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Quote: Book Review - Al-Khatim ‘Adlan’s Ma al-Manfa? Wa Ma howa al-Watan? (12) Mahgoub El-Tigani December 26, 2006 Al-Mahdi counterbalances: Islamic thought, democracy, and modern rule It is true that in the Third Democracy, al-Mahdi was not able to act decisively, in time, with respect to the major issues of 1) abolishing the Nimeiri Shari’a Laws despite his intellectual rejection of the laws; 2) approving expeditiously the Sudanese Peace Agreement; 3) reinstating the army of professionals and skilled workers the NIF-Nimeiri coalition unlawfully purged; 4) divorcing the Umma Party from its historical victimization by his brother-in-law Hassan al-Turabi to be able to remove the Brotherhood’s ideological rivalry and corruption viruses inside the Umma body; as well as other failures. Sadiq al-Mahdi, however, has been accredited because the Umma-led Third Democracy: 1) salvaged the country from the Nimeiri famine and starvation by high yielding agrarian productivities, which the NIF coup would dwindle later in wasteful arms sales for the sake of terrorist adventures and disastrous wars; 2) ratified main instruments of the international human rights norms, including the political, economic, and cultural covenants of the Bill of Rights; 3) allowed a broad exercise of the freedom of expression and the Free Press; and 4) negotiated, developed, and finally approved the Sudanese Peace Agreement among other accomplishments. Evaluating al-Sadiq political performance only with respect to the Third Democracy will do little justice in the assessment of four consecutive decades of his political leadership. These years contained the post-independence executive, legislative, and judicial struggles over difficult development inhibitions of the autonomous Sudan in cultural and political terms (not an Unruly Sudan, as Charles Gordon believed). Within the restricted possibilities of this “impossible mission,” evaluating al-Mahdi premiership should pay full attention to the State programs to stabilize democratic rule, unify the Nation, and maintain the rule of law in compliance with international norms. It is not possible, however, to interpret the complexities of these dilemmas without due consideration to the cultural values and spiritualities of rural Sudan , the largest arena of social change that the urban-based critics and evaluators often ignored. The continual ascendancy of al-Sadiq to match vibrant political experiences with scholarly contemporary thought should be critically encouraged, rather than the one-eyed relentless emphasis on the negative critiquing of his political endeavors and intellectual contributions by my friend, the Republican thinker Omer al-Garay. The main difference between Sadiq al-Mahdi and the two Umma-NIF leaders, Mubarak El-Fadil and ‘Ali Osman Taha, is that, al-Sadiq and the mother Umma Party refused unequivocally in a heroic and most admirable stance ((precisely like ‘Abd al-Khaliq Mahgoub and his communist party) to dissolve their influential autonomous community into the Nimeiri good-for-nothing Sudanese Socialist Union (1970-1985). Most importantly, Sadiq al-Siddiq al-Mahdi and the Umma Party rejected vehemently any political partnership with the NIF rotten governance of Sudan , the biggest sin that both Mubarak El-Fadil al-Mahdi and ‘Ali Osman Taha miserably shared. In truth, Mubarak “competencies” were hardly recognized by the NDA rainbow partnerships, which finally dismissed him from leadership of its Secretariat (this embraces the DUP, SPLM/A, CP, SLM, the East Front, Legitimate Command, SAF, Sudan Workers’ Federation and the other unions. The Umma abandoned its seat in the NDA Leadership Council; but the party continues to honor the NDA Fundamental Agreements. Much worse, ‘Ali’s “competencies” have been authoritatively invested via the June 89 military coup in the entrenchment of the terrorist Brotherhood governance. ‘Ali, as well, succeeded Turabi in the sensitive tasks of supervising the State-International Brotherhoods external relations. Sadiq al-Mahdi is a distinguished thinker whose works signify decades of scholarly efforts to come up with a Wasatiya thought, namely the doctrinal possibility of making a political marriage between Islam and a regular democracy. Neither Mubarak El-Fadil, nor ‘Ali Osman ever dared to approach in intellectual terms the kaleidoscopic complexities of this encyclopedic project to modernizing Islamic Thought. It is an ambitious project that has been diligently pursued by sophisticated scholars all over the world representing varying schools of thought in different periods of time (‘Abd al-Khaliq Mahgoub; Mahmoud Mohamed Taha; Ismail al-Farouqi; Faraj Foda; Nasr Hamid AbuZaid; Rodwan al-Sayed - to mention a few). These scholars