Paulo about the Witch ....

NATION- BUILDING AT THE CROSSROADS

The post below details a couple of raw ideas laid by Dr. Abdalbasit Saeed. the ideas try to explore the urgent challenges/crisis in the sudan in the bigger global picture. Comments will be highly appreciated!
Tallal

NATION-BUILDING AT THE CROSSROADS: The CPA Implementation as a Critical Phase in the History of Sudan

Dr. Abdalbasit Saeed, Khartoum-Sudan (yazeituny@hotmail.com)

Introduction:
The truths, reflections, analysis or misjudgements and predespositions in this rejoinder are the sole responsibility of the author. They do not, however, question the validity or justification of the initial ‘Civilizational Mission’ sloganed by the Regime of the National Islamic Front (NIF) at its point of inception in June 1989. The discussion is rather concerned with the determinant moments that generated the 1989/1990 ‘New World Order’ which the NIF regime failed to comprehend at just the same historic moment, and which culminated in its own undoing 15 years later, including ten years of cumbersome negotiations on the basis of the Declaration of Principles (DOP) put forward by the Inter-Govermental Authority on Development (IGAD) in 1993/94 and adopted by the Government of the Sudan (GOS) in 1997. After five years of slack foot-dragging on both sides, more serious negotiations picked-up in 2002 between the GOS and the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLM). The final output was the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that became effective 9-January 2005.

Across the past few years (2000-2007) the Sudan stood as top-rated among countries of the world, and the African region, for the greatest number of Security Council Resolutions defining a member State of the UN family as a threat to international peace and security. The Sudan is the first country, since the beginning of the 21st. Century, to receive indictment, by the UN Security Council Resolutions, under Chapter Seven of the UN Charter. Sudan is the UN member state who had to sign the largest number of agreements aimed at the protection of civilians as well as ending internal violent conflict, with its own citizens, during the first ten years of the 21st. Century. Sudan is among the few countries charged with highest rates of corruption. The main question is: why? May be because the Sudan is, also, the country who witnessed the longest war in Africa of the 20th. Century. It is the only country, in the first decade of the 21st. Century, whose top political leadership, ministers, military brass, and executives have been listed (February 2007) for possible persecution by the International Criminal Court (ICC). In spite of all such derregatory connotations of genocidal activity in Darfur, pariah state and/ or failed state, still the country seems to be holding together and is expected to enter into a real test of legitimate governance (in 2009) to elect the President, First Vice President, national legislature (500 MPs), 25 state governors, 25 state legislatures (1000 representatives) and locality governments (undetermined number of delegates) from village clusters and administrative units.


Ancient Country

The Sudan is an ancient country. Its lands are rich and fertile enough to provide a solid foundation for prosperity. Its people are proud and industrious enough to seize the opportunities that may be presented. There is sufficient reason to believe that the peoples of the Sudan will not be found wanting, in stamina, in determination, or in natural endowments, if political will for social action is there. It is suprising that, in spite a claimed history of three thousand years, the country still abides in the perpetual threats and risks of floods every time the River Nile chooses to seriously overflow its banks. May be because the country never adopted a clear human settlement development strategy to rid its people of such risks that are easily foreseen by a by-stander.

