Sudanese pragmatism ends age of darkness

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AGREEING to the geographic and historic fact, Sudan is the food basket of the Arab world.

However, this would have been an actual fact if the Sudanese had not fallen for the illusions of socialist republics, political games and revolution councils, which brought scourges and civil wars in their countries, and ultimately caused division of their countries into several regions in the fight for autonomy.

Given that going back to history is a necessity for the leadership and people, it is imperative to contemplate on the calamities that political arrogance brought to this great Arab country, especially at the beginning of the Mahdist state in 1885 when Caliph Abdullah Al-Ta’ashi assumed he was one of the messengers.

In the year 1887, the caliph sent three letters – one to the Ottoman emperor, another to the Khedivate of Egypt, and the third to Britain’s Queen Victoria. The responses from the first two were characterized by mockery, and they did not dignify the letters with written responses.

The third response came from Britain to the letter in which the caliph addressed Queen Victoria in the manner similar to how Prophet Suleiman (PBUH) addressed the Queen of Sheba, Balqis, giving her two options – to either choose peace by embracing religion of monotheism, or war, and that in case she chooses peace, the caliph will present her for marriage to his nephew Yunus, the son of Al-Dakim, if he accepted her.

Queen Victoria’s response was that she is on her way to Sudan. The Queen dispatched a large army that invaded Sudan and eliminated the Mahdist state, annexing Sudan to the Kingdom of Egypt until Cairo recognized the right of the Sudanese to self-determination in 1951. Four years later, the British and Egyptian forces withdrew their forces, and Sudan declared its independence.

Unfortunately, after the declaration of Sudan’s independence, the country witnessed a series of coups, which started with Ibrahim Abboud in 1958, then Sadiq Al-Mahdi in 1964, and Jaafar al-Nimeiri in 1969, then the declaration of South Sudan as an autonomous region in 1972, followed by the coup of Omar Al-Bashir in 1989.

Over the past six decades, Sudan has been plagued by corruption and the domination of power centers by the military. Instead of achieving development, they engaged in the exploitation of huge natural resources such as water, agricultural land, oil and mines.

The ruling was limited to plunder and exploitation of influence, while the country witnessed about five famines within half a century during which it lost more than two million people. The unemployment rate rose to about 20 percent. Political misadventures and war crimes committed in Darfur and other areas led to imposition of sanctions on those responsible in the Bashir regime. Also, Sudan was included in the international terrorism list.

Today, this state is entering a new phase, through the realistic policy that the current regime is working on after it realized that the way to rise begins with abandoning illusions and recognizing the Israeli superiority in several areas, especially in agricultural technology that invaded the world directly or indirectly, in addition to its excellence in the scientific field. All of this serves Sudan, which needs to get out of the cocoon of sanctions, poverty and famine.

The Sudanese army participated in many Arab wars that ended in defeat and further Israeli expansion, in light of the stubbornness in liberating Palestine, and in light of Arab impotence to recognize Israel as a realistic state, their inability to defeat it and to work on the principle of wise multiplicity that overcomes reckless courage.

There is no doubt that the fateful threats to the Arabs are not coming from Israel, but from Iran and Turkey. We have seen how the administration of the former US president Barack Obama sought to make the Arabian Gulf states Iranian protectorates. In return, Recep Tayyip Erdogan came out to us, seeking to restore an empire that had died forever.

All of this will have no place in the future for Israel, which is establishing normal relations with the Arab countries. It will not let either Iran or Turkey to continue bullying the Arabs and threatening their fate.

For this reason, the Sudanese, who looked with the eyes of the truth at the reality, began to pave their way to the future through peace, which should be the basis of Arab political philosophy, and for those who are still in the tunnels of darkness to come to light so that they do not find themselves outside history.

By Ahmed Al-Jarallah

Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times

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