Celebrate the 48th Anniversary of Sudan’s Glorious October 1964 
Revolution & Take Lessons from it
By Mahmoud A. Suleiman
Sunday 21st October 2012 marks the 48th Anniversary of the Glorious Sudanese Revolution that toppled the Six– year dictatorial rule of the military junta led by General Ibrahim Abboud and enabled the Sudanese peoples to build democratic institutions and declare their Bill of Citizenship Rights and Duties. The Glorious October Revolution provided a living proof that firmness of purpose and joint alliance of students associations, trade unions of lawyers, medical doctors, university academics, judges, teachers and Sudan Workers Union, civil servants, professional bodies, general public members from the marginalised regions, civil society organisations, youth federations, Sudanese women’s Union and political parties nationwide were capable of making paranormal heroic sacrifices when had the will and wanted to do so.
On this timeless memorable National Occasion one salutes all the components of the Sudanese people inside and outside the country without discrimination and irrespective of individual’s ethnicity, gender, colour, belief, language, age, political affiliation, regional or tribal affiliation – each one wrapped up one’s Sudanese identity of Citizenship closely about oneself, to work together to remove our common enemy, the racist despotic National Congress Party (NCP) regime.
The October 1964 Revolution was triggered precipitated by the riot police storming an audience attending a Seminar on the Problem of the Southern Sudan hosted by the Khartoum University Students Union (KUSU) . That was on the night of the twentieth of October 1964. In the night referred to the riot police forces killed two students, late Ahmed al-Gurashi Taha from Garrasa village in the White Nile and Babiker Abdel hafiz from Wad-Duroo neighbourhood in Omdurman, along with one of the University of Khartoum labourers, named Mabior, from Southern Sudan. And in the morning of the twenty – first day of October 1964 was the outbreak of October Revolution, the news of which reached all parts of Sudan. Moreover, Singers, artists and musicians like late Artist Mohammed Wardi and Artist Mohammed al-Amin stirred enthusiasm and raised courage among the protesters. The ultimate result was the ousting of regime of General Ibrahim Abboud. However, the main reason for the October Revolution was the Sudanese people’s dislike of being ruled by military totalitarian regimes. At the era of outbreak of the October Revolution in Sudan in 1964 terms such as ‘Uprising’ and ‘Revolution’ were not heard of to many peoples in the Arab and African regions to which Sudan belongs geographically and/or politically. It sounds ironical that the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ has been dubbed to mark the popular uprisings in 2011 in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Libya and now in Syria; more than forty years after the Sudanese Glorious October Revolution of 1964. Here, the Sudanese people are virtually a revolutions pedagogue to other nations. This assertion is made in view to the fact that the Sudanese preceded those peoples in that respect for more than four decades. Having that being said, the immediate question that comes to mind would be as to why the Sudanese people’s revolution or Sudanese peoples ‘spring’, as some political analysts tend to call, against the most autocratic NCP regime is delayed despite the atrocious crimes it committed and continues to do so; the second question is about the factors that have played the role in the longevity of the regime, given all the available facts are against Islamism NIF pointing towards its demise, though continued to remain viable: To give plausible answers and address the factors helped the regime to live on, it is necessary to give some information on how the NIF came into power in Sudan and factors that helped.
The slogans Chanted by the National Islamic Front (NIF) when it seized power the 30th of June 1989 through a military coup d’état against a democratically elected government in Sudan during the Third Democratic Epoch were: “It is for God’s Sake; Not for Power & Not for Prestige” claiming that their programme was a “Civilisational Project and an Apostolic Orientation” . But the results of that lie were an autocratic dictatorial regime, Empowerment to acquire wealth by exploiting the public purse, suppression with brutality any opposition , waging never ending civil wars against the peoples of south of Sudan and Darfur, employing the doctrine of divide to rule through inciting intertribal prejudices to damage the social fabric. Very soon, the NIF showed its grim face which it concealed behind the mask of Islamic Religion which they have maligned. Knowing the instinctive devoutness of the average Sudanese citizen, NIF stroke the right chord to get the tune and played the religion card which was capable to lure very many citizens to believe the lie. NIF by its nature is devoid of morality. It utilized the Machiavellian Principle of ‘the End Justifies the Means’ without any scruples of conscience. The so-called Islamic Movement (IM) in Sudan with its countless denominations of Muslim Brotherhood (MB), Islamic Charter Front (ICF), National Islamic Front (NIF), National Salvation Revolution (NSR), Popular Congress Party (POP) and lastly and not the least the notorious National Congress Party (NCP), has been the cause of all the political woes and the scourges Sudanese people have been suffering. Those beasts deceived people by the use of formal religiosity manifestations such as chanting religious passages during speech, long goatee beards, shortening robes and the tendency to rant. Debauchery in rivalry is one of the most reprehensible of their morals; the sins, perhaps, makes the Satan who had been expelled from Mercy feeling embarrassed! Thus the NIF slogans went unheeded with the fall of the masks that were concealing their ills. Religiosity mania and trading with the Islamic religion which initially led the devout Sudanese people to believe the lie in the past have become obsolete and no longer capable to lure them. The Sudanese people have recognised and knew the degree of hypocrisy with which NIF has been practicing to cheat them.