The Sudan today is striving to make peace and make positive change. May be because the country has wasted much valued time in making war rather than in making peace. Of late, however, and in all regions of the country, peoples’ efforts towards peace-building and positive change seem to be ‘beginning’ to bear fruit. May be besause they realized the high cost of making war as a vehicle for sustaining the fragile national unity they have been trying to build, since the attainment of political independence in 1956. Common wisdom tells that, in spite of the carnage and tragedy that afflicted the Sudan in many important ways, one must not forget the bright spots or overlook the achievements along the path to peace, development and shaky national unity. The time is long past when anyone could claim ignorance about what has been happening in the Sudan. Politicians and rulers do know what needs to be done in order to achieve progress. It is very sad that they are not delivering anything. The time is also past when the responsibilities for producing positive change could be shifted on to others' shoulders. Current responsibilities are great tasks that the people of Sudan must all face. The people of Sudan, must stand ready to play their historic part, in this historic moment, at the Crossroads. So must all the political parties. What is needed is political will. Rhetoric can truly be transformed into reality by political will. Without political will, not even the noblest sentiments will have a chance of success.
Three areas deserve particular attention:
First, the Sudan must demonstrate the will to rely upon political rather than military responses and solutions to problems. Democratic channels for pursuing legitimate interests and expressing dissent must be protected, and political opposition must be respected and accommodated in constitutional-legal forms.
Second, the Sudan must summon the will to take good governance seriously, ensuring respect for human rights and the rule of law, strengthening democratization, and promoting transparency and capability in public administration. Unless good governance is prized, the Sudan will not break free of the threat and the reality of conflict that are so evident today.
Third, the Sudan must enact and adhere to the many and various reforms that are needed to promote economic growth with equity and socio-economic development and social equality. Long-term success can be achieved only if the regional governments of the united Sudan have the express political will to enact sound economic policies, and to persevere in their implementation until a solid economic foundation has been established.
The Turn of the 20th. Century: A Critical Phase in the History of Sudan
The world is passing through a very critical phase in human history. In the name of globalization the capitalist–imperialist world system have brought down most murderous attacks, vicious persecution, and ruthless exploitation on the working masses. This is the “new world order” that the imperialists, led by USA, want to impose: “fighting terrorism” and championing “democracy” are the new ploys ‘as political ideology’ in the hands of the imperialists to launch barbaric military aggression on countries, to forcibly occupy them and to engineer regime change. Economic and fiscal instruments of this world regime have led to steep decline in real wages and pauperization of the peasantry, particularly in ‘third world countries’. The ferocity of this system-wide attack can be gauged by the ever deteriorating living conditions of urban workers where retrenchment and lay-offs are increasing by leaps and bounds, as well as by the increasing poverty of rural peasants and pastoralists.
In the post-Second-World-War period the newly independent bourgeois nationalist regimes, in order to hold onto their political independence and to protect their economy from western imperialist penetration, leaned on the Soviet Union and got the necessary support. These countries, without joining either the imperialist or the socialist camp, built up the platform of non-aligned movement, which was aimed at reaping benefits from both the camps through bargaining in order to consolidate their native capitalism. But with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the socialist camp these countries became vulnerable to penetration by the transnational corporations. India, long considered an ally of the poor developing countries in their fight against imperialist penetration, joined the western imperialist camp to fulfil its own imperialist ambition. The resistance of the third world countries got severely weakened.
To understand the alignment of forces of change and/or of reaction and to correctly chart out our course in this critical juncture, and to comprehend why we should toil ‘to make national unity attractive’, let us go back into history, a little bit. The aim is to describe the workings of the crisis in imperialist economy – excess capital and shrinking of market. It is to show, as well, that the number of competitors in the world trade system is getting more while the market is being progressively squeezed. It is at this critical juncture that the Sudan, without much of strategic thinking, attempts to enter the WTO and at the same time trys to abandon the US$ system: What a contradition?
1 The Second World War ended with the victory of the social forces of change, at the time, over the fascist powers. The post-war period was marked by a surge of popular struggles for emancipation. The Soviet Union, under Stalin, emerged as a leading light in the world struggle for emancipation. Socialism was freed from the bounds of one country and was transformed to a world system, as an alternative to the capitalist system. Socialist states were established in the countries of Eastern Europe, in China, Korea, Vietnam, Cuba. In the nonsocialist countries, victorious liberation movements and anti-imperialist struggles liberated the African and Latin American colonies, one after another.
2 The imperialist powers, being politically concerned that capitalism was weakened, about losing a large part of the world market, and that intense market crisis gripped the capitalist world market. Also, in the post-Stalin period, revisionism established a firm grip on the leadership of the Soviet Communist Party, and the downward slide began, ultimately leading to the dismantling of socialism in the 1990s and establishment of capitalism in Soviet Russia.
3 China also, after the demise of Comrade Mao Ze-Dong, turned back from the socialist path and ultimately capitalism was restored there. The restorationist movement of the capitalist bourgeoize in Russia and China, was accompanied by the disappearance of the socialist working-class institutions of state control. The event gave a new lease of life to imperialism by expanding their domain of world market exploitation.
4 The neo-imperialists gleefully proclaimed that:
4.1 The disappearance of Soviet Russia, as the ‘evil empire’, means that the main danger for war and threat to world peace has disappeared from the scene.
4.2 They claimed that the world has become unipolar; and that the world market is now integrated into a single entity, in which all the countries will have opportunities for growth and prosperity.