stressed the possibilities of building up civilized co-existence between Islam and the East-West North-South religions, philosophies, and societies, as well as the co-existence of the Muslims and the non-Muslim populations of the same nations in democratic polities versus the doctrines of unequal-existence or the indoctrinations of non-existence by the political Islam or the non-Muslim hate groups. It goes without saying that the intellectual thought and the political leadership of Sadiq al-Mahdi are both challengeable. Notwithstanding, the successful list of challengers would most likely exclude the dismissed NDA secretary general who abandoned his mother party to join the NIF hateful terrorists, or his Authority friends, ‘Ali Osman Taha, Omer Ahmed al-Bashir, and Hassan al-Turabi that represent the top accountable tormentors of the peoples of Sudan, to say nothing of the unabated crimes of their ruling Brotherhood against humanity in Darfur. Sadiq al-Mahdi’s negative politics included a notorious constitutional violation of the Communist Party’s legitimacy by the mid 1960s, added to dragging hostilities with the South liberation thought and movements. By the mid 80s, these negativities, however, have been rationally revised by the Umma Party: the relations with the communists and the labor unionists have been progressively mended by the collective struggles of the March/April 1985’s Uprising, which toppled the Nimeiri-Turabi authoritative rule, up to a point of appointing top communist experts in the Umma-led succeeding government, besides the 1990s partnership and close collaboration with the NDA to overthrow the NIF rule. The Sadiq-South relations have prominently changed by the breaking agreement of KokaDam (at the intersection of Ambo and the al-Merghani-Garang Sudanese Peace Agreement). Furthermore, the Umma renewal conferences, in exile and home, criticized the party’s semi-Brotherhood policies towards the South, and opted for the enhancement of sisterly relations between the liberal South and the Umma Islamic democracy. The Umma is one of the two largest voting constituencies of the Sudan , according to the country’s records of democratic elections (the other one is the al-Merghani-led DUP). The Umma-Brotherhood “strategic alliance” created the constitutional crisis that precipitated in the 17-year tragedy of the May dictatorial rule. The repeated Umma-Brotherhood alliance resulted in another heinous 17-year dictatorial governance. As repeatedly evident, al-Sadiq renewed alliance with the same Turabi and the same Brotherhood posits the frightening possibilities of another victimization of the Umma by the notorious Brotherhood, which might extend, once again, to encompass the whole Nation and neighboring States. The NDA refused to accommodate the Turabi-influenced NIF opposition faction as a political partner. Apparently, the Umma would not follow suit for fear of the delicate concerns of the party in Darfur in which the Justice and Equality rebels maintain close relations with Turabi and his Popular Congress opposition group. The bare facts are unfortunately stark should the post-Naivasha elections (as scheduled in less than a year’s time from today) bring about renewed Umma-Brotherhood alliances. Sudan , the people and land, would be destined to live another ordeal, a possible legitimizing victimization against the State and society by any renewable strategic or even tactical alliance of al-Sadiq and Hassan al-Turabi. Here, it must be stressed that the possibilities of carrying over these longstanding Hamlet relationships - to borrow al-Khatim’s eloquent depictions - to an all-out Umma-Brotherhoods’ alliance versus a possible secular-democratic alliance by the NDA/SPLM/SLM is hardly exterminated. This writer appreciates ‘Adlan’s political hopes on the possibilities of a springing secularization and democratization developments into the great Sudanese democratic body of the Umma Party. Sadiq al-Mahdi, the distinguished, democratic, and experienced leader of the Umma community, notwithstanding, should indeed think and act decisively to set apart his dear people, for good, from any further marriages with the political Islam or the other list of the Brotherhood destructive plans ______________ Book Review - Al-Khatim ‘Adlan’s Ma al-Manfa? Wa Ma howa al-Watan? (13) Mahgoub El-Tigani December 28, 2006 Sharpening fame despite disproportionate mention of women thinkers In general, reader missed the Sudanese women in the ‘Adlan’s Manfa, except for a few women he personally mentioned, including his spouse Tayseer Mustafa, the mother of his sons, and Fatima Ahmed Ibrahim, “an amicable person” (p. 264). Reader, however, finds in the Al-Manfa selected works the thinker’s deep concerns with the Cause of women advancement in society