Hamdok… The False Wise Man..!

Diaa El-Din Bilal

To tell you the truth, I was one of the optimists when Dr. Abdullah Hamdok first took office as Prime Minister of the transitional period.

I wrote repeatedly during that time, and even before it, about the country’s urgent need for an economic expert who is not burdened with political agendas, someone who would deal with us using numbers rather than slogans, and address minds, not emotions. I said back then:

We urgently need to redefine politics and change the way we work in it, so that politics becomes the art of competing in serving the people and solving their problems through ministers who are competent, who offer solutions and do not invest in crises, nor plant landmines when they leave.

Ministers who light up roads and do not just curse the darkness.

So that we can ensure the continued existence of our country on the map, cohesive and united.

We can then differ and compete on solid ground, not on quicksand that swallows the victor as well as the defeated.

But it quickly became clear to everyone — except for the deceived and naïve — that most of Dr. Hamdok’s decisions were wrong, lacking political sense and social awareness.

He did not amaze us with a new idea, nor did he impress us with a creative vision. His political vocabulary was limited, only including classical clichés and shallow ideas.

He was in one valley, and his political base was in another.

The situation became even more complicated during that period with the transformation of one political base into multiple, conflicting factions, as described by his former Minister of Finance, Dr. Ibrahim El-Badawi, in statements at the time.

I lowered my expectations and said that Dr. Abdullah Hamdok was nothing more than a respectful and polite man, full of good intentions for his country.

There was nothing in his speech to irritate his listeners, nor in his tongue to harm his opponents. He was pure at heart, refined in speech, but incapable of achieving anything.

However, after he recently became a prisoner to a fictional position chosen for him by the sponsor financing the war on Sudan, and became the head of suspiciously-funded and agenda-driven entities, I had to lower that assumption even further.

For me, especially after his recent speech, Abdullah Hamdok is no longer anything but a symbol of servitude and mercenary work, profiting from the people’s issues, trading in the blood of his children at the tables of the foreign powers.

He does this with a soft language and deceptive facial expressions, hiding poison in sweetness, and with light, cunning fingers that distort the facts and tarnish just causes.

The most dangerous type of betrayal is the one draped in the cloak of wisdom, practiced with the tools of soft deception, and hidden behind masks of false purity.

The mask has completely fallen, and Hamdok’s voice no longer represents the people’s aspirations… it has become a faint echo of the desires of the financiers, a glass façade for projects that have nothing to do with a nation being slaughtered from vein to vein.

He wants to bring back the defeated militias to the forefront, making them a part of our future after they destroyed the present and sought to break down all the moral and material foundations of the past.