General Hamdi and the Comedian Yasser Al-Atta
Zuhair Al-Sarraj
I kept listening to the Assistant Commander-in-Chief of the Sudanese Army, Yasser Al-Atta’s nonsense, and reading the reactions to his statements, attempting to write without being too critical of what he says because I used to -and still- think that he is a crazy, mentally unstable person, or someone who follows the trends like the girls and boys of (Tik Tok), perhaps he is like many in the military who think that (the gun) is the basis of governance and not reason, education, sound planning, and correct policies, etc.
Therefore, I didn’t comment on his buffoonery, nonsense, and crude talk that exposes what he holds inside, particularly since the war broke out he has been playing the role of the stupid comedian with enviable merit, coming out to address people from time to time threatening the rebel militia with a crushing defeat and promising the people who are suffering from the woes of the war and its repercussions to end the war, sometimes in six hours, then (a week or two) without his prophecy coming true, until the expected period to end the war finally reached (1000 years), and no one knows how many more years or centuries he will announce to us in the next comedic chapter!
And if I lost my memories of everything, I will never forget the exciting comedic segment in which he killed us with laughter at one time, advising citizens to stay away from their homes (by a house or two) or (by a wall by two) so that the Army can destroy the homes over the heads of the Rapid Support Forces without harming the citizens.
Fairly recently, he was speaking about the theory of the Commander-in-Chief of the Army staying in power and sitting at the head of the State for (four or five electoral cycles), and am not clear on why (five cycles) specifically and not for life, or does he hope to take his place after that ? Is such a lunatic worthy of a response ?!
Against the background of the theory of continuously staying in power and the superiority of the Military race over the human race by the scholar who knows the command of God (Yasser bin Abdul Rahman bin Al-Atta), our colleague, the distinguished writer (Ramzi Al-Masry), says, in regards to the reason behind Sudan’s corruption and loss, in his very valuable book (Years in the Paths of the Military and Politics), the (retired) General Hamdi Jaafar, one of the righteous sons of (Abri), and someone who spent long years in the corridors of the military and politics, utilized all his professionalism to unerringly point out the source of the disease that had afflicted the rule in Sudan since independence until today.
Hamdi describes in an exciting narrative some details of his life before joining the Military Academy when he was a high school student in one of Khartoum’s schools, and his keenness to spend his annual vacations in his hometown (Abri), where he used to travel from Khartoum by the Halfa Express train, riding on the roof of the train, and in the best case scenario, riding in third class, or crammed into one of the train’s corridors crowded with passengers, then riding the back of the lorry from (Wadi Halfa) to (Abri), being very happy because he would be spending his vacation among his peers and friends, playing in the sea or playing football during the day, then spending their evenings at the club.
But let’s see what happened to him when he decided to visit his hometown after graduating from the Military Academy with the rank of lieutenant officer with one star on his shoulder, before joining the military.
The young officer refused to ride the Halfa Express train except in the sleeping class or first class at worst, and after arriving in Wadi Halfa, he refused to ride on the back of the lorry and insisted on sitting next to the driver (on the front seat) despite the presence of a number of elderly men and women on the back of the lorry, and upon arriving in Abri, he couldn’t spend time with his friends and peers as he used to do!
Hamdi wondered to himself.. What happened to him ? And what is this big change in his life ? What is this pride that he began to feel after he became an officer in the Sudanese Army ?!
He answers, that he wasn’t happy with this sudden change in his life that happened without his conscious desire, but rather because of what their minds were fed during their studies at the Military Academy, that they -the Army officers- are first-class citizens, while the rest of the people are below them. (End of General Hamdi’s quote)!
“There is no doubt that General (Hamdi’s) words embody for us exactly the real problem that Sudan has been suffering from because of the curriculum at the Military Academy that graduates officers who believe they are above everyone else, created to rule, and for others to obey them, to fulfill their orders and desires.”!
An officer graduates from the Military Academy with a firm belief that he is above everyone else, looking at the rest of the people as mere objects that don’t understand anything, and that he alone possesses the intellectual and reins of love for the homeland, willing to sacrifice for it, so he is the only one who has the right to rule and have the final say in the affairs of the State and its fate !!
After reading the book (Years in the Paths of Military and Politics), I became certain that one of the most important duties for reforming Sudan (after the war) is to review and revise the curriculum taught in the Military Academy and to amend it in a way that is consistent with the interests of the nation and the people!
What I am trying to say isn’t to detract from the Military Institution, but rather an attempt to uncover the sources of the infection in this Army. We want to build a patriotic Army that respects its people and doesn’t despise those who necessarily bear the burden of building the nation side by side with the national Army!
Thanks to General Hamdi for the frank admission of the corruption of the Military Academy’s curriculum, but Yasser’s problem is much bigger than the curriculum. A curriculum of stupidity and nonsense.
“AL-Jareeda” Newspaper
