Targeting the Central Bank

As I See 

Adel El-Baz

1

Central banks around the world are not usually targeted as the primary institutions responsible for managing the economy because, quite simply, they do not manage a country’s economy as a whole. Rather, they manage a specific and important aspect of it: monetary policy, including liquidity management, regulation of the banking system, maintaining monetary and financial stability, and managing reserves and the exchange rate in accordance with applicable laws and approved policies. Broader economic management, by contrast, is the responsibility of the government and its various economic institutions collectively. Yet the Central Bank of Sudan alone has become the target, while the country’s other economic institutions have not faced the same treatment.

The issue is not whether the central bank’s policies should be discussed or criticized; that is a legitimate right. The issue is when internal information is turned into exposed secrets before it is officially announced, becoming a tool to serve other parties. There is a profound difference between public criticism and leaking information, a distinction that should not be lost amid all the noise.

The Central Bank of Sudan once maintained absolute confidentiality regarding its operations and policies, but all that secrecy has now dissipated. In my view, the reason is that the Central Bank of Sudan has been afflicted by people trying to destroy everything from within, with no one paying attention to what they are doing. There is another category: disgruntled individuals who lost their positions, then went to cafés in Cairo and Turkey, gossiping about everything they know about the central bank—and things they do not know—while information is leaked from inside the bank and made public… And finally, one of them has become the great writer and critic of central bank policies!

2

The first category is not difficult to identify. All one needs to do is follow their public social media accounts. What amazes me is that these individuals appear in their own photographs wearing their militia uniforms and chanting the militia’s name. Imagine that these people are now sitting behind screens inside the Central Bank of Sudan, reading all its secrets and leaking them to those who need to know, both inside and outside the country!

Those who have an interest in this information are, unfortunately, former directors and former deputy directors. One of them left the position of Governor of the Central Bank of Sudan and joined the militia ranks, eventually becoming the central bank director for the Janjaweed in Nyala. His deputy accompanied him and now occupies a senior financial position among the Janjaweed’s fictitious positions in Nyala.

These individuals took with them all the secrets of the Central Bank of Sudan: the volume of gold, reserves, printed currency, and where it is printed. This made it easier for them to conspire, so they printed banknotes and flooded the market with them.

As for those wondering why the exchange rate is rising every day, part of this increase is attributable to the exposure the state has suffered at the hands of the Janjaweed whom the government employs and still retains within the corridors of the state as a whole, not merely within the Central Bank of Sudan. They carry out their silent crimes while hiding behind screens and office walls.

The dollar exchange rate in Nyala is 4,000 Sudanese pounds, while in Khartoum it has exceeded 8,000. This is not because Nyala has a larger economy or greater exports, or receives more revenues than Khartoum. Rather, it is because the Janjaweed, who looted the central bank’s gold and millions of dollars and took with them a currency-printing press containing trillions of pounds, are using all of this in their economic war against Sudan, backed by the open coffers of their sponsor.

Added to all of this is the information that flows to them every day from inside the Central Bank in Khartoum.

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The Central Bank has been afflicted by a former director who spends day and night gossiping in cafés in Cairo, leaking the bank’s information and writing articles for some writers. In doing so, he is engaging in a cowardly, ridiculous, and futile act.

It would be more honorable for him to write the nonsense he pours out himself, rather than passing it through the pens of certain writers and journalists. His language is recognizable, their language is familiar, their relationship with economics is well known, and some of them cannot even distinguish between the exchange rate and sewage!

Therefore, I call on this hidden director and writer to embrace the virtue of courage and step openly into the arena of public criticism without hesitation. It is open to everyone. Let him continue his public war against the institution in which he was raised professionally and present his views. If they contain anything useful or original, he may find people willing to benefit from them.

May God help the Central Bank of Sudan. Trojan horses overflowing with Janjaweed and their allies are besieging it from within, while gold, currency, and oil mafia gangs are besieging it from outside. The government knows. The security apparatus knows. Yet all of them remain silent, as though this destruction has nothing to do with them!

God prevails.