Sudanese opposition weakness nurtured the NCP regime

By Mahmoud A. Suleiman

March 30, 2010 — Analysts say that the National Congress Party (NCP) which ruled the country following a coup d’état in June 1989 has succeeded in one way or another in stripping off (extracting) the skeletons of the traditional Sudanese parties and converting them into soft gelatinous bodies (entities or objects) that are not strong enough to cope with the events haunting the country. The parties have suffered disuse atrophy of their skills for not being able to exercise real political work through the past two decades, the era in which the abhorrent totalitarian regime dominated on power. This pathetic situation led the national struggle into meagre cheers and a repetitive repugnant drama that plays on emotions, but do not carry any real capacity for effective desired change. Unfortunately and to make matters worse, the leaders of the main political parties and majority of the leaders of the opposition forces are hit by the inevitable disease of aging, and political dementia. This is because they chose not to prepare their successors who are young robust individuals who could have lead the masses of supporters of the parties in the hours of crisis, especially when their minds and their bodies can not enable them to fulfill the requirements of the deepening pollutant political situations. It is not surprising given the fact that most of the Sudanese political parties are affiliated to the Sufi religious sect communities which usually choose their leaders in terms of inheritance affiliation where a son or close relative of a leader takes the place of the party leader dies or become invalid in spite of the presence of competencies among the members of the party. A clear evidence for that is the Umma Party, which belongs to the Ansar religious sec, led by Sayed al-Sadig Siddiq Abdurrahman al-Mahdi, and the Democratic Unionist Party which belongs to the Khatmiya religious, led by Sayed Mohamed Osman al-Mirghani. It is ironic that this situation is almost applicable even to the Sudanese Communist Party, led by Mr. Mohamed Ibrahim Nugud, which is an ideological party with Marxist tendency and other Sudanese parties have followed the same clan approach. Thus the Sudanese public and the political parties have been afflicted by leaders who lack the insight to the fact and do not believe that the human capacity would inevitably diminish over the years by the lack of efficiency and the vulnerability of functions of the body systems.

Political analysts and observers agree on one fact that the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) contrary to the foregoing description of the opposition Sudanese political parties the NCP proves itself every day as the most organised, capable to strategic planning in the most conning criminal mentality of corruption, crimes against humanity, murder and violations of legal and constitutional rights, and violation of human rights and freedoms, nevertheless able to defy opponents and survive defeating adversaries. Furthermore, the NCP is successful in getting out of the most serious crises by taking the Sudanese public for fools through deception, intimidation and carrots as a hair pulled out of the dough! Note that the National Congress Party regime enjoys the possession of public oil money, the media and the National Security and Intelligence apparatus, all of which it exploits and uses as the means of repression and to deter adversaries. It is not surprising that this cursed regime continued more than twenty years, despite the pressures exerted on it from the inside and output by International Community (UNSC & ICC), Sudanese political forces , the neighboring countries, humanitarian organizations and the Darfur armed movements, as well as by its partner in the Government of National Unity, Sudan Peoples Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M) led by Gen. Silva Kiir, First Vice President of the Republic of Sudan and President of the South Sudan government. . Furthermore, the NCP regime has continued to use its evil divide and rule doctrine as a strategic effective survival tool.

Experts on Sudanese affairs also consider the support the NCP regime receives from the International Community especially from the US, the guardian of the CPA, is immensely contributing into the ongoing existence of it in spite of the many failures of its rein. In other words, the pressure exercised on the National Congress Party government as insufficient because the international community is betting on the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and the creation of conducive atmosphere for the 2011 Referendum on self determination in southern Sudan. Therefore, the international community is keen to keep the National Congress Party in power in spite of their full knowledge of the regime’s shortcomings of mismanagement of the country with corruption, commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity that led the International Criminal Court (ICC) to indict President Marshal Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir who remains a fugitive.

An evident example of the weakness and fragmentation of the Sudanese opposition is reflected in the positions of the elements in the so-called ’National Consensus forces’ that instead of demanding the immediate postponement of the April elections, they are now requesting in a submissive manner the NCP to delay the elections until November 2010. The National Congress Party hard-core security element, Kamal Obeid, State Minister for Information, said as early as February 24, 2008 that General Elections in the country can be run without the participation of Darfuris due to the political instability in the region and that Darfur crisis is not linked to the general elections. More recently, the arrogant Professor Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, deputy Chairperson of the Commission for the Sudanese elections, who has a bias against the opposition, has been quoted as saying that the elections will not be postponed, as demanded by opposition parties, will be held, with who attended, even if the opposition and all the political blocks are pulled out of the race! Dr. Nafie Ali Nafie, Vice-President of National Congress Party and known for his vulgar abusive language and contempt to others, has been reported as saying that the one who thinks that the elections are going to be postponed is a moron!

From the above reference the positions of the elements of the National Congress Party is crystal clear that they will conduct the elections in April 2010 whether the opposition likes or not. One would wonder whether the political forces be more apt to declare early for the boycott of these elections, which have been rigged in advance? That is the Sixty Four ($64) Question awaiting for an swift answer from the ’National Consensus forces’!

Dr. Mahmoud A. Suleiman is the Deputy Chairman of the General Congress for Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). He can be reached at [email protected]