Sudan’s Al-Mahdi speech does little to quell doubts about his position
on regime change
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June 29, 2013, (KHARTOUM) - The leader of the opposition National Umma
Party (NUP) Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi addressed a mass rally in Sudan’s twin
capital of Omdurman in which he called for establishing a new regime
in the country in a rare show of force.
JPEG - 40.1 kb
Holding a banner that reads in Arabic, "Leave Bashir", supporters of
former prime minister (1986-1989) and now head of the National Umma
Party (NUP), religious leader al-Sadiq al-Mahdi, rally in Khalifa
Square in Sudan twin capital of Omdurman on June 29, 2013 (ASHRAF
SHAZLY/AFP/Getty Images)
But hundreds of his supporters who attended the pre-planned gathering
expressed disappointment at Al-Mahdi’s speech and some even clashed
with other NUP members who were in attendance.
The former Prime Minister was interrupted at times by his supporters
who chanted anti-government slogans and called for toppling the regime
of the National Congress Party (NCP).
"Calm down….You came to hear me not for me to hear you," a bemused
Al-Mahdi said in response to them.
"This is our way…If you don’t like it then you can show yourself out,"
he told a disappointed section of his supporters.
At one point Al-Mahdi accused some of seeking to hijack the party to a
certain direction "to achieve special interest" and urged his
supporters to stand in the way of those working to sabotage on behalf
of foreign powers "who should be isolated".
Al-Mahdi called on the government to listen to the voice of reason
saying that a quarter of a century is more than enough to open a new
page and form a national government.
"My brother Mr. President, don’t listen to voices that says there is
no opposition, especially from sham parties…opposition is now at its
peak and you have to grab the historic opportunity to be a consensual
president", he said.
He accused the government of bad policies that split the country into
two, allowed for international intervention, breeding extremist
Islamic factions, mismanagement of money during the oil boom that
neglected crucial productive sectors and destroyed civil service.
"The regime that seized power through a coup and established
empowerment through exclusion and making people poor, abusing human
rights, tore the country and subjected it to internationalization so
it deserves to be asked to leave; Leave!", he said.
"We are working to establish a new system that frees the country from
tyranny and corruption and achieve complete democratic transformation,
comprehensive and just peace and our means to achieve this is through
mobilization and sit-ins and all the available methods except violence
and utilizing the outside [foreign forces]", Al-Mahdi added.
The NUP chief also expressed readiness to work with the Sudan
Revolutionary Front (SRF) but only if they drop arms and work for a
peaceful settlement.
He warned that if SRF fails to remove the regime by force then they
will give it more reason to stay in power and if they succeed then
they will establish a regime based on exclusion.
This Sunday marks 24 years since Bashir staged a military coup against
the multi-party government led by al-Mahdi.
Prior to today’s rally many expressed doubts about al-Mahdi’s true intentions.
"We do not trust this man; he steals our plans to make it fail and add
few more years to the ruling regime plus he is not in good terms with
the [Sudan] Revolutionary Front as he fiercely criticized it during
the Abu-Kershola events", an opposition figure told Sudan Tribune this
week.
A columnist in the privately owned al-Khartoum newspaper echoed the
same sentiments in an op-ed.
"Let us see what Al-Mahdi intends to do in the last day of this month,
but what this man did in many past initiatives makes us totally
non-optimistic [because] he is not someone to be trusted", Hassan
Ismail wrote.
"In the last [2010 general] elections he [al-Mahdi] received millions
of pounds from the ruling [NCP] party", he added.
Many critics point out to the fact that al-Mahdi’s son Abdel-Rahman
has accepted a position as an assistant to president Bashir in late
2012.
They also say that Al-Mahdi, who was also Sudan’s last democratically
elected Prime Minister before the 1989 coup, has made it a habit to
publicly bash other opposition parties and insisting that he does not
want to overthrow the regime but rather "change" it.
The NUP leader has made sure to distance his party from last year’s
demonstrations that broke out in response to the government’s rollout
of austerity measures in response to growing economic pressures caused
by the secession of the oil-rich South Sudan.
“We have hosted them [the protesters in our headquarters] but we don’t
think that the time has come for us to organise such a movement until
we have an alternative regime in place ... and democratic
transformation", al-Mahdi, told the Financial Times newspaper in July
2012.
Some members of the NUP politburo privately say that they believe
al-Mahdi has forged a secret deal with the NCP to assure that the
opposition party stays away from any attempts to stage mass protests
against the regime.
This month Al-Mahdi said he does not approve of the 100-day plan to
oust the regime announced by the National Consensus Front (NCF) even
though a representative of the NUP at the coalition said he took part
in formulating the scheme.
Instead, he offered a different initiative to change the regime
through collecting a million signatures and organizing sit-ins in
public squares and other places.
(ST)
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