Sudan’s Dialogue: Sorry pal! we may be barking up the wrong tree
By Ghazi Salahuddin Atabani*
President Omer Hassan al-Bashir made extravagant promises while addressing the nation on January 2014. His speech came to be known as the ” leap” speech. He overused the newfangled word “leap”, denoting reform, change, or transformation.
Despite the enigma shrouding the speech, making it open to different interpretations, we all embraced the message calling it constructive and timely. What happened in the next twenty months was an anticlimax.
A unique opportunity presented itself on 5 September 2014, when delegates from government parties, opposition, and armed groups signed an accord in Addis Ababa, under the auspices of the African Union High Level Implementation Panel AUHIP. The ball was in the penalty area waiting for the striker, but the latter had other plans.
Twenty months after the enigmatic speech, the situation is worse. The four crises besetting the nation -the war, economy, foreign relations, constitutional reform- show no sign of abating. The government has decided to throw its own National Congress Party (NCP). Following its trademark technique, it decided to have its own national dialogue. The idea is to maintain intellectual discipline and keep control over the proceedings.
The talk of the town is of Kenana-2. In Kenana-1, not less than 600 dignitaries from all walks of life gathered at the posh resort of Kenana Sugar Factory to discuss Darfur. No one cared to send a decent invitation to the armed groups to attend. The result: an impressive gathering and a comprehensive final report. In the next few days hardly anyone remembered a thing of what the Kenana Conference produced, least of all the armed groups who were conspicuous by their absence. It was a classic case of the dog barking up the wrong tree.
Dr. Ghazi Salahuddin Atabani, is the chairman of the opposition Reform Now Movement (RNM)