and politics; slightly mentioned compared to the heavy mention of males all over the book. Contemplating the “madness of nations,” (pp. 311-19), ‘Adlan spoke bitterly of the deteriorating conditions of children, “including 2 million children, mostly girls abused by commercialism vice” (p. 314). Ending civil wars in Sudan will help to redress the disasters of war and the social backwardness of the country: “it will stop the discrimination between females and males, and the children born out of wedlock; the child labor and the recruitment of children in armies; besides the provision of asylum to vagrant children, and the eradication of female circumcision” (p. 318). In his press conference on HAQ, ‘Adlan projected far-sighted strategies anticipating “the presence of women in the arena of action, emancipated from chains of suppression and marginalization” (p. 37). Similarly, he stressed the need to renew political parties by measures “creating the opportunities to empower a new generation of the youth and women” (p. 266). Addressing himself to John Garang on the post-Niavasha New Sudan programs, ‘Adlan called on “all Sudanese professionals, economists, oil experts, physicians, educators, engineers, attorneys, activists on human rights and women issues, nurses, … to discuss… the types of assistance they are able to offer to the Sudan…” (p. 193). Interestingly, the selected works embraced a significant interview by al-Khatim to the Sudanese short-story writer Layla Abul‘ala. The interview as conducted by ‘Adlan indicated his deep appreciation of the writer’s high level of literary expression; added to her deep insights on the complex East-West relations, and her thoughtful handling of the situation of adopting Islamic faith in the West. The interview helped to show the writer’s aesthetic exposure of many dimensions of art in the context of the East-West ideologies and cultural values. In this connection, Abul'ala explained aspects of her literate writings on the learning potentialities as well as the confusion of belonging to different cultures with respect to Easterners brought up in the West, Westerners reared in the East, or individuals with Sudanese-Egyptian nationalities like the writer herself. A special emphasis was placed on the feminist struggle to promote the women's status in the male-dominated world (pp. 271-281). The themes discussed in the interview indicated the urgent need to highlight the Sudanese women’s intellectuality in the areas of the literary work whose aesthetic productivity testifies to the artistic creativity and refined humanism of women writers. Layla responses to the interviews thought-provoking questions indicated further the unresolved antithetical relationships between dynamic forces of modern society: the females and males; the West and the East; spirituality and secularism; the endless interactions between the physical and moral entities of the human gathering. “The West, represented by Bryan and Ray, sees in the Sudanese women a strange gender, a peaceful securable oasis. This is [articulated] only in the beginning. That is why they felt the shock when the same women challenged their values, even their whole lifestyle,” explains Layla Abul'ala (p. 275). With these words, as well as other intriguing statements, the short-story writer presented a real image of the Sudanese woman - strong, integral, and self-assertive personality; an image that continues to shock the Westerns and the Easterners who confine the status of women in the negative role of doing domestic services. This prejudiced thought has been excessively sinking into the bottoms of frustration and estrangement, the more that women manifest their will to excel in the worlds of power and creative works. Layla and Khatim remind readers with the participant observations of Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban with a great many Sudanese women in the Three Towns Capitol a few years before the implementation of September laws (1984). Mihera [i.e., Carolyn] admired the "independent, self-assertive personalities" of the women. She spoke about the women's liberality in the public life and their sacred privacy in the home. Who said that these women think of themselves as inferior to the men, exclaimed Mihera who put the blame of the false images of women inferiority on the ignorance of Western reporters. In the absence of information on the women’s creative works, one assumes there must be many unknown women of the caliber of Nawal El-Sadawi, a most distinguished progressive pioneer of raising awareness on the women's internal worlds, aspirations, and political determination. Abul'ala has already won many prizes for her artistic works. Still, millions of readers have not yet known about her short stories. The thought-provoking