A realistic review of the Sudan Founding Alliance (3-3)

The ideological guard of old Sudan and the mouthpieces of the Center launched an attack and criticized the Sudan Founding Alliance by focusing on the popular movement based on unrealistic assumptions as well as vulgar, emotional and mobilizing rhetorics before taking a moment to review the Founding Charter and Transitional Constitution of the Republic of Sudan for the year (2025). While we respect their opinion and position, regardless of what both entails, it is rather ridiculous that their criticism isn’t based on objective grounds.

In the third and final part of the article, I will highlight the most important goals and gains that the popular movement and its allies in the Sudan Founding Alliance were able to achieve by focusing on the Transitional Constitution of the Republic of Sudan for the year (2025).

This constitution addressed the roots of the problem clearly and stipulated the most important constitutional and foundational issues that the founding fathers and political elites failed to address since the dawn of independence. I will mention a few in this article, as an example, however, they aren’t limited to:

First: The National Identity of the State:

In the first Chapter; (Nature of the State) of the Transitional Constitution of the Republic of Sudan for the year (2025) in Article (4), paragraphs (1 – 2 – 3) it is stated that Sudan is a secular, democratic, decentralized State with a Sudanese identity based on:

1. Separation of religion from the State.
2. Separation of cultural, ethnic and regional identities from the State.
3. Equal citizenship as a basis for rights, freedoms and duties.

For the first time in the history of Sudan, a constitutional provision has been clearly and explicitly stipulated addressing and dealing with the issue of national identity in a radical and objective manner, because the components of the Sudan Founding Alliance are aware of the nature of the problem and realize that the wars that have been raging and are still being waged in Sudan with all their consequences, violations and atrocities of killing, genocide, forced displacement, asylum and human tragedy, in addition to the growth and prevalence of hate speech to the point that a Sudanese man slaughters and slits the throat of another Sudanese citizen like himself, eats his entrails and mutilates his corpse while praising God; amounts to no more than manifestations of the real problem, which is the conflict of identity.

Moreover, and due to the conflict of identity, the State has previously killed more than two million citizens of South Sudan and pushed a dear part of the country to secede. For the same racist reason, the State declared jihad against the Nuba people and committed genocide against the non-Arab in the Darfur region.

By agreeing on the Sudanese identity, the Sudan Founding Alliance has succeeded in redefining the national identity on an objective and logical basis acceptable to all components of Sudan, and has transcended the exclusionary, unilateral identity that was forcibly imposed on the people of Sudan, an identity based primarily on the fallacy and denial of the facts of historical and contemporary diversity.

What has been agreed upon in this article represents the vision of the popular movement to address the issue of national identity and expresses its presentation of the theory of unity in diversity -in the face of the theory of the melting pot; which represents the old Sudanese path and its biases that can be noted clearly in the curricula of education, media, laws and foreign policy.

The primary mission of Sudanese diplomacy in all the governments and regimes that have ruled Sudan has remained based on extracting Sudan from its African context, defining and presenting it to the world as an Arab Islamic State, which -in a way- explains the secret behind appointing employees of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the staff of Sudanese Embassies and Diplomatic Missions whose complexions and ethnic affiliations are consistent with the nature of the primary mission of Sudanese diplomacy.

Second: The Relationship Between Religion and the State:

For the first time as well, it is explicitly stated in the Constitution that Sudan is a secular democratic State based on the separation of religion from the State. This constitutional text has radically settled the long fallacies and sterile debates in regards to the issue, and prevented the politicization of religion and its intrusion into the public sphere (the separation of temporal authority from spiritual authority).

The ‘Jallaba’ institution (the rich) continued to use religion as a tool in the political conflict to perpetuate oppression and subjugation, they imposed religion as one of the determinants of national identity, as a primary source of legislation in Sudan, thus creating an arsenal of laws to subjugate the religious, cultural and ethnic other, humiliate the marginalized majority and protect historical privileges. Therefore, it was necessary to prevent the ruling minority constitutionally from using this card for leverage.

Third: The text of the Supra-constitutional Principles in (Article 7) of the Transitional Constitution of the Republic of Sudan for the year (2025) is considered an advanced step towards achieving constitutional stability for the first time, and with this particular step we have drawn inspiration from the experiences and precedents of many countries, people and nations that have learned and gained knowledge from their bitter experiences, similar to that of Sudan, for we were able to overcome them by agreeing on Supra-constitutional Principles as provisions and rules of a higher rank than the Constitution, binding and trans-generational, immune from annulment, amendment or suspension even by the majority.

