Big and Dangerous Sparks Threaten Sudan

By: Dr. Al-Shafie Khader Saeed

In our previous article, we discussed the phenomenon of proliferation and growth of initiatives, platforms, and blocs, which have the same features and similarities among Sudanese civil forces, and among the forces of the international and regional community concerned with the crisis and war in the country. We said that it is a negative phenomenon that deals with the event as if we are not in an atmosphere of war, and with inaction that reaches the point of crime, as we hear noise from it but do not see grinding, while the people of Sudan face destruction and killing.
We tried to explain this phenomenon among the civil forces, either by the spread of political selfishness and the predominance of private interests and irresponsibility among some of these forces, or the inability and lack of resourcefulness in confronting the complexities of reality and the inability to present approaches and practical solutions, or perhaps some of these blocs and initiatives are the creation of non-Sudanese and international or regional circles, and that is a major blow! As for the forces of the international and regional community concerned with the war crisis, we ruled out inability and lack of resourcefulness in explaining the phenomenon, but we said that it is difficult to reject the theory that some external parties may not want to stop the Sudan war quickly and want it to continue for some time, and we discussed this in detail in a previous article. Today we continue to talk about the phenomenon among civil forces, and we leave external forces for an upcoming article.
In 1989, Sudan completed its thirty-third year. It was a young “man” dreaming of a better future, when suddenly the Ingaz (Salvation) battalion attacked “him” to satisfy him for the next thirty years of his life with beating, punching, and killing, until not an inch of his body remained without being touched by a sword stab or a spear strike. The Ingaz regime tightened its grip on the country with the weapons of tyranny, oppression, corruption, and exploitation. The result was that fanaticism was nourished in the stagnant swamp of totalitarianism, and the stone of tyranny and state violence set in motion other circles of violence, increasing the imbalance in the already dysfunctional equation, which the December 2018 revolution came to correct. However, what is truly terrifying is that our civilian and military political elites continued to drink cups of impotence and weak resolve, while the alarm bell continued to ring loudly throughout the country, until the incident occurred. Sudan today is in dire need of a broad and cohesive front against the war and in order to restore the course of the revolution and save the country, but it is inconceivable for its political elite to remain fragmented and divided, which will not only fail to build this front, but will deepen the crisis and failure.
Unfortunately, this situation was repeated throughout the experiences of transitional periods in Sudan, and played a major role to plague it, just as it remained fuel for the evil circle in the country. The Sudanese elites are always accused of not benefiting or learning from the mistakes they commit, and even repeating them, and the continued fragmentation and current division confirm these accusations. They are also accused of blindness because they do not see the looks of suspicion and mistrust that the street is giving them, just as they do not see those living on the other side, who are more organized and cohesive, and whose interests were struck by the revolution, lying in wait and eager to exploit any opportunity to liquidate the revolution and restore their lost paradise. Perhaps we all realize that the illusion that is saturated with the disease of arrogance and the refusal to acknowledge mistakes, and finds it difficult to attribute mistakes and blame others, has caused the collapse of major empires throughout history, while only the system that admits its mistakes is able to live and renew itself and has the ability to self-reform.
The numerous civic initiatives and blocs that proliferate on a daily basis have similar approaches to the point of being identical, with formal differences in language and formulations, and some of them in their introductions and historical rhetoric. They all call for stopping the war, for a civilian transitional government in which the military does not participate, for the dismantling of the Ingaz Regime, for reviewing and evaluating the peace agreements, for justice and transitional justice, for reforming the justice system, for reforming the security system, dissolving the armed militias, and building a single professional army, reforming the civil service, reforming local government, and restoring the structuring the banking system and saving the economy, with a balanced foreign policy, focusing on youth and women’s issues, and with a founding constitutional process, all leading to free and fair elections, etc. What is absent from all of these approaches is the tangible movement to embody them as a linking thread between all the blocs and initiatives to organize in a unified or coordination platform, because otherwise, all of these approaches will remain as if they were merely a disavowal of blame or a recording of a position for history.
These blocs and initiatives may need three main steps to achieve unity/coordination, the first of which is unifying the common approaches and conducting a transparent discussion to reduce the differences between them. The second is to extract a vision and a road map, with details and not just generalities and slogans, for the content of a possible solution to stop the war. Third, agreeing on an organizational platform that includes these blocs and initiatives, whether united or coordinated, to be based on respect for the political, organizational and intellectual independence of all its parties. These parties should immerse themselves in ideological controversy, or in the nonsense of betraying and insulting the other ally, and their activity should not be limited to above-ground, elite work, isolated from broad popular participation, and it responds positively to what these popular grassroots propose.
Big and dangerous sparks threaten our country, but we are doubling their danger through division, fragmentation, and zero-sum equations.
Frankly, any effort made today in favor of a group or any affiliation other than the homeland is an immoral effort and traitorous to the homeland. Hence, our call to break all the barriers erected between these blocs and initiatives. We should not distort the concept of alliance or coordination with talk about weights and historical weight. We should not use the “veto” because of previous positions. We should not turn differences of opinion into fabricated accusations. We should turn a blind eye to mistakes. We should not enable the intelligence services and the political vulgar among us, we should think and act with the aim of defeating the war and preventing the nation against falling. We extend our hands to everyone who agrees with our opinion, regardless of his current position, or where he comes from, as long as his mind is wide open to major revisions, and as long as the compass of his conscience guides him against war and the burning of the homeland.
Sudanese writer
Al-Quds of London
March 31,2024