For a broad national democratic front to restore democracy and defend the rights of minorities and nationalities
D. Jaafar Karar Ahmed
- Quoted from Sudanile -
The National Islamic Front regime now ruling in Khartoum truly represents the culmination of the view of the old Sudanese forces on the issue of governance in Sudan, its nature, and its mechanisms. It is a regime, according to its declared (civilizational) project and practiced on the ground for more than 14 years, an ethnic-religious totalitarian regime that seeks to Arabize all of Sudan and Islamize it from Nimula to Halfa by the sword. Unfortunately, this program is an old program that has expressed itself more than once in the modern history of Sudan, although in most cases the same forces that rule Sudan now stand behind it. President Abboud’s regime tried to be guided by this program in its solution to the problem of the south, and to satisfy the nationalist and Arab elements in his regime, it stole from one of our ancient nationalities (the Nuba in the north) their history and their land, in the largest process of displacement witnessed in Africa, despising their culture and their right to remain in a land where they had existed for thousands of years. Then the main parties of Sudan - the Democratic Unionist Party and the Umma Party - came, with the push of the same forces that govern Khartoum today, with the draft Islamic constitution in 1967, which they paved the way for by dissolving the Sudanese Communist Party and expelling its representatives from parliament in 1965. That draft was considered at the time to be the most dangerous separatist document pushed by the northern political forces in the Sudanese political arena.
Then the same force that rules Sudan today returned to push Jaafar Nimeiry to implement the same program and appoint him as imam of the Muslims, and to announce the infamous laws of September 1983, which despised the ethnic and religious composition of our country and used a terrible tool of oppression that first affected the Muslims themselves. It also claimed the lives of enlightened Islamic thinkers, such as Mahmoud Muhammad Taha, and in its name hundreds of citizens, Muslims and Christians, were thrown into prisons. Then this project reached its peak with the arrival of the National Islamic Front to power to wage a fierce war against the various nationalities of Sudan and to bring the program to its logical end, which is a war of ethnic extermination of non-Arabs and Muslims in Sudan in Darfur, southern Sudan, eastern Sudan, and even northern Sudan, when their oppressors began at the beginning of their miserable era by trying to liquidate the Christian and non-Christian Nubian heritage.
It is natural to note that this project always emerges in the atmosphere of totalitarian regimes or after the confiscation of democracy within representative democratic institutions. It is therefore a project synonymous with dictatorship. It goes without saying that this project is largely responsible for the general backwardness in the country, the cracks in the national building wall, and the confiscation of freedoms and democracy.
In fact, our people were able to undermine this program several times, the last of which was the fall of Jaafar Numeiri only two years after he adopted this vision. Our people must now prepare to liquidate this program by overthrowing this regime and not allowing it to live longer than it did, as the crimes committed in Darfur alone are sufficient to bring this regime and its pillars to the courts.
In order for this regime to be overthrown as quickly as possible and for democracy to be restored, defended and used to rebuild the multi-national and multi-religious Sudanese state, build sound sustainable development for all the country, and block the way for advocates of an ethnic religious state in the future, taking into account that the battle does not end with the overthrow of the National Islamic Front regime, we call for the establishment of a broad national democratic front to restore democracy and defend the rights of minorities and nationalities.
As we call for such a comprehensive organization, we bear in mind that the conflict that has been taking place in our country for more than fifty years has produced two basic facts:
1. That any solution to the issue of minorities, nationalities, and marginalized regions will only be possible in a truly democratic climate that allows for a peaceful exchange of power through the mechanisms of free election, and the mechanisms of public oversight that follow the democratic system, and the human rights referred to and included in international covenants... etc.?
2. Any movement or faction that believes that it can extract gains for its region, territory, or nationality from the clutches of a totalitarian regime has made a major strategic mistake, and the totalitarian regime that may make concessions for circumstantial reasons will quickly return to pounce on its pledges when conditions remain or its state of weakness ends. (The experience of the Addis Ababa Agreement in Sudan, which was later annulled by Jaafar Numeiri, and the experience of the national rights of the Soviet nationalities, which was defended by Vladimir Lenin and then attacked by Stalin after the departure of Vladimir Lenin in 1924).
