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Revolution or Revulsion?
29/09/2013
Security forces in several cities in The Sudan used batons, tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition to thwart peaceful demonstrators from threatening Al-Bashir’s government thereby killing scores and injuring hundreds of citizens.
The protests were ignited Sunday by the government’s decision to lift generous fuel subsidies almost doubling gas prices overnight. The government was bringing its budget under control in an economic crisis that was stirring widespread discontent.
The Sudan lost three-quarters of its oil reserves when South Sudan became independent in 2011.
The demonstrations, which began in Wad Madani, quickly spread to the capital Khartoum and other cities across the nation therefore compelling the government to respond with the use of force to quell further escalations and possibly morphing into an Arab Spring-style uprising against Al-Bashir’s 24-year rule.
Besides killing and maiming demonstrators, the government ordered the arrest of political leaders and activists, barred perceived hostile newspapers from publishing, shut down Al-Arabia satellite television station, prohibited photographers and cameramen from covering protestors, and blocked the Internet and Facebook from showing videos of demonstrations.
Thus far, Amnesty International, the African Center for Justice and Peace Studies and other international bodies softly condemned the “shoot to kill” policy against this week’s demonstrators.
Likewise, Sudanese political figures and opposition groups stopped short of any action other than voicing condemnations of the destruction of life and property and a call to the end of Al-Bashir’s Islamist rule of the nation.
National opposition groups and the international community must rise to the task of putting an end to the reign of the National Congress Party (NCP) which has governed The Sudan since it was founded out of the National Islamic Front (NIF) in the mid 1990’s.
All national opposition groups, from Darfur to the East and from the North to the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile as well as any other activist organizations, must enter immediately into negotiations for the sole purpose of creating an alternative government. This government should be ready to function as a caretaker administration and to prepare the nation for democratically fair and truly representative elections.
Meanwhile, commencing immediately, opposition leaders should start searching for genuinely nationalistic leaders within the rank and file of the military and its officers to assume the responsibility of ascertaining the immediate stoppage of the use of force against peaceful demonstrators.
The officers might also be trusted with imposing restrictions and dictating limitations on Al-Bashir’s government on the use of force against the people’s will to exercise their right to peacefully petition the government.
Maintaining Al-Bashir’s government for a short time, between three to six months, will provide opposition leaders ample time and political space to plan and organize the said caretaker government.
Regional and international governmental organizations including the African Union, the Arab League, the United Nations Security Council and the European Union as well as friendly governments can all play vital roles in supporting the new Sudanese government. The assistance can be financial, political pressure on Al-Bashir’s government, or the capacity building of the new administration. The support will create a highly desired political space for the new administration to stabilize over a short period of time.
Sudanese opposition leaders have two examples to emulate in Egypt and Tunisia. Both countries had Islamist governments that used democratic means to destroy democracy. In Egypt, a couple of months ago the military assumed responsibility of the country to save demonstrators from being destroyed by Mursi’s security forces, while in Tunisia opposition leaders put perpetual pressure on the Islamist government who agreed to cede sole control of the country and share power with a coalition of opposition groups.
Notwithstanding, peaceful demonstrations must be allowed to continue without fear of death or injury.
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