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Al-Ahram Weekly 21 - 27 October 1999 Issue No. 452 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 21 - 27 October 1999 Issue No. 452
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Round one to Turabi
By Mohamed SalehLast week's founding conference in Khartoum of Sudan's ruling National Congress (NC) Party reflected deep conflicts in the country's ruling Islamist elite and entrenched rivalry at the top of its power structure. While the conference, which was attended by some 10,000 delegates, confirmed the veteran politician Hassan Al-Turabi's leadership as secretary-general of the NC with considerable political and executive powers, Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir was only granted the honorary position of conference chairman with a promise of the nomination for another presidential term.
Supporters of the two rival leaders at the conference exchanged harsh accusations and even came to blows. However the various allegations, and stories of political violence that circulated in Khartoum prior to and during the conference, attracted the Sudanese people's attention and ensured that conference proceedings were raptly followed.
The conference was dominated by the implications of the "Memo of the Ten", a discussion document submitted to the NC leadership council last year by 10 of its leading members that aimed significantly to reduce Al-Turabi's power. A resolution was passed formally separating political, legislative and executive powers, and this resolution, which coincided with Al-Turabi's resignation from his position as speaker of parliament to devote his efforts to the NC, caused him immediately to withdraw his resignation in an effort to secure his position.
Such developments aggravated tensions between supporters of Al-Turabi and of Al-Bashir, leading to the expulsion of six of the ten signatories of the original memorandum from the NC leadership council following last week's conference. According to the prominent Islamist Hassan Mekki, the conference aimed to liquidate the 'ten' and has had the effect of reinforcing sectarian rather than a national politics as well as securing Al-Turabi's position.
As the conference drew to a close it was announced that Al-Bashir and Al-Turabi had settled their differences and had united in a single front to address the country's problems. However, the main outcome seems to be that while Al-Turabi has managed legally to extend his power in all directions, Al-Bashir has been seriously marginalised. "The conference was engineered in such a manner as to consolidate all powers in Al-Turabi's hands," Mekki commented.
According to other observers, Al-Turabi had been well-prepared for this outcome even before the conference began. One analyst commented that he had "toured all the regions of the Sudan to mobilise support and to make sure that the majority of conference delegates were his supporters". Moreover, since Al-Bashir has repeatedly attacked the opposition, ruling out the possibility of national reconciliation, Al-Turabi has been able to capitalise on his rival's stand to portray him as a 'hard-liner' and potential obstacle to the peaceful settlement of the political crisis in the Sudan.
Commentators also agree that the end of the conference heralds a new stage in the development of the Islamist movement in the Sudan. The movement, which has gone through many transformations since its inception in the Muslim Brotherhood, was restructured as the Islamic Convention Front (ICF) following the October 1964 popular uprising that toppled the military dictatorship of Ibrahim Aboud and subsequently became the National Islamic Front (NIF) after the April 1985 uprising that overthrew the regime of Gaafar Numeiri. In 1989, the NIF organised a military coup, led by current President Al-Bashir, which overthrew the democratically-elected government of Prime Minister Sadeq Al-Mahdi. The NIF, now under Al-Turabi's leadership, has since resumed its activity under the NC umbrella.
Al-Turabi waves to Sudanese crowds in Khartoum on Saturday after the ruling National Congress party's conference
(photo: AP)
"The forms that the Islamist movement has taken in the past have been either as an opposition party or as the smaller partner in a ruling coalition. However, the recent founding conference of the NC represents, regardless of which group is the winner, an advanced stage of its conversion into the ruling party of the state," said one analyst.
But the harvest of the past 10 years of Islamist rule is not encouraging. Economic hardship afflicts most of the population, while tales of corruption and of the misuse of public funds continue almost to surpass human imagination. In August this year, Al-Turabi told a meeting of senior figures in the party, the proceedings of which were later leaked to the media, that at least nine per cent of Islamist leaders were implicated in corruption. Reactions to this statement, while mixed, were agreed that the figure was far too low. "Al-Turabi has missed out a zero to the right of the nine," commented one independent Sudanese newspaper.
And conflicts within the Islamist movement are economic as well as political. According to the well-known Sudanese lawyer Mustafa Abdelgadir "a considerable number of Islamist leaders are currently in prison on financial charges", and he went on to say that corruption in the state apparatus was such that many of these cases went on to be tried by colleagues and partners of the Islamist figures.
Now that Al-Turabi has been successful in consolidating his power at the NC, one analyst commented that "Al-Bashir's role, together with that of other Islamist military leaders, seems to have come to a close -- at least in Al-Turabi's judgment." However, the NC will continue to face opposition to the one-party system legalised by the conference, and though Al-Turabi seems to have settled his struggle with Al-Bashir in his favour, many believe that this is just a temporary settlement, since the Sudanese president seems unwilling to admit defeat.
"Al-Bashir still has cards to play, especially the army, which he controls together with his defence minister General Abdelrahman Sirralkhatim," said one observer, while Ghazi Sulaiman, a prominent opposition figure based in Khartoum, commented that "there should be a distinction between a genuine democratic transformation and a false one directed by the government".