3. In the absence of the rise of an enlightened democratic movement in the areas of minorities, nationalities and marginalized areas, led by its sons and daughters, working to liberate their people from the clutches of the forces of the old Sudan and working to mobilize them for the goals of the secular New Sudan project based on political, ethnic and religious pluralism and shared sustainable development, the victory of the issue of the rights of minorities and nationalities is doubtful.
The mobilization and organization of the peoples of the South, East, West and North towards effective participation in the governance of Sudan and its self-determination is a major and even decisive factor in the victory of the cause of the new Sudan, a democratic, decentralized Sudan, in which everyone participates on equal terms and respect.
In fact, the forces of the old Sudan continued to use in their conflict with the democratic forces in the north and south the weight of the margin, taking advantage of the economic and political backwardness that these forces maintained and the weakness of the leadership of these regions, in their conflict with the forces of enlightenment in the north, for example but not limited to (most of the representatives coming from South Sudan, Darfur, the Nuba Mountains and eastern Sudan voted in favor of the decision to dissolve the Sudanese Communist Party in Parliament in 1965).
This was, in fact, the beginning of the actual collapse of the second democracy. This is just as most of the representatives of Darfur and Eastern Sudan voted in favor of the Islamic Constitution in 1967. In this way, the margin played a role through its leaders against its interests in the first place and against the forces of enlightenment that were aware from an early stage of the danger of the trend of Islamization, Arabization and totalitarianism to the national structure in general. Therefore, liberating the peoples of Sudan and its nationalities from the influence of the forces of ancient Sudan that adhered to the comprehensive program of Islam and Arabization, and organizing them into democratic organizations that link their fate with the enlightened democratic movement in all parts of Sudan, will be an important addition and a major guarantee for preserving democracy and the unity of the country based on federalism, or any form of decentralization, and respect for the economic and cultural rights of all the nationalities and peoples of Sudan. Of course, the forces and democracy in the north will be the first to benefit from the rise of such new forces.
The immediate tasks of the National Democratic Front to restore democracy and defend the rights of minorities and nationalities:
* Good military and political coordination on all fronts, exposing the regime’s policy, and confronting it with all available means.
* Organizing the masses in liberated areas or in which movements have influence and training them in military and political action as well.
* Coordination on the international and regional scene until the overthrow and demise of the regime and the restoration of democracy.
The tasks of the National Democratic Front after the fall of the regime
* Exchanging organizational experiences and establishing parties, youth organizations, feminist organizations, and civil society organizations.
* Study the economic and social conditions of these regions and provide programs and solutions to the problems of these regions stemming from a good knowledge of the economic, political, cultural and social terrain of the land.
* Defending federal or decentralized forms of government.
* Convincing the masses of these minorities and nationalities of the unitary democratic option. And rally around its local national leaders who believe in the democratic, diverse and secular New Sudan programme.
* Establishing a strong parliamentary bloc within the democratic parliament that cooperates with the national democratic forces inside and outside parliament to defend democracy and secularism of the state.
* The National Democratic Front should work to reassure the democratic forces in the north, its main ally, that the presence of the Democratic Front is not an opponent to the country’s unity, but rather a basic guarantee of this unity and support for the forces of enlightenment in their historical struggle against the forces of religious totalitarianism and isolationism in order to build a unified, secular, democratic Sudan.
* This front should educate its masses and emphasize, through its literature and in its political discourse, democracy as a method and strategic line, the peaceful exchange of power as its main and consistent option, and unity based on respect and recognition of the other and sustainable development as a path.
* To strengthen the culture of opinion and other opinion in its provinces and regions and build a strong network of civil society organizations and human rights committees in its cities and villages, because an organized civil society that is aware of its rights is in itself an important guarantee of not encroaching on democracy.
This is our vision of the form and composition of this front, and it is up for discussion and of course subject to development and modification. We meant by it to move from the circle of theorizing to the circle of organization to gather the forces of the new Sudan to rise up to defend its right to life, and because we also realize that the forces of the old Sudan will soon reorganize themselves in their old forms, or in new, old forms, and that these forces will never give up in their attempt to tear this country apart and immerse it in the darkness of totalitarianism and internal fighting.
It is time for this regime to go, and it is time for Sudan's new and good forces to rise up...and rise up now.