The Transitional Constitution also stipulated that in case any of the Supra-constitutional Principles are undermined, each region has the right to resist and resort to exercising the right to self-determination, because the main goal of the Supra-constitutional Principles in any country that has agreed on them is to guard against the tyranny of the rulers and the despotism of the majority, as one of the constitutional law scholars in the United States of America -the country with the oldest and first written Constitution in the world- stated: “Our entire constitutional heritage revolves around the idea of not granting the State any power to control the mind and conscience of the individual”.

Here lies the secret of the United States’ progress and superiority over all countries of the world to become a superpower thanks to its ability to manage diversity, plurality and agree on Supra-constitutional Principles embodied in (the Bill of Rights) in the American Constitution, which uses the term (Inalienable Rights) instead of (Supra-constitutional Principles).

A constitutional law expert in the United States also stated, confirming that Supra-constitutional Principles are binding and trans-generational: “The founders of the United States of America were intellectually free people who fled the hell of tyranny and intellectual despotism of kings and priests in the Middle Ages in Europe, hence – Would they have left room for future generations to deviate towards tyranny again ?!” He continued: “The first legislators opened a door to freedom, and why wouldn’t they ?! The legislators who came later won’t be able to close it in any way”.

Fourth: Article (46), paragraphs (1-2-3) of the Transitional Constitution stipulated the principle of justice, historical accountability, truth, and reconciliation procedures, however, not in light of the experience of the CODESA Conference in South Africa, as Imam Sadiq Al-Mahdi wanted to ignore the victims and make light of their just cause.

The law determines, according to the Transitional Constitution, the forms, levels and means of achieving justice and historical accountability, which includes the International Criminal Court (ICC) -a body that ensures there will be no impunity for crimes committed against the homeland and the citizen, as well as guarantees retribution for the victims.

Fifth: Article (92): Regular Agencies:

This article addressed the issue of establishing a new, unified national Army. A professional and national Army with a new national military doctrine, provided that its composition reflects all the regions of Sudan on the basis of fair population distribution, is independent of any ideological loyalty or political, partisan or regional affiliation. The Transitional Constitution specified that the role of the national Army is limited to protecting the country, its territories and national Sovereignty, protecting the Sudanese people and the secular democratic system, ensuring that human rights and fundamental freedoms are respected, in addition to protecting the constitutional system, without interfering in political or economic affairs.

This particular article clearly defined the formation of the national Army, its military doctrine and its tasks so that the Sudanese people can rest assured that its a national Army that represents them all, and not an ideological and politicized Army utilized by the ruling minority as a tool for oppression, legitimizing violence and guarding historical privileges.

Sixth: Article (6) of the Transitional Constitution states: (The unity of Sudan is based on voluntary unity and the free will of its peoples, respect for ethnic, religious and cultural diversity and plurality, as well as equality amongst all individuals and people in rights and duties).

This article has laid a solid foundation for an attractive form of unity that every Sudanese citizen can be proud of and defend as a just unity, however, those who insist on the old forced unity alone are the true separatists because unity isn’t established by oppression and racism.

The gist of the matter is, the Transitional Constitution of the Republic of Sudan for the year (2025) has answered all the constitutional and foundational questions that have remained unspoken since (1956). It addressed the roots of the Sudanese issue clearly, worked to include all the political, social and economic rights of the marginalized people, and stipulated equal citizenship as the basis for the rights, freedoms and duties of Sudanese citizens without discrimination. Thus, this Transitional Constitution has laid the foundation for a social contract, established a new basis for accepting coexistence amongst all Sudanese people, and paved the way for comprehensive and just peace.

Therefore, the popular movement, with its presence as a major force and a heavyweight player in the Sudan Founding Alliance, is proceeding with confident steps in the struggle to achieve the New Sudan project that it has put forth diligent efforts in order to attain for more than forty years and won’t deviate from achieving that goal.

With this Transitional Constitution, the Sudan Founding Alliance, as the largest political and military alliance in the history of the Sudanese political movement, has succeeded in putting the ball in the court of the marginalized people, the forces of change, and all those affected by the current situation in Sudan, so they can seize this opportunity and stand on the right side of history to gain the honor of contributing to restoring Sudan’s founding platform and building a new, unified Sudan that accommodates everyone.