A Childish Question: Why do you hate SAF ?

Frequently asked questions in the context of commenting on my writings about the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF)! Making public issues personal is political immaturity and intellectual incompetence. If my positions on public affairs were controlled by personal considerations and interests, I wouldn’t have the slightest problem with the Sudanese Army! Because ethnically speaking, I belong to the privileged groups, granted high ranks in the Army!

I have dear relatives on my mother’s and father’s sides who are officers in the Sudanese Army, some of whom are still in service! Despite the aforementioned facts, I believe this Army is a troubled institution that ought to be rebuilt, or at the very least needs fundamental structural reforms that lead to gradual reconstruction for reasons I have detailed in a number of previous articles.

Criticizing the Sudanese Army doesn’t necessarily equal hostility and hatred towards any individual who has belonged to this institution, whether an officer, a soldier, or a Division commander.

Certainly, there are respectable, honest, patriotic and competent individuals who served in the Sudanese Army; however, the dilemma lies in the “mind of the Military Institution,” its methods of operation, and the network of internal and external interests associated with as well as controlling it. The mortal blow in the era of the Islamists is the gross politicization and partisan dominance!

This particular dilemma is what made the Sudanese Army the largest project draining the national wealth, and at the same time the vast majority of its soldiers and junior officers are impoverished, in addition to suffering from hardships!! They, as a result, are the ones with a significant interest in reforming the Army!

This dilemma is the reason behind the Sudanese Army’s failure in performing its basic function of “monopolizing violence on behalf of the State within a constitutional and legal framework”. Instead, it became a factory for producing militias or in the best-case scenario, allied with them, relying on their services to confront civil wars!

This dilemma is what prompted the Sudanese Army to carry out aerial bombardment attacks targeting the Sudanese citizens with barrel bombs and prohibited weapons!

This dilemma is the reason why the Sudanese citizen -in his home- finds himself to be on the receiving end of stray bullets, shells and aircraft attacks, as he is either killed in a heinous manner or is displaced with significant difficulty and humiliation, even though he paid the price for all the military equipment purchased -originally- to protect him, not to kill and terrorize him in a power struggle!

This dilemma is the reason for turning the Sudanese Army into “An armed political party,” whose soldiers chant political slogans, such as; “Affiliates of the (FFC), you are a pile of ashes” and “Belonging to (Al-Baraa), O Messenger of Allah.”

The Sudanese Army’s dilemma is part of Sudan’s chronic political and economic dilemma, there is no progress or development without acknowledging all the flaws of our military and civilian institutions alike, however, the problem is the fence of sanctity that strictly prohibits the utterance of any words of criticism of the Sudanese Army!

The Army, gentlemen, is a public service institution (Public service in the modern State is civil and military services). The relationship between the citizen and the citizenry with public service institutions has no room for love and hate or loyalty and disavowal, rather, its a relationship governed by constitutional rights and duties.

The citizen is the taxpayer and owner of the national wealth that funds public service institutions whose duty is to serve the citizen in their field of expertise. The citizen has the right to measure the quality of the services they provide to him using objective standards.

The culture of oppression and backwardness prevails in our society, which coupled with projects of tyranny and rampant military corruption; has instilled in the minds of the Sudanese people that the Army, by virtue of having weapons in its hand and being able to kill, is a conqueror over the Sudanese as well as the owner of the State and homeland, including the residents and resources. Hence, any criticism of the Army is blatant blasphemy that takes its owner out of the fold of patriotism and deprives him of his inherent right to have a homeland, as he turns into a traitor!

The Sudanese Army has acquired immunity and sanctity that isn’t based on any logic other than the logic of force, and unfortunately this logic has a significant cultural incubator in society due to ignorance, backwardness and the culture of violence, even in the modern sector there is a lack of democratic culture and significant collusion between some currents on the legitimacy of rule based on the power of weapons in addition to a certain level of glorification that surrounds those who carry arms.

We ought to always keep in mind that armies that are immune to criticism and paint themselves as demi or full gods are the armies that mostly suffer military defeats, in addition to being the least efficient and professional.

The mightiest armies in the world are those of democratic countries where the Army steers clear of political conflict and is committed to implementing the decisions of the democratically elected government.