Sudan’s “stolen verdict”
Even President Obasanjo, the defense witness turned “hostile”
By Trayo Ahmed Ali
(1) Get this first:
To start with, I am fascinated to bring this comment by a Sudanese blogger reflecting on the just ended racketeering election process. The comment begins with a question: “The NCP political mini-skirt is already short enough to cover the subject, why then it insists to tears off and walks around in the buff?” He goes to add “Every day General Albasheer confirms that he is the only stranger in Jerusalem. But insisting to maintain this political culture of public nudity which he introduced goes beyond every body’s ability to stand with”. Before he concludes with very sarcastic notes, the commentator draws our attention and reminds us about General’s state of affairs of “having one foot in the grave”, and that this situation is similar to the one of the deposed “African dictators” before they were swept away. He cleverly cites some selected intelligent popular political jargons of condemnatory nature invented by ordinary public to mock at the despot political systems. He says:
“Apartheid brings popular unrest, international sanctions, dislodges the minority from power and discards them to “political museum” …ask the South Africans. Communism brings war; fear and hunger, but it also throw presidents into fugitiveness…ask the Ethiopians. Religious demagoguism brings sudden downfall of regimes and cages the fundamentalists into political oblivion…ask the Egyptians. Clanism brings nepotism, anarchy, dismantles nations and creates perpetual statelessness …ask the Somalis. Genocide brings international Justice…ask the Liberians and Ivoirians. Offensive and provocative international behavior brings unexpected international retaliation; deadly blows and unavoidable humiliation…ask the Libyans. Rigging elections and steeling the verdict brings popular up-rising and abrupt beheadings of dictators…ask the Romanians”.
(2) The inside-out and the out-side-in of the System
While all the above “vices” are present part excellent in the body politics of the “Sudanow”, however, on more screening exercise, the Islamic Fundamentalist political body further harbors an extra and more severe “in-built” vices. A part from racism, segregationist nature, war mongering, impoverishments, intimidation, nepotism, tribalism, exclusionism, totalitarianism, genocideuring, and antagonistic international behavior, the inside-out of the system also exposes a huge political filth including religion jingoism; expansionism, Jihadism, interventionism, rape mania, sadism, separatism, international terrorism, piracy, mercenary, laundering, racketeering, thievery and political nudism.
Thus the NCP foregone election racketeering and rigging scam can better be looked at it from this political prism. The ideological regime over the years has created a political ecology of a unique soil texture that is so rotten and insalubrious. But the concoction is ideal enough for such a regime to incubate, germinate, nurture and grew itself. Rigging is an essential technique of surviving within this eco-system. It’s not only the elections but almost everything starting from marriage certificate, tribal affiliation; school admission, promotion and/ or demotion of military officers, news reporting, import and export licenses, political alliances, diplomatic management and all the way down to the elections are either rigged, forged, or fraudulent.
I find once again compelled to support my observations on this issue by the (blogger’s) hair-raising notes. I quote (Preventing the elections rigging under a totally rigged system of Islamist “Sudanow” is to say the least, like prohibiting alcohol drinking in “Champs-Elysees” Disco Bar in Paris or preventing Samba dance in the famous “Rio Scenarium” Night Club in Rio de Janeiro. He further added (Such an attempt is simply not possible. The NIF turned NCP regime has only one system of political “mode operandi” to survive, born out of a rigged system, lives on it and dies in it). Furthermore, he added (In “Sudanow” school kids are taught to learn how to become the “crookest” of all crooks, of all times and of all places.” He concludes by saying: “You cannot drag fish out of water and expect lives and grows. You should forget about that.”
(3) Panorama of the hard facts
To form a fair judgment it’s conventional to telescope the entire dichotomy of the “electioneering” panorama. That will include the NCP version, that of the opposition, the independent human right reports and that of the international community. But the undisputable hard facts on the ground should be the starting point.
The opposition has boycotted the entire process on protest ground. They painted the process as wholly “hoax” and went onto a campaign duped “ARTHAL” or aka “depart”. The central slogans of that campaign are:
“You devil go away from me. You killed my husband, go away from me. You orphaned my child, go away from me. You rapped my daughter, go away from me. You tortured me, go away from me. You amputated me, go away from me.You committed war crimes, go away from. You divided my country, go away from me. You blacked out my house, go away from me. You deprived my life, go away from me. Do not look at me, go away from me. You devil get a hell out of my face”.