The greatest witness to the lack of humanity and compassion among those who belonged to the membership of the Islamic Movement (IM) in Sudan is the unprecedented brutality with which the NCP regime carried out its ethnic cleansing, genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against the people of Sudan in the Darfur Region. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has indicted the establishment’s president Omer Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir and his aides that included the Defence Minister Abdel Rahim Mohammed Hussein, Governor of South Kordofan Ahmed Mohammed Haroun and the Militia leader Ali Mohammed Ali Abdurrahman Kosheib. All of them are fugitives remaining at large.
The Sudanese peoples in Darfur, Kordofan, Nuba Mountains, Southern blue Nile, Nubians in the far North, the Beja in the East, Central region (Gezira) people, those in the national capital Khartoum and the Sudanese in The Diaspora have said enough is enough and decided now to topple the heir of the NIF, the misnomer, the National Congress Party (NCP) regime and throw its remnants into the abyss of the history dustbin. That is the only option at the top of the goals of their struggle. It is onus on the Sudanese people to utilize the successful previously tried approach in the timeless immortal glorious October Revolution that called for a radical change to the political infrastructure and replacing it by a system based on rule of law, transparency and good governance. The NIF and its successive regimes did not leave any previous values of the Sudanese people, but completely destroyed. Moreover, the National Congress Party government sought to use humanitarian aid as part of their military strategies and considered it as trump card; mass starvation as a negotiating strategy using food as a weapon, in pursuant to repeat the very crimes of ethnic cleansing and genocide they committed in Darfur. Manipulation of humanitarian aid in the conflict is an integral part of the strategies of the NCP regime in Sudan led by fugitive from international justice Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir. This is based their alleged sovereign right to refuse entry of relief into the camps for displaced persons.
ON this Anniversary, we salute the Sudanese women for their tireless struggles for which they have been subjected to all kinds of oppression in the form of flogging, arbitrary arrests, imprisonment and rape at the hand of the NCP regime’s National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS). We have to break the vicious cycle/ circle of draconian laws and the kangaroo courts ran by the security apparatus and the police unit known as Abu Taira. The Sudanese people must put an end to the campaign of targeted violence which amounts to crimes against humanity, and the denial of humanitarian relief.
We the people of Sudan are in the face of a war imposed upon us by the NCP regime. Nevertheless, winds of change are blowing through the country whether NCP likes it or not. The NIF with its countless denominations was the owl that has been cawing on Sudan for more than two decades; as a source of bad luck, misfortune and omen that plagued the people in villages, hamlets, nomadic settlements in the countryside, cities and in urban and rural areas.
It is time for lessons to be learned from the October 21st 1964 Victorious Sudanese Revolution on its 48th Anniversary. The Sudanese people in general and the youth in particular need to be inspired and take lessons from it. And for those who still hoping that the notorious Islamic Movement (IM), with its countless denominations of Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic Charter Front, National Islamic Front (NIF), National Salvation Revolution (NSR), National Congress Party (NCP) and Popular Congress Party (POP) to get reformed and waiting at the sidewalk or holding the stick from the middle it is high time for them to join the ranks of the Sudanese resistance forces that include the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF). The SRF is formed of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement – North (SPLM-North) led by Malik Agar, Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) led by Dr. Gibriel Ibrahim, Sudan Liberation Army –led by Abdel Wahid Mohammed NOUR (SLA-AW), Sudan Liberation Army –led by Minni Arko Minnawi (SLA-MM), Vice Chairman of the National Umma Party (NUP) Sayed Nasruddin al-Hadi Al-Mahdi, Prominent leader al-Tom Haju – of the Democratic Unionist Party- Original, Mohammed Osman Taj-Assir al-Mirghani – Democratic Unionist Party- Original and many respectable political bodies to overthrow the NCP regime. It is Wake-up call for all to participate in the privilege of toppling the NCP regime and dismantling its components before it becomes too late. Let the undecided to come back to their senses and join People’s Revolution. The regime is at its weakest period of time. For the struggle and resistance against the NCP regime, there are only two trenches: one for the chivalrous Sudanese people and another for the shivery. It is better for all to join the ranks of the Sudanese resistance to uproot the NCP regime from power, to avoid fragmentation of what is left of the Sudan and further waging of its regional wars in the Blue Nile, South Kordofan, Darfur, Eastern Sudan, the Far North Nubian region and elsewhere in Sudan to stay in power.
Let’s take lessons from the Forty –eighth Anniversary of the Glorious October Twenty – first October 1964 Revolution sparked by the masses of the Sudanese People on the Twenty – first October 1964. At the time the October Revolution offered a groundbreaking opportunity and inspired all the people of Sudan from Halfa Dighaim to Nimule and from Port Sudan to Geneina to form their political forums and rebel to oust the 17th November 1968 junta. Without any shred of doubt today’s Sudanese people are capable and worthy to restore the Glorious heroic history.
Long Live the Struggle of Sudanese people to oust the NCP despotic regime.
Dr. Mahmoud A. Suleiman is the Deputy Chairman of the General Congress for Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). He can be reached at [email protected]