Round Table Conference to Save the Homeland

Dr. Elshafie Khidir Saeid

The political process in Sudan is starting to gain a significant momentum as it reached a new phase towards signing the framework agreement between the Freedom & Change Forces/Central Council (FFC/CC) and the military leaders. The new phase is overwhelmed by confusion and turmoil although the current results and conclusions are expected. Some among the Sudanese may be right in their doubts that the surface and the exterior of the political scene do not coincide with its interior, but again and in all cases the outcome is expected. However, it is not difficult to identify & classify the general dynamics as well as the actors of this boiling scene. There are those actors who reject, from the beginning, the political negotiating settlement with the military and insist that they are not concerned with its results, although I believe that these results will inevitably affect their plans and tactics. Some other actors accept the negotiating settlement, but they adamantly do not accept to be merely a follower of what others decide, and they want to be part of the decision making process. A third group of actors behave as a guiding or a leading political spearhead, although our experience says that such behavior could lead to serious damage in the political process.

I think we are all aware of the existence of a large bloc of the forces of the revolution, including the civil society bloc, who are fully in support of the negotiating political process, but they remain outside the process, because the structure, or the design, of the process, which is in the hands of the FFC/CC, is not acceptable to them. The FFC/CC has the right to culminate its understandings with the military by signing the framework document. But this document will remain and continue to be a property for the two parties only, unless the FFC/CC starts an active process of conducting a dialogue with the largest number of other political and revolutionary forces to join and sign the document. Only then, the framework document will gain greater strength and weight. However, and in all cases, the document can be an introduction, a first station, or a paper among other papers presented to the coming dialogue mechanisms that will be proposed by the political process under the facilitation of the UNITAMS mission. Among these coming mechanisms, UNITAMS may suggest convening a round table conference that includes all the components of the revolution to elaborate on the framework document and to address the dangerous situation the country is going through nowadays, which is becoming even more dangerous due to the fragmentation and divisions among the political components of the country. The weapon of the blazing embers of the revolution and the bravery of the resistance committees, despite its effectiveness and having a primary role, will not alone be able to resolve and win the battle, which requires more than one weapon and several types of ammunition.

Finally, and as we have always said, if the end goal of the negotiating political process is limited to power sharing between the negotiating parties, then the crisis will continue to be there if not multiplied. And as we have learned from the lessons of history, it is the people’s dreams which occupy their position at the top of the agenda of the leaders that build human civilization. But the moment that these dreams fall from the priorities of the agendas of those leaders or they become unable to respond to them, or they put them in a lower position in relation to their partisan and private agendas, human civilization is cracked.