction or another, it is necessary to attentively follow the changes in the objective and subjective elements of the movement; one must not, however, get intoxicated with the finished schemata, but continually refer to the course of the historic process and adjust to its indications.
As independent nation, do not let our economic perspectives for the future base on the economic performance of the past. Social-capitalism is a chaotic system; it is so difficult to predict the exact rhythm and timing of the economic cycle with any real precision. Nevertheless, we can form a general idea of what the economy holds in store by knowing what the local populations want and need, then analyzing the best available data and studying the history of the economic cycle and understanding the nature of the system and finally make concrete policies. By setting all the objectives and principles and work toward them, the corruption is more likely to reduced and the nation will be built
The Author is a Sudanese national, based in USA. He can be reached at [email protected]