The longer this notorious and nonsensical war continues, the more hate speech expands. It must stop immediately; otherwise, hate speech will reach a level where it becomes uncontrollable and unmanageable. A culture of hate speech and inflammatory language is alien to Sudanese traditions, values, and norms. it must be nipped in the bud before it gets out of hand. Sudan will never be at ease as long as hate speech mongers are left with impunity. Paradoxically, the mongers of hate speech in the country are a handful and can be numbered on the fingers of one hand. Nevertheless, they keep making all this chaos and turbulence. Such a situation reflects the fragility and weakness inherent in the de facto military regime with its puppet prime minister.
The ‘Strange Faces’ law embodies the ugliest form of hate speech, which will be recorded in the annals of Sudan’s history. It is identical to the colonial-era Closed District Law and aligns with the discriminatory and exclusionary policies practiced by the Apartheid regime in South Africa. Let us assume that, in response to that bad law, other parts of the country issued similar laws that denied the right of certain ethnic groups to enter their territories. Just imagine what would happen. The fallout would be very detrimental to the unity, stability, and integrity of this homeland. One of my friends told me that such a law was not issued by the de facto military regime. I told him that it is now being fully enforced and practiced. Gentlemen and ladies let us call a spade a spade. This homeland will never stand upon its two feet till we call a spade a spade and get rid of lip-service attitudes. It is the ‘beating around the bush’ culture that has brought the Sudanese people to this unpleasant situation. It is the ‘head-in-the-sand’ culture that cripples our ability to unite.
Sudan is in desperate need of trust-building programming and interventions without which it will doubtlessly fall apart and scatter into pieces. The distrust among the Sudanese people has deeply embedded itself and pervaded the entire body of the country. Nobody trusts any body and no one listens to anyone. Everyone is on his or her own. Everyone firmly believes that he or she has the absolute right and that others are absolutely wrong. All are adamant about not listening to other people’s advice. Everyone turns a deaf ear and blind eye to others; all are arrogant, stubborn, and convinced they know everything. All are leaders, no one wants to be led, all are leaders, no one wants to be a manager, all are leaders, no one wants to be a follower. What a peculiar kind of nation!
Sudanese strategists — particularly military ones — always talk rubbish when interviewed on national TV. They keep mindlessly and blindly defending the de facto military regime’s stance and policies. People rarely listen to their nonsensical analyses; nevertheless, they persist in their absurdity. On the other hand, Sudanese politicians are a carbon copy of the military strategists. They have the same mentality, attitudes, and short-sightedness. When interviewed on national TV, they follow in the footsteps of military strategists. They keep delivering monotonous, rhetorical speeches laden with political jargon and terminology, and they also keep glossing over their own words and actions. Furthermore, each of them is striving to do away with their political opponent.
Politics in Sudan is a cut-throat process. It is a zero-sum game where survival is only for the strongest and the most chaotic one and not the fittest. Of course, the strongest is not synonymous with the fittest. Regrettably, Sudan has been plagued with political gods—military and civilian—whose sole role is to inflict suffering and hardship on the Sudanese people. Because they are ‘political gods,’ they rarely die, quit, or leave the political landscape. The real tragedy of this unfortunate country is that these political monolithic dinosaurs who do not want to disappear or retire.
Fortunately, history tells us that these prehistoric creatures, the dinosaurs, became extinct simply because they failed to change, adapt, and cope with the dynamic and ever-changing environment. On the other hand, the mosquito has not become extinct in spite of its smallness and tiny size simply because it keeps adapting and changing to cope with the surrounding environment. Change is a fact of life and vital for progress, a fact known to everyone on this planet except Sudanese politicians, for whom a culture of change is not in their lexicons. Change is inevitable. It is the only constant in life, hence it is one develops good relations with it.
I conclude this article with a warning: it is high time for the monolithic dinosaurs to retire before the forces of mosquitoes turn against them. It is high time for the obsolete political leaders to make way for the upcoming generations to take the lead. It is high time for the military establishment to mind its business and noble mission. Many Sudanese lands have been taken away while the military establishment was very busy with politics. It is high time for Sudanese politicians to revisit and review their political parties’ agendas and Sudanize them in a way that serves the interests of the Sudanese people. The Sudanese people have had enough of your messed-up foreign agendas. It is high time for the religious sects to focus on their cherished religious mandates and distance themselves from politics and political skirmishes. It is high time for Sudanese civil society organizations to empower and equip themselves with updated transformative knowledge and skills to improve their performance. You are the ones whose responsibility it is to shoulder the burden of the transformation process. You, the private sector, are the missing link; you are the one sucking the lifeblood of this nation, rendering it a lifeless one. Now, it is your time and your role to roll up your sleeves and genuinely begin building Sudan with others.
No to War and No to Political Sloth
Mahjoub S. G.
Kampala, Uganda
