قام الكاتب السوداني المعروف محمد عثمان إبراهيم مو، بترجمة مقال (1%) فقط لـلاستاذ (ضياء الدين بلال) من العربية إلى الإنجليزية، بعد أن لاقى تفاعلاً كبيراً وردود فعل واسعة من قبل القراء..
Hamdok’s Government: The Expatriates’
Consciousness and The Detached Sentiments*
By: Diaa Eldin Bilal
Translated by: Mohamed Osman Ibrahim
(1)
One of the recurring points in all of the media interviews with the Prime Minister Abdella Hamdok, is his persistent assertion that there is no need for foreign aid and gifts, and his repetition of references to the abundant capabilities and treasures enjoyed by Sudan unlike many other countries.
All of this is well noted, understood, and documented in our songs, poetry and geography lessons!
But what about the reality of the current situation?
Our country is the panhandler. We are those who are bashful with our eyes on the ground and our faces hid in shame!
(2)
There is no greater tragedy than poverty and deprivation of the basic necessities of life:
food and drink, education, healthcare, and an unimpaired laughter.
However, the misfortune is bigger, and the tragedy is greater when the poverty and deprivation are linked to the very existence of rich possibilities and wealth that had never been exploited or already been wasted in the frivolous projects of mess and experiments of waste. The Nile is lying down, and the gold is sticking it’s tongue out while stashed under the very feet of the poor.
The sorrow of our late poet Salah Ahmed Ibrahim, before Hamdok’s attention, is still on the wall of history:
The Nile and the treasures of the earth are there, but yet … but yet!
(3)
All the successive governments have not been able to surpass these accounts to actions that would have made the capabilities and wealth of Sudan reflected on the conditions of its citizens in forms of wellbeing, development and dignity.
Unfortunately, contrary to what the Prime Minister is repeating in his media utterances, Sudan is still waiting for favours and handouts. Is still begging the near and those who are far-flung to locate the simplest requisites of life!
For two years, the national budget has been held up waiting for an external conference of hypothetical donors, who are assumed (by the government) to be angels of mercy, good Samaritans, and charitable societies!
Dr. Ibrahim Elbadawi’s budget was betting on more than 50% on grants and loans.
After him came Dr. Heba with the same defeated and spurious expectation of getting her treasury filled with sustenance that would never come and promises that would never be fulfilled.
Out of all of those hopes and aspirations, the external support did not exceed 1% only!
(4)
Meanwhile, the ambassador of Queen Elizabeth of the UK in Khartoum, Mr Irfan Siddiq, kept changing and replenishing – conceitedly and arrogantly – the conditions of his country’s alleged and hence undetected support.
Trump and his Secretary of State Pompeo, while breathing out their last hours in reign, turn into enemies of Hamdok.
They made the normalization of relations with Israel a condition for delisting Sudan from the countries sponsoring terrorism!
In the meantime, Netanyahu expresses his pleasure in transforming the Khartoum’s famous THREE NOs (No reconciliation, no negotiation, and no recognition of Israel) into a free BIG YES in return for a handful of wheat flour!
The foreign aid of (FBI) was sought after to decipher the knots of the PM Hamdok’s alleged attempt of assassination and yet: nothing is new, as ambiguity remained the master of the situation.
The lawyer, Nabil Adeeb, (the head of the investigative committee on the dispersal of the National Army Command sit-in and the mass killing of protesters) decides that foreign expertise is needed!
The Ministry of Education – in a humiliating precedent – addressed the Western embassies seeking aid to meet the costs of printing the textbook!
On top of all, the helpless government is looking to share its management tasks of the state politics and administration, with an international mission of blue-eyed people and their hidden agendas!
Hamdok moves in his fascination with the experiences of the others from Ethiopia of the exodus and the Tigrayan war, to the communist Vietnam!
Even when asked by the television interviewer, Lamia Mutawakel, about his favourite football team, he smiles to say: Manchester United!
(5)
If, on the first day, Dr. Hamdok, directed the abilities of the youth to the work and production, it would have been better for him and his people.
If Dr. Hamdok had left his glass-made office and moved among the entities of society to infuse them with the spirit of contribution, Sudan would have been different from what it is now.
If Dr. Hamdok had chosen the real know-hows, not the partisan or counterfeit ones, then Sudan would have been in a more favourable position.
If Dr. Abdullah Hamdok left his obsession, as a UN expatriate employee, with the files of CEDAW, Women’s Day and Child Law, and proceeded in the direction of solving daily crises, our situation would have been less bad.
If he had pulled his head out from between the shoulders of his army of advisors and looked at the ranks of people (queuing for services) and the conditions of hospitals, he would have known that the situation could not wait for the sympathy of the donors.
If only Hamdok lend an ear to an elderly Kordofanian woman of wisdom whispering to him: do your job, son, and let whoever wants to assist meet you in the course of work!
If he lends an ear to Mahmoud Darwish, he would have heard him reciting: Stand on the corner of the dream and fight.
And finally,
The worst thing about Hamdok’s government is that it came to power with expatriates’ conscience and detached sentiments. A government that never look under its feet or between its hands but sees only that all the solutions lay in shells are beyond the oceans overseas!
* The title of the Arabic version of this essay was %1 Only.
Originally published in Alsudani daily
ضياء الدين بلال – صحيفة السوداني