questions of al-Khatim ‘Adlan and the bright replies of the writer made a good job informing the world about her collection. By interview, the rising fame of the Sudanese-Egyptian Layla Abul’ala has competently juxtaposed the shining fame of her counterpart, Nawal El-Saadawi. ____________________________ Book Review - Al-Khatim ‘Adlan’s Ma al-Manfa? Wa Ma howa al-Watan? (Conclusions) Mahgoub El-Tigani December 29, 2006 O Ye Sudanese! O ye International! Akhwan Yousif : how would thee sustain Home? It was popularly known in the late 1960s that Ja’far Nimeiri, an officer decorated with armed forces medals for “bravely fighting” State wars against his own nationals, the indigenous warriors of South Sudan, made an unsuccessful attempt to seize political power in the midst of a constitutional crisis in the North in which the government purged elected members of the Parliament for partisan reasons in gross violation of the Constitution. Those days, Nimeiri was an admirer of the Communist Party and the Secretary General of the party ‘Abd al-Khaliq Mahgoub. A modernist entity propagating social change programs in a society strongly influenced by the political illiteracy of reactionary conservatives, the CP was a pioneering party, which elevated distinguished southerner intellectuals to top party ranks and insisted in a peaceful settlement of the civil strife by autonomous rule to the South within a unified democratic Sudan . These party politics constituted political blasphemy by the conservative rulers – a trend ever since shared by the dictators of Sudan even though Nimeiri a nd Bashir signed subsequent peace agreements with the South under immense national and international pressures. The whole Region was rampant with new ideas in defiance of the old decaying colonialism and a new emerging imperialism. Standing, in principle, by the side of sweeping liberation movements all over the former colonies under the leaderships of strong African, Asian, and Latin American parties, the Sudanese CP was exceptionally noted for consistency in both interior and foreign policy perspectives. It was a stubborn nationalist autonomous group that resisted all kinds of military usurpation and Authority suppression inside the country based on self-assertive stands in the International arena vis-à-vis the Cold War rivalries. The Americans were unhappy with the Sudanese communists, regardless of their nationalist democratic programs that antagonized mainly the foreign support of national repressive regimes, rather than dogmatic enmity of the West. ‘Abd al-Khaliq Program, for instance, called on “mutual cooperation and concerns for peace and development between Sudan and the West;” but the World Bank never listened. Later, the WB would equally subject Sadiq al-Mahdi’s government to irrational hostile pressures. The Soviet Union , which was equally displeased with the Mahgoub-led independent party, expressed hostile criticisms to the CP during and after the massacres of the party in July 1971 by the Nimeiri junta. Ironically, the Soviets put the blame on the CP reluctance to collaborate closely with the May “Revolution” at expense of the party national democratic programs; The Soviets did not want opposition groups to play down the May junta as “a petty-bourgeois military coup” in the words of CP secretary general. This Euro-Asian Soviet shameless pragmatism would replicate itself decades later with the Capitalist Russia support of the June 89’s “bourgeoisie military coup” in full collaboration with the quasi-Capitalist China . Lured by oil monies, both countries adhered silently t o the conspiracies of silence or supported openly the Bashir dictatorship versus the Sudanese democrats and the International Community. The Sudanese-international relations were not based on imperial desires (as the Brotherhoods International decided since the 1980s to experiment in the laboratory of Sudan ). The Sudanese nationalist foreign policies were founded on the centuries’ friendly qualities of the People of Sudan, the ancient diplomacy Richard Lobban’s Historical Dictionary of Nubia mentioned between Nubian Queens and the Roman Empire; the rational diplomacy of peace and development exchanges Mohamed Ahmed Mahgoub, Ahmed Khair, Jamal Mohamed Ahmed, Farouq Abu Eissa, Mohamed Omer Bashir, Francis Deng, Mohamed El-Mekki Ibrahim, Ibrahim Ayoub, Nuraddin Manan and others pursued. Let us forget at this point about the international terrorism crises al-Turabi and Taha created by usurpation adventures inside Sudan across the international borders; the wasteful crisis officer Omer Bashir created and developed against the UN Security Council most recently; and the crisis of crisis-resolution that Mustafa Ismail Osman announced to resolve the crisis in Lebanon . … … … The CP admirer