Civil forces in Sudan are the ones who lost their revolution

The counter-revolutions are still waging their fierce war against the revolutions of the Arab peoples. After burying the revolutions in Syria, Libya and Yemen, they marched north on Tunisia, the cradle of the Arab Spring revolutions, to make the birthplace of the Arab Spring its cemetery where it would become forgotten. Now it has reached south, to Sudan, in order to eliminate the remaining hope in the hearts of the Arab people in their revolutions, so that they do not revolt against their rulers again.

However,  does the blame fall solely on the counter-revolution, which is being managed from Abu Dhabi with the help of the Mossad, or do the leaders of the Arab revolutions and those who are called elites share in that blame and contribute, even if unintentionally, in burying their revolution?

Without a doubt, they are also responsible for the loss of their revolutions. Rather, they bear the greatest responsibility, and, today, I am focusing on the latest failures of the Arab revolutions, Sudan, and the recent coup of Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, against the civil forces that allied with him after the revolution of the Sudanese people in January 2019 against the tyrant Hassan Omar Al-Bashir and his dictatorial regime that ruled for 30 years. The revolution was led, at the time, by the Freedom and Change forces, which is a political component that consists of professionals and a strong alliance of national consensus and the opposition union, but the communists and the left-wing, in general, took control of it, and they reduced the revolution to them. They spoke in its name, considering themselves the ones with the resonant voices, but the goods they are promoting are outdated.

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However, they are arrogant and live in ivory towers, towering over the people who they believe should submit to them and be ruled by them, even if by force. They believe that this cannot happen without allying with the army, so they hurried to it to be under its umbrella to get its protection instead of under the umbrella of the people, who they despise and degrade, not believing in referring to their will in free and fair elections. This is because they are aware of their actual size in the Sudanese streets and, therefore, will not win through the ballot boxes and will not achieve their dream of ruling Sudan. So, their desires aligned with that of the army, which overthrew their senior leader and commander in order to extinguish the popular revolution that almost overthrew them all.

The revolution supporters had hoped to completely uproot the military from the soil of politics and demand a purely civilian government, but the communists hindered this path, shielded themselves behind the military, and agreed to share power with it. They justified this to themselves and the numerous supporters of the revolution that the communists rode in and stole the revolution from its supporters, by saying it is a transitional period for the stability of the country, after which full political life and democracy will return. It is ironic that when the Military Council, whose generals, headed by Abdul-Fattah Al-Burhan, pretended that they were supporters and protectors of the revolution, announced that the transitional period would last one year in an attempt to court and reassure the people, they feared for themselves and then demanded that it be extended to two years. Then they asked for it to be increased to four years, and they got what they wanted.

The communists used the revolution as a ladder to reach power, and their first and last concern was to take revenge on their political opponents, specifically the Islamist movement that had ruled the country since the Al-Turabi revolution in 1989, which was also handed over to the military (Al-Bashir and his military aides). Therefore, they imprisoned their opponents, confiscated their money, fired them from their jobs and established infamous committees known as the “removal of empowerment” committees, whose mission is to dismiss officials who were appointed during Al-Bashir’s rule from state institutions and important vital facilities, to replace them with their own supporters.

The civilian component was preoccupied with settling its scores with its Islamist opponents and deviated from the Sudanese nation’s Muslim identity. It changed school curriculums to suit its beliefs and Marxism, deleted everything that pertained to the Islamic identity, cracked down on mosques, closed Quran schools and Islamic relief centres that help Muslims in need, in Sudan and other afflicted Islamic countries, etc. it is as if the goal of their revolution was to take revenge on the Islamic trend, which reached the extent of being openly hostile to Islam itself, not to get rid of the tyrannical dictatorship and establish a healthy political life in which the Sudanese citizen enjoys freedom, human dignity and social justice. This is what the revolutionary masses took to the streets for. Instead of solving the economic crises and fighting corruption, they dragged the country into new economic crises, while corruption became more rampant in the past two years, during which the Military Council participated in governance.

The Military Council, headed by Al-Burhan, took advantage of this political adolescence and the fierce spirit of revenge within the civil forces and left them to abuse the Islamists and beat them to death without any rejection or objection. This was to weaken the entire civilian component in the country and make the people fed up with them, especially with the escalation of their living crisis, in which the military played a hidden role from behind the scenes. They wanted the masses to take to the streets in angry demonstrations so that salvation would be at the hands of the military and the saviour would be Abdul Fattah Al-Burhan. This is at the time when he established the pillars of his government over the past two years and solidified his relations with the countries of the region that support the rule of the military. He was also granted blessings from Abu Dhabi and the full support of Israel, as there has been news of a delegation of senior Sudanese army officers visiting Israel two weeks before the coup and they were given the green light from Israel. This is confirmed by reports from Israel’s Walla!, that US President Joe Biden’s administration to take advantage of its distinguished relations with General Al-Burhan in order to return Hamdok and his ministry and to release the detainees.

It is really unfortunate and disgraceful that the Sudanese army, the country of the “Three No’s”: no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with Israel, as announced at the Arab League summit in Khartoum in 1967, is the friend, ally and mastermind of the military rule!

It is worth noting that all Western governments condemned the military coup except for Israel, which did not follow in their footsteps, thus giving the impression that its leaders supported Al-Burhan’s coup.

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While the communists were heedless and in their euphoria with their victory over the Islamists, Al-Burhan struck them with his coup. He declared a state of emergency in the country, dissolved the Sovereignty Council, arrested the Prime Minister and a large number of ministers affiliated with them, and overthrew their attorney general, whom they appointed to take revenge on their opponents. He also released the top official in the former government, Ibrahim Ghandour, and dissolved their retaliatory committee known as the removal of empowerment committee. They foolishly thought they have in their hands the constitutional document that gives them the right to remove Al-Burhan.

In his first statement to the Russian Sputnik news agency, Abdel-Fattah Al-Burhan described the measures taken by the Sudanese armed forces and the decisions he took as “a correction of the course and the transition process.” He denied it was a coup, as all military officials never see the tank that brought them to power as a coup but, instead, that the tank brought them to save the country and the people. He also mentioned to the same new agency that the government of Abdullah Hamdok was unable to address the crises in the country.

The Sudanese military reluctantly accepted the participation of civilians in the government, until the revolution was emptied of its content and its embers faded after having almost burned the military. They waited until the storm passed and then they returned to seize power on their own. The military does not like having a partner in government. Were the communists unaware of this or were they blinded by greed, opportunism, stupidity, and hatred against the Islamists?

They were a catastrophe for the Sudanese people, and they lost their great revolution.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.