State of confusion!

al-Mahdi & al-Bashir, Photo credit: Sudanjem.com

Under the present state of confusion that dominates the political setting, nobody can conjecture the course of matters in the wake of fast-occurring developments.

This confusion pervades both the ruling and the opposition parties and has aggravated the political situation, prompting parties to look for new alliances and projects to be able to walk out of the current dilemma. The situation is dominated by uncertainty and conflicting statements and positions.

Political opposition parties raised the ceiling of their demands, in conjunction with circulated news of leaked information that the National Congress Party (NCP) showed great flexibility toward sharing power with the National Umma Party (NUP), led by Al-Sadiq al-Mahdi.

The country’s political opposition - a group of parties under the umbrella of a political alliance- put six conditions in order to spare the country the scenario of fragmentation and disintegration.

Member of the coalition and Communist Party leader, Siddig Yousif said in a press conference on Monday that the government is required to accept the proposal of a transitional period, forming of a national government, public freedoms, along with the release of all detainees and political prisoners, and a speedy end to armed conflict, stressing that factors for ways out of the successive national crises will not be realized under the rule of the NCP.

 Yousif pointed out that their “Democratic Alternative” document provides resolution to all the country’s problems, including the areas disputed with South Sudan, particularly Abyei.

Meanwhile, some dailies have published reports of substantial convergence of positions between the NUP and NCP on power-sharing; but sources in the Umma Party, quoted by "Sudan Tribune" affirmed that the party will not participate in a bilateral power-sharing arrangement under the current crises, stressing at the same time that the NUP has not and will not cut off dialogue with the ruling party.

The sources specified the demands of the party for participating in what it called sharing “public concerns” with the NCP, pointing out that it conditions its participation in the government on forming a national government, dismantling the one-party state, dissolution of parliament, freedoms and democratic transformation.

In the meantime, the ruling party says that the government’s boat isn’t big enough for all political parties, pointing out the impossibility of such a demand!

What can be drawn from the above is that the split in the ranks of the opposition has become conspicuous through the recent statements made by the NUP, on the one hand, and its coalition allies on the other, as al-Mahadi seems to have opted for a singular path for targeting "agreed upon change" through dialogue with the NCP, for fear of what he called unforeseen and disastrous consequences. His allies consider change through dialogue with NCP unfeasible and out of the question, reminding al-Mahadi that he has been trying this approach for decades on end without achieving any measure of success.

We consider this as evidence that the crisis has reached a boiling point and that it is time for all political forces to focus on these issues on an urgent basis to locate a way out of the present predicament.

Present conditions are not only confusing but are also open to all possibilities, unless the different leaders attempt to arrive at a common vision for dealing with the current situation, because the intersecting and conflicting proposals may lead to uncalculated consequences.