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 Unity will forever be meaningless until NCP sees the bigger Sudan
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Unity will forever be meaningless until NCP sees the bigger Sudan - Opinion August 30, 2006
Editorial/Opinion
As part of operationalisation of the CPA there are currently over 200 SPLM cadres working at different capacities. Some are in the cabinet of the Government of National Unity, some in the national legislature, in both the National Assembly and Council of States, and some are in the Khartoum State government. There are more expected in the Judiciary and many other commissions, plus civil servants, part of the 20 percent presence of SPLM in every ministry or other government institutions.
It is hard battle living in Khartoum. For most of us who have been away from the capital city for so long, living in Khartoum is a real challenge. The heat is unbearable, with only a few months from November to February when it is relatively cooler.
All the effort to make Khartoum a duty-free zone from the Northern obsession with Islamic Sharia have not paid. Khartoum is a dry place. But resilience of the people have led very creative women to sell some Waragi in the streets as tea! The joke is told in Khartoum that the security got to know of the sale of alcohol in the streets and reported it to the Walli (Governor) of Khartoum. The Governor wanted to prove the story. He went out to the street, parked his Land Cruiser very far away and walked to one of these women. He was told that to get the actual stuff, you must not just say to the lady, “Give me tea.” You should pronounce tea in a special way, “Give me teeeaaaa.” The Governor took the clue very well. He came, and said just the right word, “Give me teeeaaa.” He was given what he deserved. He sipped, and looked at the lady. He said to her, “Do you know who I am, the Governor of Khartoum Province?” The lady looked at her straight and replied, “I have only given you one glass, and now you are the Governor of Khartoum. If I gave you a second, would you say you are President El Bashir?” The governor just got up and left!
During the first joint meeting between SPLM and National Congress Party, President El Bashir felt so challenged when a former rebel minister said to him, “Mr President, you are here sitting with former rebels, some are even your ministers. Why can’t you forgive the many women who are imprisoned just because they sold Waragi?” The President pronounced immediate release of the many thousands of women in prisons around Khartoum.
There are many other challenges, but the struggle continues. Some of our colleagues in the GoSS system or State governments have forgotten about us. They behave as though all was over.
But we struggle daily in Khartoum with issues of the CPA. Each day there are new problems that we must handle at the legislature or cabinet. The stamina of the NCP to silence the CPA is not waning. They are at it daily. They have the power of the press which they control. There is no paper that SPLM controls. SPLM is presented daily in negative terms. Some people have come to believe the lies. Our army is constantly portrayed as a nuisance. Although our SPLA element of the Joint Integrated Unit in the capital came many months ago, the SAF element has not joined them so they could do the joint training. They are left to languish in the heat.
The media is very negative. Our ministers are never reported properly. More often than not, their ministry staff members are shown while the SPLM minister is hidden away!
While we were away for over twenty years, Sudan has lost the use of the English language! It is such a struggle, especially at the legislature, for us to insist that the Interim National Constitution gives both Arabic and English as official languages. Otherwise people in Khartoum are quite comfortable to marginalise us who cannot speak Arabic. Some do it unconsciously. But one must be vigilant to keep reminding them.
Unity, as stated elsewhere, is the goal of the people of Khartoum.
But they are not getting us there through affirmative action. They resist us in the capital. One wonders how unity is to be achieved when no effort is made to make it attractive! All indications are there to repel and not attract! So much for the rest of us in the national capital.
The writer is a senator at the national assembly in
Khartoum.
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