Some other groups that have neither shown any independent nature nor displayed any credible records and popularly known as titular individuals or those NCP created “Pocket-to-Mouth-Parties” abbreviated as “PMP” or sometimes known as “Petty-Cash-Parties” “PCP” or sometimes as “Stomach Based Parties- SBP” joined the process together with the NCP.
Other hard facts include the presence of the AU pre-election assessment mission report that vehemently “discredited” the viability of any political environment conducive enough for any fair process, the Troika, the EU and Canada position that insisted on the necessity of putting the horse before the Cart by way of a genuine “National Dialogue” process that would stop the war and introduce political freedoms before ascending to any meaningful electioneering process to occur.
Further hard facts are that the process of the exercise itself clearly dominated by NCP single mobilization activities including inflammatory mosque preaching, soliciting witchcrafts, issuance of blasphemes against the activists, intimidation, abduction of political opponents, tear-gazing student protesters, plotting and labeling accusations against boycotters, arresting, imprisoning, censoring news, bringing Chinese hackers, inviting the AUs, the Arab Leagues, inventing and imposing mobile voting arrangements, double voting, trading internal accusations within the NCP and finger pointing at each other, yelling at and blaming electoral officials, extending extra times, giving more holidays, importing spine-doctors, massaging figures, counting and re-counting, doubting on the self designed voter registration list, accusing international community of inciting Sudanese to boycott..Etc.
Alas, but take it or leave it. That was NCP “Conducive Environment”.
(4) The “Stolen Verdict”
After leaving no stone unturned and chanting all the noisy “Halleluiah” and creating fear and intimidation with macho posturing hooligans patrolling streets, the bitter story for the NCP is that, as was preempted by President Obasanjo, only THIRTY FIVE (35) PERCENT of the registered voters turned out!! According to electoral Commission, chaired by an “Professor Emeritus”, its General AL-Basheer that won by pulling put clean “Ninety Four” percent while the remaining left-outs were distributed among the titular’s and PMPs, PCPs, SBPs. So for the NCP business remained as usual: Comic festivals were organized to “Hail the Conquered”. Officials went singing and chanting NCP Viva songs. The message remained unchanged, clear and loud: war, corruption, deception, suppression and oppression continua!
But the story is different on the other side. The Troikas, the EU, the Canadian, the Amnesty, the Human Right Watch are all saying the whole thing is sham and scam and does not represent the will of the Sudanese people.
The opposition is saying it’s not election, but a kind of a failed self-styled unilateral and one-man show “referendum”
(5) The defense witness turns “hostile” and exposes all
Most interesting is the position of President Olusegon Obasanjo (the AU Mission Chief Observer) whom the NCP brought him to cover up the “thievery”. He surprisingly turned to become what is known as “hostile witness”. Although phrased it in a diplomatic tact, it’s pretty clear that the report he presented and the testimony he gave underline the following facts:
1 – He said the number THIRTY FIVE PERCENT is low. In ordinary man’s terms that is not only low, but it’s “incredibly” low. That also means it’s shameful, disgraceful and deceitful. The President is damn right.
2 – He said he received several reports from international human rights groups and the AU Mission which all indicated to the point that, the environment was not conducive, and he, as a “chief witness” had verified and was confirmed true. So to put it in non-diplomatic terms it means, the whole thing is “an illegitimate exercise, within an illegitimate environment, with an illegitimate result”. But when you put in a more blunt way it hives meaning like “Zebra and donkey give birth to a hybrid Zonkey”.
3 – He said that the salient point is not about “the election does not reflect the will of the voters” but it’s about “the election does not reflect the will of the people”. That was a pretty self explanatory statement, clear and fair enough to be used as point of reference for any sound judgment.
4 – He also added that to improve the electoral environment, Sudan needs peace, freedoms and respected human rights. My comment here is that: Sudanese too said that so.
5 – Other important point that he made is that the way out for Sudan is a genuine National Dialogue to effect desired transformation preceded by peace and security. That is surely a perfect diplomatic statement could come from a veteran Politian like Obasanjo.
Indeed this is a piece of a diplomatic, legal and political judgment that could be told to an intransigent, fear and guilty gripped, power obsessed, lonely and ailing General who already pushed his country to a “point of death”.
All that being said by no other person than a “wise defense witness” who found himself in a political fixture that makes him turns into a “hostile witness” and turns the table up-side-down, one is inclined to ask the international community whether it will consider other options in dealing with the situation or continue entertaining the Old Monkey’s proverbial code of silence “See no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil”. Amen.
The author is the head of external relations of the Sudan Liberation Movement Minni Minawi (SLM-MM) Sudanese Revolutionary Front secretary of humanitarian affairs. He is reachable at [email protected]