Sudan, The Facistic Power Demonisteration of a Failed State

7/31/2019 Sudan, The Facistic Power Demonisteration of a Failed State

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ISSN. 2239-7949April 2012ITPCM International Commentary

by Amgad Fareid Eltayeb

SUDAN: POWER

DEMONSTRATIONSOF A FAILED STATETHE GOVERNMENT OF SUDAN USES DIFFERENT KINDS OF STRATEGIES ANDTOOLS TO STAY IN POWER. SOME OF THESE TOOLS LACK LEGITIMACY, SOMEOTHERS ARE CORRUPT, IN THE END, THEY ALL REVEAL A VERY CRUDE

FORM OF FASCISM.

Sudanese PhD researcher in Life ScienceLiverpool School of Tropical Medicine

based in Khartoum

Abyei citizens leave en masse, by Tim Freccia/Enough Project, CC www.ickr.com


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ISSN. 2239-7949July 2012ITPCM International Commentary

The term failed state is sometimesloosely dened in political literature.Formal theorists of accused regimestend to defend their systems by sayingthat this term lacks concrete denitionand is oen used as a tool of negativepropaganda rather than realisticallydescribing state or regime status. Inthe case of Sudan, we have all the rea-sons to believe that this is not the case.In classical political literature, MaxWeber dened the state as the entitycapable of maintaining the monop-oly on the legitimate use of physicalforce. If this is not the case the statesstatehood is in doubt, thus becominga failed state (Max Weber, 1922). TheDarfur conict which is approachinga decade now, and the recent are upof military clashes in Blue Nile, Nuba

Mountains, and South Kordofanclearly demonstrates that the currentruling regime in Sudan is not able tomaintain this essential condition.

In Darfur, the International CriminalCourt is prosecuting several state of-cials including the head of state -President Omer Al Bashir - and thereis a further list of 51 ocers underICC investigation according to a for-mal request from the UN (SudanT-

ribune 2006). This prosecution wascarried out because of the massivecrimes commied in Darfur, not onlyby the government supported proxyforce - known as Janjaweed - but alsoby the regular army troops. Recently,also the Sudanese Minister of DefenceAbdel Raheem Muhammad Husseinwas added to the list. The ocial ICCstatement accused him of 41 crimesagainst humanity and war crimes in-cluding persecution, torture, as wellas murder and rape, occured dur-

ing 2003 -2004 (ICC, 2012). Husseinwas Sudans Minister of Interior andPresident Representative for Darfurat that time. This - and similar otherwarrants including the one againstPresident Bashir himself - reect theactual deep involvement of the stateapparatus in using immoral physicalpower in Darfur in the last decade.In other recent conicts in Sudan, theillegitimate use of physical power is

even more obvious. President Bashirtook advantage of the instability andmilitary ghting which took place inthe aermath of the dubious SouthKordofan elections, whose two can-didates were Ahmed Haroun (an-other ocial wanted by the ICC) andAbdelaziz AlHilu (SPLM-N candi-date); there were also aempts to en-force immediate disarmament on theSPLA1 in May 2011, dismiss an electedgovernor of another state (Blue Nilestate) and appoint an army generalas ruler of the state. On 3rd September2011, Bashir declared a state of emer-gency in the Blue Nile State and dis-missed its governor, Malik Agar, whowas elected in April 2011, appointingMajor General Yahya Mohamed Khairas military ruler of the state. This

was accompanied by mass arrests ofSPLM/N members, the irrational de-struction of state infrastructure (in-cluding the state cultural centre) andthe are up of military clashes in thestate, which had not witnessed ght-ing until this time. This act was op-posing the constitution itself and cannever be described as legitimate norhave anything to do with political cor-rectness. Legitimacy of the physicalpower used by the national govern-

ment in these occasions is of coursequestionable.

A recent Failed-States Index devel-oped by the Washington based Fund

for Peace Research Centre, in collabo-ration with Foreign Policy magazine,ranked Sudan as the third failed statein the world for 2011. There were nosigns of signicant improvement inthe ranking of Sudan as it was thenumber one failed state in both 2006and 2007 (Kristen Blandford, 2011).

The index was created in 2005 and itencounters 12 dierent social, eco-nomic, and political indicators for theevaluation of sovereign states1 (Fundfor Peace, 2012).