4.3 They aggressively paraded slogans of privatization, globalization and liberalization. It was toutered that these economic policy measures supported by the twin bretton woods institutions (IBRD and IMF) would open the doors to unfettered progress of the whole of humanity.
5 However, as these golden dreams were being peddled to a confused populace, crisis in the capitalist-imperialist economy further intensified. This is, presumably, a result of the inherent contradiction in the capitalist system.
6 The analysis is as follows: for the propensity of the rate of profit to fall, spectacular technological advances were not only time-savors which increased the productive capacity many times over, but were giving reason for the purchasing power of the people to be continuously squeezed by capitalst firms having contradictory 'anarchic' production and pricing policies and practices. Competition between the imperialist powers for shares in the shrinking world market has become more and more fierce.
6.1 At first (1950-1970s) the USA was the unquestioned leader in the imperialist camp because of its economic and military strength. The economic domination of USA is now (2000 +) being challenged. The European Union (EU) and Japan have emerged as contenders. Capitalist Russia, after getting over the initial chaos following the overthrow of the socialist system, is trying to expand its sphere of economic and political influence.
6.2 To counter this the USA, by extending the NATO eastwards, is trying to militarily encircle Russia, just like ‘the containment strategy’ of 1950s and 1960s.
6.3 China, after being converted to a capitalist state through counter-revolution, is also flexing its muscle to emerge as a global economic force and to assert its dominance in South Asia. To counter the Chinese domination USA is trying to form a bloc with India and other countries like Australia, Japan, Israel.
6.4 Thus, one could see that the number of competitors is getting more while the market is being progressively squeezed. This is the crisis in imperialist economy – excess capital and shrinking of market.
7 Globalization is a desperate attempt of capitalist-imperialism to come out of the crisis in the capitalist economic system. GATT and WTO came into being as crisis management measures to somehow patch up a regulated trade system and division of market according to strength of capital. However, gobalization has completely failed to meet the crisis that is rocking the capitalist world. Industrial growth in all the capitalist countries, including the advanced countries, has slowed down; there is severe recession, widespread unemployment, rise of poverty, and slashing of social welfare measures. With each passing day it is becoming increasingly clear that the real objective of globalization, privatization and liberalization is to squeeze the last drop of blood from the impoverished workers and to establish the all-round domination of the western imperialist powers over the underdeveloped world.
8 WTO is a tool in the hands of USA and other big imperialist powers to pressurize the weaker nations to open up their markets for unrestricted loot and plunder and to allow the imperialists to have free access to their resources. In the name of ‘reforms’, they are forcing the weaker countries to remove subsidies and lift all barriers against penetration of foreign goods and capital, but at the same time they themselves are preserving subsidies and resisting external penetration into their own market. The economy of the poor countries depends a lot on agriculture, but their agricultural products cannot compete with the heavily subsidized products from the advanced countries.
9 Further, imperialism is exerting its control over the agriculture of these countries by making them dependent on imported seeds, genetically engineered products and fertilizers. Privatization-globalization-liberalization is used as instruments of the imperialist strategy. Opening up of the market, privatization and structural reforms dictated by the World Bank and IMF are impoverishing the people and are leading to a stark polarization between the rich and the poor. Not only is the difference between the rich and the poor increasing within each country, but the gap between rich and poor nations is also widening. But as the exploitation is getting more, so also is the people’s resentment towards globalization increasing not only in the poorer countries, but also in the advanced capitalist countries. Within USA itself people’s opposition to globalization is growing. American capital instead of being invested in local industry is exported abroad to manufacture goods using the cheap labour power and resources of those countries. This is leading to closing down of US-based-local-industry, resulting in widespread retrenchment and unemployment.
10 Lenin pointed out more than one hundred years ago that it is the crisis in capitalism that poses the greatest danger to world peace and is the basic cause that leads to wars. In today’s globalized world all the capitalist-imperialist countries are engaged in trade wars, with each one trying to obstruct penetration by the others into its own market, while demanding unrestricted right to enter into others’ markets. Bitter disputes are coming out into the open between the three major imperialist groupings, USA, European Union and Japan, each trying to expand their shares in the global market and thereby multiplying their political influence. China is sneeking-in from a small 'window' left ajar to vent hot air. On the other hand the fissure between the developed countries and the resurgent capitalist countries are becoming wider. The latter are trying to group together to oppose the agenda of the G8 countries. In this scenario of deep division and bitter fight between them, all the imperialist countries have the compulsion to constantly strive to enlarge their own reserve markets.
11 Another point to take note of is that in the recessive capitalist world market today the military establishments, because of their status-quo functions in support of the ruling class, are the richest and chief consumers all over the world. For artificial stimulation of the sagging economy, the capitalist states of both the imperialist and developing countries are taking recourse to militarization of the economy and society. Thus, buying and selling of arms, including their clandistine proliferation into the hands of civilians, have become a major international trade. Hence, for release of stockpiles of arms, engineering local and partial wars, fomenting army-based coups, propping up military dictatorships, have become a compulsive necessity of imperialism as well as of the reactionary elite of the third world. Side by side, the sharpening contradiction among the imperialist powers is making arms-flows a real danger and high-risk. It brings them very close to military confrontation over missles in East Europe, the new ‘bay-of-pigs’. Increasing militarization of economies of the imperialist powers is accentuating this contradiction and is leading to outbreaks of war.