Al Burhan and the Falsehood of Power

Al-Jameel Al-Fadil

Be it intentionally or unintentionally, General Al-Burhan has been wading into a mysterious mirage since his rise to power, which I can call “the zone of the falsehood of power.”

The important thing to note is that, since General Al-Burhan flew to Entebbe, Uganda, on the 3rd of February 2020 to meet with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he has been outside his constitutional powers. Since that date, he has been kicking around his favorite game, the “Draft Constitutional Declaration,” by virtue of which he became the head of the Transitional Sovereignty Council, and which he claims to this day that he rules according to its legitimacy, until Al-Burhan addressed the “General Assembly” recently in the name of the same supposed legitimacy that he derives from this slandered draft itself. The same document that Al-Burhan actually tore up in front of witnesses, more than once, before his coup against it on the 25th of October 2021 and after. Even to this day it is still torn to pieces.

In any case, it seems that this general cannot exercise power except in this gray area that grants him almost absolute powers without limits, in which case he doesn’t accept to be bound by a document, agreement or law.

In addition to the fact that Al-Burhan’s rule, which represents -at its best so far- the description of a “De facto Authority,” simultaneously, we find him misrepresenting the facts of this reality on a daily basis and refusing to recognize them, even if people have accepted the “de facto” as a determinant and standard, which is enough for an incomplete recognition of this general’s authority, that is based in reality on the weapons and power he possesses only, no more and no less.

Perhaps one of the latest manifestations of the “Burhan phenomenon” in contradicting reality and not respecting it, not even respecting the minds of those regarding whom he issues decisions; is his decision to appoint Mr. Bahar al-Din Adam Karama as governor of West Darfur state, a state completely under the control of the Rapid Support Forces.

The important thing is that every authority has a false authority, because authority, whatever its type, has a shadow, which sometimes narrows and other times expands. The Sudanese have become accustomed to describing the state of such a shadow as a “shadow of the forenoon” that can expand or recede, in accordance with the course of the sun’s movement and its changes.

Therefore, falling into the area of “false authority” creates in those whose authority has shrunk (receded) for one reason or another, a false feeling of being able to exercise the same authority that they had at the time of its extension and expansion, even if they subsequently lose this authority completely or partially by the root law, the law that would naturally make them lose the ability to exercise it in reality.

Rather, I imagine that the area of false power has a seasickness dizzy state about it, so you find those who fall into this fluctuating area, constantly involuntarily sensing the tools and peripheries of their authority, to at least make sure that the parties, manifestations and tools of this authority are still effective and present in their place and have not left it.

This sensitivity may sometimes take the form of statements and decisions that deviate from reason, logic and truth, such as the statements issued from time to time, especially by Generals Al-Burhan and Al-Atta.

Which sometimes reflect an image of hallucinations that reveal a kind of psychological alienation, in addition to facts in the biography of the two men, which in turn proves without a shadow of doubt to me the existence of some kind of separation between these two generals and reality.