Despite all this, the regime is still ableto impose its popular control over thesociety. It is using all the elements ofGramscis cultural hegemony theoryto maintain its power and its populistface. Gramsci hypothesized that a cul-

turally diverse society (as is the casein Sudan) can be dominated - ruled -by one social class, whose dominanceis achieved by manipulating the so-cial culture (beliefs, explanations,perceptions, values, morals) so that its

ruling-class worldview is imposed asthe social norm (Alan Bullock, 1999).The Islamic front and its successor,the National Congress Party - whichconducted the 1989 military coupthat brought the current regime topower - do actually represent a socialclass. This class is mainly composedof educated villagers who migratedto towns and were integrated into thehigher middle class of the society asprofessionals and merchants. Theyaained strong economic power dur-ing the nal years of Sudans seconddictatorship (the 1969 1985 Nemeri

government), when they formed ashaky political alliance with the rul-ing regime, helping them to succeedin their coup against the third democ-racy (1985 1989) and seize power in1989.The regime and its political allies con-tinue to describe their ideology as the

only universal, natural, and desiredway to rule Sudan. President Bashirannounced publicly that aer theSouth secedes he would change theconstitution, introduce Islamic laws(Shariaa Laws) containing no impuri-ties and adopt Arabic as the only o-cial language of the state (BBC, 2010).On the same day, all mobile phonenetworks companies sent a text mes-sage to every phone in Sudan statingthat 96% of Sudanese were Muslimand 95% of them had Arab origins. It

was clear that the government decid-ed to adopt the Arab-Islamic notion asthe norm for Sudan.

It is a political party headed by Al-

tayeb Mustafa, president Bashirsuncle, who was once (and for a longperiod of time) a federal ministerin Bashir government. The plat-form uses its newspaper Alintibaha,which stands for alertness in Arabic,

A recent Failed-States Indexdeveloped by the Washington basedFund for Peace Research Centre [...]ranked Sudan as the third failedstate in the world for 2011

The Islamic front and its successor,the National Congress Party [...] doactually reepresent a social class[...] mainly composed of educated

villagers who migrated to towns

all mobile phone networkscompanies sent a text message toevery phone in Sudan stating that96% of Sudanese were Muslim and95% of them had Arab origins


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to spread severe racism and hatred.Terms such as slaves, indels, etc, arecommonly used in this newspaper. Iteven describes womens rights andpolitical activists using socially de-rogatory terms such as prostitutes.Although there is very strong statepress censorship in Sudan, this news-paper is subject to restrictions andits publications are never questioned.This creates an increasing belief thatthe stance of this newspaper and itsplatform are actually representingthe government and its ruling party.Aiming for a larger ostensible eect,the newspaper describes itself in its

slogan as the voice of the silent major-ity. On the other hand, the newspaperoers biased justications for govern-mental actions.

Cultural hegemony serves the reali-zation of another element of the to-talitarian state power: it makes themajority of people quietly accept theuse of brutal force against dissidentminorities. The regime tends to de-scribe any social or political conict asa bale between good and evil, major-ity versus minority, in order to createa popular fear among the masses. Thesocial and economical elements char-acterizing the historical conict inthe south were simplied and trans-formed into a mere bale between theArab Muslims in the north and the in-

dels in the South. Darfur is describedas an Arab African conict, and, assuch, ignores all the pending econom-ic and resource-related disagreementsbetween farmers and shepherds. Even

the struggle for civil rights is trans-formed into religious controversybetween Muslims and secular society.In addition, these strategies - throughthe strong state monopoly of the me-dia - continue to have the support ofthe people.The case of the Sudanese regime re-ally represents a genuine reection of

Trotskys statement about the fascistsystems ability to control the countrywhen the police and parliament fail toguarantee stability to the community(Leon Trotsky, 1932). The economiccrash which followed the independ-ence of the oil-rich South provokedmultiple military conicts and nation-wide popular riots. Once again fascistmeasures seem to have been the onlyway for the Sudanese regime to main-tain its political domination. The realfascist face of the Sudanese govern-ment has been disclosed. This judge-ment is also conrmed by the workof Lawrence Bri, which studied thefascist regimes of Hitler (Germany),Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain),Suharto (Indonesia), and Pinochet(Chile). Bri describes 14 identifying

characteristics of fascism (LawrenceBri, 2003). These characteristicsshape the picture of the state in Sudantoday:

Powerful and Continuing National-ism: even in response to internal ten-sions regarding economic and civicrights issues, Sudanese ocials tend

Cultural hegemony serves therealization of another key elementof the totalitarian state: it makes the

majority of people quietly accept theuse of brutal force against dissidentminorities

Destruction in Tajalei, by Tim Freccia/Enough Project, CC www.ickr.com


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to aribute such diculties to inter-national collusion against Sudan.

