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Welcome! Towards a New Sudan: (1) Sudan Independence Day
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Hello everyone;
Merry Christmas, Merry Kowanza, and Happy New Year
Every nation has sacred moments in its history and therefore it does its best to observe, celebrate, respect and recognize them in every aspect so as to draw meanings, remembrance, and guidance for the future. One of those sacred moments is the Independence Day, the political independence from foreign colonial powers and their humiliating controls. Independence that leads to freedom, liberty and bright inspirations. In most nations, which had lived under foreign control, celebrating the Independence Day represents the hub of those nations’ festivities and most governments try hard to do whatever it takes to decent celebrations especially if bloods were spilled and souls were paid in the course of attaining it.
In Sudan, the country will celebrate its 47th political Independence Day this week and seemed before will be a hollow one, with shallow meanings and bitter taste. Neither the government nor its controlled population will take a moment to reflect on the meanings of their "independence" and they do that because of some good reasons. The most important was the fact that celebrating Sudan's Independence Day has never been in the top interests of "ALL" governments, democratically elected or militarily takeover. Think about the following examples:
(1) The first democracy, 1 January 1956 - 17 November 1958, violated the meaning of independence when, willingly, handed power to military forces as a result of ugly quarrel between the then two major parties, the Umma and the National Union. (2) The first military government of General Abood, 17 November 1958 - 21 October 1964, was keen to celebrate its coup day, November 17th, in an extravagant way with open public festivals, exhibitions and till-the-dawn musical/theatrical nights. It was the only regime in the history of Sudan that used fireworks for celebrations in many towns around the country. However, it never did that with the Independence Day. (3) The second democracy, including the one-year transitional government, 21 October 1964 - 24 May 1969, did little to educate people about the meaning to be independent. It paid more attention to celebrating the October Revolution on the cost of the Independence Day. The reason was purely political- to appeal for people's support. The October Revolution, with all its importance, came and gone without real use, but that was another story. We will debate it in a separate topic. (4) The May regime, 25 May 1969 - 6 April 1985, in its subconscious, believes that Sudan's real independence day started on May 25, 1969. It was just an illusion. Most of the current generations have witnessed how the May government was celebrating its coup day, which manifested the continued negligence of the Independence Day. (5) The third democracy, along with the one-year transitional government, 6 April 1985 - 29 June 1989, paid little attention about national festivals mainly because fights on power and ministerial positions took them away. However, celebrating April 6 was mostly apparent than the Independence Day. (6) The catastrophe that dismantled whatever remained of the meaning of independence was brought up by the current regime of the NIF, 30 June 1989 -?? April 2003!!! None of all Sudanese regimes have worked hard to undermine the meaning of our independence than the NIF. As we all following the current political saga, Sudan's internal and external affairs have been put, willingly, in the care of foreign powers, with full acceptance and subjugation from the NIF government. It went far to the extent of breaking the country apart without any respect for the most sacred thing any country has: its unity and territorial integrity. From now on, all solutions for our domestic problems will be made abroad, in Kenya or Washington, like it or not. We actually and effectively lost our independence.
The questions now, did we get our political independence cheaply enough to the extent that we don’t care to preserve it? How can we bring about the true meaning of independence despite the present dark clouds upon our country? Does democracy alone be enough to promote a strong feeling about independence and make us become proud as independent nation? What are the crucial inputs for deepening our respect to our flag, as a symbol for our independence, and translate that respect for the benefit of our country? And finally, who was to blame for our failure to understand the true meaning on our independence: ourselves, policies of successive governments, our tribal cultures, educational systems, incompetent media, week social movements, or what?
In order to fulfill the meaning of our independence we first need to get ourselves independent from greediness, trivial self-interests, and to think big for the sake of our country.
Looking for your inputs, and please feel free to express yourself in English or Arabic fonts.
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