Nimeiri was fascinated with the consistent struggles of the Communist Party versus the authoritative governments of Khartoum of which an Umma-led government dismissed him by mere suspicion together with Khalid al-Kid, an army officer well-known for his democratic orientation inside the army. Months later, the Nimeiri Revolutionary Council of the May coup (1969) asserted that the Sudanese post-independent governments “tore apart the potentially unified million miles Nation to a field of civil war, unconstitutional banning of elected parliamentarians, and a faltering economic State.” June 30, 1989, the Sudanese would hear from the Omdurman National Radio brigadier Omer al-Bashir denouncing the al-Mahdi’s democracy “that no one wanted” and justifying his coup “by the failures of the democratic government to respect international human rights and to make good foreign relations with Central Africa !” What a liar! In a few months of assuming the highest political, legislative, and executive powers of the country by the May military coup, however, the admirer of the 60s progressive struggles against the Arab Presumptuous Mentality (PAM) of Sudan conservative rulers never hesitated to persecute with State powers the very communists he once admired, including ‘Abd al-Khaliq Mahgoub, Joseph Garang, al-Shafi’ Ahmed al-Sheikh whom he brutally hanged, and Mohamed Ibrahim Nugud, al-Tigani al-Tayeb Babiker, Yousif Hussain, Suliman Hamid, al-Khatim ‘Adlan, Shaffi' Khider, and the other intellectuals of the party who have been forced to resist the anti-democratic rule in hiding or behind prison walls. How much hate, envy, or psychopathic jealousy the admirer colonel had been really accumulating just to massacre these thinkers, while wickedly pretending to appreciate their political charisma, is a question opened for the scientific explorations of political analysts and psycho-social therapists. … … … Soon after this tragedy, the Brotherhood politics indicated a continuity of the same mannerism: Omer al-Bashir, an unknown army officer, in close alliance with Osman ‘Ali Taha, crowned Hassan al-Turabi, their Islamist ideologue, a sole mentor of the high jacked State. Unlike the short-lived unhappy marriage between the CP and the Nimeiri Authority, the sold-out armed forces, treasury, and legislative powers by the unknown Brotherhood officers would secure 17 years of despotic rule to their power-thirst ideologues. In a short while, however, the admirer brigadier and his civilian party members would purge the admirable Sheikh and persecute his aides (perhaps deceptively, as ‘Adlan and many Sudanese writers noted). … … … In the year 2006, two distinguished Sudanese thinkers Mohamed Al-Khatim ‘Adlan and John Garang de Mabior passed away. De Mabior, then a triumphant nationalist peace leader over the war mongering century’s longest war in Africa , lost his life in a helicopter crash. Millions of the supporters that had earlier received de Mabior at the Khartoum Airport , a few days before the crash, disbelieved the government’s dim story about the accident. Many thought that the Akhwan warring regime must have known better why a promising national leader like Garang might be removed from Authority by conspiracy. Apart from liberal thought and empirical studies, this writer is strangely inclined to recall a Sudanese indigenous wisdom that is deeply rooted in the Sufi traditions of our society: recalling Akhwan Yousif [the Brothers of Prophet Joseph] who threw him down into a remote well to preserve the love of Prophet Jacobs, their most beloved father, many people actually wondered: who of the envious ones, then, might have overthrown Garang from a flying copter? The charismatic personality of Al-Khatim ‘Adlan, the other distinguished thinker, was unquestionable. He was a possible successor of the party top leadership. ‘Adlan was aware of the party leaders and members “that wanted to assassinate [his] political career” (pp. 203-4) Was ‘Adlan’s black-and-white sharp criticisms of bureaucratic-authorities a source of the irreconcilable conflict that finally hurt both thinker and party, leading, as it did, to the tragic resignation of the popular activist and the hastily establishment of a short-lived HAQ to the detriment of the historically recognizable mother group? … … … Looking back at the ‘Adlan collected works, reader is compelled to comment on the tragedy of Hamlet once again: the tormented prince the genius Shakespeare created to illustrate the dilemma of alienation and split of the human mind in the bewilderment of undecided allegiances. Here, it is inescapable to blame the Hamlet Cold War East-West relations that gave the kindest eye to the Third World repressive governments and the blindest eye to their democratic protestors. Having excluded the Sudanese democratic forces from peace agreements, the Naivasha talks and their resulting treaty stand in same line of short-sighted strategies threatened by the Hamlet partner, the Brotherhood rulers, who want to build and destroy, implement and freeze the agreement at the same and one time! Let us pause for a minute: what prosperity could have happened in the history of Sudan had the Cold War powers paid deserved consideration to the nationalist autonomous thought and the development planning of ‘Abd al-Khaliq whose assassination by the ignorant admirer stormed the winds of protest in the enlightened West before an emphatic East What intellectual flourishing environments Sudan and the neighboring nations could have developed based on healthy East-West peaceful relations in trade, technology, and cultural learning, according to the Program instead of the wasteful emphasis on military pacts and the craze of arms sales by repressive regimes? Who benefited most of these sales? And who perished by the genocidal use and abuse of the war toys? Khatim ‘Adlan put it succinctly: “ America is an economic, military, technological, and intellectual power… These facts are articulated in international politics because it is basically founded on power; but [international politics] must also be based on rightness… We will stand against America if it uses its power to victor over the forces of evil. We will praise America if it utilizes its power for goodness, especially the good of peoples” (p. 223). The noble persons of ‘Abd al-Khaliq, Garang, Mahmoud Mohamed Taha, and al-Khatim ‘Adlan martyred “fighting” with ideas and moral stands in the battles of reform versus savage regimes fighting democracy and peace by coercion and crimes against humanity. That is why the West post-Cold War human rights conditionality and the freeze the US Government and other Western nations imposed on the Brotherhood military coup in Sudan are highly commendable: arms never have been used to make peace; but the bullets were shot only at the chests of the democratic movements whose noble sacrifices aimed, in essence, to eradicate totalitarianism. … … … There are so many themes of epistemology, political modernity, diversity, and creativity that al-Manfa provokingly stimulated through the burning intellectuality of al-Khatim ‘Adlan. We will stop at this point, however. … … … Sometimes in the mid 1990s, thinker 'Adlan contributed with some of his most critical works on the future of socialism. (This part requires careful research in a separate thesis). Interestingly, ‘Adlan introduced al-Wasatiya concept into the present-time politics of Sudan vis-à-vis the NIF fundamentalist suppressive indoctrinations that abused the religion of Islam by non-democratic rule and did a great harm to the tolerant modes of the Sudanese social life. (This part is worthy of detailed analysis in a separate work). ‘Adlan critique of the NDA is worthy of a special analysis. Briefly in these concluding remarks, this writer feels the political impact of the thinker on a new generation of Sudanese democrats and brave writers. It suffices to mention at this point the black-and-white the message addressed by Muna Awad Khugali in the sudaneseonline to the NDA parliamentarians in the Brotherhood-led Government of National Unity - the government failing the CPA implementation by the SPLM/NDA non-matched lazy activities versus the NIF/Congress destructive offensive. Muna asked these NDA leaderships: “What have you accomplished so far?!” Al-Manfa exempts no body of ‘Adlan’s criticisms: the Communists are asked to allow new leaderships to carry out new party programs if they want to democratize their party, and to clarify the facts about the July Rectification Movement (1971); Sadiq al-Mahdi is asked to clarify accusations against his political person despite the opportunism of Mubarak El-Fadil that aimed to liquidate the Umma (p. 247); Mohamed Osman al-Merghani is asked to justify his withdrawals from the NDA principles in favor of the NIF rulers; SPLM/A is asked to put to task her New Sudan programs in firm commitment to democratic rule. Besides his condemnation of the opportunist splitting groups of Mubarak El-Fadil and the group of al-Sharif al-Hindi against their own mother parties, the Umma and the DUP (p. 247), ‘Adlan would say nothing to the NIF but that it should indeed “go to Hell.” … … … The publication of Ma al-Manfa is breaking news. Manshorat Madarik and al-Khatim ‘Adlan Center for Enlightenment (Cairo: ISBN 17182/2006) will do justice to the intellectuals in Sudan and global thinking if they continue to publish the other collected works of this knowledgeable writer. Farwell, Socialista! May the Almighty Lord shower your soul, Munadil al-Kadiheen, with His Eternal Love and Oft-Living Mercy!