Disdain for the Recognition of Hu-man Rights: detention, torture, beat-ings, sleep deprivation, electric shock,and other forms of physical and men-tal abuse, are usual practices of theSudanese security agencies. Securityocials were also implicated in sexu-al violence and harassment of femaleactivists, including the alleged brutalrape in mid-February of Saya Ishaq,a youth activist who was forced to eethe country aer speaking out againsther ordeal (Human Right Watch2012). Not to mention the systematicpractice of rape carried out by thepro-government militias in Darfur.

This also reects another characteris-

tic, that is to say the Obsession withNational Security. Members of theNISS, regardless of their rank, enjoyfull legal immunity against all laws

requiring NISS approval to proceed.Needless to say, such approval hadnever taken place despite the manycases raised against the police by thelegal system.

Identication of Enemies/Scape-goats as a Unifying Cause: The Suda-nese government always tries to iden-tify its enemy as a public threat for thecommunity, by using racial, ethnic, orreligious labelling.

Supremacy of the Military: Despitethe acute economic crisis in Sudan,over 77% of the state budget is dedi-cated to military expenditures, whileless than 4% is spent on health andeducation. This was true in the past,even at the time of the CPA imple-mentation. Every year the parliamentapproves a budget having these per-centages.

Rampant Sexism: many of the cur-

rent Sudanese laws are highly sexistand some of them are designed es-pecially against women. The PublicOrder Act gives police ocers con-siderable power in the interpretation

and implementation of the articles ofthe law (like indecent dressing which isonly directed towards women). As aresult, court sentences providing forpunishments such as lashing are fre-quent against women. Article 152 ofSudans 1991 Penal Code states thatwhoever ... wears an obscene outt... shall be punished with oggingwhich may not exceed 40 lashes orwith a ne, or with both.

Controlled Mass Media: Sudaneseauthorities have a long history of clos-ing newspapers and silencing journal-ists. Continuous press censorship istaking place and prolonged court cas-es against journalists are a commonpractice. For example, in May 2012

state security agents had preventeddistribution of the Almidan newspa-per - aliated to the Sudanese Com-munist party - 13 times, while manyprominent journalists face criminalcharges for commenting on politicalevents. Journalists are also arrestedby the National Intelligence and Se-curity Services laws which give theright to arrest for a period of 40 dayswithout raising charges. The NISShas a list of policy provisions which

are changeable and ungoverned bylaw or judicial order. For example, itdemands newspapers to abstain fromcovering the International CriminalCourt, government corruption, hu-man rights violations, Darfur, thewar in South Kordofan and Blue Nile,armed movements, and many othertopics.

Religion and Government are Inter-twined: the government tends to useIslam, which is the predominant reli-

gion in the country, as a tool to ma-nipulate public opinion. The SudanCouncil of Religious Scholars oenissues Islamic judgements (fatwas)in political issues that are of publicconcern and support the governmentstance.

Corporate Power is Protected: largeindustries and businesses in Sudanbelong to government ocials. Wide-spread corruption also plays a role,

as most of the ocials run their ownprivate businesses. For example, theKhartoum Minister of Health is theowner of the 2 largest private hos-pitals in the country, along with many

other private health care investments.

Labor Power is suppressed: the rstorder of this regime when it came topower was to dissolve all the electedtrade unions. Any labour strike istreated with extreme violence by theNISS. The 2010 Doctors strike causedthe immediate detention of their tradeunion leader and the public beating ofdoctors in the streets.

Disdain for Intellectuals and theArts: It is not uncommon for pro-fessors and other experts to be cen-sored or even arrested. Professor M.Zein al-Abidin Dean of the Collegeof Higher Education at the Zaem AlAzhari University was detained for

almost 2 weeks during February 2012without charges being raised, for hav-ing commented on Bashirs tv speechon a newspaper. The newspaper wasclosed for the same reason. In theearly 1990s Professor Farouk Moh Ib-rahim was arrested and severely tor-tured for teaching Darwins theory ofevolution.

Obsession with Crime and Punish-ment: the power of the Sudanese po-lice is almost limitless. In March 2012,Awadia Ajabna, a young woman liv-ing in Khartoum was shot dead bya Public Order Police ocer during

a scue, aer she had accused herbrother of being drunk. Althoughmany were enraged by this, therewere no consequences for the ocer,at least not in public.

Rampant Cronyism and Corruption:since 2004 Transparency International(TI) has ranked Sudan among the vemost corrupted countries in the worldaccording the Corruption PerceptionsIndex.

Fraudulent Elections: the regimetends to repeatedly manipulate theresults of elections. In the previouspresidential elections of 2010, ma-

Despite the acute economic crisisin Sudan, over 77% of the statebudget is dedicated to militaryexpenditures, while less than 4% isspent on health and education

in May 2012 state security agentshad prevented distribution of the

Almidannewspaper - afliated tothe Sudanese Communist party- 13 times, while many prominent

journalists face criminal charges forcommenting on political events


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jor frauds were highlighted. Videosshowing election ocials stung bal-lot boxes were recorded (BCC, 2010).

This cannot continue forever. Suda-nese government acrobatics in man-aging peoples lives in Sudan willnot succeed as people started to re-sist it long time and the resistance isspreading day by day. Such resistancecontinues and shall overcome at lastsince Sudanese people are ghtingand they believe that they are not de-

feated while they are continue to ghtthe injustice and fascistic measures ofthe ruling regime.

References:

Alan Bullock; Trombley, Stephen,

The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern

Thought Third Edition, 1999.

Antonio Gramsci, David For-

gacs, Eric J. Hobsbawm, The Antonio

Gramsci Reader: Selected Writings 1916-

1935. 2000

BBC, Sharia law to be tightened

if Sudan splits, 2010. (hp://www.bbc.

co.uk/news/world-africa-12033185)

ICC, The ICC issues a warrant of

arrest for the Sudanese Minister Abdel Ra-

heem Muhammad Hussein,2012 (hp://

www.icc-cpi.int/NR/exeres/C41F9D16-

D6A2-48FF-9A01-5AD2D96DF7B4.htm)

Kristen Blandford, J. J. Messner,

Sudan country prole, The Fund for Peace

Publication FFP : CCPPR11SD (Version

10U), October 2011 (hp://www.fundfor-

peace.org/global/states/ccppr11sd-coun-tryprole-sudan-10u.pdf)

Lawrence Bri , Fascism Any-

one?, Free Inquiry, Spring 2003, page 20

Leon Trotsky, What Next? Vital

Question for the German Proletariat, 1932

Max Weber, Economy and Soci-

ety, 1922.

SudanTribune, ICC: No Suda-

nese ocial immune from Prosecution,

Dec 18, 2006 (hp://www.sudantrib-

une.com/ICC-No-Sudanese-official-im-

mune,19321)

The fund for peace, The Failed

States Index: Frequently Asked Ques-

tions, retrieved June 2012 (hp://www.

fundforpeace.org/global/?q=fsi-faq)

Human Rights Watch, World Re-

port 2012: Sudan, (hp://www.hrw.org/

world-report-2012/world-report-2012-su-

dan)

BBC, Sudan opposition claims

video shows election fraud, April 2010(hp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8633162.stm)

since 2004 TransparencyInternational (TI) has ranked Sudanamong the ve most corrupted

countries in the world according theCorruption Perceptions Index

A distressed woman in Wunrock. The U.N. estimates 76,000 Abyei area residents ed south when SAF tanks invaded on Saturday 21 May, creating ahumanitarian crisis. Internally displaced persons are sleeping in makeshi shelters, many under trees, as the regions rainy season reaches torrential proportions.by Tim Freccia/Enough Project, CC www.ickr.com

Documents

Sudan, The Facistic Power Demonisteration